Kristen Wray for Sandy City Council

10/24/2024

Thank you to the Utah State Legislature for conducting this audit, and thank you Aaron B. Davidson, Utah County Clerk for your letter of summation.

Utahns, please take the time to understand how our State Government is currently operating. Make your Vote your own, not because of fear, convenience or sound bites of others.

10/23/2024

Phil Lyman has been a family friend for years, since he took extra care of my nephew while he was serving in the 4 corners area. I know his heart and intent, and cannot stay quiet while he is labeled erroneously.

In times of extremes, it can be exhausting to ‘hear it out’. I encourage you to at least understand this issue.

1. *This is not election denying of the Primary* The GOP rules placed Phil Lyman on the General election ballot for winning at Convention where over 4,000 delegates were sent by their neighbors. SB54 rules (would have) put Cox on the General ballot for gathering 28,000 registered voter signatures. There should not have been a Primary, both candidates should be on the General ballot.

2. *This is not about invasion of privatized voter names*. Federal law states the signatures gathered for SB54 ballot qualification be viewable to all CANDIDATES. There is no request to release these signatures to the public, but so far only one candidate (Cox/Henderson) can view them. This refusal to view is not equal application of the law. Lyman’s requests to view resulted in 40% of these signatures redacted.

3. *Likely does not have 28,000 signatures doesn’t mean he doesn’t* The Legislative audit did not view all 28,000 signatures. Only a sample of 1,000. After applying the error rates (both acceptance and denial), there were over 500 signatures removed. This leaves Cox with 27,500 valid signatures. He DID submit over 400 signatures extra, but this would not get him to the 28,000 with or without the error rates applied.

4. *SB54 doesn’t allow further signature gathering after qualifying & he would have had plenty of time to get more* If we are to accept blaming the certifying party, (which I personally would be happy to do!) then why didn’t Cox/Henderson blame and accept the caucus decision to put Lyman on the General ballot as well? Allowing a pass to one candidate and not the other is not equal application of the law.

Many of you are seeing “Write in PHIL Lyman” signs everywhere. Two hours before the deadline there were two other Lyman’s added as write-in candidates. If you only put “Lyman” on the ballot, as LG Henderson has assured Phil’s team via email, it will now be thrown out. YOU MUST WRITE PHIL AS WELL AS LYMAN.

lymanforutah.com has his 7 conservative policies explained. Economy, Education, Election, Immigration, Public Lands, Energy & Corruption.

He will be receiving my vote, and I encourage you to add his candidacy to your research this election season. I didn’t believe it before, but I’m deeply saddened at the lack of cooperation - let alone transparency - of our State Executive office.

07/14/2024

Sandy residents have an opportunity to be heard. This is a sizable decision with taxpayer funds

The renovation of the 40-year-old Alta Canyon Sports Center will dot the agenda of Sandy's upcoming City Council meeting.

03/04/2023

SANDY CITY SIGNAGE AMENDMENT:

I definitely agree that political signs have become overwhelming, and hope that the return to traditional voting with a primary will reign the clutter back in. The Ranked-Choice Voting two years ago left a war zone of signs in Sandy.

I spoke to this issue at the City Council meeting last Tuesday, alongside multiple citizens who shared my stance. They were residents who did not have anything to gain, but felt they needed to protect their right to free speech on their own private property.

I think it is a foremost priority to ensure that I understand both sides of an issue. To look at the pro’s and con’s to both sides. I humbly offer for your consideration some items concerning this amendment.

We are hearing from many that opening residential fences (private property) to temporary (political) signs will de-beautify and clutter Sandy City…with “profane” and ugly banners that will exist “indefinitely”. This is why I made myself clear that I too hate lingering cluttered election signs. But to clarify, Sandy City Ordinance does not currently have a duration limit on temporary signs. It also does not currently have profanity regulations. This amendment does not open these doors, they already exist.

In full disclosure, my views on this are specifically as a previous candidate. I own my residential private property, but I am not a Real Estate Agent or own/represent commercial property. As a candidate I utilized yard signs placed by neighbors, friends and generous supporters of my willingness to represent them on our Citizen City Council. It quickly became apparent that Realtors in the municipal race play on a different field than the rest of us. With access to commercial property, larger signage and privileges, as well as contributions from Real Estate organizations/Developers, how can a non-affiliated resident compete? Name recognition due to the signage discrepancy can, and does, make a huge advantage.

My preferred option would be limits on specifically election signage that is cleaner for the community and will also level the playing field for all candidates. This would mean looking at private commercial property, however. And with 4 out of 7 Councilmembers in Real Estate, I’m afraid they would be unwilling to release their dominance. I hope I am wrong, and we can see some effective changes in this regard. I’m hopeful that opening the conversation can lead to solutions, and I would love to see it from our current Sandy City Council. -Kristen

http://sandyutah.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=696&meta_id=67744

1:51:00 is the Council Meeting portion regarding this issue.

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09/15/2022

This is a good explanation of what is happening in our City to fund some long overdue Capital Projects. My thoughts:

1. These need to be funded - they’ve been pushed down the road for years and years. Cost is only increasing.

2. Budget of how much per project & WHEN is imperative to plan right now. (Cost of waiting vs cost of paying, needs vs wants, transparency for residents - using bonds for wants & tax increase for needs)

3. There will be an increase in taxes for us, See #2 for how & when this will be passed

It’s time to watch and give input my Sandy friends! Tuesday @ 5:15, City Bldg or online

*RESIDENT INPUT NEEDED* Last night city council took a big step forward to start funding our city’s largest long-term capital project needs and there’s a lot we agree on. But before they vote next Tuesday, I want to bring some things to the public’s attention.

After many years of study and stagnation we finally have movement on “next steps” for The Big 3 which council and I agree are the cities top building priorities: Public Works Phase 2, Fire Station 31 and Alta Canyon Rec.

You can learn more about the projects at https://sandy.utah.gov/2003/City-Building-Needs but it appears we have unanimous agreement to fund right now:

🚧 $7M for a partial build of $17M Public Works Phase 2 (for the mechanics garage)
🚒. $1M to draw up plans for a new Fire Station 31 and
🏊🏼‍♂️ $3M to draw plans for a $40M Alta Canyon Rec Center

A top priority of my administration is to break the log jam of years of study and delay and it appears we’ve accomplished this by our joint efforts, which I expect will continue.

In June, my department heads and finance experts laid out what would be required if we fully funded ALL our city’s capital needs, (the Big 3, plus others) We presented the numbers on what would be needed to get them all done. Since no one wanted to pursue a 42% property tax increase, I advocated putting the Big 3 to our voters this November to ask for their approval on each project. The council did not allow that to move forward. Perhaps some version will appear on next year’s ballot? It’s up for discussion. We need to bond for these expensive projects and can’t afford to do them that without a future property tax increase, to put it plainly. Of course, nobody wants a tax increase and no elected official wants to ask for a tax increase. With projected costs of around $80 million for these three major building projects, I’m bringing this to your attention so you can weigh in on the decision on what, how, and when to fund.

Where things stand for next Tuesday is the council is set to approve the first steps funding, but with a very troubling condition that was added last night. As your mayor, I need to inform you so you can pay attention and share your views with the council before the vote next Tuesday.

The Council reiterated that Alta Canyon Recreation Center was their first priority and they intend to commit $20M to Alta Canyon up front. My Administration wants to budget for all three projects together and fund all three projects together. I place public safety ahead of Alta Canyon and that’s a major area of disagreement I have with my Council. I do not want to set aside such a large sum for parks and recreation when our public works and fire station 31 is essential. Coupled with our upcoming fire personnel funding, inflation and rising construction costs, segregating $20M to Alta Canyon up front and is not sound budgeting and making this commitment outside our annual budget process which is not consistent with conservative budgeting policy.

Fire Station 31 and Public Works are a higher priority than Alta Canyon and Sandy residents must see them considered all together, with funding strategy for all three.

One of the main reasons Council majority wants to commit $20M to Alta Canyon up front is so they can show it will not create a tax increase to do the project. However, it will necessitate a tax increase for the other two projects. Some type of tax increase will be required to fund all these projects. Committing funds towards Alta Canyon over the others so it can be said it will not create a tax increase steps outside good budget practice. All three projects need to be considered together along with other important funding issues so the best plan can be presented to the public.

Please reach out to your council members and plan on attending the council meeting next Tuesday to weigh in on these very important decisions being made for our city.

03/29/2022

Remember Ranked Choice Voting? This is your ONE chance to be heard! TONIGHT
(see comments)

02/22/2022

Meeting alert 🔊

Tonight’s Virtual City Council meeting starts on Zoom at 5:15, with public comment no sooner than 6 p.m. Submit your comment in advance through eComment no later than 4 p.m. today. You can also use the “raise hand” feature in Zoom to speak for 3 minutes on any item of city business.

Link to Agenda and eComment: https://bit.ly/3v9buro

Link to Zoom Registration: https://bit.ly/3s6mSSO

02/14/2022

It affects all of us! Great job students

Students for the Wasatch is a student group at the University of Utah in opposition to UDOT's transportation proposals meant to ease traffic congestion for Little Cottonwood Canyon.

02/09/2022

Check it out! Our very own Sandy Music Academy has been nominated - thank you Mazurans! If you feel so inclined, we would love to flood the contest. I happen to know this Music Academy has amazing teachers - the best you can find ;)
Thanks friends!

Each year, Sandy City highlights key businesses and residents who have made a big impact in our community. Annually, we ask Sandy’s public to nominate residents and businesses in various recognition categories. The award recipients are selected through the process of citizen nomination and finalis...

01/31/2022

01/29/2022

💯 Approve! 🙌🏻

You've all been waiting patiently and thanks to our sign shop the snowplows officially have nametags! Here is the full list of winning names from the poll. Check out the video to see how they look and to learn more about our snow removal program. https://youtu.be/GZ4SU8Cn4bY

01/28/2022

Where are my photography friends? Yes, you should definitely enter!

With the beautiful mountains and its urban area, Sandy City is a beautiful city to photograph. Show off your photography skills and your love for Sandy by participating in our photo contest! 12 winners will each win a $50 gift card and be featured for one month on our SandyNow! news and social media channels! See the rules and enter here: https://www.sandy.utah.gov/1891/Photo-Contest-2022