City Council · 2022-06-14

All right, I'd like to welcome everyone here this afternoon, and I think we're good to start. And we'll start out with Kenneth Joe Matthews. And Melissa McNally, uh, with a discussion of the home consortium. McKenna, I am noticing you're like involved in everything.

I'm a little busy at times. That's her way to want to raise.

So can you prove you do work here?

The community services title is wrong. So, Mayor and Council, I'd like to introduce you to Melissa McNally. She's a planner with the City of Provo. She's actually— Dan Gonzalez, you know, has left the city. And so Melissa's filling in that role the best she can. It's a big role to fill, and she's doing a really good job. So I'm going to turn the time over to her. We're going to talk about the HOME Consortium. HOME is some federal dollars that we can receive. But it's part of the consortium of the county. And we have to sign an agreement once every other year to be part of that, correct? Every 3 years. Oh, every 3 years. So, and it's been 3 years. I can't believe it's been 3 years already. So turn the time over to Melissa. She'll make a presentation, then we can ask any, ask any questions. We also have Gavin. He's also here as well.

So, good afternoon everyone. Thank you for taking the time to let me come and present on the consortium. So I am here because it is time for the renewal of that. We're in the middle of that right now. And just because some of you might be new or not, not familiar with what HOME is or with what the consortium is, I thought I'd give you a little bit of history. Okay, so HOME is a grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. It is there to provide funding for local entities to come up with housing, different kinds of housing strategies for low and moderate income families. And through the consortium, so a little bit of history on that. Provo is— Provo was the first entity within the county to receive those HOME dollars. They developed the early version of the consortium in the early 1990s with several municipalities within the county, and that has evolved into what it is today. It is made up of a governing board of Provo City, Orem City, Lehi City, and Utah County. And Provo has been designated as the lead entity. That means that all the HOME dollars come, come to us, and we're responsible for disbursement of those funds throughout the county. And that's where the consortium comes in. All of those municipalities that sign up with the consortium then become eligible to have HOME dollars spent within their municipalities. Okay, some of the different things that these HOME funds can be used for are acquisition, property acquisition for housing construction, for construction of new housing for the, for the purpose of homeownership or affordable rental housing. Financial assistance for low and moderate income households, for first-time homebuyers, and tenant-based rental assistance.

Can I have a question?

Do you ever work with Habitat for Humanity?

Yes. Okay.

That's how I met Kevin.

Yes. So just some examples. Well, first, all of the funding priorities are decided within the consortium, within those governing members. So they come up with the funding priorities for each year, for each of our action plans, and that kind of guides where the, where the HOME funds are focused. Some of the HOME projects that we've had throughout the county, just to give you an idea, we have mutual self-help homes in Payson, senior housing projects in American Fork, A senior housing project in Springville, a Crown Home project in Provo, Habitat for Humanity project in Provo, and some of the projects that have been done in Orem recently are Habitat for Humanity, the Washburn Reams project, the Geneva Road project, and currently we're working on the NeighborWorks senior housing project.

Yes.

Do you have some revenue sharing? I mean, do you make them put in so many dollars for so many dollars you match, or how does this go about? How big is the funds and where does it come from?

Sorry, so it all comes from HUD, from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and they do require a 25% match, um, on the different projects.

So that can be done 75 to my 25 or vice versa, right?

Right, that's how my 75—

no, there's HUD puts in 75 for the 25.

Okay, thank you.

Can that be sweat equity?

Yes, it can.

It can be, yeah.

So any other questions on that?

How big is the fund?

Great question. It varies from year to year. This year we got $1.5 million to spend throughout the county.

It's usually a reimbursable grant, so because it's reimbursable, it's always turning over. So like self-help homes, Habitat's had a little bit of a unique situation in that because Habitat is a pay-it-forward program, With funding in there, mortgage payments are used to build other homes. So we did not have to pay it back to the home because they felt like we were paying it forward. So that was a nice thing that Habitat had. Most of the time it's reimbursable funding, and because it's reimbursable, it depends on the year how much money is coming back for the amount of money that's available.

Right, so this year we had, we had $1.5 granted from HUD, and in reimbursable funds, $500,000 that goes back into the program to Spend again.

Yeah, when I worked in American Fork, the Bank of American Fork did a senior project, which I think they put $1 million in, and then there were other sources that came from— do you have partners like banks that can work with this, or is this strictly a government program?

We—

so we work with nonprofits mostly, and it's up to them to come up with that other funding.

So that's—

so we work a lot with Habitat, with rural housing, with both of the housing authorities, anyone else that wants to apply for the home funding.

So like with this NeighborWorks program or NeighborWorks senior project, they're trying to get the funding together to build it, but we put CDBG funds, they put HOME funds into buying the ground and, you know, getting the property ready. And now they're looking for funding to build it. So I don't know where that neighborhood project is. It's over by Cherry Hill, kind of in Cherry Hill neighborhood. It's one of our senior overlay zones, so it will be a 4-unit project. It got stalled because of COVID and some of the pricing, but they're rebidding it and hopefully it'll come on board and we can start building that pretty soon.

How many applications do you get for that?

It depends from year to year. We've had less the last few years. There are a lot of red, red tape requirements from the federal government that can sometimes be a hardship on some of the nonprofits.

So—

But is that mostly who you're working with, nonprofits?

Yes.

The 25%?

Yes.

And if I may, a follow-up question.

Can a for-profit entity contact you and say, I'll build this, but I'll charge below market rate?

Okay, but they have the red tape.

Can I ask a question? So I looked at your brochure here and it talks about rehabilitate rental or owner-occupied units, improve sites for home assistance developments, or demolish dilapidated housing on such sites. But that's some of your activities. So how do you decide when you do that? Because I see that as a big— the rural housing would be great, but we don't qualify for that. So, right, how many new homes being built tomorrow? So how do we help this happen so we can get some?

So we have— that's a great question. We have in the past through NeighborWorks done a purchase rehab resale program, which is, I think, what you're, what you're talking about, where they have had to demolish and rebuild, or they've just rehabbed. And so we have had programs like that in the past. We haven't done that for quite a few years, but That is, that is something that we can do.

Just, just happen. Where do we, how do we incentivize that to start happening more and more? Are there nonprofits we have to reach out to to say we'd like assistance here with some of our neighborhoods?

So I think, I think one of the best ways is to make— when we get the— every fall we put out a notice of funding available, and that's where people— to notify people, hey, come and Pitch us your— give us your sales pitch for money. And I think that would be the best place to do it. If that were a funding priority for Orem, then we could put that in that, in that notice of funding available to say these are our funding priorities, these are the projects we want to see, these are the projects we're looking to fund, just to notify the public and the nonprofit world. this is what we want to do.

So, so the city could create their own program. I mean, there are cities that have those kind of programs. It's usually easier to work through someone that's already doing it. So NeighborWorks does it, Habitat does it. We did some purchase rehab when I was at Habitat as well. But even Self-Help does it. Rural Housing has some programs for it. So it is, it is potentially there to help. Right now, what I sit on the board as the ORM representative, and this past year, a lot of But because ground is so expensive, everything's so expensive right now, a lot of the money's going to self-help homes because they're being able to continue to build with their funding sources. We also fund our down payment and closing cost assistance program through Provo City that Orem residents have funding available to. It's up to $40,000. It's a deferred, 0% interest deferred mortgage. second mortgage, or people can use it for a down payment. But because housing's so expensive, people in the 80% or less of AMI just can't afford it regardless of what they're getting. So that's one of the issues is this has to be for 80% or less of AMI to qualify. And with housing prices the way they are, it's just really a struggle right now. So that's kind of a glitch in the, in the program here that didn't exist in the '90s when this was all set up. But now we're finding a problem because we have these more expensive homes.

So it's not really helping On this aspect, right?

Yeah, I— it was during the downturn, I was buying homes at Habitat for $85,000, and those houses are now worth like $450,000. So it's a very different market than it was then. And this is a federal program. Federal program, yes.

So that was the last— kind of brought up the last slide I wanted to talk about, which is our down payment assistance program. So we do have— so Provo City runs 2 different down payment assistance programs. One is specifically for Provo City, so that money stays within Provo City, and then we have money that we set aside for the county. And this is the breakup of over the last 20 years that we've been running this program. This is where that down payment assistance has gone. And you can see that Orem has the biggest chunk of that, 214 down payment assistance loans we've made in Orem. And that's, that's homeownership in your city. And that's, that's, we feel like that's important. That's something that we want to encourage is homeownership. As kind of said, that's really hard in the current market. We just did our housing analysis to send into HUD for the median home price for our county, and it's about $560,000 right now. And like Hannah said, if you're making that 80% of AMI, which is only going to be $60,000 to $70,000, and you have to meet the criteria of like staying up affordable housing, which is no more than like— they like to see no more than like 33% of your income— that's really hard to meet that threshold. So we are looking at doing some changes to our programs to provide some gap financing because it's just really hard for people to get into homes, and we want to make that a reality.

So that would kind of help more and more, right?

Is this a loan or it's a grant?

It is a loan, it is a loan, but it's deferred. As long as the people live in the home, um, it's a deferred loan. It's a silent second mortgage, um, so that when they sell the house at that time, then it's repaid. So they don't make any payments. It doesn't— it's no interest. second mortgage.

Unless they rent the house out, then they can't— then it's called due about payment.

How do people qualify for that?

They can just apply through— Provo City has an application process. It's on our website as well.

Is it based on income?

It is based on income, family size and income, and also the sales price of the home. So one of the things that we've been able to do, because our housing prices are higher than the general market in the whole the whole United States, we've been able to work with HUD and have our price set a little bit higher than maybe the general market just because of that. So like our critical home repair program and stuff, we fund that through CDBG, but we've been able to raise that price to help people, you know, to help people, because otherwise we wouldn't be able to help them if it was lower because their houses are worth more.

Is this something that real estate agents are aware of so that they know that If someone's kind of in this position, that there's another option to help them get this financing.

Yeah, we try to market these programs a lot.

We are—

the 2 ladies that run the programs in our office are constantly reaching out to the real estate market to let them know to get this money moving. But the last couple years has been incredibly hard between COVID and then the escalating housing crisis. It's been really hard.

Are you required to use up all the money every year before you get new money?

Uh, no, no, we, we are able to, um, have it for a few years. So, uh, but if, if it is sitting there for a while, HUD does come to us wanting to know why and what we're doing about it to make it start moving.

Um, so, but generally there's $1.5 million that comes every year, so you're basically getting $2 million for Right, right.

Is there a maximum per person? Like a family couldn't get more than like $20,000? I mean, after the $1.5 million, is it— that could go to a couple families that have to be divvied up a bunch, right?

Right.

And it just depends on how, on how much goes to the program, because when we award the funding, it goes to, like I said, the nonprofits and the programs. So this year it went to— most of it went to rural housing and some of it went to the down payment assistance program. So Then the families apply to the down payment assistance programs. It's not directly to HUD.

Is there a max per family, like $20,000, $40,000?

$40,000.

It's actually been reduced, but we're looking at— but we're looking at— yeah, we can have that reduced a few years ago, but we're looking at— I'm working with the HUD rep to see what kind of gap financing we can do to change that.

And it can be a townhouse, it doesn't have to be freestanding, right?

Right, any single-family housing. A lot of what we're seeing are condos.

Yeah, that's what's, that's what's affordable, right, at over $300,000.

It would be interesting too. We have lots of neighborhoods where they've got older houses and they, you know, could use fixing up. And you'll sometimes see home flippers come in and start to transform those neighborhoods over time. It seems like if they had something where, like, an existing homeowner that's going to stay in the house, in an older house, could get this 20% loan applied against the house, but then have a come off when they sold the house. So basically, you'd be refurbishing existing neighborhoods and working to a price point that might work in some of those.

Yeah, Provo had a program like that for several years, but they don't now, right?

No.

Okay, any other— anything else?

Yeah, so basically, we'll put this on consent for next time, and we just need to agree to it. It's not on this time, it'll be on the 28th. We'll put it on consent. set agenda, and then we'll just have the mayor sign a resolution that says we agree to continue to be part of the consortium. So, all right, thanks everybody.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, next we've got Police Chief Josh Adams as a presentation for us on critical incident protocols.

Appreciate having a little bit of time to run through a couple of things with all of you. Um, we're asked to talk about critical incident response as it pertains to an issue of mass violence in schools. And with— just going to give a little bit of an overview as far as what our actual plans are and so forth. We're not really going to go into details, divulge a whole lot of information, obviously, in a public meeting about how that's going to happen. But what I can tell you is that every charter school, every secondary school, and every elementary school has an active existing plan in place. It's been that way for several years. It's reviewed, uh, every, every year by the police department, by our emergency manager, and by the fire department. Uh, and what we go through is the initial response and approach to, uh, each one of those. And this— so to break that down, we have kind of a collective plan, but then we break it down to each individual school.

By, by obviously by the geography and access and so forth.

And in those we create staging areas, casualty collection points, landing zones, apparatus parking, etc., evacuation routes, reunification, road closures. So that just as an example, and this isn't a real one, this is just kind of a— give you a kind of an idea, if you will. So Sharon Elementary If these are not the actual ones, but as far as what we do is we design them to have 2 different evacuation points. And what that is, is it's evacuation and reunification. So if we need to move the student body of any school to a secondary site in an emergency, we will have 2 that will be kind of opposite one another. So if there was an incident that was on the west side, of Sharon Elementary, we would want to move them obviously to the east or to the south. So these kind of COVID like the south, you know, they're designed to kind of be on corners that way, so to speak, um, with access to a building that we can shelter and then begin the reunification process. The reunification process is something that the school district, uh, is, is charged with. We basically are— well, obviously we're responsible for all the security scene and stopping threats and so forth. And then having one thing to rehearse is with the fire department and so forth, so that we can— our responses are— they know where to go and we know where to go to find them.

So I have a question.

So what happened in Texas, there was a thing saying that they were waiting for a SWAT team to come or something. So, and obviously the time period of when happened, it's just tragic. So tell me If there's an active shooter, is SWAT initially called?

No.

Okay, so what—

give me an idea what that looks like.

So the training that we have, and to give you an idea, our— speaking for me, I am more concerned about preventing these incidents than what we're going to do when they actually happen. I'm very confident what we're going to do if and when they do happen. It will be It will be fast, it will be deliberate, it will be violent, it will end quickly. Um, and we train to that standard right now with our officers. Every one of our officers has had, within the past 18 months, uh, over 13 hours of practical.

This isn't discussion, this is—

we're actually inside schools, uh, practicing tactics, uh, that include, uh, breaching and so forth. As far as equipment goes, when you talk about, okay, well, this is the SWAT team and this is a regular officer, We are essentially equipped the same way at this point, and with weapons systems and so forth, very similar, with ballistic protection, very similar. All of our other— all of our officers have those things. Again, training is, is the biggest thing that we are focused on with that stuff. And, you know, the 13 hours, we have 4 more additional hours planned for our July training session. We also use a simulator 5 times. We've been— they've all gone through simulated active shooter responses in the last 5 times in the last 18 months. And what we focus on again is a solo officer response, that kind of giving up or having the courage to give up your self-preservation to save others. If we rewind back to Colorado, to Columbine, the protocols back in those days was, yeah, surround, contain, and then deploy a tactical team inside. We recognized in that response that was insufficient and unacceptable. Since then, the doctrines have shifted towards more of an immediate action type thing. So for instance, you know, 20 years ago when I was new in police work, it was— we trained to go in and caught in groups of 4, and so the tactics were designed specifically for that. So you'd essentially hold to get at least a group of 4 and then never go in with less than 4. We've now— we don't even feel like that is rapid enough at this point, and so we actually train to go by yourself. And as we get there, we deploy, and then as we are inside, if we can collect and do those things, but we're not going to stand outside and wait.

That makes sense.

Another important feature is all of our police officers have been through a tactical combat casualty care course. It's the baseline military course for trauma care. All of our officers are equipped with the training and the equipment for those types of instances where either themselves or a patient is in a spot where we cannot either take them to the fire department or bring the fire department to them.

So, yes. Along those same lines, the fire department prior to me taking the chief position to deploy with the police department equipment and training so that our paramedics are tactically trained to enter as support without weapons, um, in being covered by the police force to extract those patients that they can't bring to us. So we have vests and other equipment available for our paramedics in They do— I think I want to say it's yearly training. It may be every 2 years training tactical paramedic resources that support what the police are also doing. So you guys are entering the hot zone with coverage from the police in an active shooting scenario to get somebody that's been injured.

So the school resource officer is going to be at our high school, should going to be the first person on?

In theory, yes.

In theory, yes. Okay, so they would be figuring out where they need to tell people because they're there at the school, so they're going to be first, right?

Yes.

Are they trained at the same level as, as you, as everyone?

Myself on down, every single police officer is trained at the same level.

Police, resource officer, that's our—

And that's part of that, that immediate action is we're not going to discriminate who you are, what your assignment is, what your rank is, anything like that.

If I'm around the corner, it would be my— I'm not going to sit there on an incident commander hat or something like that and send other people in. It's I'm there first type of a thing. So yeah, every single officer is trained to that same level, and it's kind of obsolete what your normal duties are. But yeah, we are, we are very comfortable with the SROs we have, their level on those things.

They have specific immediate response tools and equipment at the schools as well that they have access to. So for instance, it's not, hey, they're in school doing whatever, somebody comes to the school, they've got to run out to their car to get whatever tools they might need. We have those secure in the schools already.

So, so for example, when Officer Fredrickson was at Mountain View with this stabbing, he was So he was first on the scene and he did what he needed to do to subdue it, and then I'm assuming backup's coming as soon as—

Yes.

Okay. Yes.

So he was, he was actually teaching a class when, when that happened.

So puts down his piece of chalk.

Do you think, um, do you think the amount of training you're having right now is enough? For this sort of thing. And just from the perspective of— I mean, I don't know anything about this, but from my perspective, the biggest issue to go from being a school resource officer that's just hanging out every day with the kids and on duty and all that to, you know, you're in an extreme situation, it's like going from 0 to 100 instantly. And so it's more of a mental adjustment, it seems like. And that's why I just wonder if the training— if you think the training is enough to get trained for that kind of change?

That's a really good question, Mayor. So there are not, uh, there are not a lot of what I would call a published, well, here are the standards, like the National Tactical Officers Association. They don't have a published standard. Nobody really has it. Well, this is, this is the curriculum, or this is the amount of hours, or anything like that. Um, you know, and, and I would, I would submit that we are at least double what anybody else that I know of trains on these things. Um, like I said, I don't, I don't know that there is enough. Like, I don't feel like they're trained. I don't feel like I'm trained.

I don't—

I mean, but at the same time, we can't—

there's, there's rehearsal and then there's performance.

Yeah.

And we feel like, uh, overall, um, in, in most situations, our people have demonstrated ability to shift into that one. And we don't want to— one, with our training philosophically, we're trying to balance scholarship with statesmanship and then a warrior, if you will.

And we wouldn't want to overtrain one or the other. I mean, it's trying to make that balance that way so that we're capable of handling a violent incident, same as effectively the same way we would be handling something formal tonight at the right level. So that's one thing I think is the question you're asking yourself all the time is just, I mean, because this seems to be escalating nationally and more of an issue than it was a long time ago, be able to go from 0 to 100 and make that happen and just be ready for that. Yeah, because it seems like, it seems like all the other pieces are in place. It's just If that's enough training.

Yeah, I think so. And that, that's— so we train, train, train, and they, they do have the equipment. Um, the city's invested very heavily in having those things, not just, uh, weapon systems and so forth, but the protective equipment and stuff that they can go into these things, uh, with a reasonable amount of confidence that, you know, personal protective equipment stuff And, uh, you know, one of the things out of Texas is that there's like, well, how do we get into and stuff like that? We have a lot of, um, breaching equipment, so forth, that's dispersed, uh, so that virtually anybody that's working, we've got access to the tools and so forth.

So you're not waiting for a key or anything?

Well, and, and the key thing is entering. So we, we, uh, entered into a forest. One of the programs we initiated Uh, with the school district, uh, 3 years ago, that's still 3 years ago, is we actually have a quantity of keys, master keys, to every school, uh, secreted inside the school, but we know where they're at. And the school, obviously administration, that we use. So I mean, it's, it's a matter of, uh, accessing those keys and we'll have We've got a dozen keys to the entire school. Okay.

So, um, we've been seeing, you know, a lot on the news as well, but the county's been training some teachers with firearms and those kind of things.

And I'm not asking for numbers or who, but do you, do you have a list of who those teachers are and which schools they're at?

No idea whatsoever. My ex-wife doesn't. Yeah. And then, but yeah, I know that we have no question that exists. And on the same time, I mean, how many kids have brought weapons to school that we don't know about? We only know what we know.

And so it's just a matter of trying to be prepared for what we we encounter in that situation.

And one of the scary things for us is just that—

is, okay, we walk into the school and here's somebody with a gun, we don't know who they are. That differentiation between, okay, here's a good guy, who's a bad guy, in a situation like that. May I ask a question?

Yes.

If a student brings a gun to school, does Alpen School District inform you?

Absolutely, every time.

And then are you guys on the same— are you Are you comfortable with the way that that disciplinary— that situation is handled?

Yes, that's a crime. So they contest, so we treat it criminally. And then they have expulsion policies and so forth that they follow as far as a student being removed from the school, banned from school, whatever that case may be. But ours— our piece in that balance equation, and it's guided by statute and so forth, but that being a criminal act, criminal offense is something that, yeah, we— so as far as first right of action, it's us.

They're calling us with the communications of other threats and things like that. There's, there's things very much so.

Yeah, no matter what they do with this, it's a crime.

Yes.

Even if they have a concealed permit, they're over 18, they can't do it. Can't bring it to school.

Thanks.

What if it's a 3D plastic gun? But I don't know.

Again, it's in defining weapon. I mean, we're talking about guns. Mountain View, case in point, that came out of his mom's butcher block.

So, so that was a knife, right? Yeah.

You know, and how many weapons are there?

How many persons? Well, I guess my question was more your communication with Alpine. with that, or if there's any improvement, or you're just good with it?

No, things have been fantastic. They have, uh, they have both a risk management and a safety management team that we work— that our SROs work very closely with on those. They have protocol. Again, it's guided by statute as far as, okay, is a behavior problem a police problem?

No.

But is a criminal problem a district problem?

Not until the police—

That's kind of where the disconnect has been in the last summer. So just the behavior versus discipline, you know, specifically here, or— No, in other areas, not here.

But just want to make sure, because if you knew of one, I want to be able to address it with them. If you're aware of one, any questions?

Thank you.

Next up on the agenda, we've got stormwater code amendments. Well, Mayor and Council, it's a pleasure to be in front of you again.

Today we will be talking about some proposed stormwater code amendments that we have. Wanted to provide a little bit of background just to make sure that everybody understood the purpose of the stormwater program that we have that's run out of Public Works. As a city, we have a responsibility to make sure that, that we can control stormwater that comes down, whether it's rain or snow. when it melts. We need to make sure that, that we limit the amount of property damage that, that could occur from that. As the city's developed, we have taken efforts to make sure that that's controlled. We also have an increasingly— an increasing responsibility to look after the water quality. And so the state, which has primacy from the federal government and EPA, Runs the stormwater regulations statewide. We as a city are permitted to discharge untreated stormwater into water bodies of the state, including the Provo River and Utah Lake, and also into, into the ground. We're permitted to do this because we are what's termed an MS4, a municipal separate storm sewer system. That's, that's just the term that's— that is used to— for each municipality that they are an MS4, they have a regulated stormwater system that they work directly with the state to make sure that they are in compliance with state statute as well as federal law. So each MS4, including Orem City, we have a permit. that has specific guidelines and regulations that we need to follow to make sure that we're controlling stormwater and also making sure that, that we keep the water as clean as we can within reason. In order to comply with these, we have a few things that we can rely on to help us to achieve this goal. One is design manuals. When it comes to development happening, we refer to these manuals and require that developers design their, their whatever they're constructing to meet the requirements for stormwater management. It could include retaining a certain flow on site, certain structures which we refer to as BMPs, best management practices, to be constructed that can, that controls wastewater, sorry, stormwater stormwater so that it's controlled. We also have a stormwater management plan. That's the guiding document that we, as in Public Works, we follow that. It lists different practices that we as a city will take and also refers to things that the public should follow, and then we enforce that. And then the last thing is, of course, the city The city ordinance defines the expectations of its citizens as well as development when it occurs, and it's, it's for that purpose that we are here today. Our city staff has been reviewing Chapter 23 of city code since November of last year. My staff sitting over here, Rick Saby, who is our section manager, Chelsea Lindsay is our long-term stormwater management program manager, and then Danny Spray is the stormwater pollution protection program manager. Danny's responsibilities are to monitor construction sites and make sure that they are complying with the regulations that have been set forth in our code, which is Reflects what's required by the state as we manage stormwater. Chelsea's primary responsibilities are the long term.

We need—

we're required to make sure that as development happens and they put these structures in that manage stormwater, that they continue to function in the long term to protect water quality and control stormwater flows. And Her job is to— is focused on that long-term stormwater management effort that we have. And then Rick runs the day-to-day operations where we're cleaning stormwater structures and doing routine maintenance and installations around the city as well. We also work with Heather. She continues to work with us as we polish up, and we will be providing with you the Red Line version of the changes that we will be discussing today. And then Development Services, Engineering, and Chris Shirkey and myself have been reviewing this, and now we're ready to present it to you. Now there are some relative— most of it is simple housekeeping items. They're relatively simple changes. They're not going to be alarming. And the bigger changes are—

aren't—

we're not breaking any— there's no earth-shattering news, nothing that's terribly impactful. But it's been several years since we've looked at this and felt it's time to do this now. Some of the simple changes that we've done, there are several definitions that have been edited, added, or deleted. A couple of The main ones. The definition for building has changed. It used to refer to something that had a roof and walls, and then we had people who, who wanted to add— and that's considered an impervious surface— wanted to add something that had no walls. So we're clarifying that a building now includes any add-ons that have only a roof and no walls, such as a a lean-to or something that they have in their yard. Also, the definition for redevelopment. Previously, the definition for redevelopment in code applied to whether or not you changed 10% or more of a building's footprint, but then we are now changing that To where it applies to 10% or more to change of the building footprint or any of the non-building impervious surface, such as a parking lot. If they were to expand a parking lot, we would need them to comply with the stormwater coordinates. We made some basic grammatical changes, hyperlinks were added and deleted. The hyperlinks are— make it easy to jump to different areas of the the code.

If it's—

if it refers to a certain area, you can click on it, it will take you right there.

We've avoided putting hyperlinks to anything external as much as we can because we don't control those, and it would— they would more than likely become broken at some point in the future. References to gender were removed. Employees' titles were updated. Chelsea and Danny specifically, they have regulatory responsibilities And with this, with the salary study that we did last year, their titles changed, so we, we updated that. Again, a relatively simple change. We reformatted some of the ordinance to consolidate it to save some space. You can see here on the left that there's A through F, took up quite a bit of space. Everything that you see here in A through F is included in the paragraph here. There was also some of— sometimes it also got a little wordy, so we took out Areas that were unnecessarily repetitive. Some of the bigger changes, not earth-shattering, but bigger. Staff's recommending that we add a $1,000 bond to ensure that owners will comply with stormwater regulations during the time between the building is completed and final installation of landscaping. Once they move in, Their bond is released, they can then do whatever they want, and the landscaping takes forever to get done. Usually we've got some stormwater concerns with runoff, where sediment runs into the road and down and into our stormwater system. We'd like to put— require a $1,000 bond to ensure that they do that. We can use that bond to make sure that they put that landscaping in.

Is there a time frame related to that?

Uh, we wouldn't have—

would there be a time frame?

Deadline?

We don't have a time frame. There might be a time frame in the subdivision ordinance. I don't know what that is, but we're more concerned with just getting it revegetated and stabilized so something doesn't burn off during that time frame regardless.

But to—

if I may, to Councilmember Millens' point, I think some communities do assign a certain time timeframe, like within a 12-month period you are going to do this or you will forfeit that money and those dollars will be used for that.

My question is, is someone going out and inspecting this?

Yeah, that's Danny's job. So he would go out to construction sites and make sure—

they should—

this is an extreme picture. They should have— I mentioned the BMPs, best management practices, are in A silt fence there that should catch that, this type of runoff.

So is that done before they could be owner occupied, or is that just done with their landscaping?

When they start the project.

Oh, when they start the project.

Correct.

Is that a requirement for contractors to do that then?

A silt fence?

I would know as a homeowner, I would know. Do you know what I'm saying? Is that a recommendation then?

It depends on the size of the site. Um, Danny, do you want to explain what, uh—

Um, so if a contractor builds an entire subdivision, they have to do all the BMPs, get them all installed as they finish a home. They want to get the seal of gold for that home to sell it or have the owners move in. Um, the state used to Require that they have landscaping completed before we would release that.

They had a lot of pushback.

Contractors don't want to sit on a year to get their money. So I have to release that home for the CFO. Problem is, now they sit with just raw dirt in the front yard. Their downspouts will flush everything off. Plus they will come in and pile a bunch of dirt in the road, rocks, landscaping materials, and if they don't get cleaned up, it washes into our storm drain system, which is hard to get out. So this will just hopefully make them more Realize they gotta get it done sooner than later so they can get that portion of their money back also.

Or if they're not going to, just to temporarily stabilize it so that nothing will come off the site.

So, so what is the silt fence? It's the black fencing you see around that's dug into the ground. It's about 3-foot-high around the project. I can't release their bond Until that's removed at the end of the project. So once that comes out, that's when the landscaping issues really come about, but you release that so they can move in. So you have the house, has this silt fence around it, and then at the point you start putting in landscaping, landscaping gets finished, and then the fence comes out. Generally, no. Generally, when construction— so once all the exterior work is done and the final grade's kind of cleaned up, then I release the bond. Generally, home— individual homes don't have a SWPPP bond on them. So also, this bond isn't on the homeowner, it's on the Contractor.

Yes.

So the new one would be against the homeowner. That way you make sure that they get the landscaping in as soon as possible instead of waiting. So they would probably pay it to the contractor, they would get it back from you when they put the yard in, kind of? Pretty much. I think that would be the best way. I, I would just When I speak with them, I just, you know, inform them that we have this. As soon as you get it done, as soon as you get it back, and that way they can work with the contractor who wants to pay it. That way it's part of the process or at work. So, okay.

The next change is additions to the long-term stormwater management plans. Section, which is what I explained Chelsea manages. She's looking to make sure that the improvements that are made on a site during construction that are meant to control stormwater and also might have some ways to treat it, but to manage stormwater on the site, she's looking at the long-term maintenance of those. We have agreements that we enter into with, with these developers to ensure that the improvements are— that there are plans in place to improve them in the long term. One of the things that we would like to require is for them to submit a map as part of the final approval that shows the location of those improvements, so that when Chelsea goes on the site once every 5 years, is what she's required to do, She can just simply look at the map and say, okay, these are the improvements that they made.

How are—

do they— are they— do they continue to function? So we'd like to have that submitted. Also, early in the process, to have them submit— complete a stormwater questionnaire, some basic questions to make sure that we, as it goes through the approval process, that the long-term stormwater concerns that we might have are addressed in the— in that planning phase. And then it also details the process of our approval of long-term stormwater management plans. We currently do that. This provides some additional details. And then also added in the city's retrofitting plan, which we'll discuss next. So it's just some clarifying language to a section that already exists. to help Chelsea do her job a little better. The retrofitting plan, that's a plan that we have which would require established sites that are adversely affecting stormwater quality to come into compliance. So if we knew of a site, perhaps it was constructed many years ago, but they— we feel that they're impacting the stormwater quality, or we've got problems with that particular site, we can work with them to improve their site to better control or to manage stormwater that's on their site. This would apply to redevelopment larger than 1 acre, and we currently have it in our codes. This just— and in our stormwater management plan, this just strengthens it. So in summary, again, we as an MS4, it's our responsibility to make sure that we are managing this stormwater that comes in the city. One of the ways that we do that is through our ordinance, and we're going through a housekeeping effort in part, as well as strengthening some of the areas We've changed some definitions, we've added the new $1,000 bond to ensure owners will comply with the regulations once their project is done, and then also the retrofitting plan has been updated to meet the requirements of our UPES permit. So everything else that we've—

it's fairly straightforward and simple corrections.

So Any, any further questions that you might have? Our plan is, once Heather's finished redlining it, we will provide that to you, give you ample time to review it, then we will come back and have— because it's a code change, there would need to be a public hearing, and we would present that to you in a regular session in the next month or so.

Maybe for the benefit of the City Council, since some of them are not necessarily too familiar with our stormwater management plan, could you speak briefly to how, how our discharge situations are constantly changing as, for example, we continue as a valley to develop, the use of canals is essentially being discontinued, what that does to us, what it requires of us above and beyond? What we've had to work with in the past.

Sure, there's a, there's a couple of ways that we can control stormwater runoff. One of them is infiltration, where you'll see water running down the gutter and into a manhole, and a lot of times that water just percolates into the ground. That's the easiest way to get rid of it. However, it also conflicts with Areas where we have deep wells. We're getting ready to drill well number 10 right next to the Farley property. You need to take a little field trip, you'll see the sound walls going up. We're moving forward with gusto on that project now. Well, we don't necessarily want to have stormwater runoff and percolate into the ground in these areas where eventually pollutants could make it all the way down to where we're pulling water out of. So we've identified wellhead protection zones, and our goal is to pipe water out of those areas. And when we pipe it, oftentimes we— that water can also percolate into the ground outside of those zones, but we often pipe it to a location where it will be conveyed to to other piping systems, whether it be canals or our own pipes that convey it further to Utah Lake. Canal systems were very, very convenient for us back 40, 50 years ago. We've got stormwater, let's just pipe this into this canal, it's just right here. It worked out great. Well, canal companies made it work. They didn't necessarily inspect and maintain their infrastructure like we do. We have TV vans, we have big trucks that go and clean pipes. They didn't have that. They would get out once a year, shovel the leaves that happened to go in the canal, and canals have fallen into disrepair. Because that's— because there was a limited effort to maintain those, and they have— they continue to fall into disrepair. And we, we have canal companies that are going out of business because they're going out of business because they don't want the liability that comes with a, uh, with, with a canal, um, and a canal breach or a canal failure. And so we relied on that. Now we suddenly have to pivot and make plans for stormwater that was historically easily just flowed to a canal. We need to divert it a different direction and send it through a piping network that gets it to the— eventually to Utah Lake or percolates into the ground in areas. So— Last year, the City Council adopted or renewed, readopted a stormwater management plan, which was primarily focused on efforts to remove water from the easily accessible canals back in the day. It's going to cost us quite a bit of money to do so, but that's where, that's where we're moving. That's where our focus is when it comes to stormwater CIP. Is removing water out of those, those canals, which were so easily accessible back in the day.

So I can—

maybe this question is for Steve.

Do we have any liability after those are abandoned? Is there anything that, like, something happens and the company's out of business? Is it just people are out of luck, or—

She means after the canal company abandons it, or after you stop using it?

I guess both.

Well, so if a canal company abandons it, basically you're talking about some kid falls in, right, gets hurt or something like that.

You know, as long as it's, it's owned and operated by the canal company, it's their responsibility.

But if it's abandoned and the company's gone out of business, are they just out of luck?

Well, that's, uh, yeah, that's an interesting question. That kind of becomes an attractive nuisance potentially.

Um, there's, there's flooding concerns as well, and if it's our stormwater We're probably going to be liable.

And if we, for example, if we use a discharge into this, if we're using it after the canal company abandoned it, then yeah, we might have some responsibility.

Okay, but what if the canal is just in disrepair and someone trips?

Is the liability—

I mean, I think it's going to be like if somebody does that in your next-door neighbor's yard, you know, it's not going to be the city's fault. That's going to be whoever owns the property.

We sweep occasionally. in the streets. If we see a drain plug, can John Q. Public go scoop up the leaves and get rid of them? I mean, I saw in other cities where it says, you know, just like this portion of highway is supported by the Kiwanis Clubs or whatever.

And I saw that in a drain that this is supported by the Jones family or whatever.

We haven't instituted that, but concerned neighbors can go ahead and clean Yeah, please, please do.

I saw that article as well. That's kind of an intriguing thing.

Yeah.

Because it, it, uh, but we can't be everywhere, especially in the fall. You know, we, we've got 3 sweepers. 2 of them are out every day, and then there's the 3rd that's our backup. But we use it in the fall because we've got leaves everywhere. Those guys are active. We, we want to get all that debris up, but we can't get it all. The storm comes, It's going to come and it's most likely going to plug that up, causing water to rise and could potentially cause some property damage.

Yep.

Homeowners where it's been a problem know that when it rains, I need to run out there and make sure that that's clear. So if a homeowner or if residents knew that that helped us, And they did that, we would, we would applaud them.

Okay, so are there abandoned canals now in Orange?

Yes.

And do they abandon, meaning they still own them, they're just not maintaining them?

Uh, they're out of business.

So they still own that property?

Uh, yes.

Is it up for auction?

Actually, West Smith Ditch is the one that's abandoned it, and it's— they've essentially abandoned from the point of diversion, which is on the Provo River right near 800 north, and they conveyed water all pretty much to University Parkway, just on the bench, right, right below the bench. And they are completely out of business. However, Provo City sees some value in segments of that ditch, and they have, they've, they've purchased that, right? So that particular area works with Provo. We are in discussions with Provo to see how we can work together to both to manage stormwater flows to a mutual benefit.

So would we have quorum or pro bono? Would the municipality have first right of purchase? Or— yes, I actually had a resident who asked me a number of months ago if we could cover the canals and make them bike paths.

Yeah, that's, that's been— we've discussed that as well. There's some legal questions as to whether or not there is whether or not you could take the water conveyance right and translate to a pedestrian travel right.

The answer to that is no.

Okay, there you go.

So that's a no-go.

Unless the canal company agrees to that.

Well, let me back—

even if the canal company agrees, because what typically happens with canals that are easements They don't own the underlying property.

I was going to say, they don't own it.

So usually it's, it's the neighboring property owners who own the land underneath that, and the canal is just an easement.

And the easement is limited to whatever use it was granted for.

So if it's conveyance of water, doesn't give you the right to put a bike path. And neighbors who have those narrow backyards, and I'm like, we're not wild about having people riding up and back through backyards.

It only takes one neighbor to say, I don't want that through my backyard.

To add to that, we already did a study on that, uh, as a suggestion. So we do have extensive— on some of the canals, right-of-way survey completed, as well as a study done that shows the ownership. And we kind of went down that path. We still think it's a great idea, but we would have to purchase the right-of-way.

Still working on it.

So do you think it is feasible if you could deal with the right-of-ways and all of that? Yeah, I think it is feasible if you purchase the right-of-way and residents were in favor of it. It'd be similar to Murdoch Canal Trail, but it'd be a lot narrower and you wouldn't have that buffer between backyard fences. It's very— it's a very narrow Yeah, it's another—

you know what a right-of-way costs these days?

Um, it's usually when you buy an easement, it's usually 50% of the real estate cost. I'm not sure what it does.

I think the biggest hurdle, as Tom pointed out, is this is a narrow pathway in many of these areas, and unlike Portlock Canal, which is 50 feet wide, people aren't going to want.

They're concerned about safety, right?

But not saying that it can't be overcome.

That's—

I think that's the bigger issue.

I actually lived on the Murdock Canal and it was quite a—

It's different.

It's 50 feet.

I understand. I'm just saying that hiking paths, pathways, jogging paths go behind homes. Have you ever known?

Yes, and those were incorporated into the initial subdivision. Yeah, and actually, how wide are those, do you know? Oh, they're probably— you're probably looking at 15 to 20 feet.

Oh, are they?

As the width of the right-of-way, and then you're probably looking at a 6-foot path.

Where's how wide are the canals?

Uh, well, the canal— there are some areas where it's the pipe, 36-inch pipe. which, which would be tough. The particular canal that we're discussing right now, there are areas that we don't really know where it goes. It goes into the River Bottoms neighborhood of Provo, under homes. We really don't know, so it's, it's a challenge. There is Carderville Road that, you know, we could, we could jump onto, but that's—

I mean, it does have a lot of issues that have to be figured out, but they can be figured out. I mean, Orem is, you know, it's difficult as far as bypassing Orem, and so that opens up a lot of bike paths.

As these canal companies go out of— as they go out of business, that is, we are aware of that and looking to see how feasible it is, what the costs would be. We recognize that that would be a great amenity to add. It's much nicer to ride a bike or Walk on an established trail rather than sidewalks or busy streets that are striped for biking.

Just to clarify, it was the North Union Canal that was analyzed between Palisades Drive south of Center Street all the way up to 2014. So it's a pretty extensive study if anyone's interested in seeing that. It was done in 2009, so it's been a little while. That's probably an easier canal than Carterville. Carterville would be easier than Ivar.

Yeah, I'm not sure. That would be well used too.

Even if you could just work it to get it from across the town to Provo Canyon somehow. Yeah, kind of some patchwork. Anyway, any other questions? Okay, I think we're good.

Great, thank you. We'll talk to you in the next, next month or so with the final red lines.

Sounds good, thank you.

Next, we've got on here a discussion with the City Council of the proposal to propose Uh, if I may, Mayor, I know talking with the mayor there was a question brought up that this might be a good opportunity for members of the City Council who have outstanding questions regarding the proposed '23 budget to, uh, to bring those, bring those concerns forward or those questions forward. So I just wanted to make sure that we have some time set aside to address those questions on your agenda tonight. We have noticed the budget and the associated, I guess you'd say, pieces of the budget. In addition to the city's budget, we have the RDA budget that is scheduled for review, as well as the Municipal Building Authority, as well as the street lighting. special service district, per Utah law, we're required to obviously pass a budget by the end of the fiscal year, which for us is June 30th. And so there are obviously a number of things that need to happen before— once a budget is adopted, before we head into the fiscal year.

So at Mayor's suggestion, which I think was a good one, just make this time available to you to ask questions or to review any concerns you may have with the proposed budget at this time. So that's kind of where— yeah, I'll turn the time back over to you.

Right.

And I don't have anything specific other than just if you've got different comments, questions, concerns.

So, so this is my 3rd year doing, uh, approving a budget, and I have no idea what I'm approving as far as personnel goes. I have no idea what that means.

Uh, and so I dove in a little deeper as far as looking at history.

And so, yeah, Jamie, I've got some questions on who to—

Tell me how they salaries are determined?

So, uh, the department has it in particular.

Okay, so every, uh, every year—

and Carrie, every year we conduct—

well, traditionally we have a set structure in place, what some people term a step and grade system, where based on qualifications required for the position, experience, budget responsibility, responsibility of risk, supervision responsibilities, and obviously required tasks associated with the job. We create job descriptions and we essentially classify positions into a salary schedule. Those with greater responsibilities, greater budget authority, greater risk, greater supervisory responsibilities, so on and so forth— essentially they're scored classified at a higher level than, say, uh, an employee, let's say, in a department who has, for example, responsibilities to work on a water crew or to be a parks employee. Every year, Carrie and her team— in recent years, that has been Carrie and Jenica, who are over here— they essentially look at all of the wages for our positions, and they compare those positions and those wages with sister cities, those that are essentially cities much like us, similar in population, similar job function, similar in reporting responsibilities, number of employees. And we determine if we are, quote unquote, in market in amongst— And it relation to our peers. And then less frequently than that, we have hired— so they do this internally. Then less frequently than that, we hire outside consultants to come in and they compare in much the same way the wages of our organization as compared to our private or public sector peers. but also they include a private sector component. So they're looking at, for example— and that's not necessarily possible in some cases because, for example, in the private sector they don't necessarily have police officers or firefighters, but they have engineers and accountants and maintenance workers and IT professionals. So we take that data that comes to us intermittently from an outside compensation consultant that we hire, and then we update that data on an annual basis with the efforts of Carrie and her team. Last year we contracted with FH— or not FHP, what was it called?

NFP.

NFP, I'm sorry, NFP, to conduct that outside evaluation for us, and then Carrie and her team this year took that information as the baseline and evaluated wages, uh, based on the internal review they did. So when we're looking, for example, at department heads and other senior management positions, we are comparing their compensation with that of their peers in other cities and also in the private sector.

Okay.

So essentially like pay for like work.

Yeah, I did that with Utah County, you know, compared us with Provo and Lehi are the only 2 really that are, yeah, pretty comparable.

So we extend, we extend beyond that within reason. So we're concerned about who our peers are locally, but also, for example, we're not gonna, we're not gonna compare ourselves directly to Salt Lake City because we're not Salt Lake City. We're not a city of 200,000, we're a city of 100,000. We're also in the same, kind of in the same breath, not going to compare ourselves to, let's say, Payson, because we're a much different organization than Payson. But we will compare ourselves with organizations like Provo, Lehi, Sandy, West Jordan, West Valley, uh, St. George, Ogden, you know, similar size, similar function, similar number of, you know, in the case of police chief, police officers, similar number of stations, similar number of risk responsibilities, budgets.

Okay.

And my questions skip first responders because I think the city was way behind in their compensations, tried to catch up. So when I'm looking at numbers, that's a little distorted because it's catch-up. And when I'm looking at, you know, this percent went up this much or that much, yeah, that's, that's because they're behind trying to get caught up. So, but, um, I looked at some and I'm just, I'm just, you know, I need a little help here. So like And by the way, I'm not attacking any individual, I'm attacking pay scales. And what, what triggered this a little bit, I wanted to get an understanding of the budget, and then I ran into a guy, we'll call him Tim, that's not his name, but he's an older gentleman that calls me a lot on financial things. And when the water rates went up, he called me about that, and he called me the other day about something else. I saw him at the, uh, Orem's Got Talent program. And he's on a fixed budget. And so I represent him and 99 other thousand people like him. So these are— my questions are driven by making sure that we use the best use of our money.

Sure.

Not, not any personnel, not anything. Um, so, but as I look through this, I see some department heads— um, this is looking at This guy's had the same job since 2014. His increases have been— this is just salary, so, you know, but his salary's been increased 1.9, 4.5, 5, 3.1, 3.6, 6.1, 3.5. And he's a department head, he's been there for a long time. So, um, I look at another department head, and so I'm just trying to get a handle on this. Uh, 7.2, 6.8, 16.2, 19.2, 9.6. Now again, this has nothing to do with first responders. I'm not talking about them or talking about their numbers. So here's another one that's a department in your administration. 9.3, 15— this is one year— is 9.3, 15.3, 7.7, 9.8, 10.0, 10.3.

So, so when we look at— and obviously with the specific positions in mind— we look at not only— there's kind of 2 pieces to the compensation program. There's the market piece and then there's the merit piece. And we allow, on the case— on the side of our merit piece, We allow our departments, all of our department directors, to compensate their employees with merit up to 5%.

So these are directors, though. These are not—

Yeah, so those are, those are my decisions.

Okay.

At the same time, we make market adjustments to individuals' pay based on where they are in relation to their peers in the market. So For example, this last year we made some pretty significant adjustments to compensation for some of our department directors based on where they were in market position as compared to their peers. So that was a conversation that I had with Carrie. We right-sized some wages based on where those wages were in relation to their peers. like, like jobs in the 17s. So some of that is, is reflected in those increases. Uh, I, I don't know where you're getting your specific data from.

From the state.

From the state of Utah.

Yeah, but what, what are you getting it from? The transparency website? Yeah, so some of it is collectively lumped in. It may include everything from contributions that have come for stimulus, the stimulus incentives that we've given employees. It may be other— an employee had a change, for example, in their benefit contributions. And so that's reflected in that situation as well.

I'm just talking— yeah, that's— I have benefits. I have them set up. So salaries and the benefits in case you're adding more to your qualified plan or less.

Yeah.

But, um, so I'm just— I was just concerned as if an employee looks at that and says, this guy's been the head of this department, he gets a 3.1% raise, this other guy gets a 15 or 14. Um, and, and just— I'll just throw a couple other things out and just get your opinion. Um, again, not attacking a person, but I looked at that, um, Orem Library has, I think, 27 employees.

The—

our, our Orem librarian gets $127,000. Oh, by the way, this doesn't reflect 2022. When you talked about significant raises, this doesn't show that. This is up to 2021, so I don't show the significant raises you're talking about. But in 2021—

No, we provided you information last night, and so we provided all of the information. We're not trying to keep information from. Yeah, what you got last night is current. So I mean, that's, that's directly from our payroll system.

But the only problem with that— and Brandon and Trevor were great on that— the only problem with that, that shows 25 of 27 pay periods. So you really have to add another 8 or 10% to that number to know what the salary really is. So it's understating it by about 10%.

Yeah, that is 12, and that, that was pointed out, and that was pointed out in the spreadsheet.

So the only thing I just mentioned, I think some of these, like our Orem librarian make— this is in 2021— uh, make $127,408. The biggest library, the biggest university in the state of Utah, which would be UVU, their head librarian makes $113,850.

Well, I mean, and if you pull up the job postings for Provo City today, they're advertising for a new library director.

This is your view I'm talking about.

I know, but I'm, I'm telling you about what our peer in Provo is doing. They're advertising for a library director, and their— that range goes from $100-something to $152,000. So I, I feel I feel pretty confident that our position and that of our peers is fairly represented in the numbers that— compensation numbers that we're—

I just wanted to mention too that when you compare actual salary from one person to the other, you don't know how many years of experience they have either. That's why it's really important that you look at the range, because sure, we've been with the city for Years almost, and maybe the UVU director's been there too.

So she's been in her career much longer.

So the actual pay is really hard to compare unless you know exactly how many years of service they have.

So I guess my big concern is being responsible to the citizens, because actually Char makes more than Steve Earle, unless that's changed. So, you know, a man with, uh, a lot more education and experience yet. So I just want to be sure that we're being responsible as a city as I'm approving a budget and seeing that some of our wages are a lot higher than peers.

I mean, the one—

if I'm comparing Provo and Lehi, some of our categories they don't even have. So I just, I just don't want to every year blankly say I support the budget when I'm looking at— And Because the other issue, uh, that's a concern, like this 4% this year plus the 3.5% merit, that's really, as we know, much more heavily weighted for a guy that make— if you make $200,000 a year and I get a 4% bonus, I get an $8,000— I just got an $8,000 raise. If I'm making $50,000 a year with 4% bonus, I get $2,000 raise. And then my $8,000 goes to really compounds because Tom can tell you, because it goes into your uh, benefits, and, and you're getting matching funds for those.

So I just— But I, I will represent that we are and have built a market-based system, so we need to be mindful of not just internal but external equities. And yes, we are constantly mindful of— the conversation we had this year was when we talked about making adjustments for employees as it relates to market contributions was, what is something, one, that is consistent with and fair within the organization? What makes sense externally as compared to our peers? And also, third, what's sustainable? So it's a matter of making sure that wage increases are right-sized in the organization. Organization, consistent with our peers, but also something that we can afford year over year. And part of the conversation we had this year is, are we doing enough? Because some of the conversations— some of our peers that we're looking at are doing more than what we are doing, and they are making adjustments above and beyond. And the argument people are making is we're facing 10 plus percent inflation. And there are some costs that have risen significantly higher than 10%. So how do we find a number that is and meets the needs and concerns of employees while at the same time is an appropriate number that is fair for our residents who are paying for the cost of running this organization?

So my last— and I hear your concern with inflation, we're all seeing $5 at the pump. But my other concern is the stock market, which Dave and I have a little bit to do with following that. It is a pretty good leading indicator about what's going on. And if you're looking at the market right now, we're in trouble as far as the economy. And it might not be inflation, it might be a serious recession. And if we're doing a serious recession and we're worried about— we need to hurry and bump up everybody's salaries in the city at least 4% and maybe 7.5%— we might be going into a situation where we're talking— you're talking about comparing the private sector to the public. The problem with the private sector is I get laid off, I lose my house when there's a recession. If I'm in the public sector, thank goodness I have job security. You know, there might be layoffs there too. So I think as a city, we need to be really careful that we're being sensitive to the people out there. When we went through COVID, I mean, again, I'm not picking on the library, but their budget goes up every year. They're up 20% in the last 4 years. They were closed for a year and a half.

So, but anyway, um, we were closed for 6 weeks.

But, uh, well, some, some of the programs are still closed in the children's section, but But, but anyway, and to your point, I, I 100% agree with you.

I— and, and that has been part of our strategy as well as we've, as we've moved into this new fiscal year. And, and Brandon can speak better to this than I can as it relates to, for example, our biggest revenue source, which is sales tax. But the number that we are estimating for sales tax, or that we are including in our in our budgets this year for sales tax revenue is not representative of where we are today. It's representative of where we were, what, about 12 months ago. So we recognize that we are— at some point in the future, we're going to face a decline. At the same time, in addition to that, we actually have a set-aside about $700,000 in our proposed budget that is unallocated because we are concerned about that very thing. What happens if the numbers start coming in and the numbers are less than what we anticipate? Well, then we have a cushion that we can rely on. We have a cushion as related to sales tax because Sales taxes coming in here and we're budgeting here, so we have that cushion. And then we have an added cushion of $704,000, $705,000 that we have not allocated anything to right now. And, and in fairness too, we have set that money aside not just to accommodate potentially a drop in the economy. But we are in this uber crazy employee employment market, and I'm concerned that we're going to get into January— excuse me, into July, and some of our sister organizations are going to raise their, their pay for employees by X percent, and I'm going to have a department director that comes to me and says, you thought what you did was good enough. But it needs to be better. And, you know, I'm already hearing some of those kind of rumblings, and I want to have a resource available that we can address those kind of issues sooner rather than later. I don't want to be in a situation where, for example, Josh or Mark come to me in July and say, yeah, our guys are 1.5% behind. I say, Okay, got it, we'll address it next July. I think we have to address it sooner rather than later. Or Ryan, who comes to me with the same issue, or, or Steve. And it— and then as it relates to compensation, um, you know, I, I do believe that when we look at How we structure our compensation, there are things in our program that we don't generally get credit for, and it frustrates me. Because there are things that we do outside of the pay stub and the net amount of money that we send home to our employees that we don't necessarily get a lot of credit for. And I use the example of, in my opinion, this is— our employees may disagree with me— I believe we have a very good health plan and we provide our employees a very healthy health savings account, where a lot of our peers provide a similar health plan but they provide a lesser benefit in terms of health savings that the city provides. But we generally don't get credit for that additional health savings amount because it doesn't translate directly into an employee's take-home pay. We have a matching program in, in our 457 program. Part of that is the result of the fact that we're not in Social Security. I think it's a fairly, uh, a fairly good program. We don't necessarily have to do some of the things that we do, but we do them, and I don't think we always get credit for doing them. So as Carrie and I and our budget committee get together on an annual basis and we look at wages, we do look at that. I mean, we are sensitive to the fact that when we recommend raises We're not just recommending them to you, we're recommending them to the community, and the community is looking through what we are talking about through the lens of, well, my employer's not giving me this, or my employer's not giving me that. So I think we have to be sensitive to that. We're always sensitive to that. Um, and I guess, Terry, to your point and to your question, I believe our, our department directors are very capable, very qualified. They're not eligible for overtime. I, I think some of them have historically been, um, undercompensated as compared to their peers, and I am of the opinion that if we reward people and treat them right, that they will obviously in return do everything that, that we ask of them. And I want them to feel like they're fairly compensated. I think I represent to our department directors and to all of our employees, look, our goal is not to make sure that you're the best compensated in the state of Utah, but I want you to come to this organization, I want you to say, I feel like what I'm getting is fair. And I know in years past That has been a point of discussion, and we were slow to respond to it. And I want to do all that I can to mitigate that and do what we can so that when we do have concerns, we can address them sooner rather than later. And, and right now we are not losing a lot of public safety police and fire employees. But we can't staff public works water workers, we can't find engineers. We struggled for a time to hire an accountant in our finance department. We have been recruiting for an attorney now for— well, in various versions, Steve, for months. And we have not found an attorney. And so part of the reason that we are struggling is pay. I want to make sure that we have competitive pay. So, you know, I welcome any conversation. If you want to talk about specific employees, happy to sit down with you to go through their history and to say, well, from, from my perspective as a manager, this is what we did. This is why I did what I did.

and this is why I feel good about what I did, or why you, you may disagree with me.

I'm fine having that conversation, but right now I just want to make sure that, that at least we're in the game. And I even worry today that even as big as the numbers that we have proposed in our system, or in our proposed budget today, I'm not sure if they're big enough, because I'm already hearing from employees, well, yeah, you're talking to me about even if I get a— even if I get a 3% merit and a 3% market adjustment, uh, inflation is 10%, so thanks for giving me a 4% pay cut.

That's—

I can't— I can only do the best I can. I can't in good conscience to you and to the residents of this community say we're going to give everybody a 10% pay increase because inflation suggests we need to get everybody at 10%. It needs— I need to be able to pivot to our employees while at the same time being able to pivot to the employee, to the community at large, and say I think what we're doing is reasonable and fair.

David and I—

sorry, maybe not you, David.

David Russell.

call, he and I will normally chat at the end. Hey, what was your pay increase for your company? And this year I am seeing larger increases. I assume you're seeing that too.

So, uh, we are seeing a 3% increase, no cost, no cost, no inflation factor.

So, uh, so that's— wow, it was flat 3. The one thing that I represent from today is the dozen phone calls that I received based on employees in the fire department reviewing the council agenda and concerned that there's questions with the budget. We haven't shared raise numbers specifically, but that's— this conversation right here with budget and salaries has caused more of taking up my entire day in trying to field and support a positive direction in what's going to come from this meeting and then council meeting tonight. And with the, with the possibility of the budget not being approved, where raises have been represented as possible without any numbers, fire department people are concerned.

I think he represented it wasn't police and fire though. So based on just having a discussion with the budget, you know, we can't control what they think when they read the agenda.

So, so, Mark, that's my reality.

I'll tell you the reality. Since I've been on the city council for 2 and a half years, I've never heard one member of the city council ever not support the police and fire. I've never heard one word from anybody saying we don't support them and we'd like to take care of them.

So that's why—

and we can't—

Can I just make a comment on that?

Well, just a sec. But as far as that, that's interesting that that's your reality, is if you're getting that kind of pushback. Because all we're doing is simply having a conversation, and that's our role as Mayor, City Council, to go through and approve the budget. So if, you know, if a 30-minute discussion causes that much consternation, that's, that's kind of shocking to me. Well, yeah, because it's just— I mean, somebody's got to do it, right?

And I— and, and Mayor, I have not spoken specifics because I don't want to back you into a corner. I want to be in a situation where when we do have something that you have approved, it can't be shared. Because I don't want somebody to say, well, we would have done— we would have gotten this but for— I, I wanted— I want to make sure that the narrative, the conversation is about specifics and what is going to happen rather than what could happen, and then somebody walk away excited or disappointed based on something that's different.

I, I just think we've got— we're in a very unusual situation because we've got, you know, we came off COVID, we had 5 million people leave the workforce. Yeah, because there was so much federal money, government money dumped in all kinds of giveaways. So we, we had that as a piece. We got 5 million people out of the workforce. So we've got this wage inflation that's been going crazy for less because of all the people that have left. On the one hand, you've got wage inflation. On the other side of the equation, you've got an economy that's saying, what the heck is going on? I mean, you've got stock markets at 20%, bond markets down 15%. You've got an inverted yield curve. that rarely ever happens. And so you've got all these economic storm clouds at the same time. So it's like we're in a telethon cities. We've got one side where wages are going up because of the supply vacuum of labor. At the same time, you've got the economy on a precipice. So we don't know how that's all going to work out. So I think as far as the city, we just have to be prepared for everything because we don't know. how this is going to work. I mean, hopefully everything, you know, this will be the end of the down market. Hopefully the economy stabilizes. Hopefully things come together, and they may. A lot of times they do. But because we don't know, we've got to be ready for, as Brandon would say, you know, the most conservative approach to keeping the city going.

And I think, Mary, you're absolutely right. And I will represent that we have a significant amount of our workforce that has been in in the work world for less than 10 years. All of these employees, the only thing they know about the economy is this. They've never experienced this.

I paid 9% interest on my house. So that's what we financed.

So as I, as I've tried to communicate, as we've tried to work and find and balance a budget, we have tried to take into account. And I believe that there is going to be this. It's not a question of if, it's a question of is it going to be this or is it going to be this?

Yeah.

And if it's, if it's this, then I think we're okay. If it's this, then I don't think we're okay. But frankly, I don't think any organization is okay. 2 years ago we faced the same thing.

We didn't know how the budget was going to be coming, right? And we had to make some adjustments mid-year. So I think you make your best guess on June 14th, and is that what the date is, the 14th? And you move forward. But I, and I think that's what this budget does in this current form. Yeah, correct. Based on all the information we've got right now, that's where we're at. Did you want to say something? Yeah, the concern comes in the fire department, and I'm sure other employees in all the departments watched the tentative budget presented, questions answered, and really these employees felt good with the things that we talked about and Brandon actually explained, and there weren't real concerns. So then they're counting on something to then look at agenda, and now budget's open for discussion, and they make up their own narrative because As James said, leaders don't hate exact— yeah, so they make up their own picture. Yeah, that's concerning. All they care about is how fat the bank is, right? And I can appreciate that. I guess the message I would hope that you would take back is that any business, any enterprise has to look at their budget, has to look at their numbers, you know, and that is not always bad. Oh no, that's what I shared all day long, right?

But it's—

I mean, it's on the forefront of 450 employees, right?

Mayor, can I also respond to Terry?

Um, you said if we have a recession, then people still guarantee their jobs.

But if I remember, people still keep their jobs in the private sector.

But if I remember, 2008, 2009, public sector, 19 employees, if I remember were asked to leave through attrition.

And I don't know if it's 19, correct?

I don't have that.

No, sorry.

Through attrition, you don't rehire, right?

No, no, it means you asked them to retire earlier.

Back in the—

then you don't rehire the position.

Back in 2011, we did face a financial, financial crisis, I guess you could call it. And we did essentially incent a number of employees to leave city employment and provided them with severance packages, including in, uh, at that time, uh, the extension of a benefit for, a benefit for retiree healthcare. And we did have 20-plus employees leave the organization A good number of those positions we did not replace.

Right.

Now, in fairness, over time we have replaced a number of those positions. We haven't replaced all of them, but we have replaced a number of them. But we lost, uh, at the time, 3 department directors, probably 4 to 6 other key staffers and key supervisors And then we also had employees who had reached the age of retirement and simply just wanted to ride into the sunset, and we did not, uh, we did not actually replace a good number of those positions.

So we do have a tool that we can lower our payroll overall cost, and sometimes it's like some attrition to retirement.

So I just remember the net going down was quite significant.

I don't remember what the millions were.

And I don't want to disagree with you. But at the same time, that was, that was terrible. I mean, it was, it was miserable. And I, and financially, I think we were at a different point then, as I believe we are today. And my hope would be that we could weather it better, weather it better. That's probably a better way of saying it.

I'm just saying occasionally there are hard decisions.

And sometimes you have to go to, you know, and so jobs are awesome and you want them to stay. But like you said, sometimes there's a tool that you have to use and you have to look at your labor.

I think the bottom line is the city's going to have to balance its budget come what may, right?

Right.

Yeah.

Right.

So if our budget revenues come down, we'll have to act accordingly, as we've done in the past.

And to me, this is a positive conversation because this is— we care about our employees, we want them to keep their jobs. Maybe we won't be able to have increases if we have these storms come upon us, but I know when the dot-com bubble burst, a third of my neighborhood lost their job. We didn't get a raise for 4 years in our family, but we were grateful to have a job. So I think that, you know, to me it's that we really want to be careful that we can take care of you and keep you employed.

And if I may, I think that's— I think you're— I think you're right. I think it's not just about today. It's about next year. It's about the year after that.

It's 10 years, right? And I've seen you care about that and do that. So, you know, I just want to say, I think as a random, you know, excellent job on these things, but I think that conversation I appreciate Terry having this conversation.

And I think, and I think, I think Terry has highlighted what has become a very, very interesting job market where it used to be we would go in and have conversations with potential employees about, well, this is what we can offer, these are our benefits, this is how we can This is how we fit into your future. We're interviewing them. They're now coming in and interviewing us, and they're saying, this is what I expect, this is the wage, this is what I will commit to, and if you like it, then I'll come work for you. But I'm the one in the driver's seat. You're the one who would be lucky to have And I'm sorry we raised it. No, I think many, many, including myself, have been surprised at the tone of these conversations. And I think if you ask the department directors, they would all tell you that is a pretty consistent conversation. And we are having to pay more money. We're having to pay a lot more money for some positions in the organization. Because of the market you were in, and at the same time you do that, I have a conversation with each of these department directors. Okay, well, that's good for this one employee, but what about the other seven who are in the same classification, who have been with us for ten years, and now all of a sudden this person who's coming in today is at or almost the same level as somebody who's been. That's when Terry gets involved and we try and right-size and address these compression machines.

I think my—

my—

well, you actually see that in the spinal cord. I mean, you have that, you know, I mean, you have employees that have been there a long time and you've got new employees that you want to attract, that you've got to balance all that.

That's—

yeah, it's a totally balancing act. I think you would 2011, I think that was a serious salary creep. They've been here for 25, 30 years, which, um, and that sort of fits the problem with, you know, the retirement. But, um, if you have an employee that's pushing back on a 3% and a 4%, 7%, saying, hey, you just give me a 4% cut, I think you need to have a serious conversation with—

because my organization, we got 3% and 4% appearance So, and we're in the private sector.

So to me—

And you're in the private sector without a company that's going to go public in 4 years with a lot of big equity potential, right?

Is that fair?

Correct.

So, you know, my thing is, which would represent more mainstream America, right?

Yeah.

So I mean, my thing is, I have no problem with the— but it might be too, as Terry's point, maybe you look at saying, you know, with the merit agreement increases, which it is, it's a management decision, but maybe certain employees get that merit all the time and other people don't. So they're way above this because— And they're buddies with them or whatever. So maybe that's something to look at and say, you know, maybe in Jamie's office, is— are you guys getting merit maxes?

Don't know, right?

So that might be something with the budget that we have that Trevor sent, that we have increases, or we know exactly, hey, you know, Steve Downs got X amount this year, whatever. and Brandon got this much. Well, how was it 4 years ago? You know, so maybe those are some numbers you look like, you know, are we playing favorites or is it truly a merit or is it a good boys network or whatever? So, you know, that, that'd be something I would be interested in moving forward into the next.

And I think, I think that's a fair, that's a fair conversation and fair request. My motivation as a manager is to keep and retain a qualified, energetic, capable workforce. And the, the reason I believe in the merit system is because I believe it rewards performance if it's administered properly. If it's not administered properly, and then it's just everybody gets it because it's been budgeted, and I think that's where where the system fails. And that's part of the conversation we've had in recent times where we're gravitating in, at least in the private and the public sector, we're gravitating away from that. We have gravitated more towards what we look as traditional step-and-grade systems where, hey, I've been here, I meet— I met minimum expectations or standard expectations, therefore I'm eligible. And I'm not, and I'm not sure if that lends itself to maximum efficiency, maximum outputs. But frankly, in this kind of environment, if we don't adapt and all of our peers are doing that, then we end up on the losing end. of the recruitment and retention effort.

Although you may have— I mean, the merit, I think ultimately you wind up with a strong organization because you're rewarding excellence.

I agree. I completely agree. There are many who don't.

Hey, Mayor, do you mind if I say something?

Yes.

Um, to Dave, your point of the evaluations and the good old boys club. So just so you know, the performance evaluations all go through my office. I read every single one of them. I'm well aware of where people are at. I look at all the merit increases. So there is a check and balance there to make sure that we aren't favoring our favorite employees, whether or not they're performing well or not. So I hope that that puts a little bit of—

I wasn't saying that that was what was going on.

Just to Terry's point, maybe, you know, have some history or have some historical data.

I mean, you know, everybody has a hard time finding employees, right? So you want to keep your experience.

And that was the whole thing with the fire. We were losing our experience.

So, you know, that's a dilemma that we're in in the city. But we need to make sure that we have 4.3% and 7% increases.

Thank you.

You know, understand if you make more money, 7% is going to be a lot more. You know, I know my company, I would rather take less percentage and let my people that don't make as much have a little bit more money. So that's what we sort of—

that's what we did in Salt Lake City.

So, but, you know, I think moving forward we just need to make sure that employees—

we appreciate the employees and what they do.

We're not trying to micromanage, but we do have a budget. We need to make sure that if you do have a shortfall, that they're going to be with us too, because, you know, we stuck with them in the good times and now we're in the bad times. So—

No, I think Terry's comments are very well taken, and I, I, I think it's, um, well, I think in part the message that I'm hearing today is you want greater involvement in these compensation-type decisions, and prospectively that would be part of That will be part of the framework that we will put together in the future, is spending more time on the compensation benefits of the city, but so that you have and feel like you have a better command for the numbers.

But also, Jamie, we, we as a council, we don't work day to day with Steve Downs and Brendan and Chris.

We don't.

So, you know, the numbers are fine if More of an overview, but he can't make the decision because we're not here, right?

We're not—

no. So we're not in the trenches with you. We're on the outside. So the way to get there is to have more transparency. Yeah, I mean, you're still making the decisions, but you're just providing more transparency.

And I think, I mean, with the budget, I mean, it's like, okay, we have personnel budget, it's, you know, whatever millions, and how do that—

how do we get that point? You know, who does what and who's making What's that being spent on?

Yeah, and every, every— not every, but there are many classifications that are different, different contributions. For example, in retirement rates, for one employee who's a single individual, what we budget for that individual for health insurance is different than what a family, an individual with a family is. is allocated. And so, you know, that, that doesn't show up in the gross number, but it does show up if you break it down. We have, for example, police and fire and general employees— their retirement contributions range anywhere from 41% to 18%. So that doesn't show up in a gross number, but it does show up if you break down. The numbers. Even what we pay for workers' compensation benefits is different based on the classification. So there are, you know, as you core down, you see some of those differences that aren't necessarily, like you said, you know, reflected in just one overarching document that is, that is rolled up to one number.

Jamie, if I see an outlier that looks really high, you should be able to explain to us why, and it should be a reasonable— they've done this, this, or this, and that's all we need. I need to understand the why.

Yeah.

And I think you're—

as you're evaluating people, there is a why, and you're having to articulate the whys.

And if it's just because they've been here 30 years, well, that's, that's a very— to me, that's a piece.

But please know that, that I'm asking those that I work with to justify why. We have employees, for example, typically what we'd like to do as an organization is we like to hire employees not at the top of the salary range, but more towards the bottom or the middle of the range. These days, though, however, it is hard.

Yeah.

So we sit down and we have those conversations about You know, why are we doing these? 2 years ago when we introduced a signing bonus, I never thought in my professional public career we would be extending signing bonuses to public employees to come work for the City of Warren.

Do you give referral bonuses as well?

We do, actually. Yes, those are kind of, those are kind of tactics. Because this world is a lot different than it has been. But all of our department directors, when we have these conversations, right, I say, help me understand why this—

because this potentially could create a challenge and a problem for the rest of our employees.

So does the city have an evaluation? Does an employee do their own evaluation too? So my company, we do an evaluation.

Everybody does an evaluation, you get them back, you're like, you scored 100% on everything.

Really?

Realistically, in their own self-evaluations.

So it's just interesting. I don't know if the city does that, but it'd be interesting to see, you know, because everybody thinks I do a great job. Well, as a manager, you say, in reality, you're falling short here, here, because nobody's perfect. So that might be some of the— because self-evaluation is really telling because you think very highly of yourself, but in reality, you need to take consideration of people you work with and they can give you positive feedback.

I'd score a lot higher. I just— we do, we have vested the department directors with the, with the responsibility to go through. They have to sign each of the performance evaluations Because they do have some supervisors that tend to be a little more lenient and a little more accommodating than others. And we've actually had employees say, hey, wait a second, if I'm with this supervisor versus this supervisor, I'm going to get a better evaluation because this, this guy is a hard nose and this guy is a marshmallow. And Carrie takes that into account. And so the department director is the one who says, department directors have sent evaluations back and have said, no, I know this guy or gal, this isn't representative of the year that he or she has had, and sent it back.

Yep.

So that's the first line, and then Carrie serves as an additional one. And just to be sure, we are actually— in fact, where's Bren? Bren and Carrie, we have had our evaluation system in place now for about 8 years. And on Brent's goals this year is a chance to look at, look at reevaluating our evaluation system, overhauling that system. And I think some of what you're talking about is a 360 evaluation system. Many of us have those. You can tap us for more if that's helpful.

Right.

And that's something that I think Okay, um, any other comments? Can I just say one thing, Jeff?

Thank you, Terry, for diving in, and thank you, Terry, for everything.

I, I, I mean, sometimes it's easy to sit back and, and we think we know that someone does in their job professionally, but we really don't understand the depth and the breadth of everything that that involves. Yeah, you know, I'm discovering that at my place. I used to look at people that I work with and think what a cupcake job that is, but then when I actually dive into that and see everything that they do, um, it's, it's a lot bigger than my scope of understanding of what I thought they were doing. And so I thank you for taking all of, all of this information and everything into account, um, so that we have a place of one word.

It's a crazy time. Thank you for trying to help us do that, and thank you for planning for a future that we don't know what that's going to be. Said we could be standing on a cliff or we could be standing on a golden bridge. I don't think it's a golden bridge.

I hope it's at least bronze.

And I just want to represent from all employees, we appreciate you taking the time to dive into this, and we appreciate that you care about all employees in the city and their well-being. So thank you for that.

Thank you. Unusual situation because we're— I mean, we obviously want the city to operate the best way possible, so we care about the employees, and we also represent the citizens who pay the taxes. And so we have to bridge that, bring that together. And I think we've got, um, from an employee perspective, um, we are in uncertain times right now. I mean, we, you know, we have this meeting 3 months from now and it can be completely different economy. But based on where we're at right now with all these storm clouds on the horizon, you know, we're making the best decision we can based on the facts we have for this budget now. I think the best thing for employees— I mean, even though we are potentially going into a difficult time situation— is that Orem City is very financially stable and it's very well run. And so if you're working for Orem City, you're Going into the storm clouds in a pretty solid place. So, Jamie, how often are we doing the evaluation of the salaries category or whatever, like you just did last year?

We do it every year.

So you do it internally, but then—

Oh, we've been doing that about every 5 years.

And we did that last—

well, we started in '20, COVID hit, we finished in 2021. So it actually took us— well, unfortunately, our consultant passed away, we had to start over.

But one thing I want to say is that we don't just kind of call the cities. Every week we all participate, all of our sister cities participate in this database. So we self-report our wages. So in the end of July, beginning of August, we'll be able to see everybody's new wages. And we will look again to make sure that we're still competitive. So this isn't just a one and done in February, we look at it once and then put it on the shelf until the next year. We're constantly making sure that we're competitive.

All right, anything else? Okay, let's, uh, well, the next thing we've got is this discussion, but it's a very short discussion. It says mayor pro tem from July through December.

Yes, you gave me in, in this January, the mayor gave me a list of mayor pro tems that you would like for the next 2 years. This still has to be brought before the council and approved. So the name that we have from July to December of this year is Renee. That will be put on the consent agenda next meeting.

So it just needs to be noticed that everybody's aware of that.

So July 1st, Renee will become the mayor pro tem.

So has anybody been able to vote against Judy? We pushed the voting against her for that.

That's your fault. Can you make every, every ribbon cutting that he can't be to?

All right, let's, uh, go ahead and grab our dinner and then, um, we can run through the agenda. Let's have a prayer. Volunteer for the prayer.

Our beloved Father in heaven, we're grateful for this opportunity we have to be here today and to conduct the business of this city. We're grateful for the individuals in this room who work so hard to serve the residents of Orem and to help them with their quality of life. We thank you, Father, for this food that has been prepared for us and purchased and brought to us. We pray that that will bless it, that it will give us the nourishment The strength that we need. We can use that strength in serving thee and others. These favors and blessings we pray for in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Those are the tall red beans. Okay, cool.

Gotcha.

I gotcha.

I don't want to face that laugh.

They're all the same in each stack.

It's killing me. I don't want to go in for surgery, but—

Is this another— I'm falling apart, yeah.

My shoulder's feeling better. It extended past the warranty period? Let's go through the meeting tonight. We've got item number 1, agenda review. That's this. Item number 2, city council reports. This opportunity for the city council to raise issues of information or concern. Terry, do you have something for that?

Um, I'll do it really quick, so I know you got a whole list.

Yeah.

But no one's heard from me tonight, so I don't—

I should say something, I guess. No, I appreciate everybody because I, I wanted to start the dialogue. That was my intent tonight. So anyway, thanks. All right.

I'm on 3 different boards.

I'll just—

I'll highlight one which is new and I'm on, and that's the Utah Lake Authority. It's actually Utah Lake Commission.

The name will be changed to authority really soon.

I went and had a meeting with a citizen that's very involved with that, and he pointed out something. He took me out in this field, uh, the mayor's been out with him and seen this, but he pointed out water down by— this is down by the lake—

so that's the Orem River. I said, the Orem River? I didn't know we had a river.

I mean, I grew up clubbing carp down, you know, that area. Anyway, and he pointed out there, you know, that we don't have a way to get to the lake from Orem.

Oh, interesting.

And that's part— that's going to be part of all this discussion.

I look forward—

Not even at Waccara Way?

What's that?

Not even at Waccara Way?

That's what we're working on.

Oh, okay.

No, there's not a direct way.

So anyway, that'll be part— I mean, that's not the main thing of the discussion, but I look forward to working with those people. Jeff was there in the March meeting, so I was reading through the minutes. Uh, we have a meeting this Thursday. this will be the new Utah Lake Authority, which has a lot of power. They'll have a taxing ability as soon as the state attorney general, you know, agrees to that and does the paperwork. So look forward to that. I'm on the Planning Commission also, but anyway, that's good.

So excited to figure that out. Thank you.

Oh, can you—

how's the Planning Commission going? The new members, everything going well?

Thanks, thanks, Tom, for the lead-in, because that's really good.

Yeah, that's a big deal.

I'll tell you something, Haysom—

Haysom is now the chair. He's in here. And he— the last meeting, um, there was a lot—

in the last couple of meetings, there's a lot of input because there's citizens concerned. Steve saw that. Uh, I thought Haysom did a great job letting people feel, uh, like they can vent their concerns and have, you know— so I used to— I think they're doing great.

Great, but a new member.

We have one that has to step down because of other commitments, so we will be replacing another member.

Who's stepping down?

Jim.

Jim?

Yeah, he's just— he's just—

what's that?

Oh, that he's doing it? Oh, what he's doing yet?

Oh, okay.

He's gotten a new, uh, position of responsibility now. Unless they did an interview with him. Now you can't. No, I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding.

No, he's just got—

there's no responsibility. So yeah, as far as the Planning Commission goes, everything I've seen in the Planning Commission has been really positive. Everything I've heard has been really positive. So, uh, and Terry does a great job on the commissions that he's in as far as getting serious about it. being very involved, so we appreciate that. Um, moving into our meeting, okay, so we've got item 3, call to order, item 4, vacation, item 5, public readings, and those are assigned. And then we've got mayor's report, item number 6.

I believe that's Miss Oram and the new Miss Outstanding Teen. Okay, so they're both going in. We should mention that.

Wait, where's that?

The prayer.

The prayer and the pledge. Abby's Miss Orem and Hope is Miss Outstanding Team. Just mentioning it.

Maybe they'll have the crown.

Abby's the new Miss Orem, right?

Yeah.

Sorry, that's good to know. Thank you. And I think about it.

I don't know.

That's what's gonna— so we move it to mayor's report, items referred by council. And then we're just going to have a report from Carrie on women in leadership, right?

Mayor, we would like to— Carrie would like to recognize the recipients of this year's Women's Leadership Scholarships.

Okay, so, so I'll come up and present them, and then, um, if you would like to step down from the dais and give them the scholarships, and we'll take a photo.

Okay, do you want Christine to step down?

Um, I think the entire council did last time and shook their hands.

So you want everyone to come down?

Yeah, and it'll be in the paper.

Okay, sounds good.

Can I lobby to be there? Because I'm one of the mentors and I couldn't— you didn't have mine? Yes. So we'll introduce the awardees and the mentors. Okay, they're back.

So you're gonna do that, right, Derek? Yes. Then we've got, yeah, Senior Advisory Commission, Gina Burleson.

Gina is here.

Okay, and then we move into personal appearances, and then we go to the resolution plan for Civil infractions.

So we're gonna have to move that off the consent. We're still— I'm still working with Aaron on that.

Did you just want to continue it? Yeah, just probably continue without date.

So we know without date.

Yeah, just make a motion.

Yeah, actually, Steve, would you need to remove that from the group?

Can I make it one thing? Remove it?

Yes.

And yeah, does that right? We just laid it in our new consent.

Yeah.

What's that? Didn't we continue this last time?

Yes, the problem was, was we put a date of what we were continuing it to, and, um, we didn't recognize there was that deadline. So when I called Aaron to ask him, he's like, oh yeah, so okay, we're talking about it. We're still— oh, we're gonna just say no date, right? Just continue to a future meeting.

Yeah, but we will stay on it.

Yes, hopefully the next 2 weeks.

Okay, and then we got— we got a scheduled item, um, appointments to boards and commissions. We've got the Education Commission, Mark Shroeder appointment. He's not going to be here, but okay, so we'll just appoint him and then we will let him know. Okay, so are we— thanks for asking. Do we vote on that? Yeah, we have to appoint him. Thanks for asking. So you're gonna make the motion? I'll make the motion. So I'll introduce you to make a motion, and then we've got 9.2, public hearing resolution. See, we'll receive public comments on the CDBG block grants, um, so Ken Ransom. I think it's his 20th time. Yeah. Do we vote on it after the public?

Yeah, this one is just— there's not a second public hearing.

Okay, so they'll present, we'll have public hearing, and we'll vote. Uh, next we've got an introductory public hearing ordinance approving That's right, fiscal year 2022. And what are we doing with that? Mayor, I need us to switch 9.4 and 9.3. Okay, because it doesn't do us any good to talk about the transfers if we've already approved the budget. So just flip. Okay, so So we'll, we'll go to 9.4, have a public open public hearing, and then you're gonna make a presentation. Well, you're gonna make a presentation, then we open public hearing, right?

Okay.

And we go from there, we move up to 9.3, approving and adopting the budget. Are we ready to approve and adopt the budget? I do. Yeah, there are more things you want to check out? Yeah, I thought we could do that in 2 weeks, but we can't.

Um, I don't— it's up to everybody else.

I'm ready.

I'm ready to go. I don't want to add any more easements to employees.

All right, so we'll do that tonight. Um, same thing, that's just public— you open the public hearing. And we've got— as far as the, uh, enterprise funding transfer, do we have to vote on that?

You just need a motion to accept the transfers. I believe it's all—

there's not a resolution. So motion to accept, and we vote on the motion to accept. We've got 3 mandatory information items. And then we've got locally adjourned, just, uh, being a former development agency. Yes, we'll just stay there, right?

Correct.

RDA number 13.3, 13.2, 13.1, 13.2. 13.1 is just the approval of the minutes from last meeting, which was May 10th, and then 13.2 It was just pretty much presentation of the, uh, excuse me, 13.2 is the adoption of our budget. So we introduced those 2 things.

So you would need a separate motion for 13.1, and then 13.2, it is, uh, oh, I'm sorry, they're all— they're both 13.2 and 13.1 are consent items. So you can do that in one motion. And then 14.1 is the public hearing for the RDA budget.

You would need to open a public hearing. Council would need to vote on that.

Same thing.

Okay, we're actually meeting the only special—

so the lighting on it is very formal.

Yes, 16.1, 16.2, again, you can accept one single motion. 17.1 is a public—

we are both on those.

Yes, right.

Yes.

And then 17.1 is the public hearing and adoption of The fiscal year budget that requires public hearing.

Okay, and then we're— so that's everything.

Wait a second, item 18, we need to adjourn into a municipal building authority meeting. And the only thing we need to do is just approve consent of our bylaws review. So you as a council are essentially saying, yeah, we're good for this year.

That's a vote, correct? Yes, no public hearing. Okay, we adjourn for like the 5th time.

Going to a—

Do I announce what we're voting for?

Yes, you would need to announce the purpose of 20.1 and 20.2 and then take a roll call vote of the City Council.

So that's something the City Council has to do. Oh, they have to vote as to whether or not we're going to go ahead? Yes.

And then, Mayor, if you could please, in your Whoever's making the motion, if you could just identify the location, Route 107, for that motion as well.

All right.

We'd like to welcome you all here tonight. We appreciate your attendance. We'd like to start out with an invocation by Miss Outstanding Teen, Hope Ludkin. If you'd like to just come up and give us an invocation. And yes, before you start, yeah, just introduce yourself to the group.

So Oh, okay, I think this is working.

Okay.

Okay.

Dear Heavenly Father, we are so grateful to be gathered here today for our wonderful City Council meeting.

Provide—

please, Lord, guide our student council for the next year to make the best decisions that will benefit and help continue to make Orem the best ever. Bless our citizens of Orem to work together no matter what, and please bless our 2022 Orem Royalty to be a positive impact on everyone they meet. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Thank you, Hope. Now we'd like to have the Pledge of Allegiance. from the new Miss Orem, Abby Rindlesbacher. And if you, and if you would also introduce yourself.

My name is Abby Rindlesbacher. I am Miss Orem 2022, and along with Hope, I'm excited to serve you guys this year. With that, I'll begin the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Abby. We've got a fairly involved meeting tonight.

Right.

So now we're going to have— Carrie is going to come up and introduce some women leadership.

Walter.

Mayor and Council, thank you for letting me present this year's awardees for the Women in Leadership Scholarship. Just to give you a little bit of background, this is our second year for this scholarship. Last year we awarded 8 women city employees that received the scholarship last year, and this year we are representing that we will give out 14 scholarships this year. So, um, I would like to ask all of our scholarship awardees to come on up front, and I will introduce them to you and who their mentors are, and then we will have the City Council and the Mayor give them their scholarships. So if you don't mind coming up now. You have to come stand up front. Sure, that's good.

Or you can come over here on this side too, if you like.

As they're coming up, isn't this pretty cool? We have this many women that have an opportunity to, to pursue and continue their education. Because the city is giving them their opportunities so that they can be more competitive for leadership responsibilities in the future here in the city. So I'm going to introduce each one of them individually. It's by first name alphabetically, so if when I say your name, if you don't mind just giving everybody a wave so that they know who you are. So Elena, you get to go first. So this is Elena Berg, and she works in the fire department. She is an engineer firefighter. And her mentor will be Jamie Davidson. Elena is one of 2 female firefighters in the department, and she is continuing her education in the medical field and working towards her bachelor's degree. Amber Vera couldn't be here tonight. She is a dispatcher in the police department. She plans on attending post using this scholarship at UVU to become a police officer. This opportunity means that she has the chance to follow her dreams and be a strong role model and mom for herself and for her daughters. Amy Peterson. Wave so your kids can see you. She's been with the city for— oh, I forgot to say Elena's been here 20 years and Amber's been with the city for 7. So Amy's been here 27 years and she works in the HR with the City Manager's Department. As a single mom, this scholarship has enabled Amy to afford the education she needs to create a secure financial future for herself and her children, which I know are her entire world. She is working towards her bachelor's degree in HR management. Anna Jensen, on the end here. Oh, sorry, I forgot to mention, I will be Amy's mentor. Anna Jensen's mentor will be Chief of Police Josh Adams, and she has been here a year this Congratulations on hitting that year mark. She is an animal care attendant at New Boss. So for Anna, this is such a huge help financially with her schooling. She is currently enrolled at BYU Pathways and is hoping to start veterinary school after completing her generals. Veterinary school is long and expensive, so this scholarship is such a blessing as it will help her to get ahead financially.

Aubrey Van Leeuwen.

Said it right this time. Okay, and her mentor will be Tom Phelps in IT. She has been here about 6 and a half years. She works in the finance department in the 311 area. She is studying computer science. This scholarship will benefit her by not allowing her to worry so much about the cost of education. She's also doing her internship down in the IT division and That's been really rewarding. So having Tom be her mentor is a great match. Bridget Pace. Bridget's mentor will be Kenna Matthews, and she's been with the city for about 4 years. She's also in 311. She's going back to finish her Bachelor of Science degree in accounting, and this scholarship provides the financial assistance that she needs to make it happen.

Holly Grierson.

Holly works in the library. She's been here 16 years. Her mentor will be Kathy Lewis, and the Women in Leadership Scholarship has allowed Holly to dream big and seek higher career goals. Through her graduate certification program in museum studies, she'll learn how to care for, maintain, and display the city's art collection and the artwork of Orem artists. She cherishes the opportunity to broaden her knowledge and experience in her field and improve her stewardship of the city's art and gallery spaces. She would like to thank you all for making this possible for her. Her mentor will be Scott Swift. She's been here 2 years and she is the office administrator for the police department. Katie says that these opportunities are incredibly rare and that most scholarships that have been offered are contingent upon being a full-time enrolled student. She has had to decline several despite her GPA. As a full-time employee, mother of several children, constant— consistently carrying 6 to 9 credits is about all she can manage. This scholarship helps support the cost of her education while not asking her to carry an unmanageable work, school, and life load. She is thankful for the mindfulness of the way it is written and distributed so that she can take care of herself and her circumstances. She appreciates the impact that the city has had on her life. Kyra Wright.

Oh, there you are, Kyra.

Kyra's mentor will be Carlos Garcia, and she has been with the city for 3 years. She is an associate engineer in the Development Services Department. This opportunity means a lot to Kyra. Unlike many other organizations, this scholarship is proof that the City of Orem not only wants employees to succeed but is giving us a way to do so. She has taken course to help her pass the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, an exam that will bring her closer to becoming a licensed engineer, as well as allow for her to promote to staff engineer within the city. Mariah Shirley—

there she is.

Her mentor will be Trevor Bell, and she has been with the city just a little over 7 months, and she is the manager of our Orem Fitness Center. Mariah is grateful to be able to move with finishing her degree after years of feeling unable to take on the financial aspect while starting her career. This opportunity not only helps her finalize her education but will allow her to bring these new skills learned to her position to the fitness center. Her preferred environment is one of learning and growth, and to enter back into contributing her education while being able to maintain a job she's passionate about and is so exciting for her. She's moving forward with a degree in business management as she feels These skills and classes will build her up to bring a strong woman leader in the city of Orem. Mikelle Hadlock's mentor will be Scott Spieth, Lieutenant Spieth. She's been here 5 years, and she works in the Investigations Division of the Police Department. Mikelle knows that this is a huge opportunity to pursue her degree and not only have to worry about the financial stress of school. This opportunity allows her to advance her career within the Orem Police Department. This additionally allows her to gain more knowledge within her criminal justice degree through UVU, which helps her to protect and serve the city of Orem. Megan Flinders Pay. Her mentor will be Julie Heckert. She's been with the city for 4 years, and she is an associate librarian in the library. Megan was born and raised in Orem, and she's very excited to receive this scholarship from a city that has already given her so much. She has abs— she has been a patron at the library her entire life and absolutely loves working here now, providing patrons with fun and educational programming. She is currently pursuing, pursuing a Master of Arts Administration through Southern Utah University, and she is implementing what she is learning to help improve library programming and library marketing. Shirley, pause. Her mentor will be Carrie Rugg. She's been with the city for 32 years, and she is a senior accountant in the finance department. And this, this, all these are great stories, but I like this story here a lot. For Shirley, this scholarship will allow her to return to school to get her MBA. This is a dream she's always had, and due to family, time, and money, she's never been able to achieve it. She's so grateful for administration for moving her forward in this degree. And last but not least, Tara Kalancha. Her mentor will be one of your own council, uh, Debbie Larray. She's been here for almost 14 years, and she also works in the police department as an evidence technician. This scholarship gives her the chance to finish her degree while making it possible not to have an undue hardship on her family. She is studying criminal justice Justice, and this degree allows her to obtain the education she left behind in order to have a family. She supported her husband and her kids through their schooling, and it's great to have her turn and take care of herself now. It also shows her children that you can accomplish your goals at any age and return to them even if you get interrupted. She is grateful to Orem for the opportunity. The lessons she is learning through this degree are helping her to be a better police employee as well. So I'm introducing to you our 14 Women in Leadership Scholarship awardees for this new fiscal year. And Mayor and Council, if you would like to come down and give them their awards.

Okay, I'm receiving one right here.

Carrie, the question was asked, what are the amounts of these scholarships? Is it based on their tuition or Is there a range?

That's a great question.

So we have a set amount of money every year that's allocated for this scholarship, um, so it's depending upon how many people apply. So this year the average scholarship is $3,000.

All right, now we've got item 6.15. That's item 6.15. I just made it. I just made it up. Okay, we like to have the Miss Forum and the Miss Outstanding Teen. If you could, the royalty could come up and just introduce yourself just for a second. So just so we know who the new— what your role is and who you are.

Yes. Hi, you guys.

And like I said earlier, my name is Abby Rindlesbacher.

I'm Miss Orem 2022. We're really excited to be here and have this opportunity to serve the city of Orem. And I also just want to say really quick that I, I don't believe in coincidences. It's super cool that we got to witness those 14 awesome scholarships, my social impact initiative for the year is called Claim Your Seat: Supporting Future Women Leaders. So I hope I get the opportunity to meet some of those awesome women this year. And with that, I'll let the girls all introduce themselves and share what their titles are in the organization and what they're going to do to give back to Orem this year. Hi, my name is Hope Ludkins, and my social impact initiative is Stand Up, Speak Out. It's about amplifying children's voices and making a stronger connection between adults and children. I'm the new Miss Orem's Outstanding Teen, and I am super excited to meet you all. Hi, my name is Charlotte Maurer. I am the teen first attendant. Um, like all these ladies said, I am super excited to serve Orem this year. My social impact initiative is called Stand on Your Own Two Feet. It's about teaching young girls kindergarten through 3rd grade about standing up and being confident and learning about themselves.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Emery Thomas, and I am Miss Orem's first attendant. And one thing I'm very excited about is serving. And so my social impact initiative is Dance for All Abilities and Everybody. And so I teach a dance class at Turn Community Services, and I've been doing that for the past 5 years. And I love anything with dance, and I love helping the special needs community. Hi, I'm Wenrei Zhao.

I'm Miss Orem's second attendant.

My social impact initiative is called Strength in Diversity. So that is to say, through our differences, we can all make each other stronger and find the importance in our communities with each other. Thank you.

And I'm Chloe Lindsay.

I am the third attendant, and my SII is called Sad But Rad: 3 Steps to Thriving with Mental Illness, and it is centered around, um, recognizing mental illness symptoms, communicating them, and then learning how to positively cope.

Thank you.

Thank you, and thank you for coming tonight. We're excited to have you for the next year representing Orem. You guys do a great job. We'll move on to item number 6.2. We've got Gina Burleson will give a report from the Senior Advisory Commission.

Mayor and council members. council members and all the cool older people in the audience. You saw them wave, and a youngster over there. I'm recruiting youth, though, but I want to thank you for allowing us to report on our last year. And these are— even though they were tiny shoes to fill, they are big. It's a big sole to fill for Kate Bradford, who has done this presentation for so many years for us. and really had y'all wrapped around her little fingers. So what I did is I put together a presentation for you to watch, and then I'll be happy to take any questions. wrapped around her little fingers. So, um, what I did is I put together a presentation for you to watch, and then You think that you know my heart, and you probably do.

That's why I'm always with you. I could stay with you for hours in an empty room, never get bored, never have no I think I'm gonna cry. You're my other half, you're what makes me me, what makes me smile. When I fall down and can't get back, get back, get back up on my feet. Without you here, I am boring. Something inside you is triggering, it makes me myself, makes me funny. You're a beautiful thing. We're a beautiful thing together, even when the weather is low. You're a beautiful thing. We're a beautiful thing together, even when the weather is low. We find the Hey, up in the sky you'd say, don't you cry, it's all gonna be all right. If we ever gone through a fight, oh, that will be bad, 'cause you know all of my secrets, but I know all of yours. We make our Listen in the seconds together, the weight of the world feel like a feather 'cause we're holding it right in our hands. You're my other half, you're what makes me me, what makes me smile when I fall down and can't get back, back, back up on my feet.

Go home!

Can't you hear I am crying? Something inside you is sugaring and makes me myself, makes me free.

How are you, number one fan?

We're beautiful together.

How are you?

Even when the weather is low, you're a beautiful thing. We're a beautiful thing together. Even when the weather is low, you and me together.

Wow.

We'll forget what we have been told. We'll live in our own dream world, you and me, forever. We'll forget what we have been told. We will take on the whole world. Without you here, I am boring. Something inside you is triggering. It makes me myself, makes me fighting. You're a beautiful thing. We're a beautiful thing together. That's a beautiful thing.

I'm happy to say that as we opened our doors, our numbers have just continued to increase. Absolutely surprising me, um, but then again not, because really we just want to be together. And we're so grateful for council and mayor that support us, um, even when I give out solid gold horses, right, Debbie? Debbie did win a solid gold horse, and she said she approved it. She approved that budget. Do you have any questions? I'm sure you all know we are the largest, most active senior center in Utah. And honestly, I think we set a pretty high bar for the other senior centers. We have plenty of people from Orem, and we also accept the lowlanders from the surrounding towns. if they would like to attend. They're happy there. So anyways, do you have any questions for me?

I want to say my father is 83, and twice a week we play bingo on Tuesdays and Fridays. And the people who are there are great people, and we're learning, and, you know, new people. And there's such an enthusiasm there that it's really fun. And like said, the Kentucky Derby was an awesome race and I won my hat that I wore at bingo. So, you know, you never know what you're going to come up with.

But I want to, I want to say what great people.

The Monday meals was kind of a pivot for you guys and they're very well received. And I just want to say thank you for your enthusiasm, for hosting people like my father, who this is not his Community, but he's feeling loved and appreciated. So thanks for all you do and your whole staff.

You're so welcome.

It's my pleasure.

I think there's another comment.

Yes, Gina, can you, can you introduce your— the commission that came with you?

I would love to.

Thank you.

So, um, can my commission members, my new commission members, please stand? I know you were in here about a month ago and it scared you, but yeah, I've got Joyce Ottens and Verl Huley, both who are on my commission.

And can I also have Debbie, stand up please.

Debbie Robinson is really my right-hand person. I don't know what I'd do without her. She is amazing and keeps that kitchen running so well. So I'm so grateful to the support of them too.

And I want to give kudos to Gina because she's awesome and, and what you do for the seniors, and it's just, it's a fun time and And, you know, Kay Bradford was awesome, but I think we have definitely great people that serve in the senior center. So we're— we— I am grateful for the opportunity to serve with the seniors, and it's a fun group. So thank you.

Thanks so much. Thank you.

Thank you, Gina. Yes, you do. Your group does an amazing job and provides a hugely valuable resource for the community. We're going to move on. We've got— we'll go to item number 7, personal appearances. We've got— time has been set aside for the public to express their ideas, concerns, and comments on items not scheduled as public hearings on the agenda. Those wishing to speak are encouraged to show respect for those who serve the city. Comments should focus on issues concerning the city. Those wishing to speak should have signed in before the beginning of the meeting, and I have a list here of those who have signed up. We've got 10 people that have signed up tonight. And so if you could keep your comments to— usually we say 3 minutes or less, but if you could keep them to 2 minutes or less, because we got 17 items on our agenda tonight. So we'll start with Joe Johnson. If you just would state your name and then Just not your exact address, but just what city you're from.

My comment started out at 7 minutes, so I'll try to keep them brief, but my name is Joe Johnson. I live in Lehi. Just maybe a couple of quick questions. If you guys have any clarifying questions on my comments, will you be able to ask them during this comment period?

Usually not. Usually I mean, that's my understanding is we're just supposed to listen.

Okay. So to get started with, just my personal information, including my name, phone number, personal email, and the schools that my children attend, were disclosed publicly on an Orem website this last week. And I just want you to know, I don't care. When I create written documents on record with a public entity, That information is up for public disclosure. Whether I write a single email, 100 emails, or even 1,000 emails to public staff or elected officials, they're public record. I would invite you, the public, or the media to research the loudest whiners on this topic. You may find their information is already public. You may find that they are principals or board members of opposition groups to the ORM feasibility study. I'm going to try to consolidate here. As a resident of Lehi, we appreciate Orem having the courage and the tenacity to do this feasibility study. It impacts a lot more than Orem City. We're grateful for you. We understand that was a 7-0 vote on the council. This was something that was unanimous, and, and I appreciate that. I recently You know, I recently read some, you know, some data, and it's interesting that those that are most concerned about the data have not shown any lack of concern by the Alpine School District about their ability to redact data. And it's also interesting that those— some of those loudest voices, one of which has posted online the full name name and address of people, of other residents of the district. So thank you. We have your back. We appreciate your support.

Thank you.

Next we've got Ben Wheeler.

I'm Ben Wheeler. I was a coach at Orem High School for 4 seasons.

I have 3 of these rings. State championship ring for Orem High School.

I'm very proud of that. But I transferred my son to Timpanogos High School on, on October 20th. It got to the point where the concern in regards to Orem High School, I I can tell you that most people have a disregard for Orem High School and the way that they recruit, discrimination, reverse discrimination, and nepotism that's going on with, with the coaches and the people that are involved. I'll let you guys look into that yourself. I will give you an example. Um, 2019 Utah Mr. Football, after scoring touchdowns in 2018 against Orem High School, transferred to the school. His father was made the assistant head coach of Orem High School. And he was given a paid position at Alpine School District as a student advocate, which is the position he holds today. When we talk about public trust, that's a concern to me. I went through the process to get my son transferred, and hopefully— we actually made the choice to transfer regardless of whether or not he'd be able to play football at Tipanogos this year. He has actually been transferred. We went to UHSAA. They did transfer him. Orem did not contest. The Alpine School District did not contest. I put together a 150-page PowerPoint presentation that outlined all the discrepancies that I'd seen in 4 years. The reason that October 20th is an issue is because one of the parents was on the field having a verbal altercation with the head football coach at Orem High School. One of the officers, a police officer of Orem Police, broke up that verbal altercation and And actually, there was never a police report even filed. Alpine School District, the only thing that they gave me was, number one, is they didn't bother to show up, which means that their lawyer said to me, you don't have to even present, it's a, it's a walkover, you can go ahead. But I will say to you that Policy 4473 was changed so that, that coaches' sons could not be, could not be hired as coaches. The baseball coach, that was changed in November. By December, they— the policy was basically overturned, and that baseball coach's son was able to coach this year. I asked them for any kind of written policy that would allow them to overturn their own policy change from less than a month before, and I have got nothing but crickets. I would hope that Orem takes responsibility and Orem takes control of their own destiny and goes through the process of either getting an Orem School District or going in with Orem, Linden, and maybe Pleasant Grove, because we need to control our own destiny. We don't need a black eye anymore. That's all I have to say. Thank you.

Thank you.

Next we've got Pete— PJ Eager.

Hi, my name is PJ Eager. So I found out last week that somebody somewhere is very curious about my email correspondence because they requested it through a GRAMA request as part of the feasibility study, which I found very confusing because normally people don't seem to be that interested in what I think. But I thought I should come and introduce myself to you so that you know a little bit about me, because maybe you'll be reading my email correspondence. Um, I'm 37 years old. I came to this area to go to BYU. I've been living in Orem for almost 10 years with my family. I'm the mother of 4 children, and my background and my education is as a teacher. I love education, and I am so passionate about Helping people grow— sorry— and fulfill their potential. That matters so much to me. My kids go to Parkside, and for the last 4 years I have learned about advocating for kids and volunteering in the schools more than I ever have before, because my kids used to go to Geneva. So you can maybe imagine the last 4 years, lots of change in my neighborhood, and we need your support and your help. to improve education for our children. I am in favor of the feasibility study because I'm in favor of data. I want more information about what is best for kids, and I would like to specifically ask you to please meet with Alpine School District as soon as possible and to not wait for the end of the feasibility study, because I have learned over the last 4 years that it matters. The relationships we build with people and having open discourse and dialogue, I feel like Private student information would probably not have been accidentally leaked if we had better open discourse. So please, please, please, I would love to be at a public meeting with the whole school board and the whole Orem City Council and to see people who can directly affect my kids' lives together in the same room solving problems.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next we've got John Barrick.

Thank you for your time and thank you for taking on the Orem feasibility study. I'd like to read a couple of emails from an Orem resident. This email says, is on the date of February 8th, I seem to remember that Rob Smith said something like a 25% increase on taxes would be necessary to maintain services. Can you verify if that is accurate? There was no answer to that email. from a school board member. That individual, an Orem resident, said to you on that evening, February 8th, any split of Orem by itself or with neighboring Vineyard would require at least a 25% increase in property taxes to maintain services. 2 weeks later, that same individual emails Rob Smith from the Alpine School District, the business services director, and says, I'm looking for help For a couple of numbers ASAP. What's the total cost of running our schools if you break it down from state, federal property, blah blah blah? But here's the important part: I thought it would be good to give the simplest breakdown possible of the financial situation. It might be more effective than just saying, as I usually do, that taxes will go up and services will go down. You've been lied to. Without any information, an individual emailed the whole city of Orem asking them to sign a petition to fight against you. I have from Rob Smith's data proof that Orem has paid in the last 10 years $300 and— nope, excuse me, that's Lehi— $465 million in property taxes, received $82 million in bond allocations, which is a net contribution to the ASD Of $383 million in the last 18 years, because that's all the data that's available, you have given $550 million to the Alpine School District net. Now, Rob Smith, the Director of Business Services, said the following: property taxes, despite its regressive nature, is the primary tool to build schools. It's also the source for funding capital plans, and it also pays off debt. On his February '21 split study. You can tell a lie to the Orem City Council. You can tell a lie to— when you send a letter to the Orem residents in a petition. You can form a political issue committee called Stronger Together based on a lie to raise money to fight the city of Orem. But you can't make the $550 million of contributions by Orem residents in the last 18 years on a net basis go away. In the words of Mark Twain, spoken by Huck Finn, you cannot pray a lie. Thank you for taking up this important question.

Sissy Rasmussen.

I'm going to start by saying that I do not consent to be recorded by Councilmember Terry Peterson.

daughter over here.

And second, I'll be taking my full 3 minutes as expected. My name is Sissy Rasmussen. I've lived in Orem for almost 20 years. I'm very involved in Orem schools and have been vocal and active in advocating for them. In May, Orem City submitted a GRAMMER request for all emails between anyone in Alpine School District and me, a private citizen, from January 1st to present, ostensibly as part of the research for Orem City's School District feasibility study. That request was fulfilled by ASD last Thursday as part of a transparency document about the study. Orem City published my emails, more than 1,000 pages of them, on their website and then did a social media post directing people to it. Most of my emails were related to PTA and SCC, but also included emails with teachers, substitute teaching plans, questions I've asked district. employees and emails to school board members. None of the email addresses or personal information were redacted, including volunteer teacher and student names, as well as links to Google Docs for various purposes and anybody's email who was caught up in the net of being copied on my emails. Some of the emails weren't even written by me but included my email address as part of a group email. After public outcry, the city removed links to my email, which I do appreciate, but the links were live for 17 hours or more. They were also available to be downloaded. The damage is done. I'm deeply dismayed and disturbed by this egregious breach of privacy and trust. There cannot be any reason for such unethical actions. My emails have nothing to do with the feasibility study. In an interview with KSL last night, the mayor said that personal emails were My emails were requested because of claims that some people were spreading in the community, ostensibly me, and social media. That's still not in the scope of the study. Additionally, the other 2 people who were targeted by Orem City had not said anything publicly, and the people who have been vocal in favor of the study, including a couple people in this room, were not targeted at all. The city's request for my emails is nothing less than snooping, targeted Parent snooping. Maybe you're thinking that it's all fair game because ASD is a government entity, and maybe you think you have a right to these emails because of transparency, and maybe you think I shouldn't be concerned if I have nothing to hide. All of those are wrong beliefs. I'm a private citizen unelected to any office outside of a school. Like every parent, I have reasonable expectations that when I email a parent— email a teacher or a PTA group, it's not going to be shared without my permission.

Thank you.

I've shared information with the city and with the internet for no discernible purposes. I'll skip a paragraph.

I'd appreciate it if you wrap it up because we've asked everyone to go 2 minutes and there's really no exceptions.

I've done nothing but share information. Incidentally, the very public data you just grammar requested on behalf of Discovery Education. I've spoken up for my viewpoint, invited others to learn, and communicated with the mayor and I've attended City Council with an intent to be an involved, informed citizen of my city. I've advocated for my schools, and none of these activities warrant such self-serving, vindictive, underhanded actions. Though grammar requests are legal, this kind and this posting is not ethical. If you took the time—

I believe your time is up, Ms. Rasmussen.

I will— you're well past your time. I know, so I appreciate it if you'd be done.

I want my last 3 sentences. Can you give me that? If you took the time to read all 1,024 pages of my emails, you'll see that I serve our Orem schools tirelessly in many capacities. I ask a lot of questions, the same questions every single Orem resident has a right to ask, but every resident should now wonder if their emails will also be requested if they're just a little too vocal. local about their opinions. Thank you.

Next we've got Tawny Merrill.

Hi, my name is Tawny Merrill. I live approximately 100 yards from Cascade Drive, and I would like to address the constant disturbing of the peace and traffic violations occurring in our neighborhood. First, we're experiencing an increasing number of very loud Speeding vehicles racing up Cascade Drive from 800 East and 1600 North in Orem at all hours of the night, every night. Tuesday, June 7th, my husband was at the bottom of Cascade Drive, counted 62 cars drive up that road in a 1-hour period. There's traffic safety issues when these vehicles are racing down Cascade Drive and merge onto 800 East and 1600 North. They're traveling at extremely high speeds, revving their engines all the way down. None of us can sleep at night. They neglect to stop at the bottom of Cascade Drive and speed right on to 800 East or 1600 North. There will definitely be an accident there sometime in the future, I would imagine. The ever-increasing amount of noise caused by these vehicles and the people in them. We have screaming, yelling, laughing, people hanging out of their vehicles on the way down that hill at high speeds. Sometimes I don't know if the screams are for help or just for excitement. It's hard to tell if someone might be being raped. I don't know. The noise is so loud I can't go to sleep, and if I am asleep, I am rudely awakened. The parties occurring in the parking lots at the top of Cascade Drive where the police gun range parking lot is. There's trash thrown everywhere in the bushes, and no doubt there are nefarious activities taking place in that parking lot. The city must be aware of some of these activities happening, as they have permanently closed the bathrooms made available to the law-abiding sports enthusiasts who frequent the trails accessible from Cascade Drive due to Constant— the constant vandalism. There's signs on the, on the doors of the bathrooms. If the city is aware of the constant vandalism there, do they have any plans to address it? I propose that Cascade Drive be closed at dusk like many other trailheads in the area, and that a locked gate be installed to prevent the continuance of the aforementioned problems.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Peter Merrill.

My name is Peter Merrill. I also live at Mountain Oaks Drive, about 100 yards north of Cascade Drive. Due to the escalating public nuisance and public safety concerns, I'm asking the City of Orem to address the closure of Cascade Drive from dusk to dawn. There's continuing late-night street racing, vandalism, Littering, gunfire after dark, partying, partygoers are closing the road themselves with cones. I'm asking the city to number one, install a traffic counter across Cascade Drive at the 800 East entrance to identify peak usage hours. I have personally counted in excess of 60 vehicles per hour after 9 PM. Number 2, install a radar trailer 2/3 of the way up the grade It's a 10% grade. And log the vehicle velocity up and down. Number 3, install a decibel meter and log the sound levels and the corresponding time of day. Number 4, install video surveillance at the upper parking area, as is done at the police range. And number 5, install an electronic access gate at the entrance to Cascade Drive, close the road from dusk to dawn. There's power, there's telecommunications at that location that would allow a gate to be installed, and that would allow dispatcher for police, fire, EMS, and the water district facilities to access it via a dispatcher or a keypad. Thank you.

Thank you.

Mike Farragher.

My name is Mike Farragher. I live in Orem. Mayor Young, city council members, thank you for your service and your sacrifices.

Appreciate it.

And young ladies, Good luck. I love the ideas. On a night of ideas, I have an idea to propose to Orem City. It doesn't have to do with the feasibility study. It is a severe off-track, but I hope it can be helpful. Orem Council, citizens, with Summerfest concluded, tonight is Flag Day. The American flag is a beacon and symbol of hope and a brighter future. It stands as something sacred, the God-given liberties, the freedoms that we cherish and hold close. Just as the American flag is a symbol of cherished, precious freedoms we hold dear, so are our children cherished, held close, our beacons of hope for a brighter future. Orem City as we know it, is Family City USA. Our values, cultures, and families comprise what make Orem unique, not only in Utah, but in all of the United States of America. Being as such, I know that Orem, Utah, USA seems just the place for an idea like this that could happen, should happen. Tonight, I propose that Orem City in some way formally recognize, just as we recognize our fathers and mothers with holidays, that we formally recognize our children with such a way. I've been hungry and desperate for an idea that can unify and heal in a time of division and contention and struggle. Now, I don't know exactly what that ideal entails, but I do know this: I can't think of much of anything that unifies and heals like our children. And so I simply request that for your consideration and feedback. Mike Farragher, thank you for your time.

Thank you, Mike.

We've got 2 more.

We've got Corey Rasmussen.

Hi, Carrie Richardson. I live on the corner. So it's my fault, bad writing. I live on the corner, we live on the corner of 1600 North, 800 East, and too close to Cascade Drive. Sharing also my concerns, we have 3 concerns. First, generally speaking, 1600 North, 800 East, corner, there needs to be more traffic enforcement of established laws. Speed rate, uh, 5 in the morning till midnight is excessive. In the past 2 years, I'm aware of 5 times, 5 incidences where the vehicle has lost the road, twice into my property, once in my neighbor's property. Serious injury last week. So that's the first concern. Please ask the police department to spend more time monitoring and enforcing traffic laws there. The second concern, as was mentioned by the Merrills, Cascade Drive has become a gathering point. Something seems to me started around COVID with large numbers of youth gathering, and there's no exaggeration. To say there's racing coming both up and down. And of course, as you know, the trend is to have modified mufflers, so the racing is extremely loud, would violate any noise ordinance at any time of day. And the third concern is it's certainly not wise to have unmanaged large gatherings at the late hours of the night on city property. It seems to me the city would be very concerned to know what's going on their property at these times of night. And I'd hate to be in the newspaper or, you know, loss of life as things happen when carelessness and lack of supervision, lack of oversight, bad things happen. Thank you.

Mayor, quick, quick question. Mayor, are there any homes up that street, or is it just one home? Okay, thank you.

Mayor, may I just— may I just make a comment? Yes, just in response to Mr. Rasmussen and Mr. and Mrs. Merrill, our police chief is at the back of the room. I've asked him to touch base with you to get some more information. Obviously, what you're sharing with us is something that we want to do our best to abate, but as you leave tonight, just if you could touch base with Chief Adams. Chief, can you just kind of wave at the back of the room and we'll make sure we, we, we listen and get your contact information because this is something we want to tackle. Thank you.

Thank you. I second that. I, I guess you should talk to the police chief here and, and we'll definitely make something happen because there's no excuse for what you're describing. Last, we've got Theresa Horn.

I'll keep it really short because you've already addressed it. I am on Cascade Drive, my backyard's right there, so I get to hear everything. I feel our neighbors have expressed a lot. My concern is gunshots. I have had to call Orem City Police because we think they are gunshots, and they have of course came up. So I appreciate you guys showing concern for it, and hopefully we get it under wraps.

Thank you.

Thank you. That will be the end of the public personal appearances. Let's move on now. We've got item 8 under consent items.

Mayor, I'd like to remove that item 8.1 from the consent agenda and table it until further notice. We're still working on that item.

Okay.

Second.

I make a motion to do that.

I second the motion.

Okay, can we have a vote?

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Did we have to table to a certain date again?

We didn't put a date.

But they will just keep working on to actively get it through. Now we'll move on to scheduled items. We've got item 9.1, appointments to boards and commissions. We've got one appointment to make on the Beautification Commission, and that's Mark Shirtliff. We'd like to appoint to the Beautification Commission.

Yeah, I'd like to appoint Mark Shirliff as a Beautification Commission member.

Maybe just phrase that in the form of a motion that you're moving to do that.

I make a motion that we appoint Mark Shirliff as, as a member of the Beautification Commission.

I'll second.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

The appointment passes. Next, we'll have item 9.2, a public hearing resolution. And we'll have Ken Ransom with CDBG make a presentation. And, and Kenna.

Are you bringing your sleeping bag? Are you staying?

That's, that's a great idea. I hadn't thought of that. So thank you.

Good to see you again.

Yeah, thank you. And hello, Mayor and council members. So we have one final, hopefully one final presentation. for you on our remaining COVID CDBG funding. So 2 recommendations, a quick summary of the allocations previously. We've discussed those previously, so we'll move forward. So our first— and then there's just a reminder about the limitations of funding, and we think these are related to— they do meet the criteria to qualified to be used for these purposes, the COVID funding. So we recommend to, to you that we provide $15,000 to the Orem Senior Friendship Center for their meals for seniors facing food insecurity because of the effects of COVID-19. This program has run out of funding.

They—

and we recommend to, to use this funding to continue that. And my understanding is Mag has been able to also provide some funding to keep this program going. We think it's a good program. We recommend that it be— that we provide additional funding to help them with the, with the demand for this program. And then, or the city or Department of Public Works would like to use the $40,000 to install water bottle filling stations. We think this qualifies for COVID funding because more hygienic way to refill water bottles, you know, for our parks, which are, which are used by many in the, in the city. So we recommend this as a good use for this funding as well. And if these 2 recommendations are approved, that will use up the COVID CDBG funding.

Nice. We'd like to open up the public hearing. portion of this presentation.

Question for you, the $15,000 to the senior, is that just for their Monday meals, or is it for any person who struggles to pay any of their lunches?

So it'll be mostly for their Monday meals, but it will just offset the other costs as well.

Okay, thanks.

Are there any, any public comments? I think we're good. I think the water refilling stations would be amazing. We were at the park the other night and we were looking all over for one, so this would be great. Any comments? Okay, can we have a motion? Wait, we did the public hearing.

I'm sorry.

Okay.

Mayor, I move that the city Approve the projected use of funds for CARES Act CDBG-CV funding and approve of a substantial amendment to the 2019-2020 Annual Action Plan.

Second.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Resolution passes. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Before we sit down, and Council, I would like to give our commission member a special gift. We are going to make him a junior member of the City Council. He has been here 17 times just in CV alone, and a lot of other times with regular CDBG. So at Tom's recommendation, we're making him a junior member of the City Council. So thank you.

Nice.

The mayor signed it.

Later, I can tell you the distinct benefits of being a junior member versus a full-fledged member.

Yes, definitely.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Don't be a stranger, Ken.

All right. Okay, now we've got to—

I'm gonna borrow your glasses.

Okay, we've got to switch a couple items here. First we're going to do 9.4, then we'll do 9.3.

Ladies, I'm giving you one chance to get out of here and not have to put up with this. I'm just saying, just saying.

Yes, we appreciate your support and this is great, but we are going to go into the budget. Which is kind of like reading things. You're welcome to stay.

Thanks for coming.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Can always watch it online.

All right.

Brandon, item 9.4, a public hearing to discuss and consider the proposed transfer of funds From the enterprise funds to the general fund.

All right.

All right. So as part of state law several years ago, we are required to address transfers that are made from any of the city's enterprise funds to the general fund. Fund or any other governmental fund, but in this case they all go to the General Fund. The reason for the enterprise transfers was there was concern about transfers being just moved out of the enterprise fund to fund operations in other funds, and so the law was created to kind of address the reason why Those transfers were taking place, or at least at a minimum, to make citizens aware that they were occurring. So those, you know, as I mentioned, those enterprise funds transfers, they relate to basic services provided by the water fund, sewer fund, and stormwater and street lighting to residents and businesses. And as highlighted there, and city-owned properties. So that's the component that we're here to discuss, is the city-owned properties portion. And the transfer is— there's a cost of supplying those services to the city properties, and under the law, we needed— we need those funds, need to charge an appropriate fee for those services to The general fund, as as I mentioned here, the state auditor requires us to make the use the retail rate to make those calculations, and then those fund and the reason for this transfer is then we take those monies that were transferred from the general fund to those to pay for those services in the enterprise funds, and we simply move those monies back to the general. general fund as part of their— since for all of us, for all intents and purposes, we're all— it's the city as a whole, right? So we have made that option to transfer those funds back and have been doing so for time and all eternity, to be honest with you. It's only been recently that obviously, as the state auditor requires us that we've made notice of those transfers. Just kind of an idea how this works. The general fund pays the utility funds for those services. Payment for water for parks, cemetery, and use within this building is estimated to cost approximately $900,000. For sewer, $16,000. Stormwater, which is impermeable surfaces, 141, street lighting, 15. And then you can see this, we're required to show then what in relation to the total expenditures of each of those particular funds, what that percentage of those transfers is in relation to those expenditures. And then provide you with some information. around the utility funds in relation to their revenue, as mentioned. So water was $900,000. You can see the revenue of $17.6 million related to water. Sewer, I think, was like, what, $16 million? Yeah, $16 million in relation to its, you know, $14 million in revenue. Stormwater was $141 million in relation to the $5 million in revenue, and $15,000 in relation to street lighting's $1.1 million. We're also required to kind of give you an idea in relation to the breakdown of those enterprise funds and, and just a brief synopsis in relation to how those funds break down. Again, kind of to just give an idea of the magnitude of those transfers in relation to the, the revenue and expenditures and expenses of those funds. Also required to provide a breakdown of various charges and services provided that are related to those funds, and you can see the breakdown in relation to those. You can see at the near the 3rd line from the bottom, the transfers amount that is in the transfers area of those funds that are part of that transfers. And then a detailed breakdown of what makes up those expenditures within each one of the enterprise funds that has an enterprise fund transfer. And are required to break out the— any contracted services in relation to those enterprise funds as well. And I know that's really fast, but honestly really boring. So are there any questions in relation to those enterprise fund transfers?

Do we have any questions?

Great.

Then We should open up public hearing to this, right?

Correct.

Okay, we'll open up a public hearing to ask any questions or have any comments regarding this. Okay, we'll close the public hearing. Are there any other questions from the council?

Would like—

somebody like to make a motion?

So moved.

I move that we approve the enterprise fund transfers as presented. Is that okay?

Second.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Motion passes.

I didn't need a nod.

Sorry.

That's fine.

I do. All right, moving on to 9.3. With Brandon. This is approving and adopting a budget for fiscal year 2022 and 2023.

Thank you, Mayor and City Council. So I'm gonna— these are the same slides as we discussed with the tentative, although I have pulled out a few, and I'm going to run through them much quicker than I did during the tentative budget. So if there's a particular question maybe came to mind as you thought about it, about a particular slide, please feel free to stop me and we can discuss that particular slide. So one thing to just notice and note on the very first slide, the proposed total has been adjusted based on the recommendation and the change related to the swim team, and there's an Exhibit D that's associated with the ordinance that makes that change to this budget. So this proposed number reflects that adjustment. Just a quick review. Obviously, we've had several work sessions. We had a retreat and several work sessions, and we presented the tentative budget back on May 10th, and we are here today to adopt the fiscal '23 budget. Again, some of the budget highlights. Projected revenues are approximately $8.4 million over what our estimated fiscal '22— or over our fiscal '22 budgeted revenues. The primary function of that is sales tax revenues, although certainly there are many other revenue sources that have caused it to go over by $8.4 million. We're funding the city's compensation program, including all step adjustments. for those public safety and public works individuals who are part of the STEP programs, and merit increases, as well as any market increases that, that may come as well, and that which is identified as the next item. Health insurance increase of 10%, and fleet replacement and capital projects. What happened there? Just a brief overview of the revenues. You can see the historical change in budgeted revenues over the last 4 years, as well as the associated transfers, part of which we just discussed some of those, and the appropriations of surpluses in relation to those years as well.

Brandon, on the slide before, yep, on the health benefits, does it normally go up 10% a year, Jamie? What's the—

No, actually, in the last couple of years we've had and budgeted for increases of 8%. The reason that we have increased them is because the cost of coverage is actually increasing as a result of COVID-related circumstances and market forces that are driving the cost of healthcare even higher. We don't know if the increase is going to be 10%. Actually, right now our plan is trending in a very good way, but we've, we felt it appropriate to build in that additional cushion just in case. Yeah, so, so while we have a July to June fiscal year. Our plan year for health insurance is January through December, so we'll probably get to about September, October, Carrie, and we'll get a— we'll get our notice of increase, if any. Right now, obviously, we're hoping that it's not 10%. In fact, we're hoping that it's less than 8%, but we built it in and we should know in October.

Mayor, may I? I'm putting you on the spot a little bit, Brandon, and I apologize. I should have asked this in the pre-meeting, but I've just thought of it. A significant increase this year of $9 million. How much of that is for capital goods? I know we're looking at building a school. The old school will be at Orm Park. Do you know how much of that increase is capital goods versus normal cost increases? And I'm hitting you cold, I apologize. Can you go to your capital budget anywhere and find that out?

Trying to remember, trying to remember if I have a slide in here related to that.

If I read that right, capital went— was $20 million, which represented a 14% increase. Is that correct?

Yeah, the slide, 14% of that total.

Oh, 14% of the total.

Thank you.

Let's see.

I'm sorry, I should have asked this in the pre-meeting or one of the many times you've reported this to us. I apologize.

Yeah, I don't, I don't have that.

Go back to the slide right before that, please. Capital projects.

No, it doesn't really say that. Yeah, that's fun.

Jamie, perhaps you can opine. I mean, a substantial amount went to building.

So that the total that you see represented there is the total expenditures Of all collective funds, correct? And so as we go through the enterprise funds, you will see significant expenditures on the capital side within that miscellaneous. No.

Well, those are all of the internal service funds. Okay, it's a whole bunch. Yes, senior center, senior center fund, etc.

Maybe you can provide that for me sometime, Brandon. I should have asked you.

Previously. Sorry.

And obviously, you know, a decent portion of that— we're talking about health benefits and talking about salary increases— a large portion of that would be as part of that. And then I would assume, as— and And we may see that when we get to the enterprise funds, as you mentioned, that it's in capital as well.

Can you go back to the slide, I mean, that you were just at with revenues? So as far as this fiscal year '22 revenue of $109 million versus fiscal year '23 of $118 million, we talked in the work session about where that increase— I mean, where that number is coming from, that $118 million. That, that was a conservative number because it was from 12 months ago.

Is that—

am I right on that, or am I missing something?

So the $118 million is conservative in nature because we are budgeting sales taxes at a very conservative number. And so, you know, if I, if I really pushed that number, you know, as, as well as potentially pushing property tax you know, we could be up close to $120 million is my, is my guess. But obviously I don't have any comfort level, even more so as you both alluded to in the pre-meeting related to the economy and where that's going. So the number that, you know, we've put in there, I feel very comfortable with outside of one of those recession-type situations. And so the large element of that increase is, you know, sales tax related, but certainly not all of it.

So when you, when you were talking about taking the numbers from a year ago, was that just sales tax? Or was that as far as on the revenue side?

Yes. So that's what I was referring to is sales tax, you know.

Okay.

If I may too, Brandon, if we look at FY22 right now, we're looking at the adopted budget, but we anticipate that that actual number will come in higher than $109 million. So—

Well said.

Yeah, I mean, we, we could be— the gap and the delta could be $6 or $7 million because we think we're going to come in $4 or $5 million better. In our actual budgets versus our adopted budget.

So you're saying our carryover, carryforward is going to be that, right?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, I mean, as you well know, so we're already 16.1% ahead in sales taxes than the prior year. And well, we're going to exceed even our current fiscal '22 budgeted sales tax as well. And so that's going to— that $109 million, like Jamie said, will, will be a higher number just based on just sales tax alone, yet alone building permit fees or franchise taxes or any of the other revenue sources that come in from the general fund. Obviously, we have other funds such as the Transportation Sales Tax Fund, also based on sales tax. It's also doing very well. We also have the CARES Tax Fund, which is based on sales tax, which is also doing pretty well. So, so you have lots of our funds that are, particularly those based on sales taxes, that will undoubtedly exceed the budget that is part of that fiscal '22 adopted budget number that you see there.

Okay, and as it's a very conservative estimate.

Yeah, makes that, makes that the fiscal '23 one even all that much more conservative.

So, Debbie, I have a question.

So, um, we know we had a lot of people who got stimulus money and spent that, but the cost of goods have gone up because of inflation. So my question is, are people spending more or are cost of goods just more? And so we're just, we're getting more because the cost of an item that was $10 is now $15, or, or do you have any idea or feel for that in your crystal ball?

Turn me into an economist?

Uh, yes.

Um, so I, I think it's a combination of both, to be honest. Now I think, uh, obviously Obviously, the COVID money is on its last legs. And especially as we hear concerns about the economy, any remaining dollars that people probably did save, I would anticipate they probably will continue to save those dollars until they do feel more comfortable that the economy is not in a big decline or a decline. Obviously, there is a— with the 10% inflation, That has a significant impact on cost of product, and so therefore, obviously, there's an increase in the sales tax related to that. So what that number is of that total is anybody's guess.

Okay, thanks.

I think too, I mean, anecdotally, I don't know if you've been following what Target has kind of found itself in. It anticipated that there would be a continued boom in the purchase of, for example, large-scale goods, TVs, blenders, those kind of houseware-type items. And so they planned appropriately, but now people aren't buying them. And so now they're stuck with all this excess inventory that they're now trying to essentially sell at very discounted prices. So if you're in the market for a KitchenAid, head over to Target because you'll probably get a good deal on it. But what, what is happening is some of that consumer confidence is starting to wane, and some of these companies that were planning for this ongoing boom and purchased inventory to fill that void are now seeing things kind of taper off. So, I mean, to Councilmember Pedersen and to Mayor Young's comments in our pre-meeting, yeah, we are concerned. And so we want to be very cautious or conservative in how we budget for the next fiscal year.

Just a quick breakdown, just to give an idea of the size of each fund in relation to that total $140 million. Obviously, you can see the general fund is, you know, almost half of that number, and then the various funds that make up that, with the, you know, the water fund being the second largest. To get into general funds specifically, you can see the revenues in relation to actuals for 2 of the prior fiscal years, what we estimate for the current fiscal year, as well as what we're proposing in this budget. And you can see that steady increase in relation to the revenues, primarily sales tax-based as well as building permit-based. And, and, you know, to some degree property tax, although as we've pointed out in the past, it's a pretty small increase from each year, but it does increase. Again, taking the revenues specifically for the general fund to give an idea of where do that— where does that $68 million dollars come from, whether it be from taxes, which, you know, sales, property, franchise, etc. And then the various other elements that make up that, those revenues. Just pointing out sales tax, you can see what our estimate, our estimate there for fiscal '22 is $29 million. And what we're proposing here for fiscal '23 at $31 million. And so the budget for fiscal '22, I believe, was $28 million, if I remember correctly. So that just to give you some perspective there. Some building fees. So this is building licenses and permits, and you can see kind of the history there of those fees, keeping in mind that, as we mentioned before, building permits, we, we budget conservatively, and anything we get over and above kind of a core, core base amount, we then use to fund it. Part goes into, ends up in our CIP fund.

Can I ask you a question about that?

You bet.

So just kind of real basic question. The mall, all of the building that's going on there, When do those permit fees hit?

I don't know when exactly they collect them. Ryan might know that better.

Ryan, you can speak to that.

Yeah, they pay those fees when they submit their building permit.

And that's, that's when we collect them.

This new set of apartments, they put the fence up there. Has that been collected?

Is that—

Yes, that's what I understand. We, we Jokingly in the office called a million-dollar day when a project like that pays our fees, because combination of their building fees and their impact fees is quite significant, and that's a large amount like that.

So that's reflected in fiscal '22.

Okay.

Just overall citywide, to give you an idea of the breakdown and what percentage each of those categories makes of the $140 million. Just, just kind of, you know, give you an idea. Obviously very heavy in the personnel category, and, but, you know, no slackers in the other areas as well. So touching on expenditures by fund, again, just to kind of give you an idea of in each one of those funds in those 3 categories of our expenditures. the breakdown and how that spells out in relation to the whole entire $140 million. So some of the things specific to this fiscal '23 budget, one-time items that have been proposed to be purchased, some extrication tools for the fire department, as well as equipment for 3 new firefighters. that intending to be hired, and a new vehicle for Lang Gray, the capital projects manager, as he, you know, needs the— his prior vehicle is still being used by individuals that took his position. So need a new vehicle for him to be able to get around to, you know, all these, all these big projects he's working on. Ongoing costs that have been proposed in the budget as part of our— in the finance department. Right now we use a whole bunch of spreadsheets from various departments to track our master plan capital projects as well as other capital projects, and we have found a particular software to address— try to address those in a more consistent manner and be able to track those much more more easily from year to year. Again, some of those extrication tools that we talked about above, there's maintenance related, related to those, and so there's a component that's ongoing in relation to that purchase. Various police elements related to SWAT equipment, handguns, and software maintenance. They basically scrap money together every year for software. And, you know, they surprisingly use a lot of software. I was a little surprised when Chief Adams brought that forward. So, so this is to kind of address those needs. Any questions about those particular ones before we move to the next page?

I have a quick question on the SWAT equipment. So we, we work together with other cities and Brigham Young University. Is there an equal share on that?

On that expense, do we just divide that up between the 4 different entities, or is it by number of—

by per capita?

I don't know that I know the answer.

I think, I think we as a city supply and support our staff that are part of the SWAT program. Some of this SWAT funding was the result of conversations that Chief Adams and I had relative to some of our SWAT personnel were actually purchasing gear out of their own dollars for this particular purpose. And we both agreed that this shouldn't be the case, that the city needs to be buying this equipment. At the same time, some, if not all, of this equipment has a life expectancy and kind of a best before date. And so we want to make sure that we comply and keep up with all of the requirements. If we have, for example, helmets or any gear, vests or anything that are expired, we want to make sure that they're replaced in a timely manner. Is that a fair representation, Chief?

Thank you.

Personnel-related items in the budget, we are taking 2 variable individuals and creating a full-time clerk position. So that cost— obviously there's a little bit more cost when we have a full-time rather than part-time individuals, primarily in the benefits area. We are adding, as I mentioned, 3 additional firefighters, kind of planning ahead for the Vineyard Fire Station. And so if we can get those firefighters on board now and get them trained and use them here, then when we make that shift, obviously we're that far ahead. We have an evidence custodian technician addition, mostly because, if my understanding is correct— Chief Adams, you can correct me if I'm wrong— but we currently have one full-time person in that regard and a part-time person. And so sometimes the full-time person ends up doing a lot of coverage, especially after-hours coverage, because she's the only one who can do that because we only have one other person. So, so this would provide 2 individuals to be able to provide services in that arena, as well as, you know, double coverage, which is, which is always helpful. Public Works has a need for cemetery technician. We've had discussions before, obviously, about how busy the cemetery is, unfortunately. But, you know, that need is there, and, you know, they just have the workload that is at times, I'm sure, especially on weekends, they need some help. So we're proposing to add an additional technician to help in that regard. Any questions with those positions? We've had many discussions about the fleet replacements. Give you a reminder of, you know, the magnitude of what it takes to run the city and get new vehicles and make sure we have vehicles that work when we need them, especially, you know, high— whether emergency vehicles, etc., or even, you know, when we don't even consider them emergency vehicles, but, you know, when we have something go wrong with the water line or something like that in the street. It's always good to have vehicles to work, to be able to try and get those things fixed as quickly as possible. Again, just to give you an idea, a reminder of the streets components. You know, many other cities have— you, you've heard of different problems that they may have had with their streets. Orem has been very good at maintaining their streets, and this is part of the reason why, is because we have A pretty good amount of money, especially with the new transportation sales tax fund available to us. And so those dollars, that is the intent of how those projects would be— the monies for those would be broken down into those particular projects. Any questions related to street capital? And then we get into the enterprise funds. Yeah, I thought that was maybe the case. So Nothing there for— to help in your question there, Tom. So just a breakdown with the revenues, obviously the water fund with the reduction we had in the rate, you can see the impact of that in fiscal '22 and with the proposed increase that we are proposing from 83 to 84 cents in the Tier 1. You can see what the revenue impact of that is for fiscal '23, and then just kind of a quick breakdown on the left of where they in essence spend those revenues in a given year. And, you know, you know, the capital may seem kind of small, but obviously keep in mind that a huge portion of the current bond money is going towards those— that, you know, the water tank project, as well as the contributions from the city that match To put into that funding is already in place, so it doesn't get reflected here because this is in relation to new money. So keep that in mind, and that's the case for not only the water fund but sewer and stormwater funds as well. Any questions on the water fund? Water reclamation, same concept. The rate— proposed rate increase from to $1,239 from $1,233 in the base rate, and in volume charge from $253 up to $256. Again, and there's much more capital components, primarily the water reuse project that we have, as well as some various other sewer projects that we were not intending necessarily to use bond money on. Stormwater rate increase from $7.80 to $8 as part of our regular plan that was approved a while back. And then you can see the various components that make up the stormwater. So, and you know, we had a good discussion today on canal abandonment. That kind of a thing, particularly the West Union Canal, impacts this fund pretty significantly, and we're trying to address those issues as well.

going forward.

Recreation funds. So this has been adjusted again for the swim team element, as you can note there, and what that impact is. And so that was reduced in the fiscal '23 proposed there from $3.5-ish to, to the $3.3. And then you can see what the elements are that make up, and obviously they have a huge amount of personnel costs, not only very few full-time people, but a huge number of part-time individuals that make up the recreation fund. Any particular questions about the recreation fund? And I, and I had a discussion, I think it was with Councilman Peterson, regarding— obviously this is still in a, a new phase as far as our first full year here in fiscal '22. We're obviously paying close attention to those results and where we're at and monitoring that very closely so that we can see, you know, how close we are in this proposed budget so that we can make a better evaluation of that going forward. But, you know, Bryce and Bren have very carefully combed through, as with Mariah as well, combed through their stuff and feel pretty confident in this number. Going forward. And so we'll, we'll continue to keep a close eye on that as, as we move forward with the recreation fund.

Is that based on the fact that we think more people will be paying memberships and coming through, or is this— that's quite, that's quite a jump.

Well, obviously fiscal '20— yeah, fiscal '22.

No, no, I'm talking about $2.7 to $3.3.

Yeah, even the, you know, the '22 one, you're coming just right out of brand new center. And so, so they've added some different things. Obviously, the memberships are a huge component.

Is there, is there a capacity limit eventually when we get there? Maybe Bryce knows capacity. Is it a couple thousand at a time? Or maybe Brendan? I was just wondering.

Brendan probably knows the answer to that. I mean, generally speaking, we're kind of targeting about 25,000 total membership as something of a, of a limit where we think we might start to hear potential complaints about—

Too many people?

Being full. I think right now, after our most recent kind of— we had our first annual pass membership renewal process, and I think we ended up somewhere around 21-ish thousand annual pass holders. But essentially that, that big increase, I mean, it's, it's based off of us having much better revenues than we anticipated during fiscal year '22.

So, so is it based on the $25,000 or basically currently where you're at right now?

Based off of what we ended up achieving essentially about this last March, April.

Okay, thank you.

Can I ask a question? Um, a couple questions. Um, maybe this is for Bryce. So in fiscal '23, do we have Hillcrest Hillcrest gym up and running? Are we gaining income from that? The Hillcrest Park? We don't have that going yet.

We won't have that completed yet.

Okay, but that is an anticipated source of revenue in the future. And then last thing I want to say is I just want to— hats off to Bryce and to Dave Spencer. I don't know if you guys remember the meetings with all the UV Rays swim parents here. I sat in on those meetings with those guys and that we came to a great conclusion. I think everybody's happy. I think it's good for Orem, good for UV rays, good for Orem kids.

That's awesome.

So I appreciate your showing this here, that, um, that was resolved and it's a win-win.

So thanks.

Okay.

So, Tom, Trevor just brought me this. So just comparison of capital from this year to next. So our budget for fiscal '22 is not— was $19— our budget for '22 was $19.6 million. So there's not a huge capital increase in relation to fiscal '23. So I'll have to look into that. So from '19-'16 to '20, it's a little over $20 million.

No.

No, so I'll have to get back with you on where that exactly is. Solid Waste Fund, you know, there are several increases related to that. Primarily they come from waste management and pass through to our citizens, and you can see the impact in relation to those Fees here. Just to give you a brief idea of total utility costs in relation to other cities, you know, we've shared this with before, and you know our estimate of where Orem sits in, in relation to those total utility costs. Are there any questions about anything that we've discussed that haven't been addressed, or that you've thought of in the meantime? And there are more, obviously, that we can answer after this meeting.

Okay.

We don't have any questions, we'll open it for the public comment. We don't have any public comments.

Okay, we could just get you to explicitly close the public hearing just for the record.

Okay, we'll close the public comment session, and we'll move towards making a motion.

I'll make a motion that the City Council approves and adopts the budget for fiscal year 2022-23.

I'll second.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye.

The budget passes. Well, thank you, Brandon. And we'll see you in a minute. Item 10, communication items.

They're just given the, given the hour and given the fact that we have folks waiting for us, I'll dispense with my time. Okay. Oh, with one exception. We want to wish Mayor Young a happy birthday. He had a birthday this last week and we have some treats to enjoy after the meeting.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, I move we may adjourn to attend— to open a meeting with the Redevelopment Agency.

I'll second that.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Okay, we will begin the RDA meeting.

Move for approval of consent items.

I'll second that.

Do we want to read those consent items, or is there a need to read the consent items?

No, they're listed on the agenda.

So, okay, so we'll move to—

aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye.

The consent items are approved. Moving on now, we're to item 14, the RDA scheduled items. And we're back to Brandon. We have a public hearing and resolution on the RDA of the City of Orem and the budget for that. So if you'd like to take that, Brandon.

Thank you, Mayor. So as going over the RDA, no changes since the tentative budget. Obviously, they're outside of the mall area, the CDA related to there. The other RDA areas are terminating, so we will no longer be receiving funds for all but one of those. And then, as you— and that's reflected, as you can see, in the budgeted revenues as they continue to decline. Obviously, there are some funds available to spend that we haven't quite spent yet, but as far as receiving new money, that they are almost done. And down at the bottom there, you can see where the planned expenditures in relation to those revenue sources are. Obviously, the University Place CDA is the biggest component of that element, and they— that is just as a reminder, so that's They— we pay 90% of the property tax that is brought in from the RDA back to them as an incentive. 5% is maintained within the fund for future infrastructure improvements in that CDA area, and then 5% is held by the city for administrative purposes. And then—

Mayor, can I ask this question?

Yes, go ahead.

Remind me what year of this I know it was like 20 years and then we had an extension. Do you know what year we are in our 22-year?

4?

Yeah.

And if I may, just the— there is a pass-through. So for example, the Alpine School District, 65% of increment collected goes to the RDA. There is a pass-through of the remaining 35%, less the admin charge, or the, yeah, the administrative charge and the future projects charge. For all the other taxing entities, it's 75%, with the remainder going to the taxing entities.

So is that accurate? This is year 3, if we— because we've added 2?

Yeah. And there were 2 years added because of the COVID bill that passed 2 years ago. 2 years ago.

Yeah.

And just to clarify, that's the new growth.

All the existing growth continues to flow through to the taxing entities.

So, this is just the new growth since they started building everything out?

Yes.

And can you just explain, because I'm new to this, but this— so, this redevelopment agency, is it— it's an entity unto itself? And then this is just the accounting for the money coming into Orem and then going back to the entity?

So an RDA is a separate entity, separate legal entity.

I mean, but it's not owned by the City of Orem, it's just its own legal entity, right? But we manage it, type thing.

You are the board in relation to that entity. It is— I won't say owned by the city, it's just a separate entity. We treat it as what's called a component unit. So in all of our, like, our year-end financial statements, it's blended into that entire organization. So from— if you want to think of it that way, you can. But for budgetary purposes, because it is a separate legal entity, that's why you have each of these meetings, because each of these entities are all separate legal entities. The money— once an agreed-upon area is, is set, then the infrastructure is financed, in essence, Because they know— and if there's an incentive, an agreement put into place— it doesn't have to necessarily be an agreement in all cases, but in almost all of these instances, there was usually some kind of agreement, um, as in those arrangements, um, where they pay— the entity has an increase in their property tax because whatever it is that they're building, that money then comes into the RDA. and then is held by the RDA to pay for infrastructure. Or in the case of the University Place, they've paid for the infrastructure and then this helps finance that infrastructure for them because obviously that infrastructure becomes the city's. And so that's generally how each of these RDAs work. They all work a little bit differently depending on where they were and what they were trying to accomplish.

So, so is the city collecting the money and then paying it to the RDA?

The county collects it, gives it to us as part of that agreement that Jamie was referring to.

It gives it to us as the RDA, as the RDA, and then we are responsible as the RDA to distribute to the taxing entities, including the City of Orem.

Okay.

So really, the, the RDA is the conduit for these agreements that Brandon's talking about, and for essentially making sure that the increment that is set up per these agreements is appropriately distributed.

Okay.

And then this—

what's the difference between the University Place incentive and then the project area total, or the, uh, yeah, project area totals?

So the project area total totals, there are past redevelopment areas that were entered into as early as the 1980s.

Oh, there were nothing to do with University Place?

No.

Okay. So those are still going, and then you're defining University Place as a line item.

All of the project areas have technically expired. They're no longer— we're no longer collecting increment or distributing increment, but we have monies that remain from increment that was collected over the life of those RDAs that the RDA has and can use for redevelopment-type purposes within those project areas.

Okay, okay, thank you.

Can I ask a question?

Yep.

So I'm sorry, do— would you remind me, future projects, CDA, the 65%?

So when we entered into the, the CDA agreement with University Place, we agreed that a certain amount of money would be set aside annually for the administration of this community development area, because there is, there's accounting and such that needs to take place every year to facilitate that. And that is what contributions to other funds, CDA, that's Brandon's way of accounting for that. So that's, that's our way of the RDA paying the city. to administer the RDA. And then, in addition to that, these future projects within the agreement, we also included a specific amount that would be set aside on an annual basis that the city could use for any public infrastructure that the city would need to pay for in the future that would be to some degree related, or that would be related to the, the development of University Place. So, for example, if there was a traffic signal that we need to build on State Street, it's technically outside of the RDA, but it's public infrastructure that generally is the result of the CDA, the University Place project. So they're paying for, on an annual basis, for us to set money aside So that when we have to build infrastructure that is essentially associated with the project, we have the means in part to do it.

And why did we not set anything aside in '22?

We do it every year.

I'm not sure why the— it's not estimated in '22.

So this is a budgeting thing. So there, the money is— there's no actual cost, right? You haven't spent it. So fiscal '22 estimated is based on what's been actually spent, right? So that money is there, it's just sitting in, you know, we talked about— Yeah, it's just sitting there waiting to be used. Well, when we budget, obviously we have to budget as if we're going to get the money, we're going to spend the money, because we have to have a balanced budget. We have to have revenues equal expenditures. So we want to budget for it knowing that that's there. That money then, once we receive it again, falls into that unspent bucket for actual.

And then in the future, when we need this money to spend on infrastructure, then we would pull that— whatever we have collected to date— out of the RDA and then spend it for the infrastructure.

I think that's all. Yeah, so any other questions? I love RDAs, by the way, so they're my favorite.

Do we have any other questions from the council?

Can I make one comment? Usually with an RDA or CDA, you're looking at job creation. It's one of the reasons you do this, so there usually is a job creation report that will come annually. I don't know if that's specifically with this.

Yes, there is one. We did receive it. We do require It's required as part of our CDA agreement, and I'll be happy to send you the latest job creation report. I think it was due the 1st of April or the 1st of May, and they complied with it. They have to submit an annual report, and I'll make a note of it. I'll be happy to send you that.

And just generally, retail projects are usually not high-paying jobs, but this is a different entity with, you know, office and hotel, and so that's why this is a better—

yes.

Generally speaking, I don't get excited about a retail RDA because of the job creation, low-paying job creation, but this one is a different duck. And so—

Yeah, but high-paying visitors, so it does have some trade-off.

That's true, they spend a lot of money. I'm just saying it's a job creation tool, and that's one of the reasons you do it is because it does create jobs. And it's a tool to economic development. It's one of the major tools we use. So Just want to draw attention to that.

Any other comments or questions from council? Okay, so we'll open the public comment part of the meeting. If we don't have any comments, we'll close the public comment part of the meeting.

Can I make a motion?

Yes, I move that we accept— we approve and adopt the budget for fiscal year 2022-2023 and amend the fiscal fiscal year 2021-2022 budget.

Second. Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

The budget for the RDA passes.

Make a motion that we adjourn.

Second.

To a special—

to a special—

oh, can we do that in the same one?

Yep.

Adjourn to a meeting of the Orem Special Service Lighting District.

Second.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

We will adjourn.

Move for approval of SSLD consent items.

Second.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Consent items are approved. We've got the annual review of the Special Service Lighting District. Is that you, Brandon?

I think you guys just did the annual review, so it's the public hearing element scheduled item.

So we're done with the annual review. Okay, so we'll open this for a public hearing. Any comments on the Special Service Lighting District?

So yeah, so presentation, and then we can have the public hearing. So the Special Service Lighting District, you know, provides all of the street lighting throughout the city. Pays for the power in relation to all those poles and the maintenance of all the poles. And so you can see the breakdown from year to year in relation to the street lighting revenues. Where they— so where those revenues come from, obviously primarily in the street lighting fees that are paid on each resident's utility bills as well as commercial establishments. Then a breakdown of how the related street lighting expenses break out between personnel operations and the capital component. There is a— we converted all of the actual streetlights from, I think, fluorescent— I'll use fluorescent— to they're now LED. And so that happened on the energy savings lease. That's what that really is related to. That still has a number of years left. I want to say 20 years left on it in relation to that conversion. And then obviously you can see the power component related to paying for the lighting in on all those streetlights. Are there any questions in relation to the street lighting? Oh, I should mention, all the neighborhoods have now— are now— will, will be converted as of fiscal '23 onto the new $2.53 fee instead of the old fee. So it's based on slightly different elements. And businesses pay that, that fee upfront when they pay for their business license. And so now we are through all of the neighborhoods, and there will be all going forward at the same fee.

What was the old fee?

$3.25. Yeah, so we reduced it.

Yes.

Kind of, yeah.

Well, so the $3.25 was set in place to cover the capital cost of the streetlights, so the construction and the financing. We financed that over a 20-year period. You are correct that the $2.53 now goes to cover the cost of maintenance and operation of the streetlights.

And I think I asked you this before, Brad. I think it was you, Brad, where I said this is an eternal bill.

As long as we want, it goes forever and ever throughout our life. The lights.

Yes, the short period of lighting bill is now not short.

Okay.

Until you see the light, you will pay for the lights.

If we turn off the lights, then the bill might go away. Okay, do we have any— are you complete with that? Any questions about this? Any more questions from the council? Okay, we'll open the public comment part of this meeting. If there's any public comments— there's not, we'll close the public comment portion of the meeting. And if somebody wants to make a motion—

I move that we adopt the fiscal year budget as presented.

Second.

I, I, I, I, I, I sounded nice in unison.

Harmonized.

Yeah.

Could be the start of a musical.

I move that we adjourn to a meeting of the Orem Municipal Building Authority.

I'll second that.

Aye.

Aye.

All right, so we've got the Municipal Building Authority consent item.

I'm surprised Tom hasn't done that.

This is just a consent item that essentially you affirm the bylaws of the MBA.

I'm not doing my job. Councilman Spencer told me I'm not doing my job. Mr. Mayor, I move that we approve the consent items.

Second.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

I move we adjourn to a closed-door meeting to be held in Conference Room 107 of Orem City Hall, 56 North State Street, Orem, Utah. Do I need to say what it's to consider?

Please.

To consider a strategic session on a pending or reasonably imminent litigation and also to discuss the character, professional competence, or physical or mental health of an individual.

Second that.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Meeting's adjourned. To the next meeting.