Utah Hive Politicsfrom the publisher of The Weber County HiveThe people's publication. We investigate what's best for the public as a whole, not any party or special interest.Managed a political action committee, directed a political issues committee, and sat on the very Planning Commission that reviewed the same developers' projects — three roles, one overlapping network, and public statements that only partly match the record.
Laura Warburton has never held elected office. Her influence over Ogden Valley's development and incorporation politics ran instead through three positions — one she managed, one she directed, and one she was appointed to. Each intersects with the same small circle of developers and officials.
She is best known publicly as the founder of Live Hannah's Hope and as a vocal opponent of Ogden Valley City's 2024 incorporation. Less visible: she managed Utah Forward PAC, a committee that has received developer contributions and directed them to county campaigns since 2022; she directed Keep Our Valley Free (KOVF), the incorporation-opposition committee whose own filings show vendor payments re-attributed to her name after the fact; and, from June 2025 to January 2026, she sat on the Planning Commission that reviewed the same developers' projects.
Tap a tile to see who each person is and how they connect.
graph TD
classDef center fill:#f8ece2,stroke:#9a521f,stroke-width:2px,color:#1e2430;
classDef shared fill:#eef2f7,stroke:#2c3e5c,stroke-width:1px,color:#1e2430;
Froerer["Gage Froerer
Weber Co. Commissioner"]:::shared
Warburton["Laura Warburton
OVPC · KOVF · UFP"]:::center
KGibson["Katrina Gibson
UFP Registered Agent/CFO"]:::shared
KerryGibson["Kerry Gibson
Registered Lobbyist"]:::shared
Lewis["John Lewis
Developer"]:::shared
Dunleavy["Shane Dunleavy
Developer"]:::shared
UFP(["Utah Forward PAC"]):::center
KOVF(["Keep Our Valley Free"]):::shared
EdenCrossing[/"Eden Crossing"/]:::shared
Bolos["Sharon Bolos
Weber Co. Commissioner"]:::shared
Roybal["Chris Roybal
President, NUEA"]:::shared
Warburton -->|managed| UFP
KGibson -->|registered agent / CFO of| UFP
Roybal -->|co-manages, registered address| UFP
KerryGibson ---|married to| KGibson
Lewis -->|"$5,000 (4/19/22)"| UFP
Dunleavy -->|"$5,000 (4/19/22)"| UFP
UFP -->|"$10,000 to campaign"| Froerer
UFP -->|"$5,915 combined"| Bolos
Froerer -->|"$10,000 personally"| Bolos
Froerer -->|"Co-Chair, NUEA advisory board"| Roybal
Warburton -->|directed| KOVF
UFP -->|"$2,427.20 (1/9/24)"| KOVF
Lewis -->|"$5,912.70 + $769.60 direct-pay"| KOVF
Lewis -->|developer of| EdenCrossing
Froerer -->|"voted to approve, 2023"| EdenCrossing
Warburton -->|"voted to approve, 2025"| EdenCrossing
graph LR
classDef center fill:#f8ece2,stroke:#9a521f,stroke-width:2px,color:#1e2430;
classDef shared fill:#eef2f7,stroke:#2c3e5c,stroke-width:1px,color:#1e2430;
Froerer["Froerer"]:::shared -->|took $10,000 from| UFP(("Utah Forward PAC")):::center
UFP -->|managed by| Warburton["Warburton"]:::center
UFP -->|registered agent| Gibson["K. Gibson"]:::shared
Gibson -->|married to| KerryG["Kerry Gibson"]:::shared
UFP -->|took $5,000 from| Lewis["Lewis"]:::shared
UFP -->|took $5,000 from| Dunleavy["Dunleavy"]:::shared
Lewis -->|co-developer with| Dunleavy
Warburton -->|voted on his project| Lewis
Froerer -->|voted to approve| Lewis
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2020 - early 2022 | John Lewis chairs the county-era Ogden Valley Planning Commission. |
| Apr. 17-19, 2022 | Utah Forward PAC's founding donor cluster: Atlee Wampler $5,000, Lewis $5,000, Dunleavy $5,000, Rincon Financial (Dunleavy-linked) $10,000. |
| May 3, 2022 | Bonnie Kier-Herrick's family entities give $2,500 each to Utah Forward PAC. |
| Jul. 11, 2022 | Utah Forward PAC gives Gage Froerer's campaign $5,000. |
| Mid-2022 | Lewis's Planning Commission chairmanship ends; Trevor Shuman is chair by August. |
| May 4, 2023 | Utah Forward PAC gives Froerer's campaign a second $5,000 — $10,000 total. |
| Nov. 14 - Dec. 5, 2023 | The Planning Commission recommends denying Eden Crossing's rezone, 5-2. The Weber County Commission — chaired by Froerer — approves it, 2-1. |
| Jan. - Nov. 2024 | KOVF operates. Warburton directs it; funding includes Wolf Creek Resort (Lewis-controlled) and Lewis personally. Two vendor payments are later re-attributed to Warburton's name by amendment. |
| Mar. 11, 2024 | Dunleavy's EVO Utah entity gives Utah Forward PAC $1,000 — added to the record retroactively, three months later. |
| Nov. 5, 2024 | Ogden Valley City incorporation passes, 2,927-1,597. |
| Nov. 9, 2024 | KOVF dissolves. Warburton signs the closing filing as the committee's authorized representative. |
| Jun. 24, 2025 | Warburton is appointed to the new city's Planning Commission. On the record that night, she states she has never been to dinner with Lewis and his wife and hasn't taken money from them personally. |
| Sept. 21, 2025 | KSL co-quotes Warburton and Dunleavy on the same incorporation-transition concern. |
| Sept. 23, 2025 | Warburton seconds and votes aye, 6-1, on Eden Crossing's expansion — Lewis presents in person. |
| Jan. 8, 2026 | Katrina Gibson files to run for Weber County Commission Seat A. Her own COI form is later found to omit entities including Politix LLC; a property transfers to Bennet LLC the same day. |
| Jan. 14, 2026 | Katrina Gibson's own lobbyist registration is canceled — six days after filing to run. |
| Jan. 26, 2026 | Warburton resigns from the Ogden Valley Planning Commission. |
| Sept. 2026 | Warburton posts publicly denying business dealings with Lewis, describing her Planning Commission service with him as ordinary disagreement, and stating she had no idea who Dunleavy was before incorporation. |
Each row is its own public record. Read together, they show the same people funding, lobbying and voting on the same projects. No record shows that any gift was tied to a vote.
| Date | What the record shows | Record |
|---|---|---|
| June–Nov. 2018 | Seat A incumbent James Ebert loses the Republican primary. Froerer, then a state representative, wins Seat A in November with no opponent. Kerry Gibson, who had said in March 2018 he would not run again for his own seat, leaves the commission for a state job. | Deseret News, Nov. 7, 2018; Standard-Examiner, May 17, 2018 |
| 2019 | Froerer takes office. Gov. Gary Herbert appoints him to the Military Installation Development Authority (MIDA) board in the seat for a "County Commissioner from Weber." His current term runs March 31, 2023, to March 31, 2027. | Utah Boards and Commissions registry (boards.utah.gov) |
| Jan. 14, 2022 | Deputy County Attorney Christopher Crockett (filed as "Crocket") is added to the board of Live Hannah's Hope, where Kerry Gibson and Laura Warburton are directors. | Utah Division of Corporations; Utah State Bar directory |
| April–June 2022 | John Lewis and Shane Dunleavy each give Utah Forward PAC $5,000; Dunleavy-linked Rincon Financial gives $10,000; The Kier Corporation and Kier Girls LLC (Nordic Valley Land Associates) give $5,000 combined. | Utah Forward PAC reports, disclosures.utah.gov |
| 2022 | Froerer, the Seat A incumbent, runs for what the Standard-Examiner called his "second and final" commission term. Utah Forward PAC, with Katrina Gibson as CFO, gives his campaign $10,000 (2022–23). | Standard-Examiner, Nov. 4, 2022; disclosures.utah.gov |
| Sept. 7, 2023 | Kerry Gibson registers to lobby for Wolf Creek Management, John Lewis's company. | Utah lobbyist register |
| Nov. 14, 2023 | The Ogden Valley Planning Commission recommends denying Lewis's Eden Crossing rezone, 5–2. | Planning Commission record; Standard-Examiner |
| Dec. 5, 2023 | The County Commission, chaired by Froerer, approves the rezone 2–1. Froerer is its lead public defender. | Commission record; Salt Lake Tribune, Dec. 6, 2023 |
| Feb.–April 2025 | Katrina Gibson is also registered to lobby for Wolf Creek Management. | Utah lobbyist register |
| July 29, 2025 | Utah Forward PAC pays Steve Gibson $1,000. He sits on the Central Weber Sewer Improvement District board with Froerer. | disclosures.utah.gov; district minutes |
| Sept. 23, 2025 | Planning Commissioner Laura Warburton seconds and votes yes on Eden Crossing's 8.73-acre expansion. | Planning Commission minutes |
| Oct. 21, 2025 | The County Commission approves the expansion and development agreement amendment 3–0 (Ordinance 2025-26). Froerer seconds the motion. | Commission minutes, Oct. 21, 2025 |
| 2026 | Froerer does not run again. Katrina Gibson runs for his Seat A, sues to disqualify James Ebert (the incumbent Froerer unseated in 2018) over his disclosure form, and loses the June primary to Ebert. A judge threw out the lawsuit. | Standard-Examiner, June 2026 |
Kerry Gibson served on the County Commission from 2011 until he resigned for a state job in January 2018. Froerer's first commission term followed the 2018 election, so they did not serve together. Kerry Gibson's lobbyist registrations do not list Weber County as a client.
In September 2026, Warburton posted publicly addressing questions about her relationship to this network. Measured against the documented record above:
| Claim | Status |
|---|---|
| "I do not, and never have, had any business dealings with John Lewis or any of his business entities." | Technically accurate as worded — no contract or commercial relationship is documented. Narrower than it reads: two committees she ran took Lewis-network money.narrow |
| "Before incorporation, I had no idea who Shane Dunleavy was." | Unverifiable as a personal-knowledge claim. Utah Forward PAC took Dunleavy's $5,000 personal contribution over two years before incorporation.strained |
| "John and I also served on the Planning Commission at the same time." | Contradicted by the meeting record reviewed: Lewis's tenure ended roughly three years before Warburton's 2025 appointment.contradicted |
| "I own no land in the Valley other than the five acres where I live." | Confirmed via Weber County Assessor records — one Warburton-linked parcel, held in trust, matching this description.confirmed |
Flagged in earlier research as an unconfirmed lead — details not yet established. Worth following up before this is stated as fact anywhere.
Utah Forward PAC spent $12,000 in Dec. 2025 (In The Field + Politix LLC) on "polling & consultation on Weber County municipal elections." Which specific races this covered has not been confirmed.
Four contribution entries were deleted from the 2025 Sept. 30th and Year End reports with no field-level amendment detail in the DEX export, unlike KOVF's fully-documented deletions. The only unresolved gap across an otherwise fully reconciled 2022-2026 financial history.
Gave Utah Forward PAC $5,000 on 4/17/2022 from a Miami, FL address, the same day as Atlee Wampler's identical contribution. Never identified.
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