Jennifer Napier-Pearce joked that she had never won a lottery or in Las Vegas, so she was stunned when a coin determining a vacancy in the Salt Lake City Council landed on her side Tuesday evening.
“It was shocking, honestly,” she said moments later, holding the deciding coin in her hand.
Napier-Pearce, a former adviser for Gov. Spencer Cox and Salt Lake Tribune editor, emerged victorious among a 27-person race to fill a seat vacated after the previous holder, Eva Lopez Chavez, was determined to have moved outside of her district. City leaders resorted to the coin after Napier-Pearce and local business owner Scott Lyttle found themselves locked in a 3-3 vote among the six other City Council members.
Minutes after the flip landed in Napier-Pearce’s favor, she was sworn in during a special meeting shortly after, serving the district that includes downtown, Central City, East Central and Central Ninth neighborhoods. She is to serve the remainder of Lopez’s term, which ends in January 2028.
“(I’m) overwhelmed, humbled and sort of incredulous after this whackadoodle process,” she added. “I’m incredibly excited about it — to work with this council. District 4 residents deserve stability; they deserve somebody who has a voice. They haven’t had a voice at the table for a little bit.”
Napier-Pearce fills in a seat that was vacated last month. City officials determined that Lopez, who was elected to serve Salt Lake City Council District 4 in 2023, had moved outside of her district after purchasing a home in District 5 last fall, automatically vacating her seat.
Lopez said she was appealing the ruling, but Salt Lake City recorder Keith Reynolds told KSL Tuesday that the city never received an appeal and there was no real process to address one.
Twenty-seven people applied to replace the vacancy, though the field was whittled before interviews began on Tuesday. Seven people, including former Salt Lake City Councilwoman Ana Valdemoros, withdrew their names from consideration for different reasons before the meeting.
All of the remaining candidates were given five minutes each to pitch themselves to the six members of the City Council, explaining their life and work experiences, as well as their ambitions to improve Utah’s capital city.
Napier-Pearce, who is currently the chief of staff for the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation, said she is very aware of the issues facing the city through her work in journalism and government. She called it a “consequential” time for Utah’s capital city, as its growth is outpacing the state’s rate, while many new developments are pieced together.
All of that has led to complex challenges, such as affordable housing and maintaining the quality of life within the city. That includes walkable streets and places to gather, she added.
Lyttle, who owns Tea Zaanti and serves as co-chairman of the Sugar House Chamber, focused on community connections, saying he believed that can help bring residents, businesses and community organizations together.
They advanced to the second round after a 3-2 vote from the City Council. Javier Chavez Jr. was the only other candidate who received a vote. The two finalists were each given a question before a second vote, which was split 3-3. That led to a coin flip, where Napier-Pearce won.
Having a new member could end up being a tiebreaker on the city’s upcoming budget, which is currently being finalized. The other members of the City Council hashed over some final changes to the proposed 2027 fiscal year budget earlier in the day, and they said the new member could decide elements of the budget, including any potential tax increases.
Napier-Pearce, who said she is open to running for reelection next year, added that she plans to study up on the debates now that she is in office. She attended her first meeting as a city leader Tuesday night, and said that she plans to listen to concerns brought to her by the constituents she now represents.
Some, like Central City resident Annie Isaacson, came to her first formal meeting to congratulate her on the win and to request meetings over current district issues.
“I know that I don’t know everything. ... I’ll do my homework and do my very best to listen,” Napier-Pearce said, adding she was inspired by the many other candidates for the vacancy. “I just got lucky.”
Meanwhile, members of the City Council still plan to discuss potential code of conduct changes from a separate investigation into misconduct claims made against Lopez. The investigation into allegations made against her was dropped last month after her seat was vacated.