The general election for Ogden city council is fast approaching, with the election being held on Nov. 4. Both candidates have differing opinions and different goals for the city of Ogden.

Ogden city is broken up into four districts, each with their own representative on city council, there are an additional three city council seats which are “at large,” meaning they represent the entire city.

In the 2025 city council elections two at large seats are up for grabs. In the running for at-large seat ‘A’ we have incumbent Marcia White and newcomer Alicia Washington.

Marcia White:

Running for her fourth term is the incumbent candidate Marcia White. Her priorities are smart economic development, fiscal responsibility and infrastructure.

Smart development was White’s guiding principle; it’s important to economically evolve in ways that benefit our city. “We need to continue to recruit businesses that have market wages, that we’re not just bringing in low paying jobs,” White said.

Another part of smart development means having a good mix of high end and low end housing. Ogden has 68% of Weber County’s affordable housing, and it costs the city money to upkeep the infrastructure for that housing.

“We still have to pick up the garbage. We still have to do the parks and those things. So we have to keep those services the same,” White said, emphasizing that in order to maintain a strong tax base it’s important to have a broad spectrum of housing.

To White, fiscal responsibility means better budgeting methods and a greater emphasis on planning ahead. White is critical of how cities manage their spending.

“They just hope that everything works out at the end of the fiscal year. What I’ve been saying is, let’s look five years down the road,” White said. She pushed the city to create a more accurate fiscal model in order to ensure the city is able to properly fund itself.

White expressed concerns about infrastructure. Infrastructure needs to be maintained, and that cost can be a strain on a city. White’s goal is to make sure as the city maintains its infrastructure it does it in as cost effective a way as possible. “When you don’t have cash on hand, it’s hard to fix infrastructure. And so we’re trying to figure out how to prioritize infrastructure,” White said.

White highlighted that her experience and connections within the government help her. “One of the things that I keep saying as I run or re-run for re-election is that it’s my connections that are really important,” White said.

Alicia Washington:

Taking the role of the newcomer and frontrunner in the primaries we have Alicia Washington. Washington accented three key points, investment into our communities, investment into infrastructure and restoring the balance of power between the city council and the mayor.

Washington stressed the importance of investing in our neighborhoods, not replacing them. “We’re seeing people moving out of our community instead of investing in our community,” Washington said.

Her strategy to address these issues is to take a holistic approach to community development. “We need to look at this as a major ecosystem,” Washington said, “People want to live where they can work and where they can find their food and where they have access to transportation.”

When it came to infrastructure, Washington emphasized the importance of maintaining our infrastructure, especially water pipes. “There are pipelines that are just leaking water. So we’re wasting water when we know it’s one of our most precious resources,” Washington said.

Part of serving our communities means having a city government that responds to their needs, and to Washington that means restoring the balance of power between city council and the mayor.

The most poignant example of the issues in the balance of power was the Aspen housing project. This was a housing project designed to help transition the chronically homeless into independent living, but the project was ultimately canceled after the city elected to purchase the property from the Weber Housing Authority.

“I think people should vote for a new perspective. I think people should vote for an opportunity to have more representation on city council. I think people are ready for that change because the primary results are reflective of that, that I won the primary by 24 votes by taking on a third term incumbent. Ogden is ready for freshness,” Washington said.