Dobkin said he’s running for one of the three available seats on the council because he continues to see a logjam at city hall.
“At the end of the day, the council is a board,” Dobkin said. “It’s a board that’s supposed to oversee the different departments of the city to make sure that they run properly, they run efficiently. And I believe that there’s been not enough action to that extent.”
He said there’s a greater need for short-term solutions.
To alleviate the demand for pickleball courts in the area, Dobkin suggested utilizing a portion of the Richardson Flat park and ride lot.
“It’s not highly utilized, it’s away from a lot of residential areas if noise pollution is an issue.”
On the issue of traffic in the Park City area, Dobkin suggested a cheap, quick fix is more carpooling.
“You saw that actually being implemented at Park City Mountain resort base area this past season. If you carpooled, you got free parking. We can actually extend a program like that a little bit further and say, if you’re going to come into town in high traffic times — where you get incentivized to park and ride — and then if you want to drive in, pick up a passenger at the park and ride and bring them into town.”
He said smartphone apps could be used to organize rides.
On the need for more affordable housing, Dobkin voiced support for financially incentivizing short-term rental owners to free up units for local workers, similar to the city’s lite-deed program.
Dobkin was a part-time Park City resident for a decade, and moved to the Deer Valley area full-time in 2020. He’s a partner at the investment banking firm LifeSci Capital, which focuses on healthcare and biotech companies. He also worked for five years as an investment manager with the New Zealand government and helped supervise relationships with businesses in the United States and other countries.
In the 2021 Park City mayoral race, Dobkin didn’t make it out of the primary. He collected 367 votes, compared to Andy Beerman’s 738 votes, and Nann Worel’s 1,393 votes.
