February 6, 2009

Hello Everyone --

I just wanted to let you know that as of last night, I have officially resigned from the Helper City Council. This was a very difficult decision, but it was one that I felt I had to make.

I have many reasons for leaving. One of which is that, in my opinion, the Helper City government is trying to operate as much as possible in secrecy. I cite the string of executive sessions (closed door meetings) that the Council has had over the past several months. Also, the City Attorney has noted that if these meetings are deemed "personnel issues," the meetings do not have to be recorded. Thus, the Council can, and does, talk about anything that comes to mind.

Furthermore, I am very uncomfortable with what I believe to be an ongoing "witch hunt" toward the former director of the museum in Helper. The audit that is now past the six month mark appears to me to be targeting Ms. Martell only. To my knowledge, the former assistant director or former board members have not been contacted by the auditors. They seem to be focusing their investigation totally on Ms. Martell and Mr. Teply. To my knowledge, no other council member other than myself has discussed the allegations against Ms. Martell with her. All that I have found are some breaches of protocol. There are many rumors about missing money from the museum. From what I have seen, all of the money that Ms. Martell controlled had a paper trail. Furthermore, as far as I know, she did not have access to the large amounts of money she is accused of taking. The rumor mill is very much alive and well in Helper. The only people, that I know of, that have access to that kind of money are those at City Hall. And, we should remember, that in this mayor's previous administration, the City Recorder did get caught taking money. If memory serves, several hundred thousand dollars went missing. I have not personally seen any evidence that money is currently missing, but I have seen enough to make me suspicious that something is happening. However, I cannot get any law enforcement agency to look into the situation. Thus, because I do not want to become entangled in what I believe to be a corrupt (for lack of a better word) administration, I decided that I should leave. Besides, I do not believe that I can truly represent the people of Helper when, in my opinion, the majority of the Council has other personal goals.

I can keep going with my reasons for resigning, but I do not want to completely boar you to tears. Let's suffice it to say that I believe Helper City government has serious problems; and I didn't believe that I could effectively continue my job as a representative of the people of Helper.

I am going to continue working toward improving Helper. I have plans to promote Helper's tourism, which will help Helper and Carbon County's economy. I hope to work with the businesses within Helper to try and resurrect the business alliance in some form to promote cooperation and economic development in Helper. So, I am not giving up on Helper, I am only changing directions. Thank you for your support over the past year. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. I will be happy to discuss any issues or my resignation with you.

Thanks again,

PJ Jensen