Q&A With Mayor Wilson

Now in her second term, Mayor Maile Wilson-Edwards sat down with Thunderground to discuss what it’s like campaigning and serving her constituents.

What are your goals for your second mayoral term?

When I ran four years ago, I ran on a five-point platform of technology, economic development, prairie dogs, city beautification and water and sewer, and we want to continue striving towards all of those. We’ve made great strides and great progress, but there’s still a lot of work left to be done. We also want to ensure that Cedar is a safe place to live and work and raise a family and that we have great jobs. We are working with economic development to recruit new companies, and we found that helping our businesses that have been here through the good times and bad to expand can actually be even more beneficial. We’re just helping to create and have the community feel that we’ve all come to know and love in Cedar City.

What is a typical week in your life look like?

For the city, we’re not on a calendar year, we’re on a fiscal year, so right now, it’s budget season. We have a binder of all the different departmental operating, personnel and capital requests, which includes all the department and division heads. The City Manager, Finance Director and I sit down with each department or division head and go through all of their requests and have an overview with how the department is doing. Then we start to work through what will be included and what won’t be included as far as all the requests, personnel, capital and operation. So from now until June, that will be what a lot of it is based around.

Wilson with the winners of the animal shelter logo contest.

Photo Courtesy Maile Wilson

How is the budget process set up?

In some cities, the first time the City Council will see what is being proposed to be funded is when it’s given to them for public hearings in May or June. We bring the Council in beforehand to see if they have any top priorities. Once we compile a tentative budget, then we have public meetings that the community can come to, which every department and division head can come and present what has or hasn’t been included in the budget. We found that it makes things more transparent and gets the information out there. It has a lot more people involved in the process, so we ultimately end up with a better product at the end. Keeping different parties involved throughout this whole process, it’s a lot more work, but we end up with a better end result.

What got you interested in running for public office?

When I got back from law school, there were some different things that I thought we should focus on, such as updating the technology in the city, beautification and improving the signage. I’ve never really been one to just sit back and complain, so I figured I might as well throw my hat into the ring and become part of trying to create a solution. Since then, I’ve had the ability to work with our community and to show the youth that they shouldn’t let stereotypes or preconceived notions of who can fit into a particular role hold them back from trying to follow and accomplish their dreams. Since then, it’s been about continuing what we’ve started and trying to make the city a better place.

Explain the process of campaigning.

A lot of it is about coming up with what you’re passionate about and what you believe in, not what you think other people want to hear, and then working to get your message out there. When you’re campaigning, you’re not necessarily campaigning against someone, but you’re applying for a job to serve your community.

Wilson and other city officials at her swearing-in-ceremony.

Photo Courtesy Maile Wilson

You recently got married. Which is more stressful, running a campaign or planning a wedding?

They’re different stresses. The hard thing with the campaign is you put yourself out there, you do the best you can do and then it’s truly up to the people. Planning a wedding, you control the variables. With the campaign, there’s a whole list of unknown variables and with the wedding, it’s more about how things are done and what you want your centerpieces to be. All I know is that having both over is thrilling!

Did planning the wedding add stress to the campaign?

The first time I ran, I took the Utah Bar exam to become a licensed attorney a week before the primary and was sworn in a week before the general election. During campaign season, apparently I like to throw other major life things in the middle and create a whole other level of stress. It just added another to-do list, but we happily made it through the wedding and the campaign.

How do you strive to be a better role model, especially for women?

I had people tell me growing up that I would never be smart enough to go to law school and I could be a paralegal because that’s more of what a woman’s job would be. Luckily, I had a very supportive family that told me there’s no such thing as a woman’s or a man’s job and if you want to do something, work hard at it. That was one of the messages that I try to portray when I’m speaking with youth; don’t let somebody else try to define what your future can be. I had a group of Girl Scouts in here one day, and they said I don’t look like the people they see that are politicians on TV. I asked what they meant and these young girls essentially said ‘You’re not an old, white man.’ Just because that’s the stereotype and that’s what we’ve seen doesn’t mean that gender, age or any of that makes you any less qualified for a position or makes your ideas or opinions any less valuable.

Wilson recently met Utah Senate Candidate Mitt Romney.

Photo Courtesy Maile Wilson

Have you faced sexism on the job?

During my first legislative session, the City Manager and I went up for Local Official’s Day and they said ‘This is our new mayor, Mayor Wilson,’ and immediately people went to shake the hand of the City Manager, thinking I was the intern. I have had to prove myself where some of my counterparts wouldn’t have to, but at this point, we’ve kind of got passed all of that.

Who are your role models?

My mother was the first female elementary school principal here in Cedar, my grandmother was the Dean of Students and a professor at the University. They always strived to contribute, but that doesn’t mean they neglected family; they showed me that you can be successful at both. They would ask ‘What are you passionate about and how can we support you?’

What is your favorite aspect of Cedar City?

Probably the volunteerism and the spirit. There are some cities that start out with that and then they grow out of it or they grow past it, but Cedar is a place where you can come and get involved; it doesn’t matter what your background is or who you are, there’s always a way to get involved and become part of the community. The community embraces that, and that’s how we thrive. When you look at a community our size, there’s no reason it should have everything that it does as far as education, recreation and cultural opportunities, but it’s truly because the residents are dedicated and committed to wanting to serve and wanting to give back and wanting to be involved that we are able to have what we do.