Category: 2015 City Council Election (Page 2 of 2)

Kevin Barnes American Fork — Councilman Kevin Barnes

Meet the American Fork City Council Candidates (Part 7)

10/28/2015 / David Rodeback

Link

Here’s a link to audio of a few questions and candidate responses at last Wednesday evening’s meet-the-candidate event at American Fork Library:

In this segment, each candidate asked a question of the other three candidates. The questioner had one minute to ask the question and offer his own comments. The other candidates had one minute each to respond.

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Questions and Responses in this Segment

Candidate Kevin Barnes after the October 21, 2015, meet-the-candidates event at American Fork High School.

Question by Kevin Barnes: How do you feel about quality of life issues being funded by taxes and the City budget (e.g. a swimming pool, a library, and a golf course)?

Kevin Barnes: I’m in favor of them. They usually don’t pay for themselves; they take some tax money. But I think these things are part of what makes American Fork American Fork.
Rob Shelton: Most of them have been voted on by the residents, such as the recreation center, the library. Even though they’re funding by the City, it’s important that they be accountable. Recently the rec center has taken less City funds, and the new head librarian is getting grants to supplement the budget.
Brad Frost: What Rob said. I live here because I love it. I could live in rural Utah where I have none of these things, but I live here in part because of the fun I have here. These programs are a real benefit to residents, and they help to attract businesses. You do have to be wise, prudent, and balanced.
Allen Simpson: I love the pool. I love the rate that I pay. My concerns about buying and paying for these are ameliorated when the citizens vote on them. I like the quality of life in American Fork.

Question by Rob Shelton: How do you plan to be able to work with the members of the council, when you’re only one vote, to accomplish the good of the community and serve the people?

Brad Frost: You become a part of a team, with the mayor, the City staff, and the residents. It’s important not to isolate yourself as a councilman, and come in with accusations and bullish opinions. You’d better learn how to work with other people. Dale Gunther taught us, when we disagree, as soon as it’s over, we shake hands. Some on our council can’t do that.
Allen Simpson: Every councilman has a vision for the city. I’ve admired that. Each current councilman has communicated with me. I have a history of working well with people.
Kevin Barnes:The key is being able to work together. I get along with people. I can listen. I don’t have my mind made up on every issue. I need to learn some things; that’s part of this job. It’s not always easy to stand up and make a decision, but that’s what council members are paid for.

Question by Brad Frost: Our economy is strong, at least in Utah, and a lot of development, commercial and residential, is coming. It’s important to understand your role in development, how to facilitate it, how to encourage good development. How would your experience be an asset with the new development that’s coming to the city?

Allen Simpson: I don’t have experience as a developer. But experience in the insurance industry helps. I’ve been very good at knowing who to look to for advice. That’s where I would have to go.
Kevin Barnes: I served on the Planning Commission, where projects start and have to be approved according to the rules of the City. My experience of life includes seeing a lot of development in American Fork.
Rob Shelton: I work with investments, including quite a bit of work with developments. This was valuable when Dick’s Sporting Goods came to town and wanted to negotiate. We’re also getting the only Field and Stream west of the Mississippi. I served for eight years on the Board of Adjustments, solving development problems.

Question by Allen Simpson: My first three questions were taking. We need more involvement. How would you increase citizen involvement?

Kevin Barnes: We need to use volunteer whenever we can. The mayor is always urging Scouts who attend council meetings to come to the City when it’s time for their Eagle projects. We need to continue to encourage public involvement. We have a lot of volunteers.
Rob Shelton: I wanted to do just that, three years ago. I wanted to broadcast city council meetings online. We did that for the first time last week. Our council packets, the City budget, and other documents are now available online. We need to be out in the community, listening to residents’ concerns.
Brad Frost: “I believe that most people in the city look at their leaders, and if they feel comfortable with them, they tend to disengage.” We have a lot of volunteers — the Steel Days Committee, youth, etc. But when it comes to the nuts and bolts, like the budget, “we have crickets in the room.” (Nobody’s there.) We need to continue to encourage people to get involved.

Here’s a link to the last segment.

Meet the American Fork City Council Candidates (Part 6)

10/28/2015 / David Rodeback

Link

Here’s a link to audio of a few questions and candidate responses at last Wednesday evening’s meet-the-candidate event at American Fork Library: These questions were submitted by residents attending the event.

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Questions in this Segment

What level of debt is healthy for our city? Are we there? If not, how do we get there? (Order: Frost – Simpson – Barnes – Shelton.)
Why does the City not have a justice court? We give all the money it would generate to the state circuit court. (Order: Simpson – Barnes – Shelton – Frost.)

Notes

Each candidate had one minute for each response. Note the response order above with each question, because candidates aren’t named before every response.

Highlights

Candidate Allen Simpson after the October 21, 2015, meet-the-candidates event at American Fork High School.

Brad Frost says the proper debt level is up to the residents, but having no debt is unrealistic, and it’s illegal to save so much money that we don’t have to bond for anything. A justice court is premature. But “the last thing you ever want your citizens to think is that you’re making money off their speeding tickets.” He thinks an American Fork justice court is three to five years away.

Allen Simpson said the proper level of debt is up to the citizens. He didn’t have an answer about a justice court.

Kevin Barnes said out debt ratio is not out of line. We’re not upside down. He explained the difference between revenue debt (paid for when services are delivered) and general debt (paid for from general funds). He didn’t have an answer about a justice court.

Rob Shelton said Orem is looking at a 101% water rate increase. Pleasant Grove is also looking at an increase, and Lehi had a water crisis two years ago. We shouldn’t use debt the way the federal government does, but debt has its uses, and the residents need to decide the big stuff. He explained that we get about 6 percent of the revenue from a traffic ticket, without a justice court. Finding a venue is difficult; in 2018 some space will be available, so that would be a good time to institute one.

Here’s a link to the next segment.

Meet the American Fork City Council Candidates (Part 5)

10/28/2015 / David Rodeback

Link

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Questions in this Segment

How can American Fork protect its interests in American Fork Canyon? (Order: Simpson – Barnes – Shelton – Frost.)
What do you think about Proposition 1? (Order: Barnes – Shelton – Frost – Simpson.)
Why are water rates so high? Is there something the City can do to reduce them? (Order: Shelton – Frost – Simpson – Barnes)

Notes

Each candidate had one minute for each response. Note the response order above with each question, because candidates aren’t named before every response.

Highlights

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

Allen Simpson said, about the canyon, talk to the county commissioners, then talk to Councilman Frost. He talked about UTA’s large debt load and bad fiscal management. He thinks the whole point of Prop 1 is to get money for UTA. He likes the way UDOT handles the roads, though. He will vote no on Prop 1. He claimed that water rates are outdated, that there’s a million-dollar surplus, and the City chosen to make the rates keep rising “when they don’t need to.” (This got applause from Councilman Carlton Bowen in the audience, which was out of order.)

[Again, this seems like a good time to point out that I’m reporting and summarizing what they said here, not asserting that it is true.]

Kevin Barnes said that when the canyon discussions started, we didn’t have a seat at the table, even though the canyon bears our name. Now we’re involved, and “the whole city needs to thank Brad for that.” Roads are the good part of Prop 1; it bothers him that UTA gets 40% of the revenues from the proposed sales tax increment. The more he learns, the more he leans against Prop 1. He would like the legislature to rewrite the law so UTA gets less. The water system should have been done a long time ago, but wasn’t, so we have to do it now. We still have to manage funds carefully, but “it’s not always as easy as some people make it seem.”

Rob Shelton praised Councilman Frost for shouldering the burden of the canyon. We cooperated with other cities. As to Prop 1, a lot of legislators in Salt Lake County wanted to make sure Utah County was committed to UTA. He would like two separate bills, one for roads and one for UTA. Sometimes we don’t get much back from these statewide sales tax initiatives; he’s like a more local solution. In part, water rates are so high because the impact fees it was hoped would pay for the pressurized irrigation system dries up when the economy declined. He talked about some very old culinary water pipes being replaced recently; “we got our money’s worth from that pipe.”

Brad Frost said we’ve put a lot of time into the canyon development questions. The county has jurisdiction over development. “We used a small hammer . . . Finally we had to use a sledgehammer” to prevent land trades negotiated by Salt Lake County. The city council voted down a resolution the county wanted, supporting Prop 1. He’s not satisfied that UTA will do anything with the money to help American Fork. He’s voting no on Prop 1. As to water rates, he talked about some unexpected (but necessary) investments in infrastructure and the cost of pressurized irrigation.

Here’s a link to the next segment.

Meet the American Fork City Council Candidates (Part 4)

10/28/2015 / David Rodeback

Link

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Questions in this Segment

Do you support mass transit generally? What can the City do to get bus service to and from our Frontrunner station? (Order: Frost – Shelton – Barnes – Simpson.)
Please comment on the level of fire protection in the city. Is it adequate? Is there more we should be doing? (Order: Simpson – Frost – Shelton – Barnes.)

Notes

Each candidate had one minute for each response. Note the response order above with each question, because candidates aren’t named before every response.

Highlights

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

Brad Frost said he supports mass transit but doesn’t use it. Frontrunner is full and thriving; the buses are less so. He wishes UTA managed their funds better. He is comfortable with the current state of fire protection, after we transitioned from volunteer to professional firefighters. We will need a satellite fire station in the northeast part of American Fork soon.

Rob Shelton is on a regional committee looking ahead to plan transit. By 2040 our population will outgrow our freeway system. He wishes UTA managed funds better. We bought a new fire engine in the last four years; the one it replaced was made in the 1970s. He had a fun anecdote about trying to cut an old fire hose with the jaws of life. Recently, to save money, the City contracted with Gold Cross Ambulance for some services.

Kevin Barnes wished UTA managed funds better. He likes the crowded trains but has never ridden Frontrunner or a UTA bus. It doesn’t meet his transit needs. He talked about the importance of a good fire department rating to keep insurance premiums low. Currently, the city has a good rating, which keeps homeowners insurance rates down.

Allen Simpson rides UTA regularly. It is “severely underutilitized” and manages funds badly. The buses he rides are almost empty. It’s really hard to have to accommodate bus schedules instead of having the freedom of a car. He had no answer for the fire protection question, but offered to find out.

Here’s a link to the next segment.

Meet the American Fork City Council Candidates (Part 3)

10/28/2015 / David Rodeback

Link

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Questions in this Segment

What would you cut in the current budget to increase road funding? (Order: Barnes – Simpson – Frost – Shelton.)
What will you do to help fix our neglected streets and sidewalks, especially in the older part of the city? (Order: Simpson – Frost – Shelton – Barnes.)
Lehi is doing a great job of attracting major new businesses. How can American Fork do better? (Order: Shelton – Barnes – Simpson – Frost)

Notes

Each candidate had one minute for each response. Note the response order above with each question, because candidates aren’t named before every response.

Highlights

Candidate Kevin Barnes after the October 21, 2015, meet-the-candidates event at American Fork High School.

Kevin Barnes hasn’t studied the budget enough to know where there are cuts big enough to make a difference. He’s heard a lot of opinions, but the numbers are too small to make an impact. He spoke of living together in a community and reaching a consensus as to spending. We have to keep maintaining the roads, but also everything else the City has to do — police, fire, water, sewer. Other cities think they have the worst roads, too. American Fork is attracting the right kind of businesses.

Allen Simpson talked in general terms about the budget process but declined to identify specific cuts. We’re going to have to spend some money we haven’t spent yet on roads. Maintaining roads properly reduces long-term costs. We have to decide how much money we’re willing to spend on them (but he offered no opinion of his own). A resident recently told him that her son discovered that everyday purchases are a little more expensive in American Fork than in other communities.

Brad Frost said he wouldn’t cut anything, “because I would have already.” He said the council’s priority has been infrastructure — roads and the utilities under them. He said the 2013 road bond vote gave the City clear direction not to borrow for roads, but to pay as we go. That will take a lot of patience, including with such things as maintaining major streets and not rebuilding cul-de-sacs. The City used property it already owned to expand the cemetery, rather than buying property. 300 jobs are coming at an oil company at the south end; CVS is coming. American Fork has a great model for economic growth and a great location.

Rob Shelton said he’d cut the City’s phone bill in half. Some employees have the City paying for both a land line and a cell phone for them. The City’s phone system is antiquated. Also, accepting credit card payments without charging a convenience fee to defray credit card processing fees costs the City over $80,000 per year in convenience fees. We need to decide if that’s worth the price. He identified some road projects the CIty has done itself, more cheaply, instead of using contractors. He’s very analytical and likes to roll up his sleeves. He listed some businesses that were looking at leaving American Fork to expand, but decided to stay, and noted that businesses are moving from Lehi to American Fork, because American Fork has planned better for growth and has grown more slowly. “I think we’re very competitive with Lehi.”

Here’s a link to the next segment.

Meet the American Fork City Council Candidates (Part 2)

10/28/2015 / David Rodeback

Link

Here’s a link to audio of the first candidate segment of last Wednesday evening’s meet-the-candidate event at American Fork Library:

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Questions in this Segment

Who are you, and why do you want to be on the American Fork City Council? (Order: Frost – Shelton – Barnes – Simpson.)
What service to the City or other experience makes you well qualified to serve on the city council? (Order: Shelton – Barnes – Simpson – Frost.)
Lots of candidates and officials say they’re for lower taxes, but what is the proper level of city taxes for residents? Is it more or less than we’re presently taxed, or about the same? (Order: Barnes – Simpson – Frost – Shelton)

Notes

Each candidate had one minute for each response. Note the response order above with each question, because candidates aren’t named before every response.

Highlights

Brad Frost is a lifelong resident of American Fork, who wants to give back. In his first four years he’s seen how complex an operation the city government is. There are projects he’d like to see through to completion, like the planned Memorial Garden at the cemetery. He wants to see American Fork prosper, and he works hard to monitor and advance the city’s image. He runs a business, is a blue collar guy. He’s a good listener. He listens to people’s problems large and small, then goes to work for them.

Rob Shelton has learned in his first four years how hard it is for one person to change the City, but he ran for office because he thought he could help, especially with his financial expertise. You need a good relationship with other city councilors to be effective. The City has managed to cut costs and reallocate resources (preventing tax increases) in many ways in recent years. He’s always been involved in the community, from coaching soccer to serving on the library board and the Utah Valley Policy Committee.

Kevin Barnes has lived in American Fork since 1979 and raised his children here. He doesn’t have a particular agenda or an ax to grind. He just wants to serve. He’s been very involved in the community, including serving in Scouting and on the American Fork Planning Commission.

Allen Simpson moved to American Fork 20 years ago and says he’s been attending city council meetings every since. He said, “I can’t complain if I don’t come.” His specialty is risk and finance, and he believes his views on these subjects would be a big help to the city. He has been active in his political party, volunteers at the library, and serves on the American Fork Arts Council.

American Fork City Council candidate Allen Simpson after October 21, 2013, meet-the-candidates event

Kevin Barnes says the proper level of taxation in the city depends on what the people want. A number of people during the campaign have told him they voted against the road bond issue two years ago and now regret that vote. They’d much rather be paying a little more money and have better roads. Small city government is about taking care of basic needs, fire, police, water, sewer, roads. He thinks our level of taxation is about right for what we get.

Allen Simpson says we have enough money. Says budget has increased $10 million in the past few years; we have enough money. Our roads have actually had a $450 million cut. [Councilman Shelton later corrected him; that’s several times more than the whole city budget, $59 million. Simpson said he meant $450,000.] So where did that new $10 million go, if we didn’t spend it on the roads?

[This is a good time to point out that for the moment I’m just reporting what they said, not evaluating the accuracy of it. — DR ]

Brad Frost looks through this lens: He thinks of people on fixed incomes, but he also thinks of our children and grandchildren. If we put some things off that we should do now, it will cost them a lot more later. A balance is needed.

Rob Shelton says in the past four years the City has made $1.8 million in cuts and reallocated those funds to other needs, such as two new detectives devoted to drug cases. We need to continue to look for ways to be more efficient with the resources we have.

Here’s a link to the next segment.

Do American Forkers Really Have the 4th or 5th Highest City Taxes in Utah?

10/28/2015 / David Rodeback

The short answer is no.

Yes, there’s a study that came out this summer, saying that the municipal tax burden on American Fork residents is the fourth or fifth highest in Utah. It used two different methodologies, which is why there are two different answers. Yes, AFCitizens and candidate Allen Simpson are passing out fliers around town touting that study.

But no, the study’s methodology is fatally flawed. And no, it’s not hard to explain.

In this section of the AFCitizens flier Allen Simpson is distributing, the thought bubble cites the bad study.

The study calculated the tax burden on residents of various cities by adding the total property and sales tax revenues in the city, then dividing that amount by the number of residents in the city. See the problem? Among other things, it assumes that the bulk of sales tax revenue collected in American Fork is paid by residents of American Fork. A little common sense should be enough to make us reject those results. Why it wasn’t enough to make the folks who are quoting it in the current city council campaign reject the study is a fair question.

I’ve talked with American Fork City and Utah State officials, and none of them knows of a credible recent study of these things, but it is widely estimated that well more than half of the sales tax revenue collected in American Fork comes from shoppers who live elsewhere. The City’s largest single source of sales tax revenue, a large auto dealership — which collects customer addresses — has reported that about 90 percent of the sales tax it collects in American Fork comes from nonresidents.

This means at least two things: The study has grossly overreported American Fork residents’ tax burden. — unless, of course, you believe that American Forkers pay as much sales tax in other cities as nonresidents pay in ours. And the candidate who is passing out the flier, Allen Simpson, either doesn’t care about the facts (because the falsehood serves his political purposes) or is not disposed to dive deeply enough into them to understand them. Either way, we have here a temperament that may be poorly suited to service on the city council.

And this isn’t even one of the hard ones.

If you have a few minutes, read the study yourself, and decide for yourself. It’s a lot longer than this post, but it’s still not long.

There’s another problem with this part of the AFCitizens flier. It’s more technical. They’re mixing numbers from two studies — adding them together — and we have no way of knowing (did they check?) whether the two studies used compatible methodologies, similar definitions, the same time frame, etc. This is almost certain to lead to unreliable results.

I agree that some things are more costly in American Fork than they should be — water rates, for one thing. We’ll talk about those, and one faction’s misrepresentation of them, very soon.

Oh, and one more thing. If you’re so inclined, please post this graphic on Facebook or link to it on Twitter. Or e-mail it to your friends in American Fork. Or all of the above.

Help us spread the word. Because good people with bad data make bad decisions.

Learn before you vote.

Meet the American Fork City Council Candidates (Part 1)

10/28/2015 / David Rodeback

This is the first in a rapid series of posts with audio and notes on what the candidates said at two recent meet-the-candidates events in American Fork. The city council candidates, that is: Rob Shelton, Brad Frost, Kevin Barnes, and Allen Simpson.

We have 90 minutes of audio from the first event (after the Pledge of Allegiance and some of the housekeeping chatter is removed). We’ve broken that into eight pieces. For each piece, we’ll tell you what questions were asked (if there were questions in that segment), and in which order the candidates responded.

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

The first event was Wednesday, October 21, at 7:00 p.m. at American Fork High School. Sponsors were the American Fork PTA Council, led by Kelly Smith, and the American Fork Youth City Council. The Media Center (a library by another other name . . .) is a great place for such events. The turnout was moderate, about 45 people, not counting candidates and about eight people who staffed the event.

I was one of the question screeners, helping to combine related questions, rewrite illegible questions, condense long questions, and reject irrelevant and wing-nut questions. (My favorite of the latter asked how many of the ten points of the Communist Manifesto each candidate supports. I did graduate work in political theory and studied communism under card-carrying members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, among others, and I can’t list all ten off the top of my head. And the question is usually a setup for wingnuttery. And we had real work to do.)

There were several young children in the audience, which was excellent. Everyone was well behaved, with the lone exception of Councilman Carlton Bowen, who is not known for his decorum in official settings, and who isn’t up for reelection until 2017. He quite deliberately applauded his pet candidate once in the middle of a statement, even though we asked the audience to hold their applause until the end of each half of the event. What the actual children (and everyone else) in the audience managed not to do at all, at least he only did once.

Overall, the audience’s questions were relevant, and they touched on many issues.

The candidates did an uncommonly good job sticking to their time limits.

To get us started, here’s a short MP3 audio clip in which host Kelly Smith welcomes the candidates and audience and explains the format of the evening. Link to Wednesday Audio 1.

Here’s a link to the next segment, which has actual candidates.

AFelection.info: Who We Are, What We Want, and What We’ll Be Doing

10/28/2015 / David Rodeback

We realize this isn’t what everyone does in politics, but if you’re going to read the information and analysis you find here at afelection.info, we want you to know who we are, what we want, and what we’ll be doing here, so you can evaluate it properly.

Who We Are

We are David Rodeback, who’s doing most or all of the writing; and Rod Martin, who paid for the signs you’ll probably see around town, which say “Learn BEFORE you vote – afelection.info,” and who weighs in on the content and approach of these posts, among other things. Several other helpful folks have provided facts, opinions, and encouragement.

We are not affiliated with or funded by any candidate or campaign. No candidate approves what we post here. Some candidates may like it, but probably not all of them.

What We Want

What we want is simple: good local government. We think this depends on blowing away the chaff — the deception and misinformation which sometimes spreads systematically about key issues — and electing the best available candidates to the American Fork City Council and as as Mayor of American Fork.

For example, in the 2015 election cycle we want you to be able to evaluate the truth and accuracy of a report that American Fork residents have the fourth or fifth highest tax municipal tax burden in Utah. The study is fatally flawed, and the flaw is pretty obvious, but one PAC doesn’t care, and one candidate is passing around their fliers. We won’t just explain; we’ll give you a link to the study, so you can check it yourself.

When you see a graph showing (but carefully not actually saying) that American Fork has the highest property tax rate among cities in Utah County, we want you to know the full picture before you vote — because good people with bad information make bad decisions. We want you to realize that they left cities with higher rates off the graph. We’ll leave it to you to wonder why. We ‘ll give you a link to official documents with the needed information.

When they complain that water rates are unnecessarily high and blame this on the incumbents, we want you to understand the truth, which is . . . well, different.

And if you just feel like you don’t know the candidates very well, we’ll give you bite-size audio chunks of the candidates answering questions at public meet-the-candidates events. We won’t hide any of the audio — though we’ll delete some of the housekeeping, the Pledge of Allegiance, and so on. We’ll provide some notes to help you keep track of what’s going on in each chunk, such as a list of questions and the order in which the candidates answered each question.

What You Can Do

Learn before you vote. Then vote as you think best. (If you voted early, we’ll assume you knew the candidates already, at least well enough to pick three of the four with confidence. But you’re still welcome here.)

You have the opportunity to comment on virtually anything at this site. Comments are moderated to avoid spam, but you don’t have to agree with anything here to have your comment approved. You just have to be civil and relevant — and the test for relevancy is pretty generous.

If you like what you find here — or just want to discuss it more widely — please post links on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. We’ll give you some graphics to help with that.

Back to Where We Started

If you want more chatter from the same people, David Rodeback’s old blog about politics and everything else is still at LocalCommentary.com. He blogs occasionally about politics and government (not specific to American Fork) at FreedomHabit.com and about books, writing, religion, and other topics — also occasionally — at BendableLight.com.

Or drop by Rod Martin’s business, World Class Auto Repair, on Main Street in American Fork.

City Council Candidate Contact Information

10/25/2015 / David Rodeback

4 Candidates, 3 Seats

On November 3 we’ll be choosing three candidates to serve four-year terms on the American Fork City Council. Each voter may vote for up to three on the ballot, and the three with the highest vote counts win. There is no districting in this race; all candidates run citywide.

There is no substitute, in terms of conscientious voting, for personal contact with local candidates. Here are the candidates, with the contact information I have for each. (If I’m missing something, please let me know, and I’ll add it ASAP.) They’re in alphabetical order by last name, not necessarily in the order of my preference.

Kevin J. Barnes