By Aidan Mortensen | Photo courtesy of Travis Richardson
Price City Council Candidate Travis Richardson joined the KOAL newsroom to discuss his campaign, platform and what he aims to accomplish if elected.
Explaining his rationale for running, Richardson shared,” I have two young kids of my own I’ve recently moved back into our community from having to move out for 10 years due to not being able to find a good-paying job I had the fortunate ability to come back, so I felt the need to try to contribute to what I my knowledge back into the community and doing so by running for city council and being a part of the city directly.”
Discussing his preparation for a potential seat on the city council, Richardson stated,” I’ve done my research on how the city government works, the processes, and due diligence as far as how each process works and functions. I’ve also gone to city council meetings, I’ve met each one of them, and talked to them. My brother’s also on the city council, so I’ve conversed with him and asked for his knowledge, and he’s helped me learn a little bit about it as well.”
Looking at how he would handle the process of preparing the city budget, Richardson explained,” The big fundamental thing that I’m running on is efficiency and accountability. I believe that as we hold our city employees who have been hired on to our task force, as we hold them accountable, we can fine-tune our spending along with trying to find those things that we may not be efficient at and finding better ways to do things; which will in turn put money back into our pocket and be able to spend it on things that matter to people such as splash pads and stuff like that.”
Speaking on other focuses he would have if elected, Richardson shared,” I am a very open person. I don’t like secrets. I’m not a fan of them. I don’t like keeping secrets. However, I will keep confidential information dear to you. I won’t speak of those things, but I’m a very open person. What happens is I do like being able to converse with you as citizens, and I’m not a hidden person. So I will be your voice. I will listen to you and I will voice your voice with the city council officials and the mayor.”
An issue Price City has faced over the past year is communication between first responders — namely, police officers — and the city council and mayor. Richardson shared how he would seek to bridge this gap: “I know that the hot topic right now is the closed meetings. I want to expound on my knowledge of why those closed meetings are happening. The city, to my understanding, is doing that in accordance with its legal ability to do that. However, you as citizens want to know that the proper things are being taken care of in that meeting and not things that should be taken care of in a public setting, and I just promise to be open where I can be open, and you will be the first ones to know about it. I promise to be a faithful poster on our social media, where a lot of people get their information these days, and I want you to know what’s going on.”
Closing our conversation, Richardson answered why he thinks citizens of Price should use their vote this November for him: “I think you should vote for me because I have a desire to change. Change is a harsh word. To improve Price to what it needs to be to keep our young kids here, as I said earlier, I was fortunate to be able to move back here. A lot of people aren’t fortunate, but if you talk to them, they want to move back. There’s just not a lot of opportunities for them So in doing the the accountability and efficiency side of things I I feel that that it will open the areas to allow businesses to come in and it will Invite citizens future citizens to move into our community and those things will help improve our jobs our Infrastructure it will help it will it will be the be the thing that will allow us to move forward.”
This article does not serve as an endorsement for the candidate featured. All candidates in the 2025 municipal election cycle are entitled to one free interview. To schedule, email news@koal.net.