Meeting
City Council · 2018-02-09
City Council meeting
Decisions
0
0 motions in all
Split votes
0
at least one no
Discussion
–
no recording
Residents spoke
–
introduced themselves
Agenda items and what happened
| Item | Outcome | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 Where We Have Been & Accomplishments other session |
discussed only | p.1 |
| Leadership Discussion - "The Ideal Team Player" other session |
discussed only | p.1 |
| 311 Help Center Update other session |
presented only | p.2 |
| The Ins and Outs of Utah's Property Tax other session |
discussed only | p.2 |
| Financial Forecasting - Past, Present, and Future other session |
discussed only | p.2 |
| City Council Items of Discussion - UTOPIA/UIA other session |
discussed only | p.4 |
| Neighborhoods in Action (NIA) Program and Neighborhood Preservation Unit (NPU) other session |
discussed only | p.4 |
| Capital Projects and Buildings other session |
discussed only | p.5 |
| 2018-2019 Goals and Areas of Focus other session |
discussed only | p.6 |
Items and outcomes were extracted from the agenda and minutes by Claude (Anthropic); each links to the minutes page. The minutes are authoritative.
Text extracted from the minutes PDF (scanned pages via OCR). The PDF is the official record.
OREMCITYCOUNCILRETREAT ZermattUtahResort&Spa 784WestResortDrive Midway,Utah84049 February9,2018 1:30P.M.RETREAT CONDUCTING MayorRichardF.Brunst ELECTEDOFFICIALS CouncilmembersDebby Lauret,Sam Lentz,Tom Macdonald,MarkSeastrand,DavidSpencer,andBrent Sumner APPOINTEDSTAFF JamieDavidson,CityManager;BrennBybee,Assistant City Manager;Steven Downs,Assistant City Manager; andRichardManning,AdministrativeServicesDirector Council for consideration at future City Council meetings. Council discussion ensued. (1:32 p.m. - 2:22 p.m.) MayorBrunstwelcomed all in attendance and called themeeting to order.He thanked the City Council for their dedication, time, and efforts serving the residents of Orem.He particularly wanted to thank City Staff as well; he often received compliments on the quality of service staff showed in serving thepublic.He then reviewed the agendafor theretreat, and turned the time over to Mr. Bybee. (2:22 p.m. - 2:27 p.m.) 2017WhereWeHaveBeen&Accomplishments Mr.Bybee outlined his presentation.He reviewed City Council goals from 2017 and directed the Council to the Orem City webpage regarding those goals. He then engaged the Council in a "FamilyFeud”stylegamewithinformationaboutnotable eventsandresidentinvolvement, gathered through citizen surveys and the City of Orem Government Facebook page.(2:27p.m. 2:47 p.m.) Leadership Discussion-"The Ideal Team Player" Prior to theretreat,Mr.DavidsonhadinvitedeachCityCouncilmember toreadthebookThe IdealTeamPlayer:HowtoRecognizeandCultivatetheThreeEssentialVirtuesbyPatrick Lencioniforthepurposeof discussion.Hedescribedthebookasasortoffablewhere circumstances ariseforcinga businessowner and histeam tofind awayto success.The three "indispensable virtues” identified in the book are:(1) humble, (2) hungry, and (3) smart. Mr. Davidsonsummarizeddefinitionsforthosethreeattributes,andsharedthefollowingquotefrom the book: CityCouncil Retreat Minutes-February 9-10,2018（p.1) "What makes humble, hungry, and smart powerful and unique is not the individual attributesthemselves,butrathertherequiredcombinationofallthree.Ifevenoneis missing in a team member,teamwork becomes significantly more difficult,and sometimesnotpossible." Mr.Davidsonledadiscussiononhowtofostertheseattributesanddeveloptheskillsets necessarytobegoodteammembersandleadersalike.Councilmembersdiscussedtheir impressions and take-away ideas from the book, and how to implement those actions going forward. (2:48 p.m. -- 3:25 p.m.) **Note: The Council took a break at 3:25 p.m. **Note: The meeting resumed at 3:32 p.m. Mr.Bybeeupdated theCity Council on the City'snew311Help Center.Inone office,residents could go to get help with business licensing, passports, and fingerprinting services in addition to paying their utility bills. (3:32 p.m. - 3:41 p.m.) TheInsandOutsofUtah'sPropertyTax Laura Lewis with LewisYoung Robertson & Burningham (LYRB) shared a presentation titled, "Revenue and Taxation Review” in which she discussed property tax rates in Utah, the municipal Truth in Taxation process and its challenges, revenues available to municipalities such as property tax and sales tax, and how Orem specifically compared with other municipalities in thevalleyand thestate. Ms. Lewis said the primary revenues available to municipalities were property tax, sales tax, franchisefees,and building and developmentfees.The stability of theserevenue sourcesvaried, and themost stable of them all was property tax.Citieswere themostfinancially stable over the long-term when theymaintained abalanced revenue mix.Ms.Lewis said it was the responsibility of the City Council to look at the stability of each revenue stream and take action toinsurerevenuesufficiencyfordesiredlevelsofservice.Toaddressissuesofeconomic instability and inflation,itis recommended that taxing entitiesraiserateseveryfive toeight years. Mr.Davidson commented that Orem's property tax had not been raised since 1978. Mr.Davidson,Ms.Lewis,and the City Council discussed the information shared about Orem City's tax rates and taxation history, proportionality. Ms. Lewis said she was available to discuss this further any time.Mayor Brunst thanked her for taking the time to bewith their group that evening. (3:41 p.m. - 4:44 p.m.) FinancialForecasting-Past,Present,andFuture Mayor Brunstturned the timeover toMr.Manning for hispresentation.Mr.Manningsaid LYRBconductedasustainabilitystudyin2014or2015.ThepurposewastoshowhowOrem's long-term revenues and expenseswill trendfor theGeneral Fund,and to arm the Citywith informationtocoursecorrectif needed.Hesaid thebasisof thestudywaswell-founded and the projections appearedtobe sound.Mostrevenueswere trending aspredicted,and likewisewith CityCouncil RetreatMinutes-February9-10,2018（p.2) expenses.He said the focus should be on the trend lines, not the actual numbers. They had confidencethatthetrendswouldpanout. Mr.Manning echoed a comment made earlier about Orem’s current dependence on sales tax, and howthatwouldnotbesustainableforever.Salestaxwasvolatileanddependedonthestrengthof the economy.Thefuture of brick and mortar stores was uncertain in the face of online shopping options,and asUtah Countycontinued togrowand developOremmaynotnecessarilystay the retail hub of the county. Mr. Manning's final thoughts were that if nothing were to change going underfunded,proper staffing levelswould not bemaintained, and thiswould ultimatelyimpact thequalityoflife.Smallcoursecorrectionsnowandthrough theyearswouldbemucheasier than drastic changes down the road. (4:45 p.m. - 5:24 p.m.) Mayor Brunst thanked Mr.Manning for his presentation.He reminded the Council of their scheduleddinnertimeandadjournedthemeetingat5:25p.m. CityCouncilRetreatMinutes-February9-10,2018（p.3) OREMCITYCOUNCILRETREAT ZermattUtahResort&Spa 784WestResortDrive Midway, Utah 84049 February10,2018 9:00A.M.RETREAT CONDUCTING Mayor Richard Brunst Councilmembers Debby Lauret,Sam Lentz,Tom ELECTEDOFFICIALS Macdonald,MarkSeastrand,DavidSpencer,andBrent Sumner APPOINTEDSTAFF JamieDavidson,CityManager;BrennBybee,Assistant City Manager;and Steven Downs,Assistant City Manager MayorBrunstwelcomedeveryonebackandreviewedtheday's schedule,notingthattheywould firstbe discussingspecificitems ofinterestfor the CityCouncil. CityCouncil ItemsofDiscussion Mr.LentzspokeaboutUTOPIA/UIA.Hesharedsomefeelingsabouthisexperiencewith UTOPIAfromhisfirstinvolvementas aresident“activist”tonow,wherehe served onthe City'sUIABoardandhadseentimeandagaintheeffortthatwentintotryingtofindasolution thatbestservedOrem.Hewasproudof theprogressthathadbeenmade,butacknowledged that there mayyet be growth to come and better ideas to be sought out. The residents’desire for solutionswouldshape theCouncil'sdirection,soitwasimportantthattheygathered that informationbefore movingforward. Mr. Davidson said they were going to gather that information through public survey.He wanted tofirstgetdirectionandfeedbackfromtheCityCouncilsothatthequestionsaskedwerewritten in such a way that theywould get the answers needed tolead to solutions.They intended to send thesurveyto allutilityaccountholdersinthecitytoget awideselectionofresponders,and residentswould havetheoption toparticipate ornot.The Council discussed their thoughts and opinionsonhowtoconductthepublicsurvey.Therewasdiscussion aboutUTOPIA andUIAin the City. (9:02 a.m. - 10:08 a.m.) Mr.Sumner wanted to discuss the Neighborhoods in Action (NIA)program and the Neighborhood PreservationUnit (NPU)inthe OremPoliceDepartment (OPD).He sharedhis thoughts afterhehad spokenwith Chief Giles,Mr.Davidson,NPUofficers,andresidents,and his conclusion was to either abandon the program or to scrape together the money to let NPU really do their jobs.The Council discussed staffing for NPU and the NIA programs,costs of expandingthoseprograms,thetimeandeffortrequiredtorevitalizeNIAandwhetherthatwas something thepublic would get behind,spring clean-up efforts,etc. City CouncilRetreatMinutes-February9-10,2018（p.4) Mr.Davidsonsaidone difficultytheyfacedwaspersonnel andcostswithinthe OPDtoexpand; therewere manyneeds in the department and NPUwas a lesser priority at the moment.The new 311System was a way to pass along code enforcement calls and other prudent information to keep things on the radar until they were resolved. It would go a long way in helping NPU handle code enforcement once it was fully launched. (10:08 a.m.- 10:43 a.m.) **Note: The Council took a break at 10:44 a.m. **Note: The meeting resumed at 10:51 a.m. Capital Projects and Buildings Mayor Brunst kicked off a discussion on City buildings and capital projects.He specifically spoke of the city buildings that had been built or retrofitted in the last twenty years, like the SeniorFriendship Center,thePublicSafetybuilding,and thePublicWorksbuilding-eachwas aninvaluableresourcetotheCity.He turnedthediscussiontootherbuildingsandprojectsin need of consideration,specifically the City Center,the library auditorium,and the Fitness Center.These buildings were facing challenges that came with age (excepting the library auditoriumwhichwasnotyetbuilt)and thereneeded tobediscussion on thebestway tofinance these projects, like a general obligation bond, a revenue bond, or a municipal bonding authority bond. He said it important to keep the public involved in these discussions at every point. Mr.Davidson spoke on the Fitness Center renovation,the City Center, and the library auditorium, based on an allocation of $42 million spread between projects before any cash contributions.Mr.Davidson spoke of AlpineSchool District's creation of a building authority whichwasbeingused tofinance theconstructionof thenewSceraParkElementaryschool.They wereusing the operationalsavingsof closingHillcrestElementary and applied itto thedebt service onthenewschool. Oremhad a MunicipalBuildingAuthority alreadyinplace,and there wasdiscussiononwhethertheyshouldfollowasimilarmodel toAlpineSchoolDistricttouse operational expenses as a revenue stream.Mr.Davidson shared further information about money that could be allocated for these projects from various city accounts, and then turned the time over theMr.Bybee. Mr.Bybee shared scenarios on how to address the financing. Therewas further discussion on real costs,proposed timelines for projects,Truth in Taxation,bonding options, and theimpact of each of the financing scenarios.MayorBrunst said there came a time for every asset where it neededtobereplaced,and itwasimportanttodiscussthosethingsnowtohavetheproper mechanisms in place to address the issues in the future. Discussion ensued. (10:51 a.m. - 12:24 p.m.) **Note:TheCouncilbrokefor lunch at 12:25p.m. **Note: The meeting resumed at 1:05 p.m. Mr. Sumner had to leave the retreat early and was notpresentforthefinaldiscussions. CityCouncil RetreatMinutes-February9-10,2018（p.5) 2018-2019GoalsandAreasofFocus Mr.Davidson reviewed with the City Council some of the goals and areas of focus they had identified in thepastyear.He asked them toreflect on the successes and strugglesin those areas, anddiscusswhat theywould liketodogoingforward.One area that hadseengreatimprovement wascommunications,particularlybetweentheCityandthepublic.Inadditiontocityemail blasts and paper newsletters, therewas a greatpush on social media toraise awareness of events and help answer residents’questions.There were many ways to interact with the City, and there were even greater opportunities togrow in that. Another area of focus for the coming year would be the Orem City Centennial. Therewas a brief discussionaboutsomeoftheplansintheworksforthecelebration,aswellasthebudgetthey expected for the year's activities.UTOPIA continued to be an area of focus, and they were moving forward working with the City's Public Works Advisory Commission (PWAC). Air quality was a big concern; there were several air quality monitoring sensors in and around UTOPIA hubs and their real-time readings can be viewed at purpleair.com. Another area of focus was city facilities and capital assets, as had already been addressed to some degree.Mr. Davidson said there had been general upkeep and minor improvements as needed. He also noted thatnot alloftheprogresswaseasilyvisible,buttherewasprogress. TherewasdiscussiononareasoffocusfortheCityCouncil toaddressinthecomingyear.Some suggested topicswere: ·City facilities UTOPIA Trafficand transportationmanagement "Town andgown”relationstoestablishacooperativeworkingrelationshipwiththenew UVUpresident NextgenerationneighborhoodengagementandNIAprogram Citypersonnelandemployeedevelopment-retentionandcompensationformeritand costoflivingadjustments SmartCityadvancements OremCityCentennial Celebration FuturedevelopmentoftheSouthwestAnnexationarea Mr.Davidsonsharedhis thoughts onsome of the suggested areas of focus.Some of thesetopics wouldbedifficultforthe Counciltoshowprogresswith.Asthelegislativebodyfor theCity they could affect a great many changes,but some issueswere simply beyond their purview.Staff would alsoplay akeyroleinpursuingchanges.TherewasfurtherdiscussionbytheCityCouncil to narrow the list to the top four or five goals. (1:06 p.m. - 2:13 p.m.) MeetingWrapUp MayorBrunst thanked all thosewhohadparticipatedintheretreat,andwantedtogivespecial thanks toKristie Snyder and all those who helped organize the event and make sure everything ransmoothly.Acommentwasmadethatthechangeofvenuesfromthepreviousyearhadbeena nice change. (2:13 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.) City Council Retreat Minutes-February9-10,2018（p.6) The meeting adjourned at 2:15 p.m. OREM CITYOF CORPORATE SEAL COomma R. aver DonnaR.Weaver,CityRecorder Approved:March 27,2018 City Council RetreatMinutes-February9-10,2018（p.7)