Chris Morrison, a father and business owner, has been in Farmington for more than twelve years. While balancing family life and his business at State Farm, he quickly began involving himself with Farmington’s community. Starting by joining the St. Francis County Rotary Club, he moved his way up the sociopolitical ladder, eventually becoming a figurehead of Farmington’s community. During his time living in Farmington, he’s joined various notable organizations such as the aforementioned Rotary Club, Farmington’s Regional Chamber, St. Francis County Board for The Developmentally Disabled, the Parkland Health Center Board, and eventually, in April of 2020, a member of the Farmington City Council.
Now, in 2025, Morrison is running for Farmington mayorship and has various plans to improve Farmington’s already thriving community.
One thing Morrison plans on focusing on is the city of Farmington’s worker retention.
“I think one that’s fairly important is we have some awesome employees in the city of Farmington, and people are starting to get closer to retirement, and when they do, you have to replace them, and it’s getting to be more challenging,” said Morrison. “The workforce is very difficult. So I think it’s really important that we work on employee retention and employee recruitment. We know the culture of Farmington. When you talk to employees, it’s a family environment. We want to make sure we keep that. We hope students like yourself, when you graduate and whether you go off and get a certificate, or you go off and get a degree, or you go into the workforce right away, whatever that looks like, we hope you come back and call Farmington home. You know, we have to do some things to make sure you want to do that.”
Morrison also expressed the importance of collaborating with Farmington schools.
“I think that collaborating with any entity is important but the school in particular, whether it’s the high school, whether it’s Mac, I think it’s really important to work together, from a city perspective on those projects, because when you have a great school system, your property values are better, your citizens are more educated, and when people are looking at places to live is that’s a huge factor,” Morrison said. “And over the last, you know, 5 or 6 years, even here in my office, we’ve had people moving to the area from all over, the country, and that’s one of the things that they like.”
Another thing Morrison mentioned as important is the considerations needed for balancing economic growth, infrastructure, and emergency services.
“Economic growth is something that’s always going to come up,” said Morrison. “I think growth is exciting, right? It’s always fun when a new restaurant or a new store comes in but we have to think about how it impacts our first responders, our infrastructure needs, and make sure any growth we have, we’re doing it responsibly and making sense. We’re not just trying to grow and build just to get bigger because sometimes the problems come with that, right? So we just want to make sure that we’re doing it in a responsible way.”
In addition, Morrison also plans to take a proactive stance on Farmington’s vast infrastructure, mentioning the possible need for a new substation.
“You know, I think there’s a lot of infrastructure needs, which those aren’t fun to talk about, but if we don’t stay on top of them and be proactive, they can get very, very expensive.” Morrison says, “We have our own electric utility company for Farmington right? So as the city grows, we need to keep up with it and make sure that we have enough infrastructure for them. So there’s going to be some growth, We’re probably going to have to add a substation on the southeast part of town.”
Morrison also mentioned how he wants to look at issues such as economic growth from a regional perspective rather than exclusively looking at them from a town-level locality.
“I think looking at things from a regional perspective is extremely important,” said Morrison. “I think it’s hard for Farmington to tackle issues on their own. We need to look at that from a bigger perspective. And, you know, how can our area, our region, what can we do together? And I think that’s the biggest thing for me. I feel like there are a lot of great people and great, organizations in Farmington in our area that work towards positive things. But I think if we could get everyone working together and collaborating, I think we would see a lot of great success.”
The 2025 mayoral election will be held on April 8th, and March 12th is the last day you can register to vote. Early voting begins on March 25th, and absentee voting is underway. To request the ballot online, you can go to Election Central at 1101 Weber Road, Suite 302, Farmington, Missouri 63640, or sfcgov..org.
