District 1 Council Member Tia Shaw

Council Corner - Tia Shaw
​By District 1 Council Member Tia Shaw - 1 February 2026

My first two weeks on the city council have been filled with new learning.  It’s an exciting time for us. We counted down the days until we went online and became an official city and now here we are.  I’ve been feeling like we are building the plane while we are flying, but as a team, we’re making progress.  We’re starting to get a rhythm for keeping our plane in the air.

As a council we have worked hard to be as frugal as we can, since our brand-new city is starting with very little money.  We’ve agreed to be volunteers and not pay ourselves and have enlisted the help of other generous volunteers to keep costs low.  We have also taken on some duties as council members for oversight of different areas the city needs to cover.  In an already established city there would be people already in these roles, but to save money we as a council have taken on the task.

My portfolio has business licenses, special events, animal control, emergency preparedness, and economic development in it.  This week I met with Weber County staff to find out what it takes to oversee business licenses and special events.  They were very welcoming and helpful.  I feel more confident in my ability to oversee these things after meeting with them.

As a council we also decided to temporarily staff our office in the Huntsville maintenance building during our office hours.  This is another effort to save the city money during our start up.  My day in the office this week saw only a couple of people coming in.  if we don’t have an immediate answer for them, we find out where they can get an answer and let them know. Overall, people have been patient and kind.

We’ve had more public meetings than usual.  We started off 24 hours after we got the Lieutenant Governor’s official approval with a special public meeting to get things rolling.  Two days later we had another public meeting during our regular daytime hours and a rerun of the earlier public meeting in the evening at the library.  These two weeks since the city came online have been filled with public meetings and outside meetings that each council member has had.  Sometimes we wonder if we will be able to get a meal in.  At one of our meetings this week Janet had a bag of protein bars and some bags of nuts she shared which helped us get through.
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Overall, the last two weeks have been wonderful learning opportunities and great opportunities to meet with and hear from you, our constituents.  This valley is filled with amazing people who have shown their support of us.  It’s been an exciting, bumpy sometimes, and altogether thrilling ride.  Hang on, more to come!