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Guest opinion: Vote for candidates who will listen

Bill Humbert
Park Meadows

Sometimes I see things differently. And other times, I find I am not alone!

We need a change in leadership in the mayor’s office and City Council in Park City. Recently, I was excited to meet a large group of like-minded members of our community! We love living in Park City, surrounded by beautiful mountains and the most amazing people.

Up until 2016, I enjoyed attending the Thursday night City Council meetings. Why? It was fun to watch the City Council under Dana Williams and Jack Thomas work to improve our town — and participate with Dana to protect our town.



What happened in 2016? Unfortunately, I saw the future of Park City leadership where the incumbents seem to feel they are smarter than most of the community members. And it was over dogs. Interesting, huh?

Even though only 6% of Park City and Snyderville Basin homes have dogs with dog licenses, the incumbents demonstrated the first of interesting decisions. After only three weeks of meetings, the City Council fell to the dogs. They opened all of Park City to dogs so they may run free. Now one of them will say, “We laid out areas where they could run free and where they could not.” Unfortunately, when you are smarter than everyone else, you ignore unintended consequences.



For instance, they ignored the Summit County Council members who requested that Park City work with the county to create a countywide policy. Obviously, the incumbent City Council member and the current mayor felt they knew better than everyone else. Since the city did not create a local animal control division, irresponsible dog owners whose dogs are not licensed provide Park City homeowners with brown mounds of smelly dog leftovers to clean up.

The other unintended consequence of that decision was to allow dogs on every trail in and around Park City. This makes the trails unsafe for the older, more frail citizens who used to enjoy hikes in our mountains. The incumbents will proudly point to the two dog-free trails where community members have to drive 6 miles before finding trailheads with no parking spaces — it doesn’t matter because the dog-free trails have more dogs on them. Of course, the incumbent and the mayor claim that a local dog-free trail is a priority. They have enjoyed five years of unimpeded trampling of the people of Park City, while not following up on their promise — but they are still claiming it is a priority.

One poor decision after another has followed — attempting to break the contract on the Senior Center, considering spending nearly $100 million on an arts and culture district, allowing “artists” to paint their designs on Main Street without supervision, proposing a toxic soil dump at the entrance to town.

It is time for a change! Let us move towards the light. Nann Worel is a veteran with leadership experience. She listens to people’s concerns and adjusts her thinking if need be. Tana Toly has roots in our town and her family owns the Red Banjo. She lives in Old Town and wants to protect our values and our town. Jeremy Rubell is a consultant who understands the value of probing an issue to determine the best way to respond. Together, these three excellent candidates will work with the existing City Council members to ensure Park City is managed well and grows responsibly. Vote for candidates who are willing to listen!

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