New Representative - Doug Welton

SERVING THROUGH TEACHING, PUBLIC OFFICES

Payson resident Doug Welton wanted to do something that made a difference in his community. That desire led him to a teaching career, a seat on the Payson City Council and his most recent position in public service: representating District 67 in the Utah House of Representatives.

Welton took office in the Utah Legislature in early January, just one day after leaving his position on the Payson City Council where he had served since January 2016. His first legislative session wrapped up on March 5.

His district includes Payson, Santaquin, Elk Ridge, Goshen and Genola as well as part of Salem and areas to the west, northwest and southwest of Utah Lake.

“This is a great area with really great people that live down in this area, and so it’s fun to represent them,” Welton said.

Welton is essentially a lifelong resident of Payson, having moved to the city at the age of 4. He’s lived here ever since excluding a short time after his marriage when he and his wife lived in Springville and Salem. He served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Fukuoka, Japan, and planned on studying business in college.

He attended Utah Valley University for a while, eventually quitting school in favor of his job at a local jewelry store. At the age fo 28, he decided return to school. “I thought, well, I want to do someting that makes a difference,” Welton said. With that in mind, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in history education at UVU.

“I always loved history,” Welton said. “I had an amazing junior high history teacher that just made it come to life.”

Welton obtained his first teaching job at Spanish Fork High School where they were looking for someone who could teach both history and Japanese. It was a perfect fit for Welton. “Teaching Japanese is so much fun,” he said. “For one, it’s an elective class, so kids who are taking it want to take it.” He has also enjoyed the flexibility that comes with teaching a foreign language. He has included a lot of cultural activities to his curriculum, including swapping classrooms with the foods class and teaching his students how to make Japanese cuisine.

After teaching for two years at SFHS, Welton was hired to teach Japanese at both SFHS and Salem Hills High School. This meant he was no longer teaching history classes, and he decided to volunteer to teach the SHHS debate class.

“I love talking about what’s going on in the world, so I kind of volunteered to teach debate, not knowing what to expect,” Welton said. He soon learned there was a large debate world out there full of competitions and organizations, and he quickly began determining how to get his students more involved.

“We went from not knowing what we doing to the next year we were the region champions, and we’ve been the region champions for 12 years straight,” he said. Currently, Welton teaches Japanese, debate, philosophy and current issues at SHHS.

Welton has always been interested in the political process, and as his children grew older and he had more time, he decided take the advice he’d given his children and students: go out and make a difference. This led to his decision to run for a seat on the Payson City Council.

During his campaign and his service on the council, Welton said his priorities were researching issues, making sure he had correct information and then getting that information out to the public. “Most people get frustrated because they don’t know what’s going on,” he said. Rumors are circulated and false information makes its way around the community; Welton pushed the city to combat this through improved communication with residents.

“I think one of the main reasons I won my second term fairly easily is because people knew that I was going to be responsive,” he said.

When Utah Rep. Marc Roberts said he would not to seek re-election, Welton decided to run for the District 67 seat. “With all the growth coming to south Utah County, I thought it was really important to have a good partnership between the municipalities and state representation,” Welton said.

He also felt it was important for an educator to be part of the legislative process to help rein in the legislature’s “micromanaging” of education, adding that from 400 to 600 bills are proposed every year that deal with education. “There’s no real voice for educators in this sphere where 46 or 48 percent of our budget or something like that is education,” he said.

Part of Welton’s efforts during the session included working on a large transportation funding bill. With Sen. Mike McKell, Welton worked to pare down spending in the bill while obtaining funding for some critical transportation projects in southern Utah County. This included $5 million in funding to redo Payson’s Main Street.

He looks forward to serving during the remainder of his two-year term and expects he will run for a second term in office. “I really enjoy talking to people and I appreciate when people reach out,” he said.