Category Archives: Uncategorized

Hideout Mayor Phil Rubin Resigns

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By Miki Mullor
Editor

HIDEOUT, Utah (April 16, 2025) — Mayor Phil Rubin has resigned from his position, citing health concerns, effective April 14. Rubin, who was first elected in 2017 and re-elected in 2021, led the town through significant growth over his seven-year tenure.

Mayor Phil Rubin

In the interim, Mayor Pro Tempore and Town Council Member Chris Baier will assume mayoral duties until the Town Council appoints a temporary replacement. The council is scheduled to hold a special meeting on Monday, May 12, at 6 p.m. at Hideout Town Hall to interview candidates and vote on an interim mayor, who will serve through the end of 2025.

Residents interested in the interim position must submit their names to Town Recorder Alicia Fairbourne via email at afairbourne@hideoututah.gov by Thursday, May 8, at 5 p.m. Candidates are required to have been primary residents of Hideout for at least 12 months prior to May 12 and must complete conflict of interest and financial disclosure forms before the deadline.

The next mayoral election is set for November 2025. Prospective candidates must file a Declaration of Candidacy and disclose any potential conflicts of interest in person at Hideout Town Hall between June 2 and June 6.

Hideout’s attempt to hike water rates by up to 54% tests the Mayor’s credibility

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By Miki Mullor

Forced to roll back water connection fees, the Town of Hideout is now proposing water usage increases by up to 54%. Mayor Phil Rubin blamed the rate hike on an increase in the cost of water charged by the Town’s wholesale supplier, Jordanelle Special Service District (“JSSD”).

JSSD has denied it raised rates on Hideout. Documents obtained through a GRAMA request from JSSD show no rate increase in the last two years.

Hideout’s budget proposal for FY24 shows that water costs are in fact expected to be lower than the four year average and lower than FY21 and FY22. Salaries and benefits cost on the other hand is set to increase by 42% compared to last year, and by 226% compared to FY21.

This might be the second time Rubin is relying on misrepresentation to the council to raise public fees. After we published our story on the use of fabricated data to justify gouging water meter fees, the council voted to roll back those fees and issue refunds to impacted residents.

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Hideout gouges water meter fees by $3,500, possibly illegally

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By Miki Mullor 

Facing questions from citizens and the Hideout Comment, Town of Hideout’s Mayor, Phil Rubin, and the Town Engineer Timm Dixon, were unable to support with facts their action to raise water meter fees on new residents by more than 450%. The March 2022 fee hike, approved by the Town’s council, may be violating Utah State law, which protects residents against unreasonable fee hikes.  

The fee hike was initiated by Dixon, who relied on misinformation to justify it, and supported by Rubin, who made questionable public statements on the validity of the fee hike. 

The Town was expected to gain about $445,000 a year from the hike, per the Town’s FY23 budget.  Utah law prohibits cities from generating profits from water connection fees. 

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Mustang files a second lawsuit against the Town of Hideout

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Mustang Development LLC, the developer of Golden Eagle, files a second motion for a temporary restraining order against the Town of Hideout.

The dispute is over the refusal of the Town to issue building permits (and one certificate of occupancy) to private landowners who bought lots from Mustang. In July 2022, Mustang filed its first lawsuit, asking the court to enjoin the Town from denying building permits under a blanket policy. Mustang accused the Town of retaliating against it and its lot owners over an unrelated dispute between them.

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Hearing in Mustang’s case v. Hideout resumes on Dec 2

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By Miki Mullor

The November 18 hearing in Judge Brown’s courtroom lasted the entire day. The hearing was to determine whether the town violated the temporary restraining order (“TRO”) Judge Brown issued earlier this year. In the TRO, Judge Brown ordered the Town to not hold landowners “hostage” to the dispute between the Town and Mustang, the developer, by denying building permits on pretext.

Mustang moved to issue sanctions against the Town for continuing refusal of building permits which in their mind is a violation of the TRO. The Town denied it violated the TRO and explained in its response there are specific infrastructure and fire safety issues for which the permits were denied.

Mustang contended these issues were pretext.

The Nov 18 was an evidentiary hearing, in which the court heard testimony from various witnesses, including former Town officials, to determine whether the issues the Town raised in its rejection of building permits are valid or not.

If the Court found the issues valid, then there could be no violation of the TRO by the Town and the motion for sanctions by Mustang must be dismissed.

At the start of the hearing, the Town attorneys argued that even if the court finds the issues invalid, there can still be no violation of the TRO because the TRO did not specifically identified the infrastructure issues as potential pretext. Essentially, the Town argued that first the Court must find the issues invalid before any future denials can be seen as violation of the TRO. If the Court agreed with the Town, then even the Court found the issues the Town raised to be pretext, it wouldn’t issue sanctions unless the Town continued to reject building permits.

The court did not seem to buy the argument but the door was left open for a ruling later in the day after the evidence was presented.

The hearing lasted several hours in which multiple witnesses testified in person and over zoom over much of the history of the relationship between Mustang and the Town.

The hearing will continue on December 2 with closing arguments. The Court may or may not issue a ruling then.

Developer’s lawsuit’s hearing moved to Nov 18

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Mustang LLC, the developer of Golden Eagle, has sued the City of Hideout over refusal to issue building permits to Golden Eagle land owners. A judge issued a TRO (Temporary Restraining Order), which compels the city to not arbitrarily refuse issuance of building permits.

After the city did not issue permits, Mustang filed a motion for sanctions – which means it is asking the judge to punish the city for ignoring the TRO.

The city replied with specific reasons for denying each and every pending permits, essentially telling the judge the denials were not arbitrary – and therefore the city has not violated the TRO.

A hearing in the matter in scheduled for Nov 18. The public may be able to watch the proceedings by zoom. Subscribe to receive the zoom details when we get it.