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Tag: building department

American Fork Candidates Q&A, Part 4 – The City and Developers

In this post, candidates respond to one question:

For years we’ve heard reports that developers find the City so difficult to work with that many of them won’t build at all in American Fork. To what extent are these reports true? Is it a good thing? What if anything should elected City officials do about it?

Carlton Bowen and Brad Frost are running for mayor. Kyle BarrattBarbara Christiansen, Staci Carroll, and Jeffrey Shorter are running for two available city council seats.

Note: None of the candidates who were defeated in the primary responded to this set of questions, so this post, unlike previous similar posts, has no responses to hide behind buttons.

  • Published: 25 July 2017
  • Updated: 31 October 2017

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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.