It was my honor to be sworn in as the new mayor of Alta in early January. Many thanks to Mayor Emeritus Tom Pollard for being such a good steward of our community and to the town staff for helping me get ready for the job.   

Congratulations to Cliff Curry who was re-elected to the town council in November, and to Margaret Bourke who was elected to join us for the first time. And congratulations to Sheridan Davis, who was appointed to fill the remainder of my term on the council. Along with Elise Morgan, these council members are talented public servants ready to serve our community.

Though I moved to Alta in 2004 and served six years on the town council, it has been a jam-packed month learning the details of how the town operates, joining bodies like the Council of Governments and the Unified Fire Authority Board, reviewing our policies, and attending carefully to the legislative session. It has been interesting to get to know a wide variety of new people from other communities along the Wasatch Front. Who knew that it was possible to attend so many meetings?  

I come to this position from having been in a skiing family in a ski town (I moved to Aspen with my mother and step-father as a kid), and as a business school professor (at Duke and the University of Utah). It has been eye opening to learn about skiing in Alta from the mayor’s point of view and to test which principles of management I can implement successfully.  

I said before the election that Alta faces numerous pressures, mostly stemming from the growing population in the Salt Lake Valley. Of course we appreciate their business, but we know that accommodating visitors takes effort. I will work to preserve Alta’s integrity while embracing its opportunities.  

There are always many values at stake in complex decisions, and we face many of them. I look forward to having your help as we move forward. I look forward to working on a community center, environmental preservation, summer programming, and reconciling tensions in our ordinances. I ask that you get involved by communicating with the town’s staff, with the members of the town council, and with me.

Happily the skiing has improved this month.  Here’s hoping for lots more snow in February!