Meet the Candidate Night – City Council Edition

It is now time to see how the City Council candidates did. On September 3^rd we had our annual meet the candidate night. I quickly posted the next day a summary of the Mayoral debate questions and ranked each answer. The city council candidate also debated this same night and gave some great answers. I have held my post regarding the city council answers until today. This allowed us to focus on the Mayoral Primary. So for your weekend listening and reading pleasure here is my analysis.

The Candidates are as follows:

• Russ Porter
  
• Bryan Benard
  
• Lamont Camp
  

For your listening pleasure, I recorded the debate and I have divided it into sound bites that you can download and listen to. I have chosen my favorite and my least favorite answer for each question. I will give each candidate who has the best answer "1 Point" and the second place candidate will get "1/2 Point". The person with most points wins the night.

1. Introduction: All three candidates gave a two minute introduction. You can listen to it here: (cityintroduction)

• Bryan Benard wins the best intro category. He was clear and concise with his message. He gave a great summary of who his and then made it clear w why he was running. His statement, "Listen first & then Act" impressed me and became a Bryan's theme of the night. Bryan really appealed to the people of South Ogden. Great Job Bryan. -- 1 point
  
• Russ Porter gave a good intro and appealed to long time residents. However I felt little isolated since I wasn't in the age group of people he said he was concerned about. Also I was confused when he said things are going well, but yet things need to be changed. What needs to be changed? -- ½ point.
  
• Lamont Camp's greatest strength is his passion for the city. You can hear it in his comments. He gave a brief and simple summary of who he is but nothing really about why he is running. He had two minutes and only took about 50 seconds, take all the time you got man, make us believe!

1. How will you enforce ordinances and zoning laws? You can listen to it here: (cityzoning)

• Russ Porter is my winner on this topic. He appeared to have a better knowledge on how we can improve enforcement. I liked his analysis of the process in place and that it is too slow or broken. Let's focus on fixing it. -- 1 point
  
• Bryan Benard pushed for community members policing each other; in turn having them communicate with council members about problem areas. This idea is good in theory, but I have stopped reporting people because nothing gets done, I am sure others have as well. Plus I personally have attended city council meetings and talked about problem areas or damaged parts of town. Did anything happen, no? So his idea is good in theory but real change needs to be made before residents will take it serious. -- ½ point.
  
• Lamont Camp was a caught off guard being the first to answer; however his goal would be to encourage pride in the community. Pride would encourage people to not let their properties become dilapidated. However, the problem is also with rental units, absentee landlords etc. Pride in the city isn't going to fix that. The see us a cash cow.

1. What do you want your legacy to be? You can listen to it here: (citylegacy)

• Russ Porter wins the question. Honestly this was a tough one. I liked Russ's and Bryan's answers a lot and went back and forth about 10 times. In the end I decided to ask myself the following question: If I were to tell my children about Russ or Bryan and their time on the council what would I say? Bryan was a guy who listened or Russ was a guy who made this place safe so we can live here. Putting it like that, Russ wins. -- 1 point
  
• Bryan gave a great answer and I am sure many of you could go either way. His presentation style is perfect and he really hit it home. In the end he came up a little short to Russ's answers. -- ½ point.
  
• Lamont really spent most of the time talking about his early firefighter days and then reiterated what everyone else said.

1. Traffic – Are you willing to negotiate with UDOT? You can listen to it here: (citytraffic)

• The prize goes to Bryan Benard! Bryan really outshined the group on this answer. Not only does he have the experience with negotiating speed limit and street changes. He negotiates for a living! Who better to help us then someone who does this everyday? Great answer Bryan. I loved it when he said, "I will get to the bottom of this, and I will get it done." You know what, I believe him. -- 1 point.
  
• Lamont takes second place for me. The main reason is because he answered the question. He said yes, he would negotiate with UDOT and came up with some additional ideas to help things along. Lamont suggests we partner more with the surrounding cities, the county and others to help push this through. Good job Lamont. -- ½ point.
  
• Russ Porter – He appeared to be knowledgeable regarding the issue and appears to be passionate as well. However he didn't demonstrate any real solution to solve the problem, he just stated what we already knew.

1. How are you in Personnel Management and Financial Planning? You can listen to it here: (citymanagement)

• Bryan once again wins. His personnel management strength comes from what he does for a living. Not only is recognized as one of the top employment lawyers in the state, but he counsel people on how to manage employment issues. With all of this and his business ownership he rises to the top. – 1 point.
  
• Russ Porter takes second, but it was close. I gave this Russ, because I know he has more management skills then he explained. As a coach I am sure it he has learned some management skills; in addition to him teaching 210 high school kids. I liked his desire to relate to the people and work with them. -- ½ point.
  
• Lamont Camp has had a lot of jobs and responsibilities. However none of them are in actual management positions. Though he may have directed some teams, I didn't feel his management style came forward.

1. What are your top Priorities for the City? You can listen to it here: (citypriorities)

• First place goes to Bryan Benard. Mr. Benard added an important addition to the regular list priorities; he reminded us of the need for smart growth. We truly are limited on our land and ability to expand in South Ogden. He wants to insure our resources are guarded and growth is done in a smart way. In addition he had ideas of increase programs for our senior citizens and youth. – 1 point.
  
• Russ almost won this one for me. Most of his answers were the same as everyone else's of the night: safety, enforce codes, etc. But he struck a chord with a solution to increase property values. He is right; if we do the things he suggests, people will move to the area. However that isn't everything that goes into property value increases. Also he mentioned the rec. center, but I have to correct him and let Russ know it is a $2 million dollar gym facility not a rec. center. -- ½ point.
  
• Lamont Camp had a good list of priorities similar to everyone else's. He made a good sound bite attempt with pushing us to have pride in our country. In the end, it didn't push me over the edge.

1. How would you revitalize 40^th Street north and rental properties? You can listen to it here: (city40th)

• Bryan Benard takes this round. Bryan suggests we take all of the ideas along with the current strategic plan, put them on paper and then make them happen. Find community leaders in every area that can help spear head projects and goals, and then push the ideas into action. The time for planning is really over, now is the time to act. Bryan really hit it on the head for me. Everyone has ideas on how to make this happen, but has it really been focused? Has it really been put into action? Finally he stressed code enforcement to push landlords into compliance. – 1 Point
  
• Russ Porter didn't sell me on his answer. Russ suggests we need city leaders to be more approachable and to give more resources to law enforcement to get the "bad people" out. He also mentioned neighborhood watch programs for the city. Interestingly enough I have a neighborhood watch sign in my area, but I don't know who is watching. His ideas have real potential, but they need some more refinement. – ½ Point
  
• Lamont Camp says this is the main reason he is running since he lives north of 40^th (For the record he lives about 4 blocks north, so not quite to the areas we are talking about). I found it interesting that he took a jab at the Police and Fire departments; especially since they were hosting the event. However in the end he had no real solution for the problem. For this being his main reason for running, I would have expected some real solutions to the problem.

1. Is our Sewer system adequate and what can we do to improve it? You can listen to it here: (citysewer)

• Lamont Camp wins this one for me. He seems to have a more in depth understanding of what is going on with our systems. He has seen the work done, helped in the cleanup of floods and knows areas that need to be improved next. – 1 point
  
• Bryan Benard took second, he explained a few good ideas of being cautious and to start making sure our infrastructure and sewer system is working properly. This makes good sense, however this is already happening. The city government has been doing this already by using a snake video camera system to see which pipes need to be updated. – ½ point
  
• Russ, well, gotta give it to him for being honest. He didn't know anything and didn't have an answer; however he was honest about it. Style points earned!

1. Closing Remarks. You can listen to it here: (cityclosing)

• Russ gave the best closing for me, but once again it was close between him and Bryan. I really liked how he stated, "I will never take my vote lightly." That was important to me. I want someone who really research the issues before they vote and then vote for the items that will affect the majority. He made some great statements and I was impressed. – 1 point
  
• Bryan is a great speaker. He did a great job through the whole debate and he had a great closing. I can tell he loves South Ogden and wants it to be successful. In the end you could sum up everything he said with on word—listen. Bryan wants to be the kind of person who listens. I am not a fan of leaders who make a point to say, I won't promise anything. Bryan said those words and so I dropped him down in this round. Nothing wrong with making some promises and standing up for it, it can be done. – ½ point
  
• Lamont truly loves this city. You can hear it in his voice, but I didn't get anything new from him. It was a simple closing and he summed up his thoughts. I didn't see it as a successful closing.
  

Final Score:

• Bryan Benard WINS with 7 points.
  
• Russ Porter did great and comes in second with 5 points.
  
• Lamont made a great effort getting 1 ½ points.
  

I think we have some great candidates for city council and I encourage all to study their platforms closely.

This post is open for you all to debate on my interpretation of the night, please feel free to comment.