Views expressed within this Wyo4News Op-Ed are not necessarily those of Wyo4News ownership, management or it’s sponsors. Wyo4News management reserves the right to make space available for responsible, dissenting opinion.
Disclosure: Bruce Pivic is an owner in Big Thicket Broadcasting Company of Wyoming, Inc. (dba WyoRadio) and owner/operator of Wyo4News and Infinity Power and Controls.
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It is time that I speak my mind on the Rock Springs Mayoral race. I have been personally attacked on social media by one of the candidates and it is time the citizens of Rock Springs hear and understand my side of the story.
There are several reasons why I am not personally supporting Tim Kaumo for the position of Mayor of Rock Springs. Here are just a few.
First of all, I never had any animosity towards either candidate before the true election started. I do believe that Tim has had his time and that the city needs a new face with new ideas to bring Rock Springs into the 21st century. But right out of the gate, Tim decided to trash Carl Demshar, our present Mayor and the City Council. He acts as if he is running against Carl and the City Council. Guess what, he is not!
The Mayor and City Council for the past 8 years have been faced with:
- Declining annual revenue from the State because of a new formula for state funding for municipalities.
- Rock Springs has encountered a loss sales tax revenues.
- Loss of residents due to the fall of the local energy industry.
We need to realize both the State and County money is tight. I am assuring you that the present administration has done an excellent job! Sweetwater County, along with the Cities of Rock Springs and Green River, have been successful. We have been granted the National High School Rodeo, which is a major revenue stream for the City and County, and the Rock Springs Main Street URA has been awarded the 2018 Main Street URA City of the Year. Both of these bring positive, national recognition to Sweetwater County and the City of Rock Springs.
Second, Wyo4News asked both Ryan Greene and Tim Kaumo to participate in a pre-election feature entitled “5 Questions with ….” Each candidate was asked the same five questions concerning their candidacy and plans for running our City government. Each were given the same deadline for submission. Now mind you, Wyo4News did this for most Rock Springs, Green River, and Sweetwater County and State races. 39 candidates’ in total.
Here are the 5 questions that were asked to both candidates:
WHAT WILL YOU DO TO ASSURE THE PUBLIC THAT YOUR PERSONAL BUSINESS DOES NOT CONFLICT WITH CITY BUSINESS?
WHAT WILL YOU DO TO FACILITATE COOPERATION BETWEEN THE CITIES AND COUNTY?
DO YOU BELIEVE THERE SHOULD BE CHANGES IN THE WAY SALES TAX IS DISTRIBUTED TO CITIES?
WOULD YOU SUPPORT A LARGER EVENTS COMPLEX?
DOES THE DOWNTOWN URA/MAINSTREET NEED ADDITIONAL FUNDING?
Ryan Greene responded to Wyo4News’ request, but Tim Kaumo did not respond to ANY questions. He was the only candidate among the 39 that chose not answer their specific five questions. I wonder if Tim Kaumo is too arrogant and feels that he will win automatically, or he refused to answer the questions because he does not want the public to know his feelings, thoughts or the direction he wants to lead the city into.
Third, Tim chooses to proudly claim that he will remove $250,000 from the budget immediately when he takes office by eliminating two positions on the City’s current payroll, but he will not answer the question as to what positions he’s referring to.
So let’s shed some light on the current rumor mill:
City HR Director:
Human Resource (HR) Directors are involved with recruitment, training, career development, compensation and benefits, employee relations, industrial relations, employment law, compliance, disciplinary and grievance issues, redundancies etc. The job involves keeping up to date with areas such as employment law, which change often.
Generalist HR roles are usually found in small and medium sized companies, where the HR manager will deal with the whole range of HR activities. In large multinationals you will often find specialists, for example in learning and development, recruitment or employee relations.
If this is one of the positions that Tim plans on removing, I am worried about the well-being of the City. The City of Rock Springs employs between 250-300 people depending on the time of the year. An HR Manager is trained and certified to deal with employer/employee needs and rights. An HR person is there to ensure the employee is taken care of and that the City does not violate any rules that would put the City in jeopardy of a law suit. If Tim feels he is qualified and certified in HR, I’m certain most of his time as mayor will be spent taking care of employee needs; leaving little time to take care of his personal business and the needs of city government. There is no way he can legally or conscientiously take care of his personal business, mayoral duties and the HR responsibilities of 250+ city employees. An HR Manager is also responsible for ever changing Federal/State employment laws and benefits. This is a full time job. But we must remember, being Mayor is a part time position in the City of Rock Springs.
City Publics Works Director
The Rock Springs Public Works Director is responsible for the Planning functions of Rock Springs. Tim had the opportunity to eliminate this position two years into his first term. But since then, the job was done and done very well. The day the position became open by the retirement of Vess Walker, Tim felt the position was no longer needed, and has openly denounced the current administration. He states inadequate people have been appointed to this job for the last three years. This is despite the current Publics Work Director writing all of the present city ordinances in the 1980’s. Rumor has it, Tim will eliminate this job and combine it with the City Engineering position, just like it was before Mr Kaumo took office in 2003.
Now if these are not the two positions, please let us know Tim. I will do my part to rescind the rumor mill. But, I am confident my assumptions are correct.
I would also like to look at the state of the City of Rock Springs when Tim left the Mayor’s office eight years ago:
- The retention ponds in Dead Horse Canyon are needed to prevent flooding in the south east portion of Rock Springs. But there were state stipulations, rules, and permits that needed to be obtained before they were built. Unfortunately, the City of Rock Springs, under Mr Kaumo’s leadership, proceeded to build the ponds without required permits from the DEQ. Since permits were not granted, and the State rules were not followed, the State withheld the $900,000 plus dollars from the AML funding to Rock Springs. To alleviate the deficit, our present mayor, had to go to Cheyenne with hat in hand and beg for forgiveness and mend broken fences within the state government. Fortunately, the money was released and the City was not $900,000 in debt.
- Aquatics Center at the Recreation Center. This may have been a good or bad idea. The addition of the Aquatics Center has become a financial burden on the City. By adding this new facility, the annual maintenance on the pool increased the recreation centers expenses by thousands of dollars, effectively crippling the City’s recreation budget. The lack of responsible and in-depth foresight for the additional maintenance was not planned to ensure that the Aquatics center would not become a future, and now current, drain on the City’s budget. Without this additional costs, maybe we could have extended hours at the Recreation Centers as needed by the citizens of Rock Springs.
- Broadway Theater. During his term as Mayor, Mr. Kaumo had the City purchase the old Rock Theater for $90,000 with partial funding from Wyoming Business Council for renovation. The City did receive a grant for $1.2 million but decided to proceed with much larger than expected estimates for the renovation. Carla and I decided to donate our employee’s time and expertise from Infinity Power and Controls to fund and install the electrical portion of the theater project. This portion was at no cost to the City, and was meant to help lighten the deficit for the estimated construction costs. The architect’s estimate was only $135,000 for the electrical portion. When all was said and done, Infinity Power and Controls worked side by side with the public’s works director Vess Walker to complete the project. Infinity kept 5 to 10 employees on the theater project for approximately two years. We, not the City of Rock Springs, paid all their salaries, benefits, purchased job material, as well as, helping with other construction costs and labor. At the end of the project we had donated over $500,000 to the restoration of the building.
The completion of the Broadway Theater brought forth other problems. The City did not have it in its budget to maintain, clean, or even promote the facility. Carla and I helped with all of those items for the Theater for the first two years.
The Broadway Theater was not out of the woods yet though. Tim Kaumo, as Mayor, signed off on a pre-existing agreement that limited the City’s ability to show old movies. A court battle between the local movie theater and the City of Rock Springs ensued. Losing the battle, it created a huge requirement deficit to follow the guidelines of the grant from the Wyoming Business council.
I am aware of several other issues, but these are the ones that affect my vote the most.
If there is any of this that is not true, Mr Kaumo can get me the facts and I will public say I am wrong.
Just last week, Tim Kaumo called me a liar several times along with posting a demeaning video on social media. He states, along with his outbursts, that I have a reputation.
I realize as an owner of businesses, sometimes we all make enemies. There are instances when business has to be business. So, I have to wonder Mr. Kaumo, what your thoughts are on my reputation?
I would like to give a few examples of some of the City projects that Carla and I, along with our employees at Infinity Power and Controls and WyoRadio, have donated to over the past ten years. I have done this by following advice from a very successful business man, Mr. Eldon Spicer, “Give back to your community and it will come back to you tenfold”. Because of his guidance and because of my love and passion for my hometown, I have chosen to “give back” to the City of Rock Springs.
- $500,000 donation to the City for the restoration of the Broadway Theater.
- $185,000 donation to the City/Chamber of Commerce for the current, new Chamber building.
- Initial donor to the City for the start and continuation of the Downtown Mural art projects.
- One of the signature donors for the 2018 City of Rock Springs fireworks display.
- Brought my employees out of the field to put down sand bags during the 2016 flooding.
- Arrange, assemble and stored 2,000 sand bags for a possible 2017 flood.
- Countless hours spent on the Theater board for the first 5 years of its inception, including sponsorships of numerous events at the Broadway at no cost to the public or the city.
- $50,000+ in free advertising on WyoRadio and Wyo4News for the Downtown URA and City in co-sponsored events/functions.
And now, here are some projects we have done for City/area citizens:
- Given away 6,000 teddy bears and 1,500 bikes for our annual Infinity Power and Controls Bikes and Bears Christmas campaign over the past nine years.
- Years of sponsored youth/high school athletic events and activities.
- Donate a truck to the Muley Fanatics so they can spread their word on wild life conservation.
- Support the University of Wyoming’s Engineering College and Athletics Department.
These are just a few items, but Mr Kaumo, my reputation speaks for itself. I am a person that gives back to his community. I am a person who does what I say I’m going to do. I live by the Code of the West. This philosophy also carries over to my business interests and employees. We love to share the love of community with the citizens of Sweetwater County and the State of Wyoming.
Mr. Kaumo with your list of accomplishments you claim as a prior Mayor of Rock Springs, did your company, JFC Engineer and Surveyors, profit from some of those accomplishment or did you and your company, like us, donate most of their time and effort?
In conclusion it mystifies me Mr. Kaumo that you would choose to put a negative spotlight on me when I am not even running for Mayor. It is our constitutional right to have an opinion and oppose a candidate. If I wanted to be Mayor, as you have stated on social media, I would have put my hat in the ring. But I did not… want to know why? Because of all that I do for Sweetwater County, Rock Springs and the outlying area; it would be a conflict of interest. I would rather have the free/no strings attached ability in helping the City with projects and ideas. I also feel extremely bad that you feel the need to attack me on social media. I am a leader who has helped the City through good and bad times. I have stepped up to the plate in positive way, where you have consistently stepped out to the confines of social media, lashing out at those who oppose you.
Here is the bottom line, I endorse your opponent, Ryan Greene, because he is not arrogant and not a bully! He does not claim to know it all. I realize that he has little experience in government, but you have forgotten that you had no previous experience in city government 16 years ago. I do know, unlike you, that Ryan Greene recognizes that he does not know it all. That’s why he pledges that he will take the time to listen to the citizens, City employees and others while learning from past failures and successes. This will bring new ideas and prosperity to Rock Springs. He will lead with confidence by making collaborative decisions and not lead by fear, intimidation or try to achieve only what he wants and not what the city needs.
Mr. Kaumo, I think you have an agenda. I am confident that your plan is to undo all you can from the past eight years and try to go back to your business as usual. You will find this may be very difficult with a much smaller fiscal budget. It is apparent that in your mind the only way is Tim’s way because you know it all. I am concerned that you will go and attempt to strong arm the State of Wyoming to give the City money they no longer have to give. I feel secure in the promise that State officials will not bend your way again. I fear you will ruin a great relationship we currently enjoy with both the State of Wyoming and the Sweetwater County Commissioners. This will not help our city, but only hurt it.
But all in all Tim, it troubles me that you have decided to alienate yourself, and if elected, your new administration from a lifelong resident, business owner, donor and media source. It is possible that our generosity will become less and less as our relationship deteriorates over time.
For above stated reasons, I cannot support you Tim Kaumo for the office Mayor of Rock Springs.
I say, shame on you Tim Kaumo.
Bruce Pivic
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