‘We were able to move the needle’: Here’s what’s next for history-making Provo Mayor Michelle Kaufusi

One week before her second and last term as Provo mayor ended, Michelle Kaufusi was wondering if she had died.

“Am I dead? Can someone please tell me,” she asked, from her office in City Hall. “I’ve got so many flowers, I think I’m dead.”

Of course, the 59-year-old politician had not passed. She is moving on though, after narrowly losing her bid for a third term to challenger Marsha Judkins.

Kaufusi leaves behind a growing city marked for generations by projects she championed, from the west side’s bustling municipal airport and 100-acre Epic Sports Park, to downtown’s new bond-funded City Hall and public safety building, to new parks and fire stations, plus a new water treatment plant and sewage facility.

Even her early-term decision to preserve the Peaks Ice Arena is now paying dividends, soon becoming Utah County’s one-and-only 2034 Olympic venue.

“Who knew when I came into the seat, and Peaks Ice Arena was up for sale, that we were even going to land the 2034 Olympics. Nobody knew that,” she said, “but I just said, ‘We’re not selling our Olympic venue.’”

Many of these forward-looking, large-scale projects were funded without her proposing tax hikes (thought property taxes did increase during her tenure). Instead, Kaufusi said she lured in hundreds of millions in outside money, given, she said, because of relationships she cultivated — which Kaufusi sees as one of her greatest strengths as mayor.

Yet, her tenure unfolded alongside rapid county growth, which brought increased investment and pressure to the city that hosts the state’s largest private university as well as the bulk of the county’s homeless resources. It fueled debates over affordable housing, density, transit and the city’s direction — tensions that shaped the race she ultimately lost.

Still, as The Tribune read off a list of projects under her tenure, Kaufusi said she almost started to cry.

“When you’re the mayor, you forget how many things, and then you start looking back,” she said, “and I’m just so proud.”

“In government, it’s so hard to move the needle,” she continued, “but with my team, we were able to move the needle.”

Provo’s first female mayor

Kaufusi was voted into office in 2017 to replace now-U.S. Senator John Curtis. It was a crowded race — she faced 11 others for the open seat — but Kaufusi said she felt like she was the most qualified choice after her years on the Provo School Board .

“I just remember thinking, ‘I’m running because I’m qualified and I’m ready to serve, and I’m feeling this nudge that this is my next step,’” she recalled.

She learned about her potential to make history when she filed to run. For all of Provo’s history, a woman had never led as mayor, a fact highlighted in City Hall by the portrait wall of past mayors, all dressed in suits and ties.

Throughout her tenure, she said she has leaned into that history. For instance, she said, when girls come to visit her, she hands out gift bags labeled “Future Mayor.”

“I have really enjoyed the significance of being the first woman mayor and making history. That is really exciting and important and has paved the way,” she said, “and I’m really proud of that.”

The city has since welcomed its second female mayor, Judkins. She has promised a “good hard look” at Provo’s budget, its economic drivers, housing, permitting and zoning as its increasingly politically diverse residents face affordability challenges.

A ‘miracle’ journey

As mayor, Kaufusi has often harkened back to her hometown roots, referring to herself a “Provo girl, born and raised.”

She later attended Brigham Young University, performing with its renowned Cougarettes dance team in the late ’80s. She left during her senior year to marry and be with her college sweetheart, Steve, who had been drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles.

The year before she was elected mayor, she went back, graduating with a geography degree with an emphasis on global studies and local government, according to an article from BYU’s College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences. In 2023, she was honored with a distinguished alumnus award.

What would that little girl or young woman think about all that’s happened since then? The question made Kaufusi emotional.

“It just is really a testament of don’t ever underestimate yourself, because in a million years, I would never,” she trailed off.

“I was one of seven kids, (raised by) a single mom in Provo — divorced mom. That was unheard of in the ’60s and ’70s,” she continued. “We were not a normal family.”

“So yeah,” she said through tears, “that’s a miracle.”

That experience of growing up an outlier in Utah’s Happy Valley helped inform the pillars that she said defined her decision-making in office: “Welcoming,” “Safe and Sound,” “Economically Vibrant” and “Forward Looking.”

Especially that first one, she said.

“I just want you to feel loved and welcomed when you come to Provo,” Kaufusi said.

Last days in office

Kaufusi said the day after she conceded the race for mayor, she held a five-hour meeting to prepare for her exit.

“I put our last date up on the wall and said, ‘Listen, we are going to work our way out of here. Here’s our last day. Let’s make sure we finish strong,’” she recalled.

The meeting culminated in a more-than-50-item checklist — “just trying to make sure that we don’t drop the ball, that we haven’t left something unsigned or undone” — that they’ve ultimately worked through.

At the Dec. 16 City Council meeting, Kaufusi’s last as mayor, members bid adieu to her and council member George Hadley, also elected in 2017.

Scott Henderson, who was Kaufusi’s chief administrative officer, spoke first about Kaufusi.

“Eight years, Mayor Michelle Kaufusi,” he began. “Eight years of success and eight years of serving your community with energy and enthusiasm and a leadership level that I’d never experienced before in my career.”

“Thank you for everything you’ve done for your hometown,” he concluded. Then came the applause — more than 30 seconds of it — before the meeting continued.

In his speech, Hadley said Kaufusi had “led this city with her heart and with great love for people.”

“It’s a rare thing to have a mayor who’s not afraid to express love or show emotion and to be real,” he continued. “She’s not forgotten who she is or where she came from or what she’s about.”

He expressed gratitude for Judkins, as well as his replacement, Jeff Whitlock, and gave them and his former colleagues advice for the future.

“We still retain a strong conservative tradition in Provo, as we should, but we also have many moderates, liberals and independents,” he said, “and we have a chance to show the state and the nation that we are at our best when we listen to each other with respect and interest and [when] we remain open to good ideas.”

There are many “hard issues to confront going forward,” Hadley said, adding, “they can only be tackled by working together.”

When it came time for Kaufusi to say a few words, she spoke from the cuff.

“I have nothing written,” she said. “I’m just going to quickly say this has been the best chapter of my life. It’s been amazing. I don’t see anything ever even comparing to it, or topping, these eight-plus years.”

When Kaufusi spoke to The Tribune a week before Judkins would be sworn in, she was still undecided about her future.

In the past, she had mulled other exits. In 2020, for instance, she ran for lieutenant governor under former Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., but kept her job as mayor when Gov. Spencer Cox won instead.

On the penultimate day of December, she said she’d heard from many people with ideas for what she should do next, but she hadn’t settled on one for herself.

It didn’t take too long.

Three days after that conversation, she announced her next move: She’d filed to run for a seat on the Utah County Commission.

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