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SALT LAKE CITY — With the departure of Salt Lake City Councilman Derek Kitchen, Utah's capital city has a vacancy to fill on its governing body.
Kitchen, who won election for outgoing Sen. Jim Dabakis' Democratic seat in the Utah Legislature, attended his last council meeting Nov. 27 as he prepares to join the Senate at the start of the new year.
The Salt Lake City Recorder's Office announced it will accept applications through Jan. 15 from people interested in serving the remainder of Kitchen's term through the end of 2019.
Kitchen's District 4 seat will officially vacate Jan. 1, after which the council will have 30 days to fill it. Starting Friday, applicants will have about a month to submit their names for consideration.
Salt Lake City Recorder Cindi Mansell will collect applications and provide them to the City Council office. The council will then interview each applicant in a public meeting. Interviews are scheduled to begin Jan. 22.
To be eligible, applicants must be a U.S. citizen, be a registered voter, not be convicted of a felony or other certain crimes, and have lived in Salt Lake City's District 4 for at least a year. The district's borders include the city's Downtown, Central City and East Central neighborhoods.
Kitchen, 30, was elected in 2015. Prior to his election, Kitchen became known as an LGBT pioneer after he and his husband, Moudi Sbeity, were among three couples who successfully sued in 2013 to legalize same-sex marriage in Utah.
At his last council meeting Nov. 27, Kitchen's fellow council members recognized him for his service. City Council Chairwoman Erin Mendenhall said he has had a "significant" and "lasting impact" on the city since he started his term.
Since 2016, Kitchen helped make "really outstanding progress on a number of huge issues," Mendenhall said, including funding an unprecedented number of new affordable housing units, economic development in the city's northwest quadrant and re-shaping the city's homeless services system.
Kitchen said he was "very proud" of a $21 million affordable housing fund established through the city's Redevelopment Agency, leading the city to start building the "lion's share" of affordable housing now under construction in Utah.
"You certainly led the charge on affordable housing and we were able to take that leadership and grow it even further," Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski told Kitchen at the meeting. "So thank you for leading the charge on that. It's some of the only affordable housing going on in the entire state, and that's a big deal and a feather in your cap I don't think anyone will forget."
Biskupski added: "You're a tremendous leader and I look forward to working with you in your new capacity."
Kitchen also said he was honored to join the effort to change the city's homeless system, even though the siting of the city's two new shelters was at times "tense" and "stressful."
"I came into this role of City Council sort of with a heavy bat really swinging it, trying to get all my ideas accomplished and things I spoke about on the campaign trail," Kitchen said. "And it became very clear very fast that in this world and governing, progress happens slowly," he said
"I know that there were times when I came up short as a legislator, but I also know I was able to grow into this role over the years and I feel much more capable now than ever before," Kitchen said.
