Mayor Mark Johnson: How Lehi’s Growth Is Shaping Community, Connection, and Homeownership
Full Conversation Transcript
Ryan Harding
Mayor Mark Johnson
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welcome to roots and branches of Lehi the podcast where we get to know the faces stories and lives that make up our
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community I'm Ryan Harding and I started this podcast as a way for us all to connect with the people we live
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alongside growing up in a small town I learned that connections go beyond blood they're built through shared experiences
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friendships and the moments we celebrate together each week we'll sit down with someone new from Lehi to share their
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unique story their passions and what they love most about living here so whether you've been here for years or
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just arrived join us as we deepen Our Roots and reach out to our branches one
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story at a
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time welcome mayor Mark Johnson here with me today and I'm excited to have
Meet Mayor Mark Johnson
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him on this podcast roots and branches of Lehi so Mark tell me a little bit about yourself as far as so did you grow
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up in Lehi are you from Lehigh or tell me about that sure I'd be happy to and first off thank you for having me Ryan
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this is I like this opportunity I actually grew up in North County grew up
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and graduated in Pleasant Grove bought my first h house in American Fork and
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then my wife and I decided that we wanted to live in Lehigh because I actually growing up I spent a lot of
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time in Lehi had friends over here I had family over here and I actually really liked Lehi yeah and so we found a lot in
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a new subdivision and we built a house there and that was in 3 and we have just
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lived here since and loved it don't want to move don't want to move you like it it's been a good place to live it's a
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great place to live and and tell me so have you always wanted to you know go into public service be a mayor and stuff
Journey to Public Service
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like that or no actually it was probably the farthest thing from my mind okay uh
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I had never really entertained it I I did have an opportunity to work I've been in the engineering field for uh my
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whole career worked in engineering departments through college it helped me get through there and then I graduated I
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actually graduated with a design degree not an engineering degree but I ended up
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working in the engineering field in design and that's what I've done my whole career and I had an opportunity to
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work for a engineering consultant that had a lot of municipalities for clients
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and ended up learning a lot about municipalities and how they operate how
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they what work what doesn't work uh I did the standards and specifications for
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a number of cities and so I started understanding how cities worked and I
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looked at Lehi and there were a lot of things I liked about Lehi but there were um some things going on here that I
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thought ought to be done a little bit differently okay and that's when I started thinking about a political role
Political Challenges and Triumphs
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and did you do were were you in any kind of political position before mayor or did you go straight from nothing to
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Mayor oh that's an interesting story I actually proposed some changes in Leigh
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in regards to Transportation okay and I was big on some traffic calming techniques that could be utilized in the
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city and were not and so I proposed those as part of a campaign I decided to
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just I'm just going to run for city council okay I actually ran twice in two subsequent elections lost both times
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okay which is interesting yeah I decided okay I've had enough about with that I'm I'm just not going to do that anymore
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not meant for me but I did get a lot of attention and back then that was uh in
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the early 2000s and it was hard to get elected in Lehigh unless you were from Lehigh sure
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but I got enough attention that they put me on the Planning Commission okay I soon became the chair of the Planning
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Commission got had an opportunity to enact some of my philosophies and and
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people agreed with me that those changes had to occur and then a vacancy came up
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on the city council I was encouraged to put my name in on that I did they ended
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up appointing me and I went from getting hardly any votes in the city of Lehigh
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to getting the the so I ran again after that stay of course I had to run in the
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next election and I didn't want to and they said no you need to and I did I ended up getting more votes than anybody had ever received in Lehi so awesome I
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thought this is interesting so I served on the the Lehi City Council for 12 and
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1/2 years okay and then I actually left I had enough after three over three
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terms and I'm like I'm done I I have a life to live and I was off no political
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interest for two years because I had started my own business and was enjoying that yeah and I was encouraged very
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strongly by some people in town to run for mayor didn't want to do that either
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yeah I really didn't want to do that because the mayor at the time was a friend of mine and and
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and but they they pushed really hard and I said somebody's got to have their name in there and and I threw my name in with
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I think there were oh there were several there were like 13 other people that had shown an interest in running for mayor
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but I didn't want to I didn't want to finish second I wanted to finish either first or third or further yeah so either
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I'd win or or didn't and I ended up in the position I didn't want to I finished second oh no yeah that was tough I I
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ended up down 11 points in the primary election yeah but ended up winning the
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general election by seven points so I made an 11o swing which is pretty much
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unheard of in local politics yeah what what do you attribute that to just I
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just after the primary election I had some soul searching to do and I had
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decided I just I put my name in I committed to other people I'd run for
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for it and I decided if I'm going to do it I'm just going to do everything I can to win this and so I just worked at it
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really hard I used any creative techniques I could to get the information out there why I felt I could
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be a good mayor yeah and yeah it was a big surprise yeah I think it caught a
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lot of people by surprise it probably did and it sounds like there's a lot of influential people that kind of took you
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to to that spot right you were done like you said you'd been actually you didn't even want to do city council at first too but you had good people tell me
Community and Personal Life
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about not necessarily names but tell me the influence of those people yeah so a couple of those were my competitors
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earlier so Johnny Barnes and Steve hook who I think the world of we become very
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good friends those were some of the people I run against initially but back then when we ran elections here in in
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Lehigh it was a more of a friendly atmosphere sure and you got to know your opponents and you didn't you didn't
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really criticize them you just talked about what you thought you could do differently sure and those were the two
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who knew I just wasn't interested in running again and they had both one in the two earlier elections that I lost in
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and they said no you need to run and so and I did and they encouraged me and
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they I think they they talked to other people about me and that was worked very
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much in my favor I like that that's the side of politics we don't often see we only see the oh it's yeah the angriness
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that I can't believe this other guy is but it sounds like that was your competitors were the ones actually supporting you to run again so yeah
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that's how it was and it was like that at least for me I don't know if it was like that it probably wasn't like that
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for everybody sure but I've made a lot of very good friends in the process and
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and even those that are my opponents in the past I've become I've become very
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good friends with yeah uh a couple of our city council members right now were
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those who also run against me on the council one year and I supported them
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strongly in the in their their next opportunities to run sure and I become
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good friends with them and it it was like that my last opponent I've got to know him very well on my last mayoral
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competition and we communicate from time to time and that's the way it should be
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do you think that just comes from a hey we all want Lehi to be better so it's not necessarily A you think just or just
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just that Community feel of just loving people I mean I I don't know what do you attribute that to I guess well I think we all just want it to be better sure
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and and we're not all going to agree of course as an example last week I actually had lunch with three former
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mayors and the so Ken Greenwood Bert Wilson Ron Smith okay we all got
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together and went over to Chuck arama and had a great lunch together and talked about leehi and and our policies
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were all a bit different sure you know what it's we all have the same goal yeah
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good I like that I I like that you guys still get together I think that's cool anything you think as far as your
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background and stuff like that anything surprising you think uh people might not know about you as far as your role
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outside of Mayor just your personal life and stuff like that something that would be surprising or just that people I I
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don't know if anything that would be actually C any catch anybody by surprise sure I've gotten to know a lot of people
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in town and so I think that means they've gotten to know me I'm I like to remain pretty active in the community I
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like to do a lot of bike riding whenever I can so I get out and do that working hard is not uncommon for me I like to
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spend time at my business and at the city I'm generally somewhere between 45
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and 60 hours a week between my personal business and the city and that's all
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good because I was taught to work hard and and yeah I don't know what what else
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I'd do with my life if I wasn't working it's good to work I agree work hard yes so then tell me you know so that's maybe
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something a lot of people maybe a lot of people know this but let's assume some don't that a mayor isn't necessarily
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like a full-time obviously you said you have a business still too and stuff like that so it's not this is the only thing you do and stuff like that yeah it's a
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part-time job people ask me what I do for the city and often my response is I'm the parttime help but in reality of
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course it's a lot more than a part-time job at the city I spend far more time at the city than I do at my personal
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business that doesn't necessarily make some of my some of the workers I I I
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work with at my regular job very happy at times because we do have a lot of work but sure it's all good what it's
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stressful at times but in the long run it's all enjoyable now now you mentioned your
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engineering background too and stuff like that do you think that's obviously Mayors and I Mayors come from different
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backgrounds different different roles that they've played in the community and stuff like that do you think being an engineer really helped you with because
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obviously a lot of Mayor does planning and different things like that do you think that was a really good and is that
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a requirement for a mayor maybe give me your thoughts on that okay and as I mentioned before I actually have a
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design degree not an engineering degree but allows me to do a lot of engineering design if you will so that's what I've
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done for 40 close to 45 years now so I've dealt uh with a lot of land
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planning issues a lot of Road design system design utility design and some
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structural mix in that as well and so I've got a few patents out there on some
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of the things I've put together and so it's been a good career but it's also been very helpful
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because I understand a lot of things from the technical aspect that Mayors have to do there were a few things from
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the financial aspect when I became mayor that I had to learn at least get a better understanding of but as far as
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construction and projects Capital you know Capital facilities how utilities work in town where our water comes from
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what happens to our sewer those are things I had a I had a really good understanding and so that was very
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helpful planning was something I had a good understanding of and what rules need to be followed as far as work that
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was done in town construction standards yeah that sort of thing I understood why things are done the way they are okay
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okay that's good so not necessarily a prerequisite for a mayor but that did help you I guess a lot help me a lot so
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okay yeah I came from a different aspect I remember when Ken Greenwood got mayor or became mayor we we he asked me to go
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to lunch with him one day and so I did and we sat down I had known him fairly
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well before and he told me said Mark he said there's more to this being mayor than I ever imagined he said it's a lot
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harder he says it's I'm going to I'm going to college all over again and I just laughed and so the reason he'd
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asked me to lunch is because there were certain things going on that he knew I understood that he didn't understand and
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so he just wanted to pick my brain a little bit and uh see what my thoughts were because he was being told things
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that he's I'm not I'm just not sure what to think about this so that was a good opportunity for me uh to sit down and
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have those conversations with him good so let's move to life in Lehi what obviously you've been here long a long
Economic Growth and Development
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time you s and stuff what what do you personally like about Lehi what you mentioned biking and stuff like that but what do you like about Lehi right now i
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Lehi is it's an easy thing to say Lehi is just a wonderful place to be yeah but
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in reality it is okay and we're very fortunate there's many things in this
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city that has made my job fairly easy okay as an example to that a lot of
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people don't know this we went to a a conference once power conference where Lehigh City was receiving some awards
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because of uh some things they had done in our we have our own power system and so they' done some unique things and
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they get some accolades from time to time and so we were invited to this conference and we go to the conference we were asked you guys want to stay for
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lunch yeah we'll stay for lunch sure we like to eat we take it it it was it was
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a very large room we took a table way in the back we were back in the corner because I'm like we need to leave right
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after this because we were just there for the award ceremony sure and Natalie gner got up to speak she was a keynote
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speaker during lunch and she St talked about the state of Utah and all its Financial strengths
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Nationwide yeah and it was a very interesting presentation she had a great PowerPoint up and she gets to the end of
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the her presentation and she goes okay I got a question who here is from
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Lehi and Jason Walker my city administrator and I and Joel Lees who's the power director we all look at each
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other okay so we raise our hands and she goes okay she says I am I want to give the same presentation but I'm going to
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pull Lehi out of the calculations oh and Utah was still strong yeah but it
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wasn't obviously not as strong and she goes you guys need to understand that
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Lehi City is the economic engine of the state of Utah wow and that statement
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completely caught us off guard yeah and I I realized probably more so at that time
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than any other that we're pretty fortunate here in Lehi because I knew in
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with all the other Mayors and and and I work with all the Mayors not only in this County but several up north and
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that how fortunate we are because of all the financial issues they have to deal
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with that often we're not dealing with here in Lehigh we've got a lot of things going on here that we're just able to do
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when we need to have them done and so that's a wonderful place to be and that's that's not because of me it's
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just because of what has happened by a matter of circumstance for many years and so you mentioned the financial so is
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that because of the tax base of that these businesses and stuff like that or elaborate on that it's it's it's a lot
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of that we we do have we're very fortunate because of the businesses that have come in here silicon slopes has has
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treated us very well Micron when they came in kicked off something that a lot of people probably didn't anticipate
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yeah some did we were told that when Micron established here that they knew
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that they were going to to be a series of other large businesses that were going to also establish here and we've
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seen that's that adobe came yeah Microsoft was here there were a number
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of businesses that just started locating here yeah uh in in Lehigh and then it
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builds us up to the events of last year where Texas Instruments of course purchased the the Micron plant save that
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facility which we were we did not know until the day they made the announcement
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that they were going to move on and put it up for sale okay so we were a little nervous about the purchase of it but
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Texas Instruments came in they purchased it they came in with a commitment to expand and so there was there it was
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it's an 11.6 billion investment in the state of Utah there's nothing been like
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like that ever in the state of Utah before nothing has been so so large and
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so we know that's going to impact us that's going to hire a lot of people here in Town those jobs are actually
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very good paying jobs so that helps in our economy not to mention to have that
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much that kind of an investment in Lehi yeah Micron when they came they actually
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built a new storm drain line a new sewer line through town uh they built on their
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own accord some critical infrastructure for Lehi Texas Instruments is going to
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expand that wow yeah those are big things for us those are great things yeah yeah and why I love that the
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economic engine of the state of Utah so it's that's well we are we do have a AAA rating we have we have attained that
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goal since I've been mayor and I remember the first time we actually reached that goal that was a pinnacle right there that was important to us
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that which means for for normal people that means the cost to borrow money is cheaper for us right much cheaper yeah
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so yeah we've you will literally save millions of dollars your city just by by
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increasing that rate just a little bit and so yeah have that high rating of
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getting these great ratings when we go in for bonding it's a big benefit to the citizens of this city oh that's awesome
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yeah I love that I love that let me I want to keep going on that but I'm GNA
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I'm gonna stick to life in Lehigh a little bit more and then let's go we we'll go there but as far as any local
Local Traditions and Events
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Traditions or anything things that you've loved participating in as part of as part of Lehi and things like that oh
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yeah we always start off with Roundup right Roundup is a great celebration we all love the parade right the miniature
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float parade is just it's so unique I I don't know of anybody in the state that
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does that there's probably some we we've heard that there's other cities that want to emulate that yeah uh that's
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great we love it but that the Roundup Rodeo has been so successful we've
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extended that to a 4-day rodeo now the tickets always sell out yeah it's become a big problem because scalpers go after
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those tickets and they I heard numbers in last year that were just remarkable me were
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selling tickets for $15 and scalpers are picking up and they were going for I think I heard around
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$175 a seat and I'm like you got to be kidding me that's what I was told somebody seen them online for I'm like
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they didn't really sell for that much but I don't know but uh that's it's a pretty popular event yeah we just have a
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lot of remarkable events here the concerts that Mel bu say puts together
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for the the summer concerts in the park and for the the Round Up concert we just
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had the Bacon Brothers here that was a fantastic event for Leigh city so we
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have those things going on and we're seeing our Parks get built so we have some wonderful facilities finally coming
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about here that's exciting as well yeah and is where does that money come from
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then for the parks and stuff like that is that a lot from the fact that all these businesses are relocating here and stuff like that or where or that come
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from a different tax base or so no the parks comes from the general fund the building them but not all of them we we
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do have this park tax which passed recently that has been that's been very
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beneficial okay when you look at the new family park facility the playground and
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up there that's a $17 million project we had put aside $110 million for that to
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build the facility but 7 million will come from the Future Park tax that's
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being that's coming in so that's important and the park tax is a is is is a good tax in the manner that it isn't
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just Lehi citizens that are paying for it in fact a lot of the money that's being spent in Lehi is from outside
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sources okay and a small portion of the money that they spent here ends up going to support leh High parks and our
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culture and recreation and that's important we needed that because for a long time we were yeah about the time I
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took mayor while I was on the council we were land poor to to build Parks now we
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have three large areas that are Regional Parks right now and so we're watching Family Park expand uh meler roads Park
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is going to come in with new baseball fields and pickle ball courts we're working on that right now to raise it
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that was a park that once we purchased the land we found out it was a large portion of it was in the flood plane we
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had to raise it all to be able to build on it sure uh and we we've got all that
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work being done for free right now we have a contractor that needed a place to
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to put all his dirt and he came to the city and said I will dump all my dirt
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here I'll grade it I'll prep it all for that Future Park wow if you'll just let me dump my dirt there you know yeah
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that's awesome we've had a few deals like that that have been very beneficial they take some time sure but that's okay
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yeah it's a significant savings well especially where I like that both business and and government can work
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together in that aspect we needed some help and you needed that and so great that's yeah it's been a great opportunity for all that's awesome okay
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okay so moving on to your role as a mayor you said part-time and stuff like that tell me what a typical day looks
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like for you as mayor I don't think there is a typical day every day is a little bit different depending on my
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schedule sometimes I'll have city meetings in in the morning sometimes I'll have work related meetings in this
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in the morning I will usually go into my regular office first take care of the business there I can do lot of City
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business there I can respond to all my emails there and that is very helpful after take care of some loose ends there
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and get some work done I'll run down to the city I'll take care of any signings I need to do a lot of people don't
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realize how many signings you have to sure that is as as the executive of the
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city you you end up signing your name a lot and yeah and I remember one day I I went in the office to do signings and I
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had 80 different 80 different documents to sign I that was an estimate I didn't count them all but it was just by the
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stack I'm like there's about 80 here wow and so I have to go through that at there's a number of city meetings that I
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do but there's also some State related and uh meetings related with uh mag and
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uh some of the other planning organizations mag is our Mount Lanza Association of governments that's our
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Master planning Organization for Utah County and and they also serve a couple other counties as well I have
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assignments there I have assignments in UTA I'm on their Advisory Board there
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there's just a number of obligations I have that are City related but aren't
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even actually directly related to City it's not just a city job it's actually
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an outside job I have one with the Utah Valley University I'm on their uh
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College of health and Public Service Board there and so I'm involved in making decisions with them and hey we
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have UV here you here building here we got two of the new big or two of the buildings over in Thanksgiving Point are
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now owned by UVU wow and that's where a lot of training goes on over there so we're excited about that they are too
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and tell me what they're doing there what so the the chips program which is as I mentioned the College of health and
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public service yeah that is they do training for they do Dental training for dental assistance there's some medical
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training that goes on there for the nursing program and other medical
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related businesses the police St uh police training goes on there in the
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upstairs in one of the buildings they have a training facility now for those who are wanting to be to go into law
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enforcement okay and man I didn't encourage anybody to check check into this college up there it's part of UVU
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because there's a lot of jobs available a lot that's awesome jobs available in the medical and law enforcement Fields
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big needs there and also in the they also cover the fire too so okay okay
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yeah so then going back to your job as mayor tell me what are some of the I can tell you love your job which is good but
Challenges of Leadership
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there's got to be some obstacles too right there's got to be some some headaches and stuff like that tell me how do you overcome some of those what
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are some of those talk to me about some of the harder parts of the job that's an easy one actually okay so uh there's two
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things first of all in the position that I hold and the council holds we have to
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make some decisions sometimes that are just unpopular sure and that's not fun you want to make everybody's life better
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you want to Mak every everybody's life happier but here's the interesting thing as as much as we all love the
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Constitution gets in the way of that sometimes sure okay you'll have disagreements across boundaries yeah and
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generally anytime you have that you have to first consider property rights and
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who has the prop who has rights here who is the property owner that actually has rights in this situation and we all we
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all love the Constitution and we all love the the doctrines that are held inide of that but property rights are
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issues we have to deal with with here in the city sure frequently and because of
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that we identify we have to identify okay what are the rights of this property owner and what are the
26:38
protections through the zoning laws to the neighbors and I there's a class that
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I teach a little bit on our Citizens Academy our local government Academy
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things that we've started up here and I get a teach a portion about that and it's that that property rights are specific to the property owner neighbors
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have protections which are different than rights they have protections granted to them through the zoning laws
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okay and if we're doing our job right we have to analyze that it also makes some people unhappy when that happens yeah
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the other thing that is really difficult is a social media makes our job pretty
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difficult sometimes okay there's often some misinformation that goes out there
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it it gets legs and and when you try to correct that with with the truth
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sometimes is not only difficult sometimes it's just impossible to happen
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because a lot of people they're they they hear rumors yeah they hear
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conspiracies those conspiracies become their reality they infect their
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imagination and their imagination becomes their reality fair enough and it's really hard to have that
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conversation with people and said about okay you need to understand what the truth is here because it's it's hard to
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get that out and a lot of people frankly they don't care about the truth they care about emotions Fair yeah I and I
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think obviously I live in Lehi and I I remember seeing some stuff on social media about the family park and stuff
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like that that was one of the worst cases i' SE I about that okay I wonder referring to yeah that was well that's
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not the only one I'm there multiple yeah but that is a very good example of some of information getting
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out there that was just inaccurate yeah and that that took off
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and the city still had to make decisions yeah and it was the sad thing about it
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is is our our Park staff and our Public Works had put so much effort into
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getting that Park open so we could enjoy it before it turned cold yeah and there
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were some other decisions unfortunately that just hadn't been made yet there was some hours of operation we didn't know
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what they would be because because the Manpower involved we have to pay for
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that yeah and a lot of people were like why you fence and and why can't we just go there whenever we want like any other
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Park and because it's a$ 177 million investment because we spent a lot of money here and
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unfortunately one of the biggest problems we deal with in the city is
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vandalism okay and right off the bat we had vandalism up there because people
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for whatever reason think that's okay sure not all people but there are a few
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out there that do yeah and they can cause a lot of damage really quick and
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it's unfortunate but it is a reality and we have to deal with that the other issue up there was the fact that this
29:37
was it is an all abilities Park and when we went to some of the the the better
29:45
functioning all abilities Park they told us it's important to fence it and have
29:50
one entry in and out where people can so if you lose somebody if you have a child that gets might get confused or just
29:58
wanders off then the parent can go wait at that only way out and and catch them
30:05
so it solves some problems good okay and so any advice to Citizens on those with
30:12
the social media thing as far as how they can be better with that so I've written about this before okay there's
30:19
something that if we all practice we'd all look at look at our lives quite a bit differently and that is I like to
30:25
say that say say what say what you believe and be willing to say what you
30:30
don't know and that is a philosophy I've carried with me for the last several
30:37
years because I've learned if we go through life and only say what we actually know what actually is
30:44
fact-based and has good data to back it up we're going to find out how little we actually know right when we think about
30:50
it from that context and it's okay to say okay I believe this there's a difference between know making a
30:57
statement of what I know and I'm making a statement all I believe both statements are legitimate right they're
31:03
important to be able to separate those two yeah and then it's perfectly okay to say when you don't know something it is
31:09
it it's that's the way we learn and and I'll catch myself every once in a while I'll go off on something I'm like wait a
Self-Reflection and Truth-Seeking
31:16
minute do I really know that what are the details I know about that and in in
31:21
that process it's just a check and and if we all check our our attitudes and
31:27
our thoughts ODS it will help guide us towards what is the truth and what is
31:32
the more important things and we'll we'll learn more in the process so yeah
31:38
I like that no that's good advice obviously Lehi has historic Roots right
Balancing Growth and Tradition in Lehi
31:44
it's a very old town but obviously a lot of growth happening a lot of modernization so how do you balance
31:50
those two things as mayor keeping that small town hey there's horses over there in the pasture kind of thing and look at
31:56
these large buildings too okay I told you I spent a lot of time growing up here in Lei because I had friends here
32:02
you know I I I I loved motorcycles so I'd loved I'd love to camp out and we'd
32:08
come over here in Lehigh you could go find a place to camp out for night up by Dry Creek you could there were people
32:14
that rode a lot of horses up there yeah I when we had motorcycles there were places to ride here it was there were a
32:22
lot of Open Spaces I there was yeah yeah different time uh but that's pretty much you County in general yeah so you don't
32:30
think that wasn't the case in in American Fork Pleasant Grove or Oram or anywhere along the wasach front because
32:37
it was growth happens and a lot of our growth has been external we we have had
Challenges of Managing Growth
32:43
people move here because it's we've got a lot going on and so they want to live
32:48
here the economy is strong that's going to happen it's hard to stop that from happening but what a lot of people don't
32:54
realize a lot of the growth is internal and for many years our the majority of
32:59
growth by far was internal growth it either came from people that were just that were born here or people who were
33:07
raised here went to college and couldn't get a good job here and so they left the state to get a good job and then the economy boomed in Utah and so they're
33:13
moving back but they're actually native utans fair and and I've had to remind people in the past that don't think
33:20
you're not the growth because if you were it didn't matter if you moved here or you were educated here and left and came back or if you were born here yeah
33:27
you are the growth and we have to deal with that and it's very hard it's hard
Traffic and Transportation Issues
33:33
enough just dealing with the growth here in Lehigh but now from a transportation
33:38
standpoint we also have to deal with the growth from saratogo Springs and Eagle Mountain sure sure sure because they're
33:46
they go through us to get there yes they every all roads go through Lehigh literally yeah fair enough fair enough
33:54
and that is the hard part right we love Lehi we want our kids to stay here in Lehi but yeah at the same time then we
34:00
complain about traffic and stuff like that that's not an easy job to deal with because you're trying to you're trying
34:06
to balance those two things and I know that's not easy to do and I'm not sure exactly how you do that you're doing it
34:12
you're you're doing a good job with it but we're doing the the best job we can we've we have to deal with UD do and
34:20
here is one thing that a lot of people do not understand outside of the UDOT
34:25
roads we have to take care of the those the funding for the those improvements ourselves okay and and I've spent a lot
34:33
of time back in DC and we've gotten money to help solve some of those problems we're after money right now to
34:40
also in in and improve some of the other East West corridors through Lehigh we
34:46
believe we'll be successful of that we applied last year we weren't but we seldom successful the first year sure I
Successes and Future Plans
34:53
recognize the problems with traffic of course as much as anybody I have to deal
34:58
with it too we had a meeting very recently with UD do that I would say is our most productive meeting I've ever
35:05
had with them good we've been telling them for years that the numbers they're looking
35:12
at the growth numbers the the projections are wrong that they're using they've agreed with us now okay they've
35:18
looked at our numbers and are like now they're agreeing with us and so they're looking at making some improvements here
35:26
that we've been after for a very long time that's great and one of the first things I did as mayor is I hired a trans
35:32
traffic engineering firm yeah to go through and monitor our traffic and make
35:38
projections and they actually do computer simulations we've known what is coming
35:44
right the problem is doing land acquisition and getting the funding necessary to solve those problems ahead
35:51
of time because that's a very difficult thing to do sure you said there you dos
35:56
agreeing with you on some of these things can you elaborate on that or th those you a little okay I don't want to
36:02
getting you in trouble but as a citizen there were a couple projects that we knew were very important to get traffic
36:09
from out west through town yeah and we've been we've been talking to uh the
36:16
state some of our legislators you do and that for a long time you need to be thinking about this these are what the
36:22
numbers are and we've identified failures we identifi 21100 that's now
36:28
going to be a freeway is going to fail with before long as a freeway if we
36:33
don't take these other steps to handle some of the more traffic we know is coming sure and they've come back and
36:40
they've agreed with us now and so they're actually working on plan to make connectivity to I-15 better and
36:47
connectivity between I-15 and the mountain view corridor better it was a plan that we've had on the table for a
36:54
very long time and now that it's at least in the study phase they've agreed this is something we need to address and
37:00
so that's been a very that's been a big win for us yeah I can see that because
37:06
things take time to build and so you need them to agree with you sooner so that they can start that process sooner right and land just gets more expensive
37:13
and it gets really expensive once it gets developed and all land in the area in along the was front is under
37:19
development pressure so we have to acquire acquire some of those rideways
37:25
sooner than later have they talking about roads and stuff like that I know there was some talk about Pioneer
37:31
Crossing or north of the lake doing you like a separate freeway have they made a decision on that yet it's it's on the
37:38
mag plan to be studied okay and we when I mentioned we're going to DC for some future funding it's to do improvements
37:45
on 1900 South okay to connect it to what will become the vineyard connector
37:50
you've probably heard that term before that's an important road to have built we have approval to build two lanes
37:57
we're working to get approval and we're working for funding to and approval to build five Lanes okay to make that more
38:04
of an effective Corridor and it's basically for the people out west yeah so we're trying to deal with that
38:12
traffic that's not our traffic yeah but we're carrying the financial burden of that yeah and that's a hard position to
38:19
be in but just arguing over it isn't going to solve the problem so we've
38:25
taken the ball the bowl by the horns if you will and we're doing everything we can to address this problem good on you
38:32
for a lot of people want to complain about what's fair and what's not fair but that doesn't actually solve the problem okay it doesn't get you anywhere
38:39
it doesn't get you anywhere okay yeah this isn't fair but hey wait it is what it is so we got to fix it and so I love
38:45
that I love the attitude I love that you're aware of some of these things that are problems and that we're trying to fix and stuff as far as your role as
38:52
mayor are there any things that you know obviously this you're proud of and stuff
38:57
like that are there any things that you're super proud of hey during my time I'm really happy we got this to go like
39:03
anything you can point to or or and you can mention multiple there's there's a lot of things but I'll tell you the one
39:08
that I'm the most proud about is the one that hardly anybody knows about okay
Addressing Vaping Among Youth
39:14
tell me yeah several years ago I attended the Utah County Utah County
39:20
Health meeting and it became very clear to me from some statements that were
39:26
made in that meeting the the problem that vaping is having on our youth here in town it is a significant problem yeah
39:34
and I talked we had a legislature attend that meeting and I talked to him after the meeting and I'm like why what is
39:42
going on with the state that that the laws aren't being passed to help curtail
39:49
this yeah because the problem was and the facts and the data were very clear
39:55
that the problem that we had in in this area and Nationwide is we have kids that
40:01
are 12 to 16 getting addicted to nicotine through the vaping process they
40:07
don't think anything's wrong with that nicotine is a is a very addictive substance it's harder to get off than
40:13
heroin and people don't understand that too and so I just wondered why because
40:21
the way the laws are set up an 18-year-old could go in and buy vaping products and give it to their siblings
40:27
which is exactly what was going on these young kids were getting the stuff purchased by their older siblings who
40:34
were 18 in 19 and didn't know didn't understand what the problem was with doing that and so I brought that back to
40:41
my Council because the legislature after the meeting said I don't see a reason you can't create your own local
40:47
ordinance so I came back to our legislators my local legislators my Council and I said look I want to pass
40:55
this ordinance I said I want want to just do this in Lehi because the state of Utah had been trying to pass a
41:02
similar ordinance for seven years they were on their eighth year they had another bill up on the hill at that time
41:07
yeah trying to pass trying to curtail this problem I'm like I don't see why this is that difficult yeah so the
41:13
council agreed with me they voted unanimously we took it and passed it Cedar Hills did the same thing mayor Ree
41:19
and Cedar Hills also was at that meeting so I passed our our ordinance then they
41:25
went and passed their ordinance and our state legislators came unglued
41:31
they're like you don't have any right to do this we're trying to address this at the state and I'm like you've been trying to address this you're on your
41:37
eighth year yeah and you keep caving to the tobacco lobbyist yeah I'm like guys
41:43
this this doesn't make any sense what so I'm like I did it and so we got called up mayor Ree and I got called up to this
41:50
legislature interesting and we got called in I think they wanted I think they wanted to beat us down a little bit
41:55
and they said we just we you you're creating a a patchwork quilt across the
42:01
state and we can't have this we can't have cities passing this law that is different from City to city and we're
42:06
like we'll fix it yeah they said we can't get through our the tobacco Lobby is so strong I can't get the other
42:12
legislators on B and this was in the house and representative Leon was uh was
42:18
the sponsor of this bill and we met with him and he said look if you can get other members of the house to co-sponsor
42:24
this bill with the changes you want and have at it but I said I don't think you're going to get him mayor Ree and I
42:31
started working all the legislators that day up on the hill we got I think it was
42:37
42 co-sponsors wow in the House of Representatives the state of Utah to
42:42
sponsor the changes that we won the bill that mimicked the bill we just passed in our cities yeah 40 if it's
42:49
42 and that was almost everybody almost because once a couple K Christ offerson
42:54
jumped on Corey Malloy jumped a lot of our local legislators jumped on and when they jumped on the other legislators
42:59
look at it and they're like oh we can't not do this sure yeah yeah we got to jump on this way so they all start
43:05
jumping on it and now sudden it has all these co-sponsors I had friends that are
43:10
senators in the Senate and they're like oh we're not going to let we're not going to let the cities control this they said we're not voting I had two
43:16
local Representatives tell me there is no way we're going to let this get through yeah so then they called me in
43:22
to testify at the senate committee on this issue and I went up and testified
43:28
why this was important and evidently guilt must have a powerful
43:33
effect sure because by the time I was done the Senators that said there's no way we're going to vote in favor of this
43:40
voted in favor of this because they knew from a moral issue right it's you know
43:46
yeah and I had some Senators upset but afterwards then all sudden everybody wanted to be on board that passed
43:53
through the committee passed to the Senate P or of course passed in the house because there's so many sponsors
43:59
passed at the Senate we had a new bill and then it got n national attention and
44:06
some of the federal Senators started saying we need to do the same thing on
44:12
the federal level so it went right up the ladder from right here started right here in Le just start yeah yeah I would
44:19
be proud of that too good job that's awesome that's and I love that yeah it
44:25
was and a lot of people when I bring up when I bring up that bill people are like what is that bill and I'm yeah it
44:31
was the one about vaping and it just meant that you couldn't purchase the products until you're 21 yeah but the
44:38
studies clearly showed that if you're 21 you do not pass that stuff on to your siblings or other kids your friends but
44:45
18 you're still 18 you're still May in high school because you're still part of that group right yeah you're still part
44:50
of that group and so you're want you're still trying to be friends with everybody but the the data was really
44:56
clear once you hit 21 you are not going to pass it you realize the the dangers
45:01
in in nicotine so wow those years matter good job that's awesome I love that
45:07
story that's really good future we love to think about the future and stuff like that tell me where do you see Lehi in 5
Future Vision for Lehi
45:15
to 10 years in 5 to 10 years I'm hoping we have an updated Master Transportation
45:23
plan okay that has been bought into from mag and the state and our state
45:29
legislators so when I say State UD do and the state legislators and everybody recognizes the transportation problem we
45:37
have here and the state is working to solve that and that also includes
45:42
Transit by the way okay so yeah we have to bring Transit around the point of the mountain it is an effective mechanism to
45:50
reduce the traffic on I-15 sure so we do need it and when you say Transit you're not talking like front runner that's we
45:57
had front runner and I'm talking about light rail okay because the and Transit
46:02
is great when it's double track that's going to be great when it comes every 15 minutes people are going you're going to see ridership go up but we also need
46:09
light rail and brt the uvx over in orm improval has been very successful over
46:15
there the Ogden brt line which is bus Rapid Transit it's a dedicated bus line
46:22
has been is showing to be successful up there okay we're okay with with our trans it in Utah County being brt the
46:29
state wants to make it light rail like it is in Salt Lake I don't really care one way or another I know both of them
46:35
are effective at what we need to have done okay other aspects of that 5 to 10
46:40
year plan so mentioned transportation and stuff like that what do you see as far as growth with you know businesses
46:48
more businesses still come in here and stuff like that National businesses local businesses the only thing that's
46:53
going to curtail businesses from locating in Lehigh which is generally their first choice is land availability
47:00
okay because it's hard for them to find the parcel that they want and need so it's spreading out which is good sure
47:06
it's good to see it's good to see the development in in Pleasant Grove and American Fork over by the freeway now
47:11
and see that all develop out that's good well we're we're we like that to have happen we like to see the effect that an
47:19
effective fiber system has happened in duchaine and Roosevelt and vernal right there's a reason we brought strata to
47:25
Lehi to install our fiber here it's because it's been a home run for those people out there we have people that
47:32
have jobs on the wasid front that live out there and they just do it all remotely interes right so having fiber
47:38
here is will be a very big thing for us and it's proven to be be very popular for those people who are hooking up to
47:44
it it's close to my area but not yet everybody think the mayor will get it first I'm no I don't I'm at the end here
47:52
somewhere and that's okay gotcha okay yeah so cuz the fibers helped those other areas those those remote areas
47:57
right you're saying cuz cuz it's cheaper out there to live that's you got you got land out there you can buy and they if
48:03
they can REM work remotely they're out there but it helps us too there's the
48:08
those against fiber being city-owned fiber government owned fiber they they don't fully understand the importance of
48:15
it uh not everybody has an opportunity here in just in our community to have a
48:21
good internet connection and that's been the case for quite a while now no place
48:27
gave a better argument in regards to the importance of fiber than the school district during covid oh sure they could
48:33
clearly tell which kids had good internet connection at their home and
48:39
who didn't it was very obvious to them and that was eye openening to me because
48:46
we have providers that would only provide service where it was to their economic Advantage but around here we
48:53
have an obligation to everybody and it just me even though
48:59
nationally our our federal legislators haven't made the commitment to say fiber
49:04
is a utility yeah it's a it's a utility it is it is the delay there is
49:10
politically driven by those who just don't want to have it called a utility but in reality we've learned having
49:17
internet connection having that communication resource is as important as having water come to your home or
49:23
sewer leaving your home or a transportation system this is important and so then that's the main reason that
49:29
you guys did that is cu it helps get good internet to everyone cuz you're saying some of us CU I know like our
49:35
internet went from Fast to even faster but it wasn't like we already had pretty good internet but I but you're saying
49:41
not everybody has right no not everybody has you know and so that was the benefit of doing this to so that way everybody has this access and stuff okay yeah we
49:48
had people trying to do anything to get on whatever system they could find whether they could do it over the air
49:55
and I had copper to my house but I didn't have heavy copper and so I was paying for 60 60 Megs of service and I
50:04
was lucky to get four to seven okay I was testing it all the time y y and it's
50:09
just not effective so yeah you're really okay that makes more sense so anything
50:14
else as far as uh 5 to 10 year plan anything else that's uh coming in that future that that you can speak of we do
50:21
have we we are anticipating we'll have four uh different hospitals here in town we got three now
50:27
okay University Utah has purchased land and so with some interest in doing
50:33
something there and to say that city of Lehigh Primary Children's Hospital is a
50:38
big thing right and we got the Holy Cross hospital we have the mountain star
50:43
emergency room there over on Redwood Road that's ours to have those facilities here that's really big time
50:49
that's that's a big thing for Lehigh and we we anticipate there's just going to be continued interest here in Lehigh and
50:57
along the I-15 Corridor and unfortunately people are going to hate to hear this but it is going to I think
51:04
will continue to see that grow yeah yeah which I think Spencer Cox said the only
51:09
way to not grow is to suck as a state so that's the downside is hey we're doing well and so that's a a byproduct is that
51:17
is people want to live here or or stay here you know exactly and uh and frankly I'd love for my kids to to want to buy
51:23
houses here locally yeah we we have to solve the housing uh problem it is a legitimate problem
51:29
yeah and there's a lot of people who live on on third acre half acre 1acre
51:34
lots I'm on a half acre but the time that was just available things like that are are just difficult nowadays and any
51:42
of us that have children that are looking for homes and even those that are not our
51:48
children I've had people sit in my office in tears because their kids can't afford anything here and that's it's
51:55
tough and it's sad and it's sad mostly because of these kids if they can't get
52:03
into a home and build equity in the future they're going to have a very hard time success financially succeeding 100%
52:11
agree and we all want that for our children we don't want to move them back in with us right no and we want that we
52:16
want them to experience the American dream and it is hard when we have so many people who don't want any more
52:24
growth they want us to just stop the growth and I'm like that's inherently I'm just going to say it that seems a
52:29
little bit unfair sure cuz a lot of people have done very good with their own personal real estate here in town
52:35
over the years and and that was just not necessarily their doing it was the doing
52:41
of the popularity of Lehi in the wasat front yeah and I in my own profession
52:47
that I I I see that all the time with home ownership solves a lot of problems for a lot of people as far as wealth
52:55
creation and stuff like that and not even wealth in the sense of like rich but like just to be okay you know what I
53:00
mean just to be in a good spot it's the one thing that can hedge you against future inflation yes yes agreed no it
53:08
and are there things I know because this is a national problem right this isn't specific just to Lehi but are there
53:15
things that we're doing I are there things that you're trying to do because again I know this problem is bigger than
53:20
maybe your tool belt can handle but are there things that we're doing to try to help solve that and stuff like that we
53:27
hope so okay so here the the state legislators are always bringing forth
53:32
new legislation I've been in battled with them on some of that not all of it sure
53:39
because some of it does it's lacking the infrastructure necessary to support it right sure if we build homes that we
53:45
don't have we can't deliver water yeah yeah we're going to have some problems right yeah there's another problem
53:51
you're going to have to deal with and so I'm always encouraging the state to develop new water resources and and
53:57
delivery to get them here where the growth is occurring and that's that's something that has to be worked on a lot
54:04
there's some of those rules that are that are being put on the cities are
54:10
just going to be difficult to follow for some cities Lehi we're trying to do our best we're
54:17
balance it the best way we can being sensitive to the growth but still trying
54:22
to create the housing that is under demand by our by our economy and the
54:30
number of jobs we have here available that's tough but we've done a pretty good job people don't realize they think
54:36
you're building all this high density housing they don't understand that over 80% of our housing are single family
54:43
homes on single family lots the number of Condominiums and number of town homes
54:48
and rentals we have here in Leigh is not that high that they see it out West that's where most of them have been
54:54
built but in general terms no we still focus on single family
54:59
housing right and I I think that's an important thing good good good job with
55:06
that I know again that's something that yeah a lot of people we need more Homes at the same time people have a hard time
55:12
with that high intensity stuff too it's a balancing act and I I think you're doing good there tell me for somebody so
Community Involvement and Advice
55:19
a lot of us love this city that we live in and stuff like that not all of us can serve on a city council or mayor or
55:24
something like that although some people listening may want to do that and stuff like that but I guess what advice would
55:29
you have to just members of the community to ways that they can help make this community better or ways that
55:36
they can help serve or or do different things there I guess any advice for that yeah there I do there's there's a number
55:42
of things we have going on here in town we have we have different organizations that you can join like the historical
55:48
group we have the Arts Council we have we have a lot of things going on that
55:54
are that where we news help like the environmental sustainability committee
55:59
right from time to time we have openings there you're right it's sometimes it's hard to be on the Planning Commission
56:05
because we like to get we like to get people that are spread out in different areas of town but we like to get people with different backgrounds on that sure
56:12
there's just not many and people who get on that those committees like to be there for a while yeah and uh that's
56:18
understandable it's it's a pretty heavy investment but there's also there's great opportunities around town to just
56:24
serve in different aspects I our our day of service day which is centers around
56:30
the 911 events it's turned into a big thing A lot of people are stepping up to
56:36
serve and help on that day we get a lot done good and we've just done it three
56:42
years now and we just every year it just gets better but there's so much there's a lot of people who just want to give in
56:49
this town and serve in some way and we're trying to do a better job of
56:54
getting that information out there where and how you can serve sure and so yeah
56:59
there there are opportunities best thing you can do in this town is just be kind to one another
57:04
sure and try to help offer charity when you can and be kind to your neighbors and helps out if there's a problem
57:09
somewhere let us know okay as we're concluding here any advice you would
57:14
give to new residents somebody moves here they're new to the community and stuff like that any advice you would
57:21
give to that new person to how they can better fit into the community really enjoy this kind of experience here High
57:26
sure you want to be accl into our lifestyle here I don't know if that's the right word or not but there's a lot
57:33
of there's a lot of sports programs here if you're if you want your kids in that we have we have two of the best soccer
57:40
clubs here and they got a great facility up at family park we do have some great baseball fields and as mentioned earlier
57:47
we're working on more of those another six complex of those there's that we
57:53
have a lot of events like just uh a couple weeks ago we had the holiday parade right down here on Main Street
57:59
yeah participate in that find a way volunteer for Roundup days step in that's the best way to get to know
58:05
people right just volunteer for one of those programs you'll get to know people real fast and yeah because they they're
58:11
always looking for volunteers for those types of events and come to the Arts in the Parks come to some of the events
58:18
that we have because I had mentioned our Recreation our events uh gal uh malb
58:25
doesn't excellent job of just making sure there's always some event going on around town there's a bunch right if you
58:32
start paying attention there's things for families and kids and everything to do start going to those and if there's
58:40
an opportunity volunteer volunteer right we need your help yeah no I love that and and is there a central place they
58:46
can go or or you mentioned some of the clubs or different things social media or I guess the the lehi's website or
58:52
yeah all of the above the The Ledger that comes out with your utility bill has information in it every month you
58:59
can go to the Lehi website you can go to the Lehi City social media page you will
59:04
see frequent postings there about what's going on and things you can be involved in yeah get familiar with those Outlets
59:11
good and and another thing if for those people who are listening make sure you sign up for some of the in you know
59:17
emergency information okay sure that's out there because if we have some kind
59:22
of natural disaster and everything you can get those reverse calls back and and get notified of things that are going on
59:29
yeah love it okay thank you for coming on thank you for having me you know it I
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
59:36
I do love this community I'm we've been here a long time now I didn't grow up here but but we've loved it here and
59:41
it's our kids this is all they've known you know so this is home for them and and I just love what what's going on I
59:49
think you're doing a very good job I appreciate it very much sometimes I don't know if I am but well again yeah
59:54
like you said you're at some times you are going to make some people unhappy right but but you're it's good to know that we got good people doing their best
1:00:01
and I think that's really what matters that that trying to make this place a little bit better well we got a lot of good people here we a really do in Lehi
1:00:08
and that I've been really impressed with just with people I meet and some of the things I do like you with this podcast
1:00:14
awesome opportunity for people yeah no it's just all trying to do the same thing right make make it a better place
1:00:20
to live yep and no this is perfect okay thanks uh mayor for coming on and we'll
1:00:26
we'll see you next time okay thanks Ryan thanks thank you for joining us on roots and branches of Lehi I hope today's
1:00:33
story helped you feel a little more connected to the people who make up our community remember every person here has
1:00:38
a unique story and together we're what makes Lehi feel like home if you know
1:00:43
someone who would be a great fit for this podcast please fill out the form in the show notes so we can reach out and
1:00:49
schedule an interview we'd love to hear from you a big thank you to our sponsors the work Harding Home Mortgage team and
1:00:55
play Harding night vacation rentals for supporting this show and helping us bring our community closer together
1:01:01
until next time keep growing those roots and reaching out to your branches take care
