Incumbent facing 3 challengers for Salt Lake Council District 3 seat

Incumbent Eric Jergensen is taking on three challengers in the Salt Lake City Council District 3 race.

Thursday candidates for District 3 — dominated by the city's Avenues and Capitol Hill neighborhoods — engaged in a debate at the City Library downtown. An audio recording of the debate can be found at www.kcpw.org. The candidates have also responded to Deseret Morning News surveys, which can be found online at www.desnews.com.

The Morning News asked questions including: whether candidates favored tax increases to add 90 more police officers to the city's force by 2010, how they would help revitalize downtown, how they feel about monster-home building and if they favor developing the city's Northwest Quadrant (a massive tract of developable land west of the Salt Lake City International Airport).

The primary election is Oct. 4. The following is look at the candidates and their issues.

• Edward James Aho, 63, runs an electrical repair shop in the district near 600 West. He wants to curb city spending and is concerned about the city's increased power of eminent domain. He says he usually votes conservative and he opposes Mayor Rocky Anderson's executive order giving benefits to unmarried domestic partners.

"If City Hall is hard to work with because of Mayor Anderson, just wait until I am elected," he said. "Anderson has had a peaceful two terms. Someone needs to pull rank and veto his spending ideas."

• Derek Dyer, 30, is about to be married. He's the executive director of the Utah Arts Alliance. He supports most of Anderson's policies and says he would get along with the mayor better than members of the current council. He wants more arts programs on Main Street as a way to revitalize downtown. He says he will bring more diversity to the council, which currently consists entirely of members of the LDS Church. He says the council too often sides with the LDS Church on important city matters. Dyer is slated to graduate this fall from Salt Lake Community College multi-media design degree.

• Janneke House, 23, works on open space issues with Salt Lake County's Zoos, Arts and Parks program. She feels youth needs better repre- sentation in government. She has a master's degree in urban planning from the University of Utah, which she says will help her in making important city decisions.

One of her major issues is ensuring that the disputed 80 acres of open space on the Salt Lake City-North Salt Lake border be preserved as natural open space. She also been involved with the Young Democrats of Utah.

• Eric Jergensen, 45, is married with one daughter. He has a master's in business administration and a bachelor's in civil engineering, both from the U. He is the president of Contour Composites Inc., which manufactures aerospace products. He was the chairman of the Capitol Hill Community Council for five years and served on the city's Transportation Advisory Board for over four years. His major focuses are reducing crime, especially car burglaries, curbing monster-home building and making sure city spending focuses on needed improvements to the city's decaying infrastructure.

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E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com