Here is my background from my website:

 

**********************************************

 

Hi I’m Josh. I am fiscally conservative and socially liberal. I’m probably what you’d call an independent.

 

In 2012 I began following local politics closely. I strongly disagreed with the changes that were allowed at Kimball Junction — they lacked walkability and obstructed the mountain views. I wanted to understand how these decisions were made and wanted to share that knowledge with others. I began filming Summit County Meetings and posting them online for over two years. I then created The Park Rag website to provide coverage and commentary of all local politics. The Park Rag focuses on citizen journalism. I wanted to provide an avenue for normal citizens to express their viewpoints.

 

My day job is as Chief Strategist for International Financial Services — a software development company. That requires me to be both logical and creative — two attributes I believe are critical for the Summit County Council.

 

I absolutely love Summit County. I have two small children and plan to live here for decades to come. I want to ensure that that the 2030 and 2040 versions of Summit County are as great as they are now.

 

With your help, I think we can preserve what we love about our county and make this a better place for decades to come.

 

 

*********************************************

 

My platform is focused on a few key concepts:

 

Slow development:  I am worried that Summit County plans to take open spaces around the Basin and use them for development. An example is the Cline Dahle parcel that sits between Jeremy Ranch Elementary School and the Burt Brothers. The County bought the land to develop, and it looks like they will put between 700 and 900 apartments, 10K-15K sq feet of retail space, and 600 parking spaces on the property. The General Plan outlines many of these types of areas across the basin where the county wants to develop land further.

Better Communication: Right now we don’t receive enough warning to affect change on issues facing Summit County. For instance, the Kilby Road project by I-80 was being painted when the first complaints from community members started flowing in. At that point it was too late to make changes to what turned out to be a very controversial design. I believe the county council has a role to play in this. Currently, I have started producing a weekly newsletter called The Bull Moose that highlights issues coming up, with the hope people can affect change. If elected I want to do weekly online chats in the evenings with the community to listen to issues people are bringing up and communicate more effectively. I also want to meet regularly at coffee shops across the county to talk issues.

Transportation: I believe the county has focused much of our resources on buses. While they work in some places and at some specific times, I don’t think they generally work for a large segment ion our community. I would like Summit County to organize a group-buy of e-bikes to try and enable e-bikes to be cheap enough to get them into our garages. I would want to look at expanding our paved trails and plowing a percentage in the winter — so we can use them more as a transportation network. I think we are a community of outdoor people. I believe the more we use our trails for transportation, the more we will enjoy living and working here. I would also like to look at getting buses into our neighborhoods for specific activities. For example, I would like to see ski buses/vans that people could reserve a ride on from their neighborhood directly to a lift at the resort. I want to make it easy for people to take the bus. 

Education: I am planning on donating the first three years of my salary to educational foundations for the three school districts, Park City, North Summit, and South Summit. I look at being a member of the County Council as a service. While it would only be about $35,000 each year, I think that could do some good.

 

*****************************************

 

Anyhow, I hope that provides some background (probably too much)… but if I can provide something different, please let me know.

 

Also, should I prepare anything to present on a screen or will it be mostly a discussion? I just want to make sure I provide folks what they are looking for.

 

Thanks again for the opportunity,

 

Josh