Katrina Gibson is aiming to be an advocate for the people of Weber County.

Gibson 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. Gibson is facing Richard Hyer, Duane Kearsley and James Ebert in June’s primary election.

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

History in the county

Ryan Comer, Standard-Examiner

Gibson said one of the main reasons she’s running is her family’s deep connections to Weber County.

“I have ancestors that built Weber County,” she said. “My grandfather was the engineer on Pineview Reservoir. That took a lot of work and many years. My grandmother was one of the first women to work at Hill Air Force Base. With these ancestors that did so much to build Weber County for me, I want to build a Weber County that my children and my grandchildren and my posterity can be proud of, because this is a great place.”

She said she’s also running to help protect the county’s residents that have also contributed greatly to what Weber County has become.

“I care about the people here,” she said. “I’ve gone out talking to the citizens. I’m hearing from seniors that they’re being taxed out of their homes. They’ve built Weber County and we’re going to make it so that they can’t stay in Weber County because of rising costs. I hear young couples that all they want to do is buy a modest home to raise their families, and they’re stuck in rent that they’re paying to out-of-state interests and landlords. I want to protect the people of Weber County. I want to be a watchdog for them. I want to be a voice for them. I want them to be heard. That’s something that I’ve heard is that they feel like the commissioners are out of touch and they’re not accessible. I want to be a commissioner that is accessible and accountable and available to the people and also approachable.”

Experiences

Gibson said her time in business has greatly prepared her for a seat on the Weber County Commission.

“I have built businesses,” she said. “I’ve created businesses. I’ve sold businesses to create more businesses. I’ve had to hire employees. I’ve had to fire employees. I’ve had to have tough discussions with employees and partners on, ‘What do we do next? What’s the next step in this business?'”

She said she feels that the county ought to be run more like a business.

“I think the county could use some of that business mentality to run government,” she said. “In a business, I can’t just go create money or ask for more money from people without a consequence, and I think that our commission and county government — and in a lot of the governments — the answer is, ‘Well, we just go ask for more tax dollars.’ I want to clean that up as a commissioner. I want to clean up the budget. I want to find places where they’re not being efficient and make sure that I’m watching out for those precious taxpayer dollars that are being spent.”

Challenges

Gibson said one of the biggest challenges facing Weber County residents revolves around property rights.

“I’m a very big proponent of property rights,” she said. “I believe that property owners should be able to do what they want with their property as long as it follows the master plan of that community. And so with that, we’ve got to incentivize local people to be able to build, to not put restraints and restrictions on these local people that want to come in and do things in our communities. When a developer comes in, let’s have the conversation. ‘Does this fit the community? Is this what we want?’ And if we approve it, we’ve got to make sure those developers are paying all the infrastructure costs that come along with that.”

She said large developments also need to have water access sorted out well before being approved.

“We shouldn’t be approving big developments — these massive corporate buildings that are coming in — unless we have the water or they have the water to sustain what they’re wanting to have approved here,” she said.

Positives

Gibson said that she’s happy to see some county departments taking initiative and seeing where they’re able to cut down on spending.

“I know that there are some offices within the county that have done a lot to be more efficient, cleaning things up, using attrition and trying to make their office run in a timely manner.,” she said. “Because county government is a service for the people, we need to be looking at it that way — that we’re in service to them.

She said it’s imperative to support those efforts and expand them as necessary.

“So what can we do to make it easier for them?” she said. “How can we support them? How can we help these people be more successful in what they’re doing? And I think that the whole county could learn from those things and those offices that have become very efficient and do it countywide. Let’s look at every department, every budget line item and let’s justify every tax dollar that is being spent and make sure that those are being spent the way that taxpayers would want their money to be spent.”

From the voters

As she’s campaigned, Gibson said one of the concerns she’s heard is about larger developments that are outpacing the existing infrastructure.

“As we’re seeing a lot of these high-density housing, the people that I have talked to are saying the infrastructure is not in place for these high-density housings,” she said. “For instance, up on — I believe it’s Monroe — there’s been some new housing going in up there, and the roads are backed up at the lights in the mornings as people are trying to get off to work and to school. That’s a big concern. We need to make sure infrastructure is in place before we approve and allow these high-density homes to be built.”

The other major concern she’s heard has been affordability.

“That is a big deal,” she said. “These senior citizens and young people that I’ve talked to being taxed out of owning a home. And isn’t that the American dream, to have a home here? And if we’re taxing them out of home or not even making it possible for them to have a home, that’s a great concern. I would like to build relationships with state legislators that we can have that discussion of what we can do to help alleviate the burden of the property tax owner and these taxpayers.”

Boosting accessibility

Gibson said, in order to boost accessibility, she would be in favor of moving Weber County Commission meetings to later in the day to allow more people to participate.

“County government’s responsibility is to serve the people, so we need to make sure that we’re having meetings that the majority of the people can attend and be a part of,” she said. “And not only that — that we give opportunity for them to have a voice. That we allow public comment in these meetings. And that’s something I will work towards, is making sure that the public has a voice.”

Gibson said that, while there are outreach efforts in place, it may be time to implement more direct methods fo reaching the wider public.

“The people feel like they’re uninformed,” she said. “They don’t know when the meetings are happening. And I do know that the county does have a YouTube channel that they livestream their meetings. I know that they have a Facebook page that they get out their information that way. What if we had a notice by text that people could opt in or opt out of? Everyone carries their phone around and we all get notices on there. Well, what if that was a notice that they could also receive to say, ‘County Commission meeting tomorrow at 6 p.m.’ These are the topics that we’re discussing. Or something that’s going on in the county that people need to be aware of. It may also be helpful as an emergency type thing for Weber County law enforcement that they can send out an emergency notice that flooding, fire, earthquake, whatever those emergency items are, that people have an opportunity to opt in or opt out of text messages that come right to their phone.”

For more on Katrina Gibson and her campaign, visit https://vote4katrina.com.