2017 EM Candidate Debate

Eagle Mountain City sponsored a debate for the 2017 General Election for the offices of Mayor and City Council. The debate is usually put together by Charlotte Ducos, a citizen volunteer and resident of Eagle Mountain with the approval and sponsorship of the City Recorder. Diane Bradshaw also helped as a co-moderator to the event. Charlotte in the past has helped with the event as a PTA volunteer, but this year is working directly with the City Recorder as a volunteer to the City. The debate was attended by both of the Mayor Candidates (Tom Westmoreland, and Stephanie Gricius). Only half of the City Council Candidates were in attendance. Donna Burnham and Matt Visser were the two City Council Candidates that were in attendance. Melissa Clark was out of state attending the funeral of her Grandmother and was unable to return to Utah in time for the debate. Melissa Clark made the following statement, “I was unable to attend the debate because my grandmother passed away on Saturday evening. We left shortly after finding out about her passing for Minnesota to be with family for her funeral. It was hard not to be at the debate in the city that I love, but family comes first and honestly always will. Family and keeping our city safe for all families is why I am running. Thanks to modern technology I was able to record an opening and closing statement and have posted them on my campaign Facebook page. I will be answering each of the questions asked as soon as possible. Thank you Eagle Mountain!” You can visit her FB page with the closing and opening statements here: https://www.facebook.com/melissa4EM/ Jared Gray was also out of town during the debate, he apologizes for his absence, and made this statement, “As some know I work full time in the fall as a guide in the mountains. I have been at the foot of the Uinta mountains for the last 2 weeks and will be until October 9th. When dates were discussed as to when would be a good time for the debate I was serving at a girls camp, but had called in to be present by phone. I had dropped the call, and the date was selected. When I learned of the day selected I knew I had a conflict with a client already booked. My hopes were we could work hard and I’d earn time off in order to sneak down to the debate and come right back to camp. With the weather we had that wasn’t possible. So again I am sad I missed. On that note, going forward, I plan to book a lot less excursions in the coming years. Possibly even take some time off and not do any for the next few years to stay closer to home and be with my kids in the fall for their high School experience.” There were about 30 residents in attendance, including family members of the candidates. Drew Curley, an Eagle Mountain resident, made this comment on the number of residence in attendance, “I view this as a very important election for the future of our city, and barely two dozen citizens showed up to watch the debate, with most of those citizens being those who are most involved in our city on a regular basis. We even had a visit from Chris Porter of the Saratoga Springs City Council, as well as Senator Anderegg and Representative Moss, but not even half of a percent of our citizens could make time to come.” There were eight questions asked on a range of topics. The main topics included economic development, transportation issues, as well as city code. The candidates were given two minutes to answer each question and then 30 seconds after everyone answered the questions for a short rebuttal. The question asked were as follows: Question One: In your opinion what are the three most important issues the city is facing at this time. Please share something specific you would like to resolve. Question Two: Our City Council recently had the opportunity to choose an interim mayor. If you were charged with the responsibility to appoint someone to fill the office you are currently running for, what are the top three characteristics you would look for in the candidate, and why? Question Three: If medical marijuana were to be legalized in Utah would you be for or against City Council approval of medical cannabis dispensary within city limits? Question Four: What are your thoughts regarding UDOTs proposal to widen Cory Wride Memorial (SR-73) and what other specific traffic needs would you address in the city and what would you do to address them? Question Five: There has been a lot of discussion recently about the blasting that is being done by developers in some areas of the city, please share your feelings about the proper balance between existing home owners rights vs the land owner rights of developers? Question Six: There were a couple of different question submitted that dealt with a real or preceived divide between The Ranches and the City Center. What will you do to close that divide, and increase unity within the city, and do you think Eagle Mountain should consider organizing electoral districts to insure that each area of the city is represented equally? Question Seven: There were a number of questions submitted addressing issues that fall under the topic of City Development Code. Please name at least one strength and at least one weakness you have seen in our current development code. Consider speaking to topics such as: code enforcement, issues resulting from the dissolution of the Ranches HOA, building and design standards, infrastructure, and enforcement of development agreements. Question Eight: What type of commercial development do think is appropreate or realistic for Eagle Mountain, and what do you believe is the role or responsibility of an elected official in regards to encouraging commercial growth and economic development? All of the questions submitted can be viewed in the document after the article. Charlotte states why she helps with the event, “My whole goal in helping to organize these events is to provide an opportunity for citizens to meet candidates for elected office, talk with them, and engage in the electoral process. It is of utmost importance to me to provide events that are fair, unbiased, and that provide citizens with information and opportunities to make informed decisions at the ballot box (or via mail as the case may be now). The rules we have put in place are designed to give all candidates, as much as is possible, equal time and exposure and opportunity to reach the residents they wish to serve.” Charlotte discusses how the questions were submitted in the email as well, “Questions are being submitted by residents through a link posted on the City Website and linked to the flyer and on the Facebook event page. A committee of three will screen and choose the questions from among the submissions. Candidates will not see the questions prior to them being asked that evening. Right now all submitted questions have been listed as applicable to both Mayoral Candidates and Council Candidates, but if we do have any that apply to one office and not the other, we will make sure to have another question for the other candidates in order to balance time and exposure. We will not be asking questions that are targeted at only certain individuals.” The individuals that screened the questions included, Charlotte Ducos, and Diane Bradshaw (the co-moderator). The questions were then sent to Finnuala Kofoed the City Recorder for review. We also asked to stream the event live on FB, and was told that it would be acceptable to do so. When I asked for permission the City Recorder responded via email, “You are welcome to live stream once you don’t disrupt the proceedings.” Before the debate started we were told that we were not allowed to stream the event live because one or more of the candidates in attendance did not want the event streamed. We respected their wishes and did not stream the event live. The city did record the event and it is now available on the Cities YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE6PWygb_g-qDncu6tkhU-g Events like this are a great way to get the candidates word out. Remember that the General Election will be done by Vote By Mail, and instructions and information about the process and timeline can be found on the cities website at: http://www.eaglemountaincity.org/departments/city-recorder/elections-and-voter-registration You can also find contact information for each of the candidates on the cities page as well. If you have a question for the candidates, that has not been answered previously, or addressed during the debate, please contact them directly. The more interaction you have with the candidates the more educated vote you can make during the general election. Questions Submitted for 2017 Municipal Election Debate