Casper City Council Candidates Take Part in Forum [AUDIO]

Ten candidates for Casper City Council were in attendance Monday for a special forum held by the Wyoming League of Women Voters.

Several subjects were discussed during the over two-hour forum, including current city council unity, the use of citizen advisory boards, the hotel and conference center plan, the recently approved-then-repealed public indoor smoking ban and the performance of the city manager.

Ward I candidate Robin Mundell was critical of the city's prior use of consultants, specifically for projects like the Hogadon Ski Area master plan, saying that the city had been, in the past, “taken” by consultant groups.

“Consultants want to have the nth degree – they want the biggest and the best,” Mundell said after the forum. “Sometimes, I think the city council has been led astray by these consultants and they’re not applying common sense.”

The “taken” comment came during a discussion about the city’s list of construction projects – many of which have been coming back above budget estimates. Recently, elements of the Hogadon rebuild came back over budget.

Most of the candidates also supported the renewal of the optional one-cent sales tax. Ward III candidate Shawn Manning, however, was hesitant to throw his full support behind the renewal campaign.

“I don’t support taxes, but if, indeed, there’s going to be a tax, I would like to see it applied to food production of some kind,” Manning said. “But, in general, no, I don’t agree with taxes.”

Ward I’s Robin Mundell, Ward I’s Gabe Phillips, Ward III’s Phil Jones, Ward II’s Shawn Johnson, Ward III’s Shawn Manning, Ward III’s William Street, current Casper mayor Paul Meyer, Ward I’s Kimberly Holloway, Ward II’s Shey Snapp and Ward III’s Ray Pacheco were in attendance Monday.

Casper voters will head to the polls on Nov. 4.

Due to fidelity issues, and due to SoundCloud's time constraints, full-length audio of the event could not be included with this story. We have included as much uncut audio as was available.