Former West Valley City Councilmember Jake Fitisemanu Jr. just completed his first year as a state representative. He serves for District 30, and he reflected back on year one as a member of the Utah State Legislature.

“It was a full range of emotions,” he said, “but a really great experience. I’m very proud to be able to come back to my folks here in West Valley and let them know that we had a successful session. There were some really great things we were able to do to help our communities, especially for West Valley. I was proud to represent our community.”

Fitisemanu has long been dedicated to public health and community awareness. He served on the House Health and Human Services Committee, the House Political Subdivisions Committee and the Social Services Appropriations Subcommittee in this year’s session.

“Being able to work with those committees allowed me to share my experience on health issues,” he said. “We found a very nonpartisan way to work together on good bills and eliminate health policies that weren’t good. We were able to address those on equal footing, whether we were Democrats or Republicans.”

He proposed H.B. 258, the Medicare Supplement coverage amendment that was passed and signed into law by Gov. Spencer Cox. H.B. 187 on Imitation Firearm Amendments also advanced through the House but wasn’t approved by the Senate before the session ended, though it did get a second reading. That means he may reintroduce it next year. He also had two other bills he’ll bring back to legislature next year on residential notification and traffic safety amendments.

“As a first timer, that feels pretty good to be able to get those bills at least into motion,” he said. “These were not party bills—they were both West Valley bills generated by residents of West Valley and supported by our community. I’m really proud that they were an example of how issues that affect us locally can be taken through the whole process and eventually sent to the governor.” 

Fitisemanu said one misconception the public often has about the legislature is that there’s often animosity between Republicans and Democrats. 

“One thing that I think a lot of folks would not expect is how often both political parties genuinely want to work together to come up with really good solutions,” he said. “I think that what we see on the news about national politics and how things go in Washington creates a false impression. There are differences between the two political parties up here, of course, but I think 90% of the time, folks from both parties work and communicate well with each other.”

Something Fitisemanu definitely misses about serving on the West Valley City Council is “proximity and just connection with people. A lot of the work that is done on Capitol Hill is done in proximity with lobbyists and interested parties who are being paid to have representation on the Hill. That's very different from what it was like on city council, where my neighbors and community members were much more connected. I loved working in that community dynamic on the council so much, and it’s different up here.”

He’d like to see that fixed in some way if it could be.

“You hear that complaint a lot, you know, from people who can’t get into the sessions,” he said. “They don’t feel like they can get close enough to their legislators, and it’s a very limited space in our chamber. We can’t have them wandering around the floor. That’s one reason why we have committee hearings, which gives people a chance to have input on what we’re doing.”

He won’t get a long break as a legislator, since there are interim meetings and even an interim session on occasion. And many bills that didn’t get passed or have full hearings will likely return next January.

“Legislators will be taking informational tours and looking at audits and different research opportunities to kind of hone in and refine some issues and bills that will be brought up next year,” he said. “It’s exciting, and I’m grateful to be representing the residents of my district, and the community of West Valley City.”λ