Abiding by his self-imposed term limit, Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs isn’t running for reelection and will leave office in January. His tenure as mayor started in 2018, but he served the previous four years as a Riverton City Councilmember. 

During his time as mayor, Riverton has undergone significant changes like transitioning from the Unified Police Department to a self-provided city force, increasing tax collection from $5 million to $13 million and enacting a business-focused approach to governance.

 “Historically, we haven’t had that type of vision and leadership,” Staggs said. “The first thing I did was craft a vision and mission statement that hangs in our council chambers.”

The strategic plan includes five guiding principles: law enforcement, building a strong economy, local government innovation, community cohesion and fiscal discipline. 

With degrees in political science and economics from the University of Utah and an MBA from Brigham Young University, Staggs felt his business and leadership experience gave him an advantage when it came to helping small business owners in the city.

“I love being able to identify regulations that we can modify or eliminate, get out of the businesses' way and let them succeed,” he said. “Being able to go out and secure developments like Mountain View Village and Costco, and others, has been rewarding for me to be able to look back on.”

Creating the Riverton Police Department was a herculean task that paid off in myriad ways. After partnering with the UPD since 2009, the city announced it would withdraw from its services in 2018, officially separating in 2019. 

Staggs said the decision was based on a lack of representation, pooled services that affected response times, financial issues and document transparency in the UPD.

“[With UPD], we only had 25 sworn officers for a city of nearly 50,000 people. We couldn’t get more officers without agreeing to tax increases and being hit more with property tax,” Staggs said. “We now have 39 sworn officers. We cut our property taxes in year one, right out of the gate…Business owners say that response times have improved dramatically. One restaurant owner told me that what used to take 20 minutes is now two minutes.”

As mayor, Staggs made decisions that were sometimes met with controversy. During COVID, he refused to enforce a mask mandate, calling it “heavy-handed.” Most recently, the announcement that Riverton would become the first Utah city to partner with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement garnered backlash on social media.

Staggs said he was elected to provide leadership, not to sit back and let the polls calculate which way the wind was blowing. He said it’s his job to make decisions that promote the vision of the city. 

“There have been proclamations I’ve made over the years, some of which have gone viral and probably caused some headache for our communications people,” he said. “I'm in an office where you’ve got a megaphone, you’ve got a microphone, and you need to be able to use it and not be afraid to stand up.”

As his time as mayor winds down, Staggs is encouraged by community members who have created and served on various committees. He hopes residents continue to get involved and stay connected to their communities through service opportunities.

Staggs, who ran for U.S. Senate in 2024, will leave his mayoral position to continue his job as the Small Business Administration Region 8 Advocate for the Office of Advocacy, where he works with small business owners in Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota. He started that position in the spring of this year. 

With the help of his wife, Alisha, and their two children, Staggs feels he’s set the stage for the next mayor to succeed. As Riverton grows, he hopes the city will adopt a full-time mayor position, dedicated to adequately serving residents.

“I think the biggest takeaway is being able to see how rewarding it’s been and looking back at all the change that I was able to help lead,” Staggs said. “Seeing all that occur is rewarding…In local politics, you can make changes more quickly and the people see it more effectively in their lives.”