Great News

Gay Lynn Bennion Is Running For Cottonwood Heights Mayor!

For the past five years, I’ve proudly represented Cottonwood Heights at the State Capitol as your chosen House Legislator. Now, let’s take that knowledge and strength back home and put it into transforming our City of Cottonwood Heights!

As your legislative elected representative, I have focused on our community needs and learned first-hand from our state legislature and our residents’ personal experiences. We are in a great position to make positive and effective changes locally for Cottonwood Heights.

I am running for Mayor of Cottonwood Heights! Let’s bring stronger representation of common values, greater transparency, and a solid long-term vision to city leadership.

My Priority Highlights:

1. Stronger Representation of Community Values

Our residents care about safety, health, and general welfare. For example, we care deeply about preserving the beauty and accessibility of Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons. We are concerned about the environmental impacts to our city and the Canyons and want to take action to reduce those effects and leave our world as resilient as possible for our children.

A. Strong Local Alliances and Cooperation.

We support the work of the Central Wasatch Commission and the impact of our city’s voice on the CWC board. Their decisions affect our Canyons, our backyard. Our direct involvement is paramount.

B. Preservation of our Canyons and City Areas and Trails.

I strongly oppose the gondola. We favor flexible, commonsense transportation solutions in the canyon. The proposed gondola is neither a responsible use of taxpayer dollars nor an effective way to reduce congestion. The gondola would be a blight on our community and lower property values. We need a proactive and vocal leader to stand up to special interests and oppose the gondola.

C. Neighborhood Safety

Our citizens’ safety is crucial. We trust, depend, and rely upon our Fire and Police for protection in times of need. These Department must be fully functional to assist us in a moment’s notice. Our First Responders must be properly staffed, trained, equipped, and coordinated with surrounding units. I am committed to advocating for policies that prioritize first responder safety, provide fair compensation and benefits, and ensure they have the best training and equipment available. We recognize their sacrifices and tireless efforts to keep our communities secure.

2. Greater Transparency and Inclusion of all voices and talents

Good decision-making is inclusive. We hire and elect the best. Let’s use them. Full participation is required for our council and city staff to effectively and collectively shape our municipal policy.

Closed door discussion excludes pertinent individuals and their ideas. It underutilizes the extensive skillset of our existing talent pool and keeps key individuals in the dark. We cannot solve problems we do not know exist, or justify decisions that were not brought to us.

Open communication of council members, departments, and staff input is mandatory to create the beautifully resilient, adaptive, and sustainable future we want. Council members and the public need appendices several days prior to meetings to ensure full understanding, discussion, and the best choices for our city.

3. A Long-Term Vision for Our City

Cottonwood Heights’ general plan is 10 years overdue. We need leadership that listens, collaborates, and gets results. We need to carefully plan out our future to ensure Cottonwood Heights, the Canyons, and our community remain a quiet, calm, beautiful, and prosperous place to call home.

I am ready to lead our city forward in creating a thoughtful, thorough, and future-focused plan for our community.

While the work of a state representative is both important and rewarding, I believe the needs of Cottonwood Heights call for a mayor with experience, vision, and a strong connection to the community. I’m answering that call.

I welcome your input—on this campaign or on anything related to our city or House District. Please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Gay Lynn Bennion
385-200-1794
gaylynn@gaylynnbennion.com

Where I Stand on Billboards

Cottonwood Heights was founded in 2005, in part, out of concern for the unchecked power and influence of billboard companies. That concern remains relevant today. Just last fall, a billboard was installed near the future town center—only to be relocated after strong pushback from residents.

Billboards are a blight on our community. They ruin our spectacular views and lower property values. As your elected representative, I believe city leaders should reflect the will of the people—not corporate interests. That’s why I didn’t accept donations from billboard companies in my last campaign, and I chose not to use campaign funds for billboard advertising. This remains my policy today.

My decisions are guided by community values, not corporate contributions.