Issues and Questions

This isn’t super complicated.  I have always felt that I need to give back to my community.  I see this as a way to do that.  I also believe that I have talents that I can tackle hard issues by evaluating information, asking the right questions, seeing where there may be gaps of understanding, and come to a good understanding to make decisions.  I have had opportunities throughout my life and career to do that in a number of circumstances.

I live in the newly annexed area of North Salt Lake.  I have lived in our community for just over 18 years.

So, not recent, but I was the PTA Secretary at Adelaide for a year.  I mention this because it really was the start of me wondering what I can do to help.  It also made me more aware of people cherry-picking information and disseminating it to fit their narrative.  I believe I helped at Adelaide, but it started making me be more aware of others and their situations.  We ended up moving my son from Adelaide to another school due to ongoing bullying issues that he had endured for 3 years there.  That ended my time there.  My son in question is now at the Air Force Academy and is doing very well.

For the past 5 years or so, I have been a member of the Board of Directors of Deseret First Credit Union.  I was elected a full board member with voting rights about 15 months ago.  Before that, my role was Associate Board Member to advise and counsel the board on matters of technology and information security.  I am the chair of the Technology Committee at DFCU. In February, I had an opportunity to go back to DC and meet our Utah representatives in person.  It was quite different to see them active in Washington against the times where I have just seen them campaigning.  It was surprisingly interesting how my opinions of each of them were affected by my in-person interactions with them.

Three years ago, I started participating with the local Mountain Bike Team as a ride leader and coach with a son participating.  We are part of the National Intercollegiate Cycling Association and the Utah League.  Since the 2022 season, I am now the head coach.  We have a non-profit organization named Woods Cross MTB Team.  My title is head coach, which equates to CEO (we don’t use that title).  There is a board of five members that I am accountable to (not to mention the 90 riders and their parents).  I have two sons that are now competing on the team.

Within the last few months (I was first approached in February), I have been appointed to the Parks, Trails, Arts and Recreation Advisory Committee for the City of North Salt Lake.  I sit on the Trails Subcommittee as part of the Advisory Board with other concerned citizens.  Before the annexation and the appointment, I periodically attended the meeting (as I did with Bountiful City) in my role as Head Coach of the mountain bike team to advise them on trail usage, specifically on city owned trails.  The Bountiful City Trail Committee members were excited to have someone they knew to be on this committee for future coordination (all trails connect).

I didn’t really include anything I do as a volunteer for my Church, but I have had various responsibilities since moving into my home back in 2005.

No, I have never been a government employee.

I am an IT professional.  I have my bachelors from Utah State University in Computer and Electronics Technology with a minor in Spanish.  A few years ago, I completed a master’s degree in information technology management.  I currently manage a team of project managers, and together, we implement technology solutions around the world. 

I am live in this annexed area of the city.  This affects me personally.  I have not heard from anyone long-term problems from the switch.  I think it will solve lots of issues that will come up in the future.  I know there are many residents in the area against it.

My reasoning is the following:

1. Our address will make everyone assume we are in Bountiful City even though we have never been in Bountiful.

2. Bountiful City Mayor and Council sent a letter indicating that they did not want to do any annexations, and did not want the area, despite pleas and requests.  As a result, I certainly don’t want to associate with Bountiful City as if I were a part of them; they don’t want me, so why would I want to have their city as my address.

3. It is confusing to all to have different addresses.  This is for city, county, and state purposes.  Zip codes are used for tax collection.  If we, as residents don’t use the follow up 4 digit code, our sales purchases have the tax credited to Bountiful.  See point #3.  Why would I want to enrich Bountiful City?

4. New neighbors will be thoroughly confused.  I have had quite a bit of turnover in the houses near me.  Inevitably, even before annexation, they tell me that they called Bountiful City to get services and were given weird, incomprehensible answers.  After some discussion, it makes sense to them, but ask me why we were in the situation.

5. Services provided by the city can be tricky without the same address.  Because we are now residents, there are some advantages that we have.  NSL would like to limit some of these to NSL residents.  By our addresses being different, it is not easily obvious that we are.

6. Some county services are denied based on Bountiful City residence.  I went to the Layton dump because I cannot legally nor ethically use those services at the Bountiful City dump.  I was charged 5x the cost to dump my load.  I did get a refund a few weeks later, but it is confusing to everyone.

7. Short-term, I agree, this will be painful for residents and businesses.  It is not insurmountable though.  I would like to see some assistance to at least get everything moved with perhaps grants for businesses to help with the change.  Again, I would want to make sure sales tax that is collected in the area go to NSL, not Bountiful (see point #3). 

Overall, for me, it is a matter of belonging and showing that we now belong to the city.  It is awkward for me running for City Council when I have a Bountiful mailing address.  It raises questions from people whether I am committed to the city and the overall well-being of all residents.  The city recorder has gone as far as obfuscate all candidate mailing addresses so this would not be a disadvantage.

I have personally lost over 3 trees to deer over the course of my 18 years living in my home.  There is nothing more frustrating than to have a nice small tree that is progressing and leave the next day to have it less than a few feet tall.  My wife and I spend many hours spraying tulips with a spray to make them not eat them with varied success.   There are some that want the population eliminated where others want the current situation unchanged.  I know a few years ago, NSL and Bountiful took different approaches.  One trapped and the other city killed them with hired sharpshooters.  I am not sure that either was effective because it was not a long-term approach (probably not funded that way either).  I think there needs to be a multi-prong approach that needs to be taken.

1. Citizen responsibility - I think citizens have a responsibility.  They can plant tree resistant shrubs and trees, and take other mitigating steps to protect their plants.  I think it needs to be illegal to provide food to the herd in any way - Utah DNR would probably agree.  We shouldn't keep them up like a zoo and domesticate them.

2. City responsibility - There needs to be a way to track the deer better to understand where they are going.  Are they in areas where people feed them and artificially provide a good habitat?  I would like to have the city consult with the Utah DNR for solutions and have them implemented. 

The city currently has a citizen guidebook when emergency strikes.  For citizens, it is important that each of us are prepared.  I have worked on assignments for my job in Emergency Management providing technology for these types of situations.  The city needs to make sure they have a designated command center and communication equipment to be able to help their citizens; I am not aware of any of this in place.  This does not need to be expensive or lavish.  It would also be imperative to piggy back the resources and funding the county and state have for this to be in place.  I would not advocate for a separate system as we will need help from the outside and coordinate with local services as much as possible.   That way, whether it be flooding, earthquakes, pandemic, or widespread fires, we can coordinate the resources we as taxpayers have already paid for in county, state, and federal taxes.

This was passed with bipartisan support because this was needed.  Locally, we need to be prepared with a list of needs documented clearly and with robust justifications while at the same time, being able to shepherd that list through the red-tape to qualify.  

Specifically, we need to do more work on the city's west side with transportation with the large number of semis.  The roads are in poor condition in locations there.  We also have a rail line that cuts the city in half.  We need to figure a way to be able to reduce the congestion east/west utilizing these funds.  I think that usage is pretty clear that it would qualify to be used.

I am not sure the Main Street is healthy.  Unfortunately, the placement and ways that the streets are laid out make this difficult.  I do have a few ideas.  The City has recently acquired the triangle of land between US89 and Main Street.  Right now, it is an ugly mess.  We have an opportunity to make the entrance to the City say something more than just dirt and weeds.  I would first be supportive of making changes there; these are in the works already.  A true main street is a destination where you can experience.  I think plans with Hatch Park are the first step and actually making the Hatch Park changes a reality is something that I would continue to support (for full disclosure, I am on the Parks, Trails, Arts, and Recreation Advisory Board for the city. I was recently appointed in April).  That is a major point that can and will transform the city.  Having a gathering place or a living room for our city to get together is vital.  I also want to be careful with any high density housing going into the city center.  There is a lot now.  I have noticed that many of these developments aren't realistic with the spaces alloted for the residents' cars.  If these city center residents park, how will visitors be able to enjoy the center?  I would like to make it easier to walk and bike to the center.  Bike lanes are great, but our sidewalks in that area are overgrown in places and narrow.  I'd like to see us standardize on a larger sidewalk space that may take more of the grass strip space to not further encroach on that property.  I'd like to see better anchor tenets and as opportunity to redevelop different areas come up, to incentivize more of what I have described.  

Frankly, this is the part that made me think really hard if I wanted to run for city council.  I know that in this position I will be faced with extreme positions with some extreme personalities to go along with it.  For me, I can control what I do and how I act/react.  Of course, given the opportunity, I would ask for civility but for sure, I plan to show it in how I treat others with differing opinions.  I do like to understand why positions are taken, so that I can truly understand.  That doesn't mean that I will agree, but at least I can understand.  This drives my wife nuts and makes some of our discussions interesting.  For those that do step out of line, I do think there does need to be enforcement of norms.  This is not to trample upon any rights afforded by government.  I want to hear and understand all sides, but nobody should feel threatened because they state their opinion.

This relates to my response above about political extremes.  It is about understanding the process.  There will always be those that no matter the raw data or processed information, they will have their opinions that something is wrong.  I think at the city level, there is not too much that we (alone) could take that would make a difference.  For myself, I understand the election process, the electronics, the statistics, and the ballots that I will bow out if I lose.  I have confidence in the system.  I have seen the room where the ballots are counted.  We have good people in the county that carry out a sacred civic duty (which they understand).  For governing, I would like to provide more of an opportunity to have the council at more events where more citizen interaction can occur.  The current council does do a good job about coming to city events, I just don't think it is well-advertised or known to the average citizen that they are there.  

Much of what is needed is already in place.  There are city codes and standards that are documented as acceptable and not acceptable.  For this specific question, there is even a part of the NSL City website dedicated to these types of things.  You can report here.

As far as what I will do is I think I can be of help making sure that the defined process is followed and be your advocate for follow-up.  I wouldn't want to hire more city staff for code enforcement and have them driving around looking for things (there is a lot of things that are in my neighborhood as well), but I do think that as citizens, if we see something amiss, we need to speak up.

Housing is probably the number one issue facing not only the City but also at the State level.  Our economy has boomed over the last few years, so we have many good paying jobs and need housing for those moving in to fill those jobs.  This is a good problem to have as opposed to the opposite where you have a stagnant economy and job losses.  So, where do you put everyone?  This is the question to make sure we answer in a smart way.

I am completely opposed to having high-density high rises in places where they don't belong.  For example, on Orchard Drive near Thyme and Seasons, there was a plan to put 5-story apartment buildings.  This would have created problems and introduced issues because of their placement.  A building that tall will shield neighboring houses with the sun and overall would have been a dominant feature of that area.  There wasn't anything like that anywhere. I believe that the closest thing we have is where the Five Points Mall used to be where there are offices and high-rises being built.  

If we feel like we need to have those types of things, we need zoning to make those things available and then be firm in our zoning that we put into place.  If a developer comes along with a plan that doesn't comply with the master plan, they need to understand that the zoning won't automatically change. 

I want to be part of making solutions for these types of issues.  We need to make sure the plans in place have this type of growth planned for and protect neighborhoods from housing that doesn't make sense.

The other issue that comes up is parking for these structures.  Right now, the number of parking spaces per unit are not reasonable with what usual practice is.  In my neighborhood, we have units that were built recently.  They are allowed 2 cars.  There are families that have 3 or 4 cars, so they park them on the street, which can cause problems with other drivers being able to see and issues in the winter.  That street now has an issue with having cars always parked on both sides of the road.  We need to be reasonable with what the city defines as number of parking stalls per unit and enforce the road parking that is in place.