Fred C. Childs for Sunset mayor
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t is sometimes tempting to support a candidate just because they'd like to shake up the status quo -- tweak noses, do things differently. In the race for mayor of Sunset, voters would be ill-served by doing so.
Sunset is a small community -- 5,200 residents; a half-mile wide and two miles long -- landlocked between Roy and the Weber County line to the north, Clinton to the west, Clearfield to the south and I-15 to the east. The city's two largest commercial enterprises are a grocery store and an RV dealer. It's a city in which elected leaders pretty much do things the way they've always done them, which in this case is not necessarily bad.
But the two candidates vying for mayor this year look to the future with different eyes. Dan Gotchy, the upstart in the race, would like to spend money on upgraded street lamps, disaster training, hike police pay by as much as 8 percent and fund these initiatives with "grants" and by recovering the $800,000 in outstanding warrants he says are owed the city.
When queried where he would get those grants, Gotchy says "the federal government." And asked how he could recoup the outstanding warrants without hiring people to collect them, he's vague on the profitability of his approach. (Gotchy was not available for a face-to-face interview with the Standard-Examiner, so the editorial board spoke with him by phone.)
Gotchy's opponent, incumbent Mayor Fred C. Childs, is somewhat more appealing by comparison, and that's why the Standard-Examiner's Editorial Board is recommending him to voters in Tuesday's election. That said, it's clear to us that Childs intends to be a caretaker mayor. He doesn't favor any sort of consolidation of fire or police services, for example, even though big-ticket purchases like fire trucks and police cars have helped to push Sunset's debt to $1.3 million.
But, as we see it, at least Childs is a realist when it comes to the city's economic development prospects: "We don't even get a lot of inquiries, actually," he told members of the editorial board.
Since the city doesn't have open space to offer businesses that might be looking to relocate, Childs hopes the city might get some residual benefit from the proposed redevelopment of 550 acres on the west side of Hill Air Force Base; both Sunset and Clearfield are hoping to collect taxes from development there.
Gotchy told us he's under the impression the Utah Department of Transportation is about to build a full interchange at 1800 North and I-15 in Sunset, when the project is actually pegged for 2025 at the earliest.
Childs was aware of the UDOT timeline, and so wasn't making any plans to depend on a connecting overpass between Sunset and Hill's west-side development.
Our recommendation of Childs is firm, but we do think Sunset could benefit from leadership that is somewhat more enthusiastic and creative. We hope Childs and members of the Sunset City Council will reconsider topics like public safety consolidation in the years ahead.
Watch video of interview with Fred C. Childs
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