The local chapter of the League of Women Voters and the Pro-Active Alliance hosted a candidate event at the Park City Library Aug. 4.
There were no moderated questions and each candidate had six minutes to make their case to voters.
The candidates went in a random order.
Diego Zegarra highlighted his background as an immigrant from Peru and cited his experience working for the Park City Community Foundation. Zegarra said his work involves collaborating with a variety of partners, from nonprofits and governments to community members and the private sector.
He’d like Park City to do more to address affordability.
“We have lost neighbors and we have lost community members over the last many years, and I’m interested in us acting decisively as a community to address workforce housing, to address transit, to address sustainability,” Zegarra said. “I would love for us to lead again in that space. I would love for us to be a community that is inclusive and thoughtful of folks that haven’t always been at the table.”
Incumbent councilmember Jeremy Rubell listed a variety of accomplishments during his first term in office, including neighborhood safety improvements, wildfire mitigation, and opening transit access to Bonanza Flat. Modernizing water rates, burying power lines in the Bonanza Park neighborhood and bus ridership growth from Richardson Flat were also on his list.
Rubell said he’d like a second term to push the Bonanza Park five-acre project forward and collaborate with nonprofits like Recycle Utah and Save People Save Wildlife.
“That’s not as easy as having a menu and picking A or B when it comes to the council,” Rubell said. “It takes insight. It takes experience. It takes having the courage to ask the hard questions and really take those arrows. We’re going to move away from the fallacy of consensus leadership. It only results in stalled projects. What we’re going to do is go towards community representation, focusing on consistency, clarity, healthy debate and putting an end to back room City Hall deals that cater to special interests, not catered to the entire community.”
Molly Miller said she was treated poorly by three members of the Park City Council while serving on the city’s nonprofit services advisory committee, which makes grant funding recommendations. Miller said she’s running for city council “to stand up against unacceptable behavior.”
“Park City has incredibly high stakes choices to make,” Miller said. “One path cuts the brakes on the hot mess express. The other allows us to move forward with a council that listens, works together, respects facts, experts and all humans equally, empowers city staff and puts our community first.”
Incumbent Tana Toly spoke of the challenges women leaders have faced in Park City. Toly said the culture at City Hall needs to change.
“I’ve seen vital relationships with our stakeholders fall apart because of toxic patterns of behavior, and I’ve watched talented, dedicated employees at City Hall retire early because of the environment,” Toly said. “We have lost so many amazing employees, but this is a turning point for all of us.”
Toly said her second term priorities include building a new senior center, finishing the Bonanza Park project, improving regional transportation and moving a zero-food waste initiative forward.
Ian Hartley told voters he’s promising progress, not perfection. Hartley said Park City needs to reevaluate its strategy as things change. He specifically cited taking a new look at future development in Clark Ranch and working with Larry H. Miller Real Estate, which owns land nearby.
“My platform is very simple," Hartley said. "It’s common ground. The things we share, for seniors, for families, for visitors and residents, are things that define us as a community. Open space, the priority to build more affordable housing, to improve infrastructure and access to the facilities that make our community great, are all common ground ethos that we can get together on, and we need to see more of from council.”
John Kenworthy appeared to reference a recent letter published in The Park Record that accused him of making misogynistic remarks about Toly. Kenworthy called it an “organized hit job” and said the most difficult part was to see his wife “shattered.”
“The toxic environment is crazy, just absolutely crazy,” Kenworthy said. “You sign up for politics and you know that it’s a blood sport, and you know that you’re going to hit arrows, but you just never imagine the depth of desperation and what people are willing to do to you... It’s sad. It’s definitely the number one problem in our community.”
The Flanagan’s on Main owner cited his experience as chair of Park City’s Historic Preservation Board and member of the city’s planning commission. Kenworthy also mentioned his work developing seasonal housing at the River’s Edge Resort and Campground in Heber without government subsidies.
Danny Glasser characterized himself as “results-driven, practical and pragmatic.” As CEO of the National Ability Center (NAC), Glasser said he led the construction of the McGrath Mountain Center at Park City Mountain, a project that had been stalled for years.
“A few years ago when I was working at the NAC, we collaborated with the city council on a number of projects, and it seemed like it was easier to get things done,” Glasser said. “Today that isn’t the case. The council meetings I attend end up often argumentative and without definitive results. We don’t have time to waste when we have critical projects, project opportunities like Bonanza Park, the senior center and the [2034] Olympics on the horizon.”
On the city council, Glasser said he wants to retain Park City’s workforce, amid competition from Deer Valley East Village, and invest in housing for both seniors and the younger population.
Beth Armstrong directly addressed her relationship with her husband Roger Armstrong, who has served on the Summit County Council for over a decade.
On the Park City Council, Beth Armstrong said there wouldn’t be a conflict of interest with her husband, but if it did come up in any scenario, she would recuse herself. The Park City and Summit County councils regularly hold joint meetings on a quarterly basis.
Armstrong, who previously led the nonprofit People’s Health Clinic, said she wants to focus on collaboration.
“It’s about joining together and working it out in a room, having discussions and disagreements, and then moving forward with a solution,” she said. “It’s not going to be perfect for everyone, but at least we will have had the conversation and we can move forward, and hopefully we’ve done what every elected official is supposed to do, and that’s do the will of the people that elected them.”
During her speech, Armstrong accused Rubell of serving as the council liaison to both the Kimball Art Center and Sundance Institute, two organizations that have recently announced moves out of Park City proper. Rubell said that is false. Park City Municipal doesn’t have specific liaisons for those two nonprofits, according to an assignment list.
Rubell has served as liaison for the Bonanza Park five-acre project, which the Kimball Art Center was involved with before announcing a move to Kimball Junction.
Armstrong told KPCW she later apologized to Rubell after realizing she misspoke.
