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Show Rival commission candidate John Bergen emphasizes the need for an auditor by Nan Chalat Summit County Commission candidate can-didate John Bergen claims he didn't really want to run for office until his friends and neighbors convinced him he was needed. However, when he did decide to run he wanted to do it right. In the last six months he has attended county commission meetings meet-ings regularly and has spent three to four days each week researching county needs, he said. As a result of his observations Bergen has taken a strong stand on several issues. "I was the first candidate to say that we need an auditor. I think the money he would save in avoiding errors would more than pay his salary," Bergen said. He added he felt Reed Pace, the current clerk auditor, was doing a good job but the growth of the county warranted treating the two positions separately. "I've also been saying that we need to have a capital improvement fund for our roads as well as the current fund for the county services building in Prospector. We could use our oil revenues to conduct a thorough survey of all the roads in the county. Then we could formulate a plan to use those revenues so that they would benefit the most people," Bergen said. A Francis resident, Bergen has been particularly interested in determining whether South Summit is receiving its fair share of county-funded health care services. "I'm digging into it and I plan to get some answers about whether the residents here are justified in feeling they are not getting the same services offered elsewhere in the county. I believe it should be equal for everyone," he said. Also in regard to the county's role in providing health care services Bergen said he disagreed with the way the current commission dealt with former Health Director Frank Singleton. "They may have done the right thing but they went about it the wrong way." Bergen said the commission has made several bad hiring and firing decisions. He added they had been remiss in not advertising the position in more than one part of the county after Singleton was dismissed. "I think we need to be more ' professional," he said. Bergen has been a Summit County resident for four years. He said if he is elected he will serve the whole county, not just South Summit. And, because he does not have an extensive family in the area he has no ties to special interests, he said. Bergen said his background, coupled with his residency in Francis, would allow him to bridge the diverse interests in the county. Before moving to Utah he was an arson investigator for the city of Santa Ana, California and had a great deal of contact with the city government there. Bergen will run against Oakley resident Wendell "Dutch" Woolstenhulme Wool-stenhulme in the primary election. "I know that being a county commissioner is more than just a Tuesday job," he said. "It should be more than that and I'm willing to dedicate the time to it." V ; V- f 'Sin' , John Bergen |