{"id":1605,"date":"2014-10-10T11:45:12","date_gmt":"2014-10-10T17:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.parkrag.com\/?p=1605"},"modified":"2014-10-10T11:45:12","modified_gmt":"2014-10-10T17:45:12","slug":"craig-williams-candidate-summit-county-council-got-wrong-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.parkrag.com\/index.php\/2014\/10\/10\/craig-williams-candidate-summit-county-council-got-wrong-today\/","title":{"rendered":"What Craig Williams, Candidate for Summit County Council, Got Wrong Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning, KPCW’s Leslie Thatcher interviewed Summit County Council candidate Craig Williams. \u00a0Mr Williams is challenging incumbent Chris Robinson for a seat on the County Council. \u00a0He raised three key points of what was wrong with the current Council and how he would address those issues. \u00a0Unfortunately, in our opinion, he was wrong on each account.<\/strong><\/p>\n

East Side Issues Not Addressed
\n<\/span><\/strong>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. \u00a0He 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. \u00a0There are really two issues here. \u00a0First, the east-side and west-side of our county are very different. \u00a0The fact is during the 1980’s the east-side ruled the county due to natural resources. \u00a0Now, the pendulum has swung to the west-side due to tourism. \u00a0If 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.<\/p>\n

Second, regarding 4-1 votes, three years ago we would have agreed with Mr Williams. \u00a0We started the\u00a0Park Rag project because we thought all the County Council members voted alike. \u00a0We then attended two years of County Council meetings and confirmed that they do; however, not for the reasons we thought. \u00a0They often vote alike because the issues are cut and dry. \u00a0It’s not like Council Member Dave Ure, who often represents the east-side, is the only one who considers the east-side. \u00a0In 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. \u00a0For instance, I learned during a meeting from Mr. Ure \u00a0that a major issue on the east-side is that a family will have owned say 100\u00a0acres for 80 years. \u00a0The parents are aging and they\u00a0want 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. \u00a0Being purely a Republican, especially from Park City, isn’t going to help the people of Coalville or Kamas one bit.<\/p>\n

Fiscally Irresponsible
\n<\/span><\/strong>Mr Williams\u00a0then said that the County was\u00a0on financially shaky ground and he would turn that around. \u00a0The 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<\/em>. \u00a0<\/i>As tax payers that makes our blood boil. \u00a0Yet the charge here is that the County’s budget is up substantially since 2012. That is true. \u00a0In 2012 the budget was $44 million and now it is likely to be in the $50.7 million range. \u00a0That’s a 15% increase! However 2012 is a convenient year to use as a comp. \u00a0In \u00a02011 the budget was $50.5 million. \u00a0OMG between 2011 and 2014 that’s a 0.396% increase (in 3 years). \u00a0The truth is that government should always use tax-payer money efficiently. \u00a0The fact is that in 2012 the County needed to cut back expenses because revenues were down. \u00a0Since 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.<\/p>\n

General Plan Should Be Binding Law
\n<\/span><\/strong>Mr Williams finally states that General Plans should be legally binding. \u00a0The General Plan is a document that guides development — \u00a0like saying “we the citizens of Summit County don’t want a Dairy Queen at the base of our chair-lifts”. \u00a0OK, that’s not really in the either the Eastern Summit County or the Snyderville Basin General Plan. \u00a0Yet, that brings up the first point of why this is such a bad idea. \u00a0Have you seen the East Side General Plan? \u00a0It has been reworked for the better but it is still a mess. \u00a0If 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\u00a0US)\u00a0would use its teams\u00a0of lawyers to build whatever they wanted. General Plans are just not air-tight.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0that 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? \u00a0Having sat through 200 hours of Planning Commission meetings covering just one General Plan, it would be impossible. \u00a0That 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. \u00a0As is, though, his argument shows a complete lack of understanding of the complexities.<\/p>\n

Conclusion
\n<\/span><\/strong>As has been stated before, the Park Rag doesn’t endorse candidates. \u00a0You 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. \u00a0There was nothing\u00a0in this morning’s interview that gives us faith that he fully understands these issues, let alone, that he could solve them.<\/p>\n

Update:\u00a0<\/strong>You may also want to read “Was Yesterday’s Article on Craig Williams Fair?”\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

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