Council elects Chris Wharton chair, Alejandro Pui vice chair for 2025

Salt Lake City Council members selected Chris Wharton as council chair and Alejandro Pui as vice chair for calendar year 2025 in straw-poll balloting during the council\'s Jan. 7 work session.

Wharton was nominated for chair and given the opportunity to speak before council members cast written ballots that were collected by staff. The written record later indicated a unanimous vote for Wharton; a staff clarification recorded that one ballot initially showed Council Member Ava Lopez voting for herself but the record was corrected to unanimous. After the vice-chair nomination, ballots again produced a unanimous result for Alejandro Pui.

Wharton thanked colleagues after the vote, saying, “I just want to say thank you first of all for your leadership this last year, and I, I think that we made a lot of progress on some really important issues that I hope we can continue to build on... I want this next year to be a really productive year, and I want all of you to feel like your priorities are going to be, an important part of the discussion.”

Pui also offered brief remarks accepting the vice-chair nomination, saying he was “excited for the opportunity to, to, to serve in that role, and to learn, from your experience, Chris.”

The ballots were administered at the work session and tallied by council staff; no separate roll-call vote was recorded on either election during the meeting. Council members were told the formal confirmation will appear on the agenda for the council\'s 7 p.m. meeting, and the staff-written results will be part of the meeting record.