Learn BEFORE you vote. (Not an official website of American Fork City.)

Category: Meet-the-Candidates Audio (Page 1 of 2)

City Council Debate Audio

On Monday evening, October 16, 2023, all five American Fork City Council candidates appeared at the American Fork Senior Center in a debate. Not including the candidates, attendance was about 70, which is unusually high for such an event.

The American Fork Chamber of Commerce hosted the event. They have posted video of the event at their YouTube channel.

Audio recordings of the candidates’ complete statements and answers are presented here unedited, except for some noise reduction and audio level adjustments, and without comment or analysis.

Format

Except for timed opening and closing statements, candidates each had one minute to respond to a question or topic. If any candidate requested a 30-second rebuttal, all were allow an additional 30 seconds.

Questions were submitted by voters attending the event and by members of the Chamber of Commerce in advance of the event.

Continue reading

2021 Election: City Council and Mayoral Candidate Audio

Thursday saw American Fork mayoral and city council candidates gather to discuss their merits as candidates and their views of numerous issues. The American Fork Chamber of Commerce sponsored the event, and the president of its board, Seth Holdaway, moderated. The audience numbered about sixty — more that we usually see at such events. I hope this foretells good voter participation in our 2021 election.

Members of the All About American Fork group on Facebook submitted the questions online before the event. None came from the audience at the event, but numerous key issues were raised, and there was ample time before and after the formalities for one-on-one conversations with candidates.

Continue reading

2019 City Council Candidate Audio and Notes

On Wednesday, October 2, 2019, the American Fork Chamber of Commerce hosted a meet-the-candidates event for the American Fork City Council race. As usual, of late, it was in a meeting room at American Fork Hospital. This post presents audio recordings from that event — one question at a time, to be easily digestable — and adds some notes from another event a week later, on October 9, at the American Fork Library.

Continue reading

Local and State School Board Debate Audio (Primary)

This post features audio from the May 9, 2018, local and state school board debate at American Fork Junior High..

We start with two apologies. First, it has taken me six weeks to post this audio, and now we’re within a week of the election. Election Day is Tuesday, June 26, and those mail-in ballots have to be postmarked no later than Monday, June 25. On the other hand, it could have been worse; another week later, and it would be after Election Day. Second, my recorder ran out of memory space, due to an oversight on my part, so I lost a few seconds of one candidate’s answer to the penultimate question, and all of the responses to the final question (essentially, how are you different, and why should we vote for you?). If someone else has audio and wants to offer it, I’ll happily correct the omission.

Come to think of it, a third apology: I was too busy moderating to take photos for this post. Alas. Again, if someone has some good ones to share, let me know.

Details and Housekeeping

The American Fork Council PTA sponsored the debate. Yours truly, David Rodeback, was the moderator. Questions were submitted before and during the debate, and I added a few of my own. Attendance was about 50.

The audio is not of professional quality, but it is usable. I’ve done some noise suppression, adjusted volume levels, and deleted segments of dead air, plus some bits of chatter from, ahem, the moderator. Substantively, the candidates’ answers are unedited.

In the first audio segment — the least important — I explain the format and do some housekeeping.

 

American Fork primary ballot

These are the only two races on my primary ballot, because I’m unaffiliated.

 

Alpine School Board Debate

The primary ballot has three candidates for Alpine School Board, District 3; two will advance to the general election. Each voter gets one vote on the race.

The candidates are Sarah Beeson, Kara Sherman, and ‘Afa K. Palu — with names as printed on my ballot, and in the same order.

Please tell us your name and why you’re running for school board. (Beeson – Sherman – Palu)

 

What experience in your life, professional or otherwise, would you like the voters to consider? (Beeson – Sherman – Palu)

 

What have you done to prepare specifically for service on the Alpine School Board? (Sherman – Palu – Beeson)

 

In education, everyone seems to want something, and certainly there are many needs. How will you balance the needs and wants of parents, students, teachers, administrators, and others? (Palu – Beeson – Sherman)

 

The district has a clear vision for learning. Are you familiar with it, and are you hoping to support it or to change the vision, or somewhere between the two? (Beeson – Sherman – Palu)

 

Is there too much, too little, or about the right amount of federal control of our public schools? (Palu – Sherman – Beeson)
AND
Is there too much, too little, or about the right amount of state control of our public schools? (Palu – Sherman – Beeson)

 

What do you want to accomplish as a member of the school board? List your top two, three, or four priorities.  (Beeson – Palu – Sherman)

 

What should we do better to address the ongoing demographic challenges posed by a steadily growing population over the next ten, twenty, or thirty years? (Sherman – Beeson – Palu)

 

Pick one of these topics and give us your best thoughts:  (Palu – Sherman – Beeson)

  • promoting school safety
  • teacher retention (someone asked specifically about special education teacher retention, if you want to go there)
  • the importance of the arts and humanities in public education

 

What makes you different from your opponents? Why should we vote for you? (Sherman – Beeson – Palu)

.

.

Utah State School Board Debate

The candidates for Utah State School Board, District 9, are — again as listed on my ballot — Kami Alvarez, Joylin Lincoln, Avalie Muhlestein, and Cindy Davis.

Please tell us your name and why you’re running for school board. (Muhlestein – Alvarez – Lincoln – Davis)

 

What experience in your life, professional or otherwise, would you like the voters to consider?  (Muhlestein – Alvarez – Lincoln – Davis)

 

What have you done to prepare specifically for service on the State School Board? (Alvarez – Lincoln – Davis – Muhlestein)

 

Why do we have a state school board? Is it better to have an elected board instead of an appointed board, or just a state superintendent?  (Lincoln – Davis – Muhlestein – Alvarez)
AND
Follow-up: Do you support or oppose making the state school board a partisan election?   (Lincoln – Davis – Muhlestein – Alvarez)

 

Common Core was adopted almost a decade ago and has been controversial ever since. Some love it, some hate it, and the current board said it would cost too much to fix. Would you vote to change it, and if so, how? (Davis – Muhlestein – Alvarez – Lincoln)

 

Should a member of the State School Board work to move control away from the state to the local level? If so, how? (Muhlestein – Alvarez – Lincoln – Davis)

 

What can you do on the state school board to help retain good teachers and to attract good teachers to the state?  (Alvarez – Lincoln – Davis – Muhlestein)
AND
Some school districts in Utah have dramatically increased teacher pay in order to attract and retain teachers. What if anything should the state do to help poorer districts compete for teachers?   (Alvarez – Lincoln – Davis – Muhlestein)

 

(I’m missing a few seconds at the end of Mrs. Muhlestein’s last response, but I’m including what there is. Closing statements are also missing. Again, my apologies — and if someone has decent audio to offer, I’d be pleased to post it.)

Final Thought

We try here to separate information from commentary, and to label the latter clearly. So I’ll soon post my own thoughts in a separate post, focusing on the races in which I get to vote, but also mentioning other (Republican) primary races affecting American Fork.

I’ll say this for now. I liked all these school board candidates, for reasons I’ll explain soon. And I still haven’t decided who gets my vote in either race. But I’m getting there.

To help your own further research, this earlier post has links to additional information about the candidates.

American Fork City Council Debate Audio – October 7, 2017

Here is audio from the October 7, 2017, city council debate in American Fork. The mayoral candidates were not present but sent short statements to be read; they are included below.

This post has just the questions and the audio, with no attempt to summarize responses, no fact checking, and no commentary or analysis. My own thoughts are coming soon, but separately.

If you enjoy disclaimers, go reread the disclaimers from last time we did this together. For the rest of us, on with the show.

Attendance was about 12, not including candidates. That’s unusually low and somewhat disappointing, but we’ll hope for a larger audience watching the video recordings and listening to the audio here. The Chamber of Commerce, which hosted the event, has posted video recording on YouTube. Here also is the Daily Herald‘s report of the event. (Apologies for the unpleasant ad experience there.)

The moderator was Joe Phelon [“FEE-lawn”] Chairman of the Board of the American Fork Chamber of Commerce. Questions came from the audience, and some may have been submitted by email in advance.

All four candidates attended. They were seated in alphabetical order by first name:

  • Barbara Christiansen
  • Jeff Shorter (incumbent)
  • Kyle Barratt
  • Staci Carroll

Josh Walker, Barbara Christiansen, Jeff Shorter, Kyle Barratt, Staci Carroll

Josh Walker (Chamber of Commerce), Barbara Christiansen, Jeff Shorter, Kyle Barratt, Staci Carroll

Continue reading

Now Available: July 29 Candidate Audio and David’s Commentary

Audio

I’ve just published four posts here which may interest American Fork voters. Two (one for each race) have audio from the July 29 meet-the-candidates event, divided by question or statement, with a bit of discussion but no opinion from me. Some folks like it that way, and that’s okay. The audio isn’t professional, but I hope you’ll find it adequate.

While we’re at it, here’s a link to the American Fork Chamber of Commerce’s video recording of the event, just posted today.

Opinion

The other two posts contain my summaries of candidate responses, my recommendations, and — especially in the case of the mayoral debate — my candid commentary about what we heard. One of the mayoral candidates consistently fares poorly in that analysis. If that sort of thing bugs you, you’ll understand why I put my opinions in separate posts — so you can avoid them. For what it’s worth, my thoughts on the city council race are much happier. It’s a very strong field.

So read these if you wish, but you’ve been warned:

Here are two final thoughts, lifted from my city council notes.

Whatever you may think of Washington, DC, these days, we’re a long way from there. We have every opportunity to be well-governed in American Fork. I’m not sure that choice was even on our ballot last November.

We owe all our candidates and their families a debt of gratitude for the effort and sacrifice required to run for office, let alone serve if elected. One way to show that gratitude would be to vote in larger numbers than usually turn out for a local primary — especially if we have learned before we vote.

Thanks for reading. Comments are always welcome, within the usual bounds of civility and readability.

American Fork – Primary – City Council Candidates Audio

Here’s the audio I recorded from the city council candidates’ portion of Saturday’s meet-the-candidates event at the American Fork Hospital. But first, some disclaimers and housekeeping.

The audio isn’t professional. You get what you get from my little Sony voice recorder. I used Audacity for dynamic range compression, noise suppression, and enhancing the audio of candidates who spoke much more softly into the microphone than others. The photos aren’t professional either.

I’ve split the audio into sections, by question, etc., 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 mayoral candidates‘ portion of the event is in a separate blog post, and the American Fork Chamber of Commerce, which hosted the event, has posted video recording on YouTube. Here also is the Daily Herald‘s report of the event. (Apologies for the unpleasant ad experience there.)

Six of eight candidates who filed were present. In seating order:

  • Barbara Christiansen
  • Staci Carroll
  • Kyle Barratt
  • Doug Richards
  • Jeff Shorter (incumbent)
  • Ernie John

Continue reading

American Fork – Primary – Mayoral Candidates Audio

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. Continue reading

Meet the American Fork City Council Candidates (Parts 9-12)

On Saturday morning State Auditor John Dougall moderated a meet-the-candidates event at American Fork Hospital. It was part of their Pancakes and Politics series, which is sponsored by the American Fork Chamber of Commerce.

Kevin Barnes

Kevin Barnes

No one in the area has more credibility in the moderator’s role than John Dougall. And the free breakfast was good too. About 40 people attended, not counting the candidates and the moderator. The audience was noticeably older than Wednesday evening’s.

The format was a bit different from Wednesday evening, and some of the questions seemed a bit redundant, but there was more discussion of some key issues, as well as some treatment of issues which didn’t arise on Wednesday evening.

All four candidates were there: incumbents Brad Frost and Rob Shelton, and challengers Allen Simpson and Kevin Barnes.

My audio recording of this event is not of professional quality (that’s no surprise), and there’s a fair amount of background noise. But it’s easy to follow. I’ve broken it up into four segments of about 20 minutes each. For each segment, I’ll list the topics and the order in which the candidates responded.

First Segment

Audio link: 2015_Saturday_1

Brad Frost

Councilman Brad Frost

Opening Statements (3 minutes each; Frost – Shelton – Simpson – Barnes)

  • Brad Frost: “Let me see the facts, and I will make a decision.”
  • Robert Shelton: “We were able to find over the last three years $1.8 million in budget cuts. . . . We were able to do more with less.”
  • Allen Simpson: “I’ve been successful at leading teams of people who were not used to following.”
  • Kevin Barnes: “I’m not mad at anybody. I’m not after anybody’s throat. I just want to serve.”

Questions (one-minute responses):

  • water rates (Shelton – Simpson – Barnes – Frost)
  • experience (Simpson – Barnes – Frost – Shelton)
  • more experience (Barnes – Frost – Shelton – Simpson)

Second Segment

Audio link: 2015_Saturday_2

Questions:

  • property and sales taxes, tax cuts (Frost – Shelton – Simpson – Barnes)
  • developers vs. residents (Shelton – Simpson – Barnes – Frost)
  • why running, what do you what to accomplish (Simpson – Barnes – Frost – Shelton)
  • top two priorities for City’s limited resources (Barnes – Frost – Shelton – Simpson)

Third Segment

Allen Simpson

Allen Simpson

Audio link: 2015_Saturday_3

Questions:

  • police questioning of people who haven’t broken the law (Frost – Shelton – Simpson – Barnes)
  • the study saying American Fork is the 4th or 5th most-taxes city in Utah (Shelton – Simpson – Barnes – Frost)
  • areas of City government that need changes (Simpson – Barnes – Frost – Shelton)
  • roads (Barnes – Frost – Shelton – Simpson)

Fourth Segment

Rob Shelton

Councilman Rob Shelton

Audio link: 2015_Saturday_4

Questions:

  • building department (Frost – Shelton – Simpson – Barnes)
  • what to cut in the budget (Shelton – Simpson – Barnes – Frost)
  • off-street parking and snow removal (Simpson – Barnes – Frost – Shelton)

Closing Statements (two minutes each; Barnes – Frost – Shelton – Simpson)

You may also enjoy notes and audio from the Wednesday evening candidates event.

Meet the American Fork City Council Candidates (Part 8)

Link

Here’s a link to audio of candidates’ one-minute closing statements at last Wednesday evening’s meet-the-candidate event at American Fork Library:

2015_Wednesday_8

Closing Statements (in summary)

Kevin Barnes

Councilman Brad Frost after the October 21, 2015, meet-the-candidates event at American Fork High School.

Kevin Barnes: We’ve talked about a lot of things tonight, and talked a lot about money. When you go to vote, look at the person. What’s their experience? How do they work with other people? Are they willing to work with others as a team to solve problems? We are not dictators. We are public servants.

Rob Shelton: Look for a candidate who can get things done. My track record is, I get things done. It takes a lot of work. Make sure you look for individuals who will roll up their sleeves and get to work, and get results.

Brad Frost: I care about the city. I love hard work. I go looking for it. I’ve enjoyed getting to know new people and things. I see the whole city and the delicate balance that’s needed. I’ll give my time to make sure the city moves forward.

Allen Simpson: When I got married last year, I realized how important fiscal responsibility is. I never give up, and I am really, really, really good at finding solutions.

[Closing remarks by Kelly Smith follow.]

Here’s a link [forthcoming] to the first segment of Saturday’s meet-the-candidates event.

« Older posts