Salt Lake City Council members Chris Wharton and Alejandro Puy were named 2025 chairperson and vice chairperson, respectively, during the Council’s first meeting of the year on Tuesday night.

The Council also adopted an ordinance amending campaign regulations to better adhere to state law and adopted stipends for council leadership. Additionally, the Council created a new Northpoint Light Industrial Zoning District for the Northpoint Small Area Plan.

New Council Leadership
At the start of each year, the Council names a new chair and vice chair. These council leaders are responsible for leading legislative priorities, representing the Council in public and policy discussions and organizing communication with other members of the Council.

Councilmember Victoria Petro served as chair in 2024, alongside Wharton as vice chair. Wharton, who represents District 3, also served as chair in 2020.

"I am honored to serve as chair once again,” Wharton said. “I am eager to work with my peers and our community to ensure Salt Lake City remains a thriving, inclusive and forward-thinking city with our constituents at the heart of every decision we make.”

Vice chairperson Puy, representing District 2, served as chair of the city’s redevelopment agency (renamed the Community Reinvestment Agency this week) during 2024.

“I am excited to collaborate with Chair Wharton and my Council colleagues as we continue our work to enhance the quality of life for all Salt Lake City residents,” Puy said. “Our city’s future is bright, and I look forward to contributing to meaningful and impactful solutions for our community.”

Councilmember Stipends
As part of the budget process last spring, the Council adopted legislative intent to evaluate Council compensation and whether raises or additional stipends for members of Council leadership are justified. Currently, the Council’s salary is determined by city ordinance to be equal to 25% of the mayor’s compensation. That means, right now, Council members make an annual salary of $52,941.

However, some Council members believe that the 25% standard does not accurately reflect the time and commitment required to serve on the Council. Though being a Council member is officially considered a part-time position, a staff analysis found that members of the Council work an average of 27 hours each week.

“This is not changing our compensation. In conformity with other entities throughout the state, we're offering stipends for leadership requirements,” Councilmember Petro said.

Some of the Council’s discussions around compensation have focused on ensuring that there is an “equal opportunity to serve as a City Council Member.” This means the Council is working to evaluate whether its compensation structure unintentionally limits the likelihood that people from all income levels could serve on the Council. For example, the Council is considering whether the compensation is enough to cover expenses associated with taking time off from full-time work or to offset the costs of childcare.

“I'm still bummed because I still don't think that we have created something where this office is equitably approachable in the pay, but it is what we can do given limitations outside the city [and] given market pressures,” Petro said.

The Council has also discussed creating a formal evaluation process using an outside entity to guide conversations around pay, though this has not materialized yet.

The stipends created by this ordinance give $3,000 to the Council chairperson and $2,000 to the vice chairperson, to reflect the extra work taken on by Council leadership.

“From the very beginning, one of the items that I thought was missing from the actual compensation structure was an opportunity to recognize that the members of leadership do have a significantly increased workload,” Councilmember Sarah Young said.

Ultimately, the Council voted 5-2 to approve the adoption of stipends. Councilmember Wharton and Councilmember Dan Dugan voted in the negative.

“I'm definitely not opposed to the stipends as a concept,” Wharton said, adding that he would rather wait until the Council receives formal input on the compensation structure.

Meanwhile, Dugan explained that while he values the extra time and work leadership puts into their position, “I just don't think this is a necessary need.” More information on Council compensation can be found at tinyurl.com/CouncilCompensation.

Campaign Reporting
The Council also adopted an ordinance waiving the requirement for municipal candidates, Political Action Committees and Political Interest Committees to report financial contributions to the city. Both kinds of committees are already required to report their financial activity to the state, but Salt Lake City is the only municipality that requires additional reporting.

The goal of waving this requirement is to eliminate redundancy. It does not change contribution limits for municipal campaigns.

“Those older, lower limits in city code need to be updated so that we can legally comply with state code. That's all this is attempting to do,” Councilmember Eva Lopez Chavez said.

Northpoint Light Industrial Zone
A new zoning district known as the Northpoint Light Industrial Zone was also created at Tuesday’s meeting. This new zone permits light industry, office space and research facilities in the zone. Buildings in this zone cannot exceed 40 feet in height and must have a buffer of 300 feet from the Jordan River and wetlands in the area.

The new zone will help with the implementation of the Northpoint Small Area Plan, which guides future development and use of land in the space between the Salt Lake City International Airport and the northern Salt Lake City boundary line.