Voter Guide: Brandon Lee

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Interview Transcript:

Reporter: Let's just start a little bit with you. Just tell us a little about yourself.

Lee: Okay. So again, my name is Brandon Lee. I was born and raised here in Idaho Falls. I'm a proud alum of Theresa Bunker Elementary School. And Idaho Falls High School. My parents are Royce and Annette. And early on, they taught me the importance of being engaged in the communities that we live in. And, so I've always felt like that's important. And then that lesson has stuck with me throughout my life. After high school, when ways, for university and kind of first career jobs. And that led me into the world of commercial real estate development, where I was able to work with, cities and city councils, really across the country. As I did site selection and land acquisition for Target Corporation. And so as we went into those municipalities, many of which were experiencing similar things to what we're seeing here in Idaho Falls today in terms of growth, we live in an amazing place. I love where we live. And, and I really was able to see and I think take away some best nuggets, if you will, or best practices from cities who were very strategic and purposeful in their growth and those that just kind of let growth happen as it happens. And it was amazing to me. Just kind of the feeling that I dynamic of those communities that were strategic and purposeful. And, that's what I want to continue to do here within our city. Again, I think we live in an amazing place. There's a reason why people are moving here. It's because we we have an amazing place to live for. So much to be grateful for. I look at the challenges, if you will. That the that growth brings and that the city is going to be dealing with. And that's exciting to me. Those are those are challenges that I love to go find solutions for. I would much rather have that than the alternative, which is, you know, employers leaving and homes not selling and people leaving your community. To me, those are really hard challenges. And fortunately we don't have any. We don't have to deal with that. We're on the opposite end of that spectrum where we've just, again, we have a lot of opportunity in front of us to do a lot of great things.

Reporter: Okay. Fantastic. Let's talk about the house. And again, you're one of these great guys and answered a question before I asked you here, but let's talk about what inspired you to run for office.

Lee: Sure. I'll double back then a little bit. I mean, really, the primary drivers. I love Idaho Falls. I just think we live in a great place. Again, I've been around all over the country and seen so many wonderful places. But this is home, and and and I love it. I think that the. I don't know how you want to say this, but the genie is out of the bottle, right? In terms of how great of a place that it is that we live. And so I think that we have to recognize that growth is going to occur and that as we do so, it's extremely important that we do so strategically. So I come back to that kind of that term and what does that mean. And to me that means, you know, there there's so much information and, and data that's available to us. And when it comes time to making important decisions, I want to have all that data and all that information, and I want to be able to make the appropriate decisions regarding infrastructure and budgets and parks and public safety and all those things that truly interplay and interrelate to each other. And I think that, making decisions without that data, you know, you can end up with just some shortsighted decisions. And so, again, I come back to that. I feel strategic growth is all encompassing for all the areas of the city. And, I feel that my background has led me to become a very solution oriented person, who appreciates and enjoys challenges.

I don't shy away from them, I love them. But I like finding good solutions and coming up with good ideas. And I think that our community, through the campaign, it's been really fun to go into the community and meet so many great people who have wonderful ideas. I certainly don't have the monopoly on good ideas. But I love being able to have that dialog with people who have just as much concern and care for our city and ideas as to what are good solutions, not just, complain and complain and complain. But hey, here's a potential, solution to a problem that we see coming, or a challenge that we see coming. And I love that type of dialog where, again, people, they really do care about our community and people want the best for it. And and I do too.

Reporter: And, well, it certainly plays into my next question. What would you like to accomplish or change if elected?

Lee: I think with the focus of, of growth, in terms of, of true change. Again, I love the trajectory that we're currently on. I think that our current council has, has done amazing things. As I have had conversation again with, with residents throughout the community. I feel that there's some opportunity for us to really improve the way that the city communicates and, disseminates information. So an idea that actually came on that I've latched on to is not mine, but I latched on to it. That came out in one of the cottage meetings that I attended, or an open house. And that is to truly create almost like a, you know, a 3 to 5 minute podcast every week where this is like, this is what the city's doing this week, and it's got to go across all platforms. And so and it's got to be quick. It's got to be informative and probably even a little bit funny. Right. So that you can keep people's attention but little things like that. So I love that notion of we have to go and provide information where people are obtaining it, where they want to obtain it, and to those sources, because I think just putting information on a website, while the information might be there, that's not really where people are. That's not the source people are using to obtain their information. So I think identifying how people want to consume that information, and then providing it so that there's, just a better way to encourage dialog, and, and encourage engagement because I think just those little ways, again, people have great ideas. And so how can we get out and collect those and be, be the face and, and, and make sure that people feel like, hey, you know, Brandon's a person that I could go to with these ideas because he's open to it. He's receptive. He's not closed minded. And and so that's what I'd like to be able to do.

Reporter: Cool. Okay. Again, you answered the question, right? I ask it, how would you like to go about maintaining or possibly creating a relationship with citizens?

Lee:

Yeah, I think, those are those are the primary ways, I think that I, that I already shared. It really is. I, I come back to that just that notion of. Getting the people who care about the community and who are willing to get engaged. How do we find ways to tap into that, to that talent? Right. And to that idea pool? And we have so many. The reality is, is our community truly is very diverse, especially in diverse and thought. And so that that wealth of knowledge. I would be very invested in finding ways to try to tap into the knowledge base of our overall community, and give people the opportunity and the platforms to come forth and again, just feel comfortable, not be intimidated and not feel like they're not going to be heard. I think sometimes people do feel that way, that maybe city council is too far removed or the mayor is too far removed. But I can tell you that, that's not how I would be. That's not how Lisa Burton she would be if she were elected. Just very, very open, and welcoming is is is how I would state that.

Reporter:

Okay. How are you feeling about your campaign so far?

Lee: Oh, I love it. Yeah, people ask me that quite a bit. There are seven, folks who have put their name in the in the hat, so to speak, for this particular seat. And, I think it's fantastic that you all, from everything that I've read, I haven't met everyone yet. But as I've read, they're different, ideas and platforms. I feel like what is common amongst all of us and consistent is that everyone wants they have this inherent desire to make our community a better place. And so that's fantastic, right. And so if you get people who are engaged like that and, want to be involved, I love it. I think that that's, it's a sign that we live in just another sign that we live in a great place. So you got all these great people who want to do great things. And and continue. I think that focus and one thing is everyone is focused on maintaining or at least maintaining, I would say, the quality of life that we have, because I think that's that if I come back to growth, people who are afraid of growth, I don't know that they're really afraid of growth in and of itself. They're afraid that if growth isn't managed appropriately, right, then it could lead or has the potential to degrade the quality of life that we enjoy. And that's really what people, I think are concerned about. And so I kind of come full circle, I guess, to the first question, and that I think that as leadership that is in place, if they're making strategic decisions, it's going to enhance our quality of life and not degrade it.

Reporter: Okay, great. Let's talk about... Is there anything else that you would like to talk about, or any questions I did not ask that you were hoping I would ask?

Lee: That's a good question. I think that the one thing as a candidate, what I have learned and found out on the campaign trail is that, how important it is for our residents to educate themselves and really understand what are the issues that are important to them. What can city council members or the mayor actually do? Fortunately, we don't live in a place where the city council can be king or queen for the day.

Lee: Right? And or a dictator. Right? They, That's not how our government works, right? We live in this wonderful free market economy that our system is based upon. And so I think it's really important to for the voters to take time to educate themselves, understand what it is that city council members do. How is it and what type of decisions do they make that would impact their lives?

Lee: And so I think those two things, as part of this kind of level of engagement, is, is super critical. Tonight there's a forum at Compass Academy, that's being hosted. And, I actually went to lunch yesterday with one of the students from compass, and we had this great dialog. And it was really fun to understand and, and hear his questions about the process and about City council.

Lee: And I think it's important for our whole community to have that same inquisitive, nature and really want to understand what it is that our council do for us collectively. Right? How do they how can they help improve our lives? So I think that that's the first step. In my opinion, the first step of engagement is taking the time to educate ourselves.

Lee:

Understand the issues and then recognize what are the positions of the various candidates and then cast your vote right on the fourth, go out and cast your vote based on who you think is going to represent you. And your ideas. And, I mean, that's the beautiful thing about our system.