Don Wood for Clearfield mayor
There are no comments for this page [ Add Comment ]Friday, November 2, 2007
There was a time not so long ago when Clearfield was viewed as a dowdy character among the Top of Utah's cities. On paper it had a lot going for it, being adjacent to Hill Air Force Base (along with two portals onto the base), home to the giant Freeport Center industrial complex and equipped with vast acreage with which to grow into, well, something more.
Clearfield's time is finally arriving. The city is poised on the precipice of a make-or-break future, and there's little indication to believe the city's optimism won't continue unabated. But to make sure that is the case, Clearfield will require progressive, steady leadership from a mayor who understands the job's magnitude, the potential of the city's raw materials for success, and the political and managerial skills to get things done.
This year's mayoral race pits former city councilman and current Mayor Don Wood against challenger Glen Mills. And while the two share a passion for Clearfield, their visions of how to improve the city's reputation, maximize the economic climate, and redevelop and/or revitalize existing neighborhoods and business districts are markedly different. The Standard-Examiner's Editorial Board, with one significant reservation to be discussed later, recommends that Clearfield voters retain Wood as their mayor.
Mills is focused on code enforcement to make homeowners and landlords clean up their properties, and he'd like to rid the city of mobile home parks. Also, he's against mixed-use development associated with Clearfield's FrontRunner rail stop.
Wood, on the other hand, clearly has a firmer grasp on most of the finer points of governance. He sees big opportunities with the looming 550-acre development on Hill's west side, and notes that Clearfield is well-positioned to service that development, especially if it's allowed to annex a portion of the land. But Wood also understands the obstacles the city faces. He notes that for years the city has been "hemorrhaging" economic development, especially to next-door neighbor Layton, which he says has 41 percent of Davis County's total commercial activity.
Toward that end, one of the areas Clearfield has been focusing on is development of its Legend Hills area -- basically, an extension northward along I-15 of Layton's so-called Restaurant Row mixture of office space, retail and restaurants. The jewel in the crown of Legend Hills will likely be the expected Midtown Village, which will include housing and a 900-seat live theater in addition to other offerings, and Wood was instrumental in attracting Midtown to Clearfield.
We also were impressed with Wood's unflinching recognition of Clearfield's undeserving reputation among residents of other cities, made painfully obvious during the past year's controversial high school boundary dispute. "I do believe that there is a (negative) perception," Wood told the editorial board. "I think it exists amongst communities that surround us. I think it even exists to some extent amongst our own residents, which is unfortunate." But Wood says the city has begun, over the past four years, to focus attention on deteriorating neighborhoods and, as previously mentioned, to spur renewed economic development.
It is clear to us that Wood can do the job, and do it well.
But about the editorial board's reservation: Wood has a hideous blind spot when it comes to open government. The Standard-Examiner has asked the city for information that was plainly in the public realm, only to be denied and stonewalled. Wood was a primary instigator of the balking, and defended it by saying he thought it was important "to be sensitive to how that may impact people in their personal lives" and that "it's possible for there to be collateral damage to innocent individuals who are not a party to whatever the situation may have been."
He even paraphrased Scripture in his defense of withholding embarrassing information from the public: "I know of a situation where a lady was brought in and charged with adultery, and I know a man who stood there and said, 'He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.' And I guess that's my perception of open and honest government -- that the citizens have a right to know the situation, but I don't know to the extent that it damages people for the rest of their lives and their families, I don't know that that's truly pertinent."
That may hold true in church, but it has no bearing whatsoever on secular government.
It astonishes us that a man who is otherwise quite competent and capable of being mayor of a city like Clearfield has such contempt and hostility for open government if it would cause "collateral damage" to family members of a public employee or official guilty of wrongdoing in government service or misuse of government property.
That's why our decision to recommend Wood in this race is so complicated; he's clearly -- clearly -- the better candidate, but it galls us to find ourselves in the position of supporting someone with such a fundamental misunderstanding of state law and our Founding Fathers' bedrock philosophy regarding transparent governance: The people have a right to know.
We can only hope Wood will see the light on this topic, and if he's elected we promise to hold him to that standard.
Text 
