Is Summit County Representative Kraig Powell Out of Touch on Mountain Accord?

This morning on KPCW, Utah Representative Kraig Powell was interviewed by Leslie Thatcher on a number of topics. However, what caught our attention was a response near the end of the interview about Mountain Accord.

Leslie Thatcher: Apparently there is a bill or it is part of the appropriations bill that would fund Mountain Accord up to $5 million. Is that something you are in support of?

Representative Powell: I’m sorry that I’ve been in the legislative session and it’s take a real turn recently and I’ve been reading the Park Record and listening to your program. It is very unusual for any group in society that are working on something that would say we don’t want funding from legislature. That’s the thing that puzzles me about this. If my constituents on the Wasatch Back actually want me to vote against a funding bill that’s providing funding, it would be the first time in my legislative career. But I need to hear that directly from the leaders of the municipalities and counties. They haven’t been calling me directly. Although I have had some citizens write to me saying that.

This concerns us on a number of fronts:

• To Park City and Summit County residents, this isn’t just some funding bill. Mr Powell acts like this is some bill to fund a swimming pool. To us, Mountain Accord could fundamentally alter who and how PCMR, Canyons, and Deer Valley are used.
• While we understand that the legislature session is important, almost 400 people showed up to a meeting at Park City High School regarding Mountain Accord. So, it’s a big deal to us. His response above shows a complete lack of understanding of the public’s view of importance on this issue.
• This perhaps confirms County Council person Dave Ure’s comment that probably not more than a handful of people on the hill know what is being spent on Mountain Accord. It appears Mr Powell is not in that handful.
• Mr Powell says he needs to hear directly from “leaders of municipalities and counties” in order to know whether he should vote against appropriations for Mountain Accord. We didn’t realize that the Park City City Council had elected him. That’s good to know. We guess we won’t have to waste all that time voting next time.

We do realize this is one interview and one sound byte out of a thousand. We also don’t follow the legislature much, so we don’t know if Mr Powell’s attitude is typical. What we do know is that from a casual citizens point of view his comments were very disappointing.