CEDAR CITY – Friends, family and fellow police officers packed City Hall Wednesday night for the swearing-in of the new Cedar City Chief of Police Darin Adams.
Adams moved into his new role July 1 but was formally sworn-in during Wednesday’s Council meeting in front of a standing room only crowd with more than half of the police force and many of Adams’ friends and family, some who had traveled quite a distance, in attendance.
Filled with emotion and gratitude, Adams thanked his wife for her support through his career and his parents who he credits for his success.
“I wish to say thank you to my parents who raised me to know and understand the value of hard work. I want to thank my siblings for their input in shaping who I am and the influence of my in-laws,” Adams said. “I also want to thank my family for their support and sacrifice – especially my dear wife who without her this would not be possible for us. She’s the most selfless, caring, compassionate and hard working person I know and I love and appreciate her.”
Adams gave credit to the men and women he has served with during his 20-year career, praising them for the work they put forward that he said ultimately helped him achieve his goals.
“I know that you are aware, however it bears repeating how truly fortunate we are as an organization and a city to have such dedicated, caring and hard-working and committed men and women. Their public safety methods and strategies are the very best,” Adams said. “It is my humble privilege for me to work shoulder to shoulder with them in our collective efforts to provide the very best possible service.”
Serving the people of Cedar City is what’s most important to Adams as he looks to the days and years ahead of him.
“One of my favorite quotes is this, ‘leadership is a gift given by those who follow.’ It is my desire and my commitment to labor tirelessly every day to earn that gift, along with the trust and respect of these great men and women you see before you,” Adams said. “And to ensure that they are well prepared, well trained and well cared for that they can provide the best of public safety to you and your families and return home safely every day to their families.”
In other business, the Council considered two bid proposals from Mountain West Office Supply and Executech. The companies were two of four that put in bids with the city for a contract to provide IT services.
Mountain West, a locally-owned business, has provided IT services to the city for nearly 20 years. It is also presently contracted with a number of cities and counties, including all of Beaver County.
Mountain West representative Travis Dulaney called out city officials earlier in the day on Facebook for pushing the “shop local” campaign while considering taking the city’s business to Executech, based in northern Utah.
“The city pushes shop local, always reminds us to support local businesses, and especially the support of locally “owned” businesses like Mountain West Computers…. (sic) Feel free to remind them of the same,” Dulaney posted on Facebook. “We love Cedar City Corp, and have enjoyed being their IT service on a part time basis and hope to continue on an extended full time basis and save the city money (sic).”
Dulaney pointed out that city officials could not justify the move for financial reasons either since Mountain West had come in around $30,000 on their bid. The specific bid numbers were not discussed during Council.
Councilman Paul Cozzens shared Dulaney’s post in several Facebook groups saying he took the issue serious and wanted feedback from the community.
“When we talk about “shop locally,” we need to set an example,” Cozzens said, during the meeting.
The discussion during Council drew out some emotion from various parties as it also became apparent there had been issues regarding security matters Mountain West had not addressed during their tenure, prompting city officials to consider a contract with Executech.
However, Mountain West representative Glen Sanders told the Council he and other employees had tried to resolve the issues several times but were told by city administrators there is no money.
“We made suggestions that the city needed to expand, maybe a server needed to be replaced or possibly other avenues or security systems, sidewall, firewall and many times that information came back, ‘we just don’t have the budget for that.’ We understand that,” Sanders said.
Cozzens said he was concerned that the tools and resources had not been given to Mountain West to correct the issues.
“They made suggestions and the city said, ‘we don’t have the money,’ and I know for a fact they’ve done some things on their own for free because they knew it needed to be done,” Cozzens said. “And to defend their proposal a little bit is so many years we’ve told them, ‘we can’t afford this, we can’t afford that’ that maybe they were a little gun shy at proposing too much.”
Until the last week, Sanders said Mountain West had never once had a complaint.
“We never, at one time, ever have I had a complaint. Until this week I have never had any idea that anyone was unhappy, with the exception we’ve had a couple of secretaries which I thought their complaints were resolved,” Sanders said. “So, I’ve never had a complaint, never anything in writing. I even gone back and looked at anything I received via email and never had a complaint. I felt like we did a good job.”
The council will vote on the bids at next week’s Council meeting.
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Twitter: @tracie_sullivan
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