ST. GEORGE — It was a packed house in the Mainstage Theatre of the Eccles Fine Arts Center at Utah Tech University as the five candidates for St. George City Council took to the stage Wednesday night.
“I want to take my hat off to all of you for taking time out of your busy schedules to show up here tonight and hear these candidates speak,” Vince Brown, the director of Utah Tech’s Institute of Politics, told the crowd before the debate. “It shows you all are interested in your town and we appreciate that.”
Featured at the debate were incumbents Jimmie Hughes and Dannielle Larkin and challengers Paula Smith, Brad Bennett and Steve Kemp.
The debate covered a bevy of topics from public safety to water conservation and affordable housing to promoting inclusion.
‘Ugly City Council campaign’
Larkin said this campaign season has become the worst she had ever seen in St. George and made a plea for civility. The councilwoman has previously stated that she feels she has been targeted during the campaign for her support of the LGBTQ-plus community.
“I have been watching with a broken heart as we have seen the most ugly City Council campaign that has even been in the history of the city of St. George,” she said.
Notes stating she voted in favor of drag shows in public spaces earlier this year have been appearing on the windshields of cars in various parts of the city over the last month and were placed on cars parked outside the debate event. Larkin called these notes “derogatory” and “inflammatory.”
Larkin also had some of her signs altered by an unknown party who attached smaller signs that had the same message as the notes.
The vote the notes and signs refers to is Larkin’s being the only “nay” vote on a motion Councilwoman Michelle Tanner made during an April 11 council meeting to uphold the denial of a special event permit for a drag show that organized by the Southern Utah Drag Stars group. The group was denied over violating city code related to event advertising. Minutes of the meeting can be found here.
The denial of the permit subsequently led to the city being sued by the drag group and the American Civil Liberties Union while a federal judge ordered the city to allow the drag show to move forward, which it did. The lawsuit is presently ongoing.
While the vandalism of campaign signs is nothing new for local elections – Smith and Bennett have also had some of their signs vandalized or stolen – St. George Police Office Tiffany Mitchell confirmed the police are investigating the incidents.
“It is not what St. George is all about,” she said. “We are about building. We are about lifting. We are about looking into the future and making a space that we’re proud to live in … We should not allow this type of negativity and influence to creep into our community. We’re better than that.”
Public safety funding
Despite the attention drag shows in St. George have garnered, it was not a topic of discussion during the debate. Instead, candidates largely stuck to the questions put forth by the moderator, such as how they plan to support public safety.
Last year the City Council voted down a proposed property tax hike that would have been used to fund the five-year Safe St. George Plan. To fund the first two years of the program, the council looked to sales tax revenues, deferring maintenance and upgrades to certain arts and recreation facilities and other sources. One of those sources was the city’s rainy day fund. It was used to cover increased wages for police officers.
“This is something they (the City Council) should have handled a long time ago,” Bennett said, adding that public safety should be a funding priority and funded first out of the city’s obligations. With a city budget of $520 million budget this year, there is no way someone can tell him the police can’t be funded properly, he said.
Among Bennett’s campaign pledges is to have a third party complete the budget audit to make sure funds are being used correctly.
Smith agreed with Bennett’s stance, while Hughes and Larkin did not.
“We have made a commitment …to make a big jump in public safety to make sure they have the tools that they need and the pay that they need,” Hughes said, adding the city has had to raise police wages to stay competitive with other cities that could draw officers away. “Isn’t it great that we have a rainy day fund to make that happen?”
The rainy day fund typically is used for one-time spending and is not meant to be used to fund continuing obligations.
Water conservation
Matters primarily related to growth came in the form of questions about water conservation and affordable housing.
Hughes pointed to the city requiring new developments to have secondary water systems, which is a part of a water conservation ordinance governing new construction. The ordinance was created with the help and encouragement of the Washington County Water District and was adopted by the city last year.
Hughes also said he is very much in favor of the regional water reuse system being spearheaded by the water district as well.
“I don’t like to be super heavy-handed, but there are things we can do to encourage (water conservation) and that’s one of them, a water reuse system,” he said.
While supporting the idea of the water reuse system, Smith said there needed to be caution when dealing with government overreach by agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency. Concerning water conservation overall, she said much can be done to teach children about conservation practices.
“Education with the students and the kids … starting at a younger age, sending them home with activities on how we can conserve water, planting trees with the family and getting them engaged in the community,” she said. “It should start with the students. I don’t think that’s as active as it could be.”
Affordable housing
On the issue of housing, Kemp said cities cannot create affordable housing. What they can do is make it easier for developers to create affordable housing projects through friendly zoning and the easing of certain regulations.
Bennett agreed with the city removing red tape related to development and further stated all stakeholders need to come together and find a solution for the housing problem. The city can also look at restructuring its impact fees and seek out state and federal programs for first-time home buyers, he said.
Hughes emphasized a need to work with private community partners like the Switchpoint Community Resource Center to help solve some of the housing problems. Overall, is it an issue the City Council pays a lot of attention to, he said, yet added, “There’s not a magic bullet for affordable housing. It’s a supply versus demand issue.”
Community engagement and inclusion
The candidates were asked for their ideas on how to promote better community engagement and feelings of inclusivity in St. George. This included a follow-up question of fostering inclusivity for the LGBTQ-plus community.
Larkin, Hughes and Smith said St. George already is a very welcoming place to live regardless of an individual’s background.
“I feel St. George has been that,” Hughes said, adding he didn’t look at someone’s skin color, faith or sexual orientation as a factor in dealing with them. The City Council wants to hear what all of its residents have to say, he said.
“I’ve never been to a place that has been so welcoming,” Smith said of her experience when her family moved to St. George several years ago. “I’ve never been in a community that is more accepting and more welcome than St. George. Your background doesn’t matter.”
Larkin said anyone who lives in St. George has a right to have their voices heard, and that “there is not a single person who doesn’t deserve to live here and feel like they can be safe.”
On promoting better community engagement, Kemp said that could be done through better use of technology and social media. The city should learn from the example of St. George Police Officer Tiffany Mitchell who serves as the police department’s public information officer. She routinely gets on social media and alerts the public to what is happening. The city could do a better job of that across all platforms, he said.
Bennett added that there should be more surveys and polls on the city’s website that gauge more of what the residents want or are concerned about. If elected, he would work to have the mayor return the format of public comment during council meetings to what it was before she placed limitations on it.
Earlier this year, Mayor Michele Randall temporarily suspended in-person public comment taken during the first City Council meeting of the month due to concerns it was being used to create division in the community and as a platform for commentary on national-level cultural issues that were outside of the council’s ability to address. While this blocked people from addressing the council directly, they were still able to send the council letters and emails.
Public comment was reintroduced soon after the suspension but with limitations that both Bennett and Smith want rescinded.
“This is one of the main reasons I am running,” Bennett said. “I feel like we have a departure from listening to the citizens as much as we need to.”
Other topics covered during the debate related to sustaining the city’s quality of growth in the face of continuing growth, keeping up with city infrastructure demands and promoting alternative modes of transportation.
The debate was streamed live by the St. George Area Chamber of Commerce on its Facebook page and can be viewed below.
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