Old blood and new

Valley residents saw new and returning candidates for the Board of Carbon County Commissioners participate in the Valley Service Organization (VSO) public forum on July 9 in preparation for the 2024 election.

The candidates running for the three open seats are Gwynn Bartlett, Sue Jones, Jimmy Hinkle, John Espy and Garrett Irene.

Jones, Espy and Irene all currently serve as commissioners and are running for reelection. Irene did not attend the forum.

Patterson began the forum by asking Bartlett, who currently serves as county clerk, what happens to her position if she is elected as a commissioner.

Bartlett explained if she were to win in the election, she would resign from the county clerk office at the end of December. Then, notice would go from the BOCCC to the Republican Party and they would provide three names to the board. The BOCCC would choose one of those three names to finish Bartlett’s county clerk term.

“Honestly it was one of the most difficult decisions I’ve made, because I honor my commitments and I made a four year commitment to serve as your county clerk, but for personal reasons I decided that it’s best for me to maybe move on and reprioritize my time,” Bartlett said.

She said being the county clerk involved a lot of work, and she wanted to have time to spend with her kids. If Bartlett would lose she would evaluate whether to finish her term as clerk or resign.

Connie Patterson and Judy Hamel, organizers for the Valley Service organization, took turns asking the candidates questions.

Are county zoning, regulation and permitting processes doing enough to ensure the public interest? If not, what would you change and why?

Jones: “You don’t want to get too restrictive in county planning and zoning, it’s much different then municipal zoning. Municipal zoning can actually say no you can’t have chickens here, period end of story. County’s a little different. I think we’re pretty good with what we allow. Our conditional use permitting system that we use for industrial projects, those are very good. In fact we have shared those with five counties.”

Bartlett: “I agree with Sue. I think any policy or plan could always be updated, reviewed and improved upon. I think one thing that could be improved upon, and the current board is doing this, is trying to ensure those dollars come to the County for those projects. There are a lot of things being delivered to the county that we’re not getting the tax dollars for - they’re being delivered to Natrona or other countries and stored there and transported here. I think we need to pass legislation to make sure we get those dollars, and that the tax dollars have to be paid at the ultimate destination of those products.”

Hinkle: “I believe that the county planning and zoning regulation processes that you have to go through are very stringent and rigid. I think that’s a good thing. I can remember back in my high school days when there weren't very many rules - you could pretty much do anything you wanted. We had a lot of junkyards and eyesores around the county. While I respect property rights, we still have to have our feet held to the fire a little bit.”

Espy: “It’s a double edged sword but in the long run I do think it serves our culture and customs better to have regulations, and I think we’ve built enough flexibility here. Some of you may have heard of the Lava Ridge Wind Farm project. None of those counties had planning and zoning, so they had no say in those wind farms that were going to be constructed in their counties.”

What role do you think the county has with assisting the hospital with funding?

Jones: “There are very specific statutory rules regarding funding for county memorial hospitals. The county owns the hospital building, and the statute says we shall levy a sufficient amount of money for maintenance of that facility. Prior commissions and this commission has had an ongoing debate with several hospital board members on what maintenance means. The funding has not been huge, $150,000 is what we average. Maintenance to me, in the 11 and a half years I have levied that maintenance, meant leaky pipes, the leaking roof, the broken doors, the elevators that don’t work. I am the pain in their posterior and I will admit that. I think they can do better by changing the model.”

Bartlett: “Yes there’s a statutory obligation, I think the intent of the statute is maintenance of the facility itself, the physical structure. That’s not always what it’s been used for, commissioners have approved other uses. I think the model is broken. There does need to be change, I think they’re off to a good start with trying for a hospital district.”

Hinkle: “I believe a lot of that money has been spent on maintenance of the hospital structure and facility. I do believe the commissioners have a responsibility to step up in terms of maintenance. In terms of operating the hospital, that’s a whole different thing. These folks on the hospital board, they’re volunteers, they’re pulling their hair out trying to make it work for everybody. Sometimes you get staff that doesn’t share your same vision, they’ve been plagued by that. I’m excited about the proposed hospital district.”

Espy: “It’s not fair, it’s not a sustainable model to have volunteers running a business of that size. Rural hospitals throughout the nation are in the sick boat, it’s not just a Carbon County issue. I do believe the hospital district is a first good step in moving forward to maybe giving them some stability.”

An important duty of the commissioners is to prepare and implement a budget. Are county taxes too high, about right, or pleasantly low - particularly property taxes.

Hinkle: “I think property taxes are a pretty easy thing to complain about, but I think they are appropriate. We have to have money to pay for the goods and services that we depend on. As Jones told me, we’re over a million and a half short compared to last year. So what do you want us to cut as commissioners? Where do we draw that line? I think we’re fine, we just need to be prudent in how we spend it.”

Espy: “Statutorily, counties are limited to 12 mills. Two-thirds, roughly, of your tax bill goes to education. It does not go to funding regular government services. So if we were to cut mills back, it would affect the services that the county can provide.”

Jones: “[Taxes] are incredibly complicated. 72.837% goes to schools. 17.481% goes to counties, special districts consume 7.84% and municipalities get 1.841% of property tax. There was legislation passed that capped that tax, you won’t see anything more than a four percent increase.”

Bartlett: “I think Wyoming is on the lower end of taxes in the nation. I think you have to ask yourself what services do you want to see? The county’s not just taking this money and blowing it. [County governments] are all bare bones, down to the minimum, along with town governments. If you call 911 do you want someone to show up? When you drive on a county road do you want to have it paved or without potholes? That’s what those tax dollars are paying for.”

After the candidates finished answering questions from the organizers, members of the public were given the opportunity to pose their own questions to the candidates.

One member of the public asked the candidates what they thought the biggest issue facing Carbon County is.

“We need economic development, we need industry here,” Hinkle said. “But before you can have economic development you have to be sound and stable in about five principal areas. You have to have quality education, sustainable healthcare, a workforce, housing and law enforcement.”

“I think the biggest fear coming to me is the war on the west - the public lands, the federal government suspending lease sales, the old growth rule that’s coming through that could maybe stop logging,” Espy said.

“For me it’s the sustainability of the county,” Bartlett said. “The County has over 1,000 miles of county road, 40-50 buildings county-wide, 130 plus vehicles and pieces of County equipment, 140-ish county employees—that’s really hard to maintain and sustain over time. As county commissioners we’re going to have to find some creative ways to fund some of those and potentially combine some of those services.”

“Everything is about the money, and it all flows in from different areas,” Jones said. “We have to constantly be changing and be ready for what’s coming down the road, if we can afford it or not … Wyoming, we’ve talked economic development to death for generations. One of the biggest issues is there’s just literally not enough of us in this state. With half a million people we have to think out of the box.”

The primary election will be held on August 20.