Tag: American Fork (Page 5 of 11)

American Fork Ballot: Fire Station Bond Issue

11/02/2019 / David Rodeback

One of the items on American Fork voters’ ballots right now is the question of approving a general bond issue in an amount up to $8.5 million, to purchase land for a new fire station in the northeast quadrant of the city, to build that station, and to purchase land for a third fire station on the south side while land prices are still only very high, so we don’t have to buy land later, when we’re ready to build and the prices are truly ridiculous.

I’ve had my eye on this issue since before it was publicly announced, but I’ve spent my limited blogging and politics time on other things, including the city council race and a proposal that isn’t on the election ballot, to fund and build a citywide fiber optic utility.

The fiber proposal is understandably controversial, and it’s complex enough, with enough different interests and considerations needing to be balanced, that I’ve said publicly more than once that it’s “not a no-brainer.”

By contrast, the fire station bond is very nearly a no-brainer. I’ll summarize my thoughts about it here, point you to some other sources which are doing a nice job publicizing the matter, and finally, at the end, geek out a little on the ballot language for this proposal, which may be the most-read material on the subject but is hardly transparent.

Fiber for American Fork, Part 5: Mid-October Update

10/23/2019 / David Rodeback

The American Fork City Council continues to weigh the proposal to create a new utility to extend fiber optic connectivity to every residence and business in American Fork. I’ve spoken with members of the city council and others about it in the last couple of week, some briefly and some at greater length. Without presuming to speak in detail for any of them, I thought I might offer a more general update.

John Mulholland Interviews 2019 American Fork City Council Candidates

10/19/2019 / John Mulholland

It is time again in our two-year cycle for city council elections. This time we have 5 candidates, 3 of which are incumbents, running for 3 seats. There are some important issues including fiber, roads, and PARC tax oversight.

Fiber for American Fork, Part 4: Why Not UTOPIA?

10/01/2019 / David Rodeback

UTOPIA Comes Calling

In the early weeks of 2019 the Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA) approached American Fork City officials with an invitation for American Fork to join UTOPIA. The City weighed the offer and declined — but that set some other things in motion.

City leaders began to assemble legal, financial, and technical experts with experience in similar projects around the United States and beyond. Essentially their question was, Is there something better we could do to position American Fork for the future?

Fiber for American Fork: My Statement at the Hearing

09/25/2019 / David Rodeback

Introductory Chatter

I’ve been so busy with work that I almost forgot about last night’s hearing before the regular American Fork City Council meeting, about the possibility of bonding to build a citywide fiber optic utility. (LightHub Fiber is the name to remember.) Someone mentioned it the night before, or I’d have missed it.

I thought I should put in my two minutes’ worth, since that’s how much time each person is allotted. I was one of eight who spoke. Five were in favor of the proposed utility. Three were opposed, including a controversial Kaysville city councilman, Dave Adams, the only one who had to be reminded of the time limit.

I expected that other proponents would speak about the benefits, but I’ve said quite a bit about those already, so I decided to go in another direction. Perhaps it was an unusual direction. Kinda felt that way.

Fiber for American Fork, Part 3: Responses to 22 Concerns and Objections

09/12/2019 / David Rodeback

This is the third of my planned blog posts about a proposal the American Fork City Council is studying to extend fiber optic connectivity to every residence and business in American Fork as a utility. It’s not on the November ballot, but incumbent candidates will cast key votes as city council members.

The first post gave a quick overview and also mentioned my service on an ad hoc mayoral task force, which examined the proposal deeply from several angles and reported recommendations and concerns to the American Fork City Council. The second post listed several key benefits we can anticipate, if we build the system.

We all come to matters of local, state, and national government from different perspectives. While I favor the proposal and believe the City can execute well enough in this case, it’s possible for intelligent, well-meaning people (among others) to disagree.

I’ve been collecting reasons people have cited for opposing the project. Here I’ll list that collection, add a few more I haven’t heard yet but probably will, and tell you briefly what I think of each. Some are better than others.

Fiber for American Fork, Part 2: Anticipated Benefits

09/04/2019 / David Rodeback

This is the second of several planned blog posts about a proposal the American Fork City Council is considering to extend fiber optic connectivity to every residence and business in American Fork as a utility. You can find a more detailed description of the proposal itself in the previous post, where I also explain my head start in knowing about the proposal.

Before we go further, I should interrupt for an apology. I hoped to post this before I left for Lake Tahoe (hence the photo) for a week at the end of July. Now it’s not even August any more, and I’m finally posting it. Sorry about that.

This post explores the expected benefits to residents, businesses, and the City itself, if we build the fiber system. This is one important angle from which to view the proposal. Another will follow in the next post: good and bad reasons for opposing it.

Fiber for American Fork, Part 1: What’s Proposed

07/16/2019 / David Rodeback

(And Who Am I to Write About It?)

American Fork, Utah, is considering establishing fiber optic service to every residence and business in the city as a public utility, as permitted by Utah Code 10-8-14. Here we’ll discuss the proposal itself, and I’ll tell you how I learned enough to write about it. (Teaser: I got a head start.) Later posts will address specific issues in more detail and attempt to answer related questions.

This proposal will not be a measure on the November ballot, though candidates may make it an issue in the 2019 municipal election. The city council will hold a preliminary vote, probably in mid-August, to put some things in place for a final city council vote in mid-November.

The August vote will not be whether to build the system or not. The November vote is the big one.

In the meantime, several public information meetings will be held — one already has been — to explain the proposal and answer questions (of which more soon).

The Fiber Proposal

Under the proposal, each residence in the city will pay a monthly fee as part of its utility bill. No additional fee will be required for basic service. The numbers in discussions I’ve attended have ranged from about $9.00 per month to about $12.00 per month for each residence. Flyers at the first public information meeting said $9.95 per month, but that’s still tentative.

Each business will also have a monthly fee, again on the City utility bill. The same flyers at the same meeting projected that at $19.95.

The current plan involves no installation or setup fee.

2019 American Fork City Council Candidates

07/05/2019 / David Rodeback

There are six American Fork City Council candidates in the 2019 election, running for three seats. Terms are four years.

Since there’s no need for a primary election to narrow the field to two candidates per available seat, we’ll have only the general election on Tuesday, November 5. So even though the filing period closed four weeks ago, we haven’t seen much election activity. Things will probably heat up around Labor Day, unless a certain new issue gets more traction with candidates before then.

Clark Taylor Joins American Fork City Council

02/14/2018 / David Rodeback

On January 9 the American Fork City Council appointed Clark Taylor to fill the vacancy Brad Frost left on the council when he was sworn in as mayor the previous week, after winning in the November election. Frost was two years into his second term on the council, so the appointment is for the remaining two years of that four-year term.

Utah law provides for the council to fill such a vacancy. The City announced the vacancy in December, took applications until January 5, then heard from each applicant in the January 9 meeting, before choosing Taylor unanimously on the first ballot.

The other applicants were:

Jeff Shorter, who lost in the November general election, running as a one-term incumbent;
Kyle Barratt, who lost in the November general election;
George Brown, who served on the council several terms ago and has since run unsuccessfully for mayor;
Ernie John, who lost in the 2017 primary;
Bruce Frandsen
Amber Marstella
Charelle Lyon

If you’d like to examine the applications, they’re publicly available and pages 4-29 of this PDF file, which includes the meeting agenda and the council members’ packet of information for the meeting. They include written responses to several questions. To see the candidates’ statements to the council in their meeting, a long and avoidable discussion of the voting process, and the vote itself, turn to the City’s YouTube channel for video of the meeting. (The agenda, which is at the beginning of the packet at the previous link, will help you navigate the video.)

I don’t know how much back-channel discussion went on among council members in the days prior to the vote, or what additional contact any of them might have had with applicants or with Mayor Frost. (There’s no reason for it not to have occurred, but anything involving at least three of them at a time would have to have been noticed in advance and treated as a public meeting.) I didn’t speak about the process or the vote on the record with any of the council; nor did I speak with the candidates themselves. Nor, for that matter, am I acquainted with all of them. However, I thought the result was predictable.

Clark Taylor has served on the council twice before, as recently as two years ago, and is known to be a workhorse and to work well with others. His name has been tossed about in the past as a strong potential mayoral candidate. Such a congenial, energetic workhorse would have great appeal to the rest of the council and the mayor, coming in the wake of four years during which some members of the council were known to be less than energetic in accepting and fulfilling committee assignments.

So I thought the outcome was predictable, given that Taylor’s name was on the list. And the unanimous first ballot is noteworthy, but — at least for me — no surprise.

All of that said, there were other strong candidates in the field. The tougher the decision, the luckier we are.

So . . . thanks to all who applied, and congratulations to Councilman Taylor.