The Wednesday evening town hall-style forum, hosted by the Ogden Regional Aviation Association at the Kemp Jet Services building on the grounds of the Ogden-Hinckley Airport, covered a wide array of topics but focused heavily on ongoing concerns about the airport and its future serving the region.

Commercial airline service

The candidates were all asked their thoughts about returning commercial service to the airport, which saw its last commercial flights a year ago.

Chris Barragan said there’s several factors that need to be considered before pursuing the return of commercial traffic, and its feasibility needs to be established quickly.

“This is predicated on the ability to safely land planes here, this is predicated on the ability for the market demand here, this is predicated on our proximity to Salt Lake,” he said. “If we are going to move forward with commercial flights here, we need to jump in with both feet and test it as quickly as possible, find out if it’s going to be successful. If it’s not going to be successful, we need to be able to make the pivot as quickly as possible on that.”

Taylor Knuth said he’d love to see commercial services return, but the airport needs to do more than just that.

“My goal with this airport would be to make it a self-sustaining airport, financially speaking, and it would be to approach these conversations about property rights and maximizing the value of this airport to all of our residents, not just a select few,” he said. “That’s the conversation I’m interested in having — bringing people to the table to talk about what other opportunities are available for this airport beyond commercial flight.”

Bart Blair said the airlines that left in 2022 — Avelo and Allegiant — indicated that it wasn’t necessarily a lack of volume that drove them to end operations.

“We need to build up our airport so that we can compete with those other airports around us,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure that we not only focus on one area of the airport. … This is generally a GA (general aviation) airport and we need to make sure we’re focusing on our general aviation, on our private businesses and on our commercial airlines so that each one can help the airport stay sustainable.”

Oscar Mata said he’d rather see the focus on the airport’s main operation.

“We’ve had commercial airlines come and go,” he said. “This airport has not been sustainable and built on the backs of commercial airlines, but private individuals that have had their hangars here, and we need to ensure we’re promoting them, not these commercial airlines that will come here for two years and then abandon us. There’s been a lot of talk about Provo and Salt Lake City. I’ve knocked (on) the doors, folks. I’ve made the phone calls. We don’t want to be Provo and we don’t want to be Salt Lake City.”

County control

At one point, an audience member floated the idea of having Weber County take on the burden of the airport, potentially exchanging some property or facility that would have a more localized benefit to Ogden City.

Angel Castillo said she favors a municipal airport authority.

“I’m all for building partnerships with the county, and I’ve been working with the county for the last two years going through the particulars of what a municipal airport authority means and how we all benefit and how the county would be a partner on it,” she said. “We as the city would still own the land, but everybody shares the burden of cost and the vision of what the airport needs so it’s run by experts.”

Ben Nadolski said the city has already put too much into the facility to look at totally offloading it.

“I’ve expressed in past debates that I’m open minded to the potential of an authority that includes the county, maybe even neighboring counties, but I’m becoming less open to it as time goes on, especially as I learn how much we’ve invested to get to where we’re at right now,” he said. “I definitely don’t want to get to a point where we cut and run and leave a lot of the money these good people here put into the facility.”

Jon Greiner also opposes the idea of offloading the airport and the airport authority.

“I did the feasibility study. Let me lay out the 25-cent answer about the airport authority,” he said. “We want a county facility, we want the city to own it, we want 12 people on the board. Well, guess what? You put two Ogden people on the board, there’s 10 that can out-vote them. Their constituents come to them and say, ‘You know what, we’re tired of the noise and we’re tired of the subsistence you’re giving them, so why don’t you just vote to get the airport and move it away?’ The land will sit empty for 20 years because the city can’t afford to pay back the debt on it.”

Budget experience

In addition to the aviation questions, candidates were also asked about their expertise on formulating budgets.

Mata noted his experience in the private sector.

“I’m not a professional bureaucrat, I’m a professional businessman,” he said. “Anyone that has owned a business or operated a business knows there is no better way to learn how to balance a budget and stretch every penny. I’ve been able to do that and build a successful statewide company.”

Nadolski said his work on the City Council and with the state have prepared him.

“I’ve been on the City Council for seven years — you’re welcome for helping to approve your budget each year to make sure you have services in the city,” he said. “I work in the executive branch in the Division of Wildlife on behalf of the governor, and in that job I also spent five years working as a legislative liaison with the legislative branch. … I’ve helped to secure our agency’s budget. We have 600 people with a statewide operation and I’ve also helped in managing those resources in the administrative role.”

Barragan admitted to his lack of experience with making large budgets and said he’d turn to those who know more.

“I’m absolutely not going to fool you and say that I know what to do with $300 million budgets, because I don’t,” he said. “Mara Brown is my choice for the city manager. She will be the one that I will lean on as far as this new budget goes. As far as year-to-year budgets go, I will implement what she believes is the right moves for Ogden for the future.”

Greiner said he’s had a lot of experience in assembling budgets thanks to his own career experience.

“During my military career, I did multimillion-dollar budgets as the company commander and battalion commander,” he said. “In my four years as a senator, I did a lot of billion-dollar budgets to include Ben’s budget. As a police chief, I did multimillion-dollar budgets for the city.”

Keeping appointees

The candidates were also asked if, should they be successfully elected mayor, they would replace the city’s key appointed employees.

Castillo said she would like to study the situation before making a decision on everyone.

“There are some people that are in the administration that I believe have not been doing what’s best for Ogden,” she said. “But the majority of the people, I would be in an assess and then decide mode.”

Blair said he would stay the course.

“As part of my time on the City Council, I’ve had the opportunity and pleasure to interview, appoint and approve each one of those seven positions,” he said. “I feel that those seven people have done a great job for the city.”

Knuth said that he would make sure that appointees are on board with his vision.

“I don’t believe the next mayor needs to come in on day one and take the torch from Mayor Caldwell and use it to burn the city down in their image,” he said. “For me, leadership is pretty simple — it’s hire the right people and get out of their way. I have made no promises to hire or fire anybody in this city because that’s not reflective of the values that I hold as a leader. On day one, I will come into this office and say, ‘Here are my values and here are my expectations for you in this position, in this role, in this time in our city’s history. If you align with those expectations and values, I’m all in.'”