As a county commissioner, here are some ideas I have for Utah County.
Utah County has almost 700,000 residents, and the population keeps growing.
But we have only three county commissioners to represent that many people. That’s the same number of commissioners as the least-populated counties in Utah have.
County commissioners hold both legislative and executive powers in the county government. That works well for counties with small populations. For a large county with many citizens and many needs, and a budget in the hundreds of millions of dollars, a separation of powers is important. The citizens need more representation, and they need to know that there are checks and balances on the way the powers of taxation and spending are exercised.
As commissioner, I will advocate for our form of government to be upgraded to a council-manager structure. I envision a seven-member council, which would hold legislative powers and allow for representation across the county. The county manager would be the executive and direct the various departments and operations of the county.
With growth comes challenges and opportunities across many areas. Thoughtful planning can help us meet those challenges and seize those opportunities. If our focus is just on short-term issues, or irrelevant partisan battles, then the county’s growth will catch us unprepared.
Housing prices are high and this has made it difficult for young adults and families, and folks on fixed or limited incomes, to find a place to live.
More housing is needed to add to the supply and bring prices down. The need is for various types of housing—dense apartment- and condo-style units, single-family homes, townhomes, twin homes, and so forth.
The role of county government is not to provide that housing itself, but the commission is involved in evaluating and approving developments on county land outside of city limits. As commissioner, I will weigh these decisions carefully and seek to approve housing developments so long as they make sense in terms of location, access, available resources, and impact.
Population growth means more people who have to get from place to place. The more of us that are doing this, the greater the need for efficient and reliable transportation systems.
I am a strong supporter of public transit. My experience living in Japan showed me how a well-run, highly available transit system can get large numbers of people to where they need to be, while allowing people the freedom to get around by car or other means if they wished.
Here in Utah County, I’m looking forward to the expansion of FrontRunner down to the south county area. We will need more bus routes to help connect people from their homes to the train system and to other bus-accessible areas.
We may need to build or expand some roads, but we have to be careful of induced demand, which is where even an expansion of roads won’t solve a congestion problem because more people will drive the expanded route and just clog it right back up again.