The Payson Town Council held a regular meeting on April 23, 2025, at 4:03 p.m. in Town Hall Council Chambers. The meeting included public comments, approval of a consent agenda, first readings of two ordinances, discussion on procurement policy and the Beeline Bus Route Improvement Project, and a new business item to award a well-drilling contract. The council later recessed into executive session for legal advice and returned to take further action.
The council also heard testimony on specific agenda items:
Ready. Jim. Oh. Are you ready? I guess I think so. I call this meeting of the Common Council, the Town of Payson to order. This is the regular meeting scheduled for April 23rd, 2025. So they'll after four p.m. I ask Darlene Yonkers for the invocation. Delage. Dear wise and loving creator, thank you for your abundant blessings. Thank you for life itself for the measure of health we need to fulfill our callings for sustenance and for friendship. Thank you for those who are involved in useful work for the town of Payson and for the honor of bearing appropriate responsibilities. And thank you as well for the freedom to embrace you or the freedom to reject you. Thank you for loving us even so from your boundless and gracious nature. God of peace, we invite you to preside over this meeting. Even if we have different opinions, give us unity of spirit. Help us to each listen politely as others share their points of view. Help us to work as a unified team in combining ideas for a great outcome. Help us to work as a whole rather than as individuals trying to promote their own agendas. May you give us the will to work together on our shared mission. Therefore, I pray for our mayor for the various levels of city officials, and particularly for this assembled council. I am asking that you graciously grant them wisdom to govern amid the conflicting interests and issues of our times, the ability to bridge divisions and work together in harmony, sensitivity for the welfare and the true needs of our citizens, a keen thirst for justice and rightness, a spirit of camaraderie and collaborative decision making that will knit together our diverse perspectives, even when there is honest disagreement, confidence in what is good and fitting for our town, personal peace in their lives and joy in their tasks. Lastly, I pray for the agenda set before our council and administrators today. Please give them an assurance of what would please you and what would benefit those who live and work in and around our beloved town of Payson. It is in your most blessed name I pray. Amen. So with that, I open the call to the public. Uh this is for an agenda item F1. Uh Mike Quinn. Thank you. Um my concern is the free flow of information. Our society is based on a situation where everybody has access to the same information. Uh I understand that the we're going to have these things that they're calling some sort of town council meeting on Saturday, and there's a lot of confusion of whether this is a private meeting or a public meeting. And I think we need some clarity in this town when meetings are held about who can come and who can't come. And if we're gonna have meetings that we charge people to come, like this Lincoln Day dinner in order to hear the representatives, there's something inherently wrong with that. There's also something inherently wrong when we mix politics with public information. I think if we're going to hold meetings, be it a Lincoln Day dinner or a meeting where people can ask the mayor and the council members questions, then it should be made very clear that everybody is welcome to those meetings. Those meetings should not exclude anybody, and they should be held by a neutral moderator. Some of the meetings in the past have been moderated by uh Inga of the Tea Party. They've been run very much like a Tea Party meeting, and it's been very obvious that those who ask softball questions or lean to the right, they'll be given the time and the ability to speak. And those who have difficult questions and ask questions that are uncomfortable, they'll be cut off quickly and not allowed to have the same amount of input. So if we're going to have a democracy, we need to have a democracy where information flows freely. On the national level, we have a president trying to cut out universities from the freedom of speech and what they can teach. On the local level, we do not need a town council member to hold meetings that exclude views they disagree with. So I think we need to think about how we disseminate public information so everybody feels welcome, and everybody has the same opportunity to express their views. And public meetings should be public meetings, not a chance to advance a certain political agenda. I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to me. Rebecca Orahood. Evening, everybody.