City Council · 2025-06-24

What kind of scan does she get?

All right, I don't want to even put my hand back in my—

so she's not having scan? Well, okay, I haven't looked at my email. She's, she's setting that up.

Are we ready to go?

We are good to go.

Okay.

All right, welcome everyone. Seems so nice and cool in here, doesn't it? Hot over the ribbon cutting. So yeah, we just, uh, that's item 2.1, our ribbon cutting for the new Jess Court over at Windsor. Haven't had a chance to see that. You need to stop over and take a look. It's pretty impressive. Um, talk about nice basketball court for a neighborhood area. And, uh, I was trying to think, did it have 6 glass boards on it? Right?

Yeah.

Wait, that was amazing. And what really excites me about that sort of thing is it just— you can see when you put something like that in a neighborhood, an area, it just brings the whole area up because now all your kids have an awesome place to go. hang out, play basketball or whatever, like Hillcrest Park. You know, it just brings that whole area up. So good work, everyone. Um, let's go to item 2.2, and this will be a fraud questionnaire. It's very short. Brandon Nelson. It's very short because we don't have any fraud.

Well, I'm not going to be able to bring it up.

Apparently it's that short.

So I don't know how many of you able to take a chance to look at this document in your packet. So as part of the state auditor requirements, we're required to go through this assessment. There's exactly nothing changed about this document compared to the prior year. Um, we still fall within the low category, not very lowest, but low category. Um, primarily the 2 items that we don't check in here, one being, uh, we do not have a formal internal audit function.

These 2.

And number 2, that the governing members Complete a, um, a training. It's pretty lengthy.

So I—

and then I guess there's a 3rd item, and that's a written annual written commitment, uh, to abide by a statement of ethical behavior. So those are the 3 items that we don't meet, um, that would potentially get us into the very low category. I don't personally believe that any one of those particular 3 are of really great importance in and of themselves. And as I mentioned, nothing different about this year than in the last few years. So I don't know if there are any questions in regards to that. Those 3 that you just see with no check marks next to them.

Okay, questions then?

That's all I have.

There's no—

this is one of the consent items later, or—

No, there's nothing.

Just information.

I just have to present it to you so that you're aware of it and where we fall in relation to the scoring. And the auditors will just basically ask, did you present that to the council and make them aware of it? And I can then answer yes. So that's basically what it boils down to.

So we're on the absolute highest level of low.

Yes.

Clarify that.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Your local emergency water agreement and the 2025 water supply agreement with Central Utah Water Conservancy District.

Thank you, Mayor. Well, this won't be nearly as quick and nearly as exciting as Brandon's, but I'm talking about this right here. Just give me a couple minutes. This document and this document are what we're going to be talking about tonight. One is an interlocal agreement with Vineyard City, Metropolitan Water District of Orem, and Central Utah Water Conservancy. The other agreement is between Central Utah Water Conservancy District. It's a renewal of that agreement. And Utah, and then also the Metropolitan Water District of Orem, and then the City of Orem. So I wanted to give you a little bit of background. All of these documents Since 1989, our buildup for these 2 documents that I have here before you tonight. And we've been working on these as staff and as past mayors and department directors and so forth to primarily provide water to the citizens of Vineyard. When I started in the water resources area in 2005, the city of Vineyard was the town of Vineyard. And they had about 150 people that lived there. To this day, they don't have a water source, and they've been reliant on water from the city of Orem and also from the Central Utah Water Conservancy District. We've had an agreement with them in the form of the 1989 agreement, the 1991 agreement, the 2007 agreement, the 2011 agreement. All of these have been building up over time. Basically, what we've done as a city is we've, at their request and with our direction and permission, given them an opportunity to grow up as a community. As you know, life without water does not exist, and they do not have water, their own water supply, and they were reliant upon the City of Orem and Central Utah Water Conservancy District over the years to provide that water for them. Um, We've had an iterative process where we also have a memorandum of understanding where they had to build their own water tank. And this is, this isn't many years ago when it wasn't certain if they were going to stay with the City of Orem or if they were going to go to Central Utah Water Conservancy District. Finally, Central Utah Water became engaged and involved, and we worked with them on this development of this water tank evaluation study. It was a joint study with Central Utah Water, the City of Orem, Metropolitan Water District of Orem, and the City of Vineyard. At that time, it was to determine where the best location might be for water tanks to provide water for that community. In my opinion, as an engineer, you would like to develop a water tank at an elevation that provides water without having to put in pumps and booster stations and so forth. This document identifies that in a preferred location, a couple preferred locations. Um, they chose to and decided to go another way, which was to engage full on with Central Utah Water Conservancy District, which, looking back in hindsight, is in our best interest as well. We've provided water to the citizens of Vineyard over the last 20-plus years, and I think we've done an excellent job, not only providing that water for them to be able to grow up as a community and to become what it is today. to be able to develop and so forth with the water resources that are available. But we've also been very diligent in this process and very forward-thinking and, and so forth. We have in 2021 agreed upon this document here, which is our 2021 water supply agreement with Metropolitan Water District of Orem, Central Utah Water, and the City of Orem to provide water To the city of Vineyard. Um, since then, they still haven't moved the needle, if you will, on disconnecting from Orem, but that's changing as of— what's the date? July 1st. Today, 24th. So in 1 week, they will be off of our system. That is a result of the last 30 years of agreements and providing this water to them over these past many years.

How do they How about the piping and all that kind of stuff?

How do they work?

They don't just—

it's—

They have their own, they have their own distribution and transmission system within.

They got to get it to their transport, their system.

They're connected to us, right? We have umbilical systems that connect to them at Center Street at 400 South. They have one at 400 North and also with Central Regional Water currently today. And those are all master metered, and then we bill them on a monthly basis for the water that they use. And they subscribe to a certain amount of water.

They turn off from us. Where would the water come from?

Will it still go through our Central Utah Water Conservancy District? So this new agreement that we will be signing, or have before you as a resolution to sign by the mayor on behalf of the city, will be a renewal of an existing agreement with Central Utah Water and, and Metro, and then Orem City. So that water is now going to come directly through what they call the Central Water Project. That connects at the Utah Water— Utah Valley Water Treatment Plant up here, the Don Akerish Anson Water Treatment Facility. That's transmitted through a 36-inch line down to their facilities. They also have about a dozen wells that they have in master plan on the west side, tied to what was formerly known as Geneva Steel. The water that was used to produce steel was then used— is now being used for the Central Water Project to provide water for drinking water for the citizens of Vineyard and others throughout the Utah County, North Utah County area. And so the water that we're— this, what this agreement does and what it has been doing for the last 5 years, 4 years, has given us the ability to provide water to them and sell it at a very good rate. That is, we believe, fair and very competitive. But also, in no way, shape, or form are we subsidizing any water supply that's gone to Vegas over the last 30 years or forward from this point.

Um, that includes our investment.

Pardon?

Does that include any return on investment?

We have—

so maybe you can clarify your question.

Well, obviously, to Tom's point, we've invested in some, et cetera, et cetera. So, so is there a—

these agreements have required them to participate financially and the development of some water supply through the city of Orem to be able to connect and provide that water to them. So that will now be disconnected from the city of Vineyard, and it will be 100% owned and operated by the city of Orem.

Point is, up to this point, they've paid their own way.

Absolutely. And then some. It's not a profitable thing, and they've complained about it, but that's okay because it was in our best interest. We are not going to supply water to them and subsidize it, and we never have.

It was in their best interest.

You know, I can't—

the water that's available to them right now is more— costs more than what we are going to be charging Central Utah Water to provide this water to them. Um, so they have a separate agreement, an arrangement through them. For whatever reasons, they've decided to go with them. And, and, uh, and it's in our best interest, quite frankly, because if they were to continue to grow at their pace, they're at what, uh, 15,000 to 20,000 people today? And I don't know what their projections are for ultimate growth with Utah City and other, other areas where high development, high-density developments are coming online. All of that water would be transported from the tanks up here all the way through the city. It would rip through our system and degrade our ability to deliver that water. It would diminish our capacity in our pipes, reduce our pressures, and our flows would be ripping through the city and going 4.5 miles away through to the city of Vineyard. So that no longer will be happening, and we will be self-contained within our community, providing water to our citizens. We are, however, marketing the water that we have committed to them in the tune of 3,500 acre-feet of water. That's a— that provides water for about 4,000 homes, single-family homes. That was an agreement that we had with them since 2005, and that will continue into the future. With that said, in no way should you clarify that.

We're ending our agreement with Vineyard, but we're still giving 3,500.

Yeah, so it'll be— our agreement now will go from Vineyard. It'll be between— not us and Vineyard anymore, but it'll be between us and Central Utah Water Conservancy District. And the water that we're providing is the water that's in the river system. It's not storage water, it's not our high expensive water, it's our cheapest water that we cannot use throughout the year, and it flows past our inlets and it flows down.

We're stopping that agreement, but then we're taking water that Was in that agreement, and we're shipping it to Central Utah, and they're providing it through the distribution system to them.

Yeah.

Is that the—

what's the net-net of all that?

Uh, well, we don't have any degradation on our existing system. For example, it'll all go through the Central Utah Water System. We have no commitment to provide that water to them at their tap. It's all going through an independent system separate from us. We had an agreement in place with Vineyard since 2005 to provide that water, and we continue to honor that through the agreement.

About the Central Utah Water asked to do the piping under 1600 North. Is that part of that? Because remember that last minute that they said they— we had— while UDOT had 1600 North On the west side. Yeah, while they were expanding that, they wanted to put in a water pipe.

Yes, it is basically. So that's called their Central Water Project system. Right now it's primarily down 800 North, and then it fans out and it goes up to Lehigh and to the west side of the lake, Saratoga, and so forth. They would like it— they would like to provide a second parallel system to that. Um, they have not determined the best route or wherever they're going to be putting that. That is, that is on them 100%, independent of us altogether.

But as I understood the agreement, the water that Chris is talking about was water we were not bringing in and putting into our system. It would go past our inlets and just go to Utah Lake. And so we weren't using it. And, but we're allowing Central to take that water and they put it in their system and provide it to Vineyard. So we have the right to it, but we're not going to use it. We're going to allow Central to use it and provide it to vendors.

How does that work? Are we selling it to them?

Giving up our rights?

That amount of time?

So the water that he's referring to is in the Provo Bench Canal and Irrigation Company. That's, that's an irrigation company that the Metropolitan Water District has ownership in. They own about 50% of those shares. Okay, and that produces around 15,000 acre-feet of water, most of which has flown down the river into the lake system. But we're going to guarantee up to 3,500 acre-feet of that 15,000, which we formerly have not been using, and dedicating it to that.

We're selling it to the center?

That's correct.

So is it additional revenue?

It is.

Okay.

If ever we decided we wanted it back, could we end the agreement?

Yeah, so In the, in the provision that suggests that we have the right to—

we have—

we own.

Um, so this is where Metro gets involved. Metropolitan Water District of Orem has the ability to acquire water rights. They can, they can, uh, they can manage those rights and, and purchase them and sell them, whereas the city cannot do that. So the city does not own what's being marketed. It's Metropolitan Water District. And then we have, I would say, joint ownership, if you will. Um, yeah. So the Provo Bench Canal and irrigation system will probably be defunct in about a year or 2 from now. And what that means is that that water will no longer be conveyed for irrigation purposes in the city of Orem or downstream into— Everyone along that line, are they Okay with that, or the canal company?

No, the water— the shareholders.

Depends on which one you ask. I would suppose the majority of the shareholders are in support of it.

Am I going to hear about anybody in Orem that isn't happy with it?

You already have.

So I know who they are then.

You know some. Yeah, I mean, the canal— the canal company is going away. Uh, and it will no longer be providing water. There's no— there's no way to provide water to irrigation purposes like it has historically.

You see, there's still canals in Orem. They're flooding certain lawns, you know, X time of day, right? They're still doing that.

Uh, they have been up to this date, yes.

And do you know when that'll end?

Do I know what?

When it will end?

Probably next year. North Union Canal and the Provo Bench Canal systems will probably be retired in the next year or so. They're privately owned organizations. They have shareholders for each one of those organizations, of which Metropolitan Water District owns half of the shares in the Provo Bench Canal and Irrigation Company.

Do they own a controlling portion of it?

Yes.

So, back to this issue with Century Town Vineyard. So what's the net of turning off any revenue from this going to Vineyard to additional revenue coming back from CUP?

Yeah, that's going to be very comparable.

So pretty much the same spot.

Very, very comparable. Not quite as much financially speaking, but also, well, no, not one drop of water will be conveyed through our system and degrade our system at all. It will all be conveyed through their system independently of us.

Which translates into our systems will last longer.

Yes.

All right, we have less wear and tear It's a massive opportunity cost there to have me continue to provide water to Vineyard and build a water tank with them paying for it all, and then build that system down 400 North, for example. That might have been an ideal system from an engineering perspective. They chose another route, which is fantastic for us. And now we have a new engagement with Central Utah Water to provide that same amount of water that we've been contractually obligated to provide. Since 2005. So we're not doing anything different.

Interacting with just one supplier in Central Utah Water rather than both.

Yeah, we're also avoiding the responsibility of being in the water business, which we're not in.

Which makes some sense. Which makes perfect sense. So the second agreement that I want to bring before you is, uh, the amended interlocal agreement. 2025. This also supplants some of these agreements here. Basically, what we've done is we've ripped out only the necessary details in here to provide emergency water services to the city of Vineyard in the event they have some kind of catastrophic failure. They wanted to have the ability to still receive water. We were committed to doing that in the event they do have a failure in the system. So it's a redundancy of sorts. Uh, the cost of this water is going to be, uh, probably 50% more than what we're currently charging them today, and it will only be on an as-needed emergency basis.

Emergency is if they can't get water from—

I would say it's an emergency. It might, might be something like if you have a 7.5 earthquake, the epicenter is in the west side, they have portions of their system connections. So, Um, if we can provide it, we, we are going to be providing it. It's a short-term basis.

Yeah.

So, if there is a money jurisdiction they're worried about in there, would that affect our water system as well?

Very much likely would. So, we'd provide it if we could.

So, it's an if we can.

Yeah.

On a per-request, as-needed basis. Paying an opportunity cost to have that available for them, or is it just Nice.

Just being nice.

If you ever need it, are they paying for it? We're not charging them a pass-through cost. It will not be subsidized in any way.

Okay, so they're not paying for that. That's why it's kind of an optional agreement.

It is at their request. If they decided and chose not to do it, we'd say that'd be great. We wouldn't need to do that. But there are connections in place that makes good sense from a from maintaining the health welfare of a community and so forth, that peace of mind.

Yeah.

And they'll be turned off July 1st, starting this year. Correct me if I'm wrong, don't we have a similar agreement? We have an agreement with Lehman where we have 2 connections on 2000 North with them as well. I wouldn't say it's, uh, it's a similar relationship. I will say I don't know that we have a formal agreement of sorts, but In the event of an emergency, we do have the ability to deliver water to them. We can take it from them too. Um, we, we like our sources.

So, are we not pulling it out of the river because our— we have our wells?

Because we— there's not a need, not a demand.

Because of our wells?

In part, and all of our other sources, not just wells, but springs.

And then does this, um, Does the—

I don't know what to call it because I don't know what it is—

oversight of Central Utah Water with the cooperation, the collaboration that we have with them, does that percentage change? Does that relationship— are we as heavily connected with them now that they're doing Vineyard?

I think we're probably more connected with them now because we'll have this agreement directly. We've had this in place for 4 years. We're just renewing the existing agreement that we have in place. The main, the main changes that we were making here are our rates to charge to Central Utah Water, which are increasing over the next 5 years.

Yep.

Thank you.

Yeah.

To your point on the Provo River water. So we have water that's piped directly from Deer Creek, right? It's not coming down the river.

There is, there's one pipe connection that is the Salt Lake Aqueduct. It connects and takes it all the way into Salt Lake County.

Is there any pipe coming from Deer Creek to Orem?

That's the only— no, that's the only— that's the only pipe connected to the dam.

So it's just what comes through.

Everything else comes off of a diversion. There are multiple diversions coming off the river, not off the dam itself.

Okay, so it's a diversion canal or whatever.

So what, what you may have seen over the years, there's been kind of a green pipe on the mountain over here. It's since been removed and replaced, and you might see a tan pipe over there now. That's the Olmsted flow line that comes off of the Provo River at the Olmsted diversion. That Olmsted diversion is what takes this water that we are guaranteeing to them from that diversion point, and it's tied to the Provo Bench Canal and Irrigation Company diversion that's been approved by the state engineer.

Okay, so we're, so we're actively using that water from Deer Creek. It comes down there, but the water that's going through the river, you're saying—

Yeah, the water we don't divert passes by the diversion and flows down the river, down to Utah Lake, and then the Salt Lake.

Provo doesn't take any of it along the way?

It takes some.

Yeah.

Okay.

I mean, there are many shareholders in the system, right? We're one of many. If you don't use it, it just goes down the river. That's correct.

Yeah.

So, so we're like Water to Vineyard, but we're taking water that was just going down the river into the lake, and we're going to be using that to supply Central Utah Water Conservancy District.

Correct. That's detailed in this agreement.

Yeah.

And so essentially what the agreement states is that 75% of the water that we'll be providing is during the irrigation months, and that's going to be coming off of the Provo River itself. And we don't, we don't use half of it right now today and wouldn't project it, project to use that much into the future either. So we've looked at the modeling of this and looked at projections for population projections for the city of Orem, for the city of Vineyard, and so forth. And we have more than our— I cannot say this on record, probably because it's a bad idea. But I will say this, we are in very good shape.

You've managed it very well.

One of many, and we owe a great debt of gratitude to people who came 100 years ago.

Yes, truly, for sure. I mean, if you look back to 1935, I don't know if— no, nobody was here then, uh, but that's when the Metropolitan Water Act was created by our legislature, and that act allowed communities to create a metropolitan water district, which Orem did in that year. And they— that make— they gave them the ability to, to buy and to sell, uh, rights in water rights. Water rights are going to be comparable to oil in the future and are becoming more so now today. The Provo Bench Canal and Irrigation Canal Company shares have doubled in the last 5 years alone. The cost of those is around $50,000, $50,000 to $55,000 per share, and it used to be around $27,000 per share. Metro of Orem can market that into the future. They can continue to buy or to maintain or to sell. Typically, they don't sell.

If I could just add a clarif— just a clarifying point. We've talked in the past and, and alluded to it today. We have a— Orem has a very, uh, rich portfolio of water, so much so that we can't use it when it's available and it goes down the river. Um, years ago, it was decided that let's free up 3,500 acre-feet for our growing community. We continue to honor that, freeing up that 3,500 acre-feet. Those leaders were comfortable that we would still be able to provide ample water at buildout for our team, for Orem, and we, we will. You know, Chris mentioned that just our Provo bench shares alone is 15,000 acre-feet. So. And we don't, we don't use it all. We're, we're, we're in, we're still in excellent condition after providing that water, 3,500 acre-feet, to, to Central Utah. And I should also add that it's been interesting to be on the, the side of the table in talking with Central Utah that they're used to being on.

Yeah.

They're the ones that control it, but here they, they want what we have. And So it was kind of a unique interaction that we had with them as we negotiated this agreement.

So Reed sits on the Provo Bench Canal Board. I sit on the Provo Bench Canal Board in representation of the Metropolitan Water District of Orem. Reed also sits on the North Union Canal Board. And, and, and what's— what is happening is monumental, and it will change the future forever for irrigation in this community.

Um, it's a wonderful volunteer who had been on that board for 50 years or something. I don't remember his name, but he had been on it forever.

That was Liddell.

Yeah, well, that was Metro.

Yeah, yeah, Liddell. And, and then it was your father-in-law or grandfather-in-law or something, Group Magnum.

Yeah, my father-in-law.

Father-in-law. He was heavily involved in the water supply for the community as well. And he signed— I've seen the signature on many documents for providing water supply for the city.

Yeah, so I think many others helped us be where we're at today.

So, to your point, sounds like it's very important that we stay on top of legislative action because water is going to be the thing. I mean, it is already, but you know what I mean.

It is.

So I think, um, I mean, it sounds to you— to me like you're saying, you know, we have this commodity and we're willing to sell it, but we own it and we'll help, you know, we're willing to work with others and facilitate other communities. Yeah, that's been our stance. And that's true.

As long as our residents are never subsidizing.

Yeah, thank you for adding that.

It's very concerning to me what I've seen in the legislature over the last 5 years, last year in particular. There was a bill that was floated that suggests that the state— there's going to be a statewide tax on water and/or fees. And who administers fees?

The cities.

And so it's not been passed, but it was out there last year and it's gaining momentum. It's very concerning. We'll bring that to your attention as we go through this next legislative session. We need to work with our lobbyist on this as well. What I've, what I've been hearing is that the tax revenues that would come in would be in the areas where they are generating those taxes would be used for water development projects, creating the greater, you know, benefiting the greater good in that watershed in the area where that revenue was collected.

Not sure.

It seems to me like that's what Central Utah Project did starting back in whatever it was in the '50s. That was a federally, a federal project.

of sorts.

The state has whisperings of doing something like that on a state level basis, which is something that we're definitely watching.

There's also been a lot of discussion about the haves and the have-nots. The older communities are the haves. They're the ones whose forefathers thought that, you know what, we need to gobble these up as much as we can. And fortunately, Orem stands in that position. We need to be protective of that as the have-nots want what we have, and we don't, we don't have any. We don't intend to sell more. Uh, that agreement was made again back in 2005, but it's not our intention to do so. But we need to watch what the legislature does, uh, to make sure that, that they don't take what we have.

Constitutionally, you know, we can buy and sell things But you don't take.

So the reason why Metro is on this, is one of the signatories on this agreement, is because they own the shares that are being marketed. Central Utah Water, the central— the City of Orem does not own those.

We're fortunate to have some very sharp people on the Metropolitan Water District of Orem board who are keyed into water and water issues. Casey Shaw, our general manager of Central Utah, who negotiated on the other side of the table back in '21, now on our side of the table.

His signature's on the other side of the agreement 4 years ago. Now he's on our side of the agreement.

As an Orem resident, he's engaged in helping to look out for our interests.

Yeah, he was on when I was on Public Works, right? I appointed him.

He's very sharp. He was integral in— so, Central Utah basically acquired him from Geneva. He was in— he was the main engineer at Geneva Steel, and he was the one that was involved with their water rights at Geneva Steel. He calculated how much water they would need to use annually to be able to produce so many thousands of tons of steel, and that's how they were able to get their water right established by the State Engineer's Office. It was an interesting way. Nobody's ever probably done it quite like that, but that's— they didn't have records back then of how much water was actually being used. So you had to come up with a really good way to determine, approximate what that number is. So they have the right to basically pump about 48,000 acre-feet of water out of the ground as a part of that project. That's what the— that was the genesis of the CWP, the Central Water Project that he's now in charge of, or was.

Just a quick question. We need to move on, but what percentage of Deer Creek and Jordanelle do we own rights to?

Well, so interesting. So Jordanelle, we don't own any rights. We have a contract for— with Central Utah Water to provide to the City of Orem 7,520 acre-feet of water annually. The federal government owns those water rights. We do not own those. We have a contract to use them. That contract ends in 2047, at which time it'll be reevaluated.

Are we using them, or is that an option?

We're using them.

You do use them?

Yeah.

And then on the Provo River Project, we own shares in that. In, in, in that, we don't actually own the rights. The Provo River Water Users Association owns those shares. So we have access to those rights. We don't actually own the rights, the underlying title. Mayor, can I ask a question?

Sure.

Chris, the State Water Engineer, a couple of years back, had trouble finding all of their water right records. They've misplaced a whole bunch of them, or don't know where they are now. How confident are you that all of our water rights are documented? And sure, yeah, I think that's a great question. So about 5 years ago, uh, the state started an adjudication process Throughout the whole state of Utah to evaluate this very issue and concern. The Orem subdivision in the adjudication process was completed about 3 years ago, and we came back without losing anything.

There were no—

they call them haircuts, if you will. We did not receive a haircut. We have 100% of what we thought we had, and no, none of that water was taken from us.

Excellent.

And then since then, moving up the canyon, we have water rights In the Alta Springs and also in the Canyon Springs. They have not been completely adjudicated, and we are undergoing that scrutiny right now. We feel like we're in a very good position on all of the water that we have associated with those 2 springs where we do own rights. And we will be meeting with the State Engineer's Office probably in the next— over the next few months, and that'll be finalized. After that point, everything else will be Certifying.

And this is one more reason why I'm so glad we have Chris and Reed on the team to develop that. This is a classic example of where institutional knowledge or historical knowledge is super helpful so that we can make sure we're protecting our assets and our infrastructure. So, just want to publicly say appreciate these gentlemen's work.

We've had a great team with Steve Earl and Greg Stevens, and Gary's been assisting with us from the attorney perspective and eyes. And, uh, I mean, it's been a wonderful 30 years of doing this, really. 25 years. So, um, yeah, and then there were great minds that came well before us with, uh, with Tom's father-in-law and going back to the many Gilmans that were involved with this process, Harley in our neighborhood. Was involved with the Provo Bench Canal and Irrigation Company. Steve Heap's involved with North Union Canal Company. I mean, water is the lifeblood of a community. If you don't have water, you don't have a community. You have a desert. But with water, you have life. And that's, that's what we abundantly have here in the form of this canyon right here that produces so much for our community. I thought it was Mountain Dew. Well, it's a— need one after this.

Yeah, you shared with us before, but I'm just curious, uh, the percentage of water that comes from those beautiful springs. Yeah, that come out of the heart of Mount Timpanogos.

15% of our drinking water comes from Canyon Springs and Alta Springs.

15%.

25% of our drinking water comes from under the ground, 1,000 feet down, and the other 60% comes from the river systems, meaning up to Jordan L and also to the Provo River Project, which includes Deer Creek Project. We also drink water from Duchesne Basin and from the Weber Basin. That's where the watershed for those 3 basins start at the same point in the high Uintas. The Provo, the Duchesne, and the Weber start at that same mountain, and they break into 3 directions, and we have access to water in all 3 of those basins.

Sometime I would like an aquifer update.

Drink our groundwater?

Not right now, but I know there were some issues going on, so I would love to hear what's the status.

Absolutely.

That was a couple years ago.

We're on the North Utah County aquifer. And we're actively engaged in that. We're monitoring wells and any depletion in wells and so forth. So, okay, we will do that. Thank you, Chris.

Okay, let's, uh, take a 5-minute break to grab some food, and then we'll reconvene and we'll, uh, get the rest of these presentations in. If you want to go ahead.

Absolutely.

Uh, so Mayor, Council, this, uh, just want to talk to you about a resolution, uh, that we're proposing to hire, uh, the Lockhart Group. This is to help, uh, the, uh, the interlocal group that we formed, I don't know, back in December I believe it was, with regard to the new school district, what we're calling temporarily at least the temp, the Timpanogos School District. In the course of our discussions, we've come to believe as a group that we could benefit from the advice and counsel of a professional consultant. And we've interviewed a couple different firms to fill that role and decided that the Lockhart Group, we felt, best met our needs.

When you say we, who was involved in that?

Yeah, so we're talking about representatives from each of the 4 cities in the district. So that would be Pleasant Grove, Vineyard, and Orem. And that group consists of the mayor, city council representative, city manager from each of those cities.

The 3 of you.

So from us, that's—

yeah, the city attorney, at least in an advisory role.

Yes.

So, uh, basically the purposes that we've outlined, we think we could use this, uh, assistance. Is, uh, for them to provide professional consulting and advice, um, on issues related to the school split. Um, and maybe one of the most important things is that we would hope that they would serve as our primary representative and communicate and work cooperatively with those 2 districts, uh, the Alpine School District split, on various issues related to the, the school split.

Thank you.

Now, of course, we're really only trying to cover this until November, but there are a lot of things that we can do to help the new school board.

Right.

We want to try and help prepare the ground, lay the groundwork for them so that, so that they can have a great start when they take their seats. One of the other things that we thought they could help us with is to identify and help us procure additional state federal funding for improvement. Um, you know, it's probably not, not an area that any of us really have any expertise in doing. And so, you know, we were hoping that a professional might be able to help us identify sources of funding and how we pursue appropriations. to assist us in the new school district. Uh, kind of already touched on this also, but we hoping that this firm will help us work collaboratively with the other 3 school districts and state legislators to make improvements in the law governing school district splits as may be needed. Um, there may, you know, I think we've seen some areas where we think the law could, could use some improvement. We'd like to work with the other school— Come to some consensus on, on some changes that would be beneficial and make sense. And so we think they can be really effective in helping us to do that. And then lastly, just to provide, you know, what other consulting services to our group that the, what we call the reorganization committee, deems appropriate. So that's the proposal.

Brandon, anything you'd like to add to that?

Yeah, if I can just emphasize, I think in lobbying efforts, something that's super important is not just the, you know, the details of potential legislation or appropriation change, but also how they go about that. So their relationships, their network, their ability to communicate persuasively and succinctly are super important attributes for a lobbyist. And as we were reviewing the options, we felt like the Stan Lockhart group had the best proposed approach for achieving these outcomes.

And all 4 cities felt the same. I'm assuming the 4—

From all the representatives on the interlocal group that Steve mentioned, we all voted as far as towards their this Lockhart group was the one that a majority of that group wanted.

And if I can add, the reason that we're bringing this before you tonight is that this interlocal group doesn't have the authority to hire themselves. Each of the councils of the 4 cities would have to approve it. So we're going through a process that I think, uh, Lyndon has already gone through that, and then Pleasant Grove and Vineyard will be doing that.

Yeah, so the other cities are doing this exact same thing, getting approval of their budgets.

Yeah.

Is there, um, has anyone opened a bill file to fix, uh, the last SB 188? Is anyone—

Not that I'm aware of.

Do we have anyone who will for us? Because there's— there were significant issues in there that were detrimental to our district.

So I think that's part of the discussion. And, you know, as we've interviewed these different firms, you know, some of the initial advice they gave us was, look, before you try and take anything to the legislature, you need to work the other cities that are involved or the other districts to see if you could come to some kind of an agreement or consensus.

Yeah, but what do you do? I mean, the worst thing in that whole bill was assets are divided by student count and liabilities are divided by tax base. Why in the hell was that ever approved? You know, that negates any investment that our community has made in Alpine School District over the years. And, and we've got 20 years' worth of continual debt payments that we have to make when we have old schools and needs in our area. So I'm, I'm concerned, very, very concerned that we have not— we don't have anyone, we don't have any bills pending, we have nothing. I have actually talked to several board members about that, one in particular that seems to control a lot over there, and express that concern. And, and granted, the response has been, look, we want to help you, we want to work with you. That is essentially unfair. That is, I cannot believe that that was even perceived as being a fair distribution of the money, right? Besides the fact that we're now being threatened that all of our buses are being taken, our unfunded bus routes are being taken from our junior highs, um, which we're the ones who have those, you know, because of our, um, urban environment, you know, we have to protect our kids. When we're told that we need to find safe routes, safe crossings across University Parkway, State Street, I mean, are you kidding me? You know, you, you want junior high kids to cross State Street safely? I, I, you know, there's just so much here that I don't know that, um, a Lobbyists. I feel like we need to find someone that's going to help us legislatively take care of this.

Well, I think that'll be part of their role is to work with legislators as well. And, you know, again, I think that, you know, this group knows legislature and legislators probably better than any one of us individually do. And, you know, they have relationships and things like that. So I think they're— that's part of what we want them to help us with. But we also want to do it to the extent we can. We want to try and do that through building consensus and, you know, cooperation with the other districts. And, you know, again, their advice to us was that it's futile to go to the legislature to make changes unless you first tried to work it out cooperatively with the other districts. And so that'll be a big part of what we'll be asking them to do, is to try and, you know, work with the other districts on these issues that you've identified and others as well. Well, and, uh, so anyway, they're giving us—

To the game, right? We didn't have an interlocal. We didn't have— we didn't— we were late to the game. It took us months to come together as a, as a district to— when we were being passed by with these financial concerns. I don't know what happened. I'm not quite sure where we were as an interlocal, why, why we were so weak. So I'm concerned. About our school kids. I'm concerned about what the future holds for us. So I hope that these guys understand where we are on this and our big guns that we can pull in to help our kids.

Well, it was basically because other—

I don't think it's appropriate.

We've shared, uh, our efforts up to this point, and including documentation that we've sent to state legislators. And so I think the intent would be to continue to pursue those and essentially not have those efforts just be reliant on just the interlocal. Some of the feedback we got from state legislators was to engage with lobbying help so that we could be more—

Yeah, I'm not looking for any advantage. I'm just looking for basic fairness, which doesn't exist right now.

Yes, thank you.

Yeah, I mean, I'm crossing my fingers here. Yeah, I had something that last bill, it got— it went sideways, you know.

No, and that's— and yeah, everything you're saying is, is, uh, just—

I mean, honestly, where were we, you know? The 5th largest city in the state, and where were we, you know?

So, but as far as what we're doing right now, as far as we are working with legislators, we are working with this lobbying. I mean, this is the whole reason we're getting a lobbying group involved is to help us to craft this together and try and get to fairness.

Yes, that's it. I mean, that to me, basic fairness. That's the narrative that I keep pushing out when I talk to some of these folks that I'm working.

That's pretty much what the— our interlocal group— I mean, that's why we're going down this path, is just trying to make sure things are fair.

Yeah, that's it.

Okay, thank you.

So we're gonna have to— that's on our consent agenda.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right, um, couple quickies. Uh, privacy compliance, Jake Summers. And then we'll have— and you'll see council financial statements, 5 minutes. We need to run through the agenda. So everybody will have to go 3 minutes.

You have to make 3 minutes.

Okay, so last year, Utah State Legislature passed House Bill 257. Uh, which really affects the city in 2 primary ways. This was known collectively and in the media as the bathroom bill. It really changed or really governed how bathrooms or access to bathrooms were done in public schools, but it also had some overlay into government facilities. Part of the bill adopted a whole bunch of different definitions. And really, the ones that are applicable to us are changing rooms and the privacy compliance plan. So, for Orem City, when we look at our facilities, any of the public open buildings and anything that's open to the public as far as general access, we're looking only at any building that has a changing room.

Okay.

Changing room, by its definition, really only applies to a locker room. It's meant to be a large room where multiple people use it to change clothing and get ready for a different activity, or to go swimming, et cetera. So, in essence, this really applies to our recreation facilities and no other facility within the city.

Um.

So, the provision here is that an individual can only access a sex-designated changing room in a government facility that is open to the public that corresponds with the individual sex and the sex designation of the changing room, or the sex-designated changing room that corresponds with the individual's birth certificate if it's been legally amended and the individual has undergone a primary sex character— So again, by and large, very narrow application to the government's operations here. And secondly, it requires us to adopt a privacy compliance plan. That privacy plan really engages 4 primary areas.

Reporting.

If an—

if a citizen or a resident or patron makes a complaint regarding any sort of a criminal offense that takes place in a privacy space— privacy space can include a changing room, it can include a restroom, or any other sort of privacy location— then it is incumbent upon the employee that receives the complaint to report that to local law enforcement. Then local law enforcement has a duty to prioritize that call And then engage in an investigation as ORM please see appropriate. Then, as we look at building any sort of new facility, we are instructed to include at least 1 single occupant facility within the new building. That would be much like our, our building here. We have single occupant restrooms. 1 on each floor that is public-facing. So, as we build any sort of new facility, we should be looking at making sure there's a single-use occupant privacy space. And then for any existing facilities, the legislature asks us to look at potential ability to retrofit or remodel to provide heightened privacy in any of these privacy spaces. And in essence, that is the privacy compliance plan that you would be adopting this afternoon or this evening by resolution, which is on the consent agenda.

This is just making us in compliance with laws, correct?

I mean, really, this is a very straightforward— we're just doing exactly what the state legislature has asked us to do.

Not really asked, but mandated.

What we're told. Okay, excellent.

Thank you.

Next up, uh, 2.6, annual city council financial statements.

All right, mine's very, very fast. I've given each of you a physical copy. I've emailed you a digital copy. Um, this is that annual Um, just financial disclosure that we have implemented as a city, so will only be posted on our website. It will not be on the election website. So just to clear a couple of things up, we're gonna— um, it should be from June 16th, 2024 till June 15th, 2025. And if you do, or you are currently running, then you're going to have some overlap. With the ones that are required by the state. Have any questions, you're welcome to call me. I need it by June 30th. So you can, if you can fill it out today, you want to give it to me and get it done. That's fine. Otherwise, you can send it to me by June 30th.

So, if you— okay, so what if you're just spending your own money? You don't have to— that's not a contribution, or is it?

Yeah, it's the expenditure.

At least with the state requirement, your contribution to your own campaign.

It just has to be reported.

You have to put a contribution in your own campaign, and then you have to spend your own money.

Well, because you're, you're technically giving the money to your campaign, and then your campaign is spending that money.

Okay.

And I'm just— I mean, like, we just had this parade, so there's some costs with that.

Yeah.

So you'll probably, like, just off the top of the— you'll probably have an expense for paying me when you came into my office and declared, and then you'll probably have expenses if you were involved in the parade. Um, and then if you started to buy some signs, you may have some of those, but, uh, but it's only up until the 15th. So anything that you bought this week wouldn't, uh, be part of this one.

So I'd almost like to remember the law that we did that makes us— so we're doing this every year. Um, I noticed a loophole or, uh, something we missed. I don't know what the correct term is, but I feel like As I'm rolling, if I weren't running, like in the case of Tom, he's not running. So there we should have added— we should add another reporting period for December 31st of the year that you retire from your position, or whatever you call that, for that whoever is not.

Now you would have to do that by ordinance.

So I guess, right, and that's my point right now, as I'm saying to the council, I think we should move forward with amending that ordinance that we put and add one more safeguard on there for reporting of, um, any contributions over the 6 months? Yeah, for the last— because we as, as candidates, I mean, we'll have to report it, but we have this little carve-out, right, for someone who didn't fit in the other candidates or continuing on or dropping off. We have to grab, grab that one. So I don't know, what do you think as a council? Do you want to— should we add something like that on there too?

I'd like— and I think that's fine. I guess one thing I have a request is just to take the orders we have running, try to get some kind of a something that is like a timeline of during this time you report this and this, this time you report this and this. I'm still a little confused.

Seems like you should separate non-running stuff from running stuff. Seems like they should be able to put your Great on the new form versus this one.

But yeah, that's what I would like to see changed.

It's easy if you've got zeros.

And then are there any, any guidelines with how you fill this out? I mean, because I could put, you know, AB gave me a donation. I mean, how specific, how identifying do we need to be, Steve?

We'll have to pull up our ordinance.

This thing says if it's over $50, I'm happy to look on it.

I'm happy to talk to you about it.

Yeah, I feel like now's an opportunity to kind of— let's be more transparent. Let's actually provide reasonable data here. Something that—

Look at it and see if there are changes.

The state requires name, address, and occupation.

Yeah, I don't think we're doing that.

I can't remember off the top of my head.

I'll have to—

okay.

Hey, sounds good. Um, thank you, Theresa. Hey, real quick, um, as far as the city council agenda, call to order invitation. Who invited the Mortimers? Jeff, you want to introduce something?

Sure.

We got item 8, the appointment, best recap.

Denise.

Uh, 8.2, a presentation, American Legion car show fundraiser. 8.3, we're going to, um, push to another meeting just until that's verified. 8.4, budget authorization awards, uh, from Brown-Bybee. 8.5, volunteerism proclamation, Debbie Amico.

Good.

Personal appearances, item 9. Item 10, consent items. Approval of meeting minutes, uh, resolution to appoint Lieutenant Benton to Utah Valley Animal Shelter Board. If anybody has any questions on any of this stuff— item 10.3, interlocal emergency water supply agreement with Vineyards.

That's what we talked about.

10.4, 2025 water supply agreement. We talked about that. Item 10.5, reducing Privacy Compliance Plan, talk about that. 10.6, Resolution Authorizing City Manager to Execute Agreement with the—

talked about that.

Scheduled items, 11.1, Public Hearing and Ordinance Amendment, and we'll present that.

And that's—

that's it.

Meeting actually is what it is. We don't keep going. Okay, all right, well, let's, uh, our city council meeting.

It's a $50 late fee. There at the end of the row. I will take it.

Do you like this?

We'll take care of it.

You're welcome, Tom.

If you're still hooked up—

See ya!

Way more kids. In fact, we brought 30 and started donating gear to us. Center and there wasn't a—

we did.

That's awesome. That sounds like something he's interested in. Yeah, have you been? Sounds awesome, doesn't it? I'm no longer in your department, Steve. I've been reassigned. Deputy City Manager? It's not I'm going home or something.

So can you ask Kathy?

If I don't qualify for—

It's just going to be validated. And we're talking about 2 new attorneys now.

One existing and then you.

Okay.

Except for I think the insurance and the, um, officers will come in.

Uh, they'll look at it.

So yeah.

So once you have it going over there, so you have to start it in there and then come out.

It sticks.

It does.

I'd like to go ahead and call this meeting to order and welcome everyone here tonight. We'll start out with an invocation. Uh, from Doyle Mortimer and a Pledge of Allegiance from Kitty Mortimer. And Jeff Lamson invited them. So if you'd like to introduce your friends.

Yes, Doyle and Kitty Mortimer are longtime friends and former neighbors and longtime Orem residents. They've been, as I mentioned, dear friends for a long, long time. Doyle is a former state legislator, and Kitty has the voice of an angel. She has a beautiful singing voice. Uh, they're the parents of 7 children, uh, raised right here in Orem and, and have always been pillars of and examples of community faith and service. And so we're grateful to have them here with us this evening. Thank you.

We are so thankful this evening. Father, we're thankful for the freedom that we enjoy, that we can have this communion that we have today, and for the beautiful city, the city that we're in. Father, we're thankful for these dedicated elected servants who sit before us, for the time, effort, and energy that they put in. We ask that you bless them, bless their We're thankful for all the citizens who live in the community, and especially for those who come and involve themselves in our community and are here this evening. Pray that thou wilt bless them for their energy and their efforts. All the employees of this city who work so hard, and we ask and thank thee for this evening.

Thank you.

Now we'll have the Pledge of Allegiance. Please rise for that.

Thank you.

Now we'll move to item 8, item 8.1, uh, a presentation of the Orem Fest recap. So that'll be Kenise Whitaker, our events manager, and Cindy Bailey, events coordinator.

Is this working or no?

No.

Oh, there we go.

Okay, we are so excited to be able to present to you on a really amazing Orem Fest that we had this year. And also, thank you for all of the time and effort that you have put into helping to support this event. It really is an all-hands-on-deck event with all of the city employees and staff, as well as mayor and council, to be able to pull off this event. We're so grateful for our Events Commission and all the volunteers that really played a huge role in making this a really fun, engaging community event for all Orem and all our surrounding cities. Here's just a quick summary video of our week.

We love Orem!

Perfect. So we started the week off with the Orem Fest car show. This one we did with Walker Sanderson, which is an awesome Orem based business, and they helped us out with, um, the, the car show that benefited the American Legion. And so we'll have a check presentation just to follow this. All of the, um, car fees and registration fees and all of the donations went straight to them, and so we're excited to present that just after this presentation. Um, we had over 250 cars, and we had a 133% increase from last year. It was definitely the busiest car show yet. Um, just you know, over doubling what we had the last year. And so it was one of the best events to kick off Orem Fest.

On Tuesday, we had a pool party that was a splash. We had 1,500 attendees and gave out so much ice cream. Hope we gave them out before they all melted, which is a good thing. We also had our Orchard Jam with our partners at University place, and it was the funnest night ever. We had children's markets selling lots of goods, and we had entertainers, entertainers with kid breakdancers and a magic show, and a trash panda with a percussion group, followed by a silent disco. It was just a great night to gather the community and your family together and come and just kick off summer.

One part that we wanted to highlight this year, just another one. We started Sports Fest last year, but this year we were able to increase some of those numbers. So kickball, you know, last year we had 7 teams. This year we had 12, which I thought was maybe a bit more. And then pickleball, we had an increase in pickleball, 19 teams to 32. And then we had cornhole, just about the same. But we know we have some staff there that were disappointed they missed out and have already committed to next year. So we are excited that we got a little bit more of that recreation. into this week of fun and all these attendees had a blast.

So if you were at the park, you probably felt a little bit of the increased crowds. We had record-breaking attendance at our carnival and at our park, at City Center Park. You can see from this graph here, we nearly doubled our attendance on Friday and increased on Thursday and Saturday as well. This is just telling us that our communities and surrounding communities really love coming to Orem Fest. We had a lot of entertainment on the stage as well. That was a hit. We had Orem's Got Talent, Geneva Road, and just fun entertainers and a variety of choices.

And then we did have that parade, and it was one of the busier ones, but we did improve a lot of different safety measures. We had additional block captains, perimeter patrol, and then parade participants participant. Rule compliance, everybody was, you know, trying their very best to make, you know, this is the safest parade, and we're glad that we were able to achieve that the best that we could. We had over 80 entries into the parade, and it made it a really great one.

One of the reasons for the increase, I think, on Friday was having a drone show. We were so glad that it was successful. We did have delay and some technical difficulties, difficulties on the drone show and the fireworks show, but we went off with a bang and we were able to have really awesome shows both nights. And people still remain to comment that this is a highlight of their week to be able to see these shows happen. We did have a lot of feedback from the community this year. We were grateful to have over 900 participants in our public survey. And so we know that this is a really great event, people love it, but we also know that we have room to grow. And so we're excited to use this feedback to help us to plan for next year and helping to address some of the concerns that the public have and also implement some of their great ideas.

And those are just a couple more photos, but that's it. And we're excited for next year. Again, we're so thankful for everybody's, all of their effort, everybody coming into the park and making it and all team effort. And so thanks so much. Do you guys have any questions?

I just would like to say something, actually 2 things. Um, it was a great event. You guys did such an amazing job. And as we were leaving after fireworks on Saturday night, all the people were going, and there happened to be 2 teenage boys right in front of me, maybe like the 16, 17-year-old range. And the one of them says to the other, that was dope. And the other guy says, I'm so glad we were able to pull up.

So if you're hitting that crowd, I think you're hitting it.

Um, and the next thing I wanted to say was our event staff, our city staff, Parks and Rec, they were amazing. They would get there at 6 in the morning. They wouldn't leave till midnight, and they would do it in the next day. And then Sunday morning, after it was all said and done, 6 AM, they are showing up to clean up the streets of Orem, the churches that we use, the parade route. And I was so impressed with that. So just thank you for everything you guys did.

Just a quick question on the drone show. Are we planning on doing both drone and fireworks in the future? Is that still out?

I, I heard—

to be determined. I mean, let us know.

I heard positive comments from both. You know, there are those people that love fireworks and they love feeling that boom. And then I was surprised how many people love the drone show and that their kids who don't adapt to loud noises were really appreciative of that, being able to participate in that without the fear of the loudness.

So.

For what it's worth, I think the fireworks is guaranteed, and then the drone show is to be decided.

Yes, and I don't think it would be the last drone show in Orem for sure.

Um, right.

I can, I can weigh in. Um, we love the drone show. I think to Mayor's point, I don't think we would take away fireworks. I think the question is, do we like the drone show in December at the Lights On, or do we like the drone show as Another element of Orem Fest. So we love it too. And Councilmember Lamson, thank you for that feedback. I think that's exactly what we're trying to do is best serve every family. Uh, but, uh, I think both were very well received. So we'll, uh, we'll look to make room in the budget and we'll look to our, uh, Heather Cox and the fundraising team to make sure that we can continue to afford several wonderful things.

I think the thing with the drone show, because I mean, you've like, you've showed, I've seen the Orem logo, you know, that the drones did. I don't think people— people who didn't see it don't realize that, you know, Miro was up there in the sky. We had so many just cool— the train, so many things that represent Orem that these drones were able to come together and form. So that was— it was totally unexpected by me. I just was so pleasantly surprised by that. So I would definitely like to see it come again. Sometime. Um, and just to ditto what Jen said, I just saw the hard work of y'all, and thank you. So wonderful.

And I just want to say, as far as, uh, our events staff and communications, I mean, you guys were given the mandate to build community, to increase cohesiveness in the community, and to build this up, and When you look at the numbers the last few years, I mean, they've been off the charts. I mean, our numbers at all of our events, from Lights On to Orem Fest, everything else, are doubling and tripling. And so there is a lot of excitement in the community, and there's a lot of really good things going that community building does. So you're hitting your mark. Thank you.

And the Orem Is Cool shirts were just coveted by the young adults. I'm telling you, my daughter wanted one. Everyone was just like, I love the video. That's exactly the take that I got on it too. That's a great idea. Thank you. And that all the money went to our Gold Star families monuments, right?

Of the merch—

for the shirts in the merch tent.

Yes, that was a great idea. Amazing.

Thank you.

Yeah, I'll second that. The Ormex Cool shirts were a huge hit.

We'll do another order. Thanks, guys.

Thank you.

Okay, next up, item 8.2, presentation, American Legion Car Show fundraiser. This again is Kenise and Sydney.

Okay, can you hear me?

I don't—

just use that one.

I don't know.

Well, we are thrilled to be able to invite up the American Legion and also partnered with Walker Sanderson to present a check. We wanted to just thank the community for really coming out and supporting the American Legion. This is by far the biggest amount that we've been able to bring in for American Legion at this car show in years. So we're so excited to invite them up and present this amount to them.

We raised $9,620 for the American Legion from the Orem Fest car show.

All right, Denise, let's have you come on this side.

Yeah, that'll balance it out. Here we go. 1, 2, 3. Thank you.

This was testing.

Pete, testing.

Does it work?

This was well beyond our expectations. The money will be put to good use. It takes money to provide for the needs of veterans. We have what we call an emergency veteran fund to help those veterans that have siblings in their home, children that are in need of temporary financial assistance. The money is also used to fund The events that we have, going to over 100 funerals a year, does cost money for ammo and transportation. The money will be put to good use, and we sure appreciate the help you've given to us. With that much, we're hoping that we can build a facility that will house Right now, it is housed in the garage of a member of ours that's been a member for about 40 years. He just turned 93, Alan Anderson. It's in his garage. We hope he'll live to 150 so we won't have to build a storage unit, but we're— we don't foresee that happening. So we, we also need to plan for the future. And this will go a long ways in helping. It will also go a long ways in helping the community. We hope we can continue to contribute towards the Gold Star Monument. I understand that we were the first to contribute, uh, $4,000, which broke us, but we've got it back now. Thank you very much. We love the City of Orem, our city council, our mayor. And those staff members that work so hard. Mackenzie, I can't believe the number of hours she puts in. And Sydney, I saw her up at our family reunion up at Aspen Grove yesterday, and, uh, it was a— it's wonderful to be associated with such wonderful people. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Rodney. We're going to pass on item 8.3, um, until that's verified with, uh, the Guinness Book of World Records. We'll move to item 8.4, a presentation of the Budget Optimization Awards with Brent Bybee.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. There's an acronym that the city uses frequently that we use that's called BABO, and BABO stands for Building a Better Orem, and it's become kind of a core part of our city employee culture of, of to be in a mode of constant improvement and progression and to, to do so in a humble, hungry, and smart fashion. Well, thanks to the use of, of ChatGPT, I found an additional way to use that acronym, and that is Bybee's Award for Budget Optimization. I wanted to this year with, um, you know, just kind of additional constraints in, in the budget process, I, I wanted to be able to recognize, uh, some employee groups and their exceptional efforts in making sure that we could, uh, propose and pass a balanced budget. Cities don't have the luxury of, of trying to propose a deficit budget. We have to have a balanced budget. So if there are constraints and limitations on the revenue side of the ledger, then we have to be creative and we have to look in depth on the expense side and reprioritize and make sure that we're covering all of the needs and demands to provide the wonderful services that we provide to the residents of Orem. And I chose a sort of theme of wrestling this year. Some of you know I was a wrestler in high school. I was a lightweight wrestler for Orem High and Timpanogos. And something about wrestling is that it's one of the few or unique sports that forces you to use all of the muscles in your body. And just like with Orem Fest, that's all hands on deck, everyone coming together to make it a successful project. The budget process and wrestling through it to get to a balanced budget, it took all hands on deck and it took all of, all of our work and working together to make it happen. So I have a few honorable mentions in recognizing this evening, and the They're these beastly semi-wrestling sort of guys here. And, uh, the first honorable mention that I wanted to—

I just have a question. Did you select these trophies?

I worked with our creative communications staff.

Okay, okay. I just want to verify where this is coming from.

To acquire these. Um, so our first honorable mention, uh, is, uh, Chief Mark Sanderson and our, uh, Orem Fire leadership staff. Our, our Orem Fire leadership staff is nothing if not proactive and energetic. And when I asked them to, to look at reprioritization of, of their expenses, they were proactive and energetic about meeting with finance staff and management to figure out how they could reprioritize. And so you may recall that we added a, a division chief But we were able to do that by reprioritizing overtime budget dollars into that position. And that position will help with our— the operations of our new training facility. So thank you, Chief Sanderson and fire leadership. Honorable mention number 2 is Bryce Merrill and the management of our recreation library departments. Bryce is exceptional at essentially finding ways to improve and increase both sides of the ledger. So he's really good at providing programming that has a lot of demand and a lot of use. And then, you know, we charge for those— for that programming, and we're able to charge it in a way where people still demand it and want the service and the programming that we provide in both our library and our recreation department. Um, and, and then we're able to use those funds to expand operations and to do remodels and add to our, our parks facilities. And part of that, uh, revenue increase that Bryce has been so great about also has helped to pay for the increased maintenance of our park staff, as was mentioned Uh, that you, you saw a little bit more firsthand during the, the Orem Fest celebration. So thank you, Bryce. And, uh, honorable mention number 3, and yes, I do have 3 of these fellows here, is Trevor Bell. Trevor Bell is our budget officer, and he took all of these moving parts and all these different groups and, and, uh, teams that, that are focused on putting together these, these detailed budgets And he put it all together while implementing a new software at the same time. And Trevor is sick and home today, but wanted to make sure he was recognized. And then finally, there is a real true wrestling belt here with the BABO acronym. And so the, the full top winner of, of the first inaugural BABO Budget Award goes to Brandon Nelson. Chief Sanderson was a better wrestler than I was in high school. In the best of years, it takes a lot of wrestling to get a budget into submission and get it balanced. And again, this year, with increased inflation and, you know, relatively flat sales tax and potential tariffs and supply chain issues, Brandon was still able to bring everyone together and in both a calm, even-keeled, and creative way bring this budget before you and the public and present it all in over multiple meetings and again, be consistent and transparent and educational in that process. And, and he has continued a long tradition, a 37-year tradition of putting the city in a financial position to receive the Government Finance Officers Association's Financial Excellence Award. And so, again, this, this award perhaps pales in comparison to the criteria to get it, but the name of it is much more exciting, and the wrestling belt is much cooler than the little plaque he gets from GFOA. So, with that, again, if you'll just join me in providing a Some applause for, for these wonderful employees and their excellent work. And yes, we will expect Brandon to wear this belt at the next council meeting.

Yes, and if we could have the recipients of the awards come up and just— we'll take a picture in front of the council. Thank you, Brent, and, uh, thank you to our recipients for the good work that you do. And when it— when, uh, Brent says we're responsible for balancing our budget, there is another alternative. We don't have to balance our budget, and then we can just raise taxes. And so I want to congratulate all of you for helping our city council keep our mandate of not raising our residents' taxes, because it's through these kinds of efforts we've been able to not raise taxes for the last few years. So great job, and that is the upside of all this. So we really appreciate it.

Okay.

We'll go on to item 8.5, a volunteerism proclamation with Debbie D'Amico.

Thank you, Mayor, members of the City Council. It is with great pleasure this evening that I stand before you. Orem City, proudly known as Family City USA, truly thrives on the spirit of community service and volunteerism. We are dedicated to uplifting one another, and we believe our collective efforts showcase the very best of our community. To illustrate this point, we would like to present a brief video highlighting some of the remarkable volunteer efforts that have recently taken place within our city.

Wide variety of challenges, but the solution to each problem that confronts us begins with an individual Who steps forward and who says, I can help.

Government can only do so much and should only attempt so much, but no limits can hold back people determined to make a difference.

Volunteerism is really such a great way way to get involved and to know your community. I know that there are so many organizations out there who really benefit from people who just want to step in, make a difference in the community, make friends along the way, and be able to share their talents and skills in a way that's really beneficial.

I love the idea of My Hometown, of community helping community, just neighbors helping neighbors.

I think that people should get involved because it not only changes those you serve, it changes us.

It makes, makes your heart swell. You feel good like you're doing good work, and it's good to see so many people that are willing to do their part. So young and old working together.

Good stuff.

Volunteering with Orem is easy. Just go to orem.gov/volunteer.

Thank you, Pete. We hope you enjoyed the video, and to further solidify our city's commitment to community service, we propose a proclamation for the mayor's signature officially designating Orem as a JustServe city. With that, it is my distinct honor to introduce Mr. Val Hill from JustServe, who will offer a few brief remarks.

Thank you, Debbie. Mayor, city council members, it's my pleasure to be here. My name is Val Hale. My wife Nancy and I serve as the JustServe specialists for Central Orem and Vineyard. Uh, James and Sherry Kemp are the JustServe specialists for North and South Orem. JustServe, for those of you who may not know, is a tool created by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints utilized around the world now.

Thank you.

To bring volunteers to organizations looking for volunteers. It's a tremendous tool, and if you haven't looked into it or downloaded it on your phone, I would encourage you to do it. It's, it's really amazing. The nation of Chile has now adopted JustServe as its tool for volunteerism throughout the whole country. JustServe has a special designation for cities that choose to be volunteer-focused. And it's called a Global JustServe Global City. Currently in Utah County, there are 2 cities that have received that designation, Lehi and Spanish Fork, and we want Orem to be the 3rd. And this proclamation would be the first step in meeting the criteria to receive that designation. I think Orem has done a great job. We've worked with Kenna Matthews originally, Laura Bascom, And now Debbie, and they've done a great job of posting projects on JustServe, both for 911 Day of Service and other projects. And I think it's been very beneficial in providing volunteers for those projects. So I commend the city for, um, for taking this step and for the long, long history of volunteerism here. We have great citizens, as you know, in the city, and this is a tool that hopefully will only enhance that going forward. I also want to recognize Mark Seestrand. We serve on the, um, on the Orem Communications Council with Mark. And so he helps us in our efforts with JustServe as well, and we help him in his efforts. And so, um, anyway, we appreciate you taking the step tonight. Thank you very much.

And even though Orem's the 3rd, we're your favoritest and best city. Just serve.

And who did we beat? Well, thank you very much. We'd like to take this opportunity for a photo op, if that's okay, and present the official proclamation to you, Mayor.

That'd be great. And I just want to say, as far as Just Serve, I think it's a, it's a great group. It's a great organization. And we get requests all the time from our residents saying, what can we do? What can we do? How can we help these different wards, different stakes, just different groups? And so we've been referring them to JustServe, and I think it's a, it's a great circle to bring together.

Thank you.

Okay, while you're sitting down, can I just say something? My mechanic— I took my car in and he found out I was on the city council and he said, I want to— here, Val, take Thank you. He said, what can I do? I need to meet people. Can I volunteer with Orem? And so I sent him to JustServe, and hopefully he met some nice woman, young lady. I don't know, that's what he was looking for. So there you go, goals.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you. All right, we'll move on to item 9, personal appearances. And it looks like we have 5 residents would like to comment. Let me just read the criteria on this for personal appearances. 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 from the beginning of the meeting. Please limit your comments to 3 minutes or less. So with that, I'll invite up Rennie Reeves.

Hi, my name is Rennie Reeves. I'm almost 11 and I'm going into 6th grade. I live in South Orem just off of 2000 South, and I'm so happy to live in Orem. In my neighborhood, there are lots of kids ranging from newborns to teenagers, and lots of adults too. We have to cross 2000 South to get to so many places. In the summer, we cross the street to get to Cherry Hill Park, a lot of friends' houses, and the church. We also have to cross it to go on walks or bike rides. During the school year, we cross it to get to the junior high and bus stop. stop, junior high and high school bus stops, and Cherry Hill Elementary. The problem is that the cars on 2000 South are usually going really fast and not looking for people, both kids and adults. It's also really hard to see the traffic that is coming when so many other cars are parked along the road. I feel like the best solution to this problem would be to install a crosswalk across 2000 South near 160 East. One thing I have done to take initiative was to ask my neighbors to sign a petition in support of installing a crosswalk. 66 people signed my— signed the petition, and a lot of them expressed, expressed to me that they would be really grateful if a crosswalk was installed. Another idea I had was to monitor and enforce the speed limit a little better. One last idea I had was to change who can park along 2000 South. I appreciate how hard you work to keep our city safe and a wonderful place to live.

Thank you.

I hope this— that the city will be proactive in finding a solution for us. Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Thank you, Renny.

And Renny, just so you know, we did pass that along to our public works director. They are looking into helping you get that. crosswalk. Thank you for your efforts to notify your neighbors and to get their support.

Rosemary Hoffman.

I'm here from the same neighborhood at the other end of the spectrum from that darling young girl. Um, the neighbors just talk amongst themselves about how hard it is to cross that street. And, oh, I almost got hit because the, the cars go so fast and it's hard to see because there's so much— so many cars park to the east as you're leaving that neighborhood, um, on the, on the south side of 2000 South. So, Renny decided to do something about it. We just— Talk about it, how hard it is to get out even in a car, and even harder. And I've noticed that when we go to church in the morning, for example, there's many children on their little scooters and children walking. And I would feel so much better if there were a crosswalk there and if they extended the no parking zone to the east as you leave that neighborhood, because then you could see. I've even heard adults say that as you walk out, um, you think you're safe and then boom, there's a car going really fast. And that's— 2000 South has the impression of being a really busy street, even though it's residential on both sides, because it connects Main Street and you're trying to get to the highway. So it has a lot of, um, traffic. feeling of this is a fast street. So I am just here to back up Renny that it— we really do have a problem, and I commend her for bringing it to y'all's attention and that she was so proactive in representing us. And I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Thank you. Evan Thacker.

Thank you, Marianne. My name is Evan Thacker. I've lived in Orem for 12 years, and I love Orem. I have come to the meeting today to express some thanks and also a concern. First, I would like to thank the city council for your efforts and all the other people who are involved for their efforts. In the recent Orem Fest celebration, I was happy to see that presentation a few minutes ago, especially the Orem Fest parade. Thank you for this wonderful event that strengthens our community. My daughter Lauren plays the bass drum in the Orem High School marching band, and so she was marching in the parade, and as I walked the parade route with her as a parent volunteer with the band, I was amazed and impressed with the huge turnout of paradegoers. tours, as well as all the wonderful entries in the parade. What I really loved most about it was that Orem Fest is for everyone. Everyone belongs, everybody is valued, everyone is welcome. We get to spend time together in a positive way as a community. So thank you for Orem Fest. Now to my concern, which is related to something that I think has the potential to damage the sense of belonging that I feel as a member of the Orem community. As you know, Orem's municipal elections are coming up. On the webpage for Orem Mayor and City Council, it says, and I quote, elections in the city of Orem are nonpartisan. Nonpartisan municipal elections in Orem allow candidates and voters to prioritize the most important needs of our community in a way that is congruent with belonging for everyone instead of getting distracted and conflicted by partisan politics, which tend to divide people instead of unite people. I recently learned, to my great dismay, that the Utah County Republican Party is trying to turn our upcoming municipal nonpartisan election into a politically partisan election, or at least to give it a very strong flavor of a partisan election by inviting candidates for mayor and city council offices and school board to seek a formal endorsement from the Republican Party and to pledge their loyalty to the Utah County Republican Party in, in order to be eligible for that endorsement. I am disturbed by the action that a political party is taking to exert its influence on the nonpartisan Orem City municipal election. The values and priorities of the Utah County Republican Party, while admirable in my opinion, will not necessarily be congruent with the values and priorities and needs of the citizens of the city of Orem. If we elect a mayor or city councilors who have pledged their loyalty to the Utah County Republican Party in their service in this office on the Orem City Council, then we will have elected leaders who will no longer be in a position of loyalty to Orem citizens or to prioritize the needs of Orem citizens because they will be conflicted in serving the interests of a political party instead. For me as a voter, uh, Orem's— in Orem's nonpartisan municipal elections, this is very disturbing, and I want our Orem mayor and city council to be Orem Fest for everyone, not for a political party. Thank you.

Inaccurate statement.

It just depends.

Yeah, Chris trying to correct Helena.

Yeah, no, it's I mean, yeah, I don't think we need to go deep into it, but basically, I think there's a, uh, to claim that if you are supporting a particular political party, then you cannot consider the needs of the city is completely nuts. I mean, there are foundational principles that each party has, and those foundational principles carry over to how you govern and how you How you manage things. So I don't think one excludes the other. I think they can work together.

But—

And I'd just like to speak to the pledge. I have no idea what you're talking about. I believe it's the Republican platform. I'm a proud Republican, so I'm sorry, I, I, I'm just totally going to take issue with your, um, comment. You're pledging loyalty. That seems a bit out there, but You know, you have a right to come and say what you'd like.

Okay, next up we've got Nathaniel Johnson.

Thank you all for having me here today. When I was in elementary school, I started reading a book series called A Series of Unfortunate Events. This book series immediately became a lifelong favorite of mine, and now, as the father of a 7-year-old, I decided that it was an appropriate time to start reading this book series with my child. As we read, I was struck once again by this story that I love, but also the beautiful artwork in the books. Each book has a memorable cover and several delightful illustrations throughout its pages. Imagine my surprise when I read the About the Illustrator section at the back of one of the books. It reads, Brett Helquist was born in Ganado, Arizona, grew up in Orem, Utah, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. I was stunned to learn that one of my favorite childhood authors had grown up right here in our city, and I'm kind of surprised that I didn't know this until I started rereading these books as an adult. So I went and I did a little more research. He grew up here in Orem. He went to school just down the road at BYU, got a bachelor's degree in fine arts there. And since working on that book series, he has worked on a number of other books. I think it's close to 50 books since then, including a book series called Chasing Vermeer, which I remember reading as a child. And 2 years ago, this book called The Mona Lisa Vanishes, which is a nonfiction book for middle-grade students about when the Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911. I know that right now our city's going through a number of projects aimed at making the city a more beautiful place, for lack of a better word. We're building buildings like the one we're sitting in right now. We are expanding the various programs that our citizens have access to. We are improving our historical preservation in the city and just all in all making the city a more pleasant Place to live. One of the things I'd like to see happen is I'd like to see some part of our city public works projects, whether that's in the library or some other building that I am not aware of, be used to display and explain the works of artists like Mr. Hellquist and others who come from Orem or who have close ties to Orem. I mean, I look at this and I think, wow, we've got this guy who came from Orem, who— he walked our streets. He, as a kid, played on the playgrounds, went to our children's schools, and now he helps make books that our children are reading. I think it would be really good to celebrate that kind of work and make it easily accessible, not just as the books, but on display as the artwork for our children to see and go, oh. This is from Orem. This person came from Orem. This work started here. Um, I'm happy to do whatever I can to help make that happen, and I appreciate everyone's time while I talk about one of my favorite artists. Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh, last up, we've got Whitney Olson.

I found out about this meeting like a half hour before it started, so I am just in awe at the people that came with prepared statements. I did not, and I feel like I just want to be their cheerleader instead. Just, I love everything they talked about, but My name is Whitney. I grew up in Orem. My husband grew up in Orem. We're raising our family in Orem. We love this city. One thing that we've noticed in our neighborhood is that recently we've had somebody from out of state purchase a big home at the end of our street, and they've turned that home into an Airbnb, which sleeps 28 people. But we could count the last 2 weekends more than 28 cars. Um, at the home, and we've had tour buses that have stopped by and dropped off 50 people, you know, to sleep over. It's a, it's a BYU fan house. So they get a lot of teams and a lot of just BYU enthusiasts there, which is fine. Um, but I've looked at the city website and I can't find anything about Airbnbs. Um, it just seems to me that, that there's a lot of confusion there. We live in a residential area. We live in a dead-end street, and it's nice and quiet, and we love that our kids can, you know, ride their bikes, and people on our street know to look around the corners for the kids coming, because it can be blind sometimes where the guests don't really look. Um, and it seems like somebody has come in and opened a business on our street, which isn't zoned for a business. It's more of an event center or like a mini hotel. Even than an Airbnb. So I'm just wondering, am I missing something with Airbnb, um, or VRBO policies in Orem, or is there anything that can be created? Because it gets really loud and really busy, and it just changes the whole feel of our neighborhood. And the guy— the person that owns it doesn't even live here, so they don't know what's going on.

That's all.

Just to answer your question, yes, the city council has been in a In a review period on Airbnbs. And so we've been gathering all kinds of information on both sides, as far as owners and persons like yourself who are concerned about the impact on their neighborhood.

Great.

So we invite all of your voices to be heard, and we'll continue to gather information. There's not a specific policy right now, but over the next course of however long it takes, there will be a policy, and you can contact Well, you can contact Steve Earl's office. Um, he can kind of guide you down the path of the ways that you can submit information and that sort of thing.

Okay. And I think as a neighborhood, we're not opposed to Airbnbs. Just, this is a really big one. If it's single family, then it's better. Thank you.

Yeah. And you could talk to— right there in the back of the room is Jake. Um, he's, he's heading that up in the attorney's office.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Thank you. Okay, moving on to item number 10, our consent items. On the consent items, and I'll read through these and then we'll vote on them. First, we've got item 10.1, approval of meeting minutes, January 14th, 2025, and May 13th, 2025. Resolution 10.2, a resolution appointing Lieutenant Finn to the North Utah Valley Animal Shelter Board. Item 10.3, resolution to the interlocal emergency water supply agreement with Vineyard. Item 10.4, resolution 2025 water supply agreement with Central Utah Water Conservancy District. Item 10.5, resolution for the private privacy compliance plan. And item 10.6, resolution authorizing the city manager to execute an agreement with the Lockhart Group. Someone like to make a motion on those items?

I move for approval of the consent items, Mayor.

I second that. Thank you.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye. I turned off.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Thank you. The consent items pass. Next up, we'll have item 11, schedule items. We'll have item 11.1, a public hearing, an ordinance, a budget amendment, and Brandon Nelson will present that.

I guess we get to look at a big bird.

Yeah. That's because we're in the red.

Is that— do I have to do something special, Pete?

Thanks, Pete.

First, I want to say, um, just in relation to the, the babble, thank you. Thank you. Think of Bren. It's too heavy. No, just teasing. But I just want to thank all of, all of the other directors that work with me because Um, they're such a great group of people to work with that make my job so much easier because of their willingness to work with, with our department and, and work through the budget process. And as well as all of their division managers, um, it just makes things so much, so much nicer when that's the case. So, so thank you all. Um, tonight, uh, our final budget amendments for the year. To round out the, the end of the fiscal year here as we close on June 30th. So the things that we have, uh, pretty much some of these are very normal things in relation to the donations. So all those items marked with a note of 1 are various donations as well as grants. I think most of them are donations this time. Most of the time the grants occur a little earlier in the fiscal year. So these are mostly related to that. And you can see various items on there up at the top as well as near the bottom in, in the capital improvement fund there. The— so, and those come from a whole slew of different places. Obviously the Orem Fest, a large portion of those are our sponsors who donate through our foundation. And And then there's also a large— you mentioned the American Legion folks tonight as we honored them and gave them a check. A lot of those things come through our foundation as well, as well as directly to the city. And so these are the use of those, putting those funds to use as we receive them. Uh, let's see if I can Just want to scroll down a little bit here to that item number 2 and number 3. So, as we've done in the past with number 3, we still have monies to spend in our 2021 sewer bond, our water sewer and stormwater bond. Um, it's obviously getting lower and lower. We're almost done. We should be finished here by by the end of the calendar year of spending all of that money, but it still continues to earn interest. And so that budget amendment item is to add again some of those interest earnings to be able to add to those bond projects. Item number 2, which the new bond that we did back in July of last year, the sales tax revenue bond to build the fire training facility as well as the public safety building improvements that are just going on now. And again, same concept, there's a construction fund that those funds sit in until we actually need to spend them. And so you can see the interest earnings to date, that's from the point July until now through April, I believe. And so those funds will get added to those projects and be able to be used in, in the various projects for public safety purposes. And let's see, let's scroll down. So you see number 4 down at the bottom. We have some need to buy— they received chairs, the old council chairs. Chamber chairs, and so they would like some additional chairs to— along with those. And so they're using some reserves from the Senior Citizens Fund to, to buy those additional chairs. Um, they did recently— you'll wonder, I know you're thinking, $213, what's that all about? Well, they recycled all of the old metal chairs that they had, and that's how much money they got for all of those recycled chairs. So, uh, so we threw that in as well as part of that amendment.

And that's, Brandon, is why you're so good, because you look over every dollar.

Thank you.

Okay, so we scroll back up to number 5 there. You can see the 2 items kind of in the middle of the road, a special revenue fund and the transportation sales tax fund. Um, so along 1600 North, um, we have available funds in our reserves for both of those 2 funds that we are intending to use for those, uh, for that 1600 North project along the landscaping and some other items along that road. And so this budget amendment, uh, appropriates those reserves towards Completing those projects. Up near the top, number 6, the one that says wrecked vehicles. We had a police vehicle that was wrecked, and so we have funds within Fund 63, which is our self-insurance fund, but we like to record the vehicle that's being replaced, which was a police vehicle, and, and police are obviously in the general fund. And so we move those dollars out of Fund 63 self-insurance fund into the general fund in order to take— make sure we take care of that vehicle. And then last but not least, number 7, we had talked a little bit when we did the RDA budget, and there was an associated budget amendment with that, but that was only in relation to the RDA piece. So this is in replace— in relation to the general fund side of that, um, item, and that's that we received more money in property taxes in the, uh, the University Place CDA. And so therefore, because there was more property tax in there, that also increases the amount of the administrative fee, and this budget amendment, uh, amends that to, to add for those additional dollars. So in total, this amounts to— let's see, I want to say—

come on, not going to let me move.

So 2 point— and you see the very bottom right corner, the $2.375 million, um, in additional revenues, with obviously associated expenditure items related to each of those elements. Are there any questions about anything that we've discussed or anything that I haven't specifically mentioned in here? Okay.

Just out of curiosity, Brandon, I see Gold Star Memorial on there. I don't know if you know or if Pete knows. I'm just curious where we're at as far as the funds that we need to raise. Uh, towards the total amount that we're trying to raise.

Pete? Yeah, last time I checked, we were just shy of $70,000.

That's what we've raised so far.

That's what we've raised.

Yeah.

And what's our target?

Uh, we're hoping for $250,000, but we're on our way.

And what's our deadline?

Probably this summer, right?

I think we're looking at a build of an opening by about September-ish of this year. Okay, but we will always accept donations. Um, We have gotten some verbal commitments for more dollars that will get us quite a bit closer. And then we've, we've also been looking at some, some savings that we garnered in the overall budget of this building that can help supplement as well.

Okay, but I guess my point is, if so, if September is our date, here we are June, if we're at 70 and we want to get to 250, it's time to put a— start putting a full-court press on. On raising those funds. So we, we just want to get the word out to our residents that we want to try and raise as much as we can. So it's a great cause and be a great monument to be involved with.

Thank you.

That's all I have, and it is public hearing. So turn the time to you.

Okay.

Any questions from the council?

Okay.

Okay, we'll open this up for a public hearing. If there's anyone who has any comments on these latest budget amendments. There's no comments. We'll close the public hearing.

Are you ready for a motion, Mayor?

I am.

I move to approve by ordinance the budget amendments for the 2024-2025 as specified in Exhibit A.

I second.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye.

Resolution passes.

Thank you.

Thank you, Brandon. Okay, well, this has been a nice moving-along meeting, and, uh, it looks like we're down to city manager information items.

I don't have anything else. I've, I've wrestled with you for enough for one evening.

Okay.

Okay, thank you, Bryn. Uh, would someone like to make a motion to adjourn?

I move we adjourn.

I second.

Hi.

Hi.

Hi.

Hi.

Hi.