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Show THE ZEPHYR/SPECIAL ELECTION ISSUE..FEBRUARY 1993 PAGE 14 The At-Large Candidates Peter Haney Dan Holyoak John Hartley Delbert Oliver Editor’s Note: Peter Haney and John Hartley were interviewed together at the time scheduled for all the at-large candidates. Because of illness, Dan Holyoak could not attend and was interviewed later by telephone. Delbert Oliver did not show for the interview and could not be reached. (see Page 2) Zephyr: Fiscal responsibility is a concern. What personal experience do you have that would convince the voters you have the skills to responsibly manage their tax monies? Peter: For one, it’s because I haven’t been in business. I think in business, it’s too easy to think that government can pursue things and make money. As an example, the equestrian center. I disagree with government being involved in business. My personal experience is I’ve been on dairy farms with million dollar budgets and worked in hospitals where you had to manage the floors and they were all over a million dollars. 1 know how budgets work, I’ve been involved on boards for recreation and the hospital, where each had a million dollar budget at one time or another. Money is a kind of vital sign. My nursing background is to look at the vital signs, and as long as they are ok, then everything is balanced out. But when things get out of hand and you are spending a lot more money and getting a lot less out, then you really have to be questioned. With the Keystone pits, there was $74,000 last year to study it. We budgeted $10,000 saved money at the end of the year. They take it away from them and give it to people who weren't fiscally responsible. I totally disagree with that. Zephyx: There was she Wilkow: Basin Road, the Hastings Road, the courthouse construction, the visitor center 1. Has the county commission been doing a good or poor financial job over the ao few years? John: I can’t say if they have done a good or poor job because I don’t know what their bottom lines are. What I would say is that I would not be surprised if there was an audit, that nothing illegal would be found, but it would be quite likely that quite a bit of unethical behavior would be found. Zephyr: On the courthouse expansion, would you have supported the courthouse expansion in the form that was taken? John: No, I wouldn’t support it. I was supportive of a new courthouse because I believe government has a responsibility to provide the leadership in what a community should look like and what a community should look like and how buildings should be maintained. Zephyr: On the Hastings Road, the county road supervisor thought it could be done for $700,000. It became a $3 million deal, Peter Haney..John Hartley..Dan Holyoak. (not shown: Delbert Oliver) this year to clean them up. The BLM says it will be more than that. You have to question where Manuel [Torres] and David [Knutson] were coming from, with the contractor, with contract, with the people who were cleaning it up and studying them. contract, there was a 40 cents a mile travel fee, and I wouldn’t a presumed There was never a tolerate those kind of things. The going rate is 25 cents a mile. You have to be real clear about whose money it is. It’s there for services people expect to get. I’ve been vocal about the equestrian center. I would like to see things different there. It doesn’t mean we got to sell it tomorrow, but I’d certainly like to put that on the table, because I can’t see that making any money, and I don’t see it being moved out of this county if we sell it. A private person will actually develop an industry, where you will have people who will grow hay and people who will fix horseshoes and stuff like that. Right now, I feel that’s being held back, because it’s in the county’s hands rather than private industry. John: My experience comes directly from being involved with city government in Longmont, Colorado. I was an administrator there, I had the opportunity to prepare 8 budgets, all of them over $5 million. We had a bottom line we weren’t able to go over. I never had any problems within the boundaries of a bottom line. In fact, I think when you know what your bottom line is, you don’t have too much of a problem meeting your responsibilities. That may be one of the problems they have now, in that I’m not sure the county knows what it’s bottom line is. My 8 years experience has given me some preparation. And as a businessman, I also have to be fiscally responsible with my money, or I will not be here next year. I started a business here when the economy was not that good, comparatively, and I made it. Peter: The county does have a good idea of where it’s bottom line is. It’s just its priorities under the past commissions have been shoot from the hip kind of things. John: Maybe they know where their bottom line is, how much money they have, but it seems they are not aiming at that when they spend money. I know you areon the commission now, this isn’t aimed at what has happened in the last 30 days. Peter: In the last 2 years, if you looked .at how the county has done business when they reopened the budget, they punished those departments that had been fiscally responsible, that actually ex svat ARCHES REALTY Joe Kingsley ¢ (801) 259-5693, NEW LOCATION 1120 S. Hwy. 191 1-800-842-6622 Peter: It will be a $700,000 job. It can’t be a $3 million job. They want to do a $3 million study. John: And they want to borrow $3 million, or go for a grant for $3 million. In that case, no, I think that’s managed very poorly. If the state is willing to spend money in the county, I think we should get the money from the state to take care of that road. Zephyr: Let me ask again, in your opinion has the county done a good or poor job of financial management? Peter: I’m glad you said county commission. The people in the courthouse have been trying to keep up with the county commission’s horrible management. They’ve been shooting from the hip, they don’t have any kind of priorities or planning. The Hastings Road, the Willow Basin road, none were on the top 20 projects for the county. Let me back up, the Hastings Road maybe, but the Willow Basin road definitely wasn’t anywhere in sight for having any improvement on it. They basically do things on a whim. Because they are the commission, everyone has to keep up with them. They have done a very poor job. Fiscal responsibility is planning for the resources you have to provide the services that you need, and hopefully having some left over for savings. The courthouse was an example, they said they were going to push it down our throats until it happened. David actually had a good idea of moving it over to the church orchard. I don’t think we should be building a state building. The state should have built it, and we could have built the jail next to it. They kept threatening, "we'll have to build this building if you don’t.” Zephyr: Once again, where do you stand on the Book Cliffs Road, and where do you stand on the Roads Special Service District? Peter: I’m not for the road, I’m not even for the right of way. From what they've told us, the right of way is not in an ideal location. It doesn’t make much sense to spend any more money pursuing that. As far as the district, they’ve agreed not to spend any more money until they got some direction from the county council. The direction I would like to see the council take is that unless there is some viable need for that district, even more so than RS-2477 [the federal procedure for obtaining county rights-of-way over BLM lands], which could be placed under the county road department under David Warner, I don’t know that we even need it. “Your every voter, as surely as your chief magistrate, excercizes a public trust." Grover Cleveland |