Our work session was devoted to the Community Covenant Program signing ceremony. We ended up having almost 20 local businesses offer a variety of discounted and/or free services for Cedar Hills service members who are deployed. Karissa Neely with the Daily Herald wrote an article on the event and it can be viewed at http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/cedar-hills/cedar-hills-makes-commitment-to-military-families/article_6327fff9-77dd-5ac8-9439-83ff47a57bce.html.
Council Meeting
Public Comment
Ken Kirk - Mr. Kirk is concerned about the amount being billed to the City on the Provo River Canal project. He stated the original estimate provided to the Council was $59,030, then in 2009 it was $217,000, now it is $198,000. Why has the amount jumped so high from the original bid? Mr. Kirk also mentioned that the agreement states that the City is responsible for the "repair & maintenance" and that this enclosure project does not fall into either category. Reading through the report provided by Provo River Water Users Association says that input given by American Fork and TSSD affected the alignment and length of the line, but that American Fork and TSSD aren't responsible for the payment so why should their input change our bid? Mr. Kirk feels AMES (construction company) had an obligation to tell us about any increase in price before expecting us to pay a larger bill.
Marisa Wright - Mrs. Wright said that during this last election many promises were made and residents had high expectations. She wanted to say she is impressed with the Council and wanted to thank each one individually. Mrs. Wright thanked me for identifying a need for more communication and for creating write-ups of the meetings for residents. She thanked Councilmember Augustus for his input and help with construction questions and feedback on the Community Recreation Center. She thanked Councilmember Gygi for looking for and interviewing potential businesses for our commercial area. She thanked Councilmember Jackman for dealing with the financial aspects and for keeping things straight. She thanked Councilmember Martinez for her hard work on the Family Festival and the great ideas she has for this event as well as the recreation programs. Mrs. Wright says she sees many good things coming.
Consent Agenda
- The minutes from the March 6, 2012 City Council Meeting were approved.
- A resolution adopting the amended City Council procedure policies was approved. This changed the order of items for discussion during Council meetings and removed the requirement to adjourn by 11:00pm.
- Amendments to the City Code regarding business licensing was approved. These amendments require a background check for specific businesses, require a business license for any business with a sales tax number, and add criteria for commercial and temporary use businesses.
Representative Craig Frank was in attendance and spoke during this time. He provided the Council with a State budget overview. The State is required to have a balanced budget every year. Rep Frank mentioned that many significant issues were addressed during this legislative session, including SB180 which allows municipalities to create an ethics commission to handle ethics complaints. He said the first draft of this bill was horrible but by the third amendment the bill was workable and equitable. He did not want to see SB180 used as a bully pulpit against elected officials. There is good growth in Utah and the State has maintained a Triple A bond rating despite national economic troubles. Even with growth the government hasn't grown much. Federal stimulus that was offered to Utah came with strings attached so the State didn't take it all but did use some for public education. He feels we need to pull away from federal programs or States will go bankrupt. Federal programs are failing and the money will stop coming so we need to stop relying upon it. He mentioned that the fireworks bill changed the rules for fireworks to be how they were prior to last year.
Konrad (City Manager) said the Community Recreation Center is still on target for an April 11th completion. The ULCT conference will be in April. Fiscal year 2013 budget discussions will start again in April and we may need to call a special meeting in April to discuss the budget as we currently only have one scheduled Council meeting in April.
Council member Rees - We now only have two residents serving on the Beautification Committee so we will be putting a notice in the newsletter and on the website looking for additional volunteers. We need a total of five. I contacted the County bookmobile to get information on a potential stop in Cedar Hills but right now they only have availability to make one stop every other week for one hour in the mornings so this doesn't make sense for our residents. I am looking into social media options for the City but am waiting until after the ULCT conference as this will be a topic discussed.
Council member Augustus - Planning Commission has met to discuss Hart's Gas Station and may need a second meeting in April for additional discussions. They have also discussed flag pole restrictions and the potential of having flag poles at the Community Recreation Center. Council member Augustus brought a drawing of the CoRec with three options for flag poles (three flags total: U.S., State, and City). Most agreed that option 1 would be best, which is on the northeast side of the building. Marisa Wright recommended the roundabout at Bayhill as the flags could be seen by the whole city from that location.
Council member Martinez - Tot soccer registration is happening now and summer t-ball will start soon. Lego League registration will also start soon. For the Family Festival, they have met with Midway West who will be providing 12 carnival rides and 8 games. The YCC will also have games. The Easter Egg hunt for kids ages 0-10 will be on April 7th at 11:00am at Heritage Park and the egg hunt for kids ages 11-14 will be on April 6th at 8:30pm at the golf course. On the Saturday event the Fire Dept will bring the Easter Bunny. She is currently looking for additional YCC members (9th grade and up). The ribbon cutting ceremony for the Community Recreation Center will be on May 5th and events will take place from 10am-2pm for residents.
Council member Gygi - He asked to discuss his items during Executive Session as they related to negotiations.
Council member Jackman - Looking for ways to reduce the cost of debt and will present some options at a later time. He is working on this with Rebecca Tehero and a financial advisor.
Presentation of Transparency Award
The Sutherland Institute, which is a conservative public policy think tank committed to shaping Utah law and policy based on a core set of governing principles, rates city websites on the level of transparency for residents. Cedar Hills was given a B- last year. With our new website we worked to make sure that we are providing more information to residents in order to be more transparent. Due to these improvements the Sutherland Institute gave us an A+ score and presented us with a transparency award. The presenter, Derek Monson, mentioned that he was impressed to see a tax breakdown showing a resident their cost to live in Cedar Hills, and was very impressed at our putting all GRAMA requests online as he has never seen another city do this.
Discussion on Recreation Center Classes and Programs
Danny Lambourne has been interviewing potential instructors for recreation center classes at our new facility. So far he has identified 9 instructors and 6 substitute instructors who are interested in teaching a variety of courses such as zumba, bootcamp, yoga, spin, cardio classes, circuit, muscle mix, kickboxing, cycling, dance party, and karate. Danny presented the Council with a potential fitness class schedule and descriptions of each class. He also provided a list of other potential non-exercise classes that could be offered such as photography, jewelry making, CPR, etc. Danny handed out preliminary designs for the completion of the CoRec basement that would include a cardio room with a variety of equipment and a multi-purpose room for additional classes.
There were a lot of questions and concerns brought up by the Mayor and Council. We realize that this center will be opening soon and we want to offer recreation activities from the beginning, but there is still a lot of discussion that needs to occur on how instructors will be compensated, what residents will pay for and how much, and how the basement will be finished. City staff have presented a plan to make all instructors 1099 contracted employees who will be paid $15 per class for up to 10 people with the option to make more money if more people take the class. Council member Gygi would prefer that the instructors are paid a percentage of whatever the class brings in instead of receiving a flat amount per class as he feels instructors will be more motivated to get people signed up if their compensation depends on attendance. Mayor Richardson would like residents to have the ability to use the basement cardio room for free but staff feels that there needs to be a cost for this as there is for all other recreation programs. Ultimately everyone on the Council agrees that the recreation programs need to sustain themselves and cannot be subsidized by taxes. The paying of instructors, fees for residents, and plans for the basement will continue to be discussed.
Review/Action on Amendment Regarding Flagpoles
Flagpoles are currently allowed on residental lots and had been grouped with chimneys and antennas. The Planning Commission met to discuss having an ordiance just for flagpoles that would pertain to both residental and commercial properties. The recommendation was to allow flagpoles on all lots in all zones with the following conditions:
- Maximum height is 35' from finished grade
- May be no closer than 10 linear feet from the sidewalk, curb, or street (whichever is furthest), 10 linear feet from the edge of the lot, and 10 linear feet from a neighboring lot
- Parks, public buildings and commercial buildings may increase height by approval of site plan through City Council
Review/Action on Amendment Regarding Signs
The Planning Commission recommended amending the current sign ordinance to allow for A-frame signs that are 3 feet or under in height as these types of signs are commonly used for neighborhood functions and meetings. The ordinance was approved.
Review/Action on Fee Schedule
Brad Kearl presented the Council with proposed fees for temporary use businesses, temporary use application fee and inspection fees, and plan check deposits for residential and commercial. There were some questions as to where the dollar amounts proposed for the plan checks came from. Mr. Kearl was asked to bring an estimate of actual costs as we do not want to charge more than what it costs us to do these plan checks. This items was postponed.
Discussion on Agreement with the Provo River Water Users Association for Sewer Relocation on 4500 West
The Association has provided a very detailed summary of the history of this project and the costs associated and this can be found on the City website at http://www.cedarhills.org/sites/default/files/agendas/city-council-agenda-2012-03-20.pdf. The very short version is that in 1996 Cedar Hills signed an agreement with the Bureau of Reclamation to be able to run utilities across the canal property. This canal (Provo Reservoir Canal, but sometimes known as the Murdock Canal) is owned by the United States Government and is under the direction of the Bureau of Reclamation. At some point it was determined that this canal would be enclosed and as part of that the sewer line owned by Cedar Hills needed to be relocated to accommodate the canal enclosure pipe. The Association contracted with AMES to work on this enclosure and the relocation of the sewer line. The original bid provided to Cedar Hills for this project was a little over $60,000 and was based on a 30% design. According to the Association (Mr. Cane represented the Association at our meeting), the contractor was expected to do further investigation and produce a final design for approval once digging had started and they could get a better understanding as to the scope of the project, and it was also expected that as the sewer line was fully excavated and new information was obtained, additional charges would be required. Mr. Cane said the original bid also assumed that the existing metering manhole could be reused in the new sewer line alignment.
One of the biggest issues that came up was that TSSD would not allow for the existing metering manhole or vault to be used. They stated that the existing items no longer met their current standards. Both Mr. Cane and our Public Works Director, David Bunker, state that none of the input provided by American Fork affected our pricing at all. Mr. Cane states that because the scope of the project was greater once digging started and more information was obtained, and because TSSD required a new metering station be used, the bid jumped from the original quote of ~$60,000 to $217,000. This new bid was presented to the City (I believe in 2009) and immediately raised questions as to why the amount changed so drastically. The most recent amount we are now being provided with is $198,963 but this may change as the project is not yet complete. David Bunker has reviewed the documenation and project and feels the amount should be closer to $110,000.
There is a lot of frustration on this project. The main reason for this is that TSSD required new materials that drastically changed the price of this project for Cedar Hills, yet the City was not included in these discussions and is now expected to pay. Mayor Richardson felt that TSSD should be responsible for the extra amount if this was their requirement, and that at a minimum these requirements and fees should have been discussed with us before proceeding as we have to pay the bill. He is upset that it appears the Association has a blank check policy and can do anything to our utility lines without our input and then expect us to pay whatever figure they come up with. Mr. Cane asserts that the agreement the U.S. government has is with Cedar Hills, not TSSD, so payment must come from Cedar Hills and that whatever TSSD requires is between Cedar Hills and TSSD.
Mr. Cane presented the Council with three options:
- We can agree to the $198,963 price and sign the agreement. If so, Provo River Water Users Association will forgive 25% of the total price leaving us with a new balance of $149,222 which can be paid over a period of 3 years with the first payment being due this year;
- We can reject this offer, in which case they will present us with an invoice for the entire amount of $198,963 which is due in 30 days;
- We can refuse to pay at all and the Bureau of Reclamation, through the U.S. Federal Government, will take whatever steps they must to get this money.
The meeting was adjourned and moved to Executive Session.
