Several friends have asked me for a copy of the speech I gave to the County Delegates at the County Convention on April 24, 2010. Below is a complete copy:
Hello delegates!
My name is Joel Wright. I am a candidate for Utah County Commission Seat A, and I’m here to ask for your vote!
I grew up in Provo, and am proud to have been educated by our local schools. I attended BYU, where I earned degrees in Economics and Political Science, and married my sweetheart. I then moved to NYC to attend law school. After working in NYC and Washington DC, my wife and I missed Utah County, and jumped at the chance to return to Utah County to raise our children here.
When I served on my City Council, I realized we needed more leadership at the regional level on transportation. Utah County has 550,000 people now, and we’ll have one million residents in 20 years or less. We simply must do better on transportation, and several other issues, which is why I decided to run for the Utah County Commission.
Let me tell you what I will stand for as your County Commissioner:
First, I will always tell you the truth. I have not hesitated to tell you the truth on any issue during this campaign, and I will continue to do so as your County Commissioner. I will send you a monthly email where you can respond to me, and host a web page where anyone can come and discuss the issues facing Utah County. You will almost certainly disagree with me at least once in a while, and that is when I most need and want to hear from you.
Second, you will be able to hold me accountable for how every tax dollar is spent. I know that every dollar government takes from you means you have less time to be a Scout master, or a soccer coach, or a Mother.
Third, I will always do what is right, regardless of the political consequences. At different points in my public service I have come under tremendous pressure to go along with the crowd, or keep my mouth shut. I have always refused to do so. I believe there are many things more important than myself, and I will always do what is right.
Finally, I promise to give more than I get. I love Utah County. Our ancestors made tremendous sacrifices so we could enjoy the freedom we have today. I am willing to make those same sacrifices.
Thank you so much for your service as a County Delegate. I humbly ask for your vote, and look forward to working with you to improve Utah County. Thank you!
END
Monday, May 17, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
A County Delegate dares to attend a County Commission meeting
Loved this blog post from Steven Reid on attending an actual County Commission meeting:
http://nacilbupera.blogspot.com/2010/04/utah-county-commissioner-mtng.html
TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 2010
Utah County Commissioner Mtng Attendance
This morning we attended our first ever Utah County Commissioner's Meeting. Since becoming a county delegate we figured it was our duty to go check out our elected Commissioners in action and see if things were running properly and now that the convention is over, we had a bit more time to do so.
Utah County is made up of three County Commissioners who meet Tuesday mornings at 9am. We're rather astonished that the meeting is at 9am when we like many are scheduled to work. Provo has its city council meetings at 7pm when we are more able to attend. We might be able to fathom the 9am meeting time if the meeting were rebroadcast: but there is no rebroadcast of Utah County Commissioner Meetings! We discovered the only venue currently available to citizens of the County for meeting review are agenda meeting notes posted online up to two weeks later after the meeting has taken place. In other words, the review-ability for our elected Commissioners is grossly deficient: THIS MUST BE FIXED!
At today's meeting, Commissioner Anderson was excused for health reasons and Commissioners White and Ellertson reviewed a rather non-controversial agenda approving all the items 2-0. Items of interest included Health Dept Director Miner talking about a aerial mosquito abatement program, a discussion on the Jordan River Commission to have the 18 jurisdictions split a $100K bill making the river a showcase for the state, and Richard Nance presenting the results of the clean-out-the-cabinet prescription drug reclamation of nearly 900 pounds of medication (see detailed Deseret News article).
The meeting also prompted us to chronicle the attendance of our elected officials at these meetings. Below is a spreadsheet using data extracted from the official minutes of the County Commissioner meetings for 2010 (for any corrections plz comment below or see our profile for email address):
From this data we gather the following interesting conclusions:
Our County Commissioners all have superb attendance at these meetings. This is really crucial as there are only 3 to conduct business
Joel Wright and Leon Frazier were the only two Commissioner candidates to have attended ANY Commissioner meeting in 2010. We were flabbergasted that Doug Witney had yet to attend any meeting yet was able to knock out the incumbent Steve White at Saturday's convention. We wonder if this glaring absence continues how in November either Republican Witney or Democrat Barratt are going to have any clue on what the issues are or of a smooth transition. We didn't see either at today's meeting nor was Mr. Wright present. We feel it unreasonable to expect perfect attendance during a campaign for a candidate running for County Commissioner, while we do expect some attendance.
Our elected County Officials appear to be attending as they are able. We feel that all of our elected officials should be making periodic appearances whenever available at our County Commissioner meetings. We also feel there will be times when then have pressing conflicts and should not be viewed as having to attend every meeting. Furthermore, some positions may merit more frequent attendance than others. We feel all the current elected county officials are doing due diligence.
We plan on keeping track of and periodically disclose attendance at the County Commissioner Meeting as a way of doing our patriotic part to keep check on our government.
http://nacilbupera.blogspot.com/2010/04/utah-county-commissioner-mtng.html
TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 2010
Utah County Commissioner Mtng Attendance
This morning we attended our first ever Utah County Commissioner's Meeting. Since becoming a county delegate we figured it was our duty to go check out our elected Commissioners in action and see if things were running properly and now that the convention is over, we had a bit more time to do so.
Utah County is made up of three County Commissioners who meet Tuesday mornings at 9am. We're rather astonished that the meeting is at 9am when we like many are scheduled to work. Provo has its city council meetings at 7pm when we are more able to attend. We might be able to fathom the 9am meeting time if the meeting were rebroadcast: but there is no rebroadcast of Utah County Commissioner Meetings! We discovered the only venue currently available to citizens of the County for meeting review are agenda meeting notes posted online up to two weeks later after the meeting has taken place. In other words, the review-ability for our elected Commissioners is grossly deficient: THIS MUST BE FIXED!
At today's meeting, Commissioner Anderson was excused for health reasons and Commissioners White and Ellertson reviewed a rather non-controversial agenda approving all the items 2-0. Items of interest included Health Dept Director Miner talking about a aerial mosquito abatement program, a discussion on the Jordan River Commission to have the 18 jurisdictions split a $100K bill making the river a showcase for the state, and Richard Nance presenting the results of the clean-out-the-cabinet prescription drug reclamation of nearly 900 pounds of medication (see detailed Deseret News article).
The meeting also prompted us to chronicle the attendance of our elected officials at these meetings. Below is a spreadsheet using data extracted from the official minutes of the County Commissioner meetings for 2010 (for any corrections plz comment below or see our profile for email address):
From this data we gather the following interesting conclusions:
Our County Commissioners all have superb attendance at these meetings. This is really crucial as there are only 3 to conduct business
Joel Wright and Leon Frazier were the only two Commissioner candidates to have attended ANY Commissioner meeting in 2010. We were flabbergasted that Doug Witney had yet to attend any meeting yet was able to knock out the incumbent Steve White at Saturday's convention. We wonder if this glaring absence continues how in November either Republican Witney or Democrat Barratt are going to have any clue on what the issues are or of a smooth transition. We didn't see either at today's meeting nor was Mr. Wright present. We feel it unreasonable to expect perfect attendance during a campaign for a candidate running for County Commissioner, while we do expect some attendance.
Our elected County Officials appear to be attending as they are able. We feel that all of our elected officials should be making periodic appearances whenever available at our County Commissioner meetings. We also feel there will be times when then have pressing conflicts and should not be viewed as having to attend every meeting. Furthermore, some positions may merit more frequent attendance than others. We feel all the current elected county officials are doing due diligence.
We plan on keeping track of and periodically disclose attendance at the County Commissioner Meeting as a way of doing our patriotic part to keep check on our government.
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