Tell us your name, what you like to be called.
My name is Raymond Green and that's what I prefer to be called Raymond.
Tell us a little about yourself.
Well, I've lived in Cedar City for a number of years. I was the executive director of the Cedar City Area Chamber of Commerce. I spent a tour on the city council. I've been on other city councils before. I was a member of the Cedar City Airport Board when we put in the new airport and I'd like to point out there that that was paid for when we did it. We didn't have to bond for it, or any funds that required the accruing of interest. I am a member and co-founder of the Cedar City Disabilities Action Awareness Team which works with people with disabilities in the community to try and make their life better. I was co-founder of the CATS, Cedar Area Rapid Transit which provides dial-a-ride services for people with disabilities and the general public. I've worked on major international projects with the National Parks Foundation. I was on the national board of the Telephone Pioneers of American. I am a recipient of the Theodore N. Vail Medal Award, which is given to people with noteworthy public service. My business background is senior management and executive positions in the communications industry, primarily dealing with the information technology side of it. I've created large organizations and managed them from the ground floor up with several hundred people with multi-million dollar budgets. I was in international business consulting in the communications industry as a private entrepreneur helping bring those communication companies more innovative technology. I was a district manager with Bell Telephone Laboratories so I have a very strong management background and experiences within the community in leadership positions. I have two daughters that live here, grandchildren that live here. In fact, we have four generations within Cedar City. I'm very pleased to be running for mayor of Cedar City.
Why do you want to run for Mayor?
I think the time is right to ensure that we pull back and look at the infrastructure needs of the city. I think we need to have emphasis on where we are going with the police, fire, flood control and other basic services. I think in this time of economic strain, we need to do that in a way that still moves our community forward. Secondly, I think we need to take an innovative approach to creating jobs. I think that is probably one of the paramount issues facing the city and I have some ideas as to how we can do that. I think it is important that we bring all of the talents together, both the University and anyone who wants to contribute to bring forth ideas that will create some core industry and business opportunities in the community. I think we need to link to what is happening nationally with the healthcare industry such as using innovative information technology to assist in the medical record issue. We need to leverage our connections, people like Michael Leavitt, who has been a senior officer in the previous administration. We need to see what kind of things Cedar City could get involved with that would really create career employment options and career advancement opportunities rather than just have the flat $7-$12 an hour jobs that we have here. The last key point is smart growth planning. I think it is extremely important that we continue to have a community that is charming. That has the characteristics of the history we've had in the past. We need an attractive community that will attract the kind businesses that will create jobs. The way that we are going in some of these hodge-podge developments is very short-sighted planning. We need to look at the effects of our planning efforts on the long-term rather than taking the short-term view.
Who are three people that you really admire?
From a personal view, I don't think that these are all names that people would recognize. I have had a lot of strong influences from people in the past who have helped me along the way. One who helped grow my ideas of being forthright and telling it like it is was Gene Hawks, an associate of mine who has now passed away. Of course, I admire Ronald Reagan from a national point of view. I think what he was able to do to bring this country together was just remarkable after the Carter years. And then my parents, that's two not just one, are the ones who created the foundation that I have. And, of course, my daughters and son-in-laws are extremely talented people and I am blessed to have them as well.
What do you think are the biggest issues in our community right now?
I think the biggest issue right now is how do we create employment opportunities that allow people to stay here but grow and really create a career. There are few of those opportunities, although there are some such as the forest service, other government jobs and the University, but those are limited in nature. We have a lot of people who are underemployed. We need to look for opportunities to create a core business that we own, that's invented here, that will be able to grow here. I was instrumental in activities in the Silicon Valley when it very first started. We saw how innovations and ideas kind of from the garage of individuals created multi-billion dollar industries. What we tend to do here, a little bit, is only work within the circle of people who are in power. What we need to do is open up our arms and get everybody, particularly the younger people, involved in thinking about what kinds of things can be done for the future. The danger that we have in this community is to be shortsighted. We have the economic problems that need to be considered but we need to look at the long-term. What is going to make the community better? Not have such a shortsighted view both on the planning side and in economic growth opportunities.
When you think of Cedar City 5 or 10 years from now, what do you see?
What I would like to see is a well-planned community that attracts business and people that want to live and contribute here. A community that is built in a way that is desirable and doesn't lose that heritage context of the city and maintains it's charm. There are ways to do that. Smart communities are looking at the growth, you don't put in a hundred and fifty townhouses without a small gathering place for kids.
You need appropriate kind of landscaping that makes it attractive. That shouldn't be strictly a burden on the building industry, it ought to be working with the industry to create incentives to do those sorts of things. You can increase density, for example, but create open space and amenities and the slight increase in density offsets the cost of creating those amenities. But, we don't look at things like that. What I want to see is a community that continues to have the charm and attracts the proper economic development.
What would you like to see more of in Cedar City?
I think those things will come as we grow the community. As Cedar continues to be attractive and we bring more people in here, we need to have additional shopping. We need to have recreational facilities and, of course, we need to support the arts. We are a community that has a very strong historical context to it, but I think we will see the additional quality businesses coming in here and that also helps the community grow. If you have a major department store or something like that comes in, I mean, we see what has happened with our Home Depot, what that has created for us.
What would you do to help that happen?
What I indicated on the job side was, I think, we have to get the minds of people who want to contribute together to see what we can do to create a business that really has our identity tagged to it and grow that business. I don't just talk about jobs, I talk about career opportunities. We can have jobs, we can continue to have the support jobs, which is fine, but we need to take care of the underemployment.
We've got the talent here to do that, we've got the people with advanced degrees and so forth working at Convergys, there is nothing wrong with Convergys, but they are underutilized. As far as attracting business, I think if we take a philosophy that we are going to build a community that maintains the heritage and charm of the city that we will attract people that will attract business. We need to be proactive in getting out, and I think they are now. I think they are proactive trying to find businesses, but it needs to be a total involvement of people within the community, not just a few select people. As mayor one of the things I want to do is bring a forum together, a panel, if you will, or a commission or whatever you want to call it, that has representation from each of the major community areas, so we can find out what the needs are and what ideas people have in those areas. I know the council now goes around and has meetings (with the people) once a quarter or something, but we need to make that an official commission and bring people in who are appointed by individuals within that section of the community. Each one of the community sections really kind of differ - what happens on Leigh Hill may not be the same for another area of the community. And, of course, one of the primary things is that we need to make sure that we are looking at the monetary aspects of it and that we apply prudent management concepts to our city finances. We have an opportunity to make sure that we are not just spending money unwisely. That's what I think we can do to attract business. You can't have high taxes and high developmental costs to attract businesses to the community.
If a conflict of interest were to arise between city interests and your own personal or business interests, how would you handle it?
Well, I think first of all, you would recuse yourself from any vote, of course, the mayor doesn't vote but he certainly has the influence on the agenda and the philosophies of how the departments will run. But I think, legally, if you have any conflict of interest you need to step back from that. I have an advantage there over some of other candidates because I have no special interest ties. I'm a homeowner. I'm doing this because I think I have the experience and the background to do it, but I'm not a developer, I'm not tied to any particular special interest. I want to work on behalf of the homeowners, the business owners and so forth. And that's one thing, I guess, I want to point out, that I took some gas on this when I was on the city council. I don't do back-room politics and I don't have hidden agendas and I stand up for what I think is right publicly so people know what my views are. Most of those are standing up for conservative social standards and for the family. And standing up against poor planning that's really going to be detrimental to us in the future. But those are the kind of things you need to fight against and I'm mainly concerned about what we fight for. The philosophies that we bring forward to grow our community.
What do you see as your top priorities if you are elected?
Well, I think the economic development issue is the first priority. The budget and looking at how we can manage with the money that we have. We have tied ourselves to some significant expenses, from a bonding point of view, that's creating some difficulties for us, and we need to get that under control. We need to get back to what I think are supporting the core functions of the city. So, the first thing that I would do is to get this economic development concept moving forward. The second and coincident with that, ensuring that we're applying prudent management concepts to our city finances. Again, paralleling that, the smart growth planning concepts that will lead us, and really ties into the economic development and the employment issue. So, those are the key things, and they're not easy. The city has been working on some of those things, but I think its been done with only a few select people, and that is something that we really need to open our minds to so we can create a better opportunity for all of us here.
Why should a person vote for you?
Well, I think if they look at the philosophical concepts and ideas that I have. I have the background. I have the business experience. I have experiences in government. I have experience in managing large organizations. I have, I think, the leadership qualities that can move those kind of issues forward. I think looking at the other candidates, they all have qualifications, in different areas, but I think I'm the only one that has the experience managing a large organization, such as the city. In fact, the city organization is not nearly as large as some of the organizations that I have successfully created and managed. I think my business consulting background gives me the opportunity to look into existing procedures. That was the whole basis of business consulting experience with companies throughout the world, mostly Southeast Asia, and the United States here, to look at procedural aspects of the city and make recommendations and to design processes, that improved other business opportunities. I think the other candidates, near as I can tell, don't have those kind of experiences. They've run small businesses, and that's great, and they've been very, very successful, and that's good, but the concept of looking at it from a consultant's point of view gives an added advantage.
What is the best way for people to learn more about you?
I have a blog site. It's electraymond.blogspot.com.
If they want to e-mail me with specific questions they can do that also at
greenraymonda@msn.com
or they can telephone me, I'd be glad to talk to anybody.
The best place to reach me is on my cell, 590-9269.
But, I think one of the things we need to do, just as a comment on the side here, Cedar City in the last primary only had 10% turnout. A lot of that was special-interest generated. I think we as a community, if we are concerned about our community, we need to step up and get out to vote. And we need to get the word out that the voting is actually taking place. But people need to get involved in the voting process. It's a shame to only have 10% of the people that are selecting who is going to run for office. I would encourage everybody, regardless of who they are going to vote for, to get out and vote. Early voting is available at the city offices through the 11th, and September 15th is the primary election.
What's your favorite dessert?
I have so many desserts that I like, but I think my favorite dessert is when I have some grandchildren that come up to my house and we make chocolate chip cookies, with a whole bunch of extra chocolate chips in them. We sit around and have hot chocolate, and this is normally in the winter, we'll bake those cookies, and we'll have fresh warm cookies and hot chocolate. I think that's probably my favorite time, and my favorite dessert.
