Editorial – City Hires PR Firm Paid with Taxpayer Money to Market RAP Tax to Voters

City pays $43,000 for six-month PR campaign for RAP Tax while maintaining full-time communications staff and mayoral oversight.

On June 25, 2025, Eagle Mountain City issued a press release announcing its intent to place a RAP (Recreation, Arts, and Parks) Tax proposal on the November 2025 ballot. The measure would implement a 0.1% local sales tax—just one cent for every ten dollars spent within city limits—to fund trails, splash pads, arts programming, and youth sports.

What followed wasn’t just a simple public notice. It was the start of a carefully orchestrated campaign.

Within hours of the press release, media outlets received an email from XL PR, a professional public relations firm, offering to schedule interviews with city officials about the tax measure. The message didn’t come from a city staffer. It came from a contracted consultant. And it raised a simple but serious question:

Are Eagle Mountain residents paying to be persuaded to tax themselves more?

A $43,000 Messaging Campaign

According to the public contract signed by Mayor Westmoreland on June 10, 2025, Eagle Mountain is paying XL PR $43,000 over the next six months to manage the public communication campaign specifically promoting the RAP Tax. The contract outlines a flat rate of $7,000 per month from June through October, with an $8,000 payment in November for final wrap-up services.

The contract between Eagle Mountain City and XL PR explicitly states that the firm is being hired to promote the RAP Tax proposal. The key language is found in the contract’s Project Summary section. Here’s the relevant excerpt:

“XL PR will assist Eagle Mountain City in its public communication campaign regarding the Recreation, Arts, and Parks (RAP) tax that will be proposed on the November 2025 ballot.”

Further down, the contract outlines deliverables such as:

• Developing a communications plan
• Assisting with press outreach
• Supporting social media messaging
• Coordinating media availability and interviews

The scope makes it clear that the firm is being retained to manage messaging and public outreach specifically in support of the RAP Tax ballot initiative.

That’s nearly $1,500 per week of taxpayer money dedicated solely to messaging and media coordination around a tax that voters have not yet approved.

And this is in addition to the City’s in-house communications infrastructure.

Salaries Already in Place

Eagle Mountain already employs a full-time Communications Manager, Tyler Maffitt, whose responsibilities include crafting press releases, managing media relations, producing content for city channels, and overseeing branding. Industry data suggests Maffitt’s salary likely falls between $78,000 and $85,000 annually, which equates to approximately $39,000 to $42,500 over the six-month campaign period.

Mayor Tom Westmoreland—who also speaks publicly in favor of the RAP Tax proposal—earns $70,000 per year, or $35,000 over the same timeframe.

Taken together, the salaries of the City’s two key communication figures total roughly $74,000 to $77,500 over six months. When combined with the $43,000 XL PR contract, Eagle Mountain is committing over $117,000 in leadership and communications costs during the RAP Tax campaign window.

A Branded Narrative

These efforts are not without coordination. In 2024, the City formalized its communication strategy with an 80+ page Brand & Marketing Playbook, which outlines tone, values, emotional messaging, and even desired public reactions such as:

“I feel confident in city leadership.”
“I feel respected and informed.”
“I feel proud to live in Eagle Mountain.”

The playbook emphasizes that “brand marketing is about our audience memorizing our message,” underscoring that public communication is not merely about informing residents—it’s about shaping perception. With the RAP Tax campaign now unfolding through this lens, it’s clear that the City has mobilized a fully branded, professionally guided operation.

GRAMA Request Reveals No Invoices to Date

To investigate the financial details of this agreement, the Cedar Valley Sentinel submitted a GRAMA (Government Records Access and Management Act) request to Eagle Mountain City. While the City did provide a copy of the contract with XL PR, no invoices were included in the response as of this writing. This absence raises further questions: Has the firm already begun work? Have payments been issued? If so, under what account or departmental budget?

The lack of invoicing information leaves an incomplete picture of how and when taxpayer dollars are being spent to promote the RAP Tax measure—and further highlights the need for public oversight as the campaign moves forward.

A Call for Civic Engagement

Eagle Mountain residents deserve more than carefully managed press releases and polished campaign pitches. They deserve transparency. They deserve to know how much of their money is being spent to encourage them to spend more.

We encourage residents to attend upcoming City Council meetings and ask the hard questions:

• Why is a PR firm necessary when the City already has full-time communications staff?
• Who authorized the $43,000 contract?
• How is this campaign being funded—through general funds, contingency reserves, or other channels?
• Why does a city that prides itself on community feel the need for a professionally coordinated narrative?

Let’s ensure that Eagle Mountain’s future is shaped by open dialogue—not just branded messaging.

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Supporting Documents

City Press Release: Eagle Mountain Glosses RAP Tax Proposal, Joins Broader Utah County Trend

Photo by Steve Lord on Unsplash