[Everett Hildebrandt] Welcome, this is the League of Women Voters Candidate Forum for Moab City. My name is Everett Hildenbrandt and I serve as the Chair of the League of Women Voters of Southeast Utah. On behalf of the League, thank you for joining us tonight. The League of Women Voters is a non-partisan, grassroot organization founded over a hundred years ago with one central mission, to empower voters and defend democracy. We don't support or oppose any candidates or political parties. Instead, our role is to make sure every voter has access to the information they need to make their own decisions. The League works at three levels, local, state, and national, on voter education, election protection, and issues that matter to our communities. Over the decades, we've been part of expanding access to the ballot, protecting voter rights, and encouraging civic engagement. Here in Southeast Utah, our League has worked to bring voters together with candidates in open forums like this one, so that all of us can hear directly from the people who want to serve in public office. Forums like this remind us of something vital. Democracy only works when people are informed and involved. Casting a vote is important, but making that vote an informed one is what gives our democracy its strength. That's why we gather here tonight, so each of us can learn more about the candidates, their priorities, and their vision for our community. Today, some rumors came to my attention that a candidate had unfair early access to the questions and script for this forum. The League takes these proceedings very seriously, and I was able to quickly confirm with all the people who collaborated on the questions that they had not leaked it. I'm very appreciative of the person who brought the rumors to my attention. As everyone knows, rumors spread and mutate quickly and can be quite damaging. I can assure you, to the best of my knowledge, no candidates had unfair early access to the questions or script for tonight's forum. Next, I want to extend my sincere thanks to the candidates for being here this evening and sharing their time and ideas with us. Running for public office takes courage and commitment, and we appreciate their willingness to engage with the voters. I'm going to go through a bunch of thank yous now. I'd also like to thank our volunteers, community partners, and all of you, the voters, who make this work meaningful. Your presence here is proof that civic participation is alive and well in Moab. In particular, I would like to thank the members of the League of Women Voters of Southeast Utah for their tireless work to help organize and run this forum. Raise your hand if you're in the League. So there's a lot of us in the room here. I'd like to thank KZMU for simulcasting and providing audio support as well as coaching us on FCC guidelines. I'd like to thank Oscar Niehaus over there in the corner for agreeing to film. Thank you. Be conscious of his camera. He will be panning around the room. If you'd prefer not to be filmed, make sure that you're in an area his camera's not pointed at. I'd like to thank the MARC for offering this space tonight, and I'd like to thank the Moab Dance Collective for moving their practice so that we can have this space at this time. Finally, I'd like to thank the Girl Scouts of Troop 1639 for kicking us off with the Pledge of Allegiance. [Speaker 10] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thanks, ladies. [Maria Osbourne, League of Women Voters] You can all be seated. Hi, everybody. My name is Maria Osborn. I'm the membership chair for the League of Women Voters, and I have some housekeeping to go through. First off, provided to us by the county clerk's office, some information about changes this year for the voting process. So, important stuff. So, the ballots for the election this year are going to be mailed out October 14th and must be returned by November 4th. Starting this year, it's no longer sufficient for your ballots to be postmarked by November 4th. They have to be received at the county clerk's office. So, big changes. Spread the word on that. Additionally, this year, the ballot envelopes have a new field in addition to the signature where you have to fill out the last four of your Social Security number or your Utah ID number for the ballot to be counted. The signature and the ID number are on the inside of the envelope, so don't seal your envelope until you have filled both of those fields out. Starting in 2029, this is a bit out, but voters must explicitly opt in to get a mail-in ballot. This is a new question on the voter registration form, so if you registered prior to this, you have to re-register and opt in and answer that question affirmatively. Speak to a league representative, kicking around with our name tags, if you have questions about that. Also, if your address has changed, even if you're moving across town, you have to re-register as well. You can go to the county clerk's office or their website if you've got more questions about that. Okay, I just want to cover the FCC guidelines. Since this debate is being broadcast on air by KZMU, we have to abide by these guidelines. The short version of this is each candidate will be given an equal time to speak. Because of this, we'll not be taking any questions or discussion from the audience. However, we do have this room until 9, and this forum's not going to go until then. So take the time after that to go ask candidates questions, mingle, have some food provided by the league in the back. The order that the candidates are answering questions must be fair, so we'll be rotating that. We'll be using dice rolls to determine which candidate goes first and what question they're going to be answering. So every candidate will get a chance to go first, and then they'll roll to figure out what the question is. The questions themselves are non-partisan and non-personal. So we've taken the time to go around the community and collect questions from folks. Then we've distilled these questions down to get to the relevant policy and decision of each candidate. We hope you find this informative and helpful in deciding who to vote for. Finally, if you want to get involved in democracy yourself, on these two back tables, the candidates have brought some materials that you can take home with you to show your support for them. We also have some food in the back, and then bathrooms are in the hallway over here. Just help yourself. We have on the back table, there's an email list where you can sign up to be part of the League of Women emails. We have lots of stuff going on at the league after this forum, and we'd love all the help we can get and as many folks engaged as we can. Additionally, the League runs vote411.org, so all the candidates are going to be contacted. This is nationwide also. All the candidates will be contacted to answer some written questions, and those will be on the website. The League, I mean, 411 is a League of Women voters sponsored website dedicated to providing information about local elections, and you can check in there periodically to find more information about the candidates in this race. Finally, the Chamber of Commerce is also hosting a forum this year. That will be on October 2nd at 6 p.m. at Starr Hall. We've collaborated with them to ensure there will be different topics covered, so attending that one will be valuable as well. As Everett said, there will be a video recording by Oscar, so we're going to make sure that the candidates have access to the tapes so that they can promote themselves on social media after this. Thank you so much, and we're going to kick the forum off. [Everett Hildebrandt] That was the hard part. Everyone can hear okay still? Thank you. We're going to now let the candidates introduce themselves. For this election, we have two races, the mayoral race and the council race. The mayors are here on the left, and the council candidates are on the right. We have two candidates for the mayoral race, Joette Langanese and Curtis Wells, and we have three candidates for the council race where there are only two seats available, Jason Taylor, Howard Trenholm, and Miles Loftin. I ask the audience to hold all their applause and comments for the very end of the debate as we are on a tight schedule. There will be time afterwards to mingle and ask questions directly for yourself. For this section, we'll go left to right, and each candidate will be given two minutes to introduce themselves. There's a timer up here at the front. Timers, are we ready with two minutes? Okay. So we'll start with Curtis Wells. Let me know when you're ready. [Curtis Wells] Ready. [Everett Hildebrandt] Let's do it. [Curtis Wells] Hello, everyone. Thank you for being here. I want to thank the League of Women Voters. I'm excited for your new kind of reforming, and as a father of three daughters, I was raised by a single mother and then a grandmother on the other side of my family. I think it's really important that the women in the community have a strong voice, and so thank you. I'm happy to be here. My mother moved me and my four brothers back to Moab in 1991, the town where she was born and raised. So my experience at Moab has been, you know, one of very passionate love for Moab, its surroundings, its beauty, but also I think a very comprehensive understanding of the economy. My mother ran restaurants, natural resource development business. I worked in construction. You know, my profession since college has really led me to a lot of different focus areas and also public service. I served as a Grand County Commissioner for four years, had a wonderful experience there. I've since served on Governor Cox's transition team, where I was later appointed as Chairman of the CIB, which finances the majority of the infrastructure in our community. And I also serve as a Rural Policy Advisor to Governor Cox, where I meet with the Cabinet once a month on issues impacting Moab and rural Utah. I'm really excited to be here and to talk to you more about what I can offer the community as mayor. Thank you. [Everett Hildebrandt] Okay. Thank you. Next up, we have Joette Langanese. Are we ready? Oh, one second. Timers, are we ready? Okay. Sorry. [Joette Langianese] Hi, everybody. So great to see you here. Thank you to the League and KZMU for making sure everybody can hear what our candidates have to say. I have been your mayor for four years. It's been my honor and my privilege to serve this community, and I really appreciate all the support that I've gotten over the past few years, and I look forward to your support over the next four years as I serve as your mayor. I've lived here for 28 years. I love this community just like you all do. I moved here. I became the chief compliance officer for the hospital. I was on the county council for eight years. I served two terms. I got a lot done during that time, and I also was the founding executive director for the Friends of Arches and Canyonlands Parks that raised over $2 million for our national parks. Through those experiences, I believe I've provided the leadership that allowed me to work with what I inherited when I became in office at the city. I inherited a situation where we had basically no staff. We had a police department with only seven employees. When we budgeted for 20, we had no city manager. We had no legal assistance. We had a planning commission that was skeleton at best. But during that time, I was able to accomplish a lot. We were able to improve our infrastructure. We were able to put a playground in Swanny Park and much more. On top of that, we had four flash floods. So we had to quickly prepare for how we deal with flash floods in the future. So I have a lot more work to do. I promised you when I ran the first time that I would always put residents first and our community first, and I will continue to keep that promise over the next few years as I serve as your mayor. I want to make sure that everything that the city does benefits our residents first and that Moab is a place that you can all be proud of to call home. Thank you. [Everett Hildebrandt] Okay. Thank you, Joette. Timers, are we ready with another two minutes? Okay. We'll move on to Jason Taylor. [Jason Taylor] Good evening, everybody. My name is Jason Taylor, and, again, I'd like to also thank the League of Women Voters for putting this on tonight. I am running for reelection. I was elected to be on the city council four years ago, and during that time when I first started to run, I think my desire is still the same. You know, when I looked at the council, I looked at who was on there, and I looked at who was representative, and at the time there was no one on the council who had kids, you know, and I was like, there's no one representing families. Even though they come from families and there's families in town, you know, and stuff like that, there's no one sitting there going, hey, this is what my children are dealing with, you know, and coming at it from that perspective. As well as a business owner of a business here in town, and being in town for about 28 years, I came to Moab with the same struggles that everybody else had. You know, I didn't have a place to live when I first lived here. I had to, you know, try to find a place to live, try to work up through to where I am at now, and it was difficult and it's hard, and it's only getting harder. And there's a lot of things that I wanted to do, and people are like, well, I just love this town, I want this job. And I think, well, that's kind of true. Everybody in this audience loves this town. That's why you're here. And everybody is here because they have a desire to make Moab better. And my goal was to be a voice for the people in town to pound the streets and make sure that we as a city council were doing things to serve the city, that we had playgrounds, that our kids. It used to irritate me that my kids would walk to school and half the time they wasn't on sidewalks. I was like, we need sidewalks, we need better streets. And so that has been my goal, and it still continues to be my goal, and I think we accomplished a lot in the four years that I was on. And I would like to carry that momentum further, and I would like to be the voice for you guys. I know many of you, many of you guys have reached out to me, and I will call you. You guys know that, and I will return your calls. I will sit down with you, and I will talk about the issues that we have. Thank you. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Jason. Timers, are we ready for another two minutes? Okay, Howard Trenholm. [Howard Trenholme] What an honor. What a privilege for a Scotsman to sit before you this evening and want to serve you all. And you're such an easy population to take care of because, well, you're just Moabites, and that's a tough job for politicians. I came here 28 years ago too, so I guess this is 28 years later. You've seen the movie with Danny Boyle, never mind. I kind of came, I fell in love with Moab as soon as I came down Highway 128, and that was before I even got into Moab. And I was living and working in Aspen for the Ritz-Carlton as a manager, and I traveled across the nation opening hotels and serving people. Before that, I came from Scotland and got a degree in hotel management, so I'm academically trained on how to serve people. Before that, my mother had a bed-and-breakfast house in the Scottish Highlands, and that's when I first met my first Americans, and I said, wow, you guys are such interesting people. But I've been in love with America since I was a wee boy. I've been in love with Moab since 1997 when I risked everything and came here to start a business, to become an employer. And for 28 years, I've served cups of coffee, I've made bagels for people, and I even had a bagel named after me called the Howard Special. And a lot of people in this audience say, yeah, he's special, all right. So I'm here to serve you now, the people of Moab, because you deserve somebody that understands you in a way that very few people do by having been on Main Street for 28 years. It's my time. I've given back. I've never been a spectator. I've always been an actor. I was on the recreation board that built the aquatic center. I was on the travel council that introduced sustainable and responsible recreation. The Do It Like a Local program was very much part of what I was working on, quietly in the background. Now I'm standing up, or really sitting down, but I want you to vote for me because I want to go to work for you as Moabites and unite this town again as we once were as a wonderful example of the Beehive State. So thank you. [Everett Hildebrandt] Okay. Thank you, Howard. Timers. Are we ready for another two minutes? Now we will have Miles Loftin. Thank you. [Miles Loftin] Hello, everyone. Can you hear me? Perfect. My name is Miles Loftin, and first of all, let me say thank you to both the League of Women Voters as well as everyone sitting in this audience. I think one of the things that drew me to this town is how much we all care about this town, and showing up for something like this is showing how much you care and showing that you participate. I first came to Moab when I was a kid. I was 6 years old, and my mom, as a teacher, brought me out here with a group of school children, and she had a program where she took them canyoneering and rafting to explore all of the wonderful things that we have to offer here in this place. And as I became an adult, I tried to figure out where I wanted to settle down and where I wanted to live, and it became this place. And I moved here and tried to start a life here, and now I am in a position where I've started a small business, I'm a contractor here in town, and I've had the opportunity to serve and help a variety of members of our community, and that brought me to a place where I got a position on the Planning and Zoning Commission here with the city, and I wanted to have more of a voice, and I wanted to be more involved in the goings-on here, and this feels like an evolution of it. People our age need to step up and start to have a voice in what goes on in this town, and I'm really excited to be someone who can do that for the community and in general. For everyone here, I think I have the opportunity to meet a lot of people, see people from a lot of different walks of life, and give them all a voice. And that's why I'd like you to vote for me, and that's why I'm here. Thank you. [Everett Hildebrandt] Okay. Thank you, candidates, for the nice introductions. We're going to enter into the area where we're doing questions now. This is the lightning round. For this section, we'll be asking five questions and giving each candidate one minute to answer each question. Candidates may use their time however they choose, but we encourage them to focus on providing their own answer rather than rebutting other candidates' responses. I will roll a dice to determine who goes first and flip a coin to determine the direction we rotate. For each round, the first candidate will roll one dice to determine the topic and a second dice to determine the question. I will announce the topic and question twice, and then we'll go into the candidates' responses. Are we ready with one minute? Okay. So we'll be starting with Howard Trenholme. [Howard Trenholme] Roll the dice. [Everett Hildebrandt] And we'll be rotating to the right. So speaker's right, so you'll go second, Jason. Yes, please. What did you get for the dice roll? [Howard Trenholme] One. [Everett Hildebrandt] Okay. And then roll one more time. [Howard Trenholme] Two. [Everett Hildebrandt] Okay. Are you ready with the microphone, Howard? Are you ready with the microphone? Okay, so once again, you'll have one minute to answer this question. I'll repeat it twice, and then we'll go on to Jason, and everyone will answer the question. The question is on budget, taxes, and city finances. What strategies would you use to manage the budget if tourism revenues decline? I'll repeat the question again. What strategies would you use to manage the budget if tourism revenues decline? Timers? [Howard Trenholme] I'll answer that question. [Everett Hildebrandt] Howard Trenholme. [Howard Trenholme] Moab is solely dependent on tourism, its main industry. So if it's a city and the number of visitors decline for whatever reasons, like most small businesses, maybe you have to consider making cuts and working within your means until that economy comes back. The great news for Moab City is it has the county next door to really help it to establish and promote tourism. That's the role of the travel council office. So if the economy was ever to go down with tourism, I'd be having a wee chat with our friends up at the county to have them help us with some marketing because that lifts all the boats. As far as the day-to-day details at the city, we have a city manager, we have a finance director, we pay them extremely well. Their job is to figure this out with the guidance of the council, and that would be my role. [Everett Hildebrandt] Okay. Thank you, Howard. Next up we will have Jason Taylor. Timers, are we ready with one minute? Okay, go ahead. [Jason Taylor] You know, Howard is right. We do have a travel council that we rely on a lot. It's one thing that's really kind of, whether it's good or bad, is the city is basically riding on the coattails of what the county does. We need to work with the county, we need to be a part of the county to be a part of that process to figure out how to bring people to this town. If tourism does continue to decline, yeah, we are going to have to make some cuts. We're going to have to make some budget cuts. We should already be making those cuts. I work with the city budget pretty intently. I'm in it a lot. And I can honestly say that I feel like the city runs on a pretty tight budget. And we run as lean as we possibly can because we know that these funds are the residents' funds and that they need to go to making sure that the livelihood of our residents are taken care of. And so we'll have to make some cuts. We'll have to also look at, as everybody says, diversifying our economy. We need to continue to look at that. We need to continue to see what we can do to diversify without hurting, you know, the economy of this town. [Everett Hildebrandt] Okay. Thank you, Jason. Next up we will have Joette Langanese. Timers. One minute. Go ahead. [Joette Langianese] When it comes to diversifying our economy or if we would have a decline in our economy, we have to look at two things, what we can control and what we can't control. We can't control what happens at the federal level. We can't control what happens with inflation. We can't control what other cities are doing to compete with us. But what we can control is how we manage our infrastructure, how we make sure that our citizens are taken care of, and how we can make sure that our downtown is running smoothly so that our visitors and our residents can be proud of where we live. We also have to make sure that our budget is in financial shape. We have been very fiscally responsible over the last two years. We want to make sure that we continue to do that and that we balance our budget in a way that's going to be fiscally responsible and that we budget for lean times and be prepared for those times when the decline may or may not happen. Thank you. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Joette. Next up we will have Curtis Wells. Timers, are we ready? Not yet? Okay. And go. [Curtis Wells] Thank you. The city budget has doubled in a decade. If revenues are down, that means businesses and working families have to tighten their belts. The city has been unwilling to do that. The city has instead raised taxes and raised costs on the elderly and the working classes and the businesses. If there was an intention from current city leadership to cut costs and manage the budget wisely, it would have happened. I served as a county commissioner for four years where joint city-county meetings were really important. I've interacted with city leadership and county leadership under my current roles as CIB chairman. The city is not interested in working with the county. The city is operated in a bubble where the only solution is to go extract more tax revenue from the tax base at a time when revenues are declining. That is not good policy. That is not a good trend that we're on, and that needs to be changed, and that is absolutely a big part of my campaign. Thank you. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Curtis. Next up we will have Miles Loftin. Timers, are we ready? All right, go ahead. [Miles Loftin] Thank you. So if revenue was to decline due to declining tourism, I think there's a few things that we would address. One, as everybody's spoken to, cuts would have to be made, and unfortunately, as everybody's spoken to as well, things are fairly well spent already at the city because we do care about where those we know that's your money and we care about where it's being spent. So finding some of those in the budget would be tricky, but not impossible, and partnering with the county would be a good part of how we could possibly make that happen. But I also believe that we need to make sure that we are a place where people who want to come and explore this wonderful world we have and recreate responsibly feel welcome because that will help keep the tourism money here. Thank you. [Everett Hildebrandt] Okay, thank you. That wraps up our first of five questions. Next up we will have Jason Taylor roll the dice twice to determine the next question. One. [Andy Smith, EMS] Two. [Everett Hildebrandt] Two. [Andy Smith, EMS] Five. [Everett Hildebrandt] Five. Okay, the topic is community and social issues. And the question is, I'll repeat it twice, what role should the city take in supporting social services such as food security, health care, or mental health? I'll repeat the question one more time. What role should the city take in supporting social services such as food security, health care, or mental health? Timers. One minute. Jason, are you ready? [Jason Taylor] I am. [Everett Hildebrandt] Go ahead. [Jason Taylor] You know, that's a really good question. And it's one of those questions that it really comes down to, what is the city's role and where does the city stand on how do we support these areas without hurting other parts of our budget? Because I think it is so important. And having food security, you know, the city works with the county as far as the food bank goes. We have a food bank here in town. And doing things that we can do to provide our residents with the tools that they need to be economically feasible to have those things. And we have, as far as mental health care goes, we do have like we support a victim's advocate group, you know, that we have within the city that helps when there's times of trial and issues that they can rely on the victim's advocate to help them through to help them get through the help that they need and to find those tools to get over those trying periods in their lives. And health. [Everett Hildebrandt] That's time. Okay. Thank you, Jason. Joette? Yes. Timers. Are you ready? [Joette Langianese] Ready. I'm ready. [Speaker 11] Let's wait a second. Are we ready? Okay. Go ahead, Joette. [Joette Langianese] You know, health care and social services really are a huge part of our economy. If we don't have health care and if we don't have access to the services that our citizens need, that's going to really have an impact on our overall economy. The city right now, we support, you know, we have so many social service options, so many nonprofits here. But city, we provide support to Seek Haven. Seek Haven does a lot of work here with our domestic violent community, and unfortunately, that's something that we as a city need to be responsible for. We support Moab Solutions, who also provides homeless services. That's something that they work with the Moab Police Department and others. Huge resource that the city provides. We also provide support to the Multicultural Center, which is another social service. And also, lastly, the Moab Free Clinic, which is our free health care service. We provide financial support to all those organizations, and I believe that's what makes us a strong community. Thank you. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Joette. Timers. Next up we'll have Curtis. You ready? [Curtis Wells] You bet. [Everett Hildebrandt] Go ahead. [Curtis Wells] So I think, I mean, a lot of the issues, frankly, that the city is in where we're in trouble and we're not taking care of business is because we're not focused on the bread and butter. But Moab is a very blessed community, and there is a lot of value in the community. And I think having good security nets for people is important, particularly the food bank that Councilmember Jason Taylor referenced. Funding was recently cut for that. The Multicultural Center really picked up a lot of the slack. And, you know, I think having food available for people, you know, to have some food for their families is really important. People shouldn't go hungry. So do I think the city's role in social services is of merit and valuable? Yes. But I think staying focused on the city's primary services is significant. Thank you. [Everett Hildebrandt] Okay. Thank you, Curtis. Next up we'll have Miles Loftin. Timers, are you ready? Okay. Go ahead. [Miles Loftin] Thanks. So I believe that food security, mental health, or any health care in general are huge building blocks towards having a safe, comfortable community. These are basic things that we do need to provide. And as Mayor Joette pointed out, and as Councilman Jason Taylor pointed out, there are several different entities that we work with to help provide those for our community. And I am in support of continuing to provide what we need to make sure that our residents have some of the most basic needs to be happy and healthy in this community. The food bank's a great thing. The multicultural center has done wonderful things for us. The free health care clinic is something that I think many of my peers, myself included, have taken advantage of at times. And that providing for those services is very important to maintaining the quality of life that we all want to see in this town. Thank you. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Miles. We will close off with Howard Trenholme. Timers? [Howard Trenholme] Can you repeat the question for me, please? Sure. [Everett Hildebrandt] What role, and by the way, anyone can ask to repeat the question, what role should the city take in supporting social services such as food security, health care, or mental health? Are you ready? [Howard Trenholme] Again, yeah. Team effort, folks. The city should stay in its lane and support all the infrastructure, public safety and roads and everything else, and do all it can to support the for-profit businesses, its core. Because if the for-profit businesses are surviving and doing well, well, guess who they donate to? The non-profits. So by lifting the community collectively, working with the county, state, federal government, to restore our economy to what it was just a few years ago, that delivers a lot of dollars to all the non-profits, and they in turn can focus on that. And if we have any extra money left in the budget, if we're prospering as a city, then of course we'll give money to help out all these essential and valuable non-profits. But it takes all of us to work together. It takes teamwork to allow that to happen. It shouldn't be expected for one city to lift all the boats. So we need to work together, ladies and gentlemen, and that's what I hope to provide if I'm elected for you as city council. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Howard. Okay, we will move on to the next question. For this, Joette will roll the dice twice. One. One. [Joette Langianese] Two. [Everett Hildebrandt] And next dice roll. [Joette Langianese] Six. [Everett Hildebrandt] One and six. So the topic, again, will be budget, taxes, and city finances. And the question is, how should the city balance property tax impacts on residents with the need to fund essential services? I will repeat the question once more. How should the city balance property tax impacts on residents with the need to fund essential services? Timers? You ready with one minute? [Joette Langianese] One minute? Oh, my goodness. How can I talk about this in one minute? [Everett Hildebrandt] You got to try. [Joette Langianese] Go ahead. I think that to balance our budget with the property tax, one of the number one things that we need to be looking at is flood mitigation. We also need to realize that by having a property tax, it allows us to bond for more money so that we can do more things with our infrastructure. So the property tax was a really, really difficult decision for this council to make. But I think it was an important one. It was one that needed to happen. And it was one that we're utilizing that money specifically for capital improvement projects. That's a very important decision that the council made. If we were going to instill a property tax, we needed to make sure that that money went to capital improvement and infrastructure projects that have been deferred for the last 30 years because previous council members and mayors didn't have the courage to do what this council and I did when we instilled the property tax. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Joette. Timers, are you ready with one minute? Next up, we'll have Curtis Wells. [Curtis Wells] So I think the property tax in itself, the way the property tax was enacted has a lot of people really upset. The property tax was placed on the ballot and it failed. And just two years removed from that, the property tax was passed legislatively in a quiet summer month when no one's paying attention with minimal public input. That's not courage. That's running the city like a political organization. And if your defense is we studied and we know best, then they're telling the public that you're not informed and that you don't know after you just failed to pass it on the ballot. So I think that, I mean, that's really important. Not to mention that was done at a time when revenues were declining. And so while revenues are declining, the burden was increased by you essentially in the middle of the night. That's insensitive. That's not balancing the budget. And I think that's a big part of why we're having a hard time as a community with taxes is we're not being dealt with straight in terms of what the taxes are going for. Thank you. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Curtis. Next up, we will have Miles Loftin. Timers. Go ahead. [Miles Loftin] Thank you. So I was not on council when that decision was made. And I am curious to all of the different reasons that they made for it, but we do have a lot of infrastructure that needs to be repaired. And I do believe that it was a seemingly sound decision. And so now the question is, make sure that we spend it exactly where residents want to see it spent and make sure that we are potentially like understanding and revisiting a rate or moving forward with programs that we've already instilled, which is things like the utility rebate program and making them more robust so that people who are really struggling with that have an opportunity to gain a little bit of relief. Thank you. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Miles. Next up, we will have Howard Trenholme. Timers. [Howard Trenholme] You know, a year ago in January, I stood at the county at city chambers and urged the standing commission and the mayor to exhaust every other option possible for generating funds before taxing the citizens of this great community and our exceptional community that existed for 32 years without property taxes. Thanks to all the efforts of collectiveness, the county really making sure that the tourists kept flowing in here. That kind of stopped. Eight months later, they ignored all that. Eight months later, I went with 200 citizens at city chambers, and every one of us except one person said, we do not support the property tax increase. What was the vote? They voted five zero against us. That is not representative government. Over the 28 years I lived in Moab without a property tax, or all those years, we built an exceptional city with no property tax. It was done over these years. How could it not be done again? We just need to reinstate our previous magic. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Howard. Closing us off, we will have Jason Taylor. Timers. One minute. [Jason Taylor] I was on the council when that vote went through. And the day after that happened, I had someone come up to me, and they said, how dare you? How dare you vote against that? And you know that we did not, that I did not want that tax, and I voted for you. And I thought to myself, you know what? You voted for me to be in office to not to vote for you, but to do the homework, to study whether or not to do this stuff. I spent over two years studying the property tax and if we could do it or not. I spoke to people in other towns. I spoke to the people in D.C. And all I got told was, you know what? You're standing on a two-legged stool. Your town is not financially sound. And it was not on the ballot. It was never on the ballot. About two years before that, it was to the county council, and they voted down. And we were using that money to support our streets. We had good infrastructure 30 years ago. That infrastructure has dilapidated and is failing. If we waited another 10 years ago, we would be in a world of hurt where we were taxing people harder than we are now. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Jason. Okay. I believe that wraps up this question. And so we'll move on to Curtis rolling the dice twice and letting me know what you get. [Curtis Wells] Two. [Everett Hildebrandt] Okay. [Curtis Wells] Two. [Everett Hildebrandt] Okay. This is a community and social issues. You guys are really hitting the ones and twos here. But we're out of questions in the ones and twos, and so we're going to have to re-roll. [Curtis Wells] Let's get back to taxes. Yeah, right. [Everett Hildebrandt] So, okay, this is community and social issues. I'll read the question twice. How can voices from underrepresented groups, such as immigrants, seasonal workers, and low-income residents be better included in city decisions? I'll read it one more time. How can voices from underrepresented groups, such as immigrants, seasonal workers, and low-income residents be better included in city decisions? Let me know when you're ready. [Curtis Wells] I'm ready. [Everett Hildebrandt] Timers. Go ahead. [Curtis Wells] Well, I think accounting for those groups in our decisions is important. I mean, some examples of, you know, seasonal workers or immigrants, we have a very, like, wonderful immigrant population that really keep a lot of our businesses and our economy going. Understanding the businesses that they work for, the industries they're in, and how those policies affect them are really important. I think that's something that's really lacking in the city right now is kind of back to that bubble mindset and being naive and ignorant to the status of businesses and what they need. I think young people are really underrepresented. I think the fact that the city's affordable housing plan is collecting dust on the shelf for the last four years is representative of that. I don't think the city's done enough for affordable housing. They've failed in their efforts at affordable housing. I think that's something that I understand really well, and I think the city could use a youth movement. And I think a mayor that understands how to get houses built and what these kids are dealing with is really important. Thank you. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you. Next up, we'll have Miles Loftin, timers. Go ahead. [Miles Loftin] Thank you. So, on the one hand, how to reach out to those communities and get more of a response, I think, is part of our duty if we get on to city council. It's a position of, I mean, I work with folks in those positions, and I talk to them about their day and their life. I fix their homes, their water heaters, their whatever it happens to be. And so I'm hoping to bring a voice to that, and I think a lot of our decisions are made with some of our more sensitive groups in mind to make sure that we lift the whole community up. And so the one thing I want to talk about, really, is we have meetings that you can attend. We have situations where you can involve yourself and show up, and I think I would love to see more community participation like this in our city council meetings and otherwise giving a voice to themselves. Thank you. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you. Howard? How can voices from underrepresented groups, such as immigrants, seasonal workers, and low-income residents be better included in city decisions? Howard, are you ready? [Howard Trenholme] Well, I think one of the roles of government is to inform and educate all its citizens of what they can do, wherever they're from. Listen, I'm an immigrant. I've always felt this town has been very supportive of people from other places. We're a hospitality town, ladies and gentlemen. The core of our employees are immigrants and do things that Americans don't like to do. We just need to support them. Really, if we gave them somewhere to live and gave them a good economy, and the city's made some mistakes in that regard and made it difficult to find secure housing. So if I was in legislation, I would find legislation that would help developers build homes so we can secure these folks and they have a place to live, at the same time making sure they have work so they can support themselves all year long and not just depend on a few months of busy work. [Everett Hildebrandt] Okay. Thank you, Howard. Jason, are you ready? Yeah. Timers. [Jason Taylor] So we've been working really hard with that the last four years. We have a lot of housing coming online, and it's taken a while to get that housing online. We've hit a lot of roadblocks. We've hit roadblocks within our town. We've hit roadblocks with our legislature, you know, what we can and can't do. We've also hit some roadblocks with the economy, just that it's getting more expensive to build here, and people are having a hard time building low-income housing when they paid premium for property, you know, and trying to get that switch. We're trying to work through that. There is not a magic bullet that's going to make that happen. There is not someone who's going to walk in here, you know, with a cape on and fix this. It's going to take effort from the whole community to make this happen. But we need to work with the immigrants and these people, these seasonal workers. One of the things that we can do is change seasonal to year-round. You know, that's a big deal, where people can have, you know, a financial income to be able to be stable year-round. I was a seasonal worker. I went from feast to famine for year after year, and I know what it's like, and it's hard, and there is no magic bullet. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you. Okay, we will close out with Joette. Timers. Go ahead. [Joette Langianese] I think we need to realize that our underserved community and our immigrants are the backbone of our economy. They're the ones that we don't see. They're in the background. They're in the kitchen. They're cooking the food. They're cleaning the rooms. And I think the first thing we need to do is make sure they feel safe. They need to feel safe that they can go to work, that they can go to school. I got an email from somebody, one of my constituents, who said, we're scared. We have people that don't want to go to work. We have people that don't want to go to school. And so I reached out immediately to our chief of police and said we've got to make sure these people feel like they belong here, that they're part of our community. And so, number one, they need to feel safe. Our police department made sure that they did and let them know that the police is here. They're part of their community. They're not going to hurt those folks. They're going to make sure they're safe. That's what we need to do to make sure that our underserved community feel confident in coming to speak to us. [Everett Hildebrandt] Okay. Thank you, Joette. So we move on to the final question of this round. Miles will be selecting it. [Miles Loftin] Two. Okay. [Everett Hildebrandt] You have to roll again because we're out of questions in two. [Miles Loftin] Did you load these next three? [Everett Hildebrandt] Okay. Three is housing and development. [Miles Loftin] One. [Everett Hildebrandt] One. Okay. Housing and development. I'll read the question twice. What actions should the city take to increase the availability of affordable and workforce housing? Okay. I'll read it once more. What actions should the city take to increase the availability of affordable and workforce housing? Timers. One minute. Miles, go ahead. [Miles Loftin] Thank you. So this particular topic is a passion of mine. I think there's two things that need to be done. One, the city can already support groups within our community that build affordable and or low-income housing. We already do that, and that would be a great place to start. As far as what we can do to support a more affordable housing market in general, there's a variety of things that we can approach. One of my favorites would be an option for a voluntary deed restriction with an exchange for a property tax reduction. There's a variety of ways that we can set our community up to have housing for the next round of professionals that want to live here and help strengthen our whole town and our economy here. Thank you. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Miles. Next up we'll have Howard. Timers. Let me know when you're ready. [Howard Trenholme] The boondoggle housing, right? Well, first of all, Moab can't do it alone. Our square footage, our footprint is way too small. There's very few areas that we can develop that's affordable. So in the city, we really need to focus on density. Every city I've lived in is pretty dense. They have a lot of population living in. So we need to have density bonuses for developers. Beyond that, we need all the help we can get from Grand County and particularly San Juan County. The Moab Valley, Moab City built a sewer plant to facilitate stuff that we all deliver every day, and it's for this whole valley. So we really need to kind of accept the fact that the Moab Valley is the place where we can do some really big things. I would like to see an Arroyo Crossing on a massive scale and perhaps our only friends that can help us are the federal government. So we need to work with the people maybe we don't find tasteful at the times. That's the hard part of government, to find solutions for the Moabites in this valley, because this is the Moab Valley with Moab City at its center. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Howard. Next up, we'll have Jason Taylor. Timers, go ahead. [Jason Taylor] Howard's absolutely right that Moab is a pretty small town. It's 4 miles by 4 miles. We're about 5,000 people. We've grown by about 1% over the last 20 years. And if we are going to increase density, we need to come to the realization that if we increase density, we're increasing it in a very small area. And that's going to affect the people who live in this town. And so it's going to come at a cost, and we need to decide what that cost is. If we can do it in certain areas, maybe it's worthwhile doing it in town. If we can work with Grand County and work with them to develop some areas to get higher density that are closer to town, then my goal is that we can kind of keep the small-town atmosphere while still growing and still making Moab a place that we all want to live. But it's very hard, and it's very complicated. We have developers who are trying to make as much money as they can, and we're trying to work with them to be like, hey, we understand you're trying to do that. That's why we create things like the AEH Ordinance to try to kind of find some middle ground where it's active employment housing. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Jason. Next up we'll have Joette. Timers, go ahead. [Joette Langianese] I think the city has done a lot to increase the availability of affordable housing. One of the things we worked on when I first got into office was the deed restrictions on housing. We created an AEH Ordinance, active employee housing, where 30% of all new developments have to be actively living and working in Grand County and Moab. We also have hundreds of new apartments that are going to be coming online in the next couple of years. Now, with that said, I think it's important for us to consider what we can do to streamline the process in our planning department. They do a good job, but there's ways that we can make it less bureaucratic, so to speak, and have it a lot more streamlined so that we can allow these affordable developments to come in faster and quicker. The other thing that I have to quickly mention is the Moab Partnership for Seniors that I've been working on for 20 years, and we are also looking at developing senior housing so that seniors can age in place. We should be working on that also in the next year. Thank you. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Joette. Closing us off will be Curtis. [Curtis Wells] Thank you. I agree, and I'm glad my opponent acknowledges that the city's too bureaucratic in getting approvals for multifamily projects. The city pats himself on the back for all these units they've approved, but go talk to the multifamily developers, and everybody's pulling their head out that they can't get through the system because of all of these issues that, frankly, don't measure up to the urgency and need for housing. The city paid about 30% over market rate for Walnut Lane and then struggles to understand why it's not financeable. It doesn't take a cape or Superman to make these things work. You just have to know what you're doing, and you've got to know what you're getting the public in when you make these decisions. And so making Walnut Lane work and making that a success is a big goal of mine and something I'm really dedicated to. I think if the city were to work with the county on densing these things, again, we're four years in, and we're still talking about those things that you're going to do. Well, let's see some action. Thank you. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Curtis. Okay, that concludes our lightning round. So we'll be moving into the mayoral focus. In this round, we'll be doing more of a question and rebuttal style. So thank you, candidates, for answering all those questions. The council members, you'll be passive in this round. This round will run similarly. We'll have two minutes to answer the question, and then the opposing candidate will be given one minute to rebut. I will flip a coin to determine which candidate we start with, and the candidates will roll dice to determine which questions they answer. We will be doing two questions, so each of you will have a chance to go first, and each of you will have a chance to rebut. I'm going to flip the coin now. Heads will mean Curtis goes first. Tails will mean Joette goes first. It is tails, so Joette will go first. Can you roll the dice? [Joette Langianese] Three. [Curtis Wells] Now we do rock, paper, scissors. [Joette Langianese] I know. Three. Do you need me to do it again? [Everett Hildebrandt] Nope. That's good. Okay, I will repeat the question twice, and then Joette will be given two minutes. Two minutes? Timer's ready? Okay. Are you ready? What do you see as the most important issues facing Moab's residents over the next decade? I'll repeat the question. What do you see as the most important issues facing Moab's residents over the next decade? Timers? Joette? [Joette Langianese] Well, I see three important issues over the next decade. One is housing. We've talked a lot about that here just recently, but housing is huge for us. We need to make sure that we have available housing so that we can maintain our economy and that our residents are taken care of. The second most important thing we need to be focusing on is flood mitigation. We've had four flash floods in the last three years, unexpected, unheard of. We need to make sure that we're prepared and that we can learn from what happens and that we're ready for the next event. We know that extreme weather events are going to continue to happen. We've seen it over and over again with the fires, with the flash flooding. Luckily this year, we're okay. There were still some areas across town where our drainages couldn't keep up with the amount of rain that we had. But I think flood mitigation is a huge issue that we're going to need to be paying attention to. The third thing that I would like to see is community well-being. It's important for our residents to know that we're taking care of them, that we put them first. We want to make sure that they have the amenities that they need to make them feel like this is a place where they want to live. We want to make sure that we continue all the cultural events that we have, the free concerts in town, all the art that you see around town, that our swimming pool is up and running and maintained so people can swim during the summer and all season long. We want to make sure that our infrastructure is in place, that our roads are taken care of, that we're not just filling potholes. And we did that when we passed the property tax, and we hope to see all of those projects be coming forward in the next ten years so that we can get that done so that we feel like we have done what we can do to make sure Moab in ten years is a place where we all want to live and a place where we all want to be proud of. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Joette. Curtis, you'll be given one minute to respond to that or answer it how you would like. [Curtis Wells] Only one. [Everett Hildebrandt] One minute. One minute. [Curtis Wells] Timers? Go ahead. You know, those are all important issues referenced by the mayor. I would say, you know, regarding infrastructure, I worked as a county commissioner starting as a pursuing the UDOT hotspot grant, which received $10 million. I think it's the largest grant in community history. That's what we've been able to do with the dispersed parking. The Cane Creek Boulevard project is financed entirely by the CIB, which I chair. So I think my hope ten years from now, after I serve as mayor, is to really enhance the level of resources, financing, and availability of capital to really get Moab looking and feeling like it should be with the amount of tourism and commerce that we have. You know, again, on housing, as CIB chairman, we just financed infrastructure on a project similar to Walnut Lane and Richfield this year. And so that's something else I can bring to the table. When you can start financing infrastructure to make these projects work, that's a big deal. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Curtis. Okay, we will do one more question for this section, and we'll be starting with Curtis this time. Please roll the dice. [Speaker 12] One. [Everett Hildebrandt] One. Okay. [Curtis Wells] Five. That worked better. One and a five. [Everett Hildebrandt] Two minutes. Okay. The question is, what is your long-term vision for Moab's growth and identity? I'll repeat the question. What is your long-term vision for Moab's growth and identity? Timers. Two minutes. Curtis, whenever you're ready. [Curtis Wells] Well, Moab was very diverse and a little funky and interesting when I moved here as a little boy in 1991. I think that's the way Moab is. I think Moab's better off for it. I don't think Moab's identity is going to change. I think Moab is tough and really disciplined to be different and diverse. My vision for Moab is to what I would like to see is to get us to a place where your quality of life, your happiness in a small town is not mutually exclusive from a healthy economy. I think we've been in a position where we've been attacking the economy, making it harder on the economy, and then we wonder why revenues are down. I talk to a lot of people, and I think we all go through times where just the sheer amount of visitation and tourism at times, it doesn't feel like a small town, and that can be hard. That goes back to infrastructure. We have really got to get in gear. We're behind in infrastructure. The majority of our water and sewer, they were put in in the 50s and 60s. We've been able to do a few projects, and I've been fortunate to be a part of it, but we've really got to get caught up and get into gear. I see Moab just the best version of itself, where everybody has upward mobility, opportunity for young people. People don't feel attacked. They don't feel animosity towards their neighbors. Everybody feels like we're the best version of ourself, and I don't think that's an impossible goal. Moab is very passionate, very engaged. We have a packed house tonight, but we can do a lot better. We can do a lot better, and that's a big part of my vision for the community, and I think that also relates to an accountable government that is very responsive to the citizens. Thank you. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Curtis. Joette, you'll be given one-minute timers. Are you ready with one minute? Okay. Please. [Joette Langianese] I appreciate you bringing up the infrastructure issues that we need to face. I think you just validated the reason why we needed a property tax, because those projects have been deferred for years. We've been doing piecemeal replacement of our roads. We've been filling potholes. We've been doing chip seal. We've been doing all the things to put Band-Aids on what needs to be done to make sure that our infrastructure is in good shape for years to come. And so by having that property tax in place, we're going to be able to do all the things that you said need to be done. And so I appreciate you bringing that up, because I think it's important for us to understand what the city council did with the property tax is going to address all those issues with our infrastructure to make sure we can get those done in the future, and again, so our community can be proud of where they live. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you. Okay. That will conclude the focus on the mayor section, and now we will do a very similar thing for the focus on the council section. So thank you for answering those questions. Similarly, we'll be allowing the council members to rebut each other's answers. I'll roll dice to determine who goes first and flip a coin to determine the direction we rotate. First up will be Jason Taylor. And heads, we will rotate to speakers left. Tails will rotate speakers right. We're rotating to the left. So, Howard, you'll be rebutting first, and then Miles will be rebutting second. The question and answer will get two minutes to respond, and each rebuttal will get one minute after that. Let's roll the dice. [Jason Taylor] One. [Everett Hildebrandt] Oh, my gosh. [Jason Taylor] Ready to roll again? [Everett Hildebrandt] If you hit that. [Jason Taylor] One's fine, I guess. [Everett Hildebrandt] I don't know what's going on. These are farcal dice, so they should. Maybe that's good. [Speaker 11] Okay. [Everett Hildebrandt] So I'll read the question twice. What specific steps should the city take to expand affordable housing for working residents? So, similar thing. I'll read it one more time. What specific steps should the city take to expand affordable housing for working residents? Are we ready? Timers with two minutes. Okay. Go ahead, Jason. [Jason Taylor] So, the city is already doing some good stuff, but the city is also having to contend with fair market, you know? And I think when people own properties and they're asking for rents that they can get. And I think we're combating that a lot, you know, is that the affordability is not affordable. You know, even you look at Arroyo Crossing and stuff like that, people have to work really hard and meet certain guidelines to attain that. I think what we need to do is we need to continue working with agencies to find ways to reduce the cost of housing, whether it's taking land that we have and donating it or dedicating it to affordable housing to get that price down and making sure that the people that are going into those housing are meeting the criteria where they are in the local workforce, where they are part of this community and they're being able to use that housing to support their families and to support the workforce here in town. I think there's a lot of things that we can do to incentivize people who do have housing. And one thing that we can do is create more housing. I think when you create more inventory, it'll start bringing the cost of housing down. We have a lot of housing coming on the market. We've been getting a lot that you haven't done anything in four years. We've done a lot in four years. We've done more in the last four years than have been done in the last, I'd say, eight or nine years. We've got a huge development going on out on the highway that's 70 or 80 units. There's going to be affordable housing for residents. There's housing going on in town. It takes a while to get the ball rolling. That's one thing I've heard is that government is not fast in getting these things to happen. It does not. It takes time. And we're getting the ball rolling and things are starting to happen. And I appreciate the community and working towards having that desire and screaming at the top of their lungs is keeping this at the forefront because it's what is needed to make sure that this housing is met and that it's on the forefront of everybody's mind. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Jason. Next up, we'll have Howard Trenholm. You'll get one minute to rebut. Timers, are you ready? [Howard Trenholme] Everything Jason said there is right on. I think we're in such a dire situation for shortage of housing. We should do what Crested Butte did in Colorado and declare a housing emergency. And until we can get these houses constructed that we need, maybe to lift some of the draconian restrictions on folks that have homes that might want to have a van dweller rent on their property, but zoning doesn't allow it, we're in an emergency situation. We should take emergency action now because we cannot support any future Moab in any description unless we have a ton of homes for the workforce to live here and grow our town again because we're shrinking right now. [Everett Hildebrandt] Okay. Thank you, Howard. Next up, we'll have Miles Loftin. Timers. Go ahead. [Miles Loftin] Thank you. So the points that both of these gentlemen made are very fair. Those are absolutely ways that we can move forward in assisting and creating this affordable housing. I think there's also a difference between affordable and attainable housing, and I think that we are doing more to create affordable housing or housing for low-income individuals than we are to create attainable housing for young professionals who want to live in this town but maybe want something more to their own that they can build a family in that they can start a life in. So I think that is a big focus for me, and part of that is while Arroyo Crossing is a massive success, I don't want everyone who works in this town to have to live ten minutes south. I want to try to preserve housing here within town itself so that we all feel like we're a part of this community rather than feeling like we commute into this community to work in this community. And I think deed restriction, as per the housing meeting we just had, is one of our strongest tools in regards to that. Thank you. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, candidates. Okay. Next up, we'll have Howard Trenholm. Roll the dice. Go ahead. [Howard Trenholme] Please not a one. [Everett Hildebrandt] Okay, you've got to be kidding me right now. What did you get? I think it must be. I've never. They were a gift. I don't know. [Miles Loftin] What did you get? [Everett Hildebrandt] You got a three? Okay. All right. Okay. Are you ready? I'm ready. What would you do to make public meetings and information more accessible to residents? I'll ask the question one more time. [Howard Trenholme] Say it again. Repeat the question. [Everett Hildebrandt] What would you do to make public meetings and information more accessible to residents? Two minutes. Go ahead. [Howard Trenholme] I have to say, to be honest, in the last maybe ten years since YouTube videos came online, the county and city, it's been amazing being able to watch it. In fact, when I was running for county commission last year, instead of watching Netflix, I watched YouTube videos of the commission. And city occasion. The city goes by so fast, it was like, whoa, it's like a drama at the county. I think we have very accessible government in this country. We need to encourage our citizens to participate and not be spectators. They need to be the actors. We know the postings. We know when meetings are happening. They're invited. I think if I'm elected, my door will always be open. I've always had an open-door policy as an employer. I want to hear from my constituents or, as it was, my employees. And what's ailing you? You don't need to come to a meeting to do that. You don't have to stand up and have citizens to be heard, which is very intimidating. You can write to the city council. You can write to the county council. Trust me, I've been writing to federal officials about issues in this county for, I think, about 20-odd years since I got here. So I encourage all of you out there to not be spectators. Come to the meetings. Watch the meetings after the fact. Write to your officials. We live in America, ladies and gentlemen. The beauty of this country is that we have this open access to our leaders. If only we would actually funnel our energies towards that instead of into these echo chambers online where viciousness happens. I think all our leadership in this community are amazing and very approachable, and that's the way good democracy works. So trust me, as a 12-year-old, 12-year-old American, because I only became a citizen 12 years ago, I will encourage you all to come and knock on my door and attend meetings, and I hope to have a really fun-filled, packed city chambers and hear from you all. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Howard. Next up we'll have Miles, who will have one-minute timers. Timers are ready. Go ahead, Miles. [Miles Loftin] Awesome, thank you. So I think a lot of what Howard had to say is correct. I think, and this is going to be kind of wild, for some of my friends who know me, they've said that I'm technologically illiterate, even for my age. But I think we could do a little bit more to update our website and to get a little bit more of this out on social media. It is a major way that we communicate nowadays, and I think a lot of my peers have expressed to me that they don't even know what's going on in a meeting. They don't know where to find the agenda, and I'd like to make that kind of thing accessible, because the end result is the same. I want people in the meetings talking to me. I want people writing in, or, you know, even if you can't attend the meeting in person, we've taken citizens to be heard via Zoom call or otherwise. Making sure that those meetings are held at a time of day, that people who work can show up at those meetings, is also very important. But in general, making sure people know when those meetings are happening, where they're happening, and what's going to be discussed, so that you can know about these topics and show up when they matter to you. Thank you. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Miles. And we'll be closing out that question with Jason, with one-minute timers. [Jason Taylor] Yeah, this is a great question, because I don't really... I'm kind of, I guess, like Miles, too. I'm not very technologically savvy and stuff. But I do think that the city does do great things, and I do think that if there's ideas out there to make it more accessible, we're all ears. We want to make it happen. And, you know, from social media, the city does a great job of posting the agenda on their page, and letting people know on social media. It's on YouTube. You can watch the meetings live on Zoom. If there's other avenues for people to be more engaged, I would love to hear it, and I would love to see what we can do to make it happen. I guess as technology advances faster and faster, there may be something where we have, I don't know, holograms of the meetings in your living room, which, you know, who knows? You know, I think we need to be constantly adapting to make it easier for people to get the information and to be able to respond. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you. Okay, final question of this round. Go ahead. [Miles Loftin] Three. [Everett Hildebrandt] That's better. That's what I like to hear. Okay. Are you ready? [Miles Loftin] Yeah. [Everett Hildebrandt] Timer's two minutes. Okay. Which projects should the city prioritize to maintain and improve essential infrastructure such as roads, water, and utilities? I'll repeat the question. Are you guys ready? Which projects should the city prioritize to maintain and improve essential infrastructure such as roads, water, and utilities? Two minutes. Miles, go ahead. [Miles Loftin] Thanks. So this is a tough question, because honestly all three of those options need a fair bit of work, and it is fairly immediate. I think personally where energy should be focused is in two directions that could honestly be addressed simultaneously, which is flood mitigation and roads. Like we all in that last rainstorm saw several places where our drainage was not adequate for the roads themselves, and I say that for two reasons. One, flood mitigation is important to pretty much anybody who has dealt with flooding in their home or in their business, and it's something immediate that we're dealing with. And roads, again, that's something we all deal with every day. I mean, I think seeing that job being done on 100 and uranium back there is something that I heard from many people that I spoke to about how obnoxious that was. We all go to city market, and we all were dealing with that, and seeing that finally being addressed is huge. And so I want to do things that alleviate those everyday difficulties, such as addressing the roads and the position they're in. And it's one of those things where it's as, you know, like as a contractor I understand this very well, where it's like once you're going to tear something up, you need to deal with everything. If you're going to tear up the road, you need to deal with the storm drains. You need to deal with the infrastructure underneath it. You know, I'm a plumber. I've seen the shape our sewers are in, and we've got some work to do. But I think making sure that that money is spent on projects that are important to us and that we see as very valuable in the forefront is important to me. And otherwise, it's about what projects we can find matching funds for and what projects we can help finance with the state or otherwise so that we as a taxpayer are not bearing 100% of the brunt of the projects we're trying to address. I think that's about it. Thanks. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you. Thank you, Miles. We'll now go to Jason Taylor with one minute on the clock. Timers. [Jason Taylor] So I'll say the one thing that kind of frustrates me is what would you prioritize? You know, roads, water, or utilities? Do all three. You know, it's like we're not a one-trick pony town. We can be working on our infrastructure at the same time we're doing the roads at the same time that we're working on flood mitigation, you know, and stuff. We don't have to do one or do the other. I'm a big fan of Dave Ramsey. We'll do the debt snowball, pick the low-hanging fruit, you know, and start working our way up and getting projects done. We'll start ticking things off of the list. And I don't think we need to – I think all this stuff needs to be a priority, you know, and we have the staff and we have the capability that we can do that. And so I think that as a city and as a town, that's what you expect. You don't expect to go, oh, should I get this road paved or should we work on flood mitigation? I think we should work on both. And I think that we have the capability and the capacity to do both. And so that's what I would say that we need to do in the future, and that's what we've done, we have been doing for the last four years, is working on that stuff and trying to come up with a plan and a roadmap to get things done. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Jason. Next up, closing us out, is Howard Trenholm. One minute on the clock. Timers. Go ahead. [Howard Trenholme] Ditto, ditto. Some ideas. Roads, infrastructure is under the roads, so you go after water and sewer when you do roads. You do one street at a time. You start with the oldest streets of Moab and you work towards the newest streets. Flooding, Moab needs all the help it can get from Grand County, San Juan County, the state of Utah, and the federal government, because they are all upstream of Moab and contribute to the flooding in this town. So we can't do it ourselves. We do what we can with what we have. And then the one subject that has not come up is water. Right now, the federal government is discussing the Colorado River's allocation of water. And if I am in this council, I will be going to those tables and forcing my way in to ensure that we can divert some water from the Colorado River into the wetlands and maintain that we don't have to rely on just the mountains to the southeast, the La Salles. We're the only town in Utah that sits on the Colorado River. We should be fighting like hell to get some water rights to secure the future of this town. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Howard. Okay, that concludes our focus on the council section. Thank you, guys. We now have two guests who are going to talk about something that's on the Grand County ballot. In addition to the Moab City election, there's a ballot initiative for all of Grand County to vote on, Proposition 13. I'm going to read the language from the ballot. It is as follows. Shall Grand County increase the rural health care sales and use tax by one-half percent, from one-half percent to one full percent, to be used as allowed by state statuette, including to help fund the operations of the Canyonlands Health Care Special Service District, which operates the long-term care facility in Grand County and provides resources for other critical health care needs, the Grand County Emergency Medical Services Special Service District, and Moab Valley Fire District. We have two invited speakers to argue for and against Proposition 13 so that voters may be informed about the issue. Speaking for is Andy Smith, the executive director of Grand County Emergency Medical Services, and speaking against is Lynn Jackson, former county commissioner and current chair of the Grand County Republican Party. I'm going to flip a coin to determine who goes first. Heads means Andy Smith will go first, and tails means Lynn Jackson will go first. It's tails. So Lynn Jackson, you will have two minutes on the clock. Timers. Go ahead and stand in the center there. Check, check, check. [Lynn Jackson, Republican Party Chair] Can you guys hear that all right? Okay. Ready to go, timer. Okay, first of all, all due respect to Andy and the great job that has been done with our EMS program, our fire program, our law enforcement. EMS is one of the fundamental vital public safety services that any community requires. No one questions that. How it is funded is a question. This proposed tax would generate approximately $3 million per year, with 75% of that being paid for by tourists, that leaves approximately $750,000 a year to be funded by locals. This is not an insignificant amount for our working families that are the backbone of our community, as we've heard tonight. Adding a couple of hundred dollars per year in taxes simply adds to the high cost of living in our area. We add this on top of the recent massive city property tax implementation and our working residents are being driven out of the area. We have not seen any detailed financial analysis of the funding deficit, with alternative proposals for funding this vital services. Why? Where is the analysis of costs and alternatives? Where is the analysis of other revenue streams that could be used to pay for this? Why is a ballot initiative for the full .5% tax increase? EMS shortfalls this last year required only $350,000 to cover. Why not ask for a .1% increase, or a .25% tax increase? If revenue sources in a city and a county were to return to normal growth rates, what would happen with that tax at that point? Finally, frankly, we need a lot more information before voting for this tax issue this year. I suggest voting no on this ballot initiative until we can all have assurances that every possible avenue for funding has been explored before we add more taxes to ourselves. Thank you. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Lynn Jackson. Next up, we'll have Andy Smith to speak for Proposition 13. [Andy Smith, EMS] Best beard goes second. That's what I heard. Good evening, friends and neighbors. I stand before you today as a fellow citizen of Grand County tasked for your support for Proposition 13 on the ballot this November. This isn't just another tax measure as it's been positioned. It's our chance to make sure that these critical life-sustaining services are there when we or our loved ones need them. A yes vote on Proposition 13 would raise the rural health care sales and use tax by just a half a percent from .5 to 1. That's 50 cents for every dollar spent. To put it into perspective, I think I went to lunch today. It was 20 bucks. Somebody do that math for me. It's about 10 cents, 20 cents. I should have used the numbers I wrote down. Let's say I spent $10. There you go. It adds just a nickel. It was 10 cents. I was right the first time. For each of us, that's a small contribution, but together it adds up to millions of dollars that will support these three essential local agencies. These three entities represents the very best of what government is supposed to and can do. When you call for help, there's no paperwork. There's no we're not open till Monday. There's nothing like that. We ask you two questions. Where are you and what's wrong? Immediately, a team of firefighters, paramedics and EMTs can show up and fix your issue. When it comes to caring for our seniors, the Canyonlands Health Care Special Service District through the Care Center provides dignity and support with a compassionate team of nurses and CNAs. Having a viable care center means families don't have to send their loved ones away for care. It allows parents, children and grandchildren to stay connected here at home instead of facing long drive separation and all the stress that puts on our local families. The challenge is all of these things are rising in cost. And I urge you to vote yes on Proposition 13. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Lynn Jackson and Andy Smith. I appreciate you guys coming down. As a reminder, Proposition 13 is on the Grand County ballot. So everyone in Moab and in Broderick County will get to vote on that one. Thank you guys for sitting through all of this. We will now go into closing remarks by the candidates. Each of you will be given two minutes. I'll again roll a dice to determine who goes first. So this will be Miles starting off. And if we have heads, we'll go to your right. And if we have tails, we'll go to your left. And we have tails. And so we'll go to your left. It'll be Miles and then Curtis and then around the robin there. So two minutes each. Closing remarks. Timers. Are we ready? Go ahead, Miles. [Miles Loftin] Thank you. Well, in closing, I'd like to say thank you again to everyone here for this thrilling and somewhat exciting and intimidating experience. I think a lot of good topics were addressed here, but I think there's so much more worth addressing and it's so hard to cram these topics into a minute or two. So what I'm going to say is I encourage you guys to come out and talk to me. All of these topics have very complex reasons behind them and solutions for them. And I'd like to hear from everyone that can. Come up to me, call me, reach out. My number's on my website. I'd really like to hear about you, your concerns, and which of these issues really matter to you because that's what's going to help me address them. I care about this town. And I'm going to be here for a while. I'm building my business here. I'm trying to buy a home here and really, really trying to put down roots here. And I see this community from one perspective, but I'd like to see it from all of yours. And I'd like, if elected, to be able to provide that viewpoint to the council and use it to influence the decisions made so that they work for as many of us as there can be. And it's fantastic to see this kind of support and these many people in the audience. And I really am grateful to be in this position. And I'm grateful for my fellow candidates. This is a cool place to be. And I'm really looking forward to representing you guys. So, thank you very much. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Miles. Appreciate it. Next up, we'll have Curtis Wells with his two minutes closing remarks. Timers. Go ahead, Curtis. [Curtis Wells] Thank you. I'm running for mayor because I love this town. I want change. I want the city to show their fund balances so we know where the money's at, how our taxes are performing if we need more taxes. I want the city's budget to be more transparent. I want the shell games with money to stop. I want the water fountain at the ballpark to work when it's 110 degrees and for us to not be spending $20,000 on a new water fountain behind City Market. I want the city to prove that they can maintain our current streets and landscaping before they spend $2 million on exotic landscaping with money that isn't ours. I want the city police department to look and feel and act like a small town police force and not Moab Vice with ever-ballooning budgets, exotic cars. I want the city and the county to sit down in the room and work together even though they don't like each other because that's their job. I want change. I want the press and the public to be able to access the city without going through a PR office. It's embarrassing. It's a small town. The transparent movement brought you a PR official that passes narratives and stories over the local paper and I feel like I'm being received state news in a town of less than 10,000 people. I want change. I want accountability with the money. I want the doors open, the hours predictable. I want the city to get out of the way of housing projects. I want change. We need this. It's time. I want you to hire me for change. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you. Thank you, Curtis. Timers? Two minutes? Okay, Joette, the floor is yours. [Joette Langianese] As you all have heard tonight, the city has come a long way in the past four years under my leadership and we're heading in the right direction. You've heard some of the accomplishments that we've achieved. We've got many more but everything we've accomplished, everything we've accomplished, we've done together as a community. From making our community safer with stronger flood protections and knowing that we're going to experience extreme weather events again, to upgrading our streets and our infrastructure and making City Hall more accessible. We have proven that if we work together and we leave the drama behind, we can get things done. But we have a lot more to do. We have many opportunities ahead. The city is moving in a very positive direction. We have positive relationships with our state and federal agencies. I've worked to build great relationships with our state and federal delegations. We will be able to continue to build on our future. We have a chance to continue building a city that's resilient, welcoming, and full of opportunity for the next generation. I know that with your support, we'll be able to get that done. This campaign is not just about me. It's about all of us. It's about our community. It's about the families that want to live here in a safe environment and have an affordable home to live in. It's our small businesses that create the character of our town and create a strong economy. It's about every single person who lives in this community and believes in this community. I love this community. I have shown that through the years, my commitment and my dedication to this community make this community the best that it can be. So I'm asking you tonight to stand with me, keep this momentum going, let's build on the progress we have made, and let's shape the future of our city together as a community. Thank you so much for believing in me, and thank you so much for your vote. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Joette. Next up, we'll have Jason Taylor. Two minutes. Timers. [Jason Taylor] I appreciate the time that you guys have let me come to be here tonight to talk to you guys all. I've had a great four years on the City Council, and I have to echo everything that the Mayor said. It has been a fulfilling four years in this community. I have seen things change. We've enacted things. We've got the ball moving, like I stated before. We talk about the ballpark. The ballpark is on my list, and we've been trying to raise money each year with the RAP tax so that we can go in. That's the number one thing. That's the place where locals congregate. That's the place where locals hang out. That's the one place where I think that it's on the list to get changed. We're going to fix these things, and it takes money. We've implemented this property tax because we knew that it was going to take a sacrifice as a community to get this town up to par, to get it to where our roads are in good shape, where our sidewalks are in good shape, where our infrastructure is in good shape, where our kids have a great park. We just rebuilt the playground at Swanny Park. We need to spend $2 million on the pool. We built a pool, but we didn't have a plan to fix it when it broke down. We've come up with a plan. I feel like I've done a really good job to serve you. I feel like there's a lot of county commissioners in this room, and I bet you I talk to each of them once a week or pretty often. We have great relationships with the county, and we're working to strengthen those relationships. We know that everything's not perfect. You know what? No family is, and we're working to make sure that we work together as a community, as Grand County, as Moab City residents, because we all live here. We all spend time in town. As we go on the next four years, I'm not done, and I would love to have your vote, and I would love to have your support in the next four years to see what we can get done, because there's some great things happening, and the ball's going to be moving a lot faster, and some neat things are going to happen. So thank you. I really appreciate it. [Everett Hildebrandt] Thank you, Jason. I'll be closing out with Howard Trenholm. Two minutes on the timer. Ready? Go ahead. [Howard Trenholme] Well, I'd like to thank you all for being here tonight. I really appreciate all the Moabites, even those that don't like me. I know there's a few. The hard job of politics is to take care of everybody, and those include the people that actively work against you, and I will do that, because I believe in that. It's really hard tonight, because I know everybody here. I know the candidates, and I don't want to criticize the city over the last few years, because I really do think, on the whole, they've been doing a good job. But honestly, Walnut Lane has been a boondoggle for me, because nothing's happened there, and it's actually displaced people, workers, the people we're trying to protect. We actually lost them. I was disappointed in the current council and the mayor, because they didn't really nag Grand County's commission, who they're so close to, and love to talk to, when they monkey wrench the entire marketing apparatus that Moab depends so heavily on, and it took the state to change that. That should never have happened in the first place. Had we kept our unique trick going, we wouldn't be paying property taxes, ladies and gentlemen, because we had a very vibrant tourism economy that was fully supported by the Hive. I want to restore teamwork in this place, and I'm looking at commissioners here that beat me last year in an election. If I get elected, I'm going to work with you, Jacques. I know you're right there. I'm an immigrant. I've been knocked down plenty of times in the past, but I'm a fighter. A year ago, I fought really hard to represent my district and the city. It was disappointing to lose. The issues that I was talking about last year are still prevalent this year, and I just want to be a team player. I work for Rocky Mountaineer. We have, as a seasonal worker, as an immigrant seasonal worker, goodness me, and they have a motto saying, Be One Team, and I feel we've been missing that, and I don't know why. I don't know who our leaders are representing, but it sure doesn't feel like the people of Moab, and I promise you, I will work for all of you, not just a select few if you vote for me. I'm a bit of Scotsman in office. What have you got to lose? You've never had one in that role, and I'm a really proud American citizen, and I want to make this town really fantastic again. Thank you for your time, and thanks KZMU, by the way. You're the best radio station on planet Earth, and I miss you so much. I had to give up my DJing to stand as a candidate. [Everett Hildebrandt] Okay. That concludes the candidates portion and the Grand County portion. Thank you fellows. Thank you to all the candidates. Really, you're putting your name on the ballot. It's a great thing.