Fiscal Responsibility and Accountability

Throwing money at issues is a horrible way to solve them and yet this has been the first (and sometimes only) strategy by local government for a long time. To solve complex issues, we need people best equipped to solve them supported by teams who are motivated around successful outcomes.

Required Services: Salt Lake County is required by law to provide a minimum number of services. These are non-negotiable, therefore they need to be running at peak performance by leaders best equipped to deliver results. As your At-Large Councilmember, I will work with the County Mayor’s office and all legislated department and service leads to discuss past performance, see how we are measuring success, dig into issues that are hindering performance, unpack the current budget, and determine if we are on the right path.

Other Services: Salt Lake County provides many services that are not required by law. As Councilmember, I will work with the County Council and the Mayor’s office to review and prioritize which services should continue or need to be re-evaluated based on the value they provide to county residents and businesses and their return on investment.

The Bureaucracy: I lived in the Washington, D.C., suburbs for a decade following the 9/11 attacks. I witnessed firsthand the tremendous growth in bureaucratic bloat during that time and came to find government's primary role of serving the people had long since shifted to preserving and growing itself. This is antithetical to the foundation of our Republic and public service, and it is fiscally unsustainable. It is one of the main reasons I left the D.C. area for Utah.

We see this in our own County government where new Deputy Mayor positions were recently created by Mayor Jenny Wilson, and are effectively political handouts to people with no experience managing the duties they are responsible for. This is patently absurd and it is the first thing I will examine when I take the oath of office. The same goes for any downstream, non-productive administrative roles not tied to County-delivered services.