Eagle Mtn. chooses interim mayor
Councilwoman to replace Olsen for next 30 days
Strouse will lead the city for the next 30 days. During that time, residents interested in running for mayor can put in an application.
The City Council will select the interim mayor, who will be in office until the 2007 elections. The mayor elected in 2007 will serve out the remaining two years of Olsen's term.
Olsen resigned Friday afternoon, but his resignation was not made public until after an emergency closed-door council meeting on Friday night.
A written note announcing his resignation for "family and personal considerations" was taped to the doors at City Hall after the council's meeting.
According to a public agenda, the meeting was held to discuss "a pending criminal investigation regarding a city employee."
Eagle Mountain spokeswoman Linda Peterson declined to comment on whether the sequence of these events were coincidental or related.
Olsen, who did not return calls for comment, did not speak to any council members about his resignation before the meeting Friday, said Councilman David Blackburn.
He said the turn of events was a "drastic change of plans."
Details of Olsen's resignation are expected to be revealed Monday.
Said Peterson: "Basically, we are not allowed to go into any more details at this point."
Olsen, who has butted heads with council members in the past, most recently when they proposed to cut his salary $20,000 a year, has served as mayor for 10 months.
He is the sixth to fill the mayoral position since the city's creation in December 1996. None has completed the four-year term.
"Obviously the government is set up to handle situations like this and be able to allow communities to continue to move forward like they are supposed to," said Robert DeKorver Jr., an Eagle Mountain resident who attended the meeting Saturday morning.
Peterson said the city and its government is thriving, despite any political issues in the past.
"The city is thriving now, I think because of the dedication of the city employees and City Council members who can really see the vision of what the city has become and its potential to become greater in the future," she said.
DeKorver agrees.
"Hopefully, once we get a new mayor appointed, the city will continue to grow and move forward as it has in the past," he said.
Contributing: Amy Choate-Nielsen
E-mail: asnyder@desnews.com
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