Local government officials speak on why they matter
By: Savannah Perkins
Thursday evening, three government representatives gathered together as a panel for a Pizza and Politics event series organized by The Institute of Government and Politics. Bountiful city manager Gary Hill, state Senator Lyle Hillyard and Logan Mayor Craig Petersen came to Utah State University to discuss the importance of local government.
The panel was led by Damon Cann, associate professor in the political science department and city councilman for North Logan City. To kick off the discussion, Cann asked about the top issues facing each of the individuals’ cities or states.
Hillyard has worked with the state’s budget for the past 11 years, giving him vast knowledge in handling monetary situations. Sen. Hillyard said that one of the biggest challenges is “trying to take a limited amount of funds to meet the maximum number of needs.” It is always going to take more money than originally proposed. If an exception is made for one person, others will expect the same to be done for them and the final factor adding to the difficulty of budget requests is the entitlement attitude from those involved.
A career of almost 40 years as an economics professor at USU gave Petersen a background and connection with the university that has benefited both the city of Logan as well as the school. He has now been mayor for 20 months.
“The thing that is most surprising to me about being mayor is the incredible cost of public works projects,” Petersen said.
He further explained this is something that isn’t considered by many citizens — the balancing of costs to ensure the quality of roads and other infrastructure.
Hired by the Bountiful city mayor to manage day-to-day responsibilities of the city, Hill said that his biggest challenges have to do with “the fact that Bountiful is an old city with aging infrastructure that is in need of repair or replacement … The other big issue is public safety and specifically the lack in numbers of qualified police officers in the state.”
Hill discussed the decline of public safety workers and what that means for communities, ultimately trying to help the public realize the importance of these two challenges and how community involvement is needed.
Recognizing the daily challenges that these three government officials deal with allowed students a glimpse into what is important to know about local government.
“I feel that local government and state government kind of gets overlooked and the issues involved get overlooked by the citizens, unless you are directly involved,” said Barett Anderson, a law and constitution studies major.
Anderson recognized the importance of the knowing what is going on in your community.
“Even people who study this tend to look more at national issues, whereas the local issues are what will affect you the most, so I feel that participation and knowledge of what is going on is key because that is where you hold the most influence as a voter,” he said.
There are many things to consider within local government: the balancing of the budgets, the prioritizing of projects and, in the end, the impact of community involvement and how even a small participation helps the greater outcome.
“One thing that I really liked was how they looked at the problems and plans for the future, especially the relationship that Utah State has with Logan City; It was something I never really thought about,” said Michael Scott Peters, a marketing major.
The message that one voice can really directly affect the outcome was clear for many of the students in attendance,including Andrea Whittier, an English major.
“I really enjoyed hearing about local problems. I’m not originally from here so it feels good to be informed about the problems that are faced here in Utah,” Whittier said.
Before the conclusion of the event, all members of the panel gave specific advice on how to get involved and make a difference. Sen. Hillyard emphasized on picking a candidate and asking how you can help in a community.
“Get on the inside and gain knowledge,” Hillyard said, emphasizing critical thinking with the media.
Petersen touched on the importance of going to city council meetings.
“You don’t have to go to every single one, but there you learn about the processes and you get to see how the system works,” he said.
Hill advised actually going to the mayor and asking what citizens should be focused on.
“Any mayor would love to tell you of things that might be interesting to you,” Hill said, expanding on the idea that when citizens know what matters to their mayor and can discuss what matters to them as the public, they can have more consistent participation which benefits and enriches the community.
By the completion of the event, strong themes based on the importance of one voice, of uniting together as a community and being an informed member of society brought a conversation to USU’s campus that focused on why local government matters to everyone involved.
— sunshineperky@gmail.com