EAGLE MOUNTAIN, Utah — One of the families that helped found the city of Eagle Mountain is at odds with current city leadership.
Tiffany Walden alleges the city has misused its rodeo grounds and the revenue that’s generated from it - and she’s now filed a lawsuit attempting to take back the grounds.
Plenty of people have put their roots down in Eagle Mountain in the past three decades, but the Walden family is among the very first.
Tiffany Walden said her father, John, helped to incorporate the community in 1997 and build up the city’s infrastructure.
“We had a lot of land and what we would do is donate it, we donated land underneath Eagle Valley, the first elementary school out here,” said Walden. “We donated the land underneath City Hall.”
Their footprints remain in many places, including the baseball fields, the cemetery grounds and the rodeo grounds located just off the city’s namesake boulevard.
The rodeo serves as an annual point of pride and that land was deeded to the city in 2002 by the Walden family as a way to bring the community together. But Walden’s Eagle Mountain Founders Group says it was also given “with the expectation that it would be a revenue source.”
But now, there’s some dirt getting kicked up without anyone getting into a saddle.
“I was just a citizen serving on boards 14 years ago, when the council said let’s have a citizen board run a rodeo,” said Jared Gray, who’s now the mayor of Eagle Mountain.
Walden and the Eagle Mountain Founders Group said they discovered the city has been leasing the rodeo grounds to Mayor Gray for $1 a year for a nonprofit organization of his to use.
They see it as a serious conflict of interest.
“When he took over the rodeo grounds it’s in the city minutes that he promised… if they wanted the revenues, they could come and get them from him,” said Amanda Mendenhall, who serves as counsel for the group. “But there’s no evidence that any of that’s ever been done.”
“We know that there’s sponsorships and the sponsorships are thousands and thousands of dollars,” Mendenhall continued. “That money could be collected and used for other things.”
In a statement to FOX 13 News, the city denied the claims and did not comment further, citing pending litigation.
But Mayor Gray did make some remarks Tuesday night at the latest council meeting, where Walden brought forth the lawsuit.
“I’ve been serving on boards forever and ever and ever - and used a lot of my own money to promote some of these things - and I’ve never been paid a penny,” Mayor Gray said.
Walden and the founders’ group said they don’t have any intention of taking away this community tradition. They do have other plans in mind to expand the grounds, with an RV park and more.
They primarily want to ensure these dollars are going back into the community.
