Serving

I've been busy going to more meetings to learn about issues relating to the county. Plus on Wednesday October 4th I was elected as the Franklin Neighborhood Chair. I have six Vice Chairs also elected and gave them a specific responsibility. I really need two more Vice Chairs so that everything can be accomplished. I was pretty nervous and humbled that my neighbors wanted me as the neighborhood chair. 

I have had conversations with some mayors, that the true purpose of becoming an elected official should be to serve the people. I also had similar conversations with Provo city employees about being elected as a neighborhood chair, my purpose should be to represent my neighbors to the City Council. I would be disappointed in myself if someone accused me of self-promotion or having a personal agenda, instead of wanting to serve those I am suppose to represent. 

Not only should I be serving and representing the people, but as an elected official I would have to make decisions that might be against what the people want; however, the decision would be in the best interest of the people and the county. I can't think of any specific issue right now that would apply, but the Commissioner term of service is four years so I wouldn't be surprised if something came up during that time. 

Recently I was at a lecture at the Silicon Slopes office, the speaker said that women candidates need to brag about their accomplishments so the people will vote for them. Bragging and service feel like opposites, but as a candidate you need to inform the voters of your accomplishments that make you qualified for that elected office. The speaker also said that sometimes male candidates will take credit for the female candidate's ideas, proposals, and strategies. To combat this the female candidate needs to say, "Thank you (insert name) for restating what I just said." This will help the voter realize that the female candidate had the idea in the first place.

My first semester back at BYU after mission was really difficult for me. I was so use to thinking of and serving the people of South Africa that I had a hard time doing my homework, my study time, my tests, paying for my tuition, my student athletic training hours at Mountain View High School, my classes, and don't forget to carve out time to flirt or date. I finally had a conversation with my clinical instructor and she said that her first semester back was difficult for her as well. I said to her that Athletic Training is a healthcare career and I might have to be selfish now spending time studying, but in the future this will benefit the athletes and dancers that I serve and care for. 

I believe this:

Mosiah Chapter 2 

16 Behold, I say unto you that because I said unto you that I had spent my days in your service, I do not desire to boast, for I have only been in the service of God.

17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.

18 Behold, ... and if I, ... do labor to serve you, then ought not ye to labor to serve one another?

19 And behold also, if I, ... who has spent his days in your service, and yet has been in the service of God, do merit any thanks from you, O how you ought to thank your heavenly King!

20 I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another

Benjamin Gravel Pit

Two weeks ago the Utah County Commissioners were considering a zoning change because of the Benjamin gravel pit run by the Kilgore Company. Last week I went to a meeting of the South Utah County Community Voice.  

I found the original Board of Commission meeting minutes from 20 January 2015 when all three Commissioners approved the transfer of open pit mining from Altaview Concrete Mining Operation to Kilgore Contracting, LLC. 

BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, UTAH COUNTY, UTAH

MINUTES OF PUBLIC MEETING COMMISSION CHAMBERS, ROOM 1400

OF THE UTAH COUNTY ADMINISTRATION BUILDING

January 20, 2015 - 9:00 A.M.

PRESENT: COMMISSIONER LARRY A. ELLERTSON, CHAIR

COMMISSIONER WILLIAM C. LEE, VICE-CHAIR

COMMISSIONER GREG GRAVES

Page 6

The commissioners chose to address Consent Agenda Item Nos. 2 and 3 simultaneously as they are directly related. (PULLED FROM CONSENT)

2. APPROVE AND AUTHORIZE THE COMMISSION CHAIR TO SIGN THE “COMPLIANCE AGREEMENT AND BOND FOR OPEN PIT MINING OPERATIONS” AGREEMENT FOR AN EXISTING MINING OPERATION WITH KILGORE CONTRACTING, LLC WITH A SITE LOCATION OF APPROXIMATELY 1395 N 9435 W (LONG RIDGE RD), WEST OF THE PELICAN POINT AREA OF LAKE MOUNTAIN OF UNINCORPORATED UTAH COUNTY; SURETY BOND NO. 327016240 IN AMOUNT OF $45,033.82 WITH LIBERTY MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, 175 BERKELEY ST., BOSTON, MA 02116 AGREEMENT NO. 2015-55 (PULLED FROM CONSENT)

3. APPROVE THE RELEASE OF THE COMPLIANCE AGREEMENT AND BOND FOR OPEN PIT MINING OPERATIONS, AGREEMENT NO. 2008-3, BOND IN THE AMOUNT OF $19,686, AND AUTHORIZE THE COMMISSION CHAIR TO SIGN THE RELEASE LETTER FOR ALTAVIEW CONCRETE MINING OPERATION WITH A SITE LOCATION OF APPROXIMATELY 1395 N 9435 W (LONG RIDGE RD), WEST OF THE PELICAN POINT AREA OF LAKE MOUNTAIN OF UNINCORPORATED UTAH COUNTY; A NEW AGREEMENT AND BOND ARE IN PLACE AGREEMENT NO. 2015-56

Peggy Kelsey of the Utah County Community Development Office confirmed for Commissioner Ellertson that both Consent Agenda Item Nos. 2 and 3 are for the same pit that has been in operation for approximately seven years; the outgoing owner is being replaced.

Commissioner Lee made the motion to approve the Compliance Agreement and Bond for Open Pit Mining Operations for an existing mining operation with Kilgore Contracting, LLC, and to approve the release of the Compliance Agreement and Bond for Open Pit Mining Operations (Agreement No. 2008-3) Bond in the amount of $19, 686 for Altaview Concrete Mining Operation as detailed in Consent Agenda Item Nos. 2 and 3, respectively. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Graves and carried with the following vote:

AYE: Larry A. Ellertson

William C. Lee

Greg Graves

NAY: None

I also searched the minutes of the Utah County Planning Commission in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 to see if there is any mention of Kilgore Contracting, LLC, but no luck. There was only a mention of Kilgore in 2013 and 2014 at the County Commissioners meeting minutes because the county contracted with Kilgore to pave some roads in various unincorporated areas. 

The open pit agreement occurred in January 2015 and by June 2015 there was already press about the way Kilgore conducted business or some will say it didn’t take long for Kilgore to become a bad neighbor with the residents. The Daily Herald wrote about it here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. 

When I was listening to the residents speak about the Kilgore trucks driving on the roads during school bus pick up and drop off at the Commissioner meeting, I was surprised the trucks were even on the roads during this time. Hopefully peace will come soon between all parties.

Utah County Commissioner Meeting

The Commissioners again discussed the Benjamin Gravel Pits at this week's meeting. It was numbers 6, 7, 8, and 9 on the Regular Agenda.

Numbers 6/7 were sent to the Utah County Planning Commission with suggestions. Commissioner Graves asked you to email them what you would like the Commission to suggest, so here are their email addresses: WILLIAML@UTAHCOUNTY.GOV, GREGG@UTAHCOUNTY.GOV, NATHANI@UTAHCOUNTY.GOV.

Number 8 was denied. It was a change in zoning from Mining and Grazing to Critical Environment. In light of the suggestions of Number 6 changing the zoning to Grazing only this wasn't a surprise. Number 9 was continued for 2 weeks.

Regular Agenda
6. TAKE ACTION TO REFER TO THE UTAH COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION A PROPOSED UTAH COUNTY LAND USE ORDINANCE TEXT AMENDMENT FOR THEIR RECOMMENDATION TO ADOPT SECTION 5-18, GRAZING (G-1) ZONE  - Bryce Armstrong, Community Development -

7. TAKE ACTION TO REFER TO THE UTAH COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION A PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO THE UTAH COUNTY ZONE MAP FROM THE MINING AND GRAZING (M&G-1) ZONE TO A PROPOSED GRAZING (G-1) ZONE FOR PROPERTY LOCATED IN SECTIONS 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33, 34 AND 35, T8S R1E, AND IN SECTIONS 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 22 AND 23, T9S R1E, APPROXIMATELY 10,500 ACRES, WEST MOUNTAIN AREA OF UTAH COUNTY - Bryce Armstrong, Community Development -

8. ADOPT (OR DENY) AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND THE UTAH COUNTY GENERAL PLAN LAND USE MAP FROM AGRICULTURAL/WATERSHED TO RESIDENTIAL, AND TO AMEND THE OFFICIAL UTAH COUNTY ZONE MAP FROM THE MINING AND GRAZING (M&G-1) ZONE TO THE CRITICAL ENVIRONMENT (CE-2) ZONE FOR PROPERTY LOCATED IN SECTIONS 10, 11, 15, 16, 22, 27, 28, 32, 33, AND 34, T8S R1E, AND SECTIONS 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 22, AND 23, T9S R1E, WEST MOUNTAIN AREA OF UTAH COUNTY  - Bryce Armstrong, Community Development -

9. ADOPT (OR DENY) AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND SECTIONS 2-2 AND 3-25 OF THE UTAH COUNTY LAND USE ORDINANCE TO ADD REQUIREMENTS FOR EARTH EXTRACTION OPERATIONS RELATED TO AIR AND WATER QUALITY, REQUIRED LANDSCAPING, HOURS OF OPERATION, NOISE, AND OTHER RELATED IMPACTS - Bryce Armstrong, Community Development -

Commission Meeting Video on YouTube (it's long!)

Seek learning, by going to LOTS of meetings

When I was working on my Master's degree, I had a required class on how to do a thesis. The professor suggested that we watch another student's thesis proposal to prepare for our proposal. I watched a Recreation Management student's proposal on storytelling in Native American tribes. It was actually useful even though our topics were not close, my thesis was on a neck injury in female ballroom dancers. 

I have been attending multiple meetings to help me prepare for my campaign and the job of county commissioner. I usually find the meetings schedule on the open meetings website hosted by the State of Utah. Today I attended a meeting at the county health department about a builder disputing a decision about wastewater on his property. 

So here is a list of meetings I have gone to recently:
Utah County Commissioner 
Domestic violence 
Goshen Valley Local District Board (I drove because it was in Elberta)
Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce Business Education
Pleasant Grove Mayor
Mountain Association of Government MPO Technical Advisory Committee
(Plus I did most of these meetings by using public transit or walking)

One thing I have learned is government compared to athletic training takes more time to accomplish something. For a true example, when I was the AT for the Radio City Rockettes, Santa sprained his ankle. I had to run (yes I ran!) backstage to take his boot off, tape it, and get him back on stage to sing his next song in 5 minutes. However, the Utah Valley Convention Center parking issue started in 2009 and has still not been resolved. 

In 2009, Provo City, Provo Redevelopment Agency, and Utah County entered into a interlocal agreement that Provo would provide the convention center with 350 parking spots. “Provide, at their expense, all parking spaces, parking facilities, parking lots, parking structures, and related real property, easements and appurtenances, as required to both meet Provo City’s requirements and to adequately serve Phase One of the Convention Center ... at such locations and in such a manner as approved by Utah County.” Construction started in 2010 and the convention center opened in 2012. I spoke to Danny Wheeler, general manager of the Utah Valley Convention Center, he told me that bookings for 2018 are down from previous years and the reason underground parking was not considered is because of the limestone. 

FYI, on 20 January 2010, the County issued $40.15 million in Tourism, Recreation, Cultural and Convention tax revenue bonds to finance the convention center with a 3.89% interest rate. The county issued three types of bonds; tax-exempt bonds, Build America Bonds and recovery zone bonds, and will be paid back in 30 years (2039), with the total principal plus interest for Utah County at $69.75 million.

A lawsuit was filed 31 May 2017 by the county against the city for not providing the promised 350 parking spots. The County wants Provo City to pay for the costs it would take to acquire property and building a parking structure. The county estimates a cost of $4 million.

A letter from former Provo Redevelopment Director Paul Glauser in 2010 acknowledged the contractual obligation to provide 350 parking spaces. There was supposed to be a new parking garage on the block immediately north of the convention center, but that block is now the site for the new Fourth District Court building that is under construction.

From 2010 to 2016 there doesn't seem to be any record or press about the county requesting the city to provide the parking. Mayor John Curtis told the Daily Herald, past Commissioners wanted a hotel, but recently the Commissioners have demanded parking. Priorities can change according to which elected officials are in office at the time decisions are made.

Utah County Commission Chairman Bill Lee stated "We've been talking about this forever," except only since 2016 has there been letters and in-person discussions between the city and county about the parking issue.


What have the city and county done to make progress?

þ Provo city hired Matt Taylor as the new city parking administrator. (I need to disclose that Matt is my neighbor.) The city is working on a surface parking lot at the old RC Willey location. The city identified over 300 parking spots around the convention center that patrons can use for now. With construction of the Hyatt hotel and BRT, when they are finished, this could alleviate the need for some parking. Rob Fetzer, chief operating officer of PEG Development has plans for a parking structure that would provide approximately 600 parking spaces initially, and could expand up to 1,200 to 1,500 parking spots, but those spaces would be paid parking and owned by PEG Development. 

þ Utah county filed a lawsuit that included declaring eminent domain on the RC Wiley block. The county is demanding, not just earmarked parking, but the city to build then turn over the parking ownership to the county and wants it in writing.

The hope and ideally, citizens expect government entities to work together not just on parking, but on all issues that need cooperation between cities and counties for the good of the people. 

I got my information from the Deseret News here and here and the Daily Herald here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

2017 Primary election votes

Since the Gardner Policy Institute has projected that Utah County should have a population over 1 million by the year 2037, I was wondering how many people would be voting in elections compared to now. Granted the latest results are not finished and less people vote in primary elections than general elections, here is a list of total voters for each primary election this month. 

American Fork Mayor 3,862 votes
American Fork City Council 6,915 votes
population 28,770

Alpine Mayor 2,359 votes
population 10,361

Eagle Mountain Mayor 2,259 votes
Eagle Mountain City Council 3,996 votes
population 29,202

Highland Mayor 2,986 votes
Highland City Council 5,776 votes
population 18,647

Lehi Mayor 6,280 votes
Lehi City Council 11,251 votes
population 61,130

Orem Mayor 11,817 votes
Orem City Council 32,553 votes
population 97,499

Payson Mayor 2,295 votes
Payson City Council 3,854 votes
population 19,810

Pleasant Grove City Council 7,637 votes
population 38,756

Provo Mayor 11,955 votes
Provo City Council District 2  1,148 votes
Provo City Council At Large 11,108 votes
population 116,868

Saratoga Springs City Council 3,222 votes
population 26,887

Vineyard Mayor 414 votes
population 3,953

The county didn't report, but there was a primary election for the office of mayor in Cedar Fort and Goshen. Both had three candidates narrowed down to two.

I also thought it was interesting that only Provo has city council positions divided by areas of the city instead of each council position voted on city wide like the other cities. I liked that 32,553 people voted in the Orem City Council election. I was disappointed that there wasn't enough people running for office to have primaries in the other municipal elections.
Here is the link for the election results, 
http://www.utahcounty.gov/Dept/ClerkAud/Elections/electrslts/2017municipal/summary82217.pdf.

The Census Bureau estimated that the Utah County population was 592,299 in July 2016. This includes everyone, but the County Clerk emailed me the number of active voters is 265,000 for the county, but I didn't ask for individual cities. 

Campaign Narrative

I am trying to put together a narrative about me to convince the voters to vote for me. I wanted to include how I learned from the women in my family and how they prepared me to run for office.

My Mom set the example of being an informed voter and voting in every primary and general election. However, she did not contribute to any campaign, put out any lawn sign, or participate in any political party. My Mom, like many registered Republicans or unaffiliated, voted Republican but didn’t have time or money to participate in the party. That is why I’m running for Utah County Commissioner. I’m running to represent and serve those who have 2-3 jobs to support their family, who barely have enough to pay for the food in their fridge, who have expensive medical bills, who have a child that needs more love than their other children, and those who have a job that consumes most of their time.

My 2^nd Great-Grandmother, Sarah Jane Perkins Rogerson, was first elected to office in 1900, twenty years before she could vote. Someone typed out her journal and emailed it out to the family, so here is an excerpt from my copy about her political career:

In the fall of 1900 I was appointed Deputy County Clerk of San Juan Co. (Miss Kate Perkins was the clerk, she taught school that winter and I did her office work.) At the election that fall, I was elected County Treas. and took over the treasurers business on the first of January 1901.

I served as deputy clerk till June of that year, at which time I was appointed County Clerk. I resigned my office as County Treas. and James Woke(?) was appointed Treas. in my place; and I was appointed Deputy Treasure which position I held for several terms. That same spring I was also appointed deputy assessor, that is, I was to do the assessor's book work. Willard Butt was the assessor. I was also deputy for D.B. Perkins, during his one term of office. I held the office of County Clerk for 14 years, being elected on the Republican ticket and the Democratic ticket, and twice I was on both tickets. I ran once on the Republican ticket against a Democrat and a Progressive ticket.

After I left the Clerk's office I served as Town Clerk for eight years. During my office career, my two sons Ed and Lynn, each filled a mission for the L.D.S. Church.

Sarah Jane married John Edward Rogerson, a survivor of the Martin Handcart Company, in 1879. Sarah Jane and John were asked to settle in Monticello, Utah in 1888 with their three children, their only daughter, Madora Laverna (she was called Vern), is my Great-Grandmother.

A while back my Aunt Sally gave me advice to join the PTA. She told a story about a bad teacher she was able to have transferred to another school because of her influence on the PTA. I took that advice as; if you aren’t involved how can you have any influence. So last year I joined the PTA even though we don’t have kids yet, so I can be involved in the neighborhood. 

I'm kinda famous (it depends on how old you are)

Yep, that is me in the yellow dress holding the cup. 

I didn't think people still used this sacrament picture since it is so old. I remember going into the Distribution Center the first time and seeing the new picture. I was so sad I got replaced by a cute Polynesian girl.

If I remember right, it was the beginning of 2nd grade and my Mom picked me up early from school that day. We went to our chapel and we sat in those seats for HOURS! At least that was what it felt like. I felt bad for the deacon because he had to lean over for hours. But after we took a break everyone was worried about my finger, but it was fine. The little boy couldn't sit still, so I was wondering if he would be in the final picture. Remember this was the early '80's before digital cameras.

The lady that picked people for church pictures was in our ward when we lived in Centerville, Utah. I was in another picture with this family for the Ensign, it was about blended families. The church wanted to do a sacrament picture, but they wanted to add another kid to the family, so since I looked more like them than my own family, so I got picked. Plus I had the cute blonde kid thing goin' on back then.

This is my cousin Mary Ann. She was picked for the picture because she was 8 years old and my Uncle Don was a graphic artist for the church. Actually, I think my Uncle Don is the hands on the left. I think it was the old Valiant B Primary manual where me, Mary Ann, and her younger brother Chris were all in the picture section of the lesson book. My Grandma Riding had a copy of it and I remember seeing her copy in her bedroom after she died. 

Infrastructure Issues: Water

On Monday KSL did a story about Goshen’s water problem.  

Except that isn’t the whole story. I met with Goshen Mayor Fred Jensen back in June, that’s when I found out about the problem. I’ve been meeting with mayors to find out about the issues each city deals with. He said the spring providing water had E. coli. Then in July I met with another south county mayor that told me Mayor Jensen had applied to for a grant to take care of the water. But I still felt like I didn’t know the issue, so I finally was able to speak to Marie Owens of the Division of Drinking Water. She explained to me that the grant would pay for chlorination equipment to clean the water, but there is no guarantee that the E. coli would be cleaned out of the spring. She also said each city needs to have a minimum of two sources of water and suggested drilling for a new well, using a new spring, or contract with another city to bring in their extra water. Although I thought other cities might be able to use river or lake water depending on their geography. I called back and spoke to the clerk in the Goshen city office and she clarified that the five homes in the KSL story are not in Goshen city limits, they are actually in the county unincorporated area.

This means technically these five homes would be in the jurisdiction of the County Commissioners. I have learned that the county government does not provide for infrastructure like an incorporated city would. The home owner needs to have their own well and septic tanks. I plan on meeting with all the people that live in the unincorporated areas since those are the people I will serve as a County Commissioner when the people elect me.

Infrastructure Issues: Roads

I went to a neighborhood (someone’s backyard) “Meet the Candidate” event in American Fork. The host was knowledgeable about the issues and explained anything he thought people might not know about. He explained the difference about infrastructure and quality of life issues. Infrastructure is the basic structures and facilities (airports, internet, waste, irrigation, transportation, housing, schools, water, roads, power, etc) needed for the operation of a city.  

Pleasant Grove city has a road problem, there is a proposition on the General Election ballot for Pleasant Grove citizens to vote for. "Proposition # 3 Shall Pleasant Grove City enact an ordinance requiring the transfer every year of TWO MILLION SIX HUNDRED TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS ($2,625,000.00) from the General Fund to fund road repair and maintenance as the primary budget priority? Road repair and maintenance would be funded before other general fund services which include: library, parks, swimming pool, cultural arts, and senior citizen services. FY 2017 General Fund Budget is $12,581,333.00, the required transfer represents a 20.86% budget reduction for general fund services without additional funding. The ordinance states services other than roads could be funded by pursuing tax increases or other means."

From the Daily Herald, "According to a recent engineering study, the city would need to spend $3.8 million per year on roads over a period of 20 years for the roads to be in good condition. Currently, $1.5 million is being spent annually on roads...City leaders released a fiscal impact statement, in response to the initiative, detailing which city services are in danger of being eliminated if the additional $2.3 million, about 18 percent of the general fund budget, is spent on roads. Services in danger of being eliminated include the library, swimming pool, parks and outdoor recreation programs, senior center, cultural arts and city celebrations."

When I went to the Pleasant Grove meet the candidates event, all the candidates I was able to talk to were against Prop 3 and they talked about adding a fee to the utility bill to fix the roads. Highland recently added an $18.50 per month transportation fee to their utility bill, after the failure of a citizen’s referendum to gather enough signatures to be put on the ballot. The Highland road fee has an ending deadline of June 30, 2028. 

However, cities have been criticized for adding fees to utility bills instead of increasing property taxes. If property taxes are raised, then truth-in-taxation hearings will need to be held. Increasing utility fees are easier and ensures that tax-exempt organizations (for example, churches and hospitals, which Utah County has a high number of) pay their share of the cost of government. Rep. Jefferson Moss of Saratoga Springs and Sen. Howard Stephenson of Draper co-sponsored H.B. 164 Municipal Enterprise Fund Amendments in the 2017 legislative session, which requires a municipality that intends to transfer money from an enterprise fund to another fund to provide public notice of the intended transfer, clearly identify the intended transfer in the tentative budget or budget amendment, and hold a separate and independent public hearing.


Roads are something we all need, but those pesky pot holes after snow storms can be frustrating. 

Type of Candidate

I’ve been going to “Meet the Candidate” events in different cities in Utah County lately to prepare for my campaign next year. Last night it occurred to me that there is a pattern in the type of mayoral and city council candidates I am meeting.

Candidate 1: applied just to apply

Candidate 2: against another candidate or focusing on one issue

Candidate 3: they think they know what the issues are, but are not in touch with the people

Candidate 4: someone who knows the issues & has solutions to problems, and has a vision for how the city could be

I went to the Spring 2017 Provology class. Provo has a class every Wednesday (you have to sign up on the city’s website) where you learn about all the things it takes to run a city. During the class where Mayor John Curtis and City Manager Wayne Parker sat and answered attendees’ questions, someone asked Wayne what is the thing new mayors are surprised about? He answered that candidates come in with ideas on how to fix things, but after they are elected and face the reality of what an elected official can actually do in office can surprise them.

Because of this answer I decided I better learn everything about Utah County and what a Commissioner does so that there is no learning curve on day one. I’ve been meeting with county officials and employees and mayors and superintendents…My list keeps getting longer, but I plan to meet with the Silicone Slopes tech business leaders, all the citizens of the unincorporated areas, etc, and then meeting again with Nathan Ivie and Bill Lee, current commissioners. Hopefully this will be accomplished before December because I plan on having a campaign kickoff fundraiser over Christmas break.

One issue candidates

Yesterday, I attended the Highland and Orem city's meet the mayoral candidates. One thing I noticed was you can't be a one issue candidate, even if your motivation for running is one issue, you need to know about all the possible issues that you would need to make a judgement on while in office. 

Two days earlier on Tuesday morning, I met with the Genola mayor and we talked about the gravel pits, then I stopped by the Beckstead Mink Farm (yep it was stinky), then I went to the joint UT/SLC county meeting where they approved the change to the county boundary in Draper along future road and property lines, and then I went to the debate for the CD3 candidates. At the debate I sat with another PTA member (I joined the PTA of the elementary school around the corner) who told me about a sex education legislation her group is going to try to pass at the next legislative session. Then I stopped Katie England from the Daily Herald and talked to her about my candidacy for next year. Then I spoke to Sherrie Hall Everett about her new Provo mayoral campaign animated video. Then, lastly, I spoke to Bill Lee, current Utah County Commissioner, about Goshen's water issues and about the possibility of tagging the minks to help satisfy the upset neighbors. By the way, he said passing a law/code to require tagging isn't possible at the county level because minks have been designated a farm animal on a federal level. 

So let's count that up, 7... yep I spoke about 7 different issues in one day. I'm not sure how successful one issue candidates' campaigns are, but it's not really possible to focus solely on one issue when the Utah County Commissioner is in office for 4 years. 

Utah County Population

I've decided to run for Utah County Commissioner Seat A next year, so I've been doing research on aspects of the county that I didn't know about especially the smaller towns. Current County Commissioner Nathan Ivie ran his campaign last year with one interesting issue, "create balanced commission districts so every community has a voice".

Utah County has a population just over 600,000 and with the continued growth happening, the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah performed long-term demographic projections for the state of Utah that was released this month. The Gardner Policy Institute projected that Utah County should be over the 1 million mark by the year 2037. To prepare for the future the county should change the structure of the county government.

I researched the composition of county governments and only included counties that had a population in the one million range from the 2010 census. I did not include New York County, New York and Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania because the city and county share government responsibilities. The following counties were included: King County, Washington; Clark County, Nevada; Travis/Tarrant/Bexar County, Texas; Contra Costa/Sacramento/Alameda/Santa Clara County, California; Orange/Hillsborough/Palm Beach/Broward County, Florida; Oakland/Wayne County, Michigan; Middlesex County, Massachusetts; Nassau/Bronx/Suffolk County, New York; Franklin/Cuyahoga County, Ohio; Allegheny County, Pennsylvania; Hennepin County, Minnesota; Fairfax County, Virginia; and Salt Lake County, Utah.

Currently Utah County has three county commissioners that are elected alternating two years for four year terms in a partisan election. Most of the other county governments have partisan elections, but a couple have nonpartisan elections. The million range county governments structure is varied, with only one other county having three commissioners. No matter the county government structure only one had a six year term, Salt Lake County, the rest had four year terms. Salt Lake County has a mayor with three countywide, six year terms, and six by district, four year terms, county council.  One other county elects a mayor countywide with six commissioners by district. Eight counties have a county executive with a county council. The council consists of between 9 to 21 elected either whole or partially countywide or by district. Two counties elect commissioners (seven and nine), then the commissioners elect a mayor and vice-mayor among themselves. In Texas, they call it the Commissioners' Court composed of a county judge and four county commissioners. The county judge will be elected countywide and the four commissioners can either be elected countywide or by districts. In California, it's called the County Board of Supervisors which can consist of five Supervisors by district or countywide, one chair voted countywide with nine Supervisors voted by district, or one County Executive Officer with five Supervisors. Three counties have seven commissioners elected either whole or partially countywide or by district. One county elects five Port Commissioners countywide. A couple of counties hire a county manager to handle the day to day activities.

A couple of the counties mentioned that the unincorporated areas, which the county government has jurisdiction over, have community councils for planning purposes. I would think the community councils could also serve to have a better connection and communication with the Commissioners/county government.

I don't know what kind of future composition the county government will look like, but in my opinion since the county is responsible for serving the unincorporated areas, those areas should be represented more than the cities.

I am going to do a series of posts about Utah County issues to prepare for the election next year.

substitute teaching

I have been substitute teaching for a few weeks now to save money for out next infertility treatment. Today a cute little 1st grader had her hair braided like how I want to braid my future daughter's hair. A little boy asked me to tie his shoe. I saw another little boy say, "Goodbye, I love you Mommy" this morning.

Instead of being the Certified Athletic Trainer on the side lines/bench, I want to be the mom in the stands cheering on my kids. I read a picture book to the 1st graders after lunch about a tractor and a cow. I can't wait to read Dr. Seuss books to my future kids. I want to go golfing as a family activity. I want to have my future kids take piano and ballroom lessons. I want to smell that new baby smell and have our baby fall asleep while I am holding him/her. I really hope this last frozen embryo transfer works so we can use the baby names we have already picked out.

tail end of politics...?

I made a short YouTube about all the interesting politics I was involved in last month. Dave and I went to the now infamous Rep Jason Chaffetz town hall. I read two articles that described the experience pretty well. One by Jon Ogden and the other by Kaz Weida.

The other day I watched this amazing Ted Talk "How women wage conflict without violence" by Julia Bacha (or you can watch it on YouTube) that is hopefully a useful strategy in persevering the next four years.

My DNA

Dave's Christmas present to me was the Ancestry DNA test. I got the results Saturday. 

I was surprised that my Great Britain was only 35% because I thought it would be higher. I was also surprised that I had any Irish at all, but my dad was adopted, so who knows who his birth mom dna is. My dad's birth dad and my Grandma Riding were siblings, so that side dna is the same. I have always know my dad had a weird through the family adoption. I don't like mentioning the birth family because the dad was convicted of a major crime, but not until he was 80ish years old, he died last year. I can never thank my Grandparents enough for adopting my dad and preventing me from being one of his victims. 

My Grandpa Jensen's family is from Denmark and England, so I was hoping to find out if the British DNA was eventually Viking or Saxon. 

I wasn't surprised I had Europe West DNA. Recently someone has done some genealogy on my female line and they finally linked them to Germany. But the other trace regions were a surprise.

Finally, there were West Asia trace regions which was a serious surprise. Those ancestors must be pretty far back.

I have a weird life

I guess it started last week when my blood test came back and said my hCG level was still over 100. The last time my blood was tested during the miscarriage was over 140,000, so the hCG is lowering slowly. 

Then I had a phone interview with a Washington Post reporter about my opinion on Rep. Jason Chaffetz. The McMullin campaign gave him my phone number. 

Again this morning I had a blood test. The clinic called while I was volunteering at the elementary school around the corner for the book fair to say my hCG level was still 39. And we were put on the top of the embryo donation/adoption waiting list and there are embryos waiting for us. They are going to email us the profiles of the donors in the next couple of days. 

Before noon today I got a Facebook message that I am needed to testify before the Utah State Legislature Social Services Appropriations Subcommittee to fund infertility research tomorrow morning.

Insert my feeling that I have a weird life. A while ago, I would never have imagined these events would take place in my life. This is just so weird. Now I am getting nervous about tomorrow. Oh please pray I don't completely mess up in front of the subcommittee! 

Family Picture

I have been volunteering for the Utah Infertility Resource Center's Advocacy Committee. We have been preparing for the legislative session and we were told to have a family picture ready to show our Representative and Senator. I found this good picture of Dave and I then I added pictures of all our embryos on the side. One thing we did was name our embryos to help us with the healing process of all the failed treatments. 

Family picture, the embryos oldest to youngest, top to bottom, are named Darcy, Blair, Kyle, Abish (Baby A), and Jane (Baby B). 

Ultrasound picture of both Baby A (Abish) & B (Jane)

How much money does infertility cost?

Dave and I did our taxes today. Last year we paid $17,223 in medical expenses. A massive amount of this is infertility treatments.

So, here's the cost of infertility:

• One of the car doors is broken.
• The kitchen faucet needs to be fixed. 
• The back bedrooms need to be connected to the heater. (We didn't realize they weren't connected when we bought the house.)
• We need air conditioning in the house. 
• The refrigerator is starting to make weird noises.
• I keep forgetting to get the cats updated on their shots.
• There is a leak in the roof in both back bedrooms, the ceilings also need to be fixed.

It feels like something is always on the verge of breaking.

One of our goals is for Dave to get his MBA. His job will reimburse him tuition, but after doing our taxes no wonder it felt like we couldn't afford it last year. This will be the year!

We have decided to try a embryo adoption/frozen embryo transfer one more time. This means we will have to be put on the waiting list for embryos again and who knows how long that will be. It was four months last time. After we get embryos, we plan to wait before doing the frozen embryo transfer to save up some money. The yard sale fundraiser was successful, so we will probably do that again, but will need to wait for the weather to get warmer.

Even though infertility costs an arm and a leg, it's worth it. All that money we spent last year was worth it to be pregnant for 8 weeks.

I miss being pregnant

I miss being pregnant. It was a new sensation, a new experience. Weird things were happening to my body. I didn't have any morning sickness, but my body felt different. After the doctor said there was no heartbeat I immediately didn't feel pregnant. I realized that I was being cautious with my body. I was trying to protect the babies. But now there is no reason to be cautious. When I was pregnant I wanted to eat healthy, I didn't like sugary things. I didn't want to do CrossFit (which I love), so we went swimming at the Provo Rec Center. They have this lazy river that is so fun to float around. 

It has been nine days since I took the medication for the miscarriage. The first day I was only in pain twice, I think it was when I was passing both babies sacs. The pain was so bad I threw up. I am still bleeding, but only a little. 

We have an appointment with the doctor next week. We decided we want to try embryo adoption one more time. We will ask her to put us on the waiting list again. Since I was able to get pregnant I think it will work again next time. 

Because we did two infertility treatments in one year our bank account was wiped out. We will have to do another yard sale fundraiser. That actually brought in a good amount of money. 

I love my husband!

Last week I could feel myself falling into depression after finding out the babies stopped growing. Nine years ago my life was falling apart, like everyone else's when the economy crashed, I went into a depressive state that took a while to get out of. Both of these situations felt the same. Last week, I could feel the depression coming on. I was just going to let it happen then deal with it because I figured that is what you do when you have a miscarriage. 

Dave took me to the beach over the long weekend. He made me eat, which made my body feel better physically. He drove me through a pretty canyon. He took me to church and then to the Mormon Battalion Museum in San Diego. He rented a car that had Sirius XM Satellite Radio and we listened to a really good devotional on KBYU radio by Scott Swofford. He drove most of the time so I could put the car seat down and sleep (yes, I can sleep in a car). He took me to the beach every morning and I got in the water even though people looked at me like I was crazy because they thought the water was cold. (On the last morning we saw a baby gray whale washed up on shore.) 

When we got home I felt so much better physically, spiritually, and mentally all because of Dave. I can feel the depression is gone. Anyone who has a husband like Dave, a husband who puts your needs above his is lucky. I am so grateful Heavenly Father sent me to England to find Dave. It gives me comfort that we are sealed together forever in the Jordan River Temple.

Hidden Figures!

Everyone must go see the movie Hidden Figures!!! 

I am appalled that the stories of these amazing women were never told before now. Does anyone remember if Kathryn Johnson was mentioned in Apollo 13 or any other movie/book/story about space or NASA? If this is the first time we are hearing about the lives of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, who else has an amazing story that we have not heard?

I was never comfortable saying Dr Martin Luther King Jr day. I always wished we kept it as Civil Rights Day because I didn't want the stories of the women who contributed to the Civil Rights Movement to be diminished. Everyone has heard of Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, but what about the other women? There is no way only men were involved in the Civil Rights Movement! The director of the movie Selma, Ava DuVernay, received no screen writing credit, but claimed to have done a 90% rewrite of the original script because there were no women of the Civil Rights Movement in the script.

I found a list of women who contributed to the Civil Rights Movement:

Dorothy Height

Diane Nash

Amelia Boynton

Daisy Bates

Fannie Lou Hamer

Jo Ann Robinson

Yuri Kochiyama

Septima Clark

Victoria Gray Adams

Gwendolyn Elaine Armstrong

Ella Baker

Gloria Rackley Blackwell

Unita Blackwell

Joanne Bland

Ruby Bridges

Aurelia Browder

Colia Clark

Xernona Clayton

Kathleen Cleaver

Annie Lee Cooper

Dorothy Cotton

Claudette Colvin

Annie Devine

Patricia Stephens Due

Myrlie Evers-Williams

Marie Foster

Prathia Hall

Lola Hendricks

Zilphia Horton

Ruby Hurley

Barbara Rose Johns

Clara Luper

Mae Mallory

Vivian Malone

Irene Morgan

Fay Bellamy Powell

Bernice Johnson Reagon

Gloria Richardson

Modjeska Monteith Simkins

Mary Louise Smith

Maxine Smith

Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson

Dorothy Tillman

Is this what a zombie feels like?

Is this what a zombie feels like?
I stopped thinking and feeling so that I could function. Who am I kidding? I only had enough energy to do laundry, sweep the kitchen floor, and empty the litter box. I did fill out an extremely long job application.

I'm still not eating. I'm not surprised, this happened to my body when my Mom died. I do like drinking water.

My Visiting Teacher came over and we talked about tv shows we are currently watching. I did feel like a normal human being for a moment.

If you want to watch me cry on YouTube, here is the link.

It's official today

What do I do? What do I do now? I really miss my Mom on days like these. She had great hugs.

I've had 4 ultrasounds in the last 6 days. On Saturday and Sunday I was on bed rest and Dave basically did everything. We were constantly together for 4 days. I really like him. He's pretty awesome.

I tried to do a load of laundry and I burst into tears.
I wrote a to do list. I went to the grocery store. I'm not sure I'll be able to finish.
I bought some donettes and cookies because that is what you are suppose to do when something bad happens right? Eat junk food. But I'm not in the mood. I thought I was hungry. I'm not craving any food.

What do you do after a miscarriage? We have been trying for so long, 6 years in April, that we were so excited to have a baby in August. But now what do I do? For the past month I was doing everything to prepare for the baby. What do I do now? We usually give our embryos names (Darcy, Blair, & Kyle) to help with the grieving process. We already have baby names picked out, but we are waiting to use them for a baby.

What do I do? What do I do now? What do you do after a miscarriage? Especially after you emptied your bank account to pay for an IVF and FET in one year. Do we get back on the waiting list for embryo adoption again? Are we too old now? When do we decide it's time? We've been married for 5 years, what do we do now? I really like being married to Dave. He's goofy. I like holding hands with him.

What do we do? We need to go on vacation and decide.