In the case of the Davis County Commission, Scott Fletcher would argue that it does – specifically, him.

“We need to make decisions that are right for the citizens and that’s going to be based in data,” said Fletcher, a rocket scientist and a physicist. “And it’s not for one city or another city; it’s across all the cities. And that’s a key factor is that, unfortunately, in the past, there have been commissioners that favor one city or another because of their political leanings or because they have some special interest in that place. And I’ll keep names out of this, but that’s what has happened. … So data is critical.

“We need to have somebody that’s logical. Once again, this is about the citizens. It’s your money. … It shouldn’t be based on special interests. … By the way, on that topic, I’ve taken no money from any special interests at all, period. Dot.”

‘The data guy’

Ryan Comer, Standard-Examiner

In his bid to become Davis County commissioner, replacing outgoing Bob Stevenson, Fletcher is presenting himself as the data guy. Sitting in the Standard-Examiner boardroom, he has documents, including the Davis County budget, sprawled out across the desk.

“Why I’m referred to as a data guy is because the devil is in the details,” he said. “You have to dig in. You have to dig in to the budget … This is the ’24 budget that was released … and you can tell by all the yellow tabs that I have here that I’ve looked at it extensively to figure out where the problems are.”

Fletcher said data is “really important” in making good decisions.

“I have an axiom I always use, which is most people have noble intent, but people with noble intent and no data make bad decisions, and people with noble intent with good information and data make good decisions,” he said.

Fletcher said decisions “shouldn’t be emotional,” but rather they should be “based on what’s right for the taxpayer.”

Taxes

Fletcher said there are several reasons why he decided to run, but the first was the recent 14.9% property tax increase approved by the commission, which he said was frustrating to many people.

“I went to every single one of the truth-in-taxation events and had older gentlemen that would stand up in tears, saying, ‘This is what my tax bill is and this is what I get from social security and you’re forcing me to sell my house,'” he said. “So it was really compassion that I had for these people of the impact that the cost of taxation would have.”

Fletcher said there’s a culture – driven by those who have been in politics for awhile – of tax and spend.

He said he’s been a business person for a long time and he would be “shown the door” if he overspends or is not on target with a budget that he has.

“And right now, what we have is the approach that … ‘Well, we can just tax the taxpayer some more,'” he said.

He noted that the tax increase was originally proposed as 30% and covered a $12 million shortfall. Because it was eventually set at 14.9%, the shortfall became $6 million.

“So it’s still a $6 million dollars, but now they’re starting to work out, ‘Well, how do we reduce that? How do we reduce some of the operations in the county?'” he said.

He said in business there are specific processes that are used to make fundamental decisions.

“So I would bring my 42 years of experience in doing that and making those hard decisions to the table to be able to use those processes to make hard decisions,” he said.

Transparency

The second reason Fletcher gave for running was “a real lack in transparency” over the last several years.

Fletcher said decisions that impact the citizens have been made behind closed doors.

He wants to move the commission meetings from Tuesdays at 10 a.m. to the evening so more people can participate.

“And you ought to come loaded for bear,” he said. “You ought to be asking questions of the commissioners, and they better have good answers. If they don’t, they should go back to the drawing board and get them for you. Because that’s what we’re doing, representing the citizens of Davis County.”

He also wants to have a published newsletter from the commission that breaks down what the commission will look at that week, what it will look at the next week and the week after that. It would list topics, how decisions affect your budget and the pros and cons. He would want people to look at that and come in to talk to the commission to provide input.

The newsletter, he said, would also include items from parks and recreation like softball or baseball information.

He would also like it to provide information on judges’ rulings.

“How do you decide on whether they’re good or not good for Davis County?” he said. “So I would suggest that what we need to do as part of that, and being 100% fair to the judges, is look at the trend analysis. The trends on how they rule on certain cases.”

He said when citizens have more information, they’re more informed and they become more involved. They ask why certain things are done.

Citizen engagement is a key focus for Fletcher. He wants to bring citizen committees in to help make hard decisions, for example, on water, high-density housing or a number of other issues.

“We want to make sure that citizens have an input into that,” he said. “We’d bring in experts to be able to have them talk to the citizens in order that overall they get the data, the real information,” he said.

Budget

Fletcher said “the budget is really where the commissioners have a significant play,” saying that they are “in charge of the purse strings.”

Because of that, Fletcher said the county commission needs “to leverage that purse string approach to be able to do the right things for the county.”

In going over the budget from 2023 to 2024, Fletcher had specific concerns.

One was that the charges for services, he noted, increased by 34% despite only a 1% increase in population growth.

“So I have a hard time explaining that,” he said.

Another was general government expenses, which he said increased 32% from 2023 to 2024, again noting the 1% increase in population growth.

“So you just have to start asking questions of why we do that?” he said.

Spending

Fletcher noted concerns about spending choices, specifically the Western Sports Park and the animal care facility.

“So, for example, in the Western Sports Park, there’s an $8 million a year ongoing requirement that we have to fulfill for operations,” he said. “That’s the people. That’s operating the facility. … What happens is the taxpayer ends up with the bill. Right? So that’s one.

“We’re talking about a new healthcare facility for pets. So instead of being a dog pound, now we’re going to house pets in there. We’re going to take and put veterinarians in place. So now you’re taking business away from the local veterinarians, number one, and number two, there’s an operation cost associated with that, and who has to pay that bill? The taxpayer. The citizens of Davis County.

“So those are two of many in the interest of time. I won’t go into every single one, but there are many, many examples of where that’s being done, and it’s just not transparent to the citizens, and we need to get that transparency. We need to change a culture.”

Elaborating on the Western Sports Park, Fletcher said that it’s not profitable. He said this year it may get to $4 million but that the taxpayers would still have to come up with $4 million.

“And that’s true of the convention center as well, for example, in Layton,” he said. “Well, that loses a million dollars a year. Why are we doing that? It just doesn’t make sense. We continue to lose money on things. So what really needs to happen, I believe, is the government needs to get out of what private industry can do.

“So can private industry run the sports park? Yes. Will they do a better job? Absolutely.”

He said the government needs to get back to its proper role, which is to represent the citizens, their needs and the safety they require.

Experience

Fletcher spoke of his 42 years of experience throughout his career. He said he’s been both an executive leader and a chief engineer “on multimillion- and multibillion-dollar contracts.” He said he’s had profit and loss responsibility, the responsibility to negotiate contracts, experience building coalitions and experience using business case analysis, which looks at schedule, cost, performance and risk.

He said he spent 11 years flying back and forth to Washington, working with the House and the Senate as well as with the appropriations and the authorizations committees. He said he’s worked with the Pentagon and other organizations.

Closing statement

As part of his closing comments, Fletcher said he wanted to give back to the community.

He said Davis County is a “unique” and “beautiful” place but that there’s a need to get away from a culture of special interests driving what the citizens have.

“It should be driven by the citizens,” he said. “We have to go back to that culture of what’s best for the citizen and not what’s best for somebody’s pocketbook.”

For more on Fletcher and his campaign, visit https://tinyurl.com/mr3ea2w4

Contact Standard-Examiner editor Ryan Comer at rcomer@standard.net.