With Mayor Peter Corroon and City Councilmembers Eric Jergensen and Soren Simsonsen, Ralph Becker announced today his 180 Day Action Plan for his first six months in office. Read the entire Action Plan here. A summary of the Plan is below.

Education
- Appoint an Education Partnership Coordinator
- Create the Mayor’s Monthly School Summit
- Create a “Salt Lake City is College-Bound” scholarship program

Environment
- Accelerate the planning and funding for Salt Lake Bikeways
- Initiate completion of the Jordan River Parkway
- Address a comprehensive review of staff, land-use ordinances, and overall planning policies within the Community Development Department and Building and Housing Services
- Revise Salt Lake City’s building codes to strongly encourage use of LEED (or LEED-equivalent) building standards
- Require carbon-footprint planning for city departments

Equality
- Pass a nondiscrimination ordinance
- Establish a city registry for domestic partnerships
- Change the city’s retirement policy to allow an employee to name a domestic partner or another designee as a beneficiary

Engaging the Community
- Initiate “Salt Lake City Solutions”
- Establish open communications with state government and neighboring communities
- Strengthen security and neighborhood safety
- Provide additional police officers
- Encourage neighborhood involvement in public safety

Excitement
- Implement elements of Downtown Rising and the Downtown Transportation Plan, including a downtown cultural district, in coordination with Salt Lake County, that would include preservation of the Utah Theater and development of a 2,500-seat Performing Arts Center; a year-round Public Market; work with the state of Utah for a Global Exchange Place; create a Downtown Parking Authority; a downtown transit circulator system; capitalize on the completion of commuter rail from the north and our Intermodal Hub Central Station with bike lockers, bike-rental facilities and a safe bikeway system downtown; and develop, in conjunction with the University of Utah, an extension of the campus to downtown and along the transit lines of University Boulevard (also known as 400 South) with research, classroom and housing facilities.

The other night I attended Wasatch Front Forum at Westminster College which focused on the environment. I am, of course, a Becker backer, but this particular forum was such a wonderful reminder of why I first decided to support Ralph. Simply put, he acts upon his beliefs.

At the forum, the audience had the opportunity to ask all of the mayoral candidates questions ranging from the canyons to small neighborhood parks. But the questions that really resonated with me were focused on what actions each of the candidates were personally taking to help the environment and offset their carbon footprint. More than any other candidate, Ralph was able to give clear, concise, and direct answers. He walks or rides his bike to work most days, his car is bio-diesel, his staff carpools and our office recycles religiously (believe me, I’ve been reminded more times than I care to admit). And it is all because we want to help Ralph live up to his word. I was so moved by Ralph’s passion for the environment, his dedication, and his vision for a green city. From better, safer bike lanes to water rights and protecting our water shed, Ralph has a long history of environmental stewardship.

I know that when he is in the mayor’s office Ralph will continue to fight for the environment. I encourage everyone who is concerned with the environment, especially in Salt Lake City, to read Ralph’s blueprint for a green city and remember to vote on September 11th!

P.S. Join us for a free screening of “Who Killed the Electric Car?” Monday September 3rd at 6pm at the Broadway Theatre (111 E. 300 S.)

As an owner of a Salt Lake City environmental consulting firm (Bear West) for more than 20 years, and as a former director of a Utah state agency (the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget, under Governor Scott M. Matheson), I’ve had the opportunity to manage and care for employees, meet bottom lines, and stake my reputation and my family’s economic welfare on my skills and abilities.

When I worked for Governor Matheson in the early 1980s, I learned, developed, and honed my skills regarding my basic approach to management in government. He kept it simple for those of us who worked for him: Accountability and loyalty were his bywords. Over the years, I’ve learned that a leader should develop the direction for an organization, communicate it clearly, hire the best people available, and give them the leeway and support so they can do their jobs well. That will be my approach as mayor of a city government with 3,000 employees.

As a government employee, I developed many wonderful relationships that I continue to work hard to maintain. As the current Democratic Leader in the Utah House of Representatives, which is a position elected by one’s party and which is a position in the Utah Legislature that I have held for the last few years, I am responsible for staff and for working with and supporting my colleagues to formulate and present positions to advance the goals of our party. As minority leader, this often means meeting regularly with the House majority leader and the speaker of the House to discuss agreements and try to reach a consensus on controversial issues.

In the over 20 years during which I have co-owned a local business, I’ve endeavored to find the most accomplished and well-qualified people for our planning and environmental services company, provide a rich working environment (though not necessarily the most lucrative), serve our customers and clients with care, and achieve success for our clients and for ourselves. We have never had to fire or lay off an employee.

To this day, I continue to stay in touch with current and past colleagues from my business as well as from my connections in politics from a period of time spanning decades of work.

A large part of management, particularly in public service, is how we make decisions. By practicing being a manager in business and/or in public service for 30 years, I’ve taken the approach that the best solutions come by:

- Engaging in discussions with those affected and interested
- Identifying issues, aspirations, and objectives
- Collecting and analyzing relevant information
- Adopting standards and principles for guiding decisions
- Evaluating a reasonable range of alternatives and options
- Selecting a preferred approach and devising the best way to implement the approach with assigned roles and responsibilities
- Empowering an accomplishment of the determined direction upon adoption

I’ve worked nationally with an organization (the Policy Consensus Initiative) whose mission is to promote the best governance practices in state government, and I have enjoyed a tremendous learning experience by serving for many years on their board, which consists of the bi-partisan, nationwide membership of governors, state legislators, leaders of national and regional organizations, managers of state dispute-resolution offices, and business and academic leaders.

My commitment to Salt Lake City residents and to city employees, if I become mayor, is to put my management approach and years of experience to work for the present and future welfare of our fair metropolis. Within city government we will have an open, transparent, accessible, well-run, public service-oriented organization in which city employees will be treated fairly and with respect so that they can do their jobs well and thrive as they work together for the benefit of all our citizens. With my unique and valuable connections and decades of experience in other areas of government at the state level, we will be able to forge ahead to help make our city one of the finest in the country. We will engage our residents and interests beyond city boundaries. Together, we can make Salt Lake City a Great American City.