Duane Kearsley is aiming to bring leadership and transparency back to local government.

Kearsley, who owns a construction company and works as the facility manager for the Weber County Fairgrounds, is one of four primary candidates vying for Seat A on the Weber County Commission. The seat is currently occupied by Gage Froerer, who opted not to run for reelection in 2026. Kearsley is facing Richard Hyer, Katrina Gibson and James Ebert in June’s primary election.

Recently, Kearsley sat down with the Standard-Examiner editorial board to discuss his campaign, why he’s running for Weber County Commission and his goals if elected.

Leadership

Ryan Comer, Standard-Examiner

Kearsley said that a question has come up over and over again during his three years working at the Weber County Fairgrounds.

“I’ve had multiple people ask, ‘Hey, would you be willing to run for commissioner,’ just seeing the change, seeing the money I saved the county, just seeing how efficient I am with the taxpayer money,” he said. “And I’ve always kind of been, ‘Nah, I don’t want anything to do with the political game.'”

However, a conversation with his daughter earlier this year changed that.

“At the start of the year, we were setting goals as a family, and she had heard these people asking this,” he said. “And she says, ‘So, dad, are you going to run for commissioner?’ And I kind of started chuckling because I thought, ‘How can I as a coach tell these kids don’t be afraid to do hard things? Something pops up where I need to get out of my comfort zone and do hard things.’ So here I am.”

Kearsley said he’s running to restore leadership in local government.

“We are lacking leadership,” he said. “And it’s easy for us to point our fingers to somebody else, ‘Hey, why don’t you do this? Why don’t you jump in and do this for us, for the people?’ But we expect our politicians to do what’s right for us, and they’re not. And we’re all busy with our life. We’re all busy working. And if I just assume, ‘Hey, these politicians are doing what’s right for me,’ and I’m not doing my civic duty to hold them accountable, then we’re all kind of to blame.”

Experiences

In addition to his 29 years as a business owner, Kearsley said his time at the Weber County Fairgrounds has helped prepare him to take on a governing role.

“I am a facility manager at the Weber County Fairgrounds,” he said. “In the GSEC (Golden Spike Event Center) staff, I’ve been able to go there, work there and instantly just can see some inefficiencies that were taking place. We have a great staff over there.

We do a lot of events, and we’re funded by the tourism tax. And so with that being said, I take pride in the fact that every dollar spent needs to be of a place of accountability and responsibility to say, ‘Hey, we’re spending this money wisely.'”

He said there’s been instances where he was able to use his construction expertise to help make projects less burdensome.

“We did a capital improvement project over there,” he said. “My lowest bid for that job was $439,000. I did the job for $200,000 — just over $210,000 or $215,000. And that’s all we had in the budget for it. So if I would have subbed that out to the lowest bid contractor, we would have got a third of the project done and probably had change orders along the way, so how much of the project would have actually got done?”

Kearsley said he’d like to apply his knowledge to the county as a whole.

“What I bring to the table is the construction background knowledge, business owner mindset knowledge, saving money, implementing how you would do your own finances at home,” he said. “I’m going to implement that through the county.”

Challenges

Kearsley said the biggest challenge to the county presently is the cost of living.

“The biggest thing right now that people are frustrated with is every year your taxes are going up,” he said. “You’ve worked your whole life to live in the house you’re living in. Some of our elderly people are looking at a reverse mortgage just so they can afford to still live in that. There’s zero reason to raise your taxes. We have government bloat. We have the inefficiencies. We have people running in office to better their retirement.”

He said that he feels one of the biggest areas of bloat is in county commissioner salaries.

“One of the very first things I said is county commissioners make way too much money,” he said. “What I mean by that is as a construction owner, I can justify to you why I’m worth X. I can justify to you why I’m worth $250,000 a year. The difference between that political office, that’s public service. That’s your chance to give back. We should have people in the community that have had successful businesses, that have ran their life and their businesses successfully that come into this office because people want them — which is why I’m here. People are asking them to run for this position because they see what you’re doing. They see the difference you’re making. And I’m willing to take that lower cut because we don’t need career politicians.”

Kearsley said he’s running to support the people.

“We need people that represent the people, and that’s why I’m running,” he said. “I’m running for my kids, for your kids, for anybody that wants to live in Weber County so we can make it affordable for these households to sustain and be able to raise future generations in Weber County.”

Additionally, he said there is a need to tackle the county’s growth in the correct manner.

“When’s the last time we’ve talked about dredging a lake?” he said. “When’s the last time we’ve talked about adding water vaults underneath our roads? When have we talked about that? We don’t hear anybody talking about that. We just hear about the quick dollar the developers and whoever’s going to make. And I’m not against that — I’ve made my money in my business through development. In concrete construction, I’d be a fool to say, ‘Oh, I haven’t made money in development.’ I’ve made a lot of money in development, but we need to be more responsible about it and make sure that we’re following that master plan, and that’s the responsibility.”

Positives

While Kearsley said he sees challenges in county government, he said there’s also a great asset within.

“We have a great team of employees that work for the county that do a great job,” he said. “As leadership, we need to be able to utilize their talents more effectively across the county to get the job done in a better, more efficient way.”

From the voters

In addition to the cost of living, Kearsley said that over the course of his campaign he’s heard about concerns surrounding the loss of a voice in government.

“They want to make sure they have a voice in what’s happening, and I feel like the constituents of Weber County feel like they’ve lost their voice,” he said. “They have career politicians speaking for them. They try to talk, and they just feel like they’re not being heard. And what I bring is I speak for the people. I’m only running for the people.”

He said there is a lot that can be done to bring back that voice and interaction.

I’m not a suit-and-tie type of an individual,” he said. “I’m going to be out and about with the public, with the workers of Weber County. That’s how you see your efficiencies and your inefficiencies. When you can get around other people and you see different ideas and you say, ‘Hey, man, we could implement this idea that these guys are doing in this department. We can do some things to make that cohesiveness exist better and also be more efficient in the county. That’s what my goal is, and that’s why we need the boots-on-the-ground type of an attitude in our community and with our county workers to see what are their efficiencies and inefficiencies.”

‘The shining light’ 

Kearsley said that he sees great potential for the county if it’s able to shake the habit of always doing the same thing.

“Weber County should be the shining light in the state of Utah,” he said. “If we implement the change that we need, lessen this government, make it more effective, stop raising taxes — I ain’t raising taxes — if we do those things, that’s how we implement the change. So stop doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result and actually say, ‘Hey, this guy is a business owner. He’s running for us, the people,’ and I think it’s up to them.”

For more on Duane Kearsley and his campaign, visit votekearsley.com.