* First, persuade Utah legislators to create a recall provision.

* Second, take that recall power and use it to oust their mayor and City Council.

"My husband said if the mayor is out preaching, we should get preachers to fill the potholes," said Cathy McCrystal, a committee member of the grass-roots group Take Our Community Back.

The newly formed organization complains that the City Council - at the behest of Mayor Kim Lawson - adopted the nonbinding resolution in January without public notice or comment.

"These and other recent actions make it clear that the mayor and City Council members are autocrats rather than public servants," McCrystal said in a news release. "When elected officials are more interested in suppressing public opinion than listening to it, they've violated their sacred trust and need to be removed from office."

Trouble is, Utah law provides no way to do that short of a court conviction. Instead, elected officials can be forced out before their terms expire only if they are found guilty of a felony or gross malfeasance.

The group is urging Kanab residents specifically and Utahns in general to write to legislative leaders to change that, but the prospects of that happening appear dim. Previous efforts at passing a recall statute have fizzled.

Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, fears such a law would hinder more than help government and argues the ballot box already provides a way to oust politicians.

"Voters get a swipe at me every two years," he said Monday.

Still, Noel says he would consider a recall statute if enough voters desire one.

Longtime Sen. Mike Dmitrich, D-Price, said legislators have weighed the issue before - including several years ago when then-Utah County Commissioner David Gardner faced his legal troubles - but the idea went nowhere.

"I would probably consider something to give [recall] authority in local elections," Dmitrich said. "But you get to the state level, it's easy to anger someone, and you would always have those who'd want a recall."

Something has to be done, McCrystal says.

"A lot of people are outraged," she added. "It's not just an issue you can shrug your shoulders and hope will go away."

Kanab's mayor, who could not be reached for comment Monday, and the council majority have refused to rescind the resolution or revisit the issue.

"The mayor and council members say that the resolution isn't exclusive," said Caralee Woods, another committee member with Take Our Community Back. "But I don't know what else to call it when you place one type of social unit on a pedestal above all others."

mhavnes@sltrib.com

Story of resolution

Kanab's City Council adopted a nonbinding natural-family resolution, which touts marriage between men and women as "ordained of God" and conceives homes as "open to a full quiver of children." It also promotes young women becoming "wives, homemakers and mothers" and young men growing into "husbands, home builders and fathers." Since its passage Jan. 10, women's advocates, gay-rights activists and others - inside and outside of Kanab - have decried the resolution and even called for a boycott of area business.