Winston Lee teaches piano lessons at his music store just off Heber’s Main Street. He said the issue began about a week ago, when Hewlett visited his store to film a video about the business.
“And she also got me a little bit nervous because she said, ‘Oh, your building is going to be torn down,’” he said. “It was kind of this alarmist type of, you know, you’re going to lose your building.”
Hewlett told Lee the city was going to tear down his building to put in a pedestrian alleyway.
He said after she left, he reached out to city councilmembers, city planners and the Heber Valley Chamber of Commerce to find out if that was true. He said all reassured him his business wasn’t at risk.
Then, Lee said, he got an email from Hewlett Tuesday morning.
“Yesterday morning, this girl who alarmed me in the first place, sent a text to me that said, ‘I sent you an email. You need to send it out to all your students,’” he said.
As he rushed to work, he texted back, “Thanks Jami.” He read the email later that morning and said he found she had written a letter with his name on it, asking locals to come to the city council meeting to protest plans for downtown revitalization – the same plans local leaders had assured him weren’t happening.
“I was like, OK, this email is very alarmist, and it’s also signed by me – which is a little weird, because I didn’t write it,” he said. “So, I just deleted it and I thought it was done.”
But it wasn’t. That afternoon, some neighboring business owners stopped by and said they’d read his Facebook post. Lee didn’t know what they were talking about. He said the visit is how he learned Hewlett had posted the email she wrote on social media, claiming it had come from Lee.
Heber City spokesperson Ryan Bunnell confirmed Lee’s account.
“That’s a citizen that used another citizen’s name to send out a letter containing misinformation about the city’s intent to condemn property,” he said.
He said the city council’s discussion of a possible pedestrian alley parallel to Main Street is just a concept right now. He said the city has no plans to buy or condemn businesses along 50 West.
“That has never been discussed,” he said. “It’s not on the table. Heber City’s vision is to build the infrastructure and propose the plan, and that private sector developers will want to come in and help us enable that plan.”
He said city staff will be following up with local property and business owners over the next several days to correct any misunderstandings or misinformation.
Bunnell said the letter was “just plain wrong.”
But Hewlett’s version of the story is different.
“If the city is naming a street, then we would need to know: How big is the street? Where is it going? What buildings are affected? All of the people around would need to know,” she said. “So, I helped Winston write a letter to send out to his piano students.”
In a call with KPCW, she claimed city leaders were being dishonest when they reassured Lee his building is safe.
“He just wants to teach piano. He doesn’t want me to go to jail for impersonating somebody,” she said. “I was helping him for the transparency of the community, and that’s – it’s not this crazy thing.”
When asked specifically whether she had written or worked with Lee on the letter, she said she had to go and hung up the phone.
Lee told KPCW he wants people to know the letter is not from him and doesn’t represent him.
“I did feel like it was aggressive, and also, it was alarmist – even in the heading, it said ‘urgent,’ and it had exclamation points,” he said. “That’s not who I am, and that’s not how I would approach it. I mean, even if they were to tear down my building, I still wouldn’t approach it that way. So, I don’t like people reading that, thinking that’s me and that’s how I behave, because I don’t.”
Lee said he also sent Hewlett a message telling her not to use his name. He also asked Facebook group administrators to remove the impersonating posts.
Hewlett is on the Nov. 5 ballot as a Libertarian candidate for the Wasatch County Council’s seat D, which represents most Heber residents. She is also an alternate on the Heber City Planning Commission, voting in planning decisions when other commissioners are absent.
