Meet the Candidate Night – Mayoral Edition

Last night the Fire Department held their annual Meet the Candidate night at the new library in Washington Terrace/South Ogden. The crowd was one of the best I have seen at a political event for the area. Each candidate did their best and represented themselves as well as they could. However not all of them shined as bright as the others. Four mayoral candidates and three city council candidates were present to answer questions and meet the public. Since the Mayoral primary is coming up, we will focus only on the Mayoral section of the debate. I will save my city council portion for after the 15^th.

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 four candidates gave a two minute introduction. You can listen to it here: (Introduction)

• For best Introduction the point goes to John Bradley. He was clear and concise. He explained his experience and why he would be the best candidate. John has lots of experience in law and business and gave a great introduction. – 1 Point Bradley.
  
• Rick Westmoreland gave a similar introduction as to John's and played on the crowd with his volunteer work and more. He did a good job, but came up short to John's intro. – ½ Point
  
• Jim Minster talked about his service and time in the community. He did well, but not much energy in his remarks. Most of the time was spent on talking about his city council accomplishments; but remember the council is a group, not just one person.
  
• My bottom was Vicki Mattson. Like Mr. Minster all she talked about was all the city council things she has done and why those accomplishments make her a great mayor. I felt it was bland and not very appealing.

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

• For best answer I give it to Rick Westmoreland. With the experience he has as a prosecutor, he understands what is needed to prosecute an ordinance or zoning violation. He gave a solid argument for public involvement to help clean up areas. The main point is that the resources are not there to make it happen and the Mayor can bring the community together and help clean up these areas. – 1 point for Rick.
  
• John explained in full detail what the ordinances do and can't do. He seemed to know where the holes were in the system. This is something the council can improve on. The ordinances are old and need to be updated. He almost had me sold on his answer, but why haven't they already done this if they know the problem. – ½ point.
  
• Jim Minister said about the same as everyone else, but interestingly he seemed to have just noticed it was a problem since he decided to run.
  
• My least favorite answer was Vicki Mattson. Her answer was full of random statements. She claimed this was the number one problem she hears and has been addressing the problem for awhile but it is still getting worse. She says the solution is to form committees to find out what to do. In addition, she stated that we shouldn't police people and then turned around and said we should tighten ordinances so they can be enforced. I was confused in the end.

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

• The best answer to the legacy question goes to Vicki Mattson. She hit it on the head of what public service is all about. She hopes to be fair and honest. But in the end she recognized the decisions you make will affect the whole community; therefore your decisions can't just be for the good of the one. Instead it needs to be for what will make the whole community better. Great Answer Vicki – 1 point.
  
• Rick Westmoreland had my second favorite answer, but I wish he would have spent more time going into more specific details. In the end I felt he truly wants to be remembered as a man of integrity. ½ Point
  
• John was close in my book on this, but in the end I felt he had little confidence he would be remembered (even if it was a joke). I think he would be surprised how much people remember.
  
• Jim Minster was last for this question. He talked a lot about being the guy who listens and helps people get stuff done. He had little energy in what he was saying and I felt it wasn't much of an answer.

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

• Rick Westmoreland wins it for me on this, mainly because he appears understand more fully the system of UDOT and how to work with them. Negotiations will need to not just be with UDOT but with our legislators who have authority over UDOT. I liked his creative solution to the problem. 1 Point
  
• John almost took Rick on this one. He is trained in negotiations and knows how to work with these types of people. My reasoning is simply track record. I have seen Council Member Sallee Orr practically take this issue on her by herself and if John is so good at it, why hasn't more been done already. ½ point
  
• Vicki is on the DOT committee and has been working to make something happen. Is she willing to do this, yes, has she been successful no.
  
• I am sorry to say Jim's was my least favorite. In reality he didn't answer the question at all and his only solution was to start a letter writing campaign. Not a great answer.

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

• Jim Minster takes the prize for this one. He explained his experience of managing departments, companies, and has time as a fire chief. He has dealt with many personnel issues and kept things under cost and on a budget. Great job on this. Can he apply these skills to a corporation the size of South Ogden, that remains to be seen, but he did a great job answering the question. 1 point.
  
• John Bradley has managed a staff of people and worked with all sorts of personnel situations. In addition he has started his own business with his wife, but no real formal training in fiscal policy. It was close between him and Jim. ½ point.
  
• Rick Westmoreland was my number three on this. If had a little more financial experience he may have moved up;. Not much management or financial experience in his answer; however he has started his own business and has worked on budgets in his office. Not enough for points though.
  
• Vicki didn't make it happen for me on this one. Though she has good management experience with Albertsons, I just can't feel her management skills. On the fiscal side she stated the city foresaw the decline in our economy a couple of years ago. Well I want to know where she got her crystal ball, because everyone else in the world missed this one. South Ogden City has been in the red most of this year and didn't make budget cuts until the economy was in full recession. We had surplus money as early as last year and didn't spend it pay down debt of fix the budget. She was wrong on this issue. (See these posts from city council meetings for more info, )

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

• Rick Westmoreland gets the point. His number one priority would be to increase revenue sources for South Ogden. Not just bringing in new business, but to go after grants and federal money. According to Rick, on our budget we have no federal grant money coming in for public safety. There is $4.2 Million available ready for the taking, he would be the guy to go get it. His last priority was more accountability in Government which is a huge issue for me. – 1 point
  
• John Bradley almost won this for me. He had a great list of things that make sense. Commercial development, public safety, planning and zoning, public works and finally recreation. But Rick's solutions were very creative and exciting. – ½ point
  
• Jim Minster had two good points, one we need work on the economy and two bringing in new businesses. His points were valid but not much backing it up. How is he going to fix the economy? Jim mentioned cutting more budgets, but not cutting services. That is hard to do, especially since we have cut the budget already 12 percent.
  
• Vick didn't answer this question well. She seemed to be all over the place and talked about current business owners as her top priority, then safety, followed by public works. It didn't seem she had any real list of priorities or solutions for South Ogden. Wasn't a good answer.

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

• John Bradley wins this one. He had some great ideas of creating new zones and incentives to encourage people to improve their areas. This would include grants and funds to encourage people to move into the area and build up those homes. He made an interesting statement that we need to increase incentives; so homes on streets like Raymond Ave can be beautiful and make people want to move there. (Um…I live on Raymond). In addition people need to help each other and police each other. – 1 point
  
• Rick Westmoreland stressed public safety. Those areas have become un-desirable because of crime and other issues. We need to increase funds to enforce codes and laws to help these areas become cleaned up. We need to be willing to invest extra time and money to make those areas beautiful. ½ point
  
• Vicki Mattson spent most of her time talking about down town and how she would like to see more business coming to South Ogden. She recognized the new Mercantile and how wonderful it is. Interestingly she mentioned the city was going to start doing low interest loans for housing. I wonder that money is coming from or if I have to pay for it? Vicki was coming up with lots of ideas like new condos, etc. I don't feel she fully answered the question. She should have talked about her Good Landlord law idea.
  
• My last place answer will be Jim Minster's. Jim actually spent his whole time talking about the elderly on country club drive. His point is taken, but he didn't fully answer the question.

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

• John Bradley did the best with this question. He had full knowledge of what has happening, solutions to fix it and ideas to improve it. In reality this is a softball question. John had great inside info to help him answer it and articulated himself well. Good job. – 1 Point.
  
• Rick dropped it on this one. In the end he began to explain great ways to fund such a problem, but he himself didn't seem full convinced this was an immediate issue. I wish he would have spent more time on how he would avoid raising our taxes and how he would fund these programs. His answer was good, but not good enough for full points. – ½ point.
  
• I am not really sure what Jim was talking about at the first, but then he just told us what we already know. I kind of feel like he was just copying whatever John said. It was kind of a Paula Abdul Idol moment.
  
• Vicki Mattson missed it for me in the end. She did a good job identifying the funding problems we have to improve our sewer system; however she seems to be under the impressions that we have received so many grants that we have been able to update almost the whole cities infrastructure. After listening to this one about five times, I am still not sure if she answered the question.

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

• Rick Westmoreland had the best closing remarks. He gave a full explanation of what the Mayor's office does and how he would make it work. I liked his understanding of the different branches of government and where the Mayor's role is in this system. His goal is to motivate and encourage this city to continue to grow. I was impressed with this final remarks and his passion for South Ogden. – 1 Point.
  
• Vicki summed up her understanding of the Mayoral role and how she would fill that. She made a little potshot at one of Rick's comments and in turn repeated a couple of things Rick said. But overall she represented herself very well and her knowledge of the job. – ½ point
  
• Jim Minster summed up a lot of what he said throughout the night and gave his pledge of love to South Ogden. Nice statements but nothing to remember.
  
• John took a huge hit at Rick in his closing statement. He began by saying the same things Rick did, but in some ways it may have been better articulated. He then made specific potshots at some of Rick's comments and how he knows the most about government. But the part that killed it for me is when he talked about how he was the most well balanced person. He mentioned he was a business owner, involved in community and active in church. Once he started playing the church card and engaged in a character debate over who was the better individual in the room—I lost him.

Final Score:

• Rick – 6 points – He won 4 of the debate questions in my book. - WINNER
  
• John – 5 points – He won 2 of the debate questions.
  
• Vicki – 1 ½ points – She won 1 of the debate questions.
  
• Jim – 1 point – He won 1 of the debate questions.
  

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