Kevin Lundell’s campaign was sparked in large part over Ogden City going in a different direction on a project aimed at combatting homelessness.

Lundell — who entered the City Council race following the city’s rejection of a plan to turn the former Aspen Care Center into a shelter for disabled homeless adults due to concerns over how the Weber Housing Authority had gone about the project — said he favors getting other cities and entities to help take on some of the solution.

“Ogden is the urban center in the northern Wasatch area north of Salt Lake, so we do have those services and we do take an extra share of that,” he said. “The time to encourage our neighboring cities to help in this housing and homelessness crisis is not when we say ‘no.’ It’s when we take on an additional share. When we say, ‘yes’ to Weber Housing Authority and those funds, we turn around and say, ‘We just did this project. We want you to do another one just like it.’ That’s the kind of collaboration that says, ‘Hey, we are once again taking on this share and we expect our neighbors to do the same.'”

He said turning down providing some additional homelessness services can actually have the affect of dissuading other municipalities in the region from taking on a share.

“When Ogden says no, it might create a permission structure for our neighboring cities to say no,” he said. “‘Ogden didn’t even say yes to that project. Why would we?’ I think it’s really important that when we do those projects, we highlight them, we show our neighboring cities, ‘We’re participating in this, what are you going to do?'”

Lundell said, if elected, he looks forward to working with other entities outside of the city on this and other issues.

“Our county partners are really important when it comes to RAMP grants, funding and different things like that where we can partner with the county to improve our amenities and be good partners focused on the same principles,” he said.

Closer to home, he said that he doesn’t envision an adversarial relationship between the City Council and the administration.

“I don’t think it’s my job, if I were elected, to change the mayor’s vision at all,” he said. “I think it’s my job to find where his vision and my vision align and work together to create a better Ogden. That’s what I want to see going forward, and that won’t be without some areas where we don’t see eye-to-eye. That’s the nature of a government that has checks and balances. That’s not a bad thing either. I really look forward to finding key areas where our visions align. I know Mayor Nadolski and I, we both have a passion for parks and recreation and I think we have a lot of alignment on a lot of those issues and I think we’ll do good work if I get elected.”

Lundell said that doesn’t mean there aren’t some areas of disagreement.

“We clearly didn’t have an alignment on the Aspen House issue,” he said. “There will be those times where we don’t see eye-to-eye but that will not be something that makes it so I can’t do the next thing where our vision does align.”