It did not take long for the personal attacks to begin. Tonight in the Clipper, Jennie Johnson, daughter of Bountiful Mayor Joe Johnson came out swinging. It is admirable that she is defending her father. However, she does not address the particualr issues of Joe's lack of integrity brought to the forward by JoAnn Hamilton in last week's Clipper, but rather she attacked JoAnn Hamilton over what JoAnn has been doing to protect children in Davis County. This attack of course is due to JoAnn's letter to the editor the previous Thursday based on facts regarding Joe as witnessed by JoAnn.
Please see letters headlined "Bountiful needs man like Novak" by JoAnn Hamilton:
http://tinyurl.com/lsu4dp
and "Mayor Loves City with all his heart" by Jenie Johnson at:
http://tinyurl.com/luzcpf
Jennie Johnson in her letter goes after JoAnn Hamilton for orgainizing to have area businesses cover their magizine-rack slots for magazines that are a bit provocative with their cover pictures and article headlines. Jenie states that this does nothing to protect children. Jenie asks of JoAnn, "Who do think you are? And really what have you ever done to help the city? You think that putting up covers over magazines is going to save the children." Jenie states that teaching our children tolerance, love, respect etc is more important. Of course that is important too, but Jenie clearly does not get the point of JoAnn's work. We personally do not know JoAnn nor Jenie and would not want to speak for them. However, the sentiment expressed by Jenie is the typical code talk made by the liberal media, i.e. "You can always change the station if a program offends you". Jenie clearly does not understand the importance of not sexuallizing our children, and protecting them as much as possible. She does not understand the importance of not exposing children, especially young children to this type of information. She does not understand the addiction that occurs through exposure to this type of media. She obviously does not follow her own Church leadership in what they expect their members to stand for and support... We wonder if this is what Joe also thinks? We would guess that Jenie's opinion would have been influenced by discussion with her father.
Another interesting point that she brings up is that her father does not lie, and does listen and respond to his constituents. She additionally states that he struggles and has spent sleepless nights over the affairs of the City of Bountiful. In our case, we can say with a surety that Joe does not respond to the citizens. We have written him several times at his home and at the City Office regarding challenges that we have personally had with the city, asking for his help in coming to an amicable resolution. We have asked to meet with him on several occassions to discuss these problems. We know with a surety that he has never responded to one of these letters or requests for meeting. We also know of a surety that the City Manager, Tom Hardy, has lied to us and others. We know through first-hand experience of inappropriate threats made by Tom Hardy, and that Joe knows of this and has done nothing, as they were made in a public setting. As a reult, we have stuggled with these challenges personally, and have had many sleepless nights over these problems with the City... and not one word from Mayor Joe Johnson at all... If he truly struggles and has sleepless nights, one would think that he would have enough empathy to reach out and talk. Sadly, this is not true. If he has a heart, it is truly cold.
Several in our group voted for Joe Johnson for his first term as Mayor. Many had him as a teacher at Bountiful High and thought the world of him. However, after what we have experienced since Joe was elected the first time around, and his lack of response to the citizens of Bountiful, we did not vote for him again in the second election, and will not this time either. We have been personally attacked and gone after by city employees as a result of our challenges with the City, and have seen first hand the inappropriate use of power by the City. We have personally experienced the retaliation that occurs when one speaks up about problems in Bountiful City government in the Clipper. As a consequence, we will not speak out against Joe in the paper. We do not need to be attacked again. It cost us dearly last time. We will leave that to others.
One last item...that regarding Joe's love of Bountiful City "with all his heart"...When going door to door in Joe's neighborhood a couple of years ago in support of another elective post in which Joe was not directly involved, an unsolicited comment from one of his neighbors caught us offguard. That was this, that "Joe Johnson only does things for Joe, he never does anything unless there is something in it for him." So much for his selfless love of city...
It is indeed time for a change. Hopefully those running against Joe and his ilk are the right people to lead our city.
Note: To see what JoAnn Hamilton is doing for our community, please see:
http://www.strengthenthefamily.net/
We did not know much about JoAnn previously but this has opened our eyes. What a wonderful woman!