WHITE CITY — Voters in White City elected their new mayor during the 2025 general municipal election in November.
Allan Perry, who previously served two terms on the White City Council, was elected mayor, unseating incumbent candidate Paulina Flint.
Although White City has had its own mayor for many years, prior to the 2025 municipal general election, that person was selected by the council members.
“It’s a nice feeling to be elected in with the support that I had,” said Perry, who won the November election with 61% of the votes.
A swearing-in ceremony for Perry, along with council members Neil Mahoney and Linda Price, was held Jan. 8 at Alta View Elementary School.
Perry, who was born and raised in White City, said he’s excited to serve and work alongside elected officials and residents in continued effort to accommodate the city’s current needs, in addition to planning and preparing for the future.
“It’s exciting for me to feel supported and trusted by people that I’ve known my whole life and new residents as well that I’ve gotten to know over the last several years,” he said.
The town, located in southeastern Salt Lake County, is an enclave of Sandy that spans a few blocks. Founded in 1955, the city was granted its status as a township by the Salt Lake County Council in September 2006.
Just over a decade later, following the 2016 general election, White City was incorporated into a metro township, with its own council members elected and taking office in January 2017.
Then in early 2024, the Utah Legislature passed HB35, which transitioned metro townships into municipalities — allowing places like White City, Emigration Canyon, Kearns and Magna to be incorporated into their own respective cities.
Perry said some of the goals he has as mayor include maintaining the community’s small-town feel, increasing community engagement and enhancing government transparency.
“Some of the things that I’ve highlighted that I want to do to help accomplish that are more community outreach through regular newsletters, postcards, more transparency and what our expenses are — making sure the public has access to that information so they understand what what it takes to run a city like ours,” he explained.
Maintaining that “small-town feel” may be the most daunting task for Perry, though White City has seen a slight population increase, growing from a little more than 5,500 residents in 2020, to just over 5,900 in 2024, according to the latest census data.
White City relies on agencies like Unified Fire Authority and Unified Police Department, among other resources in Salt Lake County. The city does have its own water improvement district.
Even as White City inches closer to 6,000 residents, Perry feels it’s important to maintain those long-standing relationships and amenities with municipality service providers as well as neighboring city Sandy.
“Being completely surrounded by another city, we have to have a strong relationship with that city, and there’s no reason not to have a good working partnership and relationship because we share a lot of common interests and a lot of the same goals,” he told KSL.com on Monday.
While Perry believes many good things have taken place in White City through the work of citizens and elected officials, he also acknowledges some of the unique challenges it faces — like limited commercial presence and operating as a built-out city, surrounded by another city.
“We need to be as self-sufficient and independent as possible. You know, even though we want strong partnerships with other entities, I think that’s the challenge going forward,” he said.
As Perry and White City elected officials are rolling up their sleeves to serve the city’s residents, he praised the work of Flint, whom he worked with for several years as a council member.
“I mean, she dedicated herself for decades in the community, and so I learned just a lot of those basic skill sets of what it takes to accomplish things in the community from her,” he said.
KSL.com reached out to former Mayor Paulina Flint for comment regarding her time as mayor of White City but had not received a response as of Wednesday evening.
In the meantime, Perry said he looks forward to seeing what coming years have in store for his hometown. He hopes residents feel they can have a voice in their community and to be engaged in what’s happening around them.
“They make a difference in helping the community be better,” he said.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.