NORTH OGDEN — Five North Ogden City Council candidates had a chance to make their closing arguments of the primary season at a forum Wednesday evening.

The forum, sponsored by the Weber County League of Women Voters and held at the North Branch of the Weber County Library System, was heavily attended and held as households across the city received their mail-in ballots.

However, not all candidates were on hand. Incumbent Phillip Swanson was absent due to illness while candidate Tim Billings was unable to attend due to a prior engagement.

Tax plans

Candidates were asked about their priorities on taxes, and Merrill Sunderland said his are “simple.”

“We can live within what we bring in,” he said. “There are inflationary items that need to be taken into account, but we can live with what we bring in.”

Incumbent Ryan Barker said any raises in property taxes need to be done incrementally.

“We didn’t raise taxes at the city for 17 years,” he said. “At the beginning of that 17 years, our property taxes covered almost 100% of our police department budget. After 17 years, it was down to covering 33% of our police department. Now that we’re making jumps again, we’re now about 50%, so our property taxes are only covering half of our police department. I think we need to keep making small, incremental jumps every once in a while, otherwise we’re going to get so far behind and lose our police department.”

Chris Pulver said that the board also needs to keep an eye on other revenue streams beyond property tax.

“Right now in the 2020 census, we’re at 21,855 in North Ogden, and if you do the projections, your’e talking 25,500 people by 2030,” he said. “That’s a lot. It’s going to keep going up. The problem is property tax can keep up, but as we’ve been talking about, the police and their issues with funding are going up as well, probably not in a linear fashion. The problem is that you’re just talking property tax, but you also have to talk about sales tax and commercial which needs to grow.”

Barker Park amphitheater 

Questions were sourced from audience members prior to the start of the forum. It was noted that one of the most popular topics audience members asked about was what candidates think ought to be done about the Barker Park amphitheater.

Christina Watson said it’s time for people to move forward on the issue.

“Rather than backtracking and dwelling on the differences of opinion and how we got to where we are today and continuing to have that argument of whether it should’ve been built or not, I think we should put that behind us and rather decide what we can do from here on out,” she said. “The amphitheater is there already. Let’s use it. Maybe it doesn’t have every aspect there that it could have, but let’s use it for what it is right now and make the most of it since it’s there. Let’s make it add to our community and become a gem for our community.”

Reed Miller is still not a fan of the venue.

“It was a big mistake,” he said. “If you talk to the people around the amphitheater, they did not want that amphitheater close to their neighborhood. Also, it was mainly for the special groups and we have to have things that we pay for in the city that represent all the people, especially when it comes to money and taxes.”

Candidates were also asked about variances, the budget, improving recreation in the city, recycling and zoning.

A partial replay of Wednesday night’s forum is available on the Weber County League of Women Voters‘ Facebook page.

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