Noyce vs. Bradshaw for Salt Lake County Council 

Beyond replacing Hatch, the County Council District 1 race is also unusual this year because Noyce and Bradshaw, who will face off in the June 22 primary, are gay. Should either Bradshaw or Noyce be elected to the council—whoever wins the primary will face Republican nominee Steve Harmsen in the November election—he would become the first openly gay person to hold a seat on the council.

We asked them about their lifestyles, knowledge of county issues and views on controversial debates of the day. Their answers are below—sometimes edited for brevity—which they were asked without allowing them time to prepare a response.

City Weekly: Give me one good reason why UTA board members should not be elected directly by the people.
Cal Noyce: I can’t think of one reason why they shouldn’t be elected by the people.
Arlyn Bradshaw: UTA receives funding from many governmental entities, so maybe that is the reason, but I don’t necessarily advocate that. Largely because of its multi-jurisdictional nature, and that it would be hard to set boundaries. I think that’s something that could be explored.

If anything, what is the county’s interest or concern in Salt Lake City’s northwest quadrant development proposals?
CN: Well, the obvious ones would be that there’s an increased tax base on land that currently, as far as development is concerned, is worthless because there’s no great tax coming from swamps.
AB: Everybody along the Wasatch Front should be concerned about it. I oppose any zoning change out there that promotes sprawl and promotes the development of a suburban-style community. I believe preservation of the land and open space in perpetuity is preferable.

Have you smoked Spice, the marijuana-like substance?
CN: (laughs) No.
AB: Is that the hookah-stuff, or ... ? I guess the answer is probably no, because I’m not entirely sure what we’re talking about.

Name a misguided or bad decision made by a past Salt Lake County Council that we are still living with or repairing.
CN: Off the top of my head, I can’t really think of anything that I would consider as a bad decision that we’re living with.
AB: Development decisions, largely at the base of some of the canyons and even up the canyons.

What’s so cool about a hotel as part of the Salt Palace, as opposed to the one across the street, the other one a block way, another a couple blocks down ... you get the idea.
CN: I can’t think of one. I don’t think the county needs to get into the hotel business.
AB: It really can bring in larger conventions that use more of the hotel rooms in central city and throughout the county, just by the size of conventions that can be attracted to Salt Lake City.

You’re having brunch with your parents. Do you order a mimosa or Bloody Mary, or non-alcoholic drinks only?
CN: (laughs) Probably a mimosa.
AB: Bloody Mary, that’s my drink of choice, and I don’t think it matters if my parents are there or not.

Do you smoke tobacco? Have you ever smoked? Was it hard to quit?
CN: I have smoked. Somewhat difficult to quit.
AB: I do not smoke, nor have I ever.

Do you own or rent a condo, house, trailer or apartment? How many bedrooms, how many baths?
CN: Own a house. This will be a strange one: It is officially two bedrooms, three-and-a-half baths.
AB: I own a two-bedroom, two-bath house in the Marmalade.

What do you drive?
CN: We have two vehicles. A Saturn Aura is the family car, and a Toyota Tacoma.
AB: Ford Escape Hybrid.

Was it easy for you to come out of the closet?
CN: Well, I’ve always said I never was “in.” But, yes, fairly easy.
AB: (pauses, laughs) You know, no, it was not. I came out at the age of 16.

What is your favorite natural spot within the areas proposed for wilderness protection by Rep. Jim Matheson?
CN: I don’t know that I have a particular favorite spot in proposed areas. There’re certain spots in the state that I like, have always liked, but I can’t think of any particular spot that is like the Mecca.
AB: Mount Olympus. My favorite spot is when I’m actually on top on Mount Olympus, and, although the summit is already protected by wilderness, the trail is not.

Should university students have to pay for a UTA pass?
CN: A reduced fee, yes.
AB: They do with their student fees. I believe that increases mass transit use.

Do you advocate Obama-style "socialism"?
CN: Oh brother. I don't support socialism. That's not really the point of what he's doing, nor trying to do.
AB: I'm a large proponent of communities taking care of their own, and to that extent I support the president's agenda. If health care for everyone is socialism, then I support it.

Why is everybody always hatin' on sprawl and what's so great about density?
CN: If sprawl is not controlled to a certain degree we're going to end up looking like Los Angeles. Density can be good because it centralizes folks, hopefully, close to where they work, where they recreate and where they go to church, again, reducing traffic and so forth.
AB: Density has less of an impact on our environment. Transit is utilized more. Sprawl covers up lands that should be pristine and preserved as open space.

Has the publicly-financed construction of the Rio Tinto soccer stadium been a success?
CN: The team would say it's been a great success especially this year. If you're looking at it from the viewpoint of people who aren't into soccer, it's a complete waste of money. Overall it's a good thing because it puts the county and the cities around it, as far as sports are concerned, more in the mainstream nationally with other large cities.
AB: It's great that Real won the MLS cup last year, but I'm going to say no, just from the perspective of a downtown resident. I think the site was wrong and I think it should have been left up to the County Council and county mayor to decide without the intervention of the legislature.

Who controls Salt Lake County residents' drinking water?
CN: If you're talking about treatment, if you're talking about watershed, there's a group of entities that control that, from the Forest Service to Salt Lake City, and some of the other cities in the county are going to have some control over that.
AB: Salt Lake City has the largest watershed, but there's also the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District that provides it for a large chunk of the valley residents as well.

Who owns that water?
CN: It's all of the people.
AB: The people own the water.

With so many cities around, do we even need county government?
CN: Yes, because there's a lot of the county that's unincorporated. If there's not a city to provide the citizens the services that they need, what do they do?
AB: Yes, of course we do. Even in incorporated cities, the county runs all the rec' centers, we run the senior centers, the center for the arts--which I'm a huge supporter of--the Salt Palace. All of those things are operated by the county government. There is, of course, 170,000 residents of the county that don't live in cities.

How much of transit decisions--new train routes or freeways--are guided by land development considerations?
CN: There's obviously got to be some of that in consideration. Hopefully, in the idea, to help control some type of uncontrolled sprawl across the valley. But then also there's the fact that we have larger population centers that we have to have something mass transit--and when I say 'something,' I mean something good--so it'll be utilized by people and help reduce vehicular traffic, and thereby air pollution.
AB: Over the past several years there has been a shifting philosophy that is giving deference to the ability of walkable communities around the transit hubs. Most policy makers recognize the value of transit oriented development.

How long is your commute?
CN: I don't work, I'm retired. I don't work anywhere that I get a paycheck from, let's put it that way
AB: Ten minutes or less.

What are the chances that the county counsel majority goes back to the Republicans this election?
CN: Slim.
AB: Very slim.

Is the county going to lose property tax revenue if Rep. Jim Matheson's wilderness bill is successful?
CN: I don't think so, no.
AB: No, not significantly. Most of the land the wilderness effects is already under some sort of BLM-designation.

Was it just a power grab for the state legislature to ban local officials from leading UTA but not legislators also?
CN: Maybe. I think it's been pretty obvious that the legislature wants to make sure things work the way they want things to work and they're always screaming, 'federal government, stay out of our business,' but that doesn't seem to flow downhill.
AB: (pauses) Potentially. I think that if they believe elected officials at any level should not serve on the board, then I would need ot hear justification from them as to why they think its appropriate for the legislators to do that.

The trend of the last decade has been for more organization of cities in what used to be unincorporated areas of Salt Lake County. Is this good?
CN: It's good if that's what the citizens there want.
AB: It's self determination of residents of those areas on how they want their local government to be organized.

Of the following, who should earn the lowest wage: A school teacher, a foster parent or a county councilperson's adviser?
CN: (laughs) I could really get in trouble on that one. I don't think it's a matter of who should be paid the lowest wage. I think they should all be paid at least a livable wage.
AB: (laughs) I will say a county councilperson's adviser. I believe largely our teachers are undervalued in this state and should make more money.

Jesse Fruhwirth:

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