Candidate Answers – Matt Visser

Question 1: Roads. Roads will be a big issue during this election cycle. With the new High School and the development in City Center, what do you feel would be the best way to alleviate the road problems facing Eagle Mountain? 1, roads are a huge concern for all of us in EM whether it’s limited access to neighborhoods, too few lanes to accommodate the high traffic times, or something as simple as maintenance. While I believe that we’re trying to correct the problem, I believe more can be done. Developers need to be held to contracts or we should renegotiate for the best long term interests of the city. SITLA seems to hold a lot of control and, I believe there are ways we can develop the way the city feels is best and not let SITLA decide for us. Question 2: Property Rights. What are your views on property rights, and how do you plan on balancing the property rights of current residents with the property rights of prospective developers? 2. I stand strong on property rights. If you own the property you should decide what happens on it. That said we have zoning for a reason. We probably don’t want a pig farm, next to a restaurant. Recently in a city council meeting staff proposed that we change wording in our code. The change is simple, but it limits property rights tremendously. Heres the run down. The proposal was to restrict anything that wasn’t specifically mentioned as approved in the code. I don’t think its governments role to tell us what we can do, but to give basic restrictions. I stood up and gave public comment on my feelings, at that council meeting. Question 3: Founding Fathers. Do you have a favorite founding father? If so, who is it, and what is a favorite quote, or ideal that founding father had that you try to emulate? (Notice I did not define founding father, I am leaving that up to your interpretation.) 3. I’m not sure I have a favorite founding father. I believe they all played an important role in building our great nation. So I looked up some quotes and found a few i liked. I’ll share one that explains how I feel when I’ve tried to deal with government. “To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead. ” – Thomas Paine What we need now, is people who are willing to listen. Even when we disagree on issues that make up our core values. We can find common ground somewhere, and try to understand the other point of view. Question 4: Schools. Do you feel the education system is adequate in Eagle Mountain? If so, what are we doing well, if not, what needs to be changed. 4. I believe the education system in EM is great. Would I like to see changes? Yes, but the truth is thru many conversations with our current and previous members of city council I’ve learned there’s not much that the city can do to affect how, where, or what, the schools do. Question 5: Family. Can you give me a brief description of your family, and what it means to you? 5. I have a beautiful wife Shauna, and 2 boys Ace and Linkin. I met my wife thru my roommate, and we spent everyday together from that day on. We’ve been married for about 17 yrs, and have lived in EM for about 16 of them. I don’t know if I believe in love at first site, but I imagine how I felt and feel is what it’s like. My two boys are the best kids you’ll ever meet. Ace, will be going into 8th grade, he Loves to read and play video games. Link, is going into 5th grade, he loves to skate, and shoot. Question 6: Why Run. Can you tell me why you are running for your position? 6. Why run? Oh my, this was a last minute decision for me. Let’s not confuse that, I’ve been thinking about running for a long time. I was looking for a place in the city to serve. A place where I could make a difference. A place where I felt needed. Those opportunities didn’t look like they were coming my way. Then the rumors started coming, questions asking if I was running for council. I answered, no. Like a few of the candidates I was spending a lot of time at city council meetings, I was asking questions, and even making comments. The rumors grew to, are you running for mayor? This time I let them grow. What did I find? People like my ideas. They like that I’m not afraid to speak my mind. This still wasn’t enough, for me to run. Then, I received an email that hit home. I started thinking, why not? Not for mayor, but City Council. 330 on the last day to file I was on my way home from work and made the decision. I’M RUNNING! All of the candidates including myself, have great ideas and could be an asset to the city. Question 7: Biggest Issue: What do you see as the biggest issue in Eagle Mountain, and what do you plan on doing to help solve the issue? 7. The biggest issue I see in eagle mountain, could be a few things. The way I see it is, all the decisions are tied together. Decisions made by council can affect way more than the issue council is voting on in the moment. In fact, the decisions made by other city council’s can affect our city. Just like our councils decisions, not only affect us as a city, but other city’s as well. That leads us back to how we can fix the problems. Communication. I want to see things change. I want people to be able to read, hear and comment, on every issue. Not only in private conversations and communication, but in public forums. I want elected officials to to be held accountable for their votes. We can’t have that if the people don’t have easy access to the information. We can do a better. Question 8: Biggest Good: What do you see as the best thing that Eagle Mountain has going for it, and how do you plan on protecting it for future generations? 8. I think the greatest thing that eagle mountain has going for it, is the people. We come together faster than anyplace. Missing kids? Search parties. Lost pets? Everybody keeps an eye out. People need food? Organize a food drive. City cuts programs you love? Organize a board and make it happen. Family’s in need? We come together to take care of them. The way the city can help protect that is simple. Keep the small town feel. Question 9: Open Space: Many residents like the open feel of Eagle Mountain. Do you feel we have enough open space, to much open space, or to little open space? What policies will you try to implement to support that view? 9. Open space is going away fast. The issue is most of this space is private property. The developers are waiting for their opportunity to cash in. I love the open space. I love that our city backs BLM land and that open space. I believe in property rights. Developers will continue to come and build to make the most money possible. What we can do as a city is to protect our open space while protecting our property rights is take a look at the density of the projects we see coming. If we don’t we’ll end up with nothing but multi family housing and homes built on the smallest lots allowed. That policy doesn’t promote open space. Question 10: Development: What are your goals for the City in regards to Development? 10. Something I’ve learned from sitting in city council meetings is some of these developers are brilliant at negotiation and finding loopholes to legally get what they want. So when it comes to development, we need to look at what is best for Eagle Mountain. Let’s not sit and watch. Let’s make changes that close the loopholes and protect the best interests of the city. Question 11: Cory Wride Memorial Park: What are your views on Cory Wride Memorial Park, and the cities current plan for the park? 11. Cory Wride park is coming. No that’s wrong, it’s here. My questions are, why now? Why so much money on one park? Why aren’t we making all the parks in the city amazing? Can we afford the maintenance? Why are we using 2 different names for one park on the budget? Why are we using all the funding for multiple parks, on one park that has millions of dollars in funds? I have many more concerns, and questions. Here’s my idea. Finish phase 1a. Spread the money across multiple parks in our city. I’m not against building CW park. I’m saying, slow down. Let’s finish the parks we’ve started. Let’s spread the money that we received when we sold the utilities across all the parks, the parks we all use. Let’s make all of them places we want to go. Let’s not make a huge investment in the middle of a new community that’s using that park to line their pockets with money, while we cover the costs. Let’s build the park. Let’s build all the parks, but let’s not start another project that won’t be finished, for years, if not decades. Question 12: Master Plan: The City is currently in the process of updating it’s master plan. What do you think the master plan should look like, and what do you think of the current changes being made. 12. As I read thru the master plan development changes there’s quite a bit that I like, and a bunch that makes me laugh. Lots of talk about keeping the city rural, then a few bullet points down, supporting growth so we’re not just another suburb. Not to build so many starter homes, but those are the builders and developers that we seem to attract and then give sweetheart deals too. Support the creation of city center, but no specific mention of areas. There’s a lot of good in the plan, but it doesn’t seem to be consistent. I’d like to help make a consistent plan for development in the city. Question 13: Programs: What is the best program, that you know of in Eagle Mountain? How does that program make Eagle Mountain better, and how do you plan on making the program stronger? 13. I’m going to change the question a little. What’s my favorite program in the city? No question, it’s Youth Council! These young adults are future leaders. These young people volunteer for events at a drop of a hat. They make events more successful, even when they are given little to no direction. Again I’m going to change the question a little bit. What could other programs do to be better? They could go to an occasional youth council meeting. I believe that would remind them why we serve the community. Question 14: Literature: Name one work of literature that has had an impact on you, and why you think it is important for a guide during this election cycle? 14. I don’t spend much time reading books. I do spend a lot of time reading the news, and doing my own research. That’s the reading I prefer to do. The impact that has had on me, I find my own answers. I’m not afraid to ask people where to find the information I need to form an opinion. Question 15: Down Time: What do you do with your down time, what leisure activities do you like to participate in? 15. My spare time is mostly spent with my family. We love to spend time on the boat. Camping on the beach at Yuba is our favorite quick trip. I like to spend time standing in the river fishing, the middle Provo is my favorite. It’s great for a quick trip and the place where I feel closest to God. Flipping flies with nobody around listening to nature is where I like to think, about life. Question 16: Why Eagle Mountain: Why have you chosen Eagle Mountain as your place of residence? 16. About 16 years ago we moved to Eagle Mountain. The house we were going to build in Saratoga Springs fell through. So we continued to look, and found a house here. We moved to the city, when the closest grocery store was in Lehi, or Riverton. We had to plan trips to the store and it saved us tons of money on impulse buys. I’m glad we moved here. This community is a tight knit community where people are willing to help. I don’t see the same things in other city’s. The reason we moved here is like many others, the open space and we get more home for less money.