Rob's blog

On Monday, September 24th, the Tribune wrote an article "Developers coughing up cash for candidates." It is nothing new to find those with money and a business interest in a city wanting to help candidates whom they think will represent them well or at least be open minded. What is interesting is to see developers majorly picking sides in what may be West Jordan's most crucial election ever - the question of whether the residents or the developers and business interests get the biggest say in who runs the city, especially when one conflicts with the other. The latter is not happy that the former is in power and have declared "we just see the city heading in the wrong direction" and "challengers can expect more . . . cash" [from Tribune article]. Which interest will take the lead on November 6th?

 So what exactly are we talking about here?

From the candidate disclosure statements filed after the Primary election in September, $34,185 have been contributed to candidates' campaigns by major donors (over $500). Of that amount, $16,250 or 48% have come from 4 entities - Salt Lake Board of Realtors, Utah Home Builders Association, Savage Asphalt and Jensen Family Trust (based in Idaho). With one exception ($500 for Mike Kellermeyer from Savage Asphalt), these groups only donated to challengers.

On the other hand, two other groups of developers - Jordan Landing and Wasatch Pacific - have donated $1,000 each to myself and Lyle Summers, both incumbents, but not to challengers (for a total of $4,000). Jordan Landing is mostly finished and Wasatch Pacific's Jordan Hills Villages (2,646 units) were all approved before I came on the council 4 years ago. I have made no secret of the fact that I (and perhaps the rest of the current council) probably would not have voted to approve that development as it stands today because of the lot sizes and densities involved, but without speaking for the principals of their company, I would imagine that they have found the city to have worked fairly and compromised to find solutions that are both in the best interest of the community and the developers. Thus, two developers who have built their projects and know West Jordan, how they are to work with, and the place it has become are backing incumbents, and outside interests who are interested in selling as many houses as possible, building the roads for those projects, and selling their property for the most money they can get are backing the challengers. This bears further examination.

There are several statements that deserve special consideration from the Tribune article:

"Rob's actually missed the boat here," Lems says. Donors to challengers' campaigns just want to be treated more fairly by the city." As an example, the muffler-store manager points to the cumbersome and lengthy city building-permit and inspection process.

The first question here is "what are donors looking for to be treated more fairly by the city." Is the "cumbersome" and "lengthy" process more cumbersome or lengthy for the donors than for anyone else? Or do all applicants have to go through the same building processes, pay the same fees, and have the same requirements? The real question here is, "is there a double-standard where one person gets treated one way and other gets special treatment, or do you just not like the standard?" Well, that is a problem when you design a process that treats everyone fairly and by definition looks out for the safety and general welfare of - not developers - but RESIDENTS. You know . . . those people who actually LIVE in the city and have to drive the roads, suffer the congestion, have two feet between their house and their neighbor; all after the developers, builders, and real estate agents have taken their money and (generally) left the city and go home somewhere else. WE SHOULD BE FOCUSED NOT ON HOW EFFECIENT THE BUILDING PROCESS IS MORE THAN WE ASK HOW WELL DOES IT SERVE US TO GIVE US THE COMMUNITY WE WANT AS THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE HERE? I'm sorry, but I think Jim has missed "the boat" here.

You also should not be able to jump to the front of the building-process line because you know the Mayor, are a major business, or have other connections and thus make all the smaller businesses and projects behind you in line get even further behind. Why does it take so long to get some projects approved? When you continually call city hall and demand action on your project and how long it is taking, what is the effect when everyone jumps because a council person called to find out what is going on? It moves that project to the top of the priority list - and pushes those that were in line first further back, thus lengthening the process for EVERYONE. You should be treated fairly and equally no mattter who you are, how big you are, or how well connected you are. If there are instances of that, this council has implemented policy and documented standards to enforce that this is done. Some do not like it. This election has some proof of that.

And, as all of the candidates do, he [Jim] emphasizes his vote on the council won't be swayed by campaign donors.

Kellermeyer suspects that of the donors, at least one - the Jensen Family Trust that donated $6,250 to six non-incumbent candidates in the primary election - wants to overturn the current City Council. "All you need is four votes to push through a development," including a high-density project, Kellermeyer says.

Mike and I don't often agree on things, but I think his quote stands up quite well. It will be interesting to see how much more this unfolds when the next campaign disclosure forms come in.

Bowman [Jensen family spokesman] says the city has failed to adequately plan for transportation needs and has played favorites with developers. He also says the council has resorted to "finger-pointing" instead of cooperating with the Jordan School District to get new schools built.

Let's look at these arguments. 1) it is the city failing to adequately plan for transportation needs that has caused our traffic problems. If you believe that, then you must also believe that California's gridlock problems in virtually every large or medium city is caused by lack of adequate planning. If you are skeptical of that, then you might reason that it is the large number of PEOPLE driving their CARS who have COME TO CALIFORNIA that caused the gridlock, not the lack of roads, traffic signals or well-designed intersections. California has grown to 30 million people, and they all have places to go and homes to return to. There is only so much road for all those cars to go around on, no matter how well you plan or build.

What has happened in West Jordan? The same thing that happened to California. We have grown 25,000 people over the past 7 years! That is larger than most entire cities in this state, and that is just how much we have grown! Where is the traffic the worst? Getting to and from the west side. Where did the majority of the new people to West Jordan move to? The west side. What is going to happen when you have years of city councils approving large, dense housing and apartment projects and NOW that a council comes on board and says, "wait a minute! We've grown so fast that we haven't kept up the roads to keep close to the amount of people who use them!" what are those who are worried that it will affect how much money they can make (remember, Utah Home Builder's Association, Salt Lake Board of Realtors, etc.?)

So, you ask, why didn't you keep up with the roads if you are doing so good as a council? We didn't cause the problem - we just inherited it from other councils who wouldn't or didn't (for whatever reason) stand up and REQUIRE that new development pay for itself and the impact that it creates on a community. Why don't we have enough money for roads? Because previous councils refused to raise impact fees to keep up with the growth caused by the very projects they were approving AND ARE PROUD OF THE FACT! Their being proud of not keeping up with the impact of all those houses meant that we were only collecting 33% of what we should have to have kept up with the road system improvements that would have barely covered new road construction and maintenance costs. But by following the mantra "we didn't raise fees!" for years, we now have the gridlock problems we do AND blame the current city government for the problems created by the former.

How do we fix this? We finally had the guts as a council to get an independent study of our impact fees done that told us what we ought to be collecting just to cover our costs - not pad them, not charge too much (which can and has been challenged successfully in court) - but just enough to have new development pay its own way. If you buy a new house in a new neighborhood on the west side, is it fair to ask one of us on the east side to pay for that road when the impact fees that were paid when our own homes were constructed paid for the roads we drive on? Should we pay twice or once-and-a-half so someone else doesn't have to pay their fair share because a politician wanted to be able to say "we didn't raise taxes or fees during the entire time I was in office?" When that makes the next group have to double taxes to make up for that short-sighted perspective, I think it is good we have a chance to vote every 4 years based on the record and the reality of what our government officials do with their terms.

2) West Jordan has played the "blame game" with Jordan School District for not having enough schools for our children. So let me get this straight. Jordan School District gets 51% of all our property taxes we pay every year, 100% of our state income tax we pay on April 15th, and bonds to pay the costs to build new schools as the cities and neighborhoods they serve grow and need more school resources, and it is the city's fault that they aren't spending their own money and securing their own sites for schools as they note areas growing quickly? How are they supposed to know when an area is growing? In other school districts around the country, a school official is assigned to attend every city council meeting for each city within their jurisdiction to take back to the district information about what is coming up through the cities' systems so they can start preparing for it. This does not happen with Jordan School District. Most districts around the country also have a professional planner on staff so growth trends can be identified and property in areas that are likely to need a school be purchased before land is no longer available and school officials are scrambling because lack of foresight forced them into a box with parents mad at poor planning - and who points the finger then??? Whatever gets the parents off their backs. FYI, Jordan School District does not have a professional planner on staff.

So, does Bowman want West Jordan to be the school district's real estate agent - scouting out property, doing the negotiating, drawing up the paperwork, and just show up to sign on the dotted line? Using the same line of reasoning, could we as a city not expect the district to suggest and assist in the acquisition of property for future fire stations, police stations, water treatment plants, landfills and sewer plants since without them, they cannot build and maintain new schools? Each government entity is charged to look after their own house and cooperate with each other to serve the same people. West Jordan has never done anything to prevent the school district from land purchase or building schools. They don't even have to go through the building-approval process that all other businesses have to! They can build anywhere and anytime they want using any design they decide on and do not need city permits, fees, or permission. All they need is to be able to hook up to city infrastructure (water, sewer, stormwater). Can we work more cooperatively? Of course, and I'm looking forward to doing just that whether it is with a new West Jordan School District school board or with whatever remains of the Jordan School District, but to claim that the current city council is somehow to blame for the district and individual property owners from being able to settle on land purchases and work out their own deals for future growth is disingenuous and seems ignorant of reality.

And thus, the battlelines are drawn in West Jordan. Will the reforms begun by the current council be allowed to settle in and become solid, success of which is seen everywhere you go with new fire stations, justice center, state court building, new county library headquarters, completed main park, memorial to veterans of all services, new road expansions on 78th and 90th south (after 10 years of talk), new businesses large and small springing up everywhere, and more people choosing to call West Jordan home (something must be going right), or are we willing to reverse course, go back to developer-driven, special treatment approval and action by city councils that will end up costing all of us in money, time, and quality of life?

That is the REAL decision of November 6th.