This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Jordan School Board member Kayleen Whitelock, vying for her second term this election year, had some interesting comments to the board when she was a patron of the school district, before she was an elected official.
According to the minutes of the Sept. 29, 2010, board meeting, she expressed her concerns during the public comment period about the possible decline of parental involvement in schools.
"I've had children in Jordan District for over 20 years, so I've been a parent volunteer for over 20 years and in that time these are the things I'm noticing. It's harder to get parent volunteers," said Whitelock, who was a regional PTA officer at the time.
She opined that part of the reason for a drop in parent voluntarism was economics.
"When my first blue-eyed blond child went to school, most of her classmates were blue-eyed blondes. As my last blue-eyed blond daughter is going to school, half of her classmates have brown hair and brown eyes," she said. "This is great diversity, but it scares the bejeebies out of me because we always talk about our high graduation rate."
Whitelock told me her comments had nothing to do with ethnicity or race. She said she was just pointing out that the demographics are changing in the district and more families are relying on two-parent incomes.
"When my oldest child was growing up, most mothers stayed at home and could get more involved in volunteering in the schools," she said. "Now, because of changing demographics and economics, many more mothers are working."
No wonder I was a bad student in high school. I had brown hair and brown eyes. All these years later, I still have brown eyes.
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Here's a riddle • Who is the worst usury abuser, the payday-lending industry or Salt Lake City Corp.?
It might be tough to say.
If you get a parking ticket in the city, it's $25 if you pay the fine within 20 days. After 20 days, it jumps to $65. After 30 days, it leaps to $105. So you're stuck for $80 extra if you don't cough up the cash in a month.
If you get a $300 loan from a payday lender, you pay a $50 fee. If it's not paid off in two weeks, you pay another $50. Another two weeks, another $50. After 10 weeks, your fee is $250.
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Creative accounting? • Salt Lake City officials might argue the increased costs for ticket tardiness are not late fees. Paying on time earns you a credit.
That's because in the city, under the ordinance, a ticket for an expired meter is $105. If you pay it off within 20 days, you get an $80 credit, so you only have to pay $25. If it takes you 21 to 30 days, the credit is only $40 so you have to pay $65. After that, you pay the full fine. So see? You're not being punished for being late. You're being rewarded for paying early.
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Who knows? • Getting an answer to a fairly simple parking question in the city's bureaucracy proved to be quite an odyssey.
The question first was posed to an employee who answered the phone at Salt Lake City Parking Services. It then was transferred to the regional director of parking services.
The query was too hard, though, so it went to the communications director for Mayor Jackie Biskupski. He couldn't answer it either, so it was kicked over to Mary Beth Thompson, the city's auditing manager.
She finally gave the answer. So what was this perplexing question?
What are the late fees on parking tickets?
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Gender-identity confusion? • Rep. Lowry Snow, R-St. George, is a respected attorney in Washington County and recently received an honor from a national organization.
But he's not quite sure how to take it.
The letter from the American Institute of Family Law Attorneys let him know that he has been selected for membership "as one of the 10 best female attorneys for Utah."
He shouldn't feel too badly. When it comes to getting his gender mixed up by a national organization, he's in good company.
Legendary Washington Post sportswriter Shirley Povich, father of TV host Maury Povich, was listed in "Who's Who of American Women in 1958."