in Skiing
Stealing “Ski City USA”
You may have started seeing the “Ski City, USA” commercials Salt Lake is using to attract skiers. Great idea? Oops, looks like Steamboat Springs, Colorado had already trademarked “Ski Town, USA” and is suing them.
Great work Salt Lake. We hope Mountain Accord isn’t already trademarked.
What Craig Williams, Candidate for Summit County Council, Got Wrong Today
This morning, KPCW’s Leslie Thatcher interviewed Summit County Council candidate Craig Williams. Mr Williams is challenging incumbent Chris Robinson for a seat on the County Council. He raised three key points of what was wrong with the current Council and how he would address those issues. Unfortunately, in our opinion, he was wrong on each account.
East Side Issues Not Addressed
Mr Williams first charge was that he had met with councils and mayors from the east-side of Summit County and they said east-side issues were not being addressed. He then pointed to the fact that many County Council votes are 4-1 and that he hoped with his election those votes would swing to 3-2 and more represent the east-side. There are really two issues here. First, the east-side and west-side of our county are very different. The fact is during the 1980’s the east-side ruled the county due to natural resources. Now, the pendulum has swung to the west-side due to tourism. If you’ve ever attended a council of government (COG) meeting, they aren’t pretty. There is yelling. There are accusations. There is animosity. Recently, our two newest Council members Kim Carson and Roger Armstrong have been able to bridge some of that animosity; however, due to inherent differences it is very unlikely that a resident of Park City will be able to make much more impact than has already been made.
Second, regarding 4-1 votes, three years ago we would have agreed with Mr Williams. We started the Park Rag project because we thought all the County Council members voted alike. We then attended two years of County Council meetings and confirmed that they do; however, not for the reasons we thought. They often vote alike because the issues are cut and dry. It’s not like Council Member Dave Ure, who often represents the east-side, is the only one who considers the east-side. In fact, most actions aren’t an east-versus-west thing. The value that Mr. Ure brings to the east side is not his vote, it’s in his discussion. For instance, I learned during a meeting from Mr. Ure that a major issue on the east-side is that a family will have owned say 100 acres for 80 years. The parents are aging and they want to divide that among their 8 children but due to current rules, it’s hard. Those comments, that influence and educate the rest of the council, are the things that help the east-side of our county. Being purely a Republican, especially from Park City, isn’t going to help the people of Coalville or Kamas one bit.
Fiscally Irresponsible
Mr Williams then said that the County was on financially shaky ground and he would turn that around. The Park Rag is for fiscal discipline. In fact we’ve heard people within the county say things like that only costs $30,000 so it’s not a big deal. As tax payers that makes our blood boil. Yet the charge here is that the County’s budget is up substantially since 2012. That is true. In 2012 the budget was $44 million and now it is likely to be in the $50.7 million range. That’s a 15% increase! However 2012 is a convenient year to use as a comp. In 2011 the budget was $50.5 million. OMG between 2011 and 2014 that’s a 0.396% increase (in 3 years). The truth is that government should always use tax-payer money efficiently. The fact is that in 2012 the County needed to cut back expenses because revenues were down. Since then, revenues are back up and projects like roads, that went neglected, need to get back on their maintenance schedules. This isn’t to say that the Park Rag won’t be watching upcoming budget talks intently but to cherry-pick statistics doesn’t serve anyone’s best interest.
General Plan Should Be Binding Law
Mr Williams finally states that General Plans should be legally binding. The General Plan is a document that guides development — like saying “we the citizens of Summit County don’t want a Dairy Queen at the base of our chair-lifts”. OK, that’s not really in the either the Eastern Summit County or the Snyderville Basin General Plan. Yet, that brings up the first point of why this is such a bad idea. Have you seen the East Side General Plan? It has been reworked for the better but it is still a mess. If it were law, with all of its contradictions, omissions in some places, and specificity in others, a company like DR Horton (the biggest residential home builder in the US) would use its teams of lawyers to build whatever they wanted. General Plans are just not air-tight.
So, you might say let’s make them air-tight and use them as binding law. Good idea but the problem is two-fold. First, the General Plan is designed to be an user-friendly document that tells citizens what can be built where. Reconciling that with making it legally stringent is not going to happen. The second issue is that we already have a development code. THIS IS THE LEGALLY BINDING DOCUMENT that says “slopes of driveways can’t be steeper than X” and “1 home per 20 acres of land in rural-residential zoning”. Can you imagine trying to reconcile two documents that were both legally binding, that covered all the land development possibilities in Summit County? Having sat through 200 hours of Planning Commission meetings covering just one General Plan, it would be impossible. That would leave us with two documents (development code and general plan) that wouldn’t sync up exactly and would leave loop-holes for the lawyers so big they could easily pull their money-trucks through. Now if Mr Williams had said that the General Plans for the east and west sides should both have simply stated “Refer to the Development Code” then we may have got behind it. As is, though, his argument shows a complete lack of understanding of the complexities.
Conclusion
As has been stated before, the Park Rag doesn’t endorse candidates. You have your own hot-buttons and issues that matter to you. However, we can categorically state that the hot-buttons that Craig Williams brought up this morning on KPCW show a complete lack of understanding that could be gained by attending a few meetings. There was nothing in this morning’s interview that gives us faith that he fully understands these issues, let alone, that he could solve them.
Update: You may also want to read “Was Yesterday’s Article on Craig Williams Fair?”
Representative Kraig Powell’s Attempts to End School District Equalization Are Short Sighted
Update: Please read the comments at the bottom of the page. They should provide more clarity into the official stance of Representative Powell.
I had a conversation with a dear friend last night and she raised an interesting thought. She had heard Kraig Powell, who represents some of Park City in the Utah Legislature, on KPCW. Mr Powell was speaking about property tax equalization and how he wanted it overturned. Equalization is the concept where wealthier areas like Park City send some of their tax dollars to other school districts who are less fortunate. Essentially everyone in Park City HATES equalization because Summit County property taxes go out of the district instead of being used on our own children.
Yet my dear friend raised the question of whether Mr. Powell’s quest to end equalization is short sighted. Her argument goes something like this:
- If the Mr Powell ends equalization then each school district, including Park City, will have to depend solely on their own tax revenues
- The Park City school system will run out of the ability to raise tax rates to increase its funding in the near future
- If other areas grow around the state (like Orem and Wasatch County as expected), they could over take Summit County as wealthier counties.
- If equalization hadn’t been ended by Mr Powell’s efforts, we would have received some money from other counties via equalization, but since it is ended we are stuck with our own revenue
- With no ability to raise tax rates, the only way to grow property tax revenues is through growth.
- Growth means more housing and commercial developments which many people are opposed to in Park City.
- So, if you want to limit growth in Summit County and Park City, you shouldn’t be so quick to jump on the anti-equalization band wagon.
I don’t necessarily agree with her in the short-term. It would be very unlikely that in the next 5 years that Park City would swing from equalizer to equalizee… but 10 years… 15 years… maybe.
It’s at least worth considering.
Kimball Junction is Not Sandy in the Mountains! We Swear.
We saw a new storefront, Pure Barre, opening up in the Village at Kimball and wondered what it was. Google told us it was a gym and listed a Draper location. That got us wondering how much of the new development at the Kimball Village in the past couple of years represented stores you could find in Draper or Sandy.
We found:
AT&T Store – Draper
Zuppas – Draper
5 Guys – Sandy
Jimmy Johns – Draper
Simply Mac – Sandy
Pure Barre – Draper
Free Birds – Sandy
Del Taco – Draper
Mountain America – Draper
Barking Cat – Park City Only
Spectrum Salon – Park City Only
Park City Bread and Bagel – Park City Only
Only nine out of twelve! All you people that said Park City was becoming Sandy in the Mountains need to take that back. We’re only 75% Sandy in the Mountains.
Happy Friday.
in Environment
Your Solar Panels Are Facing the Wrong Direction If Your Concern Is the Environment
Park City and Summit County are solar-crazy. There was a big push last year for residents to join together to buy solar panels. This year some government buildings are getting the upgrades. The problem? Those solar panels are facing the wrong direction to optimally provide power when it’s needed.
Last year we linked to an article on how some people believe solar panels should face west in order to increase the actual amount of energy produced. Local installer Alpenglow disagreed with that assessment.
Yet, yesterday’s New York Times is reporting on another reason you may not want to point your panels south.
So, the choice is either optimize your income or optimize your environmental effectiveness. Do most people invest in solar for the money? Probably not.
The whole article is a good read:
New York Times: How Grid Efficiency Went South
A Letter of Thanks from the Summit County Council
October 9, 2014
Summit County Council would like to thank the community for participating in our Snyderville Basin Long Range Transportation Plan public open house held on September 30th at the Richins Building in Park City. We estimate a total of 130 residents joined with Summit County, Park City and Wasatch County policymakers to provide valuable input on our future transportation needs. We would also like to thank Canyons Resort and the Resort Village Management Association for their involvement in this process.
At the meeting, we received well over 100 comments and interactive board suggestions from the public that will be used in developing the recommendations for the final draft Long Range Transportation Plan, which is scheduled to be complete in the upcoming month.
It is our goal to adopt a comprehensive and proactive transportation strategy for the Snyderville Basin by the end of the year. Your continued interest, participation, and input are vital to us. We urge you to stay involved in this important community issue. We pledge to keep you informed on the progress of the plan, as well as future opportunities to attend public meetings where this plan will be discussed. Please check our website www.summitcounty.org for future meeting information and thank you again for your robust participation as we collectively plan the future transportation needs of the Snyderville Basin.
Sincerely,
Summit County Council
in Schools
Does the Park City School Board Violate Open Meeting Laws?
In 1977, the State of Utah passed the Open Meetings Act (OMA). Its purpose is to ensure that “the state, its agencies, and its political subdivisions take their actions openly and conduct their deliberations openly.” By most measures, the School Board is one of the most open political groups in our community. Every meeting is recorded on video, is generally available within a few days of a meeting, and is placed on their website. Yet, one aspect of their meetings seems clouded in secrecy.
If you attend a Summit County Council meeting or a City Council meeting there will often be a Public Comment period. At the Park Rag we call it Open Mic. It’s a great chance for the public to share opinions and ask questions. In those meetings with the county or city, the public receives an immediate response from various members of the Council. For instance, I once asked the City Council whether they had already agreed to allow a gondola from Deer Valley to Main Street. Deer Valley’s President Bob Wheaton had appeared to imply that there was already an agreement during a previous speech. Various City Council members, the City Manager, and Mayor took turns explaining how the media often gets things wrong. However, what I did receive was immediate feedback and feedback from individuals. I knew exactly where City Manager Diane Foster stood, for example.
Contrast that with what seems typical of the School Board. When the public asks questions during Public Comment, there is not an immediate response. A response is later posted to the School District’s website. What’s wrong with that? First, from a citizen’s perspective, we elect individuals to the Board. If the response is a generic reply from the board, how do we judge what each elected official is thinking? Second, from the Open Meetings Act (OMA) perspective, deliberations are not taking place in public. This is where there may be implications for our School Board.
The OMA does say, “Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to restrict a member of a public body from transmitting an electronic message to other members of the public body at a time when the public body is not convening.” Yet, the OMA defines a meeting as a “convening of a public body or a specified body, with a quorum present, including a workshop or an executive session, whether in person or by means of electronic communications, for the purpose of discussing, receiving comments from the public about, or acting upon a matter over which the public body or specific body has jurisdiction or advisory power.” So, if School Board member Charles Cunningham emails School Board President Moe Hickey, that’s not a problem.
However, what if President Hickey emails the School Board members and says, “what do you think our response to the public comment on the PC CAPS building last Tuesday should be?” Emails go back and forth between a majority of board members discussing the matter and a discussion ensues via email. One of the Board members then types up a summary of the discussion and has it posted to the website. In effect, a meeting has taken place with a quorum of the School Board, items have been discussed, and decisions on policy may have been made. The OMA requires decisions to be made in public. Since there was no meeting and no opportunity for the public to participate in the email discussion, it could violate the Open Meetings Act.
This of course, may not be how the process is happening. Perhaps there is another open meeting where these topics are discussed. If so, we can’t seem to find it in any meeting notes. Likewise perhaps one member of the board has been selected to speak on every matter, without input from other board members. We would be both surprised and disappointed if that was the case.
So, if emails are being used to discuss and decide on a response to public comment, is it illegal? Someone would likely need to bring this to court to find out. The OMA does say that emails can be sent between members but never qualifies whether a discussion with a majority of public body members via email violates the act. Common sense would say that an “email meeting” is still a meeting and subject to the OMA, otherwise this loophole could be used all the time for private, group conversations to skirt the law. Either way, it seems to violate the spirit of the law.
Our hope is that the School Board will decide to respond immediately during meetings to public comment. This not only serves the public interest better, but it takes away a legal question that could arise in the future. The School Board has done an admirable job of using technology to enable anyone to “virtually” attend a meeting. Let’s hope they don’t continue to tarnish this success by keeping this part of the meeting in the dark.
in Furburbia
Is Furburbia in a State of Turmoil?
We’ve heard rumblings around the community that with the the departure of Cathy Clark, things aren’t pretty in the Friends of Animals world. If you check out the Park Record discussion on the topic you may agree…
in Schools
Should further detail be provided about school class sizes?
We received a submission from a citizen:
We agree that having detailed information is important in order to make good decisions. Therefore we support the effort to obtain class sizes and ratios related to dual immersion. We would recommend that this citizen contact the School Superintendent, Ember Conley, at . If you don’t get the run-around she’ll likely forward the info to someone who will get you those numbers. If not, you may consider issuing a GRAMA request using the form below. A GRAMA request enables you to obtain information from government bodies.
State of Utah GRAMA Request Form
You would mail it to Dr Ember Conley at:
Park City School District
2700 Kearns Blvd, Park City, UT 84060
Hopefully the District will be open and get you the information without it becoming a bureaucratic nightmare. If not, the GRAMA request gives you the tool to get the information desired.
Please keep us up to date on your progress. We are sure there are many people throughout our community who want answers to questions and this will be a good learning exercise for us all. Let us know what you find out, how cooperative people are being, and we will post it here.
-Park Rag
in Schools
During yesterday’s school board discussion regarding dual immersion, it was stated that Europe’s standard is that students learn two foreign languages. Is that true?
“The standard now for Europe is that kids know 3 languages, 2 plus their own.”
-Update on the status of dual immersion 10/7/2014 Park City School Board Meeting
Dual immersion seems to be a hot topic with many people concerned about it for different reasons. Some are worried because their kids can’t get in. Some are worried because class sizes may be bigger in non-dual immersion classes. Some are worried about whether the best teachers are teaching dual immersion. It’s most definitely a topic we’ll dig into more as we can.
Yet, we were struck by a comment during yesterday’s school board where it was said that the standard in Europe was for kids to learn 2 additional languages besides their own. This was said in the context that our kids must learn additional languages or they will be left behind. That may or may not be true but we are most interested in understanding whether that statement is generally accurate.
First, we must understand that most european countries teach English as the first secondary language. So, if you are from Lithuania, you learn English and Lithuanian. Second, while the statement does seem to reflect policy, the truth on the ground varies. See the document below (click for a better view):
So, yes in the czech Republic 100% do learn 3 languages, in the UK 5% learn 3 languages. In France 92% learn 3 languages. In Italy 24% learn 3 languages. So, it really varies.
This isn’t written to diminish the benefit of multiple languages. However to imply that most european students learn 3 languages at a usable level does not appear valid.
Parkrag
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