Stooge Circus

Welcome to the Stooge Circus: A Case Study in Payson-Style Hypocrisy

Last night, Payson residents were treated to a full-scale performance of what can only be called The Stooge Circus—a town hall meeting starring Council Members Steve Otto, Jim Ferris, and Charlie Bell. These three political contortionists have perfected the art of promising one thing, doing the opposite, and acting as though no one will notice.

For years, they rallied the Tea Party crowd with two battle cries:

1. “The town should vote on major spending!”

2. “The 1% sales tax is an outrage and must be repealed!”

Now that they’re in power?
Both principles have vanished like cotton candy in a rainstorm.

Take the swimming-pool fiasco. Payson once had a real opportunity to build a modern aquatic facility that would have served families, seniors, and youth for decades. That dream is gone—sabotaged by obstructionists who campaigned on outrage but govern with duct tape.

Jim Ferris, the loudest opponent of the new pool, now proposes to “save” the crumbling Taylor Pool with pocket change and aluminum-can economics. Instead of a long-term community investment, they want to patch, glue, caulk, and pretend it’s progress—all without giving the voters a say, despite promising voter involvement in every major project.

And the sales tax?
These same officials who demanded a public vote to impose it now insist on keeping it—quietly, conveniently, and without a peep about voter approval. What was once tyranny when someone else did it is now “responsible governance” when they do it.

This isn’t leadership.
It’s performance art.
And the theme is hypocrisy on parade.

The Three Stooges of Payson have managed to turn civic inconsistency into a governing philosophy. If there were awards for political contradiction, they’d sweep the ceremony. But the people of Payson deserve honesty, transparency, and real planning—not circus acts, not duct-tape solutions, and not elected officials who forget every promise the moment they sit behind the dais.

Payson deserves better than this show. The question now is:
How long will citizens tolerate a government run on slogans during elections and shortcuts during governance?

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