Joining Victor City Council, and Why I'll Recuse on the AJ Trail

By now many of you know I was appointed to Victor City Council. I'm excited, humbled—and even a little nervous—to serve our community and look forward to learning as much as I can in this new role. In the coming months, I hope to share more about my background and priorities. In the meantime, you can read my resume, written application responses, or interview video on the city website if you want to learn more about my perspective, skills, and experience. Hopefully they speak for themselves as to what I bring to the position.

I also recognize there has been some mistrust with the City of Victor over the last year and residents are asking for increased transparency. I hope to be a part of that shift as a new council member. However, some of that responsibility falls on the press to report contextual, accurate news and to avoid predetermined narratives. Misleading or incomplete information may create catchy headlines, but it can lead the public to make assumptions or untrue accusations.

Specifically, recent Jackson media coverage implied cynicism or bad faith regarding my work with the AJ Linnell Trail and the coinciding appointment to council. It is certainly not a secret that being a part of a civic project named for my late husband has been an honor and something I care deeply about. But this trail system is not for me. It is not even for my husband. It is for the community we love and is the product of a decade-long collaborative effort with widespread local support, input and funding. The idea for BLM trails and public access on the east side of Victor came out of multi-user Victor recreation discussions in 2013. After my husband died, I was asked if future trails could be named in his honor. I knew AJ would be embarrassed at the thought—he hated attention—but I also knew how much he valued helping people access the mountains so they could connect to and care for wild places.

Based on the city's historical work to help secure the easements, project partners assumed the city would adopt the easements on Aug 12th, BEFORE council applicant interviews or deliberations were initially even proposed to take place. Once council postponed the easement decision to get more information, I realized the issue might come before me if I was appointed to the seat. I immediately emailed the city because even though there is no legal conflict of interest—which only exists if there is economic gain—ethically it didn't feel good for me to vote on the easements and indicated I would recuse myself from a vote related to the AJ Trail.

I will hold off on addressing misrepresentations regarding the BLM public planning process. Instead, I will defer to our local trail organizations and managing agencies to clarify inaccurate characterizations and misleading information. They are best equipped to educate Teton Valley residents on how this community-driven trail project came to be.

As I work to try and lessen some of the cynicism that has entered our public discourse, I hope the press will continue to balance the dual roles of asking hard questions/holding government accountable, while simultaneously committing to nuanced reporting to share accurate information with constituents. Intentionally sowing seeds of doubt or attempting to manufacture controversies does not serve the town we all cherish.