Community Covenant Program

Last month a representative from the U.S. Army approached the City Council to introduce the Community Covenant Program. The intent of the program is to encourage all cities and towns across the country to formally commit to supporting service members and their families during deployment.

As a city we are currently developing a plan to help the families of Cedar Hills service members who are deployed to a hostile fire area. This plan will allow us to help alleviate some of the burden these families face when a deployment occurs. Additionally, we have already had many generous business owners in our city offer up a variety of resources from discounted to free services for our Cedar Hills service members and their families. We are grateful to those in our community who are joining us in finding ways to express our appreciation for the sacrifice these service members make.

 We will be having an official signing ceremony on March 20^th at 6:00pm during a Council work session. This signing ceremony will consist of the Mayor, the City Council, and those business leaders who are joining us in our efforts. A representative from the United States Army will be there and we encourage any and all interested residents to join us as well.

Council Meeting - February 21, 2012

Public Comment

I apologize in advance if I have misspelled any names.

Brandon Dyer - Mr. Dyer is with Perry Homes. He has been working with the Planning Commission on the Bridgestone subdivision development, which is by Deerfield Elementary. He submitted plans for 8-plex homes and was approved by the Planning Commission. He was then asked to provide engineered drawings, which he did and was again approved by the Planning Commission. He was also asked to provide a soil test, which he did. He was contacted by Greg Robinson on Thursday and told that the area was not zoned for an 8-plex and he could not proceed. Mr. Dyer is very upset that things got this far and his company has spent a considerable amount of money only to now be told that he cannot build. He is also upset that he was removed from the Council agenda at the last minute. He is asking for a variance so he can continue with plans to build. Mayor Richardson said he will meet with staff to find out what happened and will also meet with Mr. Dyer.

Jerry Dearinger - Does not want the city to build a civic center (city hall). Wants the funds that have been saved up for this building to instead be used to pay down debt. He mentioned that a petition was filed last year that asks for residents to have the opportunity to vote on any construction costing more than $400,000.

Monte Hickenlooper - Mr. Hickenlooper is with an HOA in Cedar Hills and wished to express his support for Perry Homes to build the 8-plex units.

Robert Chesworth - Also with an HOA. Said Perry Homes came in and bought that land and made it safe after the previous developer left half finished foundations in that area. He wants Perry Homes to be able to build the 8-plex units. Says property values are affected by having the empty field next to homes.

Ken Cromar - Mr. Cromar agrees with Mr. Dearinger that the money saved up for the building of a civic center should be used to pay down the debt. Says the city is headed in the wrong direction. More building space means more employees which means more cost. Residents have fallen on hard times. City needs to maximize current space available. He mentioned the press conference, which was held earlier in the evening regarding the allegations made against the Mayor and City Manager. Mr. Cromar states that Senator Valentine asked him to testify of behalf of Senate Bill 180, which establishes a state ethics commission. He says Cedar Hills is the poster child for why this legislation is needed. He reminded the Council that they have sworn to uphold the laws and that they need to verify if the allegations are true.

Marisa Wright - Mrs. Wright wished to speak regarding the exoneration of the Mayor and City Manager. She is upset that the papers continue to write nonsense about Cedar Hills. All cities have problems. Enough is enough. It is embarrassing to see the city portrayed this way by the media. Same residents are crying wolf. She is pleased that the Utah County attorney has dismissed the lawsuit. Mrs. Wright believes that residents can speak through voting and that anyone can call the Council or Mayor at any time with questions or concerns and they will respond.

Angela Johnson - Mrs. Johnson supports Perry Homes and hopes they are given the variance to build the 8-plex units. Regarding the recreation center basement, it should only be finished if we have the funds. We should not pull funds from other accounts. Does not feel the city should build a civic center. She feels the city can meet in the Public Safety Building and that the basement is enough space for offices needed. She wants to keep things the same for now or let it go to a vote. She recommends that the Council randomly call 100 residents to get feedback. She does not want a civic center to be built on commercial land.

Consent Agenda

The minutes from the February 7, 2012 City Council meeting were approved.

Review/Action on Annexation of Jacobs Property

In January the City Council adopted a resolution of intent to annex the property located on 4800 West, just south of WalMart, known as the Jacobs property. This will be the future location of the Harts gas station. The city recorder published the notice of intent in the Daily Herald, on the Utah Public Notice website, and on the city's website. The public hearing was held tonight (Feb 21st). The Council approved the ordinance approving the annexation of this property into Cedar Hills subject to the execution of a development agreement.

Discussion of the Civic Center Preliminary Study and Analysis

Mr. Brad Kearl (Building and Zoning Administrator) presented an analysis on the need for a Civic Center. The main points from his analysis are:

• The Public Safety Building was built with public safety impact fees and the intention has always been to let that entire building belong to the fire department and possible use by the police department. The fire department is now fully staffed and needs more of the space.
• Administrative employees now work at both the Public Safety Building and the Public Works building, which means that residents have to go to different buildings for different needs.
• At build out the City will need an additional 4-5 administrative employees and will need additional space for these employees.
• The proposed Civic Center will allow for all administrative employees to be in one central location, will have a Council Chamber that will allow for up to 80 residents to attend Council meetings, and can serve as a gathering space for the community.

The Council realizes this is a hot topic and has been for quite some time. The concerns that I raised are that we need to first analyze what space we currently have available and that I don't want to build this on our valuable commercial property. The Mayor did explain that the plans for our commercial area have consisted of a buffer zone between the resident houses and the larger retail stores, and this buffer zone would contain office space so that is why a Civic Center may make sense there. After a lot of discussion in Work Session and during Council meeting the following options were listed:

1.      Do nothing and leave everything as is

2.      Add another floor to the Public Safety Building to serve as City Hall

3.      Add additional space to the new Community Recreation Center to serve as City Hall

4.      Add another floor to the Public Works Building to serve as City Hall

5.      Build a new facility in the buffer zone of our commercial property

6.      Lease space out of the Lexington Heights building (where the dentists are located)

7.      Do a land swap with the owner of the property directly East of WalMart and build a new facility on that land

The Council has asked Mr. Kearl to come back with a list of what we currently have, what we need, and what is wanted. This will help us determine which of the above options should be researched further and possibly come up with additional options. We will continue to have this topic on the agenda at every meeting until a final decision is made, which will most likely take many months. We do care about the concerns residents have expressed and I encourage anyone who has additional comments or concerns to reach out to any Councilmember or the Mayor.

Presentation of a Lego League

Councilmember Martinez presented information on a Lego League, which is a program for our new Community Recreation Center. This league focuses on helping children learn teamwork and cooperation. Each team has 3 to 10 kids and is for children ages 9-14. These leagues are given a specific theme and must build lego robots to perform certain tasks. There were two girls from a current lego league (The Gadget Girls) who demonstrated a lego robot they built for the last competition. Councilmember Martinez is excited to offer this program to Cedar Hills and thinks it will be a great program for the kids.

Review/Action on Completing the Basement of the Community Recreation Center

Currently, the new Community Recreation Center has an unfinished basement which, if finished, could be used for additional recreation activites. While the main floor cannot accommodate things such as treadmills, weights, and other cardio equipment the basement could. The square footage available is 3,774. The current bid to finish the basement is $60.00 per square foot so the total cost, with the addition of a lift for ADA requirements is approximately $246,440. Councilmember Augustus says this price is very high and we could get it done for much cheaper than this. The funds for this would come from Recreation impact fees. The Council asked Greg Robinson (Assistant City Manager) and Councilmember Martinez to bring an analysis of what this space could be used for and the cost of the equipment that would need to be purchased. We also discussed having an online survey for residents to share with us what types of exercise equipment they would like to have at the recreation center. The online poll will be available in March. We will continue to discuss as using the Recreation impact fees for the completion of the basement does mean that other recreation plans may not be feasible (possibilites include a splash pad).

My opinion is that this is a wonderful idea. I would like to see the recreation center have as many recreation opportunities as possible to meet the needs and wants of most of our residents. During the campaign most of the residents I spoke with did not want to build a second facility as we would need to bond for the funds since we don't have enough money to build without going into debt. Many residents were hoping this recreation center would have more traditional items like a gym. I hope that residents will utilize the online poll on the City website (available in March) to give feedback on this.

City Manager Report

The new City website is almost complete. The Community Recreation Center is still planned for completion on April 11, 2012. We are refinancing the bond for PI2 from 5.9% to approximately 2.9%, which will save the City thousands of dollars. The balance on this bond is $900,000 and the refinance does not add additional years to the payoff. Due to the recycling efforts of residents, the mid-year recycling revenue is $8,700, which will be taken off of the amount we owe.

Board and Committee Reports

Councilmember Rees - As Konrad mentioned the new website is almost complete. We have received positive feedback on the Community Covenant Program and many local businesses are excited to participate. The signing ceremony for this will be March 20th at 6pm. We will be creating a city Facebook and Twitter account. Konrad has sent an RFP for the landscaping of the Community Recreation Center based on feedback given by the Beautification Committee.

Councilmember Augustus - Planning Commission is meeting Thursday, February 23rd to discuss plans for Harts gas station.

Councilmember Gygi - Utah Valley Dispatch is talking to neighboring cities that are not part of the dispatch to see if they are interested in joining. He will be working with the Mayor to determine if we need to shut down the old golf committee and create an ad hoc commitee (Golf Finance Advisory Committee) or keep the existing committee.

Councilmember Martinez - We have a title sponsor for the Family Festival (Harts). She is working with staff on a variety of fun activites for the festival, which include 13 carnival rides, bingo and carnival games, bounce houses, fire hose, a grill-off, battle of the bands, movie and dinner night, swim night, parade, and fireworks. Staff continue to work on obtaining additional sponsorships.

There was no need for executive session so the meeting was adjourned.

If you have any comments, questions, or concerns feel free to reach me via email at jrees@cedarhills.org or on my cell 801-358-8730.

February 7, 2012 Council Meeting

Public Comment

Paul Sorensen - Mr. Sorensen read through the half year financials and feels they aren't clear and was concerned about wording changes with the golf course financials. He hopes the Council will make the financials easier to understand.

Jerry Dearinger - Mr. Dearinger read the court documents submitted by Paul Sorensen and Ken Severn requesting the removal of Mayor Richardson and Konrad Hildebrandt.

Ken Cromar - Mr. Cromar continued to read the court documents mentioned about.

Keith Johnson - Mr. Johnson is the Scoutmaster for Troop 1186 and discussed the Boy Scouts of America as they are celebrating the 101st birthday of the BSA. He said this district has 3374 youth and has done over 14,000 hours of service. Cedar Hills has provided 140 Eagle Scout projects for the scouting program. He presented the Council with BSA statistics and gave each council member a patch.

Consent Agenda

--The minutes from the January 17, 2012 council meeting were approved.
--Approval was made to move City Council meetings to the Public Works Building.
--Approval given to release $5,820 of the Hewett subdivision escrow bond. This bond was received in 2003 for improvements to be made on Canyon Road. Water, sewer, and irrigation improvements are complete but the curb and gutter and sidewalk improvements have not been completed. Therefore, the decision was made to release $5,820 of the bond but the remaining $12,769.40 will not be released until the completion of the remaining improvements.
--Approval was made for the appointment of Tonya Edvalson as second alternate on the Planning Commission.

Review/Presentation of Second Quarter Financial Statements

Rebecca Tehero, the Finance Director, came to present to the Council the second quarter financials. Per state law the Council is required to regularly review the financial statements and our city does this each quarter. Mrs. Tehero went over each fund and answered questions that came up. The financial documents consist of several pages and any resident who would like to discuss in depth is welcome to contact Mrs. Tehero, the City Manager (Konrad), or any member of the Council. I will just point out a few of the items Mrs. Tehero highlighted and discussed:

General Fund
--Property tax revenue is at 94%. The majority are paid in November but there is a smaller amount collected in March, so we should be at 100% by end of March.
--Sales and Use tax revenues are already at 50.5% and as there is a 60 day lag between the time of purchase and the time we receive payment we may exceed expected revenues.
--Telecom Tax revenue is low at 29.1% but this was due to some issues the State has experienced with calculating the appropriate amounts and is expected to be fixed by end of the fiscal year.
--Building permits revenues are low at 36% as the City anticipated some commercial business coming in. The hope is that Hart's is completed before the end of the fiscal year, which will allow us to meet the budgeted amount.
--Recreation program revenues are high at 82.2% as most of the recreation programs for the fiscal year have already started.
--Legal services expenses are high at 90% due to unplanned lawsuits and/or litigation matters that were not anticipated. Due to the recent court documents filed by Cedar Hills residents our legal services expenses will be higher than the amount budgeted for this fiscal year.
--Part time salary & wages expenses are high at 96.2% but this position has been terminated and no further amounts need to be paid in this category.
--Solid waste services and recycling expenses are low at 34.5% and 30.5% but this is mainly due to a delay in billing and should be on target for the year.

Water and Sewer Fund
--Sewer television expenses are high at 498.2%. This is due to the timing of shipment of equipment. This equipment was needed and budgeted for during the last fiscal year. It was ordered toward the end of the fiscal year but wasn't actually shipped until July 2nd. Because the shipment date was in this fiscal year it has to show on the books for this fiscal year, even though it was ordered last fiscal year. The Public Works department is aware of this and is trying to find ways to cut $8,000 from their budget so as not to have to request a budget amendment.

Golf Course Fund
--Green fees revenues are on target at 51.6%. When the budget was created the expectation was that the CoRec facility would be completed in January, allowing for additional tournament business. While the CoRec is now not expected to open until late spring the golf course is still on target to meet expected revenues.

Discussion Regarding Capital Improvements Plan

The City has short, mid, and long term plans created for a variety of projects. During our meeting we decided it was best to set up a time to discuss each project individually to determine what needs to stay on the Capital Improvements Plan and what can be removed. A few specific items that were discussed:

--Deerfield Park - this project is on hold due the litigation brought forth by the Harvey family with regards to this property.
--Civic Center - this has been a controversial issue. The Council determined it doesn't make sense to discuss whether or not to build a civic center until a feasability study is done to determine how much space we need for city offices and how much space we currently have available to us. A feasability study will be conducted.
--Fiber Optics Infrastructure - this will be removed from the plan.

Review/Action Adopting Fees

An earlier discussion of water usage fees came up after the Council approved a resolution allowing for assisted living centers to be built within residential areas. The concern was that an additional usage fee should be added to these facilities to pay for the additional impact they may have on the infrastructure. City staff was also asked to create fees associated with the resolution to allow temporary businesses within Cedar Hills. The fees for temporary businesses are still being researched so the resolution that passed this night was to allow an Infrastructure Capacity Fee of $2.10 per 1,000 gallons of water for assisted living homes, which will be in addition to the usual culinary water rate.

Review/Action on Appointment of City Staff

City code requires the Council to approve the appointments of the following city employees after every election: City Treasurer, City Recorder, Deputy City Recorder, Finance Director, Community Services Director, Chief Building Official/Zoning Administrator, and City Engineer/Public Works Director. No changes were made in personnel and the appointments were approved.

City Manager Report

--Konrad let the Council know that Pleasant Grove wants to know if we have made a decision regarding allowing some of their residents to utilize our sewer lines among 4800 West.

--The CoRec facility is 80% complete.

--Hart's is working on preliminary plans and hopes to make them available to the Planning Commission on February 23rd. They would like to have final plans to the Council at the second meeting in April and would like to be open in early summer.

Board and Committee Reports

Councilmember Martinez is working on the Family Festival. Culinary Designs would like to provide the food for this event and brought some sample desserts for the Council and attending residents to try. C. Martinez is looking into bringing in bigger carnival rides for older kids and has set up a competition between city staff and the Council as to who can raise the most money for the Family Festival.

Councilmember Jackman attended a LPPSD Board meeting where they discussed the possibility of expanding into neighboring cities and a vehicle consolidation plan.

Mayor Richardson has been given a Unified Transportation plan for the State and will provide the the Council.

Councilmember Augustus is working with the Planning Commission and Hart's.

Councilmember Gygi will be attending a Utah Valley Dispatch Board meeting where he will discuss safety issues with our border with PG.

Councilmember Rees is working with the Beautification Committee on landscaping for the CoRec facility and re-implementing the Yard of the Month program. She is reaching out the local businesses about participating in the Community Covenant Program with the U.S. Military. She is working with city staff to have a new website up by the end of the month. She has contacted the County to obtain information on the book mobile program.

Review/Action on City Manager Performance and Contract

This has been postponed until April.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at jrees@cedarhills.org or via cell at 801-358-8730.

City Council Agenda for February 7, 2012

There will be a work session at 6:00pm followed by Council meeting at 7:00pm. Both meetings will be held at the Public Works Building instead of the Public Safety Building.

The work session will include a discussion on the commercial development and access issues for our commercial zone, which is located at approximately 4800 West and Cedar Hills Drive (across from WalMart).

The Council meeting agenda contains the following:

- Public comment period for all residents
- Approval of the minutes from the last Council meeting
- Change in the Council meeting location to the Public Works Building
- Discussion on the release of the Hewett Subdivision bond based upon what has been completed
- Board/Committee appointment for the Planning Commission
- Review of the second quarter financial statements
- Discussion regarding the Capital Improvements plan
- Action on adopting a new fee schedule
- Appointment of City Treasurer, City Recoder, Deputy City Recorder, Finance Director, Community Services Director, Chief Building/Zoning Administrator, and City Engineer/Public Works Director
- City Manager discussion
- Report from Councilmembers on boards and committees assigned to each

We welcome all to attend. If you have any questions please feel free to call me at 801-358-8730 or email jrees@cedarhills.org.