Here’s the audio I recorded from the mayoral candidates’ portion of Saturday’s meet-the-candidates event at the American Fork Hospital. Purists might not call it a debate, I suppose, but it’s as close as we tend to get in our politics.

Here are a few disclaimers and some housekeeping.

The audio isn’t professional. You get what you get from my little Sony voice recorder, with a little help from Audacity for dynamic range compression and some noise suppression. The photos aren’t professional either.

I’ve split the audio into sections, by question or statement, and I haven’t deleted any part of any candidate response. Obviously, there’s no fact-checking built into any of this.

If you want my notes, commentary, and analysis, they’re in a separate post, so readers who wish to avoid them can do so easily.

Attendance was about 50, not including candidates. The moderator was State Auditor John Dougall. Questions came from the audience.

Audio from the city council candidates‘ portion of the event is in a separate blog post, and the American Fork Chamber of Commerce, which hosted the event, has posted a video recording of the event on YouTube. Here also is the Daily Herald‘s report of the event. (Apologies for the unpleasant ad experience there.)

Only mayoral candidates Brad Frost and Carlton Bowen were present at the event. The third candidate in the race, Daniel Copper, was absent. No explanation was offered, and no opening or closing statement was read for him in his absence.

Comments on this post are welcome but are moderated — which won’t be a problem, so long as they are readable, civil, and germane.

Now, the cast of characters.

Brad Frost

Brad Frost

Carlton Bowen

Carlton Bowen

John Dougall

Moderator John Dougall

 

Opening Statements

Introduction (moderator John Dougall)

Opening Statements (Bowen – Frost)

Questions and Answers

Question 1: How do you want to address pride in the administration, especially building codes, causing frustrations from the American Fork citizens? (Frost – Bowen)

Question 2: What are you doing to prevent Puppy Barn from spreading parvo disease. (Bowen – Frost)

Question 3: Are there specific programs or budget line items you’d like to cut or eliminate to pay for roads? (Frost – Bowen)

Question 4: With the expected exponential growth in a American Fork in the next few years, how are you going to be prepared to deal with the growth? What makes you the right man to lead our community through these changes? (Bowen – Frost)

Question 5: What has the current mayor done well, and where do you see the greatest need for improvement? (Frost – Bowen)

Question 6: What principles and processes do you use to resolve conflict and differences of opinion? Give an example. (Bowen – Frost)

Question 7: What are your biggest accomplishments as a city council member? (Frost – Bowen)

Question 8: What is your plan for handling increased traffic flow? (Bowen – Frost)

Closing Statements

Closing Statements (Frost – Bowen)