Newest members of Town Council report on their first three months

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

By Jake Nichols

Jackson Hole, Wyo--Last November, Teton County voters elected to shake things up at the Town Council level, tabbing political newbies Melissa Turley and Bob Lenz to usurp seats held by incumbents Steve Harrington and Scott Anderson.

It’s been nearly three months since the pair took office, long enough, we decided, that it was time to check in with the newest councilmembers and have them give us their State of the Town address.

Melissa Turley was born in Denver, Colo., to volunteer-active parents. “They instilled in me the importance of being active in my community in getting involved,” she said.

Turley attended University of Oregon and University of Montana and continued her studies in Central and South America, where she learned Spanish and an appreciation for other cultures and other people.

After moving to Jackson, she worked for the Teton County School District in an administrative position and then for the town as a planning assistant. She took a position with the Teton Literacy Program in 2003, and most recently was named Latino Family Literacy Program Director, a job she resigned from after being elected to the town council.

She recently announced her engagement to Chris Stump, a fly fishing guide for Snake River Anglers. The couple plans to marry Sept. 15.

Bob Lenz was born in Butte, Mont., attended the University of Minnesota and received a pharmacy degree.

“My dad was a pharmacist, my sister’s a pharmacist, my cousin is a pharmacist and her husband is a pharmacist,” Lenz said. He moved his Butte drugstore from Montana to Jackson in 1975.

The drugstore closed in 1983 when Lenz leased it to Jack Dennis Sports. The property is still owned by Lenz and currently houses the Beaver Creek Hat Company.

Lenz has been active in the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce and Knights of Columbus in Jackson. He is married to Miriam. The couple has four children.


Planet Jackson Hole: At the heart of council business is the Comprehensive Plan. The interpretation of that document leads to the framework that shapes your biweekly decisions on building codes and land use as they pertain to our Land Development Regulations (LDRs) and Planned Mixed-Use Developments (PMDs). Any chance we will be seeing a reworking of the Comp Plan or LDRs or PMDs?

Melissa Turley: We are starting the process of the Comprehensive Plan update, and the final result of that will be an update to the LDRs that will bring them in line with whatever we update in the Comp Plan. Revision to the PMD has been on the table for a while. We all agree there are changes that need to be made to it, but how much of that we need to do immediately and how much of that would be best to wait and get the bigger picture, I’m not sure.

Bob Lenz: Regarding the Comp Plan, most people are talking about tweaking certain sections so I would expect that it isn’t going to be a total revamping, just certain sections that need to be tweaked. There is also a desire to see if certain development standards are the same in the county and the town. There’s confusion with the county having different LDRs than the town.

As far as the PMD goes, that should have never been passed to begin with. It’s the perfect example of spot zoning. We’re zoning two lots at a time or a lot-and-a-half at a time, and it causes all kinds of problems and it takes a tremendous amount of time on the planning staff and also on the council. We have to look at some alternative development standards to replace the PMD. As it is, it’s a very, very difficult ordinance to administer.

PJH: On the hit reality TV show “Survivor,” players must form alliances or risk alienation and being voted off the island. When a tough vote comes down, regardless of the issue, who can you confide in? Who has your back? And who, no matter what is on the agenda, do you feel the most friction from?

BL: Well, when I look back on it, it isn’t that clear-cut to me. There have been so few split votes that you can’t peg someone. But, if I’m looking at what I consider a more reasonable development, then I can pretty well know that there’s people on the council that will have an opposite opinion. Or if I’m interested in something like greenery downtown, other people want to fill it up with mortar and bricks. There’s people on the council I know will vote for mortar and bricks.

PJH: What people?
BL: Let’s see – certainly Mark Barron. He’s very interested in filling in that whole block down where the parking structure’s going to go, and, I don’t know, maybe all of them are. You know, I’ve had a number of four to one votes, so to say which one in particular … maybe I’m off the island.

You just know from the mayor’s comments … on development issues, if I’m going to be conservative, he will be on the other side. I haven’t been around Melissa enough to know, and Mark Obringer, sometimes I have no idea how he’s going to vote.

MT: I really can’t draw any generalizations after three months. I think that’s both an advantage and a disadvantage to Bob and I being new. I still hope that all of us go into every meeting with our minds and ears open and ready to have a conversation about what application is on the table. If there’s something that’s important to me, I’ve tried to find out what other people think about it. I don’t feel that I’ve really ever walked into a meeting knowing that I was on the island or was going to be off the island.

PJH: Let’s talk about some recent and ongoing hot topics at City Hall. The Center for the Arts wants to erect a flashing sign in front of its building. This would require an exemption from current statutes. How will you vote?

BL: Flashing signs have been prohibited in Jackson for a lot of decades now, so it’s definitely a change to consider. Come into Evanston from the west, you can see what they look like. Every discount fireworks store on the west end of Evanston has a flashing sign just like the Center of the Arts is asking for. That’s what you have to compare it with.

MT: I think it might be possible to make a sign that is appropriate there. I certainly am not a fan of flashing signs. If they do come back – the issue is currently tabled indefinitely, so I’m not sure if the applicant is revising their request – I would certainly like a better understanding of why they feel like they need a sign that can be easily changed. I understand that they have a lot of different events going on, but it seems to me that they have a pretty steady event going on for enough amount of time that, at this point in time, they could just use a letter board or something.

PJH: Melissa, when you voted to allow Imagine Jackson to file for a grant application request, you stated that what you saw before you was simply an appeal by Imagine Jackson to pursue a state grant. What are your feelings today concerning Imagine Jackson?

MT: It was a very difficult decision and there are a lot of different issues. One issue was what I believe Peter Moyer is addressing in his lawsuit, in terms of, is the structure legal for the grant program from the Wyoming Business Council? And I do think that the state is the appropriate place to the decide that.

To me, if there is a grant program that they’re offering for all communities across the state that we’re all to benefit from, it seems to me that Jackson is every bit as welcome to apply for a program like that. I had to look at it as what were we actually deciding on. We were applying for these grant funds, and I couldn’t see any place where that would be a detriment to our community to receive grant funds.

The other piece that complicated it was some perceptions about councilman Obringer’s involvement. Community members had some concerns about the board and how decisions were carried out in the organization, and, again, I really focused on what was I being asked to decide.

I was being asked to decide whether the town could be a pass-through for these funds. I wasn’t being asked to decide if Imagine Jackson was a viable organization or how they should be run.

But I have to encourage the organization to think about how they are run and to think very seriously about what others perceive and possibly invite a county commissioner to serve on the board. [They should be] working with people to try to increase knowledge about what they do and awareness about their organization and their programs. Hopefully they will be more cognizant of that negative perception.

PJH: A request to file an application for grant money is a very common procedure and rarely denied by the council. But, Bob, you don’t see this the same way. This is more than just a request for permission to apply for state money. This is a mess.

BL: Imagine Jackson is a private corporation. It’s no different than if seven of us got together and formed a private, nonprofit corporation, then decided we were going to do something for Jackson and decided that this thing we should do is buy and develop some real estate with state funds.

That’s the way I see it. There is no public component in it. It has no commissioners on it. It has a city council person on it, but not as a city council person. The city council person on it is [acting as] an individual – you have to change that.

There’s also no accountability to either of the government bodies and that’s part of it. And of course it all started out with them wanting to build a visitor center on the Home Ranch parking lot and having the city lease the Home Ranch parking lot, which was totally unacceptable to the business community. So there are some constitutional questions.

Then we have Square One, which has gotten $2.5 million in grant money plus the startup grant, and are they telling me that [with that kind of money] they can’t put a business together that can afford its own real estate? And there have certainly been industrial spaces to rent. So you put those things together and I say something’s wrong. I can’t support it.

PJH: Give me one word that best describes the town staff.
MT: Knowledgeable.

BL: Effective.

MT: I feel fortunate that, having worked for the town in the Planning Department, the applications that come before the council have gone through a lot of review. We have a very qualified staff that does the research, talks to the applicants several times. We also have the Design Review Committee and the Planning Commission, so by the time it gets to council it has gone through a lot of review and we hope that most of the kinks have been worked out. We really appreciate the work that’s gone on before us. It makes our decisions easier.

PJH: Being a City Council member requires such heavy demands on your time. How are you handling the load?

MT: It’s challenging. I was thinking the other day, “We’ve got a council meeting nearly every week.”

BL: Two weeks ago, we had meetings on, I think, four days. And one day, we had meetings all day. Luckily, I am retired. People like Melissa, I have no idea how they work it all in. It’s very time-demanding. The old days of coming to meetings twice a month for a couple of hours, those days are long gone.

MT: And that’s why I really applaud the previous council’s decision to upgrade Jackson to a first class city and make it possible to pay us a salary. We actually do get $25,000. Which, in Teton County, is not enough to live off of, but it is enough that I was able to quit my full-time job. Without a salary, I certainly could not have afforded to quit my job, and I really don’t think I could have kept working a full-time job and make it on this council position. It just would have been too much.

PJH: The Council Chronicles. Do you read it? Do you care for it?
BL: I like it. Of course, I haven’t been fried. It’s free press. So far I have no complaints. It’s kind of fun. It puts it on a different note.

MT: I read it. I’m glad to see we finally got the updated cartoon with all five of us. I like the approach, making it more lighthearted. I think it tends to cater to a different audience. I just am always concerned that we’re presenting the full story to people. I hope that if people read something in there that gets them stirred up then they’ll pick up the phone and call us and start a dialogue. That would be my hope.

PJH: Not to rush you or anything – it’s not even been three months – but do you have further political ambitions?
MT: I would say I would leave the door open. When I decided to run I never expected to get involved in politics and I didn’t think I would ever run again [after that]. I just saw it as an opportunity to serve the community. I didn’t see it as a lifetime endeavor. But we’ll see what happens. I’ve felt quite rewarded in the first three months. I know they say this is kind of our honeymoon, where people are still unhappy with what we’ve decided. We haven’t made enough decisions to rile too many folks yet.

BL: It’s been an exciting three months. Very enriching. Very rewarding. I like working with everybody on the council and working with the city staff. It’s kind of daunting and humbling … this is probably one of the biggest corporations in the valley. We’re like the board of directors for [the town] and we’re responsible. And, luckily, it seems to be running well. We have a safe town. I think we address the needs of the citizens and I think there’s a culture where the citizens come first in our town. It’s been fun, but it’s been all I can do to think about June coming up let alone down the line for years.

PJH: So nobody’s thinking about sliding over one seat to the middle [Mayor’s seat]?
BL: Not me. I don’t have any other ambitions at the moment.
MT: No.

Illustration by Nate Bennett.

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Newest members of Town Council report on their first three months | Planet JH News Article: Cover Stories

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