City Council · 2025-09-09

Oh, did I?

It's just as I was—

Sure, thank you.

Pretty savvy, pretty—

yeah, I mean, it's basic. Good, how are you doing? Great.

How would you drive up to Park City?

You can do it online.

Hey, get on this.

Yeah, wait, and I— this newer one I sent you.

Okay, so you weren't enjoying the leaf experience? That's what I thought you'd say.

Okay.

But I have a voice right now because I can talk while I drive, but not—

that's true.

I'm getting rid of that.

The leaves changing quite a bit out there.

Changing.

They're not like—

like, why are we doing this?

We were in Woodland on Monday together. Weekend, Monday, they were changing. By camera, just go straight.

Yeah, get a window.

That's a little close. He's so—

I don't want to be in front of them.

See them actually working over here. They're, uh, style guides.

You're close.

Oh, maybe down the road.

Yeah, something good.

Oh, that's good.

Thank you. So that's what—

no, it's not.

Probably not too many breeds that are doing—

I was like, uh, I think it was—

Did you really?

I don't know. Well, good for you.

That's—

I think it is.

Everyone else is here.

Just chatting.

Well, I could show on the road.

Yeah, I got it. If you're going to show anything off, once you're preloaded.

Yeah, wow. It's like a little thing that it downloads.

Not right now.

Watching football.

They'll take it.

Great season.

Don't overpower McKay.

What was the final score? Wasn't that a play?

26.

I thought you were out of town.

I came back last night.

I was going to be here today. I just wasn't going to be here yesterday when I needed to normally post.

So we were—

they were being nice and helping.

That's what this is.

Yeah, this year it's hard to expect too much.

Got them to your right.

What's his name?

Really?

Yes, that's the right—

Show us, starting with Mike, so that you I appreciate that the mayor tasted to it.

That's funny.

The Italian accent.

Yes.

You know, the sausage eyes.

That behind you, that's where the flagpole will be.

What is this?

Is this the flagpole?

This is the pergola. So you know the pergola on the south side?

Yes. Interesting.

They're looking pretty good.

Yeah. All right, I'd like to welcome everyone here this afternoon. I apologize for running late. Uh, we're in the thick of tax season, very end of the end of the end of tax season.

So—

We got a month.

Not really.

Um, anyway, Yeah, September 15th.

Um, welcome, and let's go ahead and start this meeting. And we start out with item 2.1, MyOrem update. Dave Barton, software.

Awesome, thank you, Mayor. Uh, so today I would just like to give a brief status update on how the MyOrem initiative is progressing. As a reminder, this initiative is set to launch in January. Uh, the initiative is that All city business that needs to be conducted where citizens or other business entities need to interact with the city, they have one single unified location with which to do it. Currently, that is split up among several different websites, each with their own unique logins. This simplifies it into a single login experience. Log in once and you are authorized to do everything you need to do for your interactions with the city. The 2 Features that we'll be rolling out with this initiative are going to be our utility billing and our business licensing program. Currently, we are working on wrapping up the business licensing side of things, and we'll be starting the utility billing rewrite this week. Every other thing that you see up here on the screen is a link out to an existing application that will then be rewritten into the new ecosystem. So, So, with business licensing, we have a new portal, a new look for it, with the ability to apply for any of our current licenses. Another feature of this MyORM initiative is the unified wallet. So your credentials, your user, and your payment methods will all be stored if you so choose for them to be. So we can easily have that same payment information be used from your finances over the Fitness center, to your utilities, to cemetery, everything in between. So you're not reentering those rooms. So that is where things currently stand. As we progress, the timeline is over the next few years, we're going to continue to write new applications. We'll re-butch the older ones and store them in here for our citizens to use and enjoy. Any questions about this status update?

Does that payment—

you choose multiple payments, still choose potentially if you use a card for utilities, but use a separate card?

Yes, for—

yes, it allows you to store multiple different types of payment, whether that be banking information, credit cards, etc. And then you can choose that when you get to the checkout phase, you can choose which one you would like to use.

I think this is a great—

excuse me.

Um, no, I think that's a great upgrade the city's doing, just to have that all in one place and organized and nice and clean. It's nice to send people to one place, you know, to deal with any kind of payment. So I think that's a fantastic upgrade.

We're super excited for it too. And from a security standpoint, from internals in the city, this is also a huge security benefit to the city rather than having all of these bespoke programs. We're simplifying it so that when there is any security threat to our public-facing programs, we're able to deal with it much quicker than we currently are able to. So we're super excited for this as well.

I would just also say that this— I mean, we already have the demand for this, and sometimes we get, you know, complaints that the right hand of Orem doesn't know what the left hand of Orem is doing. And so this will help a lot, preventing those kinds of concerns. We're, we're really looking forward to it.

Huge win. Thank you.

Absolutely. Thank you all for letting me present.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, item 2.2, downtown study. Uh, Gary McGinnis?

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah, so it goes red. There we go.

Hey, we went on a summer tour, and all of you who drove with me, congratulations on picking well.

You arrived.

Able to go quickly and safely everywhere you wanted to go without delay. Those who didn't, I'm sorry. Uh, but what we wanted to talk about is we had a presentation recently from our consultant on the heart of downtown. And they went and talked about where we are so far in making a draft. They've come out, they've gotten some feedback from us. There's a draft document that's come out. And now after the tour and the document, we wanted to spend some time and talk about whether you have any more specific feedback or ideas that have come up. What we wanted to accomplish by going to Harriman and to the ball field there in Daybreak was to look at public spaces and get some ideas about things that you may like about it, things that you may not like about it, and kind of spark some ideas and just thinking about our heart of downtown. Not that we want to take, say, Harriman and replicate it here or build a ballpark here. At Sarah Park, but how they use the space. And maybe to get the conversation going, one of the things—

let's see—

to talk about, let's bring up— oops, wrong one. We will.

Where is it?

So, here's Harriman that we went and looked at, and here is the ballpark, and here's from their website, you can see A little more looking at the area where we came in, and this is the big plaza area. One of the things I didn't realize, that with the stage or pavilion that they've built here, this area functions as— in the summer, you go to concerts. You can have gathering space where people will come and sit. In the winter, this actually turns into an ice skating rink. And it's a bigger location than just the ribbon that we saw here at Harriman. So Harriman has the ribbon that comes around like this, and they have a little knuckle right there where people can get out of the ribbon and look at things. And so just some ideas. We also gave you a handout that had some other areas from around the state that had elements that might be interesting to us. You know, we looked at Regent Street in Salt Lake where they close a street and just some different things that we have. So just wanted to see if there's any more specific feedback or conversations about Absolutely, we don't like, you know, A, but B makes sense of what we want to do. And this is hard to get your arms around, and I'm not trying to put you on the spot, but just to see if there's some reactions about what you saw and how it could possibly function in Orem.

So 2 things that I don't know if you wrote down, if you guys took notes on, but the staff or whatever said to me is, You know, have your Zamboni go right onto the ice and the garage line up with the ice, right?

Oh, here's the garage.

Yeah. And they said that was a mistake they made. And then they also said that don't put deciduous trees around the ice rink because the little leaves and branches and things fall on there. I wouldn't have even thought about that. Did you guys get that?

Yeah. And that— and those are interesting things.

I—

and along that line, I had somebody from our Our parks maintenance crew reached out to me and said, as you're doing this, here's a handful of things to think about just from a maintenance standpoint. It was like, okay, that's actually very helpful and very interesting because I can guarantee you I would not have thought of that.

I loved the, the ball field, that area that you were pointing out. I loved The way everything was situated, kind of focusing on that central area. Um, I would love to go up there sometime on Friday night and just kind of see what it feels like. And what's— I mean, it seems like from the way they were describing it and the way everything looked, it looked like it would just be a fun place to be.

Are you talking about, Jeff, the area where that ice rink—

Uh-huh.

Yeah, with the turf that— That turf warm ice.

Yeah, with the doors that roll back and So here's the turf at the ball field.

And this is taken from the light rail station. And my daughter lives one light rail station north of here. And I was telling somebody, she's seen the Beatles there. She's seen Taylor Swift there. They're all tribute bands. You know, but she has just— she's a young adult and just loves going to this area. And when I told her that this is an ice skating rink in the winter, she was like, oh, I would have had no idea. And it kind of extends the season in which you can use things in that area.

One thing that I heard from some of the staff there at the ball fields was that the— just the retail, the food retail that they're bringing in, they're trying to focus on Utah-specific sort of homegrown type Food retail. So it was like, is it a Hyers?

Big H. And then forget what the ice cream was, but it was Rockwell.

Rockwell.

Yeah.

So, so not—

that's really what I wanted to say.

I wanted national franchises, but more Utah-specific.

So, right.

I love that idea.

I agree too, that this, this particular area, um, really have a lot going forward as far as— because this is obviously this Salt Lake Bees field, which is huge, but in a smaller area, this kind of fits in most potentially. Yeah, something— and when we're talking about an ice ribbon, we're also talking about an ice rink. This is just an ice rink here. Yeah, but, but that would be a conversation to have, right?

To—

I mean, at the end of the day, is the ice ribbon going to get more traction? Is the ice rink going to get more? Are we going to do a combo?

Nice thing about this is you can have all kinds of Yeah, and I just switched back now to Harriman, and they have just the ribbon that comes around here, but they have this little knuckle. And just wondering, could they have had room somehow, some way, to make that knuckle bigger?

And, and, uh, don't you have an example in, uh, those examples that you gave? Is it Mill Creek's or Bountiful?

I can't remember.

Do you recall? Didn't one ribbon in the state have a rink?

That's Mill Creek. And again, hockey rink is technically correct, but this is pint-sized rink. So separate from the ribbon, but we're not doing U16 hockey on it.

So I just thought that would be an interesting concept with that. One end of that, that was a bigger— well, it's called a rink, but area similar to what you saw at the ballpark. Could you put a stage on the one end of it? Sure.

Right.

To then make it multiple use.

And the dual use with the turf is a big deal. If you can go turf plus ice.

And one thing that— and I don't know if you guys were there yet, the 2nd group that came. Because when we got there, we were chatting with Kelsey and stuff, and they were talking about how when the Miller Group took over that area, that they had builders who were bringing in a lot of high density, and that they decided they didn't want to go that direction as much. They had some of the contractors scale it back.

Do you guys remember the numbers?

I'm trying to remember.

Yeah, they—

what they did is they scaled it back and they increased the quality. Because the original plan was to have mobs of high density, and they scaled it back and increased quality was what they wound up with.

Yeah, because they wanted to create a stable, you know, not as transient type of a neighborhood, basically.

Yeah, right.

So, and I brought up— here's the Mill Creek. This is the area, I think, Brandon, that you're talking about, where you have the ribbon and, you know, incorporating maybe A bigger area. Jump to— So in our Park, one of the drafts that our consultant has come up with is there's a nice ribbon here. There's kind of, you know, some cabanas and different things that might serve that, but they're also talking about something here, kind of a little bandstand or something that you could do things in. And then they would have this area that could be incorporated in it. You know, one of the things that we could do, if that's an interesting idea to the councils. Talk to them about, well, how do we incorporate in the summer using a bandstand in this area with a dual-use purpose that could be part of, you know, not a full ice skating rink, but something that might be able to fit in this area somehow. And now it becomes a, you know, all-season usable area. You know, and it's those types of ideas were the reasons and hope that we had in going on this tour. And, you know, to get some of these ideas generating. So if this is something that's interesting to the council, we could talk to the consultant about this kind of idea and concept and see what it would do. Yeah.

It's also incorporating both.

I like it.

Yeah, because we saw that at, uh, by the ballpark, and I did not realize that. I knew there was a stage area, but I didn't know enough about it to realize that it was an ice skating rink in the winter. And then getting up there and seeing that, it's like, oh, could we do that? And what do you know, and how do you bring that in? In conjunction with other things. We know we don't want to mess with the pool. We know we love the shell. So, in some of the other areas, how do you do this? Remember, we had that parking area here in one of their drafts. They're proposing that it come up over here to create more continuous user space in here that's not bisected by parking.

You have a comment. When they move the parking, they also— it looks like they moved the pavilion. So there's a pavilion that used to— or that is currently there.

Yeah, there's currently a big pavilion. It's about right here, I would guess.

Yeah. So I think one of the great things that the pavilion offers is, is groups rent out the Sarah. They can have a big dinner there and then move on over into the pool facility. So I'm thinking in the winter, it could be they have some kind of fun event there and then move on over to the ice skating. So I think keeping a pavilion or seating area somewhere would be useful and helpful in hosting events like that, because currently that's how the space is being used. But now you can connect them So I think that's something to consider. And then the other thought I had was one of the things that made that ballpark facility so great was they had public transportation just right up to it. So I don't know what the public transportation plans are for this, but I would hope that we would incorporate that into our plans.

Yeah, and that's one of the things that the consultant suggested is that we do need to sit down with— we know that UTA has buses on State Street now. there are buses running, that we meet with UTA and say, okay, this is what we're doing here. How can you, with what you're doing currently, support us? You know, and I, and I don't know what shape that takes. It could be, you know, a better bus stop that looks good, is more inviting to get people in. You know, but it's something that I think we probably— it was a good idea.

It could be the timing of their schedules so they match up with what we're doing. events, right?

Exactly. You know, or, you know, and I know it's not a BYU football game, but they change the routing of UVX to get buses in. So maybe there are things that we could do when we have large events that we could work with them on scheduling. But I think that's something we really need to sit down with UTA and say, okay, how can you specifically support warm city in accomplishing what we're trying to accomplish in building community in this area.

Yeah, I do think on that stage, kind of what you were saying, I mean, the pool is set, the Shell is set. The Shell has specific types of productions that it does, right? And we wouldn't want to compete with that, but we could have a stage similar to what we have in City Center Park or something, whereas we're having different events. We can have bands, we can have small rooms, we can have, you know, so we would, we would try and tailor it to the types of events that we would do there so we're not competing with the Shell but we're complementing it.

Yeah, and that, and that's going to take some close coordination with Sarah, and we've been trying to keep, uh, Adam in the loop on what we're doing, and he came on the tour with us to look at some of these, these things. And, you know, nothing gets Parents and grandparents in as activities with kids and trying to, you know, really live up to the Family City USA. How do we get families into this area?

I have 2 things. So, one thing they did mention that the Beast spilled was the bikes, how many people rode their bikes to events. So do they have, you know, where do we put bike racks tastefully and where they're secure? It would be one thing I would want to ask the consultants. The other thing is your Quonset huts. That looks cute in a half circle, but I think the purpose is—

Over here?

Yeah, is for the parents, grandparents to be able to sit off to the side and watch the kids. So you've got them really, the only desirable, the most desirable ones are right there by the ice rink. So can you spread them? In a more of a line instead of the circular.

Yeah, so everybody has a front row seat.

You can see the kids skating by.

Gary, so does this call to purchase the building that's down on the corner then?

They're talking about— so the study area is from 8th South down here all the way up to, what is it, 4th? South, and from over here, Tiger Way, all the way over to— Uh, uh, Boulevard. Thank you. And so they're talking long, long term in the park. I think what this is intended is if that building ever came up for sale and the city had a chance, and I think Adam even mentioned, you know, maybe 30, 40 years ago, Sierra had the chance to buy that building and they passed on it. That, you know, it could be parking or a parking garage or something that would complement the area, just to be kind of proactively looking. Just like there are homes here, I don't think anybody has any plans to, you know, do anything. But if a home came up for availability, we should seriously think about Acquiring it to just increase. And same thing with businesses over here. You know, not that we're, we're trying to, you know, force anybody out, but just as things come up and are available, see, to keep in mind as we plan now, okay, what if some of these areas did come in? Somebody makes a donation to the city for You know, tax purposes and things like that, that would be a fantastic win for us. And how do we incorporate that in?

They also had a water there at the ballpark. It was very, very small. Yeah, but they said it worked very well because it was small and it wasn't huge, but gave enough water to cool the kids or whatever.

They could put their feet in it.

You know, maybe that's something over by the pavilion.

I don't know.

I know you don't want to take away from the pool, but—

I was going to say, we got a water feature here.

There you go.

Yeah, but you got to pay to get in, you know.

So they had it by the amphitheater right on the back side. Um, I know we didn't take pictures of it, but yeah.

And those, those, uh, splash pads are fun things. Kids love them. My grandson was in town, and every night I heard slash lad, which is 2-year-old for splash pad.

So we would go to Hillcrest to go play at the Yeah, and to that point, I remember when we were over at, uh, Harriman, as far as in, in their ice ribbon, they had some different water features off to the side.

Oh yeah, yeah.

I don't know if you remember that or not.

Yeah.

Just with, with those water features, it really broke up the landscaping. And I was talking with Bryce about this, but as far as the more we can have different senses, you know, like if we have video screens, if we have water features, And not real expensive ones, but just the change, you know, it makes a big difference in the whole appearance, the feel of the place.

Yeah.

Gary, how many acres are we talking about compared to what we saw?

Uh, yeah, in our park?

Yeah.

Uh, off the top of my head, I'd have to look. Ryan, will you look that up?

And then currently we've used that for You know, old car shows, et cetera, et cetera.

Yeah, this area out here especially.

And so would, would those opportunities be gone?

We don't want them to be gone. Okay. We're trying to come up with areas that we can keep what we have, enhance them, and add in additional things. Yeah, I think one of the things, uh, and Bryce, you've got a really good perspective on this. You know, we've talked about Orem Fest. Fantastic. How many people do we have at Orem Fest this last year?

We had 100,000 in one weekend, in the 3 days at City Center Park.

Yeah, 100,000. I don't know that we want 100,000 in 3 days here, that we're looking for that type of event, but, you know, consistently every few weeks, we've— we have 2,000, 3,000 people could come in to an event and do some things. What was the car show, do you remember?

It was 12,000, uh, that day. One of the things— I mean, Kenice and Sydney are here in the back right now— but one of the things we've talked about as an events team is rather than delivering one 100,000-person weekend, could we deliver 200 5,000-person days over there between the Cirrus Shell and the swimming pool and then an ice ribbon and then a farmer's market? You know, we have Number of events that are at that 3,000 to 5,000. They are lower impact for our public safety team, and it would drive the consistency of the traffic, which we think would be the— Maybe the most healthy for a district like this. So, yeah, definitely the car shows, to Councilman McDonald's point, that's exactly what we would want more of. The, you know, several neighborhood-level events, not the all hands on deck, every single person is in the park for an entire weekend.

We're also looking at our active transportation plan, looking at bikes and things like that. And one of the things we're really worried about is how do we get, you know, a family that wants to go, mom and dad on some bikes and some kids, you know, on bikes with training wheels and stuff like that, to be able to get from Sierra to City Park. You know, that's from here, it's only 4 blocks away safely. And, and we talked about that at our last work meeting also. You know, there's some— we've talked about a hawk here on Center Street. We've talked about a light being over here, uh, by our entrance to the City Center block and Smith's, you know. And but yet now through the neighborhoods, how do you get people safely from one park to the other to, you know, all year long be able to move around and enjoy activities. So it's just money. So I have a request for $30 million, and if you would just give it, we'll, we'll come and spend it wisely.

I like the suggestion that the Miller Group does, uh, entertainment. function of their business, right? So maybe we can get them to come on down tomorrow.

Well, and that is—

They don't have you talk to any presidents.

They don't?

There you go.

And that's, that's part of—

They've got their name on stuff at UVU.

They have some Utah County stuff.

And Mayor, that's, that's one of the reasons we wanted to go to the ballpark and talk to Larry H. Miller and then have the mayor to come to talk about that public-private partnership and how we can work together with other groups and organizations. You know, one of the events at the Shell this summer was that Dancing Under the Stars we went to, and it's the Center for Dance and everything going on. And what a, what a great performance they put on with all of their people and activities. So With this, we would be looking for ways to partner with, you know, everything from a Larry H. Miller Group to a UVU to come in and do some things, to anybody and everybody.

And to the question about things like the car show, I mean, maybe we're doing the car show here. But we, I mean, we've got 23 parks, so we've got a lot of different resources we could use for getting different events optimized at different places too.

And one of the things that we have talked about is, uh, not come to any conclusion, but just recognizing as this park develops and as we work on making connections between parks and areas, Summerfest, there may be More activities down here and less at the city during Summerfest, be able to—

almost—

what did I say?

Summer—

oh, dollar.

That's a lawsuit waiting to happen. Nobody should say that. I have to put $5— I just was told I have to put $5 in the swear jar.

I'll say, I love that idea and want to emphasize that concept. I mean, this is, this is the heart of downtown, and so it should be something of a, of a bridge between both bookends of our downtown, which is this, this campus here and then University Place. And we already, to some extent, do events all along the 3 locations, but the more we can We can spread it out and connect these 3 areas. We'll have a better ability to provide events where people feel safe and welcome, and that it's exciting. It's exciting community gathering, not concerning gathering.

Any other questions?

Thank you for the feedback and the conversation, and we'll take these ideas and Get with the consultant and have them see if they can't refine their, their draft, their concept that, that you've seen, and try to tailor it a little better for us.

Okay.

And then, and then in Mill Creek as well, any ideas that you feel from there, they're good to incorporate?

Yeah.

Okay. Well, thank you, Gary. All right, item 2.3. Uh, presentation about 501 updates. Steve Earl.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, so as you may remember, I think it was 2 meetings ago, we had a discussion about 501s and what they were and what they do, what they can and can't do. Um, I think there was a desire for some additional information on those very questions, and so I was asked to do a little research and come back with you and give you some additional information on what 501s are. Some of you might already be somewhat familiar with 501s, and I apologize in advance. Sometimes I find myself tripping over the 501 and I end up saying 503s or different things like that, but you know what I'm talking about, 501s. So, uh, A 501 is just basically an entity organized under Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code. Most of you are probably familiar with 501 organizations, which are charitable organizations, and the s are just sort of the next subsection. It's a different kind of entity organized under the Internal Revenue Code. So 501s are nonprofit Tax-exempt organizations. The entity itself is tax-exempt, although contributions to 501s typically are not deductible as charitable contributions. They are— they're described as social welfare organizations. You might ask, what does that mean? Well, the Internal— or I think it's the Treasury Department actually has defined that as an organization Operated for the promotion of social welfare, and it's primarily engaged in promoting in some way the common good and general welfare of the community. So that's still kind of general, still kind of vague, subjective, but basically if it could be interpreted to be something that promotes the general welfare, it's going to fall under that description. So you have a number of prominent examples of 501s in this country that, that include a variety of causes, if you will, or positions on, on social issues. A couple examples would be the National Rifle Association, the Sierra Club, obviously 2 entities with very different missions and aims, but they both fall under that organizational structure of 501. So 501s, and maybe this is the difference between it. Maybe one of the questions is what's the difference between a 501 and a 501? So a 501 is devoted basically exclusively to charitable activities, and that can be, that can be scientific, religious, educational, artistic, those kinds of activities. 501s, the charitable organizations, are not allowed to engage in any kind of political campaign involving a candidate running for office. So they can't, they can't give donations, they can't distribute literature, commercials, any of that. So this is where 501s are a little bit different. They are allowed to engage in political activity as long as political activity is not their primary purpose. And generally that means you determine what their primary purpose is by where they spend the majority of their money. 501s means— yeah.

You know how that works as far as if you're supposed to determine where they spend the majority of their money, but you can't see how they spend their money?

You can see how they spend their money. So they basically are required to report their expenditures on political issues. To the IRS. I think it's called Form 990, if I'm not mistaken.

So you can see where they spend it. You just can't see their donors.

That's correct. So you can see where they're spending. Now, the impression I have is they're only required to— I believe they're only required to report their expenditures when it's related to political activity and not when it's nonpolitical activity.

But you're—

that would be public information.

You would be able to see where those expenditures are going.

Mayor said you couldn't see their donors.

Is that accurate? Cannot see their donors. So that's one of the differences with the 501 is they're not required to disclose their donors. So a person basically is allowed to donate an unlimited amount, unlimited amount of money to a 501. And, uh, and again, under federal law, they're not required to disclose who their donors are.

That's, that's where the term dark money comes from, because you can't see where their funding is coming from.

I would suppose so, yeah.

And when are they filing their disclosures? When are those required to be filed?

I am guessing it's like part of the tax year when everybody else is required to file disclosures, but I'm not 100% on that.

So if they're engaged in a political campaign, which starts in June and ends in November, we're not going to know about any of their activities until the following April.

You know, again, I would have to look that up to give you a definitive answer on that. So I don't know exactly when the filing deadline is.

Okay.

And then who defines— are there definitions of political activities?

Yes. I mean, I think it's political activity. I mean, there's the obvious activity. So when you're engaged in supporting a candidate, a ballot proposition, a political cause of some sort, that's obviously going to be considered political activity. So—

Anything that has a political bias?

No, I wouldn't say anything that has a political bias because political bias is very broad, right? So if I'm, for example, if I'm the NRA, I'm supporting gun rights, I can lobby Congress, you know, on the issues that are important to me.

That would be—

that would fall under the definition of social welfare. I don't think that would be considered political activity. So political activity, I think, is largely defined in, again, supporting elections, candidates, ballot propositions, things like that.

So if it happens during an election season, could that be defined as supporting elections?

You know, that's a good question. I don't know the answer for that for sure. I guess the IRS would have to make that determination whether it was or not.

So, I mean, why else would you do it, right?

So, so let me go back to 501s. They cannot make direct campaign contributions to political candidates, but they are allowed to pay for independent expenditures that encourage the public to support or oppose political candidates. So basically that means an independent expenditure Is any communication or activity that is not coordinated or made with the cooperation, consultation, or at the request of a candidate or political party. It has to be independent. So they cannot coordinate with candidates, say, hey, I'm going to go, you know, organize this campaign on your behalf. I'm going to go, hey, what do you want on the billboard that I'm going to pay for to, you know, support your candidacy? They can't do that. They can't coordinate those activities. It has to be completely independent.

What would constitute coordination?

Again, an example would be going to the candidate and saying, hey, I am gonna— I'm gonna do mailers on your behalf, or I'm gonna do radio spots, or I'm gonna do billboards. What message do you want me to put on there for you? You know, what's the word you want out on that? That would be coordination. Or going to them and saying, hey, do you want me to go ahead and— where do you want me to put this sign?

Or what What's your position?

What radio station do you want me to put this on? Those would be coordination and cooperation.

I think the confusion in arm is some groups have both that arm and a PAC arm, and they're careful as to what goes into which arm.

Well, they're both PACs.

No.

Is a 501 PAC?

I think they're separate entities.

They're 2 separate entities. They have a PAC which donates to civic To campaigns and a 501, which does not. I think that's a big difference.

Yes, a 501 cannot donate directly to—

I mean, we all know that you can't donate to campaigns. That's not what— that's the—

well, they don't—

what we're talking about here, right? We're talking about political influence and how to—

They use a different fund to do that.

Using political influence under the guise of a 501, a charitable organization. where they're not disclosing where their donors are coming from.

A 501 is not a charitable organization.

Correct.

Social welfare.

It's social welfare.

Yes, that's right.

But I mean, that's where the hubbub is, right?

Is—

I think the hubbub is assuming they do give anything to political campaigns and they don't. In the stronger form, they do, which is a Utah PAC, and they say where money comes from and they Say where it's going out to.

So in that example, who paid for the survey that came out that was a push-pull that had some pretty defamatory things?

I assume Stronger Orm.

I don't know that.

But they keep—

They have to do a paid for.

There was no paid for, so nobody really knows at this point.

I don't know that.

Do 501s have to do the survey somewhere?

I saw someone told me they had the survey. I didn't get the survey.

Sorry.

There's—

so there's state law on doing the paid for. I think that applies. I'd have to go back and look at that language, but I think that applies to anybody who does an advertisement. So, but I'd have to—

Emails being sent out, polls should have a paid for on them.

I would think so, yes. Without double-checking that, that's— yes, that's what I think.

Okay.

So going back to the one of the questions that you may have asked, Lynnae. So 501s, although political activity can't be their primary activity, they are allowed to engage in unlimited lobbying or issue advocacy. So again, like the NRA, they can do unlimited lobbying, issue advocacy, you know, for an issue that's important. So, okay. So back to the— we talked about the donors to a 501 do not have to be disclosed. I think there was a question at the last meeting we talked about this, about whether the city could potentially require disclosure, 501s to disclose their donors. And the answer to that is Maybe. It's unclear. There are 2 states that have adopted regulations requiring additional disclosure of donors, that, that being New York and Connecticut. So there's some precedent for that. However, I think there's also some question whether those laws would pass legal muster. And to my knowledge, there's not been a challenge in the courts that we can look to for You know, precedent, but, you know, the federal government has kind of established what the rules are for 501s. And generally, you know, states or local governments can be somewhat limited if the federal government has already regulated. But in some cases they can, in some cases they can't. It's the bottom line. So I guess what I'm saying is it's possible that a local government entity could regulate that, but not certain that that would pass. a legal challenge. So I think that we have, as we've looked into this, we felt that if there was an interest in requiring 501s to disclose their donors, probably that would have a better chance of success if it were done at the state level rather than at the local level. Just, you know, they would have better resources to enforce, to Measure, investigate, you know, all those kinds of things. So they— and plus, again, there's already the precedent of some other states doing that. I have not seen anything about local— other local governments having done this before.

And they haven't been challenged yet in other states?

Not to my knowledge. I haven't seen anything where I've noticed that there was a legal challenge to that.

So—

And may I just clarify? So what these other states have done is required more transparency.

Yes.

From that donor. Yeah.

So they, yeah, they've required greater transparency of donors beyond what federal government, you know, requires, which is nothing basically. They didn't require any transparency basically as to donors.

You know, 501s have had an impact on cities. Are they more, are they usually bigger like the NRA, bigger national organizations?

I, you know, I haven't looked into that, Mayor, so I don't know the answer to that. I think that I mentioned a couple examples just because those are well-known national organizations, but I don't know to what extent they're, you know, local. I mean, I'm sure there are many, many 501s that are probably active on the local. You don't hear about those.

You don't hear about problems. Yeah. And kind of why we went down this path was You know, when I first got elected, we had some issues on the voting side as far as different city council members were voting one way and telling constituents they were voting a different way. And so there's confusion, uh, with people. And so we just wanted to make sure that everyone always knew how their city council members voted. That's what took us down the transparency portal path, was to be completely transparent. And that's what our residents expect, is they want to know. what we represent, what we vote for. You know, they, they want to make sure that we're representing them the best way possible. And so we've got that transparency portal that's been set up to— it's actually been adopted by other cities as a model of, you know, a really good way to transparency to, to the city council. And so I— so the goal, you know, however we get there, We need to make sure that we have transparency on where the money is coming from that's funding our local elections. This hasn't been a problem up to now because without a 501, you can see where the money's coming from, who's contributing, and how it's being, being worked. But with this new 501 element, it just creates an invisible area of donors. And I mean, one of the number one things in politics is follow the money.

Thank you.

And with this, you can't follow the money. You don't know where it's coming from, so you don't know who's trying to influence our elections.

Mayor, the comment I got from this group is Stronger Together Community is a 501. Its purpose is support and strengthen our public schools and foster greater public participation in local government. Stronger ORM, a Utah— a registered Utah PAC, is proposed to support exceptional candidates running for public office who make positive, lasting contributions to our school and community. The roles of these 2 organizations are distinct. They have separate funding, separate bank accounts, and separate reporting. This is normal. Stronger OR PAC supports candidates. I've been a contributor to that. All contributions received and expenditures made are fully disclosed as required by Utah law. Stronger Together Community, 501, is not engaged in campaigning. And has not made any contributions to any candidates.

So that—

and that's what they're telling us, and that's great. We can believe them, take them at their word. But simple things like the survey.

I think the survey was paid for by Stronger Org.

Well, no one said who paid for it, which—

Yeah, I don't know why.

I don't know.

I didn't see the survey.

I heard about it, but it was a push poll where you push certain answers on people and shape opinion, right?

Yeah.

I also saw that was—

yeah, I heard my name was on it.

I said, not running. I wasn't running 2 years ago. I heard my name. Yeah, I heard my name was on this push poll.

So I also saw a comment from that group regarding why they have a 501, and the comment was something to the effect of, we could do that, but we don't plan on doing that. And to me, I'm like, okay, Right there just says you've got to look into this because you don't take—

I haven't heard they plan to do—

Talking, please. Yeah, you don't take someone's word for, you know, we could do that, but we're just not going to. The reason we have laws is just to keep the dogs from barking and disturbing neighbors and to keep everybody happy and to just make sure everybody has the guardrails up. Um, so if there are some potential— if they're— I'm not accusing anyone of anything. I'm just saying if there's a potential For confusion, then we should probably look into this. This is such a new thing for us here that I have gotten lots of emails. You got that email from them. I've gotten lots of emails from the other side, and they've listed things that they have observed happening, questions that they have, violations that they're appearing to see. So from a city standpoint, you know, I think what Steve has said This is a federal designation, but my opinion is anything we can do to create greater transparency and better guardrails so we don't have problems after the fact, we should do that. I'm— this is not against anyone, but frankly, someone today sent me just our last election, right? There were some adjustments made. And this particular group funded 3 candidates throughout the election through in-kind donations to the tune of $27,000 that were not claimed and given to the public until December after the election.

2 years ago or—

Yeah, in 2023. So expenditures were made in May, June, August, October, November.

Their reporting is different than the candidates?

They just don't report.

And the candidate's supposed to pick up in-kind contributions.

Right.

Right.

But the Lieutenant—

In-kind contributions. The document was the first thing that I was aware of.

Can I finish? Sure.

Go ahead.

But the in-kind contributions were then reported at the behest and direction of the Lieutenant Governor's Office. But the Lieutenant Governor's Office had made this group Aware of these— I'm sorry, there had been complaints filed during the election of 2023 of what this group was doing that were not taken care of until after the election was over. And it was at that time that the Lieutenant Governor stepped in and said, okay, let's see if we can make this right by filing this in-kind donation. Frankly, that's not what campaign finance disclosures are for. They are for a transparency tool to help voters determine who's supporting my candidate, what does my candidate stand for, who did they maybe have ties to, whatever. People have different interpretations for all of that, right? I mean, I've been accused of a $50 donation buying my vote, so, or influencing me. So Everybody has different reasons to have that information. I think the point that a lot of people want to have come from this discussion is, is there something we can do to create greater transparency in Orem and in our elections?

Right.

Because there has been a track record of, in Orem itself over the last 2 years, that has not happened.

There have been problems.

Right.

And to your point, when it goes to Lieutenant Governor's office and then it's forced to be put on the records after the fact, that doesn't help anybody. I mean, that it's completely pointless other than to say something happened, but what does it mean? And so we kind of have a situation right now where we're in an election, we're dealing with these same sorts of things, and we don't have any process to deal with it other than to say, well, Maybe after the election we'll figure out what happened. Or there's a 501 and we don't know who's funding, you know, different candidates. So anyway, Steve, just kind of—

I'm finding a little bit of an answer to your question about when those forms have to be filed for a 501 when they make political expenditures. So I have to amend what I said before. So not only do they have to file a form with the IRS, but it looks like they also have— if their expenditures exceed a certain threshold amount, which in some cases I think is $250, in others it's $1,000, they may be required to file a form with the Federal Election Commission as well. And that has to be— looks like the deadline is generally at the end of the quarter in which the expenditures are made, or they might even be required to file what is called a 24-hour or 48-hour report. for what they call large late expenditures. And so anyway, so they obviously haven't had time to dig into this in depth, but it does look like there are some, some greater reporting requirements for large expenditures that are made in the middle.

So if we wanted to find those reports, if people are listening to this and they're like, and okay, well, let's just see, let me educate myself and see. Who's given what money or what are they spending money on? Where would they look? Where would that report be filed?

Yeah.

So again, they are required to file this Form 990 with the IRS. But in addition, depending on the amount, I think, and the timing, they may also be required to file additional forms with the Federal Election Commission. It's called Form 5 with the Federal Election Commission. So I'm assuming that that also would be a public document that people could find. By going to the Federal Election Commission website, I would assume. So, but again, having not dug deep into that, that's what I have.

So there should be something. Ideally, if this entity has been in place for over a year, there should be some filings there.

Well, it's the— I think it's the expenditures when— and that trigger the filing requirements. They could have been in existence for a long time, but if they didn't make those political expenditures, they didn't they are not required to file anything.

Only during that quarter.

It's only when they make those expenditures that they have that triggers the obligation to file.

And that's— you said that'll show up on the 990?

Well, the 990 is with the IRS. Then there's an additional reporting requirement with the Federal Election Commission.

And that's what I was saying. That's what we're trying to figure out, how you would get that for the PAC or the 501.

That's for the 501.

If they didn't make contributions, it'd be reported on there.

And though this is, this is reporting expenditures, not contributions.

Expenses.

Because depending on how that works, the 990 is supposed— well, Tom knows this, you're accounting. The 990 is supposed to be filed at the end of the tax year, right?

Yeah.

But they can get extensions. And in some cases, they don't ever file a 990 or they file it super late. So with all that in mind, we just need to nail down if this information is really available And if it's not, then we need to try and figure out some kind of a mechanism where we can get some clarity on what's going on with the money. Because if it keeps getting pushed out, pushed out, pushed out, it's after an election, it's just worthless.

And again, I think we have to distinguish between expenditures versus contributions, right? So these reporting requirements are just expenditures. They're not donors or contributions.

When does a PAC have to report? Because you reported the 501, whatever those letters are, and they said they've never given any money to a candidate or to a PAC, and the PAC is contributing to campaigns and/or surveys and/or whatever. When do they have to report who they've paid?

I unfortunately didn't research that.

Didn't look that up.

But obviously, if they're donating money to a candidate, the candidate's going to have to disclose that on their In-kind or otherwise, they're supposed to report it.

Correct.

And then can I— because another question I've received is confusion of names. Can they be— so this person is saying, you know, I can't find it on utahdisclosures.utah.gov or whatever it is, because they have a DBA of Stronger Together, but it's Stronger Orem. You can't find Stronger Together because it's under Stronger Orem. So, um, uh, Stronger Together is not listed on the site alphabetically, can only be found if you know they used— they used to be Stronger Orem, or search for Stronger Together, which reveals Stronger Orem, AKA Stronger Together. So they've got 2 different entities. Stronger Together, Stronger Orem 3, Stronger Community. And you listed 2 of those, Tom.

Yeah, this one talks about—

How can you have the same name? How can you do a DBA with one of the names of the entities repeating a name of one of the other entities? I mean, do you know?

I don't have any information about that, so I can't answer that question.

Confusing things. I mean, you've got laymen trying to— you don't have accountants trying to figure, you know, if I want to go do some research as a voter, I would never find this stuff, right? I'd give up before I could find it.

And what we've had up until this point is people make donations, candidates spend money, it shows on their financial report. Just go look at the financial report. Everyone knows what's going on. Then it's a case where we've got a pick-a-pack and a 501. It just gets extremely confusing. So if the goal is for citizens to understand what's going on, anything we can do to help them be able to do that would be extremely helpful.

So.

Yeah, I mean, totally. This could, this could all be capisce. You know, we could have everything could be exactly what Tom is saying where they didn't donate here or they did do this or they did it, but we don't know. It's too confusing right now. And the one statement that I said, you know, where We're never going to do that. I just am not going to— I don't feel in my position that I should accept that type of an explanation. I feel I have a duty to create guardrails and create an environment where we don't have that opportunity for discussion and dissension and, you know, all division, all of that. Let's just figure out how to make it transparent and clear. So there's no accusations and there's no shady behavior. So I, I don't know. I'm in favor of a civic— of a municipal ordinance to try to create more transparency. If this entity doesn't want to be transparent and they choose to sue us, then we deal with that when that happens. But why would they do that? Why would they not want to disclose Be more transparent about their entity.

I'm looking online at everyone who contributed between May and August, their last report online.

You're talking about Stronger or everyone who—

Stronger Community is the C4.

Yeah.

That's where—

That's the one they said they're not making any contributions to political people.

They are saying that, right? Do we have, do we have a file?

I don't know that. I'm just looking at Stronger Orem and everyone who made a contribution to it.

But Stronger Orem isn't the issue. Stronger Community is the C4.

Yeah, that's the one you're, you're assuming has done things that are—

I'm not assuming anything. I'm just saying we need to have guardrails up to make sure there's transparency there. And why not put in place an ordinance that provides transparency, provides opportunity, so we can stop these public discussions that are going on? They don't like being accused of it. Other people don't like thinking they're doing things. Let's just do something that creates an entity, an opportunity for transparency. That would be good governance.

Yeah, but if they're not making contributions to city— to contribute to campaigns, we can't ask them to do that, can we?

But do we know? I mean, as far as that information, who knows when that will be disclosed?

I think, Steve, you ought to reach out to them to see if they'll give you a report.

No, wait, wait, wait, wait. No, there are 501s for these. These laws in New York and Connecticut are regulating C4s. So of course we can put an ordinance in place to regulate C4s. We don't have to see what they're doing.

But you just need to see what they're doing.

To decide whether we're going to pass an ordinance or not.

Okay.

Why not be more transparent?

Yeah, transparency is what it's all about, right?

What's the holdup? Why would you not want to do that?

Well, I think there's 2 issues here. One is transparency, and I think we can ask them for that. The other is the role of the federal government, the state government, and the local government. I think we don't want to get into that mess right now.

I don't have a problem getting into it. No one's been—

Then I invite you to do so.

And then I would vote yes on doing it, on more transparency. So I guess your vote is no.

We don't have that on the agenda, do we?

We don't have it on.

So I, I've sent you some information. I encourage you to research that as well.

So I guess 4 people are going to decide whether this goes on the agenda then.

4 people always decide what goes on the agenda.

I know, that's my point.

Yeah, I know. So we got the school district to learn more.

I'd love to hear more what Steve finds and what Best options are.

I mean, I just find from a— we're fearful of stepping on federal, state. I just find that a weak argument because truly what it's about is transparency. And is a group going to sue if they're truly doing nothing? Are they going to not want to be transparent? I mean, that's no different. My statement there is no different from, you know, we don't plan to do that, except for, let's just make it safe for everyone.

The core of everything we're talking about, so picks are transparent, PACs are transparent if they report on time and if they actually put their information out, and then 501s are not. If we're going down to that, then no way for us to— I don't know, I guess look at these other ordinances that have been done, see if there's anything that can be done, you know, to, to, to make that transparent in oral. Maybe there's not, but we, we can explore it.

That's all I'm asking for.

Yeah.

And, and the other issue is time. I mean, we're in the thick of this election. I don't want to get to the end of this election and then, then February, after all the dust has settled, have these announcements made by these entities that, oh, guess what, this is what your financials should have said after the fact. Anyway, we— You want to go, Steve?

I am not the one that makes that decision, so that is up to—

He said he's willing to look into it.

And I think, I think it'd be a good idea to do that. I mean, I mean, the key thing is transparency. Where is the money coming if they have the money?

Is there no harm, no foul if they're not doing anything wrong?

If they're concerned about who's giving them money, why wouldn't they let us know? As a city, I think we could— we have that opportunity.

I just think it calms our city more.

If we're trying to be transparent, like everything's in the open, is that something open to both?

And I, I say the entity that is making Campaign contributions is fully open and is reporting it.

Right.

And this is an entity you've donated to, Tom. Let's just make that transparent too.

I have. I told it right up front.

Continue to echo their—

No, I'm just saying, you can see online everyone who's made a contribution to the political campaign.

Right.

But I think we've talked about this, but you continue to echo their talking points.

So what do you think?

As you echo a conspiracy theory.

Oh, please. No. No conspiracy theory here. My transparency, sir. Please don't accuse me of that. That would be out of place.

See if you can get Medicaid.

I'm sorry, what?

State New York and just see what their ordinance was or the law and see.

I will pull that down to municipal level.

Yeah, I mean, I'll do whatever the council wants me to do. So just need guidance and direction from the county.

I mean, I'm in favor of investigating, looking into it and seeing, you know, what our options are. And with the ultimate goal of— it's pretty simple. We just want to know what money's coming into these elections and what money's going out of these elections. So, and obviously the reason for that is, is that money has influence. You know, since the beginning of time, that money has influenced people in different ways. And it's— the citizenry has the right to know that. So anyway, um, Chris hasn't commented.

Would you like to comment, Chris?

I don't have any particular comment. I think what we've heard is self-explanatory. I think there's a reason, um, what the federal law is, and then there's also the citizen request. And so If Steve's given a good report, I don't have any further to ask from him because I also researched on that side. So I don't have a strong opinion of to continue or not. I'm just waiting to see if we can find out more.

I'll sense a vote at that.

Jeff, did you want to look into it?

That's where I'm at. I just, I would like to know, I would like if Steve's willing to dive in more and find out more information and then bring that to us and say, here's what I found.

Can you specify what you mean by more information? Are you talking about specifically this organization, this situation, or are you talking about the laws in New York?

The New York, the other situations in other places. And if it makes sense for us to pursue—

To do something like that in oral. That's the way I understand what you're saying. You're saying, look at these other laws.

Yeah, I would love Steve's legal opinion on what he thinks would be best. Let's look at these other situations and then bring that to Orem, if that, you know, hold that and see if that would make sense, or if there are some other unforeseen circumstances or consequences that could come to pass because of that, one way or the other.

Yeah.

I just feel like right now we're just— we have a lot of opinion, Yeah, and I would like more hard data, legal information from Steve.

I mean, we got a consensus on that, right?

Yeah, I guess. Okay, can I just clarify? So what I would like to see is what would that look like on a municipal level? What's going on in New York and Connecticut? What would that— how on a municipal— because, you know, that's New York. How does— what does this mean for me? You know, me as a legislator in Orem?

I think the issue here though is we're looking to redefine the whole 501 organization at our own municipal level, and I'm not sure that's what we want to do here. Do we really want to redefine 501s?

We're not— 501s are defined by the IRS.

They are defined by the IRS.

So reporting requirements are also defined by that. So by redefining the reporting requirements, we are redefining the No, we're not.

501s are defined by the IRS. What these 2 states have done is these 2 states have added some additional requirements so they can see what's going on behind the scenes in this 501. And if that's—

losing my voice—

but if that's possible for them to have more transparency, then we're just curious what that looks like and if that would be implementable on a city level.

I have no problem with more transparency. I'm just not sure that this is the tree we want to bark up. And all the things that we're working on, is this the most important?

Well, there's a lot of things we're working on. We've got endless things.

We do have endless things we're working on. So is that how we want Steve to use his time?

We're in an election and there's a lot of people in the community that wonder what's going on with this 506 that's now inserted itself into our politics.

Which has stated expressly that they are not spending money on election politics. So what you're saying basically is you don't trust them.

Well, what I'm saying is after the last election, there was whatever the number was, $24,000, $25,000. There was this announcement of this much was spent. Well, after the election from this group.

So—

And can I be clear? I have the printout right here. That was $27,464.29 per candidate. $80,000 was not disclosed during the campaign of in-kind donations. So this is nothing about the candidates. This is about an entity that provided in-kind donations To candidates, and none of that was disclosed at that time.

Turn the page and read the details.

It was disclosed after the fact, after the election was over.

And that's what I'm talking about. This is the $23,000— oh, I guess it's $23,756.29 amongst 3 candidates.

Did you report it on your personal?

Yes.

And then it was December.

They reported when they did that.

You reported the pancake breakfast.

I reported anything that was my— that was mine for me when it was required to be reported.

So what— so what—

I don't—

I really don't want to go after you guys. This is not my point here. I just pulled this out to say—

So it's important to note to the public that it wasn't $80,000. It was a total of $23,000 amongst 3 candidates.

Right. And thank you, because you know what? I've been confused this whole time. And why?

Because this wasn't made If you read the back page, it describes in detail what that was.

So that's what that amendment—

Right.

But this did not come out until December after the election.

And those funds— and also the other point is—

I'm not making how much money. I don't even care about that. I don't even want to go there with you. I really do not.

Was that required to come out? One of the things that we asked for after the election—

There's May, June, August, October, November, December. June again, October, lots of expenditures.

And this was all from the same group that just set up the 501.

Yeah, but nothing was reported, nothing until December. This is the same entity that's telling us—

How should that have been reported?

I don't know.

We trust them because they're telling us they're following—

I don't know what their requirements are. I don't know anything about that. So that was my question is—

Right. And my point is not to point at candidates or any of you. Okay, my point is to say that this entity, you know, that we're— they're fine. And, you know, they told us they're not gonna do it like this. I'm really not trying to accuse them of anything, but I'm saying—

Sure sounds like it.

This is a significant thing that happened because of some reporting issues, because of transparency issues. So, which is the bottom line, right?

No, I mean, it just gets very confusing when you've got different entities. Well, it's one entity, it has multiple names, multiple structures, and then you have something like this happen, and it just— that doesn't look good. And like Lynette says, it's not on you, the candidates, it's on them with their reporting, and the Lieutenant Governor basically forcing them to report that. After the fact, you know. So, but that's water under the bridge. What we're trying to figure out now is now they've set up a 501 and they're telling us everything will be great after we've just experienced this. So in the community, there's a lot of questions, and it's not a conspiracy. There's just questions of where is this money coming from. And so back to the basics of where we were is, Steve, if you can research your state laws and see if there's anything that we can incorporate in or on to help us with our transparency, then that would be great. And ideally, if we could do it by the next—

So you— Oh, sorry.

If we could do it by the next meeting, that'd be even better, just because the goal would be to get some clarity on this before we get to the end of this election.

Yeah, so it sounds like basically you're looking for kind of a summary of what the other 2 states have done, New York and Connecticut, how they In what way they required additional disclosure. That's kind of what you're—

Yeah, the real thing we're looking for is, it's high level, that is whatever they've done to encourage more disclosure, is that something that we could do on a local level? That's the question.

And what does current Utah state law say about that?

Yeah, there's not any Utah state law on it right now in terms of, you know, requiring 501s to disclose donors. There's no Utah law. So it's just purely governed by the federal law, which says they don't have to disclose donors. So, and again, you know, these 2 states, Connecticut and New York, have— Additional reporting disclosure requirements. I could look at that and see, because I have a feeling that it's like they require disclosure under certain circumstances, and we'd have to go in and find out what those are.

Exactly.

And, uh, it could be pretty simple, right?

I don't, I don't think their laws are going to be simple on it.

Near, probably, right? Yes, I mean, the solution could be simple, and that would calm our community. And frankly, I don't like to hear any side, either side, you know, attacking each other. I would just like to find a way to bring some transparency so there's peace.

So we're good with that?

Good.

Yeah, more info. Okay, you have your assignment. Thank you, Steve. Okay, let's move on. Uh, we're at item 2.4, Constitution Month activities.

Real quick.

Yeah, so this is our 3rd year doing, uh, celebrating Constitution Month, and so we've just got a kind of a lineup of things that we're going to do and promote to help, uh, residents celebrate the Constitution. So we've set up the website, orem.gov/constitution. We've got a bunch of service projects mainly happening in the next 2 weeks, both in honor of the Day of Caring and 9/11 Day of Service. So we're tying that all into Constitution Month. There's also the Healing Fields display at the mall, which just went up yesterday, where they put out a flag for everyone that we lost on September 11th. They have a little display there as well to teach us about—

That was on the news last night. Very impressive.

Well, and it's just down at University Place. And they also have some educational pieces too inside the mall. Then we have the UVU Center for Constitutional Studies. They have a 2-day conference that they talk about constitutional issues, and this year it's all about George Washington, his role in helping shape the Constitution both as a general and as our first president. So that'll be really cool. We're helping get the word out on that. The library will have a week of constitutional-themed books and resources for families to teach kids about the Constitution. So those will be available starting the 17th. And we're doing our art contest again, so kids and adults could submit pieces of art that celebrate the Constitution, and you'll have the chance to look at those and judge those. And then if, if you'd like, we have one veteran who's willing to come into our next City Council meeting and talk about what it means to swear an oath to the Constitution and protect the Constitution, uphold it from the armed forces side. So if that's something you're interested in, we can arrange that for next meeting. And then on top of that, we have a law professor at BYU who's committed to do a video with us about how the US Constitution affects us here at the city level, at the local level, and then kind of how the Constitution plays into our day-to-day activities. So pretty fun, full month, just thinking about Constitution and how great it is and what it's done for us as a nation.

That's the report.

Okay.

Any questions, feedback?

Bravo for efficiency. Very good, Peter.

He always does a great job. This Constitution Month, it's, uh, it's something we started 3 years ago and it's, it's gained momentum every year. So good job, keep it going, and it looks like it's getting bigger this year.

It'll be great. Thank you.

Oh, thank you. Okay, next up we've got item 2.5, East Amorum, uh, Canis, our events planner. And Sydney.

Thank you.

This just plugs into— okay.

Use it to click.

Hit the red.

That's a good one.

Yeah, it's gonna search your patients.

While we're floating, I'll just say, I mentioned how much we're looking forward to the new MyAurum software. Well, the amount of anticipation and how much we're looking forward to that pales in comparison to how much we're looking forward to the Taste of Aurum. This is an event that we tried to get going, started here, didn't all come together, but that has just increased the amount of anticipation and emotion and momentum.

That's right.

We're so excited to report on it because the closer and closer it gets, the more excited we get. A little scared too, but that's okay. It's gonna be really amazing, and we're happy to report on it. Okay, we are finally up and going. Yes, well, we're happy to report on Taste of Aurum and how it's going so far, as far as getting it up and off the ground in this very first year.

Perfect.

So it will take place on September 19th and 20th. So on the 19th, we'll be having a kickoff concert. The Utah Live Concert Foundation is partnering with us on this event, and if you've ever been to their Come Together Festival, you know that it is power-packed with really fun entertainers, and it will be sure to, um, please everyone here with a variety of music and sound. On Friday, we'll have that kickoff concert from 5 o'clock to 10 o'clock PM, so plan— mark that on your calendars, plan on attending.

And then on Saturday, September 20th, 12 to 8 is the food festival, but we also have live music starting at 9 AM till 10 PM. And so they'll be fun all day long, and we have a couple things we wanted to chat about.

So, um, this Taste of Orem was designed to be a little sampling of the food and music and culture that— of our people here in our community here in Orem. And so we have a few cultural booths that we'll be setting up, um, in, uh, at the event on Saturday that help to support cultures in our communities. Some of these booths will be I am so sorry if I butcher the names, but Ali E. Fassi Productions, El Chaskwe Foundation, Haitian Community in Utah, and we're working on finalizing that final one. We'll also have some art vendors of local artists that have handcrafted art, and we have a variety of artists that are coming from jewelers to painters to pottery folks and Clothing that's been designed on from local artists. So really fun art boutiques that'll be available. Do you wanna talk about the kids craft?

Yeah, we have some kids crafts and workshops. So alongside, we wanted to have something fun for some of the kids. We have Adopt a Llama. So try to figure out 100% what that one is. African drum workshop, the palm leaf headband. And then that kind of ties into cultural performances. So in the afternoon on September 20th, in between some of those bands, we have Hope of Haiti coming, the Africa Cultural Center, Ali Atassi Productions, Latin Dance Heritage, and Viva Chile. And they are doing drum performances, dancing. I think there is hula.

Uh-huh.

And yeah, it's been really exciting. awesome. Our commission's been really involved in helping us get this side prepared.

Yes, and we feel like just having this fun variety of entertainment and different interests that will attract people from all ages and all backgrounds. So we're hoping to have a lot of attendees here.

So can I just ask something?

Yes.

I don't— what's the Ali—

It's, um, it's a Polynesian dance corporation.

Yeah. So, and just for next year, love that, but maybe is there an Asian group that we can find? Is there a European group that we can find?

Yeah, we have limited amount of time slots this year, so we're hoping that next year we'll be able to have more slots available because we did try to approach several different backgrounds. Um, but this is— these are the amount that we have.

Well, and that's fabulous. I'm just— I was just like, all right, so we've got those 2 continents we haven't—

yeah, yes.

I love to dabble in all of the areas, and so hopefully we can work in more of this kind of performances in our future events.

Yeah.

So, okay, so we just wanted to kind of explain a little bit how it works at the food festival. So we have these beautiful tickets. Oh, they're patched on.

I wanted them something kind of— oh yeah, half sheet and a full sheet.

I'd like this.

Yeah.

Okay, so, and we anticipate a half a sheet, which is 20 tickets, would get a person about, uh, 6 to 7 different mini entrees, and that will fill you. We've had a really fun job lately because we've been taking pictures of the different entrees, and we get a partake of them, and we have a hard time deciding which is our favorite. And we've also been Very full the past couple weeks. So 20 tickets will get you, like, fill a person for sure, unless you want to sit all day, digest a little bit in between, and be able to try all 20. We're, you know, up for the challenge. Definitely do that. We'll have plenty of entertainment in between. Okay. Um, so people will buy these tickets and then they'll just— they're perforated tickets— and then they'll exchange them at the different food booths for the entrees. And we're going to show you a sneak peek of the different menu items that are available to give you a better idea. We do have presale tickets available right now on orem.gov/taste.

That's great.

And that will be open until the night that presale— we'll have tickets presold at the kickoff concert as well on September 19th. So let's go ahead and—

Denise, do they pick them up here?

Do you mail them to them?

Okay, so if you ordered online— good, great question— if you ordered online, there will be a will call for pickup at the event. But if you buy them at the kickoff concert, then you'll just get your tickets right then.

You can also pick them up that day at the—

yeah, at the will call.

Also say that again, the site for them to pick them up if someone's watching and wanting to.

Oh yes. Yes, orum.gov/taste. If you Google Taste of Orem, it is your top choice. No other Taste of Orem out there, guys.

And on that website, there is the ticket purchases, how it works, FAQs. These pictures and what will all be there are going to be up on the site tonight or tomorrow. Just trying to get a couple last pictures, but we'll get what's up there. This is a little bit of a sneak peek. We did We have 6 restaurants that we put on the slide. So here are a couple of things. That is the number of tickets. They're all great and delicious. And we've been posting about our restaurants, and we'll go into a little bit about that.

Phineas, do you have a recommendation? Say, what if you have a family with 3 kids, 4 kids? How many tickets would—

About how many? Um, I think that you probably could get away with just a full sheet for 2 people if the, if the kids are just having little bites.

Uh, but 20 tickets for a very full adult, we would say. Yeah.

So here's one in between, like little kids.

And these again will be all up there with the number of tickets. So if you really want to do all the math and see what you want to taste, you can add it all up, make sure you get the right amount of tickets. See what your kids were like. We have a really good variety, um, like of things that are really unique. And then also we have like, there's mac and cheese and there's, um, burgers and, you know, there's chicken sandwich, just different things. And then there, there's, there's everything.

And yes, maybe just a note to that, the half sheet and full sheets are available for presale. You can buy a single ticket at the event. And so if you underestimate by 4, You're not, you know, you're not committed to another 30 tickets.

Yes.

You can just buy one more.

Yeah, sir, we have that. Um, yeah, so right now, like Bryce said, we're doing the full sheet and the half sheet up there. That's a screenshot from that, um, from the website, and then the day of ticket sales on the bottom there.

So yeah.

One other, just mention, if you are so stuffed and you're like, I don't know what to do with the rest of these tickets, we will be collecting extra tickets buckets as donations for the Gold Star Monument. So that's how people can— I'm full, I'm tapping out— they can just drop them in the bucket and we'll use those towards the monument.

Perfect.

All right, we have a little behind the scenes, but do you guys have any questions so far?

My wife says that even though our house is full of cats, she's wondering how many llamas she could adopt.

Oh yeah.

We'll get back to you.

Okay.

Yeah, let me know.

You trying to get your man card?

All right, so a couple of wins so far. We do have 20 restaurants that are ready to go. We've personally met and visited all of them, um, and they're very excited and they definitely feel the support of the city. We've talked to a lot of them. They're very excited. We focus on brick and mortar, or permanently established businesses/restaurants in Orem. A lot of them are feeling the love. They've been in other cities. They feel that Orem has really supported them. It's a great tie with Orem Business Alliance, getting them to feel appreciated for being in Orem. We have sold $6,000, a little bit more than that in free sale already, and we know this last couple weeks will be the biggest push. So we're excited for that. We've got a really really good positive social media response. We've been— a lot of videos, a lot of ads, a lot of people are sharing. All the feedback is really good. People are really excited to see what's there, how many tickets they can buy. They're sharing with their friends. And then all of our staff is ready to go. We've got a lot of practice, a little organized, but we had a meeting this week. We had, you know, police and fire and all of them involved and parks and everybody. We're ready for an exciting couple days.

And although we're making it sound like this is off to an amazing start, it's going to be perfect, it hasn't been without its challenges. It is a very first-year event, and so everything has been having to develop, being developed by scratch, essentially. We've had some great inspiration from Taste of Edmonton, Sydney's hometown, but Legal, thank you. We've had tons of agreements that— and contracts that have been new that have had to go through approval processes. Lots of questions from the restaurants, and we are like, that's a good question, we don't know, let's get back to you. Concerns from restaurants of participating and giving up a Saturday and having enough staff to staff not only their brick and mortar but this event as well, and just having that buy-in. And so, um, we are so grateful to have 20 restaurants that have said yes, taking a chance on us. Yes, so grateful for that. Um, there have like definitely, if it was a dream world out there, we would have way more time. We are feeling the crunch right now with getting everything ready to be able to put on website to be able to print, to have banners in place and all the wayfinders and everything. So we're definitely feeling crunched, although even with all the time with Orem Fest, we still feel this way. So, um, and then also we're so grateful to have, um, this— the entertainment taken care of by the Utah Live Concert Foundations. But, um, as with any new partnership, there's, you know, different hiccups and priorities and vision of the event. And so just trying to help navigate that has been, has been interesting and challenging as well. We feel like it's going to be a really great event, and but it hasn't been without its challenges. So do you have any questions about a little more of the behind the scenes?

And We probably should have done the other way— challenges, then the wins— but that's okay. Try to remember the wins. I was listening, I was like, but it's okay. Did you have a question?

I don't have a question, I just have a comment. Um, I am so excited about this. This has been a dream for years, and the opportunity of bringing Different cultures together. And we do that in a lot of different ways. But I think the opportunity of bringing different cultures together to experience different foods, dance, music, some rock and roll going on on the stage, I think it's awesome. Thank you for doing this and making it happen. I think this will become another forum hit. And, you know, the hope is, you know, with everything that we do is to bring people together. But I hope in bringing all these cultures together that it feels like one big happy Orem family. Yeah, we're all part of the same community and family, and we can be good neighbors and friends and get along and learn from each other. Thank you for doing this.

Yeah, that's our hope.

And we would love, obviously, to see all of you guys there. We would love your feedback, what you guys hear from residents, the good, the bad, bad, the ugly, everything. Obviously it's the first year, there's a lot of things that we have already been, you know, we'll do this better like next year, we'll fix this. So anything you guys hear, um, when we have like the post-review or whatever, I think you should let us know.

Video where you have someone like me who just likes meat and potatoes. That's what I do. I'm afraid to try new things. I wish I don't like it and just have them like, because I would love this because I'm going to go try and I'm not I'm gonna be like, oh, I tried this ceviche and, and it didn't cost me $50. Or, you know, I could just see if I liked it or not. I love it.

Yeah, and that's the, that's the point is like, I think a lot of these restaurants people would go to, but it's scary to bring your family, right? And bring, you know, spend $100 and you don't know if they're gonna like it. But here you can get a little taste. And then we have encouraged a lot of the restaurants to, you know, give some incentives to come back to their restaurants. We'll be doing a couple giveaways. We've been doing videos and then hopefully, yeah, next year we'll ramp it up.

That'd be really fun.

So are we doing the, like, the senior center parking lot maybe is for disabled parking or—

I'm glad that you asked that. So we actually have all of the senior center, we're not reserving any of that for any reason at all. So all of that is totally open. So it will have all those senior parkings that's available, all the disability parking, same with this north lot. The only lot that we have some reservations are in, or that we're reserving, is the south parking lot, and that will have food vendors and also for the council, and we have some sponsors as well. So that, that will be the only reserved lot.

Yeah, so there should be enough of the ADA parking, and then we, because we're taking up 2 of the spots in the south one, those ones will go up temporary in the north parking lot.

Maybe increase signs that it's more hand disabled parking instead of not. Yeah, we had a lot of complaints at Autumnfest.

Yes, yes, they learned. And hopefully, um, this— by then, never mind, I won't say.

But this one will also be a lot of in and out of, um, because it's so long.

It won't be—

it won't Be, um, as like— there's no grand huge fireworks thing. So yeah, we hopefully will have a little bit more flow, and that will also help with the parking and traffic.

That's really important.

Yeah.

Have you guys pushed it at all at farmers market?

Have we pushed it at all?

Yeah.

So we're going out tomorrow night and, uh, flyers.

Yeah, go out the Wednesday.

Seems like that's a natural crowd, the people who will be there most likely.

Oh, so yeah, we got that planned.

The videos are filmed at the farmers market. Get that feel. We'll be doing another one tomorrow.

Remind everybody when it starts on Friday, when it ends on Saturday.

Yes, exactly.

5 to 10 Friday. Music starting at 9, but 12 to 8 for food on Saturday.

That'll be the biggest one.

And speaking of pushing, we have some flyers for you all to be able to push to your circles. And then we also have some tickets for Our council.

And I think you should make us buy them.

Well, we're only gonna give you one sheet, so bring your families and that might not be enough.

But we're just gonna pass this around unless there are any other questions for us.

Thank you.

I'll sell you my sheet.

Oh, sorry.

I'll sell you my sheet.

What's the discount?

No discount.

You can still, you know, buy them when you like.

All right.

Thank you guys for that presentation and getting everybody up to speed on that. Um, Bren brought up that you should all be like sufficiently hungry now after watching all this delicious food. So our food is here. Um, why don't we take a break and then we'll come back? We've got a final presentation, uh, then we need to go over the agenda. So— We'll just take a short 5-minute break to get the food back and organized, and then we'll continue on. Do you have a volunteer for the prayer on the blessing on the food?

Our beloved Father in heaven, we're so grateful for the opportunity we have to live in this great country and to be residents of this great city and to serve in the capacity that we We are grateful for the opportunity to represent those around us and to learn and grow in all the areas of life that we see around us. We are grateful for the staff and their diligence in all that they do. At this time, Father, we'd like to offer a blessing upon the food that we're about to partake of. It may give us nourishment and strength, and we can use that strength in serving thee and those around us. These favors and blessings we pray for in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen.

I'm 30 minutes early. We have a presentation. Bill Holstrom from United Way. 2.4 or 2.6.

Good afternoon, everybody. First, that presentation on the food, um, event. I'm, I'm starving now, so—

No problem.

Thank you. Um, let me share what I want to share with you, and I presume I probably need to cut a few minutes of the council time here. Every 3 years, and many of you have been on this council when I've come before, we study about community issues, about what the issues are, what the data show, what public perception shows. And I've got the same here this year. We have numerous partners that partner with us, and we're really kind of talking about— we really are focusing, which I think is appropriate for this city, What some of these stresses are hitting our families. I'm gonna go through some really quick, quick data, but let me first show you here what's on people's minds. The dark blue is quality of— is 2025. The light blue is 2022. So different issues become more important and less important over time. And I'll go into more— some more detail on this. Let me go to this one right here, issues that people are concerned about. Let me just The issue of growth continues to dominate all discussion. Everybody's worried about the growth, and we'll talk more about where that growth is coming from. Some issues are becoming less concerning to people, yet our data shows that they are actually in worse shape. I'm going to show more specifics on that. Let me, let me go back here. Um, let me show you one of my favorite slides and we'll come back and give you more data. The data shows in Utah County that we're really young. 25.5 is the average age in Utah County. We did not age. We're barely aging, which I think is very comforting for those of us that have been in their jobs for multiple decades. The data shows that we're not aging here. We're not aging. We're staying young. And that's a critical piece that makes Utah County and Orem different than almost anywhere in America. We are the youngest county of any size. There's a tiny county somewhere else that's a little younger than us, but of any size, we're the youngest county in America. Where did this growth come from? What changed a lot in Utah County is where the growth came from. Until recently, all the growth— and I have no idea why this is pixelating so strangely, but what is— what used to be that all of our growth was our own birth rates. our own natural growth. I used to refer to our natural— our local production, our local manufacturing is our original growth. In recent years, that changed, and it became that our growth was coming from outside migration in. So until COVID hit, majority of our growth was our own kids having kids and us having kids. That changed through COVID, and now a higher percentage of our people are coming in from out of state or out from another Yes, our research shows that much of that growth coming in from outside are people that have connections to Utah County already, whether they are— they're coming back to be with mom and dad, whether they went to school here. But we're not finding that— we're not finding majority population coming in saying, gee, where's Utah? I'm gonna try to move to Utah. Connections. But our local birth rates are down. Um, more people coming from the outside.

So how do we stay young?

Why didn't that other slide show that? Lying about your age, Bill?

That's the point. Yeah, that could be it, right? A lot of our outside growth are coming in. It's— we for a while thought the outside growth, people thought it was just all the retirees coming in from California. It turns in that a lot of young families are also moving back. So the pandemic, a lot of young families, telecommuters, people have other jobs, tech people, etc., brought Um, our people coming in continue to be highly educated, continue to be, um, less poverty than other places, etc. Um, and so, but our growth— you're looking at growth circles here. This is projecting 2030, 2040, 2050, up to 2060 here, and you see this growth where it's happening. The projections put you not as much growth, but Provo still shows major growth ahead in all the projections. This growth, by the way, contrary to rumors, Salt Lake keeps— it stays bigger than Utah County. But we just kept closer and closer to the curve. Let me keep going here. Housing prices, median housing prices have gone up since 2015, 72%. That's it. By the way, for me, my finance guys could help me with this. That's a big number, right? Is that a big number, Brandon? Yeah, a big number.

You can buy my books.

The part that is really significant on the housing is that we— our gap in housing really started happening during that recession of '08-'09. We have not recovered in housing starts in Utah County, in Utah, and frankly in the country We've not recovered the gap in housing since then. Our birth rate alone was not— the housing was not even keeping up with our birth rate, let alone outside people coming in. Prices for 2-bedroom rentals up 68%, 3-bedroom rentals up 57%, studio apartments up 39%, 3-bedroom 51% increase. So almost a 51% increase for housing costs. No wonder a lot of our families are struggling. We'll come back and talk about the effect of that struggle is. By the way, the number one need we get from our 211 is housing costs. Um, the other areas that we're worried about, and, Fran, you and I have talked about this numerous times, feeling sad and hopeless, that number continues to climb. Almost a third of our kids are struggling in that aspect. And the problem— when I share this data, no one ever says, oh, that can't be. Most of us are saying, yeah, I know that, I see that everywhere.

What age is youth here?

This here is junior high, high school. But here's my worry. Public perception's concern about these issues is plummeting. The issue is getting worse. And people on a scale of 1 to 5, how bad is the problem? Before COVID we had 2.8, we hit 4.4, and now down to 2.76. So basically almost halved people's concern about this issue. The, the data shows the issue got worse and we don't care. We care less. I refer to this as issue fatigue. Our communities are experiencing issue fatigue, somewhat just giving up on certain things. Let me keep going. Here, we've been measuring 3rd grade reading scores for a long time. Do you know the data on 3rd grade reading scores? If you're not reading at grade level in 3rd grade, your chance of not graduating increases fourfold. If you're low income, it increases 6 to 13 times. In fact, there's some studies— there's some states that allegedly use the reading rates to project incarceration rates. There's a correlation there. The worry here that we have Is that number of children not reading in the kindergarten— basically kindergarten readiness— it got worse. It got worse in the last few years. So we're less ready for kindergarten, and people's concern about education got cut in half again. We're getting distracted. But our— but the issue fatigue— there's hardly an issue that matters more in our community than our early— our kids' education. If you're not reading at grade level early, it affects so many aspects of your life, not only mental health, it affects your desire to do employment, it affects your— great correlation between not reading and incarceration, the whole bit. We also just have some statewide data that shows that increasing number of kids are not being read to daily, and we certainly know, and there's lots of studies, that parents are not coping well. The data shows, and the survey is showing, that parents under stress is real. A couple of data points on that, parents under stress. Barely afford the rent, you can be more stressed out household. You can barely afford the rent, you may have to take extra job, which even puts more pressure on that. Then you add another little parallel. I want to be careful I say this, but this whole increase of juvenile anxiety and depression A lot of those are now adults, parents, and anxious parent creates anxious child. So parental support becomes one of the key things that we have to deal with in community. Here's one that I want— I brought up particularly for your group. The question about your neighborhood. There's some conflicting data here. The one I think is most intriguing to me here is it is difficult to find friends in this neighborhood.

55%.

I'd like you to know my neighborhood still says 63% of people want to move out of their neighborhood in Utah County. It seems opposite. They like the neighborhood, they still want to move out of the neighborhood. But this number here is what I want you to focus on. But let me go to one more data point that I think is probably even more important here. 6 out of 10 people in Utah County miss having more people around them.

Yeah.

I don't know if I've shared with you the— have I shared with you the data about loneliness epidemic? Loneliness is worse for your health than smoking 15 cigarettes a day. This is the Surgeon General's report. Loneliness is worse for your health than obesity. Loneliness is worse than inactivity. I might add, the Surgeon General's report that I'm referencing was was done by researchers from Brigham Young University. So it's our friends right here who did this research. But loneliness is becoming a problem. We still have—

I haven't even covered it—

we still have about 22% of our population feels they have nobody around they can rely on. And I'm guessing, frankly, in both of your worlds, you run into people who are in that category. Who are calling EMS services when most of us would have called the neighbor.

The family.

Or family, right. So, um, let me keep going. Then I can come back and talk a little bit more about it. Summary is income is outpacing— costs are outpacing income. Our mental and emotional well-being is not being taken care of. Our social connections are weakening. We'll have educational gaps. Let me give you a couple just very more philosophical thoughts here about this. So as I talk to a lot of you folks here in the city, I love it when we talk about community connections and the need to be connected. Let me share a couple quick stories here that happened in this community here. I'm, you know, I'm a pretty sophisticated guy. I was going to a fancy restaurant called Burger King a few weeks ago. A few months ago. Now about a year and a half ago. And I pulled up the story, but I pulled the story. I drove into the drive-through and the microphone— the lady said, we're so short-staffed, it'll be a few minutes before I get to you. She was very apologetic. We should get back on. I said, no problem, no problem. She recognized my voice and she called me Diet Dr Pepper with strawberry because she knew my drink. I pulled around the corner to the thing and in tears she said, I needed someone to be nice to me today.

Oh, wow.

I needed someone to be nice to me today. Fast forward in that story about now, probably this was probably was a month ago. I was doing one of my favorites, you know, same fancy meals over there. And I pulled up and she said, can I talk to you for a second? I'm just in the drive-through. And she goes, yeah. She goes, I just found out my sister passed away. I needed someone that I could tell that to that would care. What I'm telling you as a community, you have a focus on our communities as we create design elements, dialogue, is we've got to find a way for people to connect with each other more. Let me tell you one more learning. I have a now 6-month-old grandbaby. I noticed when she was 3 months old, little Emma, If I turn my head from her, what would Emma do? At 3 months old, she noticed if I was looking at her. I was talking to a child psychiatrist last night on the phone as a referral for an event that I'm going to tonight. There is no research that shows that we ever go past the need to be seen. One of our fundamental challenges in our communities is that people are not being They're being isolated.

They're alone.

We design parks with park benches sometimes far away from each other. We, we know that our parents are on the phones instead of watching their kids. But I'm saying, if we talk about your community, what do we do to help people be seen? How do we help people connect with each other? Let me give you a couple more data points and I'll open up for questions. The, um, There are 2 main principles that I have in all the research I've read that seem to come— the 2 main things that make a difference of a quality neighborhood. I use this data as a fact. The number one thing that's essential in neighborhoods is the number of neighbors that know each other. That's one of them. And that alone— Robert Putnam was the first to research this— that alone lowers crime. Neighbors know each other, lowers crime, and it lowers EMS phone calls. Neighbors knowing each other. The second point that we often forget is the feeling of self-efficacy, the belief that that person themselves has the ability and the tools to make a difference, that their voice matters, that they matter. So it's not a matter of us just going and providing a service, it's giving those neighbors that feeling that they have some sort of control. So those are the 2 things that affect neighborhoods. Those same things that affect neighborhoods are the same things That will ultimately affect a child's success in school. The more adults that know a child's name, the better they are. There's tons of research, the more successful they're going to be. So I'm giving you all sorts of data about where we are in Utah County. I do have, and I can— I would normally not share publicly city-specific data on some of these areas that I want, but if you want to talk more behind the scenes about what we see in some data. But I am telling you that with great certainty that our communities are not seeing each other the way they used to, that people are less connected and people are more isolated. Let me give you one more little piece on isolation that it's somewhat— I want to carefully say because I don't want to get stuck in a political fight, but I'll say it. I'll say the concept. As we started creating lots and lots of choices for schools for kids, we did not compensate for that. By parents and kids knowing each other. So it used to be on your street, all the kids knew each other because they went to the same elementary school, and all the moms and dads knew each other because they went to the same PTA.

Yep.

That's not happening anymore. I'm not going to get into the argument, good or bad, on that, but I will say we as communities have not figured out how to compensate for that. So our communities are not as well connected as they used to be. Our kids are not as well connected as they used to be, and that's very dangerous for the future of our Am I, am I wrong on that one?

No, you're exactly right. The neighborhood school model has social benefits.

And I'm not trying to say we have to go back to that. I'm just saying we have to figure out how to compensate for it.

Zillions of podcasts on this. You know, Brian is keeping up a bowling league. Congratulations. People used to do that. Very few people do that alone.

Yep.

People used to go to church more often than they do now. They used to participate in a lot of activities. They don't because they're doing this.

And even since COVID we have not recovered since COVID our connections. People got too comfortable with a lack of connection. I might add that research on the isolation applies to introverts as much as to extroverts. Questions, comments, thoughts?

Okay, question.

Love questions.

So, and I know you say you have it, we'll get it from you, but I would be very interested in How you did your survey, if you targeted certain areas of Orange.

We did, we did. We— our survey, we would— our survey would not have been stratified by city, but not by areas within the city. Okay, so we stratified, we did a weighted average across the entire county. Um, other data pieces that we do know is that our higher growth areas have greater disconnections, and, and that's even not— that's even countering economic.

And I'm asking this because just last week I had someone say to me, No, I've got these whatever apartments in my area. I can't even get in the door to go meet people.

We, um, you're getting me where I can get myself in trouble here, but Brynn likes when I get myself in trouble. Jerry likes me more when I get myself in trouble. Um, there are design elements that we need to keep thinking about, literally how it creates community, how we connect with people. Um, more and more people want the gated communities, etc., but the need to connect There's lots of sociologists telling us where the disconnection started. Television in 1963, the mass penetration. Some say it's the clothes dryer that kept us inside. Some say it's air conditioning. One of my favorites is the automatic garage door opener. How many of us have ever— just this quick survey here. How many of you have ever seen somebody coming across the street to say hi, but you're kind of tired, you pull into your garage, you say, I'm going to pretend I didn't see them and close the garage door? Am I alone?

Just the salesman.

Just the salesman. But I'm just saying, so we— there are— so let me give you my response on this. We have to proactively create a culture that saying hi is okay again, that connecting is okay again. We have to give people more permission to connect. We have to teach them how to connect. We have to create opportunities to connect. That's why I think your food festival sounds fantastic.

Can I say something on that? So we spent some time up at a hospital in Salt Lake a couple years ago, and it was really interesting. They actually put up a sign that said, said, at 5 feet you smile, at 10 feet you say hello, or 10 feet you smile, 5 feet you say hello. And I was like, because we're all walking down the hall just dealing with our own issues, right? But it was so interesting how important that connection was in that arena too. Just a smile to me.

I think the idea of being courtesy wave makes a lot of sense, but the idea that we have to start teaching people in public modeling behavior that we say hello and smile to everybody, that the people in the parks as they're mowing the lawns are waving. It takes a small number to change the tipping point on that. But all the data shows that we've gone the wrong way.

I guess the big takeaway for me, and why we have Phil come back every couple of years and share this information, is because we often talk about events, communication, parks, that those are quote unquote quality of life. But in fact, they are becoming more and more needed. And so what we're doing as a city to provide these Connection points to provide these opportunities for our community to come together. It isn't just a want. It isn't just a nice thing. It's a real need that provides real benefit to, to our residents, and, and really in unquantifiable ways.

So well stated. It will affect your educational outcomes. The city has been very involved in trying to improve educational outcomes and change the districts. It will affect health outcomes. It will affect crime outcomes if we can do some of those things. And the key— so I love it, for example, when the fire department will pull— has time to pull a fire engine into a neighborhood and say, we're going to be here tomorrow afternoon for an hour, let everyone come out and see it. That doesn't just only build a fire department. It's called triangulation, and that people need an dynamic or purpose, something to meet Other thoughts, questions, complaints? I don't want to throw any stones at me here.

I just think you're not nice to walk into your garage.

I'll agree with you, Tom. Yeah.

Yes, like outline of best practices.

It's multiple levels. The one level is the design element. So it's making sure that parks are not just designed for formal group, but designed for A simple example is you put 2 park benches like this right next to each other. You put them like this so they can talk to each other. So mom can say, is that your kid? That's cute. I mean, that kind of a thing. So design process, that matters. The second thing is probably teaching and encouraging your teams to find ways to interact more than ever before. And so I'm going to pick on the fire department for a second. Do you mind if I pick on— I usually pick on the police, but I'm going to pick on the fire When I go to Smith's quite regularly here, I'll see some of your firefighters buying groceries. You know, by the way, you're buying groceries, don't be afraid just to say hi to people and nod at them as you walk through the aisles. Teaching the library just to make sure they're making a greeting. I mean, I go to Disneyland because my daughter works for Disney. They have a— they'll wave at you, they say hi to you. If we could have a whole community culture of our staff doing that, where the public workers working on just— if we find a way just to create that culture of we're friendly, we say hi, we engage people, we smile. That's your second point. The third thing is you have to keep giving permission to connect. You have to keep reminding people how this is essential, whether it be having campaigns to get to know your neighbor, whether you have a contest to get to know your neighbor. What we forget is the neighbor of proximity, the neighbor of place still matters. The neighbor of place has been replaced by many by Technology, et cetera. One interesting sidebar on that, and this is— if you think I stepped in something and talked about school, let me throw one more thing here, talk about families. Sometimes our overly family culture excludes others in the respect that, I mean, you think my house, who do I have over my house on Sunday dinner?

My kids.

And so I've been trying to figure out how do I— of course I want my kids over, but maybe I could invite another family over occasionally also. But I mean, if you think about our culture, we're so good on that one. And that maybe we can kind of open that door, that circle just a little bit, make that circle a horseshoe. I've probably taken— I know you have meetings starting, so I want to let you know that we appreciate— I know most of you here. I've enjoyed working with you. You probably know by now I'm very restless on these topics. Last week, believe it or not, Bryn, was my 42nd anniversary with United Way.

Congratulations.

And thank you, Tom. And I am still restless. And let's just make sure as we grow bigger that we grow better. But I think, I think Orem City, I cannot think of a city who's better positioned to address some of these issues. This has been your focus around families. This has been your focus around community. I would love to engage with you, you know, in a way from anything that we have learned, as I have been a student of neighborhoods for the last 40-some years. We can be a better community. So, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Bill.

Oh, very, very good information.

You want a copy of this?

Thank you.

Thank you, everybody.

Alrighty, go ahead and wrap up here. Do you want to go into that first?

Several of the things you've seen. So Defense Commission, you just saw their taste of arms, everything. So they're still kind of trying to get their feet under them as they transition from— to now maybe a little bit more city leadership in there. So this will be fun for us to vet. The National Resources Advisory Commission, we met last week. It was a great discussion with Bryce. Shared about plans for this area here between the library— well, the library area, outdoor area where the nursery is going to be. We solicited engagement from that commission to give advice and think about how we could make it more sustainable and engage the community there, which is great. And then our Youth Council met for the first time last week, which was really fun to see all of the different students from all the different schools across the community, and they were excited and energetic, and we played a fun game about trivia for Orem, and I'm excited to see what they're going to do this year. I think they're planning a visit to council meeting one day, so we will get to see them and smile at them.

So that's the fun.

Okay, thank you.

That was for record. Yes, taking a page from Peter's book.

Yeah, we'll run through the agenda tonight, or tonight's agenda. It's fairly short. Um, sort of spun over eventually.

So, what?

7:05.

That's my guess.

That's your guess?

That's my guess.

I'm not even going there.

Actually, that's a good guess if you go through a session and then go sideways.

Is that still on the agenda, Vegas?

Make it 7. I'll buy everybody ice cream.

Okay, so Gary just offered ice cream if we get—

Oh, really? Gary, you gonna hold to that?

You're out at 7. I'll, I'll bring ice cream.

Including the closed-door session, or that doesn't count?

That doesn't count.

He gets to go home.

He doesn't have to come.

I don't have to go to the closed-door session.

That's a bad bet.

Help me win, Jerry. Help me win.

All right, we need to tell you our favorite ice cream flavor now. So we've got, uh, Item 8, Mayor's Report Items Approved by Council. We've got a presentation from Mark Sanderson about Lifesaving Recognition. 8.2, presentation 9/11 Day of Service. Uh, 8.3, presentation My Hometown. And 8.4, presentation the Summer Reading Wrap-Up.

Did Brent talk to you about the— oh, it's later on.

No, it's right—

oh, I need to move that over here.

Thanks.

I didn't hear it, that's all.

Right, because I didn't say it.

So that's why I didn't hear it.

We're on the same page. Um, so yes, there will be a tribute to Andy Jacobs.

You might recall I tried to do that 2 weeks ago, but his family wasn't here. I'm gonna do that today. His family's supposed to be here.

Okay.

And we might just have them stand, Mayor, or something to that effect afterwards. I don't think they want to stand through the tribute, but maybe you can have his widow stand and just say You could express condolences.

You have to recognize— yeah, before you—

no, I think when I'm done, just say— or whenever you'd like to, Mayor.

Okay, I'll have you do it.

Well, okay, you want me to do the recognition of her too? Do you want me to have her stand?

You just take—

okay, I'll take care of the whole thing.

Thanks.

Okay, so we'll do you first. You'll be out of—

right after the pledge.

Yeah.

Okay.

Or yeah, the pledge.

Then we got item 9, personal appearances. Um, then you better be hoping there's a lot of people so you can win this bet.

I'm gonna go sign up. You only get 3 minutes.

I'll help you pay for the ice cream, Karen, don't worry.

And item 10, consent items. Uh, approval of meeting minutes from August 26th, reappointment Public Works Advisory Commission, and an ordinance, uh, business license revocation amendment Um, and then item 11, see, manager information items, and then, then we'll adjourn to a closed session in the Summit Conference Room. There you have it.

So, we'll return to our City Council meeting. Thank you.

It is literally like—

okay, thank you. Fun time.

Another day, another dollar.

How are you doing?

Good.

How are you? Yeah, yeah, we'd love to show you around. Plug into this. Okay, that'll—

either one of them.

Oh, it's that. Okay, they require I'm doing great. Yeah, when are you gonna get up on the top level here? I'll hop over here.

I'd like to welcome everyone here tonight, and we'll call this meeting to order. We'll start out with an invocation from Todd Covington, followed by a Pledge of Allegiance by our Fire and Honor Guard. And I invited— actually, my wife invited Todd, uh, to come tonight for the opening prayer. And, uh, Todd, we met on one of our ribbon cuttings. Um, Um, it was for the, uh, Foot Solutions. Yes, I, I— it was shoe store, Foot Solutions. It was for Foot Solutions. Anyway, um, so that was kind of a random occurrence except he was able to help us out with our foot needs for our Foot Solutions. And ever since then we've been friends. So ran into him, my wife did, and, uh, she's one of his big fans and invited him to give our prayer tonight. So he's a good member of the community.

Thank you.

So if you'd like to come up and give the opening prayer. Thank you, Todd. Now we'll have the Pledge of Allegiance by our Fire and Police Honor Guard. I Thank you. Thank you for that. With our fire and police do a great job tonight. We'll start off with items. 8-1 through 8-4. And we've got a special tribute that, uh, Tom McDonald would like to make.

Thank you. I'm happy to pay a tribute to Andrew Dwayne Jacobs, although no one called him that, to Andy Jacobs. His family is here with us. Could they please stand for a moment just so you know who they are? I won't ask you to stand through my whole reading, but we'll recognize you maybe again at the end. Please, thank you. If you go ahead and sit down. I'd like to take a moment today to honor the life and legacy of Andrew Dwayne Jacobs, a beloved lifelong resident of Orem City who passed away last month at the age of 50. Though his time with us was far too short, Andy's impact on the community was immeasurable, a legacy more than worthy of a full-time life. Andrew's greatest devotion was to his family. He leaves behind his beautiful wife and best friend, The love of his life, along with their 4 children, Sydney, Maya, Cam, and Ty, and 2 in-laws, Braden and Ashton, and 1 grandson, Ollie, and a grandson, Cooper, who arrived shortly after Andy's passing. His family was his pride and joy, and his love for them was at the very center of his life. Andy's love for running became a lifelong passion and the foundation of countless relationships, life lessons, and opportunities to serve. The journey began when he was just 8 years old when he won the age group at the Ronald McDonald 5K run. From then on, he was hooked. He ran with the Orem City Track Club, where he first met Cami, and later competed for Orem High School's cross-country and track teams all 4 years. After graduation, he continued his running career at Utah Valley, proudly competing on their very first men's cross-country team. In 2004, Andy returned to Orem High School as a coach for the cross-country and track teams for over 20 It became his second home, and I witnessed him running with the students, not just driving— riding a bike by their side. During those years, Andy's positive influence extended well beyond the track at Orem High. In the past few weeks, Orem High School has received numerous phone calls from schools and organizations across the western United States relating how the now vacant role Andy had played in their lives, schools, and organization. On the field, Andy's competitors considered him, quote, a pain in the butt, as quoted from a rival coach at a vigil held at Orem High Track last month. Andy was indeed a very successful coach, winning multiple state titles and sending many athletes to the next level. But as much as he loved winning, Andy took a much— a role much larger than that. His athletes meant the world to him, and he was far more than a coach to them. He was a A role model, and for many, a father figure. He invested not only in their athletic development but also in their growth as human beings. Andy's encouragement, energy, and belief in others brought out the best in everyone he came in contact with, and he will always be remembered as one of the greatest coaches of our time. His influence touched thousands of lives, from the many youth of Orem and their parents and families to the fellow coaches, coaches and competitors, as well as friends and those he associated with in his professional and church service. His day-to-day interactions, uplifting, thoughtful, and grounded in genuine care, are what made Andy unforgettable. His enthusiasm was contagious, his optimism unshakable, his love for people unmatched. In honoring Andy, we're reminded of the challenge he leaves with each of us to fill his running shoes, not in miles, but in kindness, encouragement, and everyday positivity. Andy Jacobs will be forever remembered as one of the greats, a cherished citizen of Warm City who ran— who ran the race of life with unmatched heart and left us all better for knowing him. We invite everyone to love like Andy. Family, could you stand one more time as we recognize you and him, and we'll engage in a little hand clapping and unreverent behavior. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for giving me that opportunity.

Thank you, Tom.

We appreciate that, and we wish Andy's family our condolences. We'll move on to item 8.1. This is a recognition, a life-saving recognition, and our Fire Chief Mark Sanderson will present.

We know how to save lives, but we don't know how to turn microphones on. So, Mayor, Council, Mr. Bybee, thank you for this opportunity. You can see we've packed the room with a number of caregivers for a very special event tonight. Um, Mayor, given the challenge while providing our department the necessary support to be the best department in the state, it's my honor to kick off this life-saving recognition Award tonight. First and foremost, my thanks and gratitude goes out to the men and women of Orem Fire Department. Each one of them are exceptional people as well as outstanding caregivers. Our, our people truly save lives. It's my opportunity at this time to also thank, uh, the family and spouses of those that are in attendance tonight. It's because of their support for our individual employees that make us Give us the opportunity to deliver the services that we do. At this point, I'd like to turn some time over to Chris Shields. She currently works for HCA out of Timpanogos Hospital, and she's going to walk us through the, the event that's taken place that brings us here tonight.

That kind of moves, turns really easy. Um, good evening, uh, Mayor Young and City Council members. Um, if the Chief of Police, Chief Adams, is— if he is here, um, Orem Fire and Orem community members, um, thank you so much for, for letting us be here. We are so grateful that we're here. My name is Chris Shields, and I'm the Director of EMS Relations, and I work for HCA Healthcare and Timpanogos Hospital. We are honored to be here tonight to recognize the incredible teamwork and life-saving efforts that directly impacted a member of the local community. Tonight we will celebrate the coordinated response and care provided by 2 bystanders that were on the Timpanogos Trail, dispatchers, Orem Police Department, Orem Fire Department, the crew and the critical care paramedics Medic Squad, Tippanogos Hospital Emergency Department, Cath Lab, and ICU. But most importantly, we honor the patient, David Snow, and his wife Carla Kay, and their family. In most professions, when saving lives is part of a daily routine, many of our heroes shy away from the spotlight. But tonight, we pause to celebrate a personal victory A life saved, a husband, father, grandfather, and friend. On June 24th, 2025, David Snow, a passionate cyclist, had big plans to celebrate his 61st birthday. He decided to kick off the day with a 61-mile bike ride, one mile for every year— like a year of life. Before heading out, he called his wife Carla Kay to let her know his plans— an afternoon ride, a shower, and then dinner for the whole family to celebrate that evening. But life had another plan. About 30 miles into his bike ride, David stopped at a local business to refill his water bottles and to chat briefly with family. He felt strong and energized and excited to finish the ride He called Car2Kay to check in, and then he hopped back on his bike. 2 miles later—

Can you just pause for one second? We've got a microphone issue.

Does that one work?

Oh, that one works.

Okay.

2 miles later, everything changed. David began to experience chest pain. He stopped immediately and called Carla Kay, telling her that he didn't feel well and he needed to— for her to come and get him. He described his location as the mouth of the canyon but couldn't give an exact address. Carla Kay quickly headed toward the Canyon View Park hoping to find him. That afternoon, Susanna Trenzner considered going for a ride. It was hot outside and she debated whether it was a good idea. Ultimately, she decided to go. She chose a trail that she hadn't been on for 2 years and one that she knew very, very well before her LDS mission. Susanna's watch was broken that day, so she brought her phone with her on the run, something she normally doesn't do. She stated she started out with a special— with a specific turnaround point in mind, but when she reached that point, she decided to continue a little farther to the water fountain that she liked along the trail. These decisions to go for a run despite the heat, to bring her phone phone and to extend her routes slightly ultimately placed her at the exact location where someone needed immediate help. At Canyon View Park, Carla Kay, David's wife, had just arrived. She called David again. Where are you? Can you walk out? No, call 911. I don't know where you are or how I'm going to send a 911 to you. I'm on the path in the canyon. Meanwhile, Kevin O'Keefe, another trailgoer, noticed David lying on the— on his back on the side of the trail next to the bike. Concerned, he approached and asked David if he needed help. David replied that his wife was on it— on her way to pick him up. David offered to help locate her and began heading down the trail to find Carla Kay. As Susanna was running, he saw Dave— she saw David laying on the trail on his back, on his back with his hand on his chest. He looked tired, sweaty, and didn't look right. She continued running for about 20 to 30 seconds but had an increased sense of uneasiness that something was wrong, so she turned around and returned to where David was lying. She asked David if he was okay. He said no, but a guy just left to go find my wife. That guy was Kevin. Just after that conversation, she heard troubling— a troubling sound, gurgling. It appeared like David was having a seizure. She immediately called 911 at 3:33 PM. Kevin also heard this gurgling and quickly returned to David. Susanna's 911 call was answered by dispatcher Heather Fenn. With Susanna's phone on speaker, Heather guided Kevin through steps to begin CPR on David while the dispatcher— while dispatcher Brittany Farrell dispatched units including Orem Fire to the scene at 3:36. Karlake pinned David's phone location and began walking toward him on the trail. She was only 2/10 of a mile away. As she got closer, she saw a woman on the phone and a man performing CPR. In her heart, it sank, and she knew that it was David. Carla Kay stood overlooking CPR being done on her husband, something that none of us can imagine. After approximately 8 minutes, Officer Stacey Steen— Steenblik arrived and immediately took over chest compressions. Susanna and Carla stood together waiting as additional help arrived. Officer Robin— Robinson assisted by directing the EMS crew to David's location on the trail. At 3:43, 10 minutes after David went into cardiac arrest, Orem Fire personnel arrived on scene and assumed care. While Orem Fire crews provided emergency care to David, Karlakey remained nearby with Susanna, who was providing support. David was unresponsive as the crew and the critical care paramedics worked to stabilize him. Shortly after Karlakey's— Shortly after Karlakey's Her 2 brothers and daughter arrived on scene. The family stood together, visibly distressed, and watched as the efforts to save Dave's life— Approximately 20 minutes after Kevin began CPR, the fire captain approached Carla Kay to provide the update. He explained with compassion and professionalism that the team had been doing Everything possible to resuscitate David. Per protocol, they would continue efforts for a few more minutes before considering termination of resuscitation. At that point, the crew had already performed multiple advanced life-saving interventions, including the use of the LUCAS, the mechanical CPR device, 2 defibrillation shocks, intubation, IV and IO access, And administration of several critical medications. CPR had been going for a total of 27 minutes. Just prior to calling the efforts, things changed. At 4 o'clock, David regained a pulse and a blood pressure. It had been 27 minutes since David suffered cardiac arrest. CPR had been performed continuously from the moment it began at 3:33, and now, against all odds, ROSC— return of spontaneous circulation— was achieved. It was nothing short of a miracle. The crew quickly stabilized David and carefully packaged him for transport. At 4:07, they began transport to Timpanogos Hospital emergency department. En route, they placed David on a ventilator and continued all of the treatment that they had started on scene. The crew quickly notified the ED and provided a full report. David was trying to breathe and move on his— move on his own. They arrived at Timpanogos Emergency Room at 4:13, where the critical care team was already assembled and prepared to take over. In the ED, David was trying to breathe and move. The ED doctor obtained an EKG which revealed a STEMI, or an acute heart attack. The decision was made to activate the cath lab immediately, as well as the cardiologist. In the ED, David was given medications for heart rhythm— heart arrhythmias, low blood pressure, and a very low pH. He was stabilized and sedated prior to the cath lab. David was taken to the cath lab, which revealed a 100% occluded LAD. or better known as the Widowmaker. David received 2 stents to restore blood flow to the heart. David was then admitted to the ICU where he underwent therapeutic hypothermia to protect his brain following cardiac arrest. On June 26th, David was taken off sedated— sedation and was extubated. He continued to improve while in the ICU and was discharged after being in the ICU for 9 days to the neuro rehab unit. Tonight, we express our sincere gratitude to everyone involved in David's care, from the bystanders who quickly acted to the dispatchers, Orem Police Department, Orem Fire and critical care team, and the medical teams at Timpanogos Hospital emergency department Cath lab and ICU. Your skill, coordination, and compassion saved a life and kept a family whole. We are here to recognize a remarkable outcome and to collectively— and the collective effort that made it possible. David's survival is a direct result of Timely action. From Carla Kay's determination to find him, Susanna's decision to, to return back to David and call 911, Kevin's immediate CPR, and the tireless work of Orem Fire and the critical care medics. David, I can assure you that you had the best fire department and team working on you that Thank you for your service and dedication. This moment is a powerful reminder of the impact that you make every day. We would now like to have Orem Fire Command Staff come up here on my right and line up right here, as well as our CEO from Timpanogos, Andrew Zenger.

Hello.

And our COO, Landon Bate, and our CNO, Katie King. And as we call your name, if you could please come up and remain standing in front of the City Council.

Right here.

But if I— I don't know if Kevin is online. Kevin, the first, the bystander that first started CPR, he is from St. George, and he was unable to be here. But from there—

Special trip.

I know, I know. But if we could have Susanna, If we could have her come up. She called 911.

Ms. Badger.

So we, the fire department, we would actually also like to present some awards. We recognize Susanna Trestner's efforts as well as Kevin O'Keefe and would like to take this opportunity to recognize them. Our award criteria is very specific for the fire department. Things are usually pretty regimented. It says this: These are— these awards are reserved for citizens' remarkable actions through a display of courage and in the presence of a difficult challenge when the citizen took action to save a life or attempted to save a life and to prevent further injury. Susanna, you and Kevin absolutely filled that role.

You did that that day.

We appreciate you turning around and going back. I don't know what triggered you to do that, but you did, and that, uh, that made every bit of difference. Chief Sanderson, please present That award to Susanna. Tevins, we'll have to get to him in that trip you're talking about, and I'll hold you to it. So the services that we render from, from the fire department To delivery of the patient in the hospital, there are many, many players that, that come together to make things work, to make things successful. Dispatchers are a part of that link. I would like to recognize at this time 2 dispatchers, Heather Finn and Brittany Farrell. If they're here, if they could come to the front. Heather, Brittany, thank you for, for your contributions that day. I can tell you from experience, there's nothing more priceless than a good dispatcher, and, and you, you guys both know that, I'm sure. And so So thank you. Those awards actually have a letter of commendation from the Orem Fire Department as well as recognition from the hospital, and for time's sake, we kind of kept those together. Moving on. All fire departments are not created equal. Due to the support of all of you, our council, the support of our city manager and members of our exec staff, Our very own Chief Sanderson and the programs that we utilize in addition to all this, our critical care paramedics.

These—

this support and this program here in Orem, the critical care program specifically, fosters the utilization of 18 procedures, tools, and medications other fire departments simply do not Not half. We are able to deliver services that truly set us apart, rendering an elevated level of treatment and care. David Snow, you sitting here with us today attest of this. Our people, their training, their dedication that we see every day as administration, that every one of our members has is something to be proud of. And they have— they, our human resource, has proven to be our most valuable asset that we have. This, along with the solid relationship we have with the hospital, Timpanogos Hospital, allows us the success we have seen with this program. I would like to invite the following fire department individuals and recognize them to the front. Again, for time's sake, we've included included and combined their awards with, with Temponogos Hospitals. Captain Steve Trejo, if you're here, please come to the front. Captain Jesse Steiner, please come to the front. Engineer Jared Rosequist, your presence is requested. Critical care paramedic Dane Erickson, I know you're here, I saw you. Critical care paramedic Blake Odekirk.

Yes, I am.

Paramedic Ryan Garside. And our very own advanced EMT Jason Garn, who's actually going to paramedic school right now. So let's give these, these gentlemen a round of applause.

Thank you.

Let's turn the time back over to Chris Shields.

Thanks, Lon. These guys are the best. You guys are the best, seriously. Okay, we also would like to recognize the police officers that were there. I think there both here tonight. If we could get Master Officer Steenblink. Did I say that right?

Close enough.

If he could come, he was the officer that took over CPR. And then Master Officer Robert And he, he was the officer that guided armed fire to the scene. We would also like to acknowledge the teams at Timpanogos Hospital who played a vital role in David's care, including, if I could also have you come up, including the emergency department staff, the attending emergency room physician, and ED leadership. The cardiac cath lab team. And the ICU. Wow, what a great group. If we can just kind of all in circle right here, that would be great. So, Dave, I'm sure that maybe you recognize some of these people. This was not just another save. Um, you are really a true miracle, and those that are here would say the same. Um, I don't know, I don't know anybody that's had CPR done for 27 minutes and survived and Been as good as you. So you— it's just such a wonderful, wonderful miracle. There were so many parts in this story that I have not mentioned that were tender mercies of God. There are truly angels amongst us that are placed here and pass at certain times to be there to help others. I truly believe in this story that happened. Dave, we would like to introduce you to the team that saved your life that day.

Oh, yes.

Picture with them up here?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Get a great big picture.

Biggest picture of all time is gonna happen tonight.

Yes.

Yeah, we're gonna have to go too deep and squeeze everybody.

Everyone.

Yeah. Oh yes.

Yeah, really squeeze up.

On the end.

All right, if we can get— if we get Dave and his wife in the front right here, and then everybody with Mark. Do you want to come over with you guys?

Are you okay?

All right.

Scooting on this side a little more. Now we need a little bit more squeeze on the edge.

Okay, especially over here.

These guys got—

All right, we're just missing you 2 on the end here. All right, here we go.

1, 2, 3.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

Mayor, thank you for this opportunity. It's amazing the things that guys do. Um, one last thing for everybody that's here for this event. We've, we've created a little social upstairs with some refreshments. I just want to turn some time over to Andrew Singer. He's the Timpanogos CEO, just to say a few things, and then we'll excuse everybody to go upstairs and socialize. So, Andrew?

I just want to mention one thing.

Yeah, please.

No, you're fine.

Yeah.

I mean, this has been an incredible presentation, and it's incredible to see all these different groups come together with all the training and work. I mean, these guys work all the time. They train on this stuff, and to see the fruits of their labors is amazing. And this isn't the first time. I mean, we've seen this over and over and over again, but this is amazing. But I just want to mention that Susanna that went back to help, wherever you are, she's one of Andy's runners that Tom memorialized earlier. So it kind of goes full circle here. But anyway, go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and City Council. Certainly it feels like we should just end it right now. There's not much more that, that I can add. We could just wrap it up. Truly, um, that would be more than fine. So just a few remarks. So I'm, uh, I'm, I'm new to my role just here as the CEO of Timpanogos Regional Hospital on practically week too. And, uh, this event is something that I just found out about not too long ago by nature of me just starting. And so, I was very excited to, to be here and to participate. And, when I talked to Chris about the event and I said, hey, I'd love to hear the story, you know, learn about what I'm going to and what's going to take place, she said, no, you need to hear this for the first time here. I promise it won't disappoint. And, that certainly has, has been the case as I've been able to, to listen and hear about the events that transpired and those individuals that were involved. And certainly as the CEO of the hospital, of course, I want to give kudos to my team and the life-saving work that they performed on this particular case and for David and what they perform on a daily basis. Our mission is that above all else, we're committed to the care and improvement of human life. And we can't fulfill that mission without our partners in the first responders with EMS and our fire departments. And so Chris mentioned and described this whole event as truly a miracle. We work with miracle workers every day and just express my sincere gratitude to our staff and to our first responders as well. And thank you for letting us come today.

Thank you.

Thank you, and thank you for, for that presentation. Next, we've got item 8.2, and this is our 9/11 Day of Service that's coming up. We've got Carrie Rugg.

I know how to clear a room.

That's really impressive.

And I told Chief Sanderson it's never fair to be the person that draws the stick to go after them, but aren't we so lucky to get to serve and work with these amazing employees in the city that give everything that they have to our community? And I'm not crying, you are. So, um, Mayor and Council, the 9/11 Day of Service of Remembrance is an annual observance that encourages Americans to honor the victims and heroes of the September 11th terrorist attacks through charitable service and good deeds. The concept was originally founded in 2002 and later federally recognized under the Edward M. Kennedy Service America Act in 2009. The goal is to transform the anniversary from a day of tragedy into a day of positive action, embodying the spirit of unity and compassion that emerged in the aftermath of the attacks. Orem has been participating in this effort for many years, and we're excited for the following service projects on Saturday, September 13th. The Vineyard Shoreline Trails Clean cleanup, the Sierra and the Sierra Shell cleanup, Nielsen's Grove Park cleanup, Foothill and Palisade Park cleanup, Sharon Steak celebration of service, and Kids on the Move service project. We invite you and the public to sign up for any of these projects at justserve.org and search for Orem Vineyard 9/11 Day of Service. We look forward to being part of this service mindset that Orem residents are known for as a just-served community.

Thank you.

Thank you, Carrie. Next, we've got item 8.3, and Carrie, you're still here, and Jim Berry.

Yes, Jim, if you wouldn't mind coming up. We are really excited, and I know all of you are aware of this already, but we opened up up another My Hometown neighborhood recently, and this really aligns with your goals of making more connected neighborhoods in our community. And we appreciate your support in these efforts, um, and as we learned in the work session, that, that's something that's very important for our community. So I'd like to turn the time over to Jim Berry to discuss a little bit about our new neighborhood.

Thank you, Mayor, City Council. I'm delighted to be with you and other It's kind of hard after that great story we, we just heard. I'm glad I was here to hear that. So I'm delighted to be able to tell you a little bit about this new community. As we stand here tonight at 6:30, the new community started their community resource center and they're teaching classes as we speak. So it started about 6, 8 months ago with 2 people that were called to be the executive directors. We now have over 75 people, both missionaries and volunteers serving in that new community. And you may have heard about their grand opening.

Yes.

Debbie D'Amico called it an Oremnado. So the skies just opened up and blew everything away, but they put everything back together and there were over 700 people that came. So it was a very successful grand opening. Then last Thursday they had an open house at the CRC. About 60 of the volunteers and missionaries were there to give tours through the, the building and show them where all the classes were. And at this point, they have 95 students that have signed up for classes. So together, the 2 communities that we have, we've have over— just this year, we've put in over 10,000 hours of service. We've taught 322 students in all the classes. And of course, we— that's not counting classes that just began. Uh, each day of service we've had over 200 people helping. And the days of service for Sharon Park will not begin mostly next year, but we'll open, uh, we might have one in October because we've got the people called that are in charge of that. We worked in 20 unique homes, some of them more than once, and we have 9 more service projects that are planned for this Saturday on the same day all the other ones are going on. Some of the things that we've done so far, we had a donation of sod from a sod company in the valley. We have gone in an overgrown landscape and retrimmed it down so that the homeowners who can't possibly do it themselves nor afford it could get it done. We've rebuilt and painted a deck, built a new fence, added a wheelchair ramp to a home, scraped a whole home in preparation to prime and paint, and we've also hauled away multiple appliances out in the front yard of one of our neighbors and took it to the junkyard. So they— we— the lower part of it, we have the days of service, we have the community resource center, but we also have community activities. 2 that are— 3 that have happened recently in the Geneva Heights community had flowers and French toast. It was sponsored by the Ashton Foundation. Foundation and Cook's Nursery. There was the pool party at the Sarah Pool. Thank you for supporting that activity, and, and my hometown helped to support that too. And they've had multiple potluck activities also for that community. So next year when I stand up here, we'll double, probably at least double the hours that we've put in. And so the final thing is things are going really well in my hometown, Orem, Family City, USA. Any questions? Okay, thank you.

I, I do have one comment to make. I don't know if you remember this, but a year ago when you came to present, uh, my hometown to the city council, I can't forget, we had another weather event.

We did.

That was when The hailstorm hit, right, for them. So I'm thinking that my hometown is just taking our town by storm at every new CRC we open. So thank you for all that you're doing.

There's opposition in all things. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up, item 8.4, summer reading wrap-up. Megan Flender.

Testing.

Haha, I turned it on. Hello, uh, this was a good night to be at a council meeting. Um, for those of you who don't know me, my name is Meg My name is Linda Pay, and I am the programming librarian at the Orem Library. I'm excited to be here to report on the 2025 Summer Reading Program, which wrapped up on August 1st and was a huge success. Our theme this year was Color Our World, and we celebrated with a focus on art and creativity. We had over 3,300 patrons register for the challenge this year, and in total they read over 3,254,459 minutes, which is the equivalent of reading for 6 years straight. So way to go to our community for reading that much. We also had over 30 programs over the course of 2 months. And during a busy summer of library construction, we had a lot of our programs offsite at Orem Parks and the Hillcrest Center, and the entire library worked really hard to ensure that we could continue bringing fun events to our community. So here are just a few highlights from this summer. We did our kickoff event at the Hillcrest Center, and patrons enjoyed a Color Our World storytime and puppet show, the splash pad, and lots of games and activities. We also had a special appearance by Miro, and that's my daughter giving him a hug there.

So I love that picture.

We were also able to co-sponsor the beautiful and colorful butterfly house with the city events team that was featured at Orem Fest, and we had thousands of people visit in a single day. This was a great opportunity to promote summer reading to our community. We had some great events for our teens, and these were managed by our Council of volunteer teens that regularly meets at the library. They pulled off an incredible Nailed It, Failed It art night. And as you can see, I don't think there was a single fail in the group. They also took over the Timpanogos Park for a Saturday evening and made fairy gardens, played field games, and had a blast together in the mountains. And one of my favorite moments was when a song from the popular Netflix film K-Pop Demon Hunters played on their event playlist, and all of them stood up and belted the song at the top of their lungs. It's always great to see the events our teens pull off together. We also had some great events for our tweens, including an event themed after the popular Wings of Fire series about colorful dragons, and we had over 120 tweens come to that program. And we didn't just provide the kids with the awesomeness of summer reading, we also held programs for adults, including an adult cut paper art night and a gallery show in Library Hall. Finally, we wrapped things up with our summer reading finale at the Sierra Pool, and about 1,300 people attended this exclusive event for summer reading challenge finishers. And we had a blast with a DJ who got people dancing in the shallow end of the pool, and we gave away over 100 prizes to our readers. Everyone who completed also earned the beautiful City of Orem coloring book, which was a huge hit. Summer reading encourages children and families to read more over the summer, to visit the library, and to have fun together. Our end-of-summer reading survey showed that 74% of patrons read more over the summer because of the program. And 92% said that they plan to do summer reading again. We also got some wonderful feedback from our community, and I wanted to share a few comments that our patrons provided us. One person said that the summer reading program provides wonderful family bonding activities each summer. And another said, the library summer reading program is practically like a family vacation because it's fun and provides many opportunities to hang out as a family. A parent expressed, I was having a hard time encouraging my son to read. Because of the reading program, he made a point to read for at least 30 minutes every day. As you can see, we had a great program this year, but we aren't planning to stop. So what's next? Summer Reading 2026: Unearth a Story. We're already hard at work on getting things ready for next year when summer reading will be themed around paleontology and archaeology. archaeology, and all the wonderful stories to be found in the pages of our Earth. Thank you to the mayor and city council, to all of the city staff, and to all of the library staff that support summer reading and make it possible each year.

Thank you, Megan. We appreciate that, and you guys are doing an amazing job at the library. The library has been And getting better and better and better. And, uh, latest stats I saw show that the foot traffic in the last year is up 27%, and that's because of this and other types of programs that you guys are doing. So you're doing a great job bringing it up. Thank you. Next up, we have personal appearances, of which we have none. So we'll move to item 10, consent items, approval of meeting minutes. For August 26th, 2025. Item 10.2, a reappointment to the Public Works Advisory Commission. That's Joseph Gordon, Robert Moore, Gary Morley, and Brent Tobler. And item 10.3, an ordinance, business license revocation amendments. So with that in mind, can I have a motion on the consent items?

I make a motion that we approve the consent items.

I second.

All right.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Thank you. The consent items are approved. Next up, we have our city manager information items.

Bren?

Yeah, so this, uh, Thursday is the annual day of service, and I will be quick. Um, I'll make sure you get ice cream. Um, I just I just want to mention that we'll have a couple hundred employees out serving the community, doing various projects around the city. We heard some— a list of some of those. I just want to say there's, there's plenty to be concerned about. We hear about some of those concerns, for example, in the community assessment earlier. But man, the answer is serving others and serving our community. So I am just proud to be part of the, the Orem team of servants and proud to work with you. And we do absolutely have the best team of public servants in the state here in Orem. So thank you.

Thank you, Brent. Alrighty, would someone like to make an—

Mayor, I'd like to do a 30-second announcement to adjourn to a closed-door session in the Summit Conference Room to discuss pending or reasonably intimate litigation, the character or professional competence of an individual, or the purchase or lease of real property. That's a motion.

Yes, I second it. Okay.

Aye.

Aye.

Sorry.

Keep going.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

And again, aye.

Thank you. Well, we will now adjourn to closed session. Thank you all for coming.

What was your time, Gary?

I have a comment.