LOGAN – After his win over Alanna Nafziger in last week’s municipal elections, Logan City Mayor-elect Mark Anderson isn’t waiting for the oath of office to start working. Anderson says he is already getting started on transitioning from the city council to the mayor’s office.
According to the unofficial results posted by the Cache County Clerk’s Office, Anderson received 4,325 votes reflecting about 59 percent of the votes cast. He will take office on Jan. 4, 2026 and serve a 4-year term.
“Even though nothing is official until Jan. 4, I’m already starting to put plans together,” said Anderson in an interview on KVNU’s For the People. “I’ve already met and visited with a bunch of our administrative staff and department heads and I’ve got them rolling on a couple things. … It’s very exciting and I want to hit the ground running.”
Anderson said his transition planning began first thing Wednesday morning following the election with two phone calls. One was an interview with KVNU’s Will Feelright and the other was a discussion with Logan City Recorder Teresa Harris to request some information to use in his transition plan.
Anderson described the outgoing mayor Holly Daines as leaving him with “huge shoes to fill” and praised her for leaving the city in strong shape.
“Despite what a lot of people are saying, the city runs really, really well,” he said.
Still, he sees room for improvement, especially in employee retention and communication between the city and its residents.
“The residents are the customers of the city, as far as I’m concerned,” Anderson said. “How can we make that customer experience a good one every time?”
Anderson said growth planning is the main focus of his agenda, with traffic on Main Street and housing for families being the principal priorities. He intends to work with the Utah Department of Transportation, who largely controls Main Street, to find a solution to mitigate the congestion and approves of their plan to divert local traffic onto the other north-to-south corridors like 100 East. He also hopes to improve pedestrian and bike paths to get “residents out of their cars and experiencing how great Logan is on foot and on bike.”
Anderson wants to create partnerships between Logan City and Utah State University to improve student housing options and move students out of starter homes that could be used for families. In addition, Anderson said he will work with state officials, financial institutions and developers to lower the cost of housing for the city’s residents.
“This is a team effort,” Anderson said. “This is not something that Logan can tackle on its own. This is a problem that every community and every state in our country is dealing with. … We need everyone to come together to get interest rates down and make financing more accessible for people.”
In light of the upcoming state legislative session, Anderson voiced concern over outside money in local races and said he hopes to see the legislature make changes to campaign finance.
“As a community, are we okay that someone in South Dakota and Florida and Colorado is putting thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars, into our local government election to try and influence it?” said Anderson. “Your money has to come from your community.”
He also warned of state overreach in zoning laws.
“I think we need to loosen our zoning, but I don’t think we need to eliminate it,” he said. “I’m concerned about our legislators just eliminating housing zones.”
Anderson said he plans to resign from the city council after the council’s canvass and certification of the election results on Nov. 17, saying it’s critical that the city pick his replacement before the end of the year.
“I think this is a good time to resign…and let somebody else step up,” Anderson said.