By Justin Adams | [email protected]

Fifteen or twenty years ago, if you had asked Brooke Christensen if she could see herself ever being on a city council, she would have laughed. “That’s never going to happen,” she would have said.

Yet here she is, winning a seat on the Sandy City Council representing the city’s District 1. “Things evolve,” she said. “It’s interesting to see where life takes you.”

Christensen grew up in Sandy, attending Sandy Elementary, Mt. Jordan Middle School and Jordan High School. Her father, who is also a Sandy resident and lives just two doors down from her, also attended Jordan High School. Her husband also grew up in Sandy (they attended the same LDS ward growing up but didn’t date until they were older). She also has aunts and uncles that live in the city.

“Most of my family lives here,” she said. “I love that about Sandy. It’s a great city to raise a family.”

Christensen said she decided to run for city council after she saw things happening in her area that she didn’t like. “I tried to get them changed as an ordinary citizen and I saw an opportunity to help. I thought, ‘I can’t just complain, I have to do something. I have to put my money where my mouth is.’”

She said the biggest challenges that Sandy faces right now are growth and the city’s budget.

On the subject of growth, she said Sandy has “focused on building big apartment buildings and tons of high-end city housing. We need to take a look at that and ask if that’s the kind of city we want. Do we want to focus just on growth and business? That’s not what I want.”

She also said they need to make “serious cuts in the city’s budget.”

Christensen will come into the position with a lot of prior experience in leadership positions. Through her life, she has served and worked in a variety of positions — including student government in college and as the president of her sorority — led teams as part of her job with an international supply chain manager and volunteered with the local PTA, the LDS church and the Arthritis Foundation. 

She also started a Girl Scout troop with her friend Mary-Lynn Richardson for the girls in their neighborhood.

Richardson said the leadership qualities she’s seen from Christensen as they’ve worked in Girl Scouts together will help make her a good city council member. 

“She’s always been very easy to work with, very professional, very personable,” said Richardson. “We don’t always agree on things, but what I’ve always loved about Brooke is that even when we disagree, we can always work it out.”

That quality, of being able to get along with people that disagree with you, is one that Christensen hopes to bring to city council. 

“Just because we disagree doesn’t mean we can’t be civil and discuss things,” she said. “Honestly I think it’s really important to listen to other viewpoints and listen to one another. It sounds trite, but just be nice. There is no reason we can’t all be nice to each other even if we disagree.”

Christensen’s addition to the city council will mark the first time in Sandy’s history that women outnumber men on the council. 

“I think it’s exciting that it’s a council full of women,” she said. “It’s really neat to see the community represented that way because at least half of Sandy is women.”

“More than anything I think it’s important for my daughter to see that, so she can say, ‘I can do whatever I want.’”