Tag: Jeff Shorter (Page 4 of 4)

city council candidates — City Council Candidates

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

07/31/2017 / David Rodeback

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.

David’s Notes on the June 29 City Council Debate

07/31/2017 / David Rodeback

As before, this is not an attempt to give a complete play-by-play report of everything each candidate said. It’s one guy’s notes and opinions, and I’ll be candid. That said, if you read my thoughts on the mayoral debate, you’ll notice that these take a different tone. There’s a good reason for that. The six candidates who showed up are a strong field.

There’s another good reason for that, now that I think of it. I set the bar higher for mayor.

Before we proceed, a warning: If you’re at this site just for information, not opinion and analysis, hit the back button now. This post is opinionated, though it takes a gentler, happier tone than my similar post on the mayoral debate — for good reason, as I suppose.

I came away from the event thinking that the six good candidates I heard divide themselves into two tiers. There have been races in the past where I’d have rejoiced to have any or all of the three second-tier candidates on my ballot. They seem sensible, they have some awareness of city government and its issues, and they have experiences and education which could make them an asset on the city council. I could vote for any of them, if it weren’t for the three candidates in the first tier.

The first-tier candidates distinguish themselves by their experience, mostly within and around city government, and their command of details. I wish I had three votes, and I’m going to spend some time deciding which particularly good candidate doesn’t get my vote, even as I hope for all three to survive the primary.

At the end I’ll tell which candidates I place in which tier.

As before, you don’t need me to tell you what they said. If you want to hear the candidates themselves, audio is available in a separate post. And I won’t always quote the questions here, though I do in the post with the audio. You may not need me to tell you what it all means — but I’m about to try, for anyone who’s interested.
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David’s Very Candid Notes on the June 29 Mayoral Debate

07/31/2017 / David Rodeback

This is not an attempt to give a complete play-by-play report of everything each candidate said, though I will summarize the responses to a degree. It’s one guy’s notes and opinions, and you are duly warned: I’m not pulling punches here. Well, not very many. You may not like what you read, and you’re certainly entitled to your own views and your own vote.

I will do us both the favor of being candid.

You don’t need me to tell you everything they said. If you want to hear the candidates themselves, audio is available in a separate post. And I won’t always quote the questions here, though I do that in the post with the audio. And you may not need me to tell you what it means — but I’m about to try, for anyone who’s interested.

American Fork – Primary – City Council Candidates Audio

07/31/2017 / David Rodeback

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 a 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

American Fork City Council Candidates Contact Information

07/18/2017 / David Rodeback

[Updated 7 August 2017]

Here is all the contact information I’ve found for this year’s candidates for American Fork Mayor. I started with official data from afcity.org; the rest I’ve accumulated from various online sources.

If you live or work in American Fork, you should join the All About American Fork group on Facebook. Most of what happens there isn’t politics, but candidates and related events also pop up there from time to time. See also the City’s Voter Information Pamphlet.

If you’re a candidate — or even a voter — who has additional information for any of these, please send it to me, and I’ll verify it and post it. Note that I have not included links in some cases where I think I found the right person, but the profile lacks a photo or is empty. For now, at least, I have included personal Facebook, Twitter, and other social media links, whether there is recent political content there or not. Continue reading

American Fork Candidates

06/07/2017 / David Rodeback

Here is the official list of candidates for mayor and city council in American Fork for 2017. Contact information is already available at the City web site, and we’ll be using it here to ask them some questions. You’re more than welcome to propose questions in the comments to this post or any other. And we’ll add more contact information, including social media links, when we have it.

See an earlier post here for details about the election. Note that there are sufficient candidates in both races for a primary to be held. It will reduce the mayoral field to two candidates and the city council field to four (for two seats).

Candidates are listed in alphabetical order by last name, not randomly or in order of my preference.

Mayoral Candidates

Note that two-term Mayor Hadfield is not running for a third term.

Carlton Bowen (currently on the city council)
Brad Frost (currently on the city council)
Daniel Copper

The mayor’s term is four years. Continue reading

Q&A with the American Fork City Council

06/05/2017 / David Rodeback

I sent a few questions to American Fork City Council members Kevin Barnes, Carlton Bowen, Brad Frost, Rob Shelton, and Jeff Shorter. Four of the five replied; Councilman Bowen did not. Here are their responses, with minimal edits for format and readability, not substance. I did not suggest a specific length for their responses; both short and long responses were welcome.

Councilman Kevin Barnes

Answers are presented in alphabetical order, by the officials’ last names.

Qualifications

Q. What qualifications should voters look for in city council candidates? Continue reading

American Fork Election 2017

05/27/2017 / David Rodeback

On November 7 voters in American Fork, Utah, will elect a new mayor and two new city councilors.

There will also be a special election that day — on the same ballot — for the remainder of retiring Congressman Jason Chaffetz’s term in the US House of Representatives.

Why Now?

You may still be detoxing from the last presidential race. And for one reason or another, that race or its aftermath may have tempted you to turn your back on politics altogether. I understand that temptation. But it’s time to get our heads back in the game and focus on the level of government we can most effect. Continue reading