On Jan. 12, Jesse Valdez was sworn in as the first mayor of Kearns since the city incorporated in 2024. Valdez is a longtime resident of Salt Lake County’s west side and approaches his term as mayor with an agenda of creativity and inclusion.
With nearly 39,000 residents, Kearns will again be featured on the world stage when the Winter Olympic speedskating events return to the Utah Olympic Oval in 2034. The city faces many challenges, including finding ways to raise revenue in the landlocked community.
Why did you decide to run for mayor? I’ve always been involved with community and passionate about community. The surrounding cities, or people outside of Kearns, tend to paint a picture of what Kearns is, and I think that’s what built the passion to stick up for Kearns. I’ve always had this passion for Kearns.
How would you define the city’s character? We still have that small-town feel. We’re very passionate and can be very community-oriented, despite how big we’re becoming. It may not be recognized nearly as much, but Kearns residents show small acts of kindness all the time.
What do you consider the city’s biggest challenge? It’s trying to figure out, now that we’re a city, how we take on the responsibility of taxes. A lot of the burden falls on our residents when it comes to property taxes and so we’re trying to figure out how to take that burden off the residents.
How will you address that challenge? We have to find a way to get businesses to not only come to Kearns but to stay in Kearns, and make the city a destination, not just a drive-through. I believe the only way to do that is to get the Kearns residents on board because if we can’t get the community on board, how do we get the outside to be? We need to start community engagement to see how we can get businesses here
to Kearns.
How will you engage residents to get them to see the vision? It’s my role to engage them. That could be with creating and building awareness around the leadership that exists, but also creating avenues to meet people where they are.
What is your plan to address growth? We start embracing what we have and move forward with that. The biggest thing we have for Kearns right now is that the Olympics are coming back. It’s time Kearns gets a little selfish here and advocates for what they want. That’s going to be a starting point for how we’re going to incentivize businesses to want to come here and
stay here.
What are some plans for development in Kearns? We have this general plan of creating a town center on 5400 South and having businesses there. We have a lot of small, indirect things we have to do, besides looking at the big picture. Maybe we look at building businesses, or a plaza, or a community hub, somewhere by the Utah Olympic Oval, near the [Kearns Oquirrh Park] fitness center. These are all ideas. We have to get into it and figure out what we can do. But it would be really nice to have people who want to come to Kearns.
With the transportation issue or parking issue for people going to the (Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre), I’m a big advocate of embracing things rather than resisting. So, can we create some type of parking area or trolley that goes to the amphitheater and brings them back down to a place where they can get meals or drinks?
What are your top two priorities for your first year? Community involvement and public safety. I think a big thing that could help with not only public safety, but with neighborhoods and encouraging people to go outside, is if we get some better street lighting. With Kearns, we have to be creative with everything. I find it important that not only leadership, but all of Kearns, feels invested in their city.