Public Safety and Infrastructure

Two of the basic responsibilities of local government are to ensure public safety and to build and maintain a city's infrastructure. We have a general plan, developed over years and with great care, to guide our growth from town to small city; we should follow it. Our current rate of growth will bring a shortage of culinary water, beginning in about two years; we must address this intelligently and without delay. And we ought to ensure that every child has a safe route to school; this involves improving sidewalks, crosswalks, and traffic control, and also eliminating major nuisances and hazards past which children must walk on their way to school.

Preserving and improving our economic strength is another fundamental role of local government. We must openly restore our City government to a sound fiscal footing by ensuring that growth brings increased revenues to the City; by seeing that appropriate taxes and fees are enforced; and through sound, forward-looking management of the City's finances. Otherwise, budget constraints will prevent the City from doing many of the basic things it should do. We must aggressively and professionally market American Fork's strengths to attract employers and their employees. We must actively recruit businesses from all sectors, not just retail. And, through professionalism and courtesy, City leaders must improve American Fork's reputation as an excellent place to do business.

Economic Growth

Quality of Life

The City can do much to secure and improve its residents' quality of life, by improving parks, playgrounds, and trails; upgrading arts and recreation programs for young and old; preserving our historic identity; and keeping all our neighborhoods clean and safe, by enforcing sensible and effective ordinances to combat hazards and major nuisances.

It turns out that I am the only candidate in my race who supports AFCNet. I am proud to bear that distinction. Here is my position on the city's broadband system: AFCNet is a public investment in infrastructure that opens the door to competitive information technology offerings by the private sector. AFCNet should be an important part of American Fork's economic development package. Governor Huntsman, in his economic development plan, designated Utah County as an information technology center for the state. AFCNet helps American Fork compete for IT businesses. AFCNet is close to becoming revenue-positive. Through good management and aggressive marketing, AFCNet can become an important source of revenue for the city. AFCNet is fast, reliable, and affordable. It is the gift that enables my lifestyle. At least fifty percent of the work I do for the city involves electronic research or communication undertaken in the comfort of my home while my children sleep.

AFCNet (Broadband Internet)

Downtown Revitalization

Our downtown is our identity, our character, our heart, and the image we project to businesses and families who might stay in or relocate to American Fork. It should be attractive, walkable, and filled with niche businesses which complement big box development, rather than competing with it. The City should support the civic center plaza proposed by Downtown American Fork, Inc., with its improved beauty, better parking, and enhanced landscaping; this will be a catalyst for further investment downtown. Because a state highway runs through the heart of downtown, the City must work well with the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT), where there is a new willingess to cooperate with local governments to calm traffic and to create more pedestrian-friendly communities. The City should continue and, if possible, expand its low-interest, revolving loan program for downtown business improvements.

We now have a park with a playground in every neighborhood of American Fork except one. This is progress, and it's already making a difference in our neighborhoods. It's important to keep improving our parks, adding picnic pavilions, walkways, restrooms, parking, and other improvements, as budget, volunteers, and donations permit. But the most urgently needed improvement is an increase in the parks maintenance budget. More parks with more improvements require more maintenance. It was intended from the beginning that the maintenance budget would increase to accommodate the recent improvements, but this has not happened. As a result, our capable parks staff does not have sufficient resources to take proper care of our current parks. If the Mayor and the City Council do not soon provide for adequate park maintenance, much of the $3.2 million we have spent on our parks in the last two years will have been for naught.

Park Improvements

Volunteers

The rank and file residents of American Fork are a huge, mostly untapped resource. City leaders should be energetic in recruiting skilled volunteers, and conscientious in supporting and informing their efforts. Elected officials should take the efforts and recommendations of volunteer committees seriously. If volunteer work is meaningful, able people will be willing to volunteer. This is important, because government of the people is not reliably for the people unless it is by the people.

If the city is to attract the sort of people and businesses we want for our neighbors, it must project a pleasant, professional image, both in its appearance and in its government. That image starts at the top, with elected officials who know and respect the law, who are articulate and well-informed in presenting themselves and the City, and who are conscientious and professional in small things, such as answering letters and returning phone calls.

Professionalism in Government

Other Levels of Government

American Fork needs leaders who understand how other levels of government work, and who have the personal skills and the spine necessary to cultivate productive relationships with UDOT, UTA, and other agencies of county, state, and federal governments. We need leaders who can communicate to other officials that we're trying to preserve and build a community, not just have a good tax base and efficient traffic patterns.

The future matters, but so does the past. If we don't preserve essential portions of our history, we will forget who we are. If we forget who we are, what we become in the future will not likely be worth remembering. Some old things are just old, and replacing them would be an improvement. Some old things are historic; replacing them would be a great loss. We have to be wise enough to tell the difference, and fiscally and philosophically sound enough to do something about it.

Historic Preservation

A Safe Walk to School

Every child who walks to school in American Fork should have well-maintained sidewalks to walk on and safe places to cross streets. No child should have to walk past drug houses, unkept vacant lots, or other hazards. Achieving this will require fiscal reform, sound management, effective enforcement, and genuine commitment to the quality of life in all our neighborhoods.

Our greatest strength is our people. I believe in informing the people of critical decisions, problems, and opportunities facing our city and our neighborhoods, while there is still time for discussion and debate, then empowering them to take action. If properly organized and supported by the city, neighborhood organizations could effectively address many of our challenges and opportunities. The City should fund a coordinator to help neighborhoods organize effectively, to keep them informed, and to assist them in using the mechanisms of government to find solutions.

Neighbors in Action

It Worked Before . . .

The same approach we took with our upgrades of 27 parks in American Fork will be helpful in facing other challenges: meaningful public involvement in decision making from beginning to end, a conscientious effort to inform City residents and gather their input, and effective use of volunteers in tasks which conserve public funds and build community.