McNutt chosen to fill council seat

Brings vast experience to role

Posted

Darby McNutt has been appointed to fill the vacant Page City Council seat left by the resignation of Scott Sadler. 

Voting 4–2 last Wednesday, council’s decision will secure McNutt roughly one year on the dais until the position is up for reelection in November 2018. McNutt will be allowed to then run for the position at that time if he wishes. 

Council held a formal public vote for the nine candidates after deliberating for roughly 20 minutes in a private executive session. Initially split, and appearing like they were going to elect fellow candidate and Parks and Rec Advisory Board chairman Brian Carey, Vice Mayor John Kocjan changed his vote at the last minute to McNutt before a motion was made.  

Jocelyn Beard, a Navajo woman who works as a program manager for The Coconino County Public Health Department and serves as the board president for the Circle of Page, received one vote from Councilman Levi Tappan.  

The original vote tally before the flip stood at three votes for Carey, two for McNutt and one for Beard. Amid a brief discussion, Kocjan made a motion to appoint McNutt, despite initially voting for Carey. The motion passed 4–2, with councilors, Mayor Bill Diak and Mike Bryan, voicing the two nay votes.

McNutt, 35, is an IT manager for the Bureau of Reclamation at the Glen Canyon Dam. He moved to Page in 2011 and has been fulfilling that role since. His wife Angie, a Kaibeto native, grew up in the Page area and the two met on a dating website in 2005. They were hitched within a few short months of their first date and are now raising three children.

McNutt was born in Mt. Vernon, Ill., but spent much of his youth hopping from state to state. He found himself living in Montana, Oregon, Florida and even Scotland, but always had a soft spot for Arizona, which is why he returned in 2005.

A former Marine, McNutt specialized in field communications, networking and equipment maintenance before reaching the rank of lance corporal. He received his bachelor’s of science in archaeology/anthropology from the University of Oregon this summer through its online campus program.

After an honorable discharge due to an eye injury, McNutt landed a job with the Scottsdale-based and Department of Defense-contracted General Dynamics. In 2009, he was directly involved in setting up operations in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, including the high profile and media favorite Camp Leatherneck.

In a candid interview with the Chronicle, McNutt said a primary motivator for applying for city council comes from a simple desire to both better the lives of Page citizens and to improve connections with its neighboring areas.

“We have so many outlying communities and I think we need to bring their voices to the table, too. At the end of the day I consider us all family here,” he said. 

McNutt believes the biggest obstacles now facing Page are the 2019 closure of the Navajo Generating Station, the local housing crisis and the volatile nature of a tourism-based economy.

“We need to be asking ourselves what is best for Page in the near future, five years down the road, 10 years down the road. I have three kids and the decisions we make today will impact them tomorrow,” he said.

McNutt said finding ways to mitigate the more than $50 million per year economic blow after NGS closes is the most pressing issue the Page area has ever faced. 

And relying solely on tourism to fill that void won’t be enough, he predicts.

“Tourism is unpredictable. It’s something that is dictated by factors that range from macro changes in worldwide markets to miniscule ones at the local level,” he said. “I think as a city and community members we’re going to need to come together to find the best solution.”

Attracting other big industries to the area could be key, he noted.

McNutt said he hopes to “give a voice to the community,” as a city councilman, adding that tackling problems through an anthropological lens will likely be his biggest strength.

“I’m a believer that recognizing your own biases is half the battle. It’s important to look at ideas that are presented fairly and accurately represent the greater majority rather than personal interests,” he continued.

McNutt told The Chronicle he credits his background in archaeology and anthropology combined with his military service having given him a more egalitarian and sympathetic outlook on communities and policy-making. 

He hopes to seek out solutions that benefit as many as people as possible during his first year on council.

McNutt was officially sworn in to city council Monday morning and will attend his first public city council meeting on Sept. 27.