Two more years?

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

By Jake Nichols

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Only two Jackson mayors have held office longer than Mark Barron, Jackson’s current mayor. Last week, Barron, who was first elected in November 2002, announced his intention to run for a fourth consecutive term. A Massachusetts native who moved to the valley in 1975, Barron has been a laundry delivery boy, a business owner and now a city official.

Only two Jackson mayors have held office longer than Mark Barron, Jackson’s current mayor. Last week, Barron, who was first elected in November 2002, announced his intention to run for a fourth consecutive term. A Massachusetts native who moved to the valley in 1975, Barron has been a laundry delivery boy, a business owner and now a city official.

Barron’s three terms have been challenged with finding a balance between growth and conservation. Currently, the mayor is backing a plan to “green” the Jackson Comprehensive Plan for future development.

Last week, the Planet sat down with Barron to discuss his vision for the city and his bid for reelection. The following are excerpts from the interview:

Planet Jackson Hole: You are spearheading this “going green” movement in Jackson. Energy reduction and resource conservation are important to you and, through your 10 x 10 initiative, you hope to set the example with the town leading the way. Are you just doing the in vogue thing, trying to be a hipster mayor by jumping on the chic bandwagon?

Mark Barron: That’s how I grew up - looking at this kind of stuff. I wasn’t looking at a greener environment when I was working on reducing my natural gas bill [at High Country Linen]. I was working on a greener environment when, in 2001, I took Blue Spruce Cleaners and went to green earth cleaning. Without a doubt. I thought, “Let’s just have something that will not pollute the soil, water or air.”

The town didn’t do this for a hipster thing or anything like that. But if you look at where we are - in Jackson Hole, Wyoming - we had the world’s first national park [Yellowstone]. We have the jewel of the system in Grand Teton. We have millions of visitors coming through here every year. If we can be a sounding board for them by saying, “Here are the reasons we did it. Here is how we did it. It’s less expensive than we imagined. We actually get paid to do it, and you can do it too.” Not only are we improving the environment, which we should be doing here, it’s good environmental stewardship, and we are saving the taxpayers’ money.

PJH: So when you announce that the town will be powered exclusively with 100 percent renewable “green” energy, and you replace all the lights in town with the more efficient curly-que bulbs, you are approaching it from a fiscal standpoint?

MB: Anytime you can learn to do a process and expend fewer resources to do it, I think that’s interesting and it pays well. It’s a good return on investment. When [the town] started doing things in Jackson, for example, we started with asking ourselves, “How can we stop pumping nearly 300 million gallons of water into [Flat Creek]?” That’s what the town had come up with [to mitigate flooding problems]. The best technology was to put in these thaw wells. Imagine the costs of that water and the electricity to pump that water.

PJH: The “greening of Jackson Hole,” to most folks around the state and around the country, might currently conjure images of our explosive real estate market. Are we slowly convincing outsiders that, despite our image as monster consumers, we are actually dedicated to using less?

MB: Practicing good energy conservation … you know if that’s going green, [then] that’s going green. I have to say what Jim Webb, the Lower Valley Energy CEO, says: “The cheapest kilowatt hour is the one you don’t use.” That’s a pretty darn good reason to be going green.

Every town and county in Wyoming has to struggle with providing services to their citizens in light of budgets that don’t seem to bring enough revenue to provide the services. So I hope we can be an example for every municipality in every county. The town and county have done a great job doing this hand in hand, working together to reduce our energy consumption.

PJH: Another signature of your term in office centers on ‘smart growth.’ You have defined this mainly with your ‘Town as Heart’ campaign. Now, with the Comprehensive Plan getting an overhaul, are you saying this is no time to switch horses?

MB: I said consistently, in my last campaign, that I’d run on a platform of ‘smart growth’ through infill redevelopment. Trying not to sprawl across the valley floor. Obviously, town can’t serve all the needs of the county, nor should it. At the same time, town council believes that the county commission, with the infrastructure we have in town and some other resources in town, can do a better job, countywide.

The bottom line is we have limited opportunities in the valley. We have people, wildlife, and natural resources. Somehow, we need to work together to create a plan that enables people to live here.

PJH: Sure, you will be remembered as the mayor that pushed [the Jackson Hole Center for the Arts] through. How long will it take until we look on the town’s parking garage with the same fondness?

MB: You know, I’ve got to be honest. I get more positive comments on the garage than negative comments. The garage will be finished painting this spring. We’ll make some decision on the south side - maybe landscaping. The parking garage is a parking garage, and you’re not going to make it look very sexy at the end of the day. But if you’re looking for that parking space, I’ll bet you’re pleased that it’s sitting there.

PJH: The town, as well as you as an individual, is being sued by Dan Hesse, the former town attorney, for wrongful termination. You stated in a deposition given for the case that you believed Hesse didn’t want to be the town’s lawyer anymore, and he lacked “a fire in his belly.” Was Hesse just burned out?

MB: You have to ask Dan Hesse that.

PJH: Is this case going away?

MB: I really can’t comment. I’m sorry.

PJH: Any regrets during your five and a half years in office? What would like to take a ‘mulligan’ on?

MB: During the Porter annexation, [Editor’s note: The mayor is referring to a 2001 proposal to annex the Porter Estates to the city of Jackson]. I was running for the mayor’s seat in 2002. I wasn’t in favor of the Porter annexation only because I felt the town wasn’t being taken care of, and that we could do more in town. Any annexation should be a last resort.

[Since then] we’ve worked toward doing what we thought we heard the community asking for, which was infill redevelopment, smart growth in town, with more residential opportunities in commercial zones. And in hindsight, we went too quickly. I think the community still wants that. I think they just don’t understand it.

Look, I’m a businessperson. So, by nature I see a vision. I formulate a plan and go after the end result. But public service is not a private enterprise. And though we went to great degrees with public presentations and very well-attended public meetings. Even though we did all that, it was still not enough. Had we slowed down, and we were advised to slow down, perhaps we would not have had a referendum. And perhaps we would have been working on some of these issues that we will be working on as we go through this master plan process.

PJH: Who advised you to slow down?

MB: We had advice from the Conservation Alliance.

PJH: Any ambitions beyond mayor of this little town?

MB: I am very involved now in my hometown. This community has been very, very good to my family and me. I’ve given back by working on various nonprofit boards and organizations. I feel a responsibility, you know? “To whom much is given, much is expected.” I feel like I’ve been given lots here. This is an incredible place to raise a family and for me to grow up. I went through a big fire [High Country Linen burned down in 1998] and this community supported us big time. That’s what motivated me to [run for mayor].

PJH: Presiding over the town’s economy has to be pretty easy. A microscopic unemployment rate, ravenous real estate market, and a dual-season tourist destination make doing business in Jackson practically bulletproof.

MB: The business community has done a pretty good job. At the same time, if you find another resort in America with two national parks, three world-class ski areas and more wildlife and natural resources than virtually any place in the lower 48 states, they might have a bulletproof economy as well.

It’s interesting. You look at this town and the economy. You think it’s rolling along. Well I got to tell you, there are people today, and there have been since I got here, who are on the margin and increasingly on the margin. It’s hard when you come into a new community, especially this community, to get a toehold. If you’re a young person, and you are hoping to get married and have a family and live in Jackson Hole, you’re really pushing a big rock up a steep hill. It’s always been like that. I don’t think that’ll ever change.

PJH: The better Jackson goes, the greater the separation between feudal lords and the serfs. Can a kid from Abington, Mass., still leave his job at the Stop and Shop, move out here and make a life in Jackson Hole? Can he eventually own two businesses and, even more unimaginable, buy a home here in Jackson?

MB: I have to believe it is [still possible], because people are still doing it. When I first came here there was a summer season. It started July 4 weekend and wrapped up Labor Day weekend. That was it. Delivering laundry for Teton Laundry was one of the few year round jobs. So you might have been able to buy a city lot for $20,000 or $25,000, but how did you make a mortgage payment? Or you could have bought a house for 40 or 50 thousand, but how could you afford it?

I’m not saying it was harder then or that it’s harder now. It is always been difficult to live in Jackson Hole, Wyo. It probably always will be. Jackson Hole is not going to have enough room for everybody that wants to live here. I would at least like to see public discourse and public debates be conducted with a little more respect for each other. I think we all deserve better than to be calling individuals within our community a lot of names. We can have respectful disagreement. We can still lose our temper and be angry about something without demonizing individuals within our community. And I think our community deserves that.

PJH: Is America’s housing crisis going to come here?

MB: It might settle things temporarily, but now, I don’t think it’ll have any effect. Look at that median home price in the face of the housing crisis. Did I read that it jumped $700,000 in a matter of one quarter?

PJH: How bad did you get hit with your property tax?

MB: Up 67 percent on this little house. But, you know, there was a house that sold on the next block for a pile of money.

PJH: You join the ranks of a prestigious group of mayors, who have run Jackson since 1914. Names like Deloney, Crabtree, Clissold and Huff. As the 20th mayor of Jackson, you will be forever remembered as the mayor who was in office when the town became a city.

MB: But we still call ourselves a town. Do you know why we did that though?

PJH: So you could get some council members and others paid who deserve to get paid?

MB: While that was a big part of it. But I don’t know if you remember, there was a problem with a lawsuit in 2003 or 2004, because a city cop pulled over a kid outside the city limits. The lawyer who defended this Jackson High School kid got him off saying the cop had [no jurisdiction outside of town limits]. So it got thrown out of court and that had repercussions all over the state.

Now, as a result of becoming a first-class city, we have jurisdiction a half-mile out. And did you know that the four lane that runs through town, most of that is not within the city? It seems like a pretty minor thing. But in this community, when you’ve got millions of visitors coming through, you really have to be responsible for people’s safety.

PJH: Why announce your candidacy so early? Are you trying to mirror the Presidential race by making the campaign drag on over the summer?

MB: If you look at my previous campaigns, I’ve always announced early, usually at the end of February. So perhaps this is late. I just think the citizens should know what my intentions are.

PJH: Who do you expect may run against you?

MB: I don’t know. I really don’t think about it. It’s not my business. If somebody wants to do it, that’s great. Then again, if somebody doesn’t, that’s great, too. You only have so much capacity to worry about what you can control. I’ve got enough stuff that wakes me up in the middle of the night. I don’t need to add to the pile. I know what I’ve accomplished. And I know my perception of things that have happened.

Photo DEREK DILUZIO
Mayor Mark Barron talks about going green, fourth term

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