Note: The Park Record asked the Park City Council candidates questions about a range of key issues in the community. The answers were published first in the Nov. 4 edition of The Park Record. This is part of a series of eight questions that were posed to the candidates.
The Park Record:
The 2030 Winter Olympics and, likely, the Games of four years later will be awarded during the Park City Council term you are seeking, with Salt Lake City seen as a top candidate for one of the events. Please describe what your top priority would be as a City Councilor, as well as your top concern, should you be tasked with helping plan for what is expected to be an outsized role in a Games for Park City. Will you pledge that a Games can be staged without cost to Park City taxpayers? Why or why not?
John Greenfield:
My top priority is to make sure residents from Park City and across the Wasatch Back can access the events, ensuring a local presence at the Olympics.
My top concern is placing Park City in a position to divert the massive amounts of waste generated from the Olympics to places other than a landfill. A food waste diversion program operating prior to the Olympics is a necessity.
The hosting budget would be raised largely from the sale of sponsorships, tickets, and broadcast rights, similar to the 2002 Olympics. Security for major national events, like the Olympics, is the responsibility of the federal government. Of note, the Utah bid committee’s leadership has stated it will not cost Utah taxpayers anything, largely because most of the facilities are already built.
The economy will not receive the kind of boost an uninhibited construction frenzy would result in, but that’s okay. The services, opportunities, and amenities our community provides will become the economic and environmental highlights. In other words, our ability to facilitate a good time that comports with our efforts to actuate sustainable tourism will make or break the experience for everyone, including ourselves.
Matthew Nagie:
In planning for the Games themselves, my top priority would be to collaborate with and learn from a hopefully-successful Los Angeles 2028 in having entirely car-free venues during the games.
My top long-term priority in the planning process would be to ensure that infrastructure investments optimize long-term operating costs. The US federal government tends to provide transportation capital dollars without fully considering operating costs, leaving cities with facilities, infrastructure, and vehicles which are expensive and challenging to operate.
My goal would be to operate a Games without cost to Park City taxpayers.
Ed Parigian:
I think the Games can be staged with minimal net City outlays, and I will pledge to keep those costs well within the budget, and in accordance with the community’s feedback. Surely, I will consider the payback and public benefit received in connection with any City expenditures.
We’ve done this before, so the execution plan is mostly in place. My larger concern is the after-effect on the City. We have seen what happened after the 2002 Games … increased popularity driving second home vacation ownership, advent of Air BnB to allow those homes to be rented in between owner visits, compounded by a post-recession, low-interest rate surge of homes being built in every nook and cranny of our geographically small town.
My role in the Olympics runup will be to attract as much funding from the organizers as possible to help us with infrastructure needs. Possibilities include transit improvements and athlete housing that can be converted to affordable living.
In any case, the Olympics are coming in 2034, and I’d rather we plan far ahead for them, so we can all enjoy the games and watch our awesome local athletes compete in their backyard.
Bob Sertner:
The Olympics are coming to Utah, and we must ensure that it’s a positive experience for both the residents of Park City and for our visitors – both those who come in person and those who watch around the world.
My top priority as a City Councilor would be to ensure that we have a long-range plan in place to deal with the challenges, and to guarantee that they’re staged without additional cost to Park City taxpayers.
We will need to work with our partners at the State level, and on the Olympic committee, to minimize the impact of the Games. We will also need to negotiate with them to achieve some of Park City’s longer-range transportation needs, as well as infrastructure goals like electrical and communications upgrades.
We must also answer a critical question: What do we want from the Olympics? The last Olympics put Park City on the map as a world-class ski destination. We should use these next climate-positive Olympics to present ourselves as a forward-thinking model mountain town, with improved sustainability goals, to once again show the world what an amazing city we are, and to attract a more diverse economic base.
Bill Ciraco:
The IOC announced it will make a “dual award” before the 2024 games in Paris. This news makes Salt Lake the odds on favorite to host the 2034 Olympics. I am thankful it is 2034 and not 2030. This timing gives us the opportunity to make up for the lack of progress we have made in determining what our “big ask” will be with respect to our status as a “Host Venue City.” On February 15, 2022 Fraser Bullock, CEO of the Salt Lake bid committee essentially said to our elected officials, “tell us what need, we don’t write the checks but we know the people that do.” This was a dialogue about how the Olympics can be a catalyst to do things that you normally wouldn’t be able to. I feel we could use more urgency and imagination in answering this question. My top priority would be to make sure we get an investment out of this Olympics that fundamentally makes life better for the residents of Park City for the future and not just during the Olympics. With it the games will be a net positive. Missing this investment opportunity is my top concern. This is step one.
Ryan Dickey:
The Olympics are coming to Utah, almost certainly by 2034. It’s critical for Park City to have a seat at the table, and we do; our mayor sits on the bid committee, and we are working actively as a city to plan for an awarding of the games.
The Olympics primarily represent an opportunity to fund investments in transportation infrastructure that will serve Park City through the end of the century – far beyond the two weeks of the games. While the International Olympic Committee doesn’t bring the level of funding to an Olympics that it once did, an Olympics award can catapult Park City to the front of the line for the types of federal transportation grants that can move the needle on transportation across the Wasatch Back.
Critical to our success is being ready with a plan that is supported by public and private sector partners across the region. I’m proud to hold one of Park City’s appointments to our Regional Transportation Convening – working with counties, municipalities, transportation authorities, resort partners, and other stakeholders – on shared vision for 2034.
Important dates:
- Nov. 13: Last day to register to vote in person or online at vote.utah.gov.
- Nov. 16, 17, 18 and 20: Early voting in the general election from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Nov. 21: Election Day. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.