After a lively primary, Ogden’s two remaining mayoral candidates appear to be neck and neck
OGDEN – Voters in this northern Utah city recently narrowed a crowded field of seven mayoral hopefuls down to two, with Taylor Knuth and Ben Nadolski advancing to the November 21 election in what will likely be a fiercely competitive contest.
With 32.4 percent voter turnout, Knuth nabbed 2,073 of the total 10,391 ballots cast. And Nadolski came in a not too distant second with 1,887.
Both candidates enjoy robust camps of supporters who donated campaign cash to help get their names and messages out to voters. As of Sept. 25, Nadolski had raised $140,622 and Knuth had brought in $126,967.
Knuth launched his mayoral campaign in early January, while Nadolski entered the race in late March. As of Sept. 25, Nadolski reported $50,576 still available to spend, and Knuth had $23,979 on hand.
For the 30-year-old Knuth, this is his second run for elected office – in 2017 he attempted to unseat Ogden City Council member Doug Stephens. At 46, Nadolski is finishing up his second four-year term on the Ogden City Council.
Both men work demanding day job, Knuth as deputy director of Salt Lake City’s Art Council in its Economic Development Department, and Nadolski serves as a regional supervisor for Utah’s Department of Wildlife Resources.
WHY VOTE FOR ME
Nadolski touts his work and City Council experience as a big reason voters should put him in the mayor’s office.
“I’ve got a lot of years of experience solving problems in government and in service of the public,” Nadolski said, “and I think I offer an opportunity to leverage all that experience for Ogden – for our people.”
But Knuth – a relative newbie to politics but no stranger to community activism – believes it’s time for a fresh start. And he’s quick to remind folks that former three-term Mayor Matthew Godfrey was only 29 when he first got elected.
“Our entire agenda is ‘back to the basics of good government,’ which for me is building community here in Ogden City,” Knuth said. To him, that means “creating connections with neighbors and preserving the character of both our neighborhoods and the city as a whole.”
DEFINING COMMUNITY
Knuth also touted his background in community engagement and public service as reasons voters should cast their ballots in his direction.
“My vision of community is one that honors our residents and places them back at the center of local government” where they belong, Knuth said, adding that he hopes to “better our city’s future and to work toward honoring our hundreds – if not thousands – of residents who are ready and willing to be engaged in the process.”
Nadolski said he also values community, especially when people unite to get something done.
“We’re all stronger when we’re aligned and working together,” Nadolski said. “To me a community is a collection of people living, working, going to school, worshiping together … and working together toward shared goals and shared visions”.
PULLING BACK THE CURTAIN
When asked if Ogden City government should be more transparent, Nadolski applauded the City Council for its efforts to inform the public but said “we could use more transparency from the administration.”
“Transparency isn’t just noticing agendas and holding meetings in the public, It’s also being forthright about our plans and intentions,” Nadolski said. “It includes engaging people as part of the planning process.”
With that, he announced his intention to “bring stakeholders to the table” to assist in project planning as partners.
For Knuth, transparency requires both words and action. A self-described “proponent of participatory budgeting,”.Knuth hopes to make some improvements in that process. In his view, Ogden City department heads currently “start, execute and end the budget process.”
“I really want to explore creating a participatory budget committee of seven members – one person from each area of our city,” Knuth said, “so we have geographic representation and a body of everyday citizens who would work hand in hand with department directors to instill in our budget the views, opinions and priorities of our residents.”
DO INJURED WILDLIFE MATTER?
A 2010 agreement between Ogden City and the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah gave the nonprofit free rent at the old Carol Conroy Browning Animal Shelter next to the Ogden River for as long as it needed.
But it also had a provision that the neighboring George S. Eccles Dinosaur Park (also a nonprofit) could give them six months notice to vacate when it decided to expand its own footprint.
On March 10, City Attorney Gary Williams delivered that six-month eviction notice by way of a certified letter, which set off waves of public outrage as people learned how the Center’s shutdown would mean that injured or sick birds and wild mammals would die without the center’s specialized care.
To its credit, Ogden City administrators extended the Center’s time to relocate until March 2024, but the nonprofit suspended intake of injured wildlife in May as it struggled to find a compatible and affordable replacement – finally settling on retrofitting an old structure at 332 S. Washington Blvd. until something more suitable comes along.
Nadolski believes all partners (Ogden City, the Wildlife Rehab Center and the Dinosaur Park) should benefit from the resulting outcome, noting that the City could help facilitate the Center’s move by streamlining building services and inspections at the Washington Boulevard location.
“If they’ve got a pretty clear timeline and need an extension based on their timeline, we should be willing to work with them,” Nadolski said. “My hope is that the administration is also working with the Dinosaur Park so that their timelines are aligned … again with the goal being that everyone succeeds.”
Knuth called the City’s eviction notice both “cruel and shortsighted,” but said he also understands the need for fairness and consistency in how the city interacts with nonprofits.
Knuth said he’s toured the Wildlife Rehab Center’s former riverside home as well as the alternative property on Washington Boulevard.
“The new facility is far from ideal and won’t serve the longtime vision or services that the rehab center provides,” Knuth said.
But Knuth also supports the Dinosaur Park’s desire to expand, and he questions whether “providing free or reduced rent to a single nonprofit is fair to the entire apparatus of nonprofits.”
“There are some conflicting priorities here, but I would be a good faith partner to ensure that the (Wildlife Rehab Center) stays in our city, in a facility that allows them to maximize their impact,” Knuth said.
PRIVATIZING PUBLIC LAND
Speaking of old, odd contracts, in 2008 Mayor Godfrey inked an agreement with the Goode Ski Technologies that the company would maintain the city-owned 21st Street Pond in exchange for the right to determine who can recreate on the water and when.
Anglers had enjoyed the pond – a former gravel pit filled with water – until it became contaminated and had to shut down around 2000, according to an archived Deseret News story.
But by 2005, Goode Ski Technologies had relocated to Ogden and Godfrey began to view the urban lake as a potential diamond in the rough. He began working with Goode on making it into a water ski/sports venue after cleanup concluded.
By 2008, they’d signed an agreement that continues until September 2038 and can even then be renewed until 2058 if both parties agree.
Earlier this year Goode advertised lake memberships from April through October for $2,500, or five-set punch passes for $260, or one-time drop-in ski sets for $55.
But that meant that area kayakers and canoers no longer had access to the water. That didn’t sit well with Ogden resident and avid kayaker Karen Thurber, who launched a Facebook page – Friends of Ogden’s 21st Street Pond – to raise awareness about lack of public access to the city-owned amenity.
Both candidates weighed in on the issue during recent phone interviews.
Knuth capsulized the dilemma: “I didn’t participate in that decision-making process. But the reality is that we as a city are engaged in a long term contract with a private entity.for a public piece of property that we still own.”
Knuth expressed interest in “hearing the city’s legal perspective on how Goode Ski Company has upheld (or not) their end of the contract.”
Knuth added that as mayor, he would be committed to “looking for solutions so the public can use that space once again.”
Nadolski also said the contract should be revisited, “to make sure the parties are living up to their obligations.”
“If not, there’s an opportunity to return that asset back to the public,” Nadolski said. “There may be an interest by the Goode Ski Company to do the same.”
And Nadolski believes his work experience could prove vital: “If that asset comes back to Ogden and its people for management, then I have really exciting plans and visions for that place because that’s consistent with the work i’ve been doing for 20 years in natural resource management restoration.”
HOUSING FOR ALL?
As daylight shortens and temperatures drop, the problem of homelessness in Utah and Ogden grows life-threatening at times. Ogden is home to Lantern House, the largest homeless shelter in northern Utah.
According to Utah’s Workforce Services data, 89,672 people have accessed homeless services in Utah since 2014 – and 34,553 (38.5 percent) were families who had lost their housing. For a little perspective, the U.S. Census estimated Ogden’s 2022 population at 86,825.
Both candidates spoke to the basic need for housing.
“The data is showing that Ogden and the entire Wasatch Front is facing a humanitarian crisis,” Knuth said by phone, fresh off a work-related trip to Milwaukee, a city recently recognized as having the lowest per capita rate of homelessness in the nation.
Knuth said that Milwaukee dramatically reduced their homeless population by adopting the Housing First model.
“That is, before we address any of the underlying issues, we’ll get you housed first,” Knuth said. “Then we’ll address mental health, addiction, jobs and familial issues.”
As Knuth sees it, Ogden lacks leadership on the issue.
“We need to first acknowledge that it is a crisis needing our immediate and consistent attention, and second, someone to advocate to our region and state partners to provide more resources to our community,” Knuth said.
Under the late Lloyd Pendleton, Salt Lake City utilized the Housing First model from 2005 to 2015 with good success. But the model eventually fell out of favor due to questions concerning data collection.
Nadolski credited Ogden’s service providers for “doing an amazing job with what they have.” But he believes the city could do more to help them do their work, including providing access to resources as well as “a full intact pathway toward stable and permanent housing.”
“We could do more for more people if we had more homeless advocates on our staff,” Nadolski said. “The ones we have do an incredible job — there’s just more need than they’re able to humanly provide for by themselves.”
MONEY TRAIL
What’s immediately striking about the candidates’ campaign finance reports is the sheer number of individual donations Knuth received from late 2022 to the present. Knuth listed 560 separate donations (some donors multiple times during the primary period) compared to Nadolski’s 207.
Also notable is how much of the giving falls along partisan lines, even though municipal races are deemed nonpartisan. While Knuth enjoyed a plethora of Democratic donors, Nadolski’s contributors were mostly Republican and business-oriented.
A few Political Action Committees jumped into the game. One of Nadolski’s earliest donations in February came from Utah Forward PAC, first formed in 2022 by Ogden Valley resident Laura Warburton, Farmington resident Chris Roybal and Katrina Gibson, wife of former Weber County Commissioner Kerry Gibson. Utah Forward gave Nadolski $5,000.
Knuth received $5,000 in donations from the Wyoming-based Way Back PAC, which Opensecreta.org indicated gave equal amounts to Republicans and Democrats in 2022.
Nadolski enjoys the support of the Northern Wasatch Association of Realtors and Sunrise Engineering, which each gave him $5,000 in May. The Utah Farm Bureau Federation’s AGPAC also gave him $3,000 in May.
R & O Construction gave Nadolski $2,000 in July, and Roy-based Island Park Group of Companies gave him $5,000 in September.
In June, Knuth received $2,000 from O2 Utah, an environmental nonprofit based in Salt Lake City, and he also enjoys the backing of the Northern Utah Labor Council, which gave him $1,000 in September.
Their campaign finance disclosures can be viewed online at https://www.ogdencity.com/208/Election-Information
How these donations will translate into actual support in November remains to be seen. In the meantime, both candidates said they plan to stick to their tried and true methods of securing votes by knocking on doors and connecting with Ogden residents in meaningful ways.
UPCOMING DEBATE: Ogden’s Hispanic community (LUPEC) is sponsoring a mayoral debate Monday, Oct. 2 from 7 to 8 pm at Weber State University’s Community Education Center at 2605 Monroe Blvd. in central Ogden. For more information about the candidates and their platforms, go to https://www.ben4ogden.com/ for Nadolski and https://www.taylorforogden.com/ for Knuth.
Editor’s note: both candidates’ jobs were misstated in the initial post and have now been corrected. We regret the error.
