PARK CITY, Utah – Jeremy Rubell, a Park City local and technology and business consultant, launched his campaign for a city council seat this week. Sean Higgins has this look at the candidate:
The 40-year-old Rubell has called Park City his permanent home for the last six years with his wife and young children, but says his childhood was filled with frequent visits to the area to enjoy what Park City has to offer. He says ever since then, he was always looking for an opportunity to make the move full time.
Although Rubell does not have any prior political experience, he says his professional work as a business consultant would be a nice complement to the role of a city councilor.
“Specifically, I’m in the utilities space of the consulting world, so I’ve done a lot of work with municipalities and government organizations, quasi-government organizations,” he says. “While I don’t have any direct government experience or elected official experience, that’s kind of where I see a relation in my past and that business mindset and sort of operational effectiveness mindset is really what I think could benefit our community.”
Rubell’s campaign slogan is “Be kind. Be local. Be Park City.” and says his platform will center around four major pillars: Fiscal responsibility, balanced growth, respecting the outdoors, and promoting livability.
One city project that encapsulates all four of those pillars is the proposed arts and culture district. Rubell says he and his family are strong supporters of the arts, but believes an honest conversation about what the city is getting for its money is the best path forward.
“It’s really finding that sweetspot from the cost and value perspective,” says Rubell. “I do think it’s worth a hard look to say, ‘do we need to spend that much to get the value we want out of it?’ Arts are super important to me. As a family, we’ve been a member of the Kimball [Arts Center], the Egyptian [Theatre]. With the culture of the city, that’s super important to it. I think it would be a great way to bring some diversity. Lots of positives, it’s just that big question of does it have to be $100 million?”
Rubell and his family are also frequent riders of Park City’s public transit system. In fact, he says his family chose to call the Thaynes Canyon neighborhood home precisely because it is so close to a bus stop. He says expanding transit and working towards the city’s car-optional goals would be a top priority if he is elected.
“We love the bus, use it a ton,” he says. “I think it’s so important to the city. We don’t have room to expand the streets if we wanted to in most places. Sure, there might be a couple spots, but we’ve got to fix this traffic problem without throwing roads at it, in my opinion. We don’t want to take away green space, we don’t want to expand into existing areas that are already built out. We’ve got to figure out a way to drive people towards public transportation. I don’t have a definitive answer or silver bullet for it, but I do think it’s a critically important goal.”
Rubell says he will attempt to gather at least 100 signatures from registered voters in order to appear on the ballot and sees it as an opportunity to introduce himself to the community face-to-face.
More information on Rubell’s campaign can be found on his Facebook page, Jeremy Rubell for City Council.
The official filing window for candidates interested in running for Mayor or City Council in Park City is June 1st to the 7th. Elections for Mayor and two City Council seats will take place in November.
Park City Mayor Andy Beerman has announced he intends to run for a second term and Councilor Tim Henney has also said he intends to seek a third term on the council. The other council seat, currently held by Steve Joyce, will be an open race as Joyce announced his intention to retire from the council after one term in office.
