Heidi's Picks

George Washington was not an intellectual; he was not well-educated by the standards of the day; and he was NOT a military strategist. His only military knowledge came from what he had read in books.

But Washington lived in the Age of Enlightenment, a time when book learning was the most widely accepted avenue to intelligence.

So said David McCullough, the Pulitzer Prize winning historian, in an address to the BYU community on Tuesday.

Two hundred years and several technological revolutions later, books remain one of the most powerful avenues to intelligence.

So, borrowing one of Oprah's tricks, I share with you this list of titles I'm working through now:

Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy, by Thomas Sowell. Throughout the book, Sowell laments the scarcity of politicians with training in economics.

How To Win a Local Election , by Judge Lawrence Gray.

Effective Public Relations, by Cutlip, Center and Broom. Interesting to learn that the history of PR dates back to ancient times. The need for effective PR in government extends well past election day. How I wish American Fork City would learn this lesson.

Saving the Neighborhood by Peggy Robin. A thoroughly comprehensive primer on how development works, and how neighborhoods can develop proactive relationships with city governments. Best quote of the book comes from Henry David Thoreau. He had been locked up in a paddy wagon for a recent episode of civil disobedience. His friend Ralph Waldo Emerson found him there, and said, in astonishment, "What are you doing in there?"

Answering, Thoreau said, in a rather accusing tone, "What are you doing OUT there?"

Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream, by Andres Duany, et al. How traditional neighborhood design benefits children, families, the environment, and the economy. This book has had a profound influence on my thinking about the importance of a good general plan.

I'm also working through these websites:

LocalVictory.com, a good overview of local elections in the electronic age

New York State's Guide to Generally Accepted Governmental Accounting Practices. I would prefer a Utah State guide, actually, but I can't find one on the web.

Finally, my current Newbery:

Up from Jericho Tel, by E.L. Konigsburg. Okay, you're right: this is not one of Konigsburg's two Newbery medal winners. Still, I adore Konigsburg for her quick wit and psychological profundity. I have learned, from long political experience, that there's nothing like a good Newbery to clear my head at night so I can sleep.

The Right Place at the Right Time

During a City Council meeting, the right place for a member of the City Council is at the meeting.

This is also the right place for a City Council candidate. A candidate for City Council should be doing everything in his/her power to learn how the Council works.

Myself, I have been a regular attendee for four years running.

But surprisingly few of the others come to City Council meetings. Take tonight, for example. Of the nine candidates vying for the two four-year seats, only four were present. Two of these, predictably, were incumbents.

I can only surmise that the others were home, frantically working out the meter on their campaigns' last-minute Haiku's.

Fortunately, my staff has had my Haiku ready for days now. Here it is. It will take your breath away.

I stand by Heidi
As she offers me this fall,
Quality of life.

For her efficient, advance poetry work, our special thanks to Leslie Dalton.

Anything to further the cause of arts in American Fork.

Walk to School With Me!

Here is the text of a press release just sent by my campaign to area newspapers. I think you'll be interested:

AF CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE WILL WALK FOR PTA, OWN CAMPAIGN

American Fork, Utah -- September 26, 2005 -- American Fork City Council candidate Heidi Rodeback walked her children to Barratt Elementary School last year in the PTA’s National Walk to School Day, but not all the way from her home on the other side of town. On Friday, she will walk that distance and then some.

“We live outside Barratt’s enrollment area, so last year on Walk to School Day we drove to Evergreen Park and walked from there, across the neighborhood, to the school,” Rodeback said. But now her children are older and can walk farther, she’s running for City Council, and she’ll be in the company of Barratt’s principal and at least one teacher who are walking from much further away that morning.

Rodeback said she is walking both for the PTA and to reinforce a major theme of her campaign. “The City needs to ensure that every child walking to school has a safe route,” she said. “Our children and grandchildren should not have to face hazards such as overgrown vacant lots, dangerous street crossings, drug houses, or missing or treacherous sidewalks. The current City government has largely ignored this problem."

Rodeback cites more and better sidewalks, additional traffic lights, and conscientious nuisance abatement as keys to the children’s safety. "The City can’t affect what goes on at school, but it can help the students get there and back safely," Rodeback said.

Barratt Elementary Principal Ken Higgins is walking all the way from his home in South Jordan, and fourth-grade teacher Andrea Park will join him in Riverton. “Dr. Higgins will start walking at 2 a.m. He’s amazing,” Rodeback said. Anyone else wanting to join the procession is welcome to meet the walkers at Smith’s Food and Drug on West State Road in American Fork at approximately 7:00 a.m. Friday.

Asked why her children cross town to attend Barratt Elementary instead of their local elementary school, Rodeback praised the Alpine School District’s open-enrollment policy and its Advanced Learning Laboratory (ALL), which is located at Barratt.

Poet of the American Fork, er, Revolution

The American Revolution had a poet (Longfellow). The Russian Revolution had a poet (Mayakovsky). Why shouldn't Heidi Rodeback for City Council have a poet?

This is what Campaign Secretary Leslie Dalton wants to know. To this end, Leslie has submitted not one, but three poems in celebration of the Glorious Cause.

Here's the first:

There once was a candidate, Heidi,
Whose political talents were mighty.
For Council she ran,
And she promised, "I can
Make the City of A.F. all-righty."

We'll shortly be changing Leslie's title from Secretary to Poet Laureate.

Stay tuned until next time, folks, when I post Leslie's "Heidi: the Haiku."

Victory at the Senior Center

Last night's Meet the Candidates event at the Senior Center was a great success for our campaign.

I pronounce this with the full backing of no less an authority than Joe Garecht, a pundit for LocalVictory.com, who said this:

The question of who "won" or "lost" the debate is subjective. There are no scorekeepers at a political debate. No matter what happens, your campaign should always declare victory. Your staff should spin the debate for reporters, issue press releases, and talk up the candidate's performance.

If you weren't one of the 71 in attendance at the Senior Center last night (a high turn-out, and only 12 percent of those were candidates), you missed a great show.

The highlight for me was when Juel Belmont and Jimmie Cates demonstrated the fox trot on the dance floor.

No, I jest.

The true highlight was when I lost my temper.

The stimulus for this outburst was Harold Smith's attack on a proposed nuisance abatement resolution as a fascist attempt by the city to legislate what is beautiful.

"If you're going to vote for Harold Smith," I said, "then you better not vote for me, because our votes are going to cancel each other out."

Then I told the story of how I became chair of Neighbors in Action.

It was a yucky morning when Don Hampton called to ask if I would do it. I was just getting over the flu, and my calendar was full to the brim. But I said I would think about it. Later that morning I took another phone call from a resident of the Greenwood Neighborhood.

She asked if I would come look at an abandoned house in her area. Her children pass this house on their walk to school, she said, and had just asked if it would be all right to go inside.

I drove to the site and found a front yard overtaken by waist-high weeds. Rocks had been thrown through the front windows, and the front door was swinging open on its hinges.

The scene was ripe for a drug deal, for squatters, and for fire.

Across the street, a for-sale sign stood in the manicured lawn of a lovely home. I knocked on the door there, and learned that the owners were leaving because of the attractive nuisance across the street.

"Attractive" in this case does not mean beautiful, as I pointed out to Mr. Smith. It means "attracts crime."

This is how I decided that I could not afford NOT to accept the position with Neighbors in Action.

As Neighbors in Action, we helped these neighbors find the landlord and start a letter-writing campaign. Eventually, they got some action out of him. We also went to the city, learned about the few and ineffective measures that had been taken, and started rattling cages. This led to the formation of the nuisance abatement committee and the subsequent outpouring of apathy -- yes, apathy -- on the part of our current city leaders.

"Vote for me," I said. "I'm going to get some action on our nuisance abatement ordinance."

The really remarkable thing was the surge of passion that swept me through this story in my allotted two minutes.

The evening was a beautiful piece of citizenship and public service on the part of the organizers, and an excellent opportunity for candidates and public alike.

In all, a resounding victory. Time to alert the presses.

Fifty Percent Plus One

Conventional wisdom states that fifty percent plus one wins the election.

So the strategy is, first, to go out and get your mother to vote for you. She's the one. This leaves only half the voters to win over.

I am, therefore, pleased and proud to announce that my campaign has just secured the political support of my mother, as evidenced by the sign she printed from my Web site and posted in her front yard (see above).

This is doubly important because she represents a very important demographic: Internet-savvy grandmothers of American Fork's children.

The only problem is that she is not actually registered to vote in American Fork.

But with support like hers, we are guaranteed to win hands-down in Auburn, Washington.

The Finance Report: It's Not About Money.

Michelle Draper, our friendly neighborhood campaign treasurer, has just completed the finance report for the primary, and it's bea-u-ti-ful.

Some facts for the curious:

We reported $2,825 in contributions and $1608 in expenses (so far).

Expenses include domain registry, stamps for the fundraising letters, signs, flyers, and newspaper ads.

Contributions to date come from 27 different donors. Two-thirds of these came in amounts of $50 or less.

The largest contribution was a check for $1,000 from Dale Gunther.

This raises the question: Am I Dale's puppet?

Answer: No.

Dale is NOT a puppeteer. If he were, American Fork would have a downtown instead of a vision for one. Dale and I share that vision, but we disagree on other issues -- as he pointed out to me when he wrote the check. There were no strings attached to his check.

Dale has only American Fork's interest at heart, as do I. I am proud to list him as a contributor.

But, getting back to my original point: It's not about money.

It's about support.

It's not the one donation of $1,000 that will win this election. It's the 100 donations of $10, together with the many contributions of time, labor, and thought -- things that will never show up on the financial report.

Nothing means so much to me as the $20 checks written to my campaign, at great sacrifice, by grateful members of humble neighborhoods whose children now have playgrounds in their parks.

No contribution makes a greater difference than the time given by friends and neighbors who are caring for young children or elderly parents or both -- but can still make time on a Saturday to take flyers door-to-door.

Now that's what I call support.

I am humbled to have the support of so many good people. Humbled, honored, and encouraged -- encouraged to think that so many share the vision for this city we call home.

Fifty words or less

Odd but true: Scarcity makes you think.

When confronted with a slashed grocery budget, a homemaker can usually make good decisions about which food purchases are truly necessary to get through the month.

We can hope government budgets work the same way.

Similarly, a writer with a word limit is forced to choose only the most essential points to include in her essay.

So, challenged to explain in fifty words or less why people should vote for me, here are the two sentences I chose to submit to the Provo Daily Herald.

American Fork's residents already know they can trust me to work hard on the issues that matter to them most. My insistence on public involvement and volunteer activity has empowered residents, giving them a voice in critical decisions facing their neighborhoods, and has saved the City thousands of dollars.

Neighborhoods. Empowerment. Hard work. Public involvement. Saving money. Volunteerism -- things American Fork already knows about me.

I hope, I fondly hope, that my dedication to quality of life will peek out from between these lines.

A Week in the Life . . .

It's been a busy week. The signs arrived. The brochures arrived. I spent an afternoon taking flyers door-to-door; so did a dozen volunteers. I had lunch with the Utah Valley Home Builders Association and spent an evening in the home of Nancy Cox meeting her neighbors from the Hillcrest area. I also granted an exclusive interview to Barbara Christiansen of the American Fork Citizen. (Read it and weep, Time, Life, and Newsweek.)

Then there was the usual day-to-day business: Downtown American Fork's board meeting on Monday; City Council on Tuesday; Parks Steering Committee on Thursday.

Ah, the life.

The only difficult part was when Barbara asked me to work up a fifty-word answer to the question, why vote Heidi.

The first draft was 119 words. The second was 147.

It's going to be a very long night.

Only in America

I definitely want my children to grow up in America.

Because if they do, then some day they, too, may decide to run for City Council.

If they run for City Council, then people might write poetry about them, the way Bob Tingey did about me:

Roses are Red, Violets are Blue
If you want my opinion
This is what you should do.

If you really want change
In American Fork City,
If you really want best
For all of the citizens.

Then Heidi's the one
Without any question
Who will tell the truth
And without hesitation

She'll give leadership fine
and always with Vision
Qualities that AF city
Is quite sorely lacking

It would be simple to cure
To mitigate this lack
So listen to me,
Vote for Heidi Rodeback !!!


With no apologies whatsoever, Bob adds, to any literary people who might read this.

I definitely want my children to grow up in America.

I'm Not Afraid to Stammer for What I Believe In . . .

It's a brisk, September morning here at Legacy Park. Behind me looms the cell tower which is currently under construction at American Fork Junior High. In front of me, the camera is rolling, and KSL's John Hollenhorst is asking a question.

KSL: What do you feel the community should do about this cell tower?

Rodeback: There's enough debate in the scientific community to suggest a possible risk to the children at the schools. The decision should be made by the people who bear the risk. In this case, that's the parents of the children who attend the schools.

What happened here is that American Fork Junior High agreed with a cell phone provider to allow the tower to be erected on school property in exchange for a monthly lease of $1,000. The only trouble is that the parents were not informed before the decision took place.

KSL: So you believe the cell tower should not be placed in this location?

Rodeback: Er . . . um . . . this decision should be made by the people who bear the risk. In this case, that's the parents of the children who attend the schools.

For the record: I have no position either for or against cell phone towers. That's not why I'm here.

I came this morning to support the hard work and democratic values of two amazing women, Sherry Kramer and Wendy Hickman. Both carry and use cell phones. Both are parents of children at the schools here. Both read their school newsletters and scan the public notices in the local newspaper. But neither heard any advance notice of a possible cell tower until the crane came to set it up.

KSL: So if you had the opportunity to vote on this question, would you vote for or against the cell tower?

Rodeback: [Excruciating pause] This decision needs to be made by the people who bear the risk. In this case, that's the parents of the children who go to school here.

Well. There went my opportunity to explain how we faced the same issue five years ago when I served on the site council at Barratt Elementary. That time, I voted for the cell tower. But I felt the parents deserved to know what was happening, so I got the principal's permission to publish the meeting minutes in the school newsletter. The council was pretty angry with me for doing this, and in fact, I was out of order to act without their vote. But this generated so much outcry that the council eventually reversed its decision. To this day, there is no cell tower at Barratt Elementary.

Sheesh. I passed up the perfect opportunity to explain how the parents knew the right thing for their neighborhood when they lobbied the city to give them this park, the beautiful park where we're standing right now.

I could at least have explained that when a decision is controversial, the representative bears a greater burden of study, and would need good reason to vote against the majority viewpoint.

I could have done all this, if my brain hadn't switched off when the camera switched on.

Now I understand why Laura Bush was so gracious as to let Theresa Heinz-Kerry off the hook when she said, on TV, that Mrs. Bush had never held a real job. It's a jungle out there, journalistically speaking.

We can only hope it's true what they say, that there's no such thing as negative publicity.

Thine Alabaster Cities Gleam

I can't sing "America the Beautiful" without crying.

But yesterday, during our national day of prayer and remembrance, I had to stop and think about that line that ends, "undimmed by human tears."

I used to sing this line with gratitude for the fact that we had never known a foreign invasion on American soil.

But that changed on September 11, 2001, so now I wonder what to think when we come to that line.

Hurricane Katrina has raised our awareness of yet another kind of threat: the ever-present possibility of natural disaster. Did you know that, by geological estimates, the Wasatch front is some 500 years overdue for a major earthquake?

The truth is that, as citizens of this great nation and as residents of our own home town, we need to be prepared at all times for the possibility of natural disaster.

In a major disaster, first responders such as fire and ambulance cannot meet all the demands on their services. Neither can the Red Cross. And let's face it: Not everyone has a church to turn to, not even in American Fork.

In the immediate aftermath of a major disaster, people must rely on themselves and on their neighbors to meet their immediate life saving and life sustaining needs.

In this, as in all things, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

As individuals and families, it only makes sense to have a cache of essentials stored in the home, and to have a relocation plan ready for any emergency.

As a city, there are two things we can start doing right now in American Fork to be prepared for disaster.

• First, we can support and expand the CERT program in our community. CERT, which stands for the Community Emergency Response Training supported by FEMA, trains and prepares neighborhoods, businesses, communities, or government teams to provide immediate assistance in their areas, to organize spontaneous volunteers, and to collect disaster intelligence reports.

• Second, all new development should be required to conform to earthquake code. This sounds like a no-brainer, but we seem to have trouble making our developers in American Fork conform to requirements, even when they are clearly marked on the plat map. Just ask any of your friends from the Mountain Meadows area who learned last spring, when the basements in their brand new homes flooded, that basements were prohibited in this marshy part of town. The requirement was in place, but it wasn't enforced.

I bet you didn't know American Fork offers CERT training through its Emergency Management Team. This is a program whose power could be multiplied a hundredfold if it could partner with an effectively organized Neighbors in Action program.

As for the earthquake code, this is just another example of the importance of upholding our planning commission.

________________________

"Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears."

This is still a powerful piece of poetry. But human tears are still a fact of life.

Our best hope is that, if we prepare well, we can lessen the impact of a disaster here in American Fork.

Why I Am Running for City Council

So why am I running for council?

I have a vision for American Fork, and I have a passion for public service.

That passion became a full-fledged addiction when, after two years' hard work and 30 zillion meetings, the first new playground opened in American Fork and (Mayor Barratt's words) people swarmed to it like ants on an anthill.

That's when I began to realize that I could make a difference in my community.

My vision for this community is exactly that: Community. As we brace for growth, which is a fact of life, I want us to preserve our small-town character. I want us to be clean, safe, prosperous, and neighborly. I want us to be a place where families can feel like they belong, where children can feel safe, and where we can enjoy the cultural, economic, and technological benefits of the 21st century.

Whether serving as a member of the parks steering committee, on the board of Downtown American Fork, Inc., or as chair of American Fork Neighbors in Action, I have logged a steady 10 to 20 hours per week on this vision over the past few years. For the record, that's the same amount of time our present city council members report (with one exception).

I have learned much in the process. I have learned -- and this is very important -- that I do have the ability to give this level of time without short-changing my family or other personal commitments.

I have learned about the inner workings of our city -- its quirks, its needs, its logic, its personalities.

I have learned about the practical side of the vision: planning, economic growth, management.

Gradually, I have accumulated a specialized body of knowledge that can benefit the people of American Fork.

Realizing this, I remembered the words of my good buddy Albert Einstein: "All that is necessary for evil [or apathy] to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing." You who know me understand this one thing: I cannot STAND to do nothing.

So there's your answer. Why am I here? Vision, experience, ability, time, and that little difficulty I have with sitting still.

Call it pathology if you will. My friends call it passion.

No, actually, they call it pathology. Still, I prefer passion.

Welcome to my blog!

Whew.

It is nearly four weeks since I filed for city council, and the question I keep asking myself is: Where has the time gone?

I'll tell you where it's gone. I have recruited a campaign manager, a treasurer, a secretary, a webmaster, and two very determined volunteer coordinators. Together, this is the dream team, and I pity the candidate who doesn't have my people on his/her team.

We have designed and ordered signs, ads, and assorted other printed matter. We have opened a bank account for the campaign and sent out fund-raising letters. We have recruited other volunteers to the cause, and now, thanks to their combined efforts, I finally have a moment to blog.

I plan to blog almost daily for the duration of the campaign. My purpose is twofold. First, I want a forum that allows me to examine issues in greater depth than the usual one-minute sound bite.

Second, I think it will be fun. And if politics can't be fun, then why am I here?

Hmm: That's what you were just asking yourself. Why am I here?

There are formal answers to this question at my campaign Web site. I confess: I have a good writer helping me with that site. I tell him what to write, and he frames it in prose. Here, on the other hand, it's just you and me, the writer and the reader, and we can swap those roles from time to time if you have comments, questions, or concerns.

Why am I running for council?

The short answer is this: I have a vision for American Fork, and a passion for public service.

If you want the long answer, you're going to have to tune in next time, because I have promised to keep all campaign encounters short, sweet, and simple. Which means I have exactly thirty seconds left before I run out of