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.