Provo mayor: Clark says his leadership is needed

PROVO — Steve Clark says he has the right combination of business experience and political savvy to help Provo meet the challenges facing the city.

That's why he's running for mayor.

Clark has served two terms on the Provo City Council and is in the middle of his fifth term in the Utah Legislature. Now, he wants to return his attention to his home town.

If elected, one of Clark's first priorities, he said, will be to restore a good working relationship between the mayor and City Council.

"We need to have a council and mayor that can work together and move forward," he said. "To have people fighting, quarreling and backbiting does not help the city and hurts economic development."

Economic development for Provo — the commercial hub of Utah County — is also a chief concern, Clark said.

"We need clean jobs here — jobs that pay well, jobs that people can feed a family with," he said. "We need some economic development downtown. It just takes some leadership to get it done."

Clark said his experience with Utah Valley University's Small Business Development Center has helped him understand the city's potential for business growth. But the city needs to provide resources such as the planned downtown convention center, a business park and a research park to lure potential businesses, he said.

Clark has proposed finding a national developer to partner with the city in restoring Provo's downtown as a commercial force in the city.

"We need to do some things like the LDS Church is doing with (its City Creek Center development in) downtown Salt Lake," he said. "It just takes some leadership to get it done."

Clark said the city needs to protect its natural resources, including Rock Canyon, Provo Canyon and Utah Lake, and said he helped pave the way for improving the lake by championing the Utah Lake Commission in the Legislature.

Clark also said protecting Provo neighborhoods is important.

"I have seen neighborhoods destroyed because of exploitation taking place in those neighborhoods," he said. "We need to move forward and allow neighborhood organizations to come together and decide what they want to do with their neighborhoods."

Clark also said he wants to promote better relations with university students living in Provo, adding that he would propose appointing a student representative from BYU to sit in on council meetings and act as a voice for the students.

"If there is a student at the table when we are discussing issues that affect them, then we get some input on what they need and what their issues are," he said.

Clark praised Provo's planning, noting the city's recent recognition as the best planned city in the nation.

"Now we need to take the studies we have and do something," he said.

e-mail: mhaddock@desnews.com