The mayor of Park City on Monday is slated to deliver the State of the City address, and Nann Worel, who took office just more than a year ago, has chosen a theme for the speech that centers on the ideal of “Together we can.”
But there is a deep-rooted question related to the theme of the address, one that will likely set the tone for the next 12 months and influence how much can be accomplished by the mayor, the Park City Council and the wider municipal government: Are we even together at this point?
Worel won the mayor’s office in 2021, besting an incumbent in an election that also put two new members onto the City Council. A third City Council newcomer arrived shortly afterward to serve the partial term Worel vacated as she ascended to the Marsac Building’s top political post.
Her win on Election Day in 2021 came amid extraordinary tension in the community. The pandemic at the time continued to loom over all aspects of Park City, a series of social justice murals created on the Main Street asphalt spurred division and, by then, there were renewed worries about the busyness of the community, including traffic and the other impacts of a reignited tourism industry after the earlier pandemic-forced shutdowns.
As Worel finalizes her remarks for the Monday address, it seems she will discuss what she envisions can be done over the course of the remainder of 2023 and into early 2024, when there could be a new City Council slate after the election in November. The idea that the community can make the progress she desires relies at some level on the togetherness that she also apparently sees in Park City. Bringing a community together, reasonably believed to be a key role of any mayor, will be a challenge in Park City, however, particularly this year.
The City Hall election begins early in the summer, and the campaign season could be a distraction if municipal work becomes politicized, as has been the case in the past. Three seats on the City Council — a majority — are on the ballot. The togetherness the mayor appears ready to promote could be tested quickly if the election turns tense as early as the summer.
There has been little publicity to date about the election, but access to Park City’s nonpartisan ballot is simple compared to elections that involve political parties. Parkites sometimes essentially just show up at the Marsac Building to declare their candidacies, immediately giving them a platform for their issues.
Even if the mayor herself, who is not on the ballot this year, can successfully sidestep the political season, her agenda for the year will almost certainly be up for debate by the field for the three seats on the City Council. And there have been high-profile splits on the dais at City Hall during the Worel administration that could embolden candidates of various political stripes.
Moreover, and also key to the success of any sort of togetherness efforts, is the mood of a community that has whipsawed between the devastation of the early months of the pandemic and the economic boom that followed. Although the current ski season has unfolded in a more orderly manner than the troubled one a year ago, Parkites seem to continue to harbor doubts about the community. The complaints about traffic, crowds, affordability and the impacts of the resort industry remain intact even if they are not as pronounced as they were as it became apparent that the 2021-2022 ski season was overwhelming Park City.
City Hall in the days before the scheduled State of the City address released the results of a survey detailing the sentiments of Parkites on a wide-ranging list of issues, called the National Community Survey. The responses were collected in late 2022 and early 2023, and some of the results to key questions reinforce the difficulties the mayor could encounter as she presses the ideal of togetherness. The survey found widespread dismay with the cost of living, housing availability and traffic, as well as, crucially, concerns about the overall direction of Park City.
Worel brought a background to the mayor’s office that included time as a member of the City Council, a stretch as a Park City Planning Commissioner and a role as a not-for-profit executive. It was a progression that was appealing to voters, who saw in Worel someone with the acumen to skillfully move from the controversial development-related matters the Planning Commission processes to the broader issues regularly put to the City Council. There had been successes and challenges at each point, and her ability to navigate them ultimately earned her the victory in 2021.
The together-we-can attitude the mayor intends to highlight is something that can likely lead to certain successes in the coming year. That work, expected to be difficult, would be less complicated, though, if Park City is actually together.