Southern Utah University, personal values, and water were just some of the issues discussed during a debate Thursday night for Cedar City’s city council candidates.
The debate was held in the Sharwan Smith Student Center ballroom at SUU and was hosted by the Michael O. Leavitt Center for Politics and Public Service.
There are currently three seats open on the five-person council. Incumbents Paul Cozzens, John Black, and Don Marchant are seeking re-election against candidates Kip Hansen, Craig Isom, and Terri Hartley.
After opening statements to introduce themselves, the six candidates debated current issues facing the city and shared their plans for the future.
Hartley, a lifelong resident of Cedar City, is the only woman running for city council and if elected will be the only woman serving on the council—a point she drew attention to in her opening statement.
“Last I checked, we have 50 percent women in our population and I think we need to bring our perspective to the table,” she said.
The first question to the candidates, which appeared to be asked as a way to shine a light on any personal agendas, dealt with what one piece of legislation the candidates would pass if elected.
Hansen said he wanted to focus primarily on removing unnecessary legislation rather than passing new laws.
“I would probably be looking more at what legislation we might want to take off the books,” Hansen said. “I think there are some that are obsolete, or we’ve chosen not to enforce them for different reasons. I’d be more of a mind to do that than I would to add new legislation.”
For Cozzens, water was the biggest concern, but he also used this opportunity to explain why in this last year he pushed to use 10 percent of the RAP tax for ongoing operation and maintenance of those projects funded by the tax. Cozzens came under fire for this proposition by residents who felt the money should only be used to fund the promotion of recreation and art in the community.
“We have a problem in our city right now with certain facilities we’ve built over the years where operation and maintenance get dumped on the general fund and we just don’t have the funds to maintain those. So we (the council) did pass that ordinance to take that money to use it as a reserve to repair and take care of things we have.”
Another question asked centered on the relationship between Cedar City and SUU. Most of the candidates felt the relationship was already positive.
“Our relationship right now with SUU is tremendous,” he said. “There is open doors, there is open communication, there’s ideas being shared, there is cooperation in everything that goes on between city and SUU. And even when there’s a bump like we’ve had a little bit with ULA (Upper Limits Aviation) everybody has sat down and worked hard to make sure that bump doesn’t become any more than a little bump and it gets flattened out.”
When asked about personal values, Cozzens, Hartley, Black, and Marchant all listed integrity while Isom named respect and Hansen gave loyalty.
“It all begins with being who you are,” Black said. “Don’t try to be someone else. Have the integrity to stand up for what you believe and what you are.”
“Any code of ethics includes respect,” Isom said. “And so I would stand for respect, respect for our mayor, respect for other members of the city council, and especially respect for those employed by the city.”
Candidates also discussed the importance of water conservation and the role it plays in the future of Cedar City.
“I think we need to finally realize that water is a valuable commodity that we’ve got to learn as a unified group to find ways of conserving it in appropriate ways,” he said.
Hansen said he believed the issue of water should be dealt with now.
“I don’t even agree with the premise of the question that this is an issue of the future this is an issue right now,” Hansen said. “There are things we can do now. I feel very strongly that sometime now we need to look at ways to start getting some secondary water.”
Other topics of discussion included growth, employment, and the RAP tax.
For more information on the Cedar City election, voters can visit www.cedarcity.org.
