Former Moroni council-member fills recently vacated council seat

MORONI—A previous Moroni City Council member is a council member again, filling the spot of another council member who resigned somewhat in protest against feeling sidelined on the council.

Bevin Wulfenstein, who served on the council from 2018 to 2023, but resigned to serve an LDS mission, began his city council service once again in February after being appointed to a position left vacant by Councilman Brad Aldridge, who resigned.

Wulfenstein was one of two former city council members—the other being Craig Draper—who applied for the open spot. Both men met with the city council on Feb. 20.

Mayor Paul Bailey could have appointed one of the applicants to the job and then submitted the choice to the city council for confirmation. But he decided to allow the council to vote on the selection from the get-go.

“I heard that there was a position open, and so I thought that I’d apply to come back and see if I can help out here,” Wulfenstein said. “…We love this little city and we love the people here and love to help out there where I can.”

Two current council members, Thayne Atkinson and Troy Prestwich, had worked with both Draper and Wulfenstein on the council before (the four of them served all at the same time at one point).

“I know you’re both plenty capable of doing the job, and it won’t be an easy decision,” Atkinson said. “I know you’re both willing and able.”

The vote, when taken, was 2 for Wulfenstein, 1 for Draper.

Aldridge, the former council member whose place Wulfenstein filled, quit the council in January, saying he felt sidelined and ineffective in his role as council liaison to the planning and zoning commission.

“I’m just announcing now that tonight’s my last night on city council,” Aldridge said toward the end of a meeting on Jan. 16, in which he expressed concerns he had with Planning and Zoning. “I got on city council to improve the city if I could make it a little nicer,” he said. “I feel like I was kind of blocked from getting that done in the past year.”

Aldridge had been the councilmember assigned to coordinate with the Planning and

Zoning Commission, but there may have been some disconnect between Aldridge’s concept of his role and what the role of liaison historically entails, and also between his vision for how the commission should run and the commission’s vision for itself.

“I felt I felt a little cut out of planning and zoning, like it’s a ceremonial role rather than me actually leading planning and zoning,” he said.

Aldridge said he requested a meeting with Mayor Paul Bailey and Planning and Zoning Commission Chair Greg Hill to iron out some of the differences.

The meeting never happened, and after some time, Aldridge learned he’d been removed from the Planning and Zoning assignment, he said.

“I wanted to do all this in a work meeting with the mayor and Greg [Hill], and so when I asked the mayor to do that, the mayor said, ‘I’ll talk to Greg.’ And then I got removed from Planning and Zoning. Okay, so I guess I got my answer there.”

A rather lengthy discussion ensued among city council members and some members of the planning and zoning commission about how strictly the city should enforce certain land-use and nuisance codes.

Aldridge preferred a stricter enforcement approach as an attempt to continue improvements he felt the city and its residents had made because of those laws.

But members of the planning and zoning commission, as well as the city council, preferred a softer hand, and they expressed as much to Aldridge in direct, blunt language at one point.

Despite the contentious meeting, Aldridge ended by saying, “I don’t hate anybody. I’m not angry at anybody. I’m still going to wave and say hi. I’m disappointed, and frustrated that I couldn’t do what I felt like I was elected (to do).