As a mayoral candidate, Mike Winder's got a lot more than milk to offer the voters of West Valley City.

Winder, vice president of marketing at family-owned Winder Farms, has the credentials, the connections and the business acumen to lead Utah's second-largest city through troubled economic times. After receiving 76 percent of the vote in the city's nonpartisan primary, Winder faces Kevin Fayles in the Nov. 3 runoff election.

As a city councilman the past four years, Winder, 33, helped implement city-wide recycling, a good landlord program that stresses background checks and a Community Preservation Department that has helped reduce graffiti.

As the city's former Business Development Manager, he formed bonds in the business community and economic development circles that will further his goal of keeping tax levies low by attracting new businesses, creating jobs and growing the city's tax base.

And, while he's a fiscal conservative, he was pragmatic enough to support a small but necessary tax increase, and the city taking an ownership stake in lieu of back rent to help keep the Utah Grizzlies hockey team in town and preserve the E Center's anchor tenant.

Winder advocates residential developments with a mix of housing types and transit-oriented developments near the city's four light-rail stations, now under construction, which he called "a string of pearls." He supports cooperation between local governments, pointing to the Valley Police Alliance and an animal shelter shared with Taylorsville as evidence of success.

In another time or place, Fayles may be our guy. As the community relations manager for the smart-growth gurus at Envision Utah, he's well-versed in the principles of sustainable development, long-range planning and intermunicipal cooperation.

Fluent in Spanish and a champion of diversity, Fayles, 45, would work to reduce ethnic strife in a city where minorities comprise nearly a majority. "We need to get to know our neighbors," he said.

Fayles even favors dropping health care benefits for council members and cutting council perks like golf privileges and free use of an E Center suite.

But, in the midst of the Great Recession, the job is better suited to a candidate with Winder's skill sets.

Winder is an economic development guy, a business executive with an MBA, a man adept at balancing budgets and keeping costs in line. That's why he's the best choice for mayor of West Valley City.