Troy Belliston

Yes.

My profession is commercial development, so from time-to-time things have come up, however I have always recused myself from the deliberations and the vote if the item personally benefitted myself, my business, or my family.

You can count on me as a solid vote to put the issue on the ballot because you need to decide how you are represented, not the commissioners writing their own job description. I am happy to slash my pay and bring on two new commissioners so that you are better represented at no extra cost because I am not running for my career, I am running to contribute. This is a decision that the voter needs to make. I have cleared my plate and I am prepared to work in any capacity that I can if elected.

I am. Washington City has transportation master plans going back to 1996 that show that corridor. The master plan predates every home in Green Springs. But we need to recognize that the only residences that are going to be negatively affected are those of the residents that I represent in Washington City. And we need to be mindful of that in the design and try to mitigate the impacts to the extent possible.

No elected official should ever fear the public that they are elected to represent. For years I have worked for a more open and transparent government. Shortly after I was elected, I began pushing hard for making public documents easily accessible online in Washington City and by 2018 we started putting everything that goes into the legislative process online. Every staff report, exhibit, resolution, or document that is voted upon is hosted there and you can go back and review everything from all those years past easily. We expanded that to the Planning Commission, Land Use Authority, Power Board, and any other board or commission within Washington City. It's really not hard to do and I am running to make government finally be transparent at the county level.

Further, St. George City's budget is 406 pages. It's very detailed with reports and graphs and a ton of financial information. Washington City's budget is 81 pages. Not as many reports and graphs, but you can see where all our money is being spent down to the amount of money that my city recorder is spending on office supplies. The county's budget? 10 pages. It's a $220m fund and there is no detail. If I went to a bank and asked for a loan with a budget that void of information the bank would laugh me out the door. The county needs to fully expand the budget and put it out completely so that the public can review it and know where their tax dollars are being spent. I'm running to fix this issue and make sure that the public has time to fully review the expenses and know that their tax dollars are being spent justly.

I feel that I have been instrumental in some really good development decisions that the city has made. I may be the dirty developer in this race, but it's the developer's eye that can tell the difference in growing, and growing responsibly. I can sniff out a developer that is only in it for themselves and one that is in it to contribute to building our community responsibly.

I have a really hard time when I see people of positions of power taking advantage of others or misappropriating funds. I think I can do better how I address those issues when they arise.

I see no point in further pursuing our former Sheriff.

I've known Nate Brooksby nearly my entire life. I've known his family and his wife nearly my entire life. I've never seen him act in any manner consistent with what he now understands he was to have been accused of. (He wasn't told initially and has only found information in news reports and social media postings from the commission.) Nate spent three decades in service to our community and has given everything to the safety and security of our families. I've had many conversations with Nate since he stepped down and I have a pretty good handle on both sides of the issue. I do not believe Nate was treated fairly or justly. Whether or not he is guilty or innocent is irrelevant, he was given no due process nor the reasonable ability to defend himself from any allegations. He chose to step down rather than to put his wife, his family, and the Sheriff's Office through what would have been a grueling process. The politics of pain and pressure have no business in Southern Utah yet they were alive and well the afternoon when Nate received the call that Friday afternoon from your county commissioners.

That said, I have a pretty good reputation in Washington City of supporting our Police and Fire Departments and I would continue that at the county level with whomever is the new Sheriff.

This is a simple answer. The parking garage and pickle ball court gates need to be cut off the walls and everything needs to be opened up fully. The public paid for that asset. The public needs to have full use of that asset. The idea that that asset was built only to be locked up is offensive. I'm not a pickle baller, but I am also not a skateboarder and I understand that we have parks and assets such as these for the community use. I will always fight to keep a public asset public.

The explanation that there are liability concerns is Joe Biden and Kamala Harris dumb. If government made decisions based on liability, we would never build a road for fear that somebody would wreck their car. We would never build a park for fear that a child would break a bone. And we would never hire an officer for fear that they might get into an altercation. Governments have general exemption of liability and insurance policies. If liability was really a concern, buy a balloon policy to cover for the increased concerns.

The other explanation that I've heard from a commissioner's own mouth to my ears, is that they are locked up due to concerns about a drag show taking place up there. You simply should never lock up assets for 99% of the residents because you are scared of 1% of your residents. It's funny that this coming Saturday 4/18/26 there is a 21+ Drag Show taking place at the Dixie Center which is owned by the county, and yet the courts are under lock and key for fear of a drag show. Quite frankly, I could care less if two men dressed in skirts and played a little game of pickle ball. I'm sure they could use the exercise.

The other little item that I have an issue with is the private bathrooms that each commissioner enjoys in their offices. Those bathrooms show a lack of humility and respect for my taxpayer dollars. Did you know that the commission has more money invested in their private bathrooms than has ever been contributed to Switchpoint to date? The commissioners' priorities are not in check with mine and I intend to prioritize the use of public money to be for the public good and never for a politician's perks.

No. Because legally it would only last for 6 months and wouldn't do much to fix the issue. It might actually hurt. Zach Renstrom and his team are constantly working on the future demands of water and they are doing a great job of staying ahead of things, I think.

We have already been addressing this issue in Washington City with tiered fee schedules and requiring building systems that would reduce water use. In my professional life as a commercial builder I install low water use fixtures, recirculation pumps and I have been installing low water use landscaping for over a decade. I don't do these things so that we can have a new golf course or a new surf park, I do these things so that my kids and my grandkids, and your kids and your grandkids, have an opportunity to grow up here as I did. I care passionately about our next generations and I will work tirelessly to ensure that they aren't exported elsewhere.

I'm not exactly sure how to respond to this. It's not been something that has been discussed or drafted. I think that quite a bit of pro-formas and conversation would need to take place before I could wrap my head around a proposal. Conceptually though, I'd be fine to work with the school district and the assessor's office to explore the issue.

Affordable Housing: The minute our politicians quit pointing fingers and start looking in the mirror is when we can finally start addressing the affordability in housing. There are ways to reduce costs at all levels from the Governor to the title company. The idea that it's simply a supply and demand issue is wrong on many levels. The legislature creates the bureaucracy that bloats costs, the developer tries to make every cent, the builder maximizes his profits along with each and every subcontractor and the buyer foots all those bills. One thing I did when building for people was to work under a fixed fee and not a profit margin. That way I was never incentivized to increase the costs and when there was a rebate or a kickback, I would always give those back to my clients. There are many things that can be done to reduce costs and make housing more affordable. It just takes the political will do to so. I'm in the industry and I would love to have a seat at this table so that we can actually start to create solutions.

TRT: In 2016 when I was first elected the city budget for public safety was 60% of the general fund. This year we are 88-89% of our general fund for public safety. We simply cannot run a city based on 11-12% of a general fund in Washington City. It's our cities that deal with the administration, the infrastructure, and the public safety aspects of tourism, and it's our residents that have to deal with the tourists and the traffic. And then all those dollars go to the county and they are spent buying political favors and on pet projects. Those TRT dollars need to be fairly and equitable redistributed back into our respective communities to the extent possible. Enterprise should not have to compete with St George for TRT, and my city of Washington shouldn't have to compete with Utah Tech. There's a private development that has received more money in TRT than 10 local cities combined and another that has received more than all cities albeit one. There is nothing fair and equitable in the TRT distributions currently and I plan to fix this issue. The TRT dollars are our resident's payback for the impact of the tourists and tourism and our residents need to be able to see, feel, touch and have free full use of the infrastructure that tourism can fund.

Traffic: I know that it seems that our local governments are always behind the curve when it comes to traffic issues, but nothing could be further from the truth. We plan for roads and infrastructure for years and decades into the future, but you can never justify or afford to build those roads or infrastructure until the demand is present. I really enjoy being a part of the long-term planning process and welcome the opportunity to participate at the county levels.

Public Safety: If you don't have a safe community, you really have no community. My dedication to protecting our country and our community began on May 7, 1993 when I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic at my swearing in to the US Army when I was 18 years old. I've lived those words my entire life. Those that know me, know my dedication to the safety and security of our community and I try to live my life every day in honor of that oath.