Sixteen-year Wasatch County councilman Kendall Crittenden is defending the Heber South Seat against challenger Elizabeth Hokanson, a veteran of Heber City politics, in Tuesday’s Republican primary election.
With no Democrats running for the seat, the June 30 primary will effectively decide the race.
Crittenden pointed to major developments like the Wasatch County Event Complex and Red Ledges as ‘wins’ during his time on the council.
"We've improved our event center complex,” Crittenden said. “That brings in a lot of activities; brings in revenue opportunities for our local businesses in Heber City. We fill our hotels and fill our restaurants with activities there. We’ve been able to improve that complex without any additional cost, there hasn’t been a tax rate to be able to do that. Also because of the donation agreement from Red Ledges we were able to acquire our Recreation Center. We we're able to do that without a tax increase.”
Crittenden’s opponent is Elizabeth Hokanson, a former Heber City Council member who has served on several local boards in that capacity. She spoke to KPCW about her successes in her time on the council during the 2008 recession and her goal of mending fences between both Heber and Wasatch County’s governing bodies.
“We brought Red Ledges into Heber City and I was part of bringing Walmart in, which was controversial at the time, but that has brought an enormous tax base to us, and avoiding a lot of problems with some potential other places that Walmart was thinking of bringing,” Hokanson said. “I have found that the city and county are consistently adversarial. Have been over the years, (they) were at the time when I was on the city council. So, one of my goals is to represent the district that I come from and to work closely with the city council to represent us to the county and foster a more working relationship.”
Asked to differentiate himself from his opponent, Crittenden pointed to his experience and his thorough investigation into county issues.
“I understand the issues, I take the time to research and study and understand the issue, and then I vote my best decision,” he said. “I do listen to the voters; it seems like people when you don't agree with them, they tell you you’re not listening. It doesn’t mean you’re not listening; it just means that based on other information or other ideas or whatever that you didn’t vote the way they maybe wanted you to. On every issue you've got those that think you did it right, and those that think you didn’t do it right, but I think I understand the issues.”
Crittenden also said that the campaign has been cordial so far, but questioned the accuracy of statements Hokanson has made on county issues.
“As the campaign’s gone along and I think it’s been very friendly, but my opponent has made some comments that prior, she just plain didn’t understand what was going on and actually made some misstatements,” Crittenden said. “I posted a little bit and corrected some of those things and she responded back. But I guess the point is I take the time to find out what's going on, I'm not sure other people do.”
Hokanson believes she can foster better relationships with Heber City and provide greater opportunity for public feedback.
“The relationship between Heber City and the County. I plan to reach out to the citizens and get their feedback on important issues which hasn’t been happening, like the power poles that went up, people didn't know,” Hokanson said. “It's not enough to have it on an agenda, we need to reach out to the public, get their input, let them have a voice on important issues that are being made.”
Hokanson also said that she believed that high-density development belongs within city limits, not their Wasatch County surroundings.
“I’m concerned about density; it has been approved at a much higher rate in the County than in the cities,” she said. “That should not be the case, cities should be where development happens. So some of my position and public outreach will be some of the main differences.”
The Utah primary elections are set to take place on Tuesday, June 30.
