UPDATE: Jon Pike gets sworn in as mayor at noon today, Jan. 6, at City Hall, 175 E. 200 North in St. George. The Independent will be there, so stay tuned for up-to-date coverage!
On Thursday, Jan. 2, I had the pleasure of sitting down for a one-on-one lunch and interview with St. George’s first new mayor in 20 years, Jon Pike. I asked him a series of questions and he was nice enough to respond. Photographer Adrienne Beacco joined us at the beginning for a nice photo shoot overlooking the city. We then proceeded back to a café and sat down to eat a wrap and rap about the future. (Be sure to read to the end for our special “Independent Interview” questions, which we posed to Pike and will also be asking each interviewee in our new series of in-depth local profiles.)
What aspect of being mayor most excites you?
The opportunity to represent the citizens St. George in all the different facets of our city – probably most of all in terms of laying out plans for where we collectively want to go in the next 10 or 20 years. I’m kind of a strategic thinker and planner by nature, and even by occupation, and so that’s probably the part of the job that excites me the most is getting to work on those kinds of things. And I think we’ve benefited from good planning in the past – I would like to take that to the next step from there, really from a pretty nice position we’re in now to say ‘OK, what do we want to do next?’ Obviously, we have grown a lot in the last mayor’s term of 20 years and so now you are starting to see some of the opportunities and some of the challenges that come with being a city our size, and so I’d really like to take the bull by the horns and work with the new council, city management and with the citizens, business leaders and really work hard to define our mission, vision, values and plans for the next decade. And that’s probably what excites me the most.
What aspect of being mayor most scares you?
I think probably what concerns me the most is natural disasters. I think back to the flood – well, we’ve had two in the last eight or nine years that have been particularly challenging. And so I guess those kinds of things are what worry me the most, because you wonder if we are adequately prepared – and even if we are, it’s still a challenge to deal with loss: loss of property; of course, worst-case scenario would be loss of life. So I think those kinds of disasters are what worries me the most. And, alongside that, anything – whether it’s a serious crime or whatever – that causes fear or loss of life, those are the things that probably concern me most about being mayor, because I’m going to be looked to as the person that should be dealing with it and where the buck stops. So I’m certainly going to want to be focusing on the emergency management, emergency preparedness as it relates to our city because I want to have a comfort level – because when things happen (and they will, just that’s life) we will be able to deal with them as best as possible.
What do you feel are the most important issues facing St. George right now?
Well, I kind of said it during my campaign, that I feel like we’ve accomplished a lot over the last say 10 or 15 years – which is to say, when you think about it, we’ve built a new airport with the state’s help and even the federal government’s help; done some pretty major infrastructure projects, whether it’s roads, interchanges; we’ve completed Town Square and some other renovations and beautification kinds of things. As part of the roads done there’s Red Hills Parkway and Dixie Drive, Riverside Drive; we’ve made them wider, we’ve beautified them and done a lot of things, and I think much credit needs to go to Mayor McArthur, the previous most immediate council and previous councils, the city manager and all those involved with planning, designing and saving money, if you will, and making it possible for us do those things. Now, I think it’s critical that we take a good look ahead and say, ‘Now what do we want to do with this and what’s next?’ because you’ve always got to be looking and planning ahead. So I’d really like to see us develop, as a city, a mission statement, a vision for where we see ourselves way down the road. We are not even going to get there when I’m mayor, but way down the road where do we see ourselves; and then values, things that we stand for so that everyone can know: ‘Here’s what you can expect of us at the city.’ Your city. You own this city. You’re the stockholders. So what things do we stand for? And make sure the public is aware of them. And, I’ve said, a five- to 10-year strategic plan with everything together that we’re already thinking about and that our various city departments are working on and planning for from a budgetary perspective on having in the next few years – I want to take all those ideas and put them together and say, ‘OK, here it is, it’s written and it’s available and people can see it and respond to it.’ Like any plan, plans can change, but at least it gives us a framework to go forward and, hopefully, that will be helpful in a wide variety of areas and topics, from the Sun Bowl to the animal shelter, to transportation, to homelessness, to the arts, to education – all those things should be encompassed in the planning and preparing and achieving of that vision someday.
What do you plan to do as your first official act as mayor?
Well, I guess officially it’s going to be notifying the public that there’s a vacancy on the city council, so that will be the first. And then, I guess – I don’t know if this will be an official act – but I am hoping to make some changes in the way we do our council meetings. I guess that’s probably the first official thing people will notice. My hope is, if I can get the agreement from the council – and I don’t want to drive everything top-down – but my plan is that I’d like to start our city council meetings on the first and third Thursdays, which are our regular meetings for taking action, and have the start time changed to 5 p.m. And the reason for that is I’d like more people who are working to be able to come to the meetings if they choose. I’d like to have some time where we have basically an open mic, where we have an open forum for our citizens who would like to come and talk about something, for just a few minutes, bring something to our attention.
As a kid growing up, did you ever see yourself in politics?
Well, I guess I’m not sure I really thought about it that much, but what I did think about was student government because I was involved in that at a very early age, from being on the student council in first grade, which I thought was pretty cool. I don’t remember anything about it except getting my picture taken and going to some meetings. And in sixth grade, I ran to be the student body vice president and I won, and so I was involved in the planning, preparing of events and so forth for the school, and so that sort of started at least a habit I had of being involved in student government. And I was involved in junior high school and involved in senior high school – I was the junior class president. And so I guess what it at least put into my mind was that I had a desire to be involved, a desire to help in whatever way I could help, and I don’t know that I ever saw myself running for city council or for mayor of any city. When I moved to St. George over 18 years ago, I certainly didn’t see myself running for mayor of the city; I just wouldn’t have believed it I was possible.
What would 12-year-old Jon Pike think of Mayor Jon Pike?
Well, first of all I think he’d say, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I think 12-year-old Jon, who was actually Jonny then, was probably most concerned about having time to play outside to build tree huts and ride little motorcycles and bikes. I loved being outside, as I grew up in a great place, a great neighborhood where your parents could just turn you loose and let you roam free – much like I imagine St. George has traditionally been.
What do you most want St. George’s citizens to know?
That I’m a person who really thinks about things a lot. I really believe in trying to talk things through, to listen to all sides of any issue. And, too, as I said before: Measure twice, cut once. I think that’s important in just about any issue. There’s so many things that will come before my attention – and already have, frankly, as a councilmember and as mayor-elect – where sometimes if you take one perspective you can make the wrong decision going forward about that issue, and I don’t want to be in that position. I want to make sure that I get all perspectives, all sides of the story, before I move forward and before I advocate to the city council regarding direction. So I’m very much also a collaborator, and I want other people involved in the process. I want people involved in the planning and in the design of facilities and even of processes and departments. I want input. I make my best decisions – and the city council with the mayor together will make the best decisions – if we have as much input on the topic as possible and don’t rush to judgment.
What changes do you hope to see in our community during your first term as mayor?
What I would hope to see, and I believe we will see – because I think I have the support of the community and council on this – is that we will see several advisory boards formed or reinstituted, including an airport advisory board, animal shelter advisory board…we can say we have one right now but not really – it’s really more, as I understand it, designed to come help with decisions about euthanasia, and I want to have, and I said this in the campaign, a permanent, full advisory board for the animal shelter. And I really find that to be one of the best examples of where a citizen committee will really help guide us.
What qualities would you like to see in the person who will be appointed to your vacant council seat?
I’d like to have someone who, I guess most of all, is ready to work, because we’ve got a lot to do and we’re here to serve – we’re not here to feather our own nest. We obviously don’t get paid a lot, especially the councilmembers – $1,000 a month is not a livable wage. So it is an opportunity to serve, so I hope they’ll be willing and able and anxious to dive in and work with us to serve on committees and boards – to participate in planning and in listening to the public in various settings and to be prepared for meetings so they can make good decisions in behalf of the public. So that’s probably first and foremost. Second, I’d like to have someone who’s obviously got some background in St. George, someone who’d been here for at least a few years. I think it’s only required that they live here for a year, but I’d love to see someone who’s been here longer than that so they know something about us and have some experience with our people and with our city and organizations – maybe additionally have some experience serving with some of those organizations or employers. I’d like to see someone with the willingness to represent all citizens of the city, to really to be able to take into account different viewpoints, different perspectives and really consider all of those, because I believe that’s our job. Well-educated, a good work history and have had opportunities to shine and can show a good résumé – but I’m looking personally for people that don’t mind bringing some different things to the table, and I don’t even know that I know what those are. There isn’t a litmus test, but those are some basic things that ought to be there. We only have one woman on the counsel right now and it would be nice to have another woman on the council. Ultimately, we just need to get the best person for the job.
And now, the following is a set of questions we plan to ask each interviewee as we debut our ongoing series of exclusive local profiles:
If you could be anyone else in the world, living or dead, who would it be?
George Washington. I’ve been doing a bit of reading about him fairly recently. I just think he would be a tough person to be, George Washington. But what an amazing time he lived in. What an amazing life he had. During some of the battles he saw, there was an aura about him almost as if he couldn’t be killed. One of the things that impressed me about him, and in a similar way Nelson Mandela (I spent a couple years in South Africa as a full-time missionary for the LDS Church, and when I was there he was in prison): On his release, they wanted to make Mandela a king, but both he and George Washington chose, after a couple of terms, to leave office and let others step in. And I think that is heroic on both of their parts. I think it certainly, in my view, would have changed our nation and not for the better. So I love what George Washington stood for and that final act of statesmanship, and I think it’s a good thing for us politicians to ponder.
What’s your favorite food?
Pork chops and rice.
What would you like on your tombstone?
‘He was a good husband, father and friend.’
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Well, hopefully in five years, having been through a successful first term and had a chance to be reelected as mayor, I will have already lived through basically the first five years of a five- to -10-year plan that we will have not only put in place but implemented. I’ll hopefully have worked with hundreds of people that I don’t currently know, to hopefully help make changes for the better that affect and impact people’s lives here in St. George.
Written by Josh Warburton, photos by Adrienne Beacco & Josh Warburton
Adrienne Beacco Photography https://www.facebook.com/adriennebeacco
