Stuff The Ballot: Planet JH Guide to Election Day Part II

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

By PJH Staff

Will the Guard Change?
Jackson Hole, Wyo.-The two challengers vying to unseat Teton County Commissioners face tough, though not insurmountable, odds on Election Day, even as one “small town character” group has attacked the voting record of one incumbent, while endorsing the other.

But for challengers Dennis Triano and Claire Fuller – two very different political newcomers – the race has become as much about bringing talking points to public discourse as creating a message urgent enough, and a campaign strong enough, to win on Nov. 4.

The youngest candidate by two-and-a-half decades, Fuller, a 24-year old Democrat, has reached out to young voters in particular on a platform of providing more workforce housing. But she also has courted a much wider voter demographic by expanding her platform to include the preservation of open space and protection of wildlife. A third-generation resident of the valley, Fuller’s message has appealed both to voters hoping to plant a stake in the valley and to more established older residents who favor protecting the valley’s natural and scenic resources above all else. 

“There’s no youthful input – that’s where I’m coming from,” Fuller said.
Triano has become the wildcard candidate in the County Commissioner race, in part for his criticism of the County’s affordable housing program. His ideas have perhaps resonated most with voters who object to subsidized workforce housing – or at least to how it is implemented currently – and Triano has said the County should focus instead on an creating rent-controlled apartments.

“The affordable housing mitigations are one of the things that are increasing the prices [of free-market homes],” Triano said, referring to exactions builders pay to help build new deed-controlled affordable housing. Triano, a Republican, has a background in real estate sales and appraisals.

Sitting commissioners Andy Schwartz, a county Democrat, and Alta Republican Leland Christensen, meanwhile, have not leaned on name power in a community where the first name of each has become a kind of local political brand. This is particularly true for Schwartz, who is seeking his third four-year term and currently chairs the board. Both Christensen and Schwartz have invested a considerable amount of time and energy into their respective bids for re-election.

chwartz said his campaign will again spend close to $8,000 on his bid for re-election, though Christensen estimated his campaign will have spent considerably less than the nearly $24,000 it used in 2004 when Christensen unseated another Republican, the late Bill Paddleford, later reelected in 2006. Triano also estimated his campaign at around $8,000, while Fuller’s campaign fundraising yielded about $4,000.

The backdrop to County Commissioners race is the major revision to the joint Comprehensive Plan of Town of Jackson and Teton County, which will prioritize community values and determine land use over next decade and beyond. One new political group has waved a banner for ‘slow growth’ candidates, using a spate of newspaper ads to label candidates both for Town Council and County Commissioner as either “community first” or “big growth” candidates. Don Harger, a spokesperson for Citizens for Responsible Development, which placed the ads, said the group counts about 40 valley residents as members.

“Our concern was that people did not seem to know how their elected officials have voted,” Harger said. He explained that the group weighed the campaign platforms of challengers or the voting record of incumbents to characterize them either as “community first” or “big growth” candidates.

The group endorsed Christensen and Fuller for the board of County Commissioners, while suggesting Schwarz had “supported runaway growth and upzones.” For reasons unknown, the group made no mention of Triano.

But others have said the attack ads misinform, and are based on dubious information that takes past land use decisions out of context or are based on falsehoods. One non-elected county employee close to the matter said the ads are built upon “some absolute misrepresentation.”

In recent memory, it has been difficult to unseat an incumbent commissioner running for re-election. Christensen beat Paddleford in 2004, though Paddleford was later re-elected to the board, in 2006

Prior to that, the only incumbent defeated in general election in the last 12 years was Democrat Mike Gierau who lost to Jolynn Coonce in 1996. But leading up to that race, Gierau had weathered some public relations setbacks following a controversial vote, and then again when he was arrested for driving under the influence. (Gierau was later appointed back to the board.)

Schwartz has dismissed the attack ads, calling them unhealthy for politics in the valley.
“I don’t think it’s good for the public dialogue, but it’s up to them,” Schwartz said. “Casting me as pro-big-development is not accurate.”

Though politics on the County level are typically nonpartisan (despite that some voters choose to vote down party lines), Schwartz, who spent multiple terms on planning boards before becoming a commissioner, said the County board has shifted to a “more pro-planning” group of elected officials during the last decade or so.

“Right now, it’s a good board,” said Schwartz, who became chairman  in 2005.
Does the chairman of the board feel his support base has shifted in recent years?
“It’s changed some,” he said. “I was then considered at the forefront of managed growth. Now, at the forefront is less growth – it’s no growth. We need to be looking pretty far down the road, and I still feel I do that … You can’t be commissioner for eight years and not piss some people off.”

Some have pointed to Schwartz’s vote against the moratorium on new subdivisions and zoning changes that county commissioners passed in May as evidence he was a pro-development decision-maker.

At the time, he said he would not support a moratorium that included the controversial Teton Meadows Ranch application to build 500 homes in South Park. It was not because Schwartz favored the applications, he said, but because he believed the developer, who spent many months on an expensive design and public hearing process, was entitled to a vote.

“Here’s Teton Meadows a day away from final meeting – I know my guys, this thing was going down,” Schwartz said, predicting the project would have been voted down unanimously. “All we had to do was wait a day, look the guy in the eye and tell him ‘here are all the things that don’t work.’ Ultimately, that would have been better for the county.”

The developer has since filed a lawsuit against Teton County, calling the moratorium “an unlawful attempt to circumvent action,” on the Teton Meadows proposal.

As chairman of the County Commissioners, Schwartz plays the part of administrator, corralling four other commissioners through public procedures while helping direct input from county staff and the public.
Commissioner Hank Phibbs, who is not up for reelection, called Schwartz “an essential part” of the county board, though he said that statement was not to be interpreted as an official endorsement.

“Andy has great knowledge of the process of budgeting,” Phibbs continued. “It would be difficult to lose someone like that. The real work of the commission is much more complex than the high profile things people see. It is complicated. It’s not for the glory.”

One resident of the South Park area, Rich Bloom, who helped mobilize neighbors to oppose Teton Meadows, said he sensed Christensen and Fuller had the most support among his circles.

“They have prioritized wildlife, open space, managing growth and workforce housing in the right way,” Bloom said. “People feel Leland votes according to his platform. And given Claire Fuller’s roots in the valley, despite her young age, she understands the need to preserve.”

Bloom said he opposes the negative campaigning in the valley, and believes voters should do their own research into each candidate. He said Christensen seemed to have the most support in the valley, but declined to comment on his perception of Schwartz’s standing among voters. “Andy is an incredible administrator,” he said. “He’s done well by running tight government and social services.”

Bloom belongs to a population in the county that has been described as supporters of a “no-growth” movement in Jackson Hole. Overwhelmingly, members of the Baby Boomer generation or older, and usually owners of free-market homes, the “no-growther” often prefers the moniker “slow-growther,” pointing out, as Bloom did, that the county population is expected to double at build-out under current zoning.  
No county commissioner candidate would ever publicly deny the virtues of slow growth, nor is it apparent that any of them would have any reason to think otherwise. As Schwartz noted, that marks a departure from the Teton County politics of a decade ago – both among citizen demands for slow growth and also the attitudes toward development of individual board members.

“In the 12 years I’ve been watching [the County’s bureaucratic process], there’s been a slow movement toward more of an environmental conversation – how that’s been affected by growth and the kinds of growth,” said Franz Camenzind, director of Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, which does not endorse candidates. “I think it represents a shift in the population of the community, but I wonder if the county commissioners are a reflection of that.” Camenzind said he feels “outnumbered as a voice for slow growth,” but that the board is “moving in the right direction.”

“The real test will be what the commissioners do regarding the Comprehensive Plan. The electeds, and the staff have been slow in the preservation of open space and wildlife.”

On Saturday afternoon, Christensen walked door-to-door in the Melody Ranch neighborhood of South Park, where he appears to have a solid voter base.
“Folks in Jackson Hole are 99.9 percent very polite and usually appreciative that you’ve gone to their door,” Christensen said. He said that, while some voters want to discuss past board decisions, most voters want to discuss Jackson Hole’s key issues – open space, wildlife and affordable housing.

“I think in general those conversations in the community are pretty consistent with what we see in the papers and the Comp Plan surveys.”

Christensen and Triano share at least one idea unique to their campaign platforms, even if they did arrive there from different ideological paths: affordable rental units.

With a limited network of deed-controlled condominiums and houses already in place, Christensen said County commissioners should focus on providing more rental opportunities.

“Not everybody wants or even can afford an affordable home,” he said.
To create more affordable housing, Fuller has said she supports raising current housing exaction rates. Both she and Triano have said they would consider implementing Wyoming’s lodging tax if it were restructured. Jackson Hole historically has shunned a lodging tax, mainly because State regulations have required the bulk of generated revenues be put into promoting more tourism in each county.

Pushing down the homestretch, each of the four candidates will canvas the valley’s residential neighborhoods, looking to shake hands and spread, reiterate or set the record straight on his or her platform.

But there is a message that only one candidate has taken up seriously, and it is one that not even Christensen, with four years under his belt, could stake his campaign on: shoring up county infrastructure against a deeping national economic crisis.
“As much as I’m interested in the Comp Plan and the [land development

regulations], the big issue is the economy,” Schwartz said. “My focus is to maintain government services through at least the next year or two.”

He said that as Teton County residents begin to cut everyday expenses, social, educational and recreational entities will be more in more demand than ever. “We’re going to be there,” he said. PJH

County Commissioners Pop Quiz
Use this quiz to identify which local candidate has the right rhetoric for you on the three major issues in this local election: affordable housing, our environment and future development. All three of these are intrinsically linked together, and decisions made by officials regarding these issues will affect the future quality of life in the region.

The format of the quiz is similar to something you may have read in either Teen or Maxim Magazine. Circle the statements you most agree with, add your answers up at the end and find out which local candidate’s thoughts and values most line up with yours. Then go vote with confidence on Nov 4. Answers and sources appear on page 32.

Affordable Housing:
A. “We need to implement a huge increase in housing mitigation requirements for commercial development and require that employee housing is provided for both year round and season workers. We also need to increase the mitigation requirement for residential development and ask that more deed restricted homes be provided.”

B. “We must require resorts and commercial uses to better address the housing needs they create. I would like to see resorts and commercial uses housing most, if not all, of the employees they generate”

C. “It is essential that we create a reliable revenue stream to fund affordable housing efforts. The impacts of future development can be met through appropriate mitigation, but dealing with the existing deficit will require significant expenditures that have no funding at this time. Possible revenue sources include a Real Estate Transfer Tax or an extra penny sales tax.”

D. “Build price-controlled rentals and improve START bus routes to Star Valley & Victor/Driggs.”

Environment:
A. “New development needs to accommodate the open space and wildlife rather than having the wildlife and open space accommodate the development.”

B. “Protecting wildlife migration corridors and keeping development out of them is and will continue to be a primary focus for me. That is why I support reducing reliance on automobiles, which will reduce the number of road kills. I intend to see future growth occurs close to Jackson and in nodes to facilitate that objective.”

C. “To guarantee the preservation of wildlife, it is necessary to create updated and accurate mapping as well as baseline data on populations of both recognized species of value and indicator species. This information will enable the creation of appropriate regulations that can be revised as ongoing monitoring dictates.”

D. “All development proposals must consider adverse impacts on our wildlife/open spaces, and preservation should not be compromised.”

Development:
A. “Stop! We need to stop approving any new commercial, resort or residential development until the Comprehensive Plan is updated. We need to know where we want to go before we move forward.”

B. “I support the community conversation regarding a build out capacity and a growth rate. The cap will surface through the new density zones in the updated Comprehensive Master Plan. I expect the new comprehensive plan will have a 10-year life span.  I don’t believe we can understand today what the needs of this community or our environment will be in the next 10 or 20 years.”

C. “I would support the inclusion of a build out number of dwelling units in the updated Comprehensive Plan. This number would be a result of calculations that need to recognize the existing platted lots, reasonable expectations of their actual development and estimates of new lots that could be created under proposed new zoning. Any discussion of build out needs to include the possibility of a rate of growth mechanism.”

D. “I do favor a [build out] cap and would employ the services of demography and planning specialists to recommend a “magic number,” and then open it up for public comment. This number will have to periodically be re-analyzed so as to ensure it remains relevant in the coming decades.” PJH

School Board hopefuls face development
Placed beside other local races, Teton County School District Board elections appear to be the least contentious. But potential board members, vying for four open seats, each have their own issues in mind, issues that may grow increasingly significant to the valley in the years ahead.

Swelling concerns include the School Board’s lack of involvement in the revision of the Comprehensive Plan, accommodating a rise in ESL (English as a Second Language) students, bundled with the ramifications of No Child Left Behind and teacher retention.

Debbie Meagher has had two children educated in the Teton County School District, and is the deputy clerk to the County Commissioners. Meagher, whose involvement in the Town and County allowed her to observe the School Board’s absence in Comp Plan meetings, said that development issues are pertinent to the school district. Meagher believes she can bring a fresh perspective to the board.

“The Town and County are moving forward with plans of density, affordable housing and where future developments might go while the school board is off on the sidelines,” Meagher remarked. She added that the board’s presence at Comp Plan meetings is crucial in order to raise questions about the location of a new school, for example.

Echoing Meagher’s concern is candidate Dr. Cherie Hawley – a former dean of California State University, Los Angeles, who has 30 years of education experience. Hawley – like many of the other candidates – also cited the importance of working closely with the growing number of ESL students and monitoring their progress.
“The number of English-language learners is going to continue to have an increasing impact on the district,” she said. “We need to make sure that ESL students fill the scholastic requirements they need and reach their full potential, while still providing a high quality of education for all students.”

Intertwined in the problem of accommodating a growing amount of ESL students in Teton County is the controversial government program, No Child Left Behind, approved by President Bush in 2002.

 “With No child Left Behind, there’s testing at every level, and at the Colter Elementary School third-graders haven’t met the level of efficiency,” said Meagher, who believes the reason behind low test scores is that many students were introduced to English as late as kindergarten. 

A new grant proposal for after-school programs will be submitted in the coming school year  to aid children who are falling behind in the curriculum, according to the Latino Resource Center. “It will be a fun learning experience so children do not feel like they are punished,” said executive director Carmina Oaks.

Another stress on educators – an issue most of the School Board candidates agree upon - is adequate affordable housing, which will decide teacher retention in the valley. Candidate Robbi Farrow has spent most of her career working with children and began working at the Children’s Learning Center as an occupational therapist in 1988. She feels that constantly having to train new teachers is time consuming for the School District, and places a weight on the county. Her feelings were mirrored by Kate Mead, a valley attorney and mother who has witnessed the districts ups and downs for the last 15 years. Mead said that today affordable housing is “one of the biggest things I am hearing from people who come into town.”

Candidates Liz Dufault and Dawn Hazen also cited teacher retention through affordable housing as one of the most prevalent issues. Both Dufualt and Hazen – with three young children – want to have a pro-active stance in their education.
Candidate Greg Dennis did not return a phone call for interview. PJH


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Stuff The Ballot: Planet JH Guide to Election Day Part II | Planet JH News Article: Cover Stories

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