Huntsville has first Catholic mayor in its history

Intermountain Catholic

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Jim Truett
IC photo/Christine Young

HUNTSVILLE – Jim Truett, a member of Saint Florence Mission, is in his first term as the mayor of Huntsville and is the first Catholic the town has ever elected.

Truett had been a councilman for six years and was getting ready to transition out. "Everybody needs to do their civic duty, but then my friends talked me into running for mayor and I found out that I had a lot of people from Huntsville backing me," said Truett. "The support was overwhelming, so I decided at the last minute to run for mayor."

Truett said there were two caucuses which had two council seats and the mayor seat open. In the first caucus was one man running for mayor. When the town found out Truett was going to run, "they came down in a swarm to the council hall to support me," said Truett. "When my opponent saw that, he decided not to run. The councilmen were going to put someone else in my place, but decided I had done a good job as a councilman and let me run unopposed. I think what really helped was I proved myself over six years as a town council member. As a town council member we were involved in the landfill, the cemetery, the parks and city trucks, roads, snow plows and that made me really rounded for the mayorship. My friends kept encouraging me to run and I finally ran out of excuses."

Truett said many of his friends are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the dominant religion in Huntsville. "What is neat to me is it didn’t matter what religion I am, it is who I am," said Truett. "I talked to the monks at the abbey while I was running and they told me not to be upset if I didn’t win. My friends and Father Cummins (Charles Cummins, pastor of St. Florence Mission) said if I lost, it was nothing against me. I ran a hard campaign and I knocked on everybody’s door."

Truett said being transferred to Utah from California was a blessing. He is from northern California, and he and his wife, Angel, and daughters, Meagan and Amber, have lived in Huntsville for 14 years. "My in-laws, Joe and Leann Duran, were one of the first families of St. Lawrence and actually moved from Midvale to Huntsville to be close to the monastery," he said.

As mayor, Truett and his four councilmen earn $1 year. The town has about 15 part-time employees; his job is to balance books and run the town, he said. The Huntsville area is highly sought after by developers, so Truett has been working on annexation because "we want to have a say in our future growth," he said. Other issues before the council are placing a bronze statue of a veteran to honor all veterans and having a dedication on Memorial Day, opening a new section of the cemetery and purchasing the Valley School property from the Weber County School Board.