Another True Story: The FBI Moves In On Mixing Religion & Politics

Let's throw some sunlight here in Mesa about a story by AP Reporter Brady McCombs on March 8, 2018 about two small towns on the Utah-Arizona that's just a little more fundamental than the FBI Sting true story published on this blog last week. It does involve the LDS Church and what McCombs refers to as "a polygamous sect" carefully avoiding and without mentioning the acronym LDS.
(The opening image is the flag of the City of Mesa) 

It does, however, suggest only a few degrees of separation from what got busted-up by the FBI when an entrenched majority who happen to hold in common certain religious beliefs,controlling city government for generations, as well as the police and fire departments.  
Readers of this blog might want to note that current mayor here in Mesa is, almost without exception, one in the long line of 40 Mormons since 1878 who have gotten elected and held onto the office for about forty years, even though they are now a demographic minority.
The top echelons of salaried employees inside Mesa City Hall, including the City Manager who is the unelected city's chief officer, almost all attended Brigham Young University.
Just like the towns on the Utah-Arizona border with populations of 3,000, this city of over 480,000, many people in city government and city politics and serving on various boards and committees, many have the same last name or are related by marriage.
It's more than likely that's not a coincidence.

Here are the consequences and outcomes of FBI action on the Utah-Arizona border outlined from this report:
Most municipal workers quit in Utah polygamous sect town

Brady McCombs, Associated Press

Updated 5:00 pm, Thursday, March 8, 2018 

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — "The new mayor of a mostly polygamous town on the Utah-Arizona border is finishing off a complete overhaul of municipal staff and boards after mass resignations when she took office in January to become the first woman and first non-member of the polygamous sect to hold the seat. . . Six of the seven Hildale, Utah, town workers quit after Mayor Donia Jessop was elected . . . They were joined by nine members of various town boards, including utility board chairman Jacob N. Jessop. All were members of the sect, the mayor said. . . ."

PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF THIS STATEMENT: ". . . Jacob Jessop said his religious beliefs prevented him from working for a woman and with people who are not sect members, according to resignation letters obtained Thursday by The Associated Press through a public records request. The mayor's husband is distantly related to Jessop in the town of about 3,000 people where many have that last name.

"It has come to a point where I have to choose between my religion and participation in city government, and I choose my religion," he wrote in his letter dated Jan. 25. "My religion teaches me that I should not follow a woman for a leader in a public or family capacity."
. . . The new town leadership is the latest sign that the community's demographics are shifting as it begins to resemble a typical town in the U.S. West, not a cloistered religious community. . . The town government and police are being watched closely by court-appointed monitors after a jury found them guilty of civil rights violations. . . More changes could be coming . . . Later this year, elections in the sister city of Colorado City, Arizona, could bring in outsiders, including to the mayor's seat. . .
Donia Jessop said she has filled the positions that include town recorder, clerk and treasurer . . New hires should help the community, said Jared Nicol, a new town council member, . .
"It's going to ensure that everybody in the city is being considered and represented,"
he said.
LINK > https://www.chron.com/news
_________________________________________________________________________
* Your MesaZoner blogger met Brady McCombs one day in Kino Springs, Nogales, Arizona a few years ago while he was reporting on the construction of surveillance towers and border issues for the Arizona Daily Star
________________________________________________________________