WHY SUSIE? Susie does not need a job. Susie wants to serve as your Mayor because she is certain that with her experience, and passion for this great city, we can ensure Ogden is fertile ground for all of our business community to succeed and still make government more open and accessible to all.

"Anyone living or working in Ogden City should feel they can come to anyone in city government and have confidence their ideas and concerns will be heard and acted upon!"

Susie has spent years serving Ogden City, including serving in the At-Large Seat A City Council position from 2006-07. She is currently serving a four year term and was Vice Chair in 2009. Her civic involvement and volunteer service are among the attributes that make her a successful leader. Susie believes we must have a more open government. She also wants to see our redevelopment dollars spread throughout the city to help all of our neighborhoods improve and not just focus on the downtown. In the last 10 years, downtown has seen a renaissance.

“While there is still much to do, we have primed the pump. The time to start focusing on all our neighborhoods is now!"

In her own words, “The best part of this campaign so far has been walking Ogden's neighborhoods and talking with citizens about their views and concerns. I've listened carefully and learned a great deal. Many of you have also asked for more information about my views. Here are answers to some of the questions I've heard most often. If your questions aren't answered here, please contact me at 479-8915 or Susie@SusieForMayor.com. “

Why do I want to be Ogden’s next mayor? In short, I do not need a job. I am running to accomplish these important things:

• To help restore public trust in our city government. This means being more open and asking for more input from the public and the many businesses and organizations, such as the Realtor Board and Sierra Club, as we make alterations to Ogden’s overall plan for development. The point is to have a diverse group of people review our plans from multiple perspectives.

• I see a need to alter our focus in downtown redevelopment to concentrate more on Wall Avenue and the gateways to Ogden’s Downtown at 24th and 20th Streets.

• We have already developed some great master plans for many of Ogden’s neighborhoods and then promptly shelved them. I would like to see the neighborhood committees restored and take a serious look at all our neighborhoods. Residents should feel both safe coming downtown and pride in their neighborhoods.

• Lastly I want our residents to see that we have great employees and that with the right attitude we can change the mindset that the mayor’s office is a monarchy. I want everyone to feel public service is about just that - service. We must repair a lot of strained relationships in order to ensure that we can create regional transportation plans, enhance festivals and facilitate cooperation with WSU, UDOT, Weber County and many of our sister cities. We should also improve use of the Egyptian theater and the Conference center.

I believe the next four years are critical to the success of the city and that as we come out of this economic recession, we position ourselves in a way that helps maintain our growth, without overspending and tying the hands of future administrations and councils.


What are My Priorities as Mayor? First and foremost, I want to protect “liberty for all”. This means good government at the local level. I want everyone to feel comfortable talking with a Council member, the Mayor or any City employee and know their ideas or concerns will be heard.

Secondly, we should be more careful with redevelopment dollars. Tax Increment Funding is a great tool to help improve our downtown and our neighborhoods, however, the price is high. The diversion of property taxes to projects means the Ogden City School District gets that much less funding. How can we ask our district to take a little less when Utah is already the lowest funder of education in the country? We must be very choosy about projects we fund using this mechanism.

Thirdly, because the majority of Ogden has smaller and older homes compared to our neighboring cities, we must ensure that the neighborhoods where these homes are located are desirable places to live. I think our neighborhoods all need names. We should work with realtors, homeowners and developers to understand what each neighborhood wants and what we can do together to protect and improve the desirability of our neighborhoods. There is no reason we cannot have areas that feel like Salt Lake’s Sugarhouse or Harvard/Yale or the Avenues, etc. As for downtown, the trouble we have is way too much commercial and retail space to be supported by the current population density. Also, there is not enough economic diversity in that population. We must get the River Front Project moving forward. We must also look at other areas where mixed use with residential makes sense. And we must continue the revitalization of the East Central Ogden neighborhood in order to create that economic diversity as well. Until there is a critical mass of people living in the downtown area we will not see our current projects reach their full potential.

As for Open Space, I am a big proponent; it does not matter whether you want to protect our foothills for green reasons or you see them as a major asset to our Outdoor Recreation Gateway. Protecting our foothills from additional development is good for the environment and protects a major reason our Outdoor economy is so strong.

Lastly, I want to talk about service. As a Republic, Ogden has a number of elected local officials that represent you and care a great deal about this city. Please talk with all of them. They want your feedback as much as I do. Many of our dedicated city employees feel a little undervalued in many ways and I aim to correct this. This is a non partisan race so I focus a great deal more on issues and solutions than on party. We need solutions and not partisanship in this country. I hope we, in Ogden, can lead by example.

The government does not create jobs! However, if we have fertile ground and do what is best for our residents, we will attract new business, help our existing business expand and still enhance the great quality of life we have here. I look forward to serving as your next Mayor. Please let me know if you have questions.