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Park City
Everything to do inside of Park City proper.

Park City Mayor Andy Beerman Officially Begins Re-Election Campaign

Andy Beerman

Beerman first told KPCW he intended to run for a second term at the end of April, but after filing official candidate paperwork with the city this week, he said he did not make his final decision until just a couple of weeks ago at the two-day council retreat in May.

 

“Well, I’ve been leaning to running again for a long time,” Beerman said. “I really do love the job, but it is a big commitment. It’s a lot of stress, it’s a lot of work and despite the fact it’s fun and a huge honor, I had to make sure I was ready to sign up. For me, the moment where I made the final decision was at the retreat. I looked at all we’ve accomplished, both surviving COVID in what I feel like is pretty good style for the community and the progress we’ve made towards our Vision 2020 goals and I decided I wanted to be a part of it going forward and feel like I bring the skills and the experience to do that.”

 

Beerman has been a prominent face in Park City for over a decade. Before taking office as Mayor in 2018, he served as a city councilor for six years and was also president of the Historic Park City Alliance before that. He and his wife, Thea Leonard, also owned the Treasure Mountain Inn on Main Street before selling the business in 2017.

 

Beerman said he realizes why some people might want to see a fresh face going forward, but thinks the work ahead will require the knowledge and connections he has cultivated over his years as a community leader.  

 

“Coming up on 10 years, I realize I’m pushing it, because I feel like these positions should not be careers,” said Beerman. “On the flipside, I think it’s important to have a mix of experience and fresh blood in government and I think we have that right now. As I looked at it, I felt like we were at a point in time where the challenges facing our city are really complex and they need somebody with experience and relationships and I feel like I have that unique blend of skills to move it forward and I think there is quite a bit of work to be done on every one of our community pillars.” 

 

Beerman said he wants to continue his work on the community priorities identified by Vision 2020 and pointed towards the city’s open space purchases of Treasure Hill and Bonanza Flat, as well as work towards the city’s aggressive climate and sustainability goals as highlights during his first term.

 

He said his bold leadership style can open him up to criticisms, but added that “bold” action, to him, does not always mean radical or big.    

 

“It’s difficult,” he said. “There are a lot of paradoxes in this town in that I think we want to see bold action so we don’t change, but we’re terrified of change and action feels like change. I’ve been talking recently about bold action isn’t necessarily left turns, it isn’t super expensive all the time, it isn’t radical, it can be hundreds of little things that add up to change the nature of a community or to protect that community.”

 

Beerman’s campaign website can be found here.

 

Beerman is joined in the race for Mayor by Park City investor David Dobkin, who also filed candidate paperwork this week. Park City Councilor Nann Worel announced her candidacy for mayor last month, but has yet to file official paperwork.

 

The candidate filing period runs until June 7th.

Sean Higgins covers all things Park City and is the Saturday Weekend Edition host at KPCW. Sean spent the first five years of his journalism career covering World Cup skiing for Ski Racing Media here in Utah and served as Senior Editor until January 2020. As Senior Editor, he managed the day-to-day news section of skiracing.com, as well as produced and hosted Ski Racing’s weekly podcast. During his tenure with Ski Racing Media, he was also a field reporter for NBC Sports, covering events in Europe.
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