Salt Lake Tribune Article About Me

Eight years ago, I never thought I would be in the paper.
It is nice to be in a non-controversial story :)


Toil of two cities
Orem councilwoman holds day job as Mapleton planner
By Todd Hollingshead The Salt Lake Tribune

OREM - Or Mapleton? Ask Karen McCandless where her allegiance lies and you've put her in a bind. That's because the three-term Orem City Council member recently was hired as Mapleton's planning and zoning director. "I get teased because sometimes I call Mapleton Orem and Orem Mapleton," McCandless says. "The two jobs have complemented each other." Yet the two Utah County cities couldn't be more different. Orem boasts a population of 90,500, according to state estimates, and is nearly built out. Mapleton has barely 7,300 people and is starting to fill in. Orem has a massive commercial corridor through the heart of the city along State Street while Mapleton has hardly any business development at all. “Mapleton doesn't have freeway access and wants to keep a rural flavor, where Orem is pretty much built out and is starting to go up,” McCandless says. “Each has different needs.” And her roles in both cities are quite different - a reality that forces her to focus on wearing one civic hat at a time. As a councilwoman, she can use her discretion and her opinions to make decisions. As a city planner, she simply generates objective information and lets others decide. Having both sets of skills makes her refreshing to work with, says Mapleton City
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Administrator Bob Bradshaw. “It's a very enriching experience,” he says. “She's a qualified planner, but she also has the additional dimension of seeing city issues in a totally different light.” The two positions are considered part time but, nonetheless, require a serious time commitment. McCandless works Tuesdays and Thursdays in Mapleton and has meetings in Orem at least twice a week. And you won't see her on Tuesday evening unless you're at Orem's or Mapleton's city hall (the cities' respective councils meet on alternating weeks). McCandless insists she hasn't tired of all the meetings yet. “They go faster if you're sitting as a staff member or council member,” she says. Even so, she has had to drop some pursuits - like playing in an orchestra - to make time for everything. Still, her husband, Donald, a real estate attorney, says his wife's endeavors haven't left him or their two children, ages 17 and 10, hanging. “Her life is a little hectic, but it's really no different than a person who has a job and works on the council,” he says. “She just has more night meetings than they do.” Orem City Manager Jim Reams applauds McCandless for not neglecting her council duties since taking on her Mapleton job. And, for the record, he says he never has heard her call Orem Mapleton. “She does a great job balancing her family, her position on the council and her job in Mapleton,” Reams says. “She has a real talent for what she does.” What McCandless does professionally is land planning. She graduated from Brigham Young University in 1986 with a degree in geography and an emphasis in land-use planning. She has worked for private developers and even logged a previous stint with Mapleton's planning department. It was that prior employment that made McCandless an early candidate when the former Mapleton planning director resigned last fall. “I find all of it makes me a better council member,” McCandless says. After all, she acknowledges, that's where her allegiance truly lies. “That's something that I discussed with [Mapleton],” she says. “When I was elected, I made a commitment that I would give my very, very best to Orem.” Mapleton officials say she is giving them her best, too. toddh@sltrib.com

It has been a while!

The state legislature is in session and as I city official, I am curious to see what new laws may be coming my way. The one of most concern for me right now is HB282 with its elimination of transit and other local sales taxes on food. Its effect will reduce county transit monies by tens of millions of dollars over the years. I am also concerned about its effect on Orem's CARE tax. Voters supported both of these tax proposals and now the legislature wants to do something that dilutes what the voters wanted. The bill passed the house last week and is now with the Senate.