Meet the candidate: Skyler Beltran for Utah County Commissioner

As Election Day draws near, KSL NewsRadio is interviewing candidates to get their stance on today’s issues. Keep an eye on our election coverage as we continue speaking to the 2024 General Election candidates.

SALT LAKE CITY — When Utah County Commissioner Tom Sakievich resigned from that position for health reasons, the Utah County Republican Party Central Committee nominated Skyler Beltran to fill the seat. Not long after, the Utah County Commission accepted the nomination.

Now, Beltran is running to keep the seat. 

An interview with Beltran aired on KSL At Night on Sept. 16, 2024.  A portion of the transcript, and the full podcast, are below.

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This interview has been modified for brevity and clarity.

HOST ADAM GARDINER: Okay, Skyler, can you give us a little bit of your background and why you decided to run for office?

SKYLER BELTRAN: My professional background was in corporate retail. I was actually one of the youngest people in Sears, the department store, if you remember that company, and I spent a lot of years there…

I jumped into real estate. So I’ve been selling residential real estate in Utah County for the last seven years…

I was the Utah County Republican Party chairman for two years. I served on the Utah County Planning Commission up until this week, and I served on the Utah County Board of Adjustments before that.

Skyler Beltran on his first 100 days

HOST MAURA CARABELLO: Give me your first 100 days. What are you going to want to accomplish?

BELTRAN: The last thing you want to do in any job, let alone politics, is jump in and try to reinvent the wheel or make drastic changes. So building that relationship, assessing where we’re at, what we what we need to do, will be first.

There’s a couple [of] changes I’d like to see at the meeting level. I would like to move public comment to the beginning of the meeting. I’d also like to have more detailed discussion at the commission meetings…

I think the public needs to see how decisions are made. And so I’d love to bring a little bit more clarity and discussion to our weekly meeting.

GARDINER: What is your position on the three-member commission? 

BELTRAN: In 2019 it was on the ballot, and it was shot down [the vote was about] 60-40, and I personally am opposed to a strong mayor council form, but I think that we do need to look at expanding the commission to maybe a five-member commission and a county administrator, which we recently hired.

CARABELLO: How do you grow infrastructure, which I think most Republicans believe is a fundamental tenet of good government. How do you do that and grapple with the fact that that sometimes means fees or taxes?

BELTRAN:  To say taxes will never go up is just not practical. But we need to have a commission that’s willing to make tough choices and not say “yes” and spend recklessly, but in projects that are in the scope of government.

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Listen to the entire interview below:

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