For about the first half hour the open house at the Utah Valley University Wasatch campus Monday, Curtis gave attendees his take on Congress’ looming budget battle with the White House, talked about his work as a member of the House committees on Natural Resources and Energy and Commerce, and then took a few questions from the audience.
"I spend a lot of time demonstrating and showing people how the energy sources of the future will be affordable, reliable and clean," he said at the gathering. "I literally sat in a room full of coal miners two weeks ago, and listened to them talk about zero emission coal plant. I physically see with my own eyes a zero emission, natural gas plant.
But the talk didn’t impress Heber City resident Michael Carr much.
"It's just political speech from a politician," he told KPCW. "It's all the same. We just wanted to get our specific issue resolved."
And actually, Rep. Curtis doesn’t have much use for those more traditional elements of a town hall, either.
"I walked in the office one day and said, I will never do another town hall meeting," he told KPCW. "They're divisive, they're contentious. One or two people dominate the whole thing. And everybody's frustrated that they don't get their questions answered."
Curtis said his staff told him that he can’t avoid town halls altogether. So instead, he said he took the approach on display at the UVU campus Monday. Local residents who signed up ahead of time were given five minutes of face-to-face time to discuss whatever they wanted with the Congressman.
Heber City resident John Hajny was there to get help resolving an identity theft issue that’s been plaguing him for years.
"He told me to come down to his office, bring the appropriate paperwork and they're going to work on my behalf with the IRS to hopefully get my issue resolved," he said.
Most of Curtis’ visits were with one or two individuals at a time. But the last visit of the day was with nearly 20 homeopathic care advocates — carrying signs and placards — seeking support for legislation that would restrict the FDA’s ability to take enforcement actions against new homeopathic medicines.
"I promise you I will give it serious consideration," he told the advocates. "It sounds like something I could support, but I want to read it."
He was then handed some reading material, prompting laughter from everyone in the room.
Curtis said some in that group drove for over an hour just to speak with him for five minutes. He said such effort gets his attention more than a lobbyist would.
"This is far more impactful than sending me an email," he told KPCW. Such an display is "very hard for me to not take incredibly serious when they go to that much work to come in."
The Congressman’s constituent services staff also attended the open house to help with things like passport issues, services for military members, and immigration. That’s the reason Michael Carr and his wife, Veronica Chan, came.
"My first green card has expired, so I need to get it renewed, she said. "During the renewal process, we have been waiting for a few years, but we haven't heard back from the government."
Chan said they met with a member of Curtis’ staff, and the visit was productive.
Rep. Curtis’ next open house will be in Sandy on Sept. 25. He said, ideally, he would like to have them in Wasatch County twice a year.
