SALT LAKE CITY — Sparks continued to fly in the battle over the Salt Lake City mayoral seat, as subtle jabs became increasingly more overt during a forum over west side issues Tuesday night.

All three candidates — Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, former Mayor Rocky Anderson and community activist Michael Valentine — gathered at the Utah State Fairpark, where they were asked about everything from housing and homelessness to transportation issues, the Utah Inland Port and the Utah Department of Transportation's plan to expand Interstate 15 from Salt Lake City to Farmington.

The event, sponsored by the Westside Coalition and League of Women Voters Salt Lake, brought in more than 100 people. but wasn't quite as dramatic as a similar type of forum that the Crossroads Urban Center held earlier this month over the city's housing and homelessness issues.

While there were some courteous reminders to hold applause at times, there weren't any major disruptions. Instead, the jabs came on stage, especially as all three jockeyed over how to handle the job.

Anderson, for example, took several shots at the current administration, particularly, as the conversation moved toward the inland port and I-15 expansion plans.

He chided Mendenhall for "bowing down" to the Utah Legislature and conceded the inland port for a "seat at the table," referencing a bill that the city supported last year that gave Salt Lake City some concessions as a result of the port being placed in the city, before talking about his efforts to block the Legacy Parkway that connects with Davis County, which resulted in changes to how it was constructed.

"We stood up and provided that leadership," he said. "Do you just want go-along, get-along leadership in Salt Lake City, or do you want somebody — yeah, you might make people irritated for a while, but you stand up and you fight the fights and you end up bringing along progress like we did."

Mendenhall rebuked this approach later in the event, as the conversation returned to the freeway. She asserted that walking away from these types of conversations and suing the state over issues "does not keep us at the table" and often results in retaliation from the state and neighboring communities instead of gaining consolation prizes like tax revenue benefits.

"We don't get that when you just keep suing and walking away," she said. "The I-15 expansion has already been funded. How it happens is what we get to decide by working with the reality that we live in. ... What you know, better than anybody in the city, when a mayor throws bombs at the Legislature, it's the city that gets burned. It's the Salt Lakers who suffer."

She added at the end of the night there was "a lot of complaining" brought up from her opponents, but "very little in the way of actual solutions."

Valentine, meanwhile, took a few barbs at the current administration, as well, saying that he tried to reach Mendenhall for two years amid his efforts to prevent the historic Pantages Theater from being torn down — before it was eventually demolished last year — as the candidates switched topics to civic engagement.

The experience, he said, turned out to be fairly instrumental in his decision to run for office, as he pushes for what he said would be a more transparent office.

"In some alternate reality, I'm not up here running for office, I would be working with the mayor. I'd be the director of the theater over there — but she wouldn't meet with me," he said. "I'm a resident, I'm a voter, how can I not meet with my own mayor? It seems insane."

Addressing west side issues

All of the questions focused on key west side issues. And for as many fireworks that flew over leadership, there were some issues that the candidates seemed to agree on, to an extent.

All three agreed that something must be done to ensure that west side residents aren't priced out of their homes in the future, which is where Mendenhall referenced the Thriving In Place anti-gentrification plan that the City Council is slated to vote on next month.

They also seemed to agree about environmental concerns, including dust from the Great Salt Lake, and that more should be done to better connect the marginalized west side with the rest of the city. Options brought up included more transit options or burying some sections of the railroad lines — an idea that is being studied. The candidates also bashed UDOT's I-15 expansion project, even if there were different approaches as to how to handle it.

As Valentine put it, "It's very clear that everybody is against the I-15 expansion."

Related:

Salt Lake City mayoral candidates face outbursts in forum about homelessness, housing

The Salt Lake City mayoral candidates came together for their first forum Wednesday to discuss housing and homelessness ahead of the city's November election.

The candidates appeared to be the most distant when it came to affordable housing and homeless issues, however.

Mendenhall championed the city's massive uptick in affordable housing spending since 2020, which has resulted in more than 4,000 new affordable housing units through partnerships with developers. She said that allows the city to chip away at more of the state's massive housing deficit with the money spent.

But Valentine said the cost of affordable housing is still very high for many residents, while Anderson argued that the city could better control housing costs by overseeing the development of projects like many cities in other countries do.

"We build it and we can keep the rates down ... so rents aren't going to keep increasing at these ridiculous rates that are driven by the developers that have been financed with millions of our dollars by this administration," he said.

The only change regarding homelessness since the forum earlier this month is that city and state officials have unveiled the location of a temporary sanctioned homeless campground for the winter. Mendenhall said the city will continue to work with county and state entities trying to address the issue, and Anderson said his plan would be "exactly the opposite" of the city's current approach.

Valentine said he would try to follow Denver's blueprint, issuing a state of emergency over the issue before looking at more sanctioned campsites to avoid abatements and ways to move people to more long-term housing.

All of these issues are likely to be rehashed again next week for a debate that will be broadcast on PBS Utah, as the candidates vie for votes. This year's election, decided by ranked-choice voting, will be held on Nov. 21.

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