Hi I’m Josh. I am fiscally conservative and socially libe
ral. I’m probably what you’d call an independent.
In 2012 I
began following local politics closely. I strongly disagreed with the chang
es that were allowed at Kimball Junction — they lacked walkability an
d 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 c
reated 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 softwar
e development company. That requires me to be both logical and creative &md
ash; two attributes I believe are critical for the Summit County Council.
&nb
sp;
I absolutely love Summit County. I have two small children and plan to li
ve here for decades to come. I want to ensure that that the 2030 and 2040 v
ersions 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.
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My platform is focused on a few key concepts:
Slow development
: I am worried that Summit County plans to take open spaces around th
e 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 s
paces on the property. The General Plan outlines many of these types of are
as across the basin where the county wants to develop land further.
Better Co
mmunication: Right now we don’t receive enough warning to affect chan
ge on issues facing Summit County. For instance, the Kilby Road project by
I-80 was being painted when the first complaints from community members sta
rted flowing in. At that point it was too late to make changes to what turn
ed 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 newsle
tter 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 th
e evenings with the community to listen to issues people are bringing up an
d communicate more effectively. I also want to meet regularly at coffee sho
ps 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 larg
e 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 in
to our garages. I would want to look at expanding our paved trails and plow
ing a percentage in the winter — so we can use them more as a transpo
rtation network. I think we are a community of outdoor people. I believe th
e 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 neigh
borhoods for specific activities. For example, I would like to see ski buse
s/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 sala
ry to educational foundations for the three school districts, Park City, No
rth Summit, and South Summit. I look at being a member of the County Counci
l as a service. While it would only be about $35,000 each year, I think tha
t could do some good.
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Anyho
w, I hope that provides some background (probably too much)… but if
I can provide something different, please let me know.
Also, should I pr
epare 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
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