First Wasatch County debate ahead of primary election sees meager turnout

A few dozen Wasatch County residents and 10 of the 22 candidates running to represent them in various elected offices attended a three-hour debate at Wasatch High School on Wednesday. It was the first local debate of the upcoming election.

Dr. Neysa Holmes with the Wasatch County Republican Women’s Club came up with the idea for the debate last week, organized it and invited candidates. She wanted to provide all residents, not just delegates serving the local Republican and Democratic parties, the opportunity to hear directly from candidates.

Wasatch County Republican Party Chair Patty Sprunt said the local GOP was “in no way a sponsor or involved in” the debate organized by Holmes. County Democratic Party Chair Michelle Mallery said the same about her party.

The short notice and timing of the debate raised “concerns” among candidates, Holmes acknowledged, particularly because it was scheduled during spring break, when some were on vacation with their families. Holmes did not share their concerns.

“I understand that schedules can be full. However, public service requires a level of commitment that does not always align with convenience. When you take an oath to serve, availability is not conditional. The community is paying attention. Not just to ‘what is said,’ but to ‘who shows up,’” she wrote in an email to the candidates she forwarded to The Park Record.

She later said that those who did not show up for the debate did not deserve the public’s vote.

County Council

Although the debate was organized by a Republican club, Holmes invited all candidates regardless of party. 

The only Democratic county candidate who attended was Patrick Saucier, who is vying for Wasatch County Council Seat A. However, he did not participate in the debate and instead observed as an audience member. He had been interested in participating, but he said Holmes had asked that he confirm whether or not he could attend by the Friday before the debate, which he was unable to do at that time.

Two of Saucier’s Republican opponents for Seat A, Brett Vance and Steve Farrell, participated in the debate. The fourth candidate, Republican Rachel Kahler, was on vacation with her family and unable to attend.

Vance is an Air Force veteran with over three decades of service. He was later a commercial pilot, then a test pilot for the Federal Aviation Administration. He retired from the latter role in 2021 because he declined to get the COVID-19 vaccine, a mandate on all federal employees issued by President Joe Biden that September, and was later revoked in May 2023. 

Farrell retired in 2024 after two decades as a county councilor, but he’s back in the ring this election.

“It took me about three months to realize that retirement was not for me. I’d go out and feed the cows and spend 45 minutes talking to my dog and cat, and that was the end of the day. Well, come to find out, the dog was deaf, so he wasn’t paying attention, and the cat ran away,” he joked in his introduction.

County Councilor Erik Rowland is running unopposed for a second term in Seat C, but he decided to participate in the debate anyway.

The two candidates running for County Council Seat F, Joseph Tugaw and Michael Murphy, did not attend.

Holmes often asked the candidates different questions instead of allowing all to answer the same question.

The only metric on which all three County Council candidates could be evaluated at the debate was their approaches to the county’s rapid growth.

Vance saw the Heber City Municipal Airport and Heber Valley bypass as catalysts for upcoming growth and development. He said updating the General Plan will help manage that. That update will be the first since 2001 and is expected to be published this summer.

Examining the county budget and personnel and infrastructure needs were other ways Vance said he would approach managing “undisciplined growth” as a county councilor.

Farrell said he’s running because Wasatch County is losing its rural character and agricultural heritage. He hopes to change that through conservation easements and open space bonds. His advocacy for both on the County Council and Open Lands board has earned him recognition, including a $1 million donation to Utah Open Lands that the Mountainside Resort Foundation made in Farrell’s honor when he retired in 2024.

Rowland agreed with Farrell. Rowland serves on the county’s Open Lands Board and recently led an effort among elected officials to send a letter to the Utah Department of Transportation rejecting its proposed bypass route through the North Fields. Rowland plans to be “aggressively responsible” with the county budget instead of spending as much as possible, while also “standing strong against development pressure” to maintain the county’s rural character.

Wasatch County sheriff

The table for Wasatch County sheriff was the only one with all candidates, incumbent Sheriff Jared Rigby, Wasatch County Emergency Management Director Jeremy Hales and Summit County Sheriff’s Office Detective Eric Mainord, attending. 

Holmes’ asking different questions of each candidate was most noticeable in the sheriff’s debate.

Holmes asked Mainord and Rigby what metrics they would track and report to the public. Then, she asked Hales how he would improve the Sheriff’s Office’s internal culture and retain deputies.

Later, Holmes asked Mainord and Rigby whether they had ever been subjected to any findings, disclosures or professional actions that could impact their credibility in court. Then, she asked Hales about his top three public safety concerns.

She said later she was trying to gear questions toward the candidates based on their experience.

Holmes also told The Park Record several days before the debate that the sheriff’s race was the “most important” in the upcoming election.

The sheriff’s debate largely revolved around the Sheriff’s Office’s internal culture and an investigation into alleged misconduct by Rigby, published by The Park Record last year. 

The investigation performed by a third party between March and August found no gross mismanagement or illegal activity at the Sheriff’s Office but outlined other concerns, including employees’ fear of retaliation for participating in the investigation and alleged favoritism and absenteeism on Rigby’s part. He denied the allegations and any wrongdoing.

At the debate, several people asked Rigby about the investigation during an audience Q&A. Attendees included former Sheriff Todd Bonner and former Sheriff’s Sgt. Jake Fredrickson, the son of former Sheriff’s Lt. Shane Fredrickson, the employee who first requested the investigation.

Rigby denied wrongdoing but admitted that he is “not perfect,” nor is the Sheriff’s Office.

He pointed to the establishment of monthly interlocal meetings with local mayors and the hiring of employees to monitor the Sheriff’s Office and increase its public outreach as examples of what the Sheriff’s Office is doing to better itself. 

For example, the county hired a professional standards director, Kurt Cottrell, to monitor the Sheriff’s Office in December, though Rigby did not mention Cottrell by name.

“I also feel like meeting one-on-one with the employees helps a great deal, and especially over the last year, it has. There have been those that, unfortunately, have retired, have left the Sheriff’s Office because they felt uncomfortable with this or that, and I feel badly about that,” he said. “Even though there are individuals who are frustrated with the ending of their careers, I hope they know, and I hope all of you know, too, that we so very much appreciate their service and love them, and they always have a place in our office.”

He urged the audience to ask any of the Sheriff’s Office’s about 120 employees how they felt about their employer after those changes had been made, adding that the “overwhelming majority” would say that they “love being there.”

Hales and Mainord also spoke about what they would do to improve the Sheriff’s Office’s internal culture.

Hales said he wanted to give deputies opportunities to train and take on new responsibilities. He hopes to encourage retention not only because retraining new officers would cost the Sheriff’s Office “thousands and thousands of dollars,” but also because he wants to give the officers the “opportunity to feel that same pride that (he) felt for the last 25 years (in his law enforcement career).” 

Mainord said he would commission an external audit of administrative and financial issues. 

He then brought up a medical situation he had responded to in the past, during which he had to give mouth-to-mouth to an infant who had choked on Teddy Grahams.

“I, for years, had dreams where I woke up, and I could literally taste the graham crackers,” he said.

He said that was an example of the stress law enforcement officers go through, which he hopes to mitigate as sheriff by spending as much one-on-one time with his employees as possible.

Other candidates

Neither of the candidates running for Wasatch County attorney attended, nor did any of the three candidates running for the nonpartisan school board seats.

Current Park City Recorder Michelle Kellogg attended, though she had no one to debate because her opponent for Wasatch County clerk-auditor, incumbent Joey Granger, was not there. 

Kellogg’s comments focused on her commitment to “run elections efficiently, honestly, transparently and in accordance with state law, and to go above and beyond to ensure that there are no errors in that process.” She pointed to her experience as Heber City deputy recorder and recorder as evidence of her suitability for the job. In those roles, which she held between 2009 and 2015, she oversaw the counting of ballots by hand in each election. 

Next week, the county Republican and Democratic parties will hold their respective county conventions, during which delegates will nominate candidates to represent their respective parties on the ballot. The GOP county convention is on Tuesday, while the Democratic county convention is on Wednesday.

Wasatch County state delegates will nominate candidates for House District 59 during the Republican and Democratic state conventions on April 24 and 25.

Both parties plan on organizing debates after the nominating conventions, but are still working out the details. There have been discussions about hosting a bipartisan debate

A primary election will be held on June 23 for candidates who met the signature gathering requirement.