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St. George • The five candidates vying for three seats on the St. George City Council are sounding off about problems plaguing the city and what they would do to fix them.
Wherever they stand concerning the city’s imminent challenges, the candidates agree that St. George is riven with division. But a divide in the ostensibly nonpartisan election has opened up about how to restore municipal order.
On one side of the divide are incumbent Council members Dannielle Larkin and Jimmie Hughes and St. George Planning Commissioner Steve Kemp who want to steer clear of contentious culture war issues. On the other are challengers Paula Smith and Brad Bennett, whose views on bread-and-butter issues are leavened with concerns over drag, mask and vaccine mandates and preserving the area’s Dixie heritage, just to name a few.
A sixth candidate, incumbent Council member Gregg McArthur, dropped out of the race earlier this month, saying he did not have enough time to devote to the job.
Brad Bennett
An audiovisual store owner and father of two, Brad Bennett aims to add another conservative voice to the all-Republican St. George City Council. A St. George native, Bennett said the city is not as liberal as Salt Lake City and should have elected officials that reflect the area’s more conservative mindset.
Bennett attributes his commitment to public service to his father, Lyle Gene Bennett, who at one time oversaw elementary education in the Washington County School District. If elected, he promises to protect residents’ freedom from government overreach and to ensure council members carry out the will of the people rather than personal agendas.
One example of government overreach, he cited, is mask mandates. From the meetings he has attended, he added, it has become evident that too many council members are promoting agendas the majority of residents don’t support.
Asked if that includes drag shows, Bennett said no because he views that issue as having largely been resolved. On his website, though, the candidate makes it clear that it is an important issue.
“My commitment is to advocate for ordinances and regulations that prohibit such events in inappropriate locations and diligently work to implement robust safeguards that preserve the innocence and safety of our children,” Bennett stated.
To ensure the council carries out the will of the majority, Bennett proposes to conduct polls or surveys on some of the larger issues so elected officials know precisely what residents want.
“I see it as my job as a representative to carry out their wishes, provided it’s in alignment with the Constitution and all laws,” Bennett said.
Bennett argues St. George’s $519 million budget is too high for its size. To ensure the city is spending taxpayer money wisely, he advocates paying an outside firm with no vested interest in the outcome to audit the city’s budget.
He also favors a referendum to change the name of Utah Tech University back to Dixie State University but concedes that won’t happen. He attributes the name change to a prime example of cancel culture.
Bennett said he is running as a concerned citizen who wants to protect freedom and to ensure the community has “genuine representation.”
“We don’t need career politicians,” he said. “We need concerned citizens.”
Jimmie Hughes
A St. George native, Jimmie Hughes and his wife, Tawny, are the parents of five children and welcomed their first grandchild in May. The incumbent and mayor pro tem has been a fixture on the council for more than a decade. If reelected, the full-time mortician and part-time cattle rancher says a fourth term will be his final rodeo.
“I’ve given what I can to this point,” he said, “but there’s still some left to give because it feels like St. George is in a crucial time of transitioning from a small town to a bigger city. I want to ensure we don’t lose the philosophies on growth that got us here.”
For example, Hughes said he recognizes the need for more affordable housing in St. George but wants to use a balanced approach to addressing the issue. He said as long as the demand exceeds the supply, there will be upward pressure on housing.
He is reticent about the city interfering in the marketplace to control housing prices. He also doesn’t believe requiring higher density alone — “smaller homes and taller buildings” — will solve the problem. Hughes further wants to hold the line on taxes.
Hughes voted with the majority a year ago last August to reject a property tax proposal aimed at bolstering public safety. The city eventually was able to fund public safety improvements thanks to a bump in sales-tax revenues and by deferring construction of a maintenance shed at the Dixie Red Hills Golf Course and pulling money out of rainy day funds.
“I’ve always been that … voice of caution or conservatism on a lot of things that we spend money on,” Hughes said.
Hughes is also proud of his work with Switchpoint Community Resource Center to alleviate homelessness in the city. He said the center has helped the homeless integrate back into society and has emerged as a model for the rest of the state.
Another highlight of his council service, he says, was his early support for Tech Ridge, St. George’s business park located on the site of the old airport that is aimed at attracting more high-tech companies with higher-paying jobs to the area.
He also prides himself on the strides the city has made to conserve water. He noted the city has long required secondary water systems to be installed in new subdivisions. He also points to the impending construction of Graveyard Wash, a reservoir on tap for city-owned property off Highway 91. Once it is completed sometime next year, the reservoir will store about 1,400 acre-feet of reuse water that can be saved for use during the summer instead of being sent downriver to Lake Mead.
If reelected, Hughes said he will continue his work to ensure St. George remains unique and doesn’t become “Anytown USA.”
Steve Kemp
Steve and Kamari Kemp have been married for 31 years and have four children.
Since moving to the city as a toddler, Steve likes to joke he has observed there are two kinds of people — those who live in St. George and those who want to live in St. George.
Alas, the chairman of the St. George Planning Commission said, the city’s municipal government is lacking. He said some residents have told him that City Council members “couldn’t organize a two-car funeral.” A major reason why, he added, is some on the council refuse to stick to legitimate business and often stray into cultural war issues that divide residents and waste time.
One example he cites is the push by some to make St. George a Second Amendment “sanctuary city.”
“Why would St. George need to be a Second Amendment sanctuary city when we are in an open-carry state?” he asked. “You don’t even need to have a permit to carry a concealed weapon in Utah.”
Other time wasters Kemp cites are the endless bickering over drag shows, the new state flag, reverting the name of Utah Tech University back to Dixie State University and other issues he says are beyond the council’s purview.
“We are not about sending messages,” Kemp said. “We are a municipal government. There’s a reason our elections are nonpartisan. Generally speaking, we all want the same things — safe streets, no potholes, our garbage collected, sewer lines that work and the water to run when we turn on the faucet.”
Kemp said his skill set as principal owner of broker of Vantage Real Estate in managing several hundred thousand square feet of office space makes him uniquely qualified to ensure St. George gets back in its lane and stays there.
Ditto for his service on the Planning Commission. One of his signature achievements, he said, is to hold meeting lengths to two hours. Despite having differing backgrounds and views, Kemp added, the commissioners are still able to work together and move the business of the city forward.
If elected, Kemp promises to push back on any attempt to veer from legitimate city business and to focus on matters over which the city has control and is within the council’s purview. He is fine with council members advocating for national social issues, he continued, as long as they do it on their own time and dime.
Like Larkin and Hughes, Kemp said water conservation and affordable housing are major issues. He also wants to streamline the city’s building permit process and work with city staff to make municipal government more efficient.
Dannielle Larkin
Dannielle Larkin is seeking reelection to a second term. She has lived in St. George since 1991, when she attended then-Dixie College on a leadership scholarship. She and her husband, Darrin, are the owners of a third-generation family business in the city, L&L Mechanical Contractors, Inc.
Despite her status as an incumbent and the front-runner in last month’s primary election, Larkin has a target on her back. Residents and groups on the right end of the political spectrum have united to oppose her candidacy. One of her most vociferous critics is Council member Michelle Tanner, who is openly campaigning for Bennett and Smith to oust Larkin.
Larkin was recently targeted in a citywide vandalism spree that resulted in damage or alterations to all of her large campaign signs. In addition, there is a truck equipped with electronic signs motoring around downtown and neighborhoods accusing her of supporting drag shows in front of children.
For her part, Larkin refuses to respond in kind. She says critics are deliberately misrepresenting her stance on drag shows. Her vote last spring to overturn the city’s denial of Southern Utah Drag Stars’ application to stage a show at a municipal park, she explained, was based on the desire to ensure the uniform application of city code and protect freedom of speech and expression.
She said the council was applying a never-before-enforced restriction that banned organizers from advertising before receiving a final permit for an event as an excuse to deny Southern Utah Drag Stars’ application, which she said was discriminatory.
“My vote was to protect people’s constitutional rights,” she said. “I don’t care who you are in our city, I’m always going to protect your rights whether I agree with you or not.”
Larkin said her service to St. George is about ensuring everyone has a voice and a seat at the table to work for the betterment of the community.
“If we allow ourselves to become a community that is divisive and willing to hate our neighbors who are different from us, then we have turned away from the Mormon pioneer spirit of collaboration and cooperation,” she said, adding that spirit is what draws people to Utah.
Aside from her work to promote inclusion, Larkin said another highlight of her tenure is the city’s implementation of a restrictive water ordinance last year that bans nonfunctional grass on new commercial and industrial developments and limits the amount of grass allowed on new home construction.
If reelected, she said water conservation will continue to be one of her top priorities. She also wants to promote improvements to public safety, transportation and smart growth, the latter of which includes creating more attainable housing to make St. George more affordable for future generations.
Paula Smith
St. George real estate agent Paula Smith would not respond to The Tribune’s requests for an interview. According to her campaign website, one of her priorities is to implement a more fiscally conservative approach to budgeting to eliminate waste and find greater efficiencies.
In the name of greater transparency, she advocates posting voting score cards online after council meetings so residents can see how each member voted. She also wants to require all city officials to take an annual course on the U.S. Constitution to ensure they are knowledgeable about the document.
She and Bennett both take umbrage at St. George Mayor Michele Randall’s decision last May to temporarily suspend the public comment period at council meetings due to unruly behavior from some members of the public. Another of her concerns is St. George’s municipal golf courses, which she said are not profitable. Smith would like to explore leasing the courses to the private sector to manage.
Smith is also strongly opposed to mask and vaccine mandates, business lockdowns or anything that would force workers to isolate and prevent them from working. Other stances of import to Smith include standing strong for the Second Amendment, keeping the old state flag and preserving the area’s Dixie heritage. She further supports in-person voting with paper ballots and hand-counting each ballot to prevent election fraud.
The five candidates are slated to square off Wednesday night at 6:30 at a debate Utah Tech University’s Institute of Politics is hosting at the Eccles Fine Arts Center’s Mainstage Theatre.
