Council Meeting - September 17, 2013

Work Session

Discussion on Social Security Options - City has been paying employer portion of Social Security funds but found out recently that we hadn't officially opted into the program. Employees can choose to opt in or opt out and use a different type of retirement program, such as URS. Every employee voted and 75% preferred to opt out and utilize something like URS, but want to first know what will happen with employers share of Social Security that has been paid into the system. Technically, this portion could go back to the City and the City would have to determine whether or not to roll this over into a retirement program for the employees or to keep the funds.  However, if they opt out of Social Security then they also lose disability and death benefits and would need to purchase this coverage on their own. The concern that CM Jackman has is that as a Council, we can determine each year how much to apply to the retirement benefits and have it match what we paid for Social Security, but we cannot bind future Councils to do the same. At least with Social Security there is a mandated employer portion. I feel we should let employees vote on this as they've been educated on the options and I don't feel we are better educated than they on what is best for their retirement. David has said that they have discussed ways to incentivize employees to continue to save through a matching program and only giving the employee the employer paid portion if the employee rolls over the already paid funds into a qualified retirement plan.

Council Meeting

Public Comment
Angela Madsen - Wants to know how to change the noise ordinance for the park with regards to concerts and movies in the park. Her house is two houses away and it gets really loud. Some nights it is so loud the windows shake. Noise can get so loud that they can't enjoy their own yard. Would like earlier end time for school nights for movies and/or concerts.

Shawn Madsen - Enjoy the concerts, but many neighbors have little kids and all want earlier end time on school nights.

Presentation by Siemens on Utility Cost Savings
City staff has been working with Siemens group on potential savings to Cedar Hills by making changes to street lighting, pumping, and the use of secondary water. Mr. Cram presented potential savings and discussed how Cedar Hills should proceed should the City wish to work with Siemens on this project. Challenges faced by the city are limited budget, aging infrastructure, and limited capital. These are challenges faced by all cities. Siemens is obligated to ensure that these projects are cash flow positive and revenue neutral. Siemens can do this because of higher manpower and can set aside funds for improvements instead of having any savings go back into the General Fund, which usually gets used in other ways. Siemens would be in charge of the consulting, financing, and implementation. Life of project is on average 10-15 years. Savings will vary based upon the type of project. These types of arrangements have been made available through State laws to encourage energy saving projects. Siemens will guarantee an annual savings in terms of water usage, energy savings, etc. and if that savings isn't met then they make up the difference. Will do a no-cost feasibility study. Some potential  opportunities are city-wide pressurized irrigation water metering, city-wide street lighting, and secondary water connections to all parks. He estimates we could save $56k-$84k each year. Having a PI metering system would put more accountability on individual water users. Technology has improved quality of PI meters and can be guaranteed for 20 years. Goal is that infrastructure lasts longer than the payment terms. Projects would be financed with savings so we don't have to bond for future projects. Relevant legislation includes HB 116 in 2010, State Code Title 11 Chapter 44, State Contract MA946. City retains ownership of all equipment. Siemens is doing these types of projects nationally and around the world. More than 1,300 successfully completed projects and $3 billion in energy savings. Siemens is meeting their commitment over 99% of the time and are only having to pay out guarantee less than 1% of the time. City will move forward with the no-cost feasibility study. This does not obligate us to anything further.

YCC Presentation
In accordance with the bylaws, candidates for YCC mayor apply and present themselves to their peer group for consideration. The YCC advisor, with the recommendation of the YCC and adult advisory committee, submit the names to the Mayor. The Mayor then appoints the YCC mayor. The YCC advisor has recommended that each year as the YCC members begin their terms, they shall take an oath of office to affirm their commitment. Jordan Anderson is the YCC mayor. Mayor and all YCC members were sworn in by Colleen Mulvey, city recorder. CM Martinez expressed her excitement for YCC and how lucky we are to have these youth serving the city.

Consent Agenda
Minutes for the July 16, 2013 City Council meeting unanimously approved.

City Reports
David Bunker - Had kick-off meeting with Bowen, Collins & Assoc on impact fee analysis. Looking to have an open house in January to go over study results. State of the City has gone out. Timpanogos Special Service District meeting this week.

CM Jackman - LPPSD meeting this week.

CM Zappala - Utah Valley Dispatch met. Want to have LPPSD sign district agreement and want all cities to have to stay with Utah Valley Dispatch unless all cities want to leave. CM Zappala recommended it be a vote of the LPPSD board, which represents the district. City needs to determine what we are going to do with dispatch fairly soon, whether to stay with Utah Valley or use someone else. Issue is that AFPD uses Utah Valley so if we switched for LPPSD then we'd have two different dispatch centers, one for fire and one for police. Budget app is up and running and he will continue to work on it.

CM Martinez - YCC car wash coming up on the 30th at roundabout by Walmart.  2pm-5pm and all proceeds go to Santa's Workshop. Pumpkin walk and Haunted Creek will be October 28th. 25 cents for admission. Golf had another fantastic month financially. Tree Fitness is doing classes downstairs.

Mayor Gygi - Thanks Council for attending ULCT meetings. Wants each member to prepare a report of things learned and present at next meeting. UDOT has said they want to refinish Canyon Road but don't know when and haven't said what they will do to fix it, but is having County be in charge of snow plowing the road. County is talking with city staff regarding reimbursing city to do snow plowing. David continues to discuss with County and will bring to the Council when more info is available.

CM Rees - State of the City went out. Social media doing well. ABC4 picked up story posted today. Parks & Trails meeting this week.

Review/Action on Fire Restrictions
Fire Marshall Bailey discussed adjustments to the current fire restriction policy. With the recent rainfall there may be changes that would be appropriate with respect to policy. However, one of the largest fires in the District in the past was during the month of September. Mr. Bailey discussed the viability of adjusting the fire restrictions east of Canyon Road. Recommendation is to allow open fires west of Canyon Road but maintaining restrictions east of Canyon Road, which states open fires are only allowed with a screen cover. Fireworks restriction would stay in effect until October, and would need to be revisited at that time, but next allowed fireworks date is Chinese New Year. Unanimously approved.

Discussion on Non-Residential Rental Fees
City Council asked staff to explore the possibility of adopting a non-resident fee for rental business licenses. Non-resident rental units make up about 90% of the rental units in the City. Beginning next week, letters will be sent out to all property owners informing them of the code, and what they will need to do in order to obtain a business license. With regard to a non-resident business license fee, we asked Eric Johnson (city attorney) for input. His response indicated that the cost of a business license must be reasonably related to the cost of providing the service. As staff would not be performing any additional service for a non-resident rental unit when compared to a rental unit, staff feels that it would be best practice to have a single license fee for all applicants.

Discussion on City Code Regarding Rental Units
Staff has been asked to clarify City Code regarding the definition of a family. From our current Code 10-2-1: Family: One of the following groups of individuals, but not more than one at the same time: a) an individual living alone; or b) two (2) or more people all of whom are related to one designated occupant of the dwelling by blood, marriage, adoption, or legal guardianship and their foster children and up to two (2) other unrelated persons who do not pay rent or give other consideration for the privilege of staying with the family; or c) up to four (4) unrelated individuals who live together as a single housekeeping unit; or d) two (2) unrelated individuals and any children of either of them living as a single housekeeping unit. A "guest" under this section is defined as a person who stays with a family or a period of less than thirty (30) days within any rolling one year period and does not utilize the dwelling as a legal address for any purpose. For purposes of the definition of family, the term "related" shall mean a spouse, parent, child, grandparent, grandchild, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, great-grandparent, and great-grandchild. The term "related" does not include other, more distant relationships such as cousins.

There are inconsistencies and certain situations could arise that could be problematic legally and as a matter of enforcement; such as our definition of what constitutes being related. Staff would like to receive input from the City Council to help update the code in order to make compliance understandable for residents/property owners, and enforcement consistent for the Zoning Department. Staff would like to change it so that "related" means related to the head of household and that person must be owner of the house. Also suggest no more than one accessory apartment per house, outside entrance is required for accessory apartment and should be in the rear of the building, and cannot share common areas.

CM Zappala would like us to address to real issues, which seem to be noise and parking. How do we enforce these items, because most people don't care how many people are living in a house if they are taking care of the yard and obeying parking and noise ordinances. If we create code it needs to be enforceable. CM Jackman feels we shouldn't create code on the few outliers if it's going to make things more difficult for the majority of our residents.

Discussion on Policy for Public Use of Conference Rooms, During and After Business Hours
With the completion of the Recreation Center basement and conference room addition, a policy for the use of these facilities in addition to the conference rooms at the city building should be discussed. It is currently the practice to allow community groups such as HOAs and civic groups access to public facilities at no charge. At times, these groups wish to meet after business hours, which require staff to return to work to lock the building, clean up, set the alarm, etc. The current/proposed fees for commercial use of the recreation center are as follows:

Vista Room -Weekend $1,600
Vista Room – Weekday $1,400
Recreation Center Basement $30/hour one side, $50/hour both sides
Recreation Center Conference Room $30/hour

I feel that we should charge for groups that want to meet after hours as we will need to pay for a staff member to be onsite and close up. Others feel that we should leave it open for residents to use at any time and we subsidize the cost of usage after hours by finding areas in the budget to cut. We need to come up with city-wide policies with usage of city buildings. Item will be discussed later after Charl determines if there is money in the budget for this subsidy.

Review/Action on Proposed Parks & Trails Code
City Council asked staff to research the provision in the proposed code regarding the prohibition of the use of offensive language in municipal parks. After consulting with Eric Johnson, we feel that any prohibition on the use of any language would be in violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution. Multiple documented legal cases have shown that offensive language is a protected speech under the First Amendment. Staff would like additional input regarding the use/consumption of alcohol in City parks. Staff would like to know if the definition of alcohol needs to be included in the Code. It was determined no, it did not need to be defined. Ordinance was unanimously approved taking out language portion and not defining alcohol (it is already defined by the State).

Discussion on Parks Curfew
The following is the proposed addition to the Parks and Trails code:
6-8-6: PARK CURFEW: A. All parks shall be closed between the hours of ten o’clock (10:00) P.M. and five o’clock (5:00) A.M. It shall be unlawful for any person other than city employees performing their duties to be to loiter in the park when it is closed. Current park rules state that the park curfew is 10:30 P.M., however, City Code states: 5-2-2: It is unlawful for any person to cause noise that constitutes a public disturbance.  d. Sports or other entertainment activities in or adjacent to a residential zone between the hours of ten o’clock (10:00) P.M. and seven o’clock (7:00) A.M. Staff would like direction on how the Council wishes to regulate the use of parks, it has come to our attention that 9:00 has been proposed as an appropriate park curfew, while current park rules state 10:30, and the code states 10:00. Staff would like the various times to be consistent for enforcement purposes.

Discussion is that we have a park curfew but a noise ordinance for concerts and/or movie that is earlier during the school year. If someone wanted to have an event outside of normal hours  (such as family festival) then a special use permit would be required. Discussion will continue at a later date.

Council Meeting - August 27, 2013

I'm at a conference this week and posting during my break so please forgive any formatting or spelling mistakes.


Council Meeting August 27th

Work Session
Discussion on branding. Going through the survey results, focus will be on bringing more recognition to our city to those who do not know who Cedar Hills, to attract and retain residents, build our commercial area, and increase revenue through recreation and events. This will include updating the website with a one page infographic, which will serve as our landing page for those interested in getting detailed information about the city all in one location, meeting with employers in northern Utah County, meeting and maintaining relationships with potential commercial businesses, showing through video and pictures who and what Cedar Hills is.  Also, the survey shows that over 60% of residents stated their preferred choice for city communication is via email so we need to work to collect email addresses and providing pertinent and timely information via email.

Corey Jackson spoke. Wants to know why city is trying to increase traffic to city. Also thinks city should find out why residents don't give email addresses. He doesn't trust government with his info. Wants to know how many items in the budget could be removed that isn't needed. Would like a venue where students could learn skills through city, like graphic design.  Wants to know how are we finding out from residents what they are interested in?

Council Meeting

Public Comment
Judy Arnold - Opened a corner little house library in her yard. Library has been very busy. People are coming from Alpine and Highland as well. Residents are asking for additional little free libraries. Would be delightful if residents could share their books with others. Great location would be  parks. This would be a great Eagle Scout project. Only cost is one time fee of $35 per box to charter with the little school library. No deadlines and no maintenance. Citizens have been very generous with their donations. Would like the city to do some advertising as so many residents don't know about this even though it was in the newsletter.

City Reports
David Bunker - Reminder that ULCT annual conference is next month. Geneva Rock staged some material on St. Andrews property. Geneva treats the city well and gives us great pricing. With the staging they were willing to grade St. Andrews and spread fill for  us at no cost. They were there for about four days and are now gone. They cleaned up everything. Wants to know if Council wants to push meeting Sept 3rd meeting as it's next week. Council agreed to cancel next meeting.

CM Jackman - LPPSD had board meeting. Discussed matrix study on sharing services amongst five cities.

CM Augustus - Planning Commission meeting last Thursday. Blu Line (developer) presented on ideas for commercial area. If Council has any ideas then please send to Trent so he can discuss with Planning Commission. Discussed making outer buildings four stories instead of five stories so no issue with setbacks. Right now building is proposed to be 62 feet, but that exceeds maximum guidelines that city has for occupied space. They will continue to work with Planning Commission on this. Developer wants utilities in the ground in December so they can start working in spring. Growth would be a phased approach, but would have certain requirements to complete at certain times so it doesn't sit empty. Will have several public hearings on this to get resident feedback. They have an existing similar development in Farmington, so have relationships with the commercial businesses that developed there. Discussed how Council gets feedback from the Planning Commission. Commission members are concerned that Council doesn't appreciate their feedback. We may have Planning Commission present to Council what their recommendation is and why at future meetings.

CM Martinez - Soccer has started. YCC presenting at next meeting. Doing fundraising car wash soon.

CM Rees - Press release issued for Tree Fitness. State of the City almost complete and being mailed out on September 13th.

Review/Action on Canvass of Election
Verify tally sheet amounts coincide with votes cast. All were correct. Additional votes calculated. Final numbers showed the four candidates who go on to the general election are Zappala, Martinez, Crawley, and Bradley. Canvass results were unanimously approved.

Discussion on Social Media
Continued until a future meeting when city attorney can attend.

Review/Action on Municipal Wastewater Plan
The Utah State Dept of Environmental Quality requires the city to prepare and pass a Municipal Wastewater Planning Program report showing that we have taken steps to maintain effluent requirements. Public Works director Jeff Maag presented on the prepared report. This was unanimously approved.

Discussion on Snow Plow for Canyon Road
UDOT is keeping jurisdiction of North County Blvd and Canyon Road. County says they don't have resources to take care of the roads and they want cities to snowplow Canyon Road. Wants Cedar Hills to handle Canyon to Canyon Heights, PG would take rest to State Street. Would cost the city about $10,000 to $15,000 per year to handle this. PG recommended that the city pay for half and the County pay for half instead of the County paying for all. In addition to the cost, there is the liability involved. CM Jackman feels liability includes bad roads and we have PG residents who live on our portion of Canyon Road. Feels liability is high, though he knows we'd do a much better job of keeping that road clear than the County would. I expressed frustration as we've been unable to get the County or UDOT to make needed repairs to the road but now they want us to pay for plowing roads that they own but won't maintain. Jeff Maag is also concerned it will require additional man hours and we only have one 10 wheeler, which is what would be needed to accommodate this. This was a discussion item only but Council and staff do not feel the city should take this on.

Review/Action on Contract for Impact Fee Analysis
The city requested proposals from companies on doing an impact fee analysis. It is time  that we had this done and it is in 2014 budget. Staff recommends Bowen, Collins, and Assoc., who would team up with Zions Bank to do the financial analysis. Would start in September and should be completed by end of the year. Unanimously approved.

Discussion on Golf Course Driving Range Fencing
A resident reached out to the Council stating that he has an issue with golf balls from the driving range hitting his house or ending up in his yard. He asked that the city make the fence higher or do something to prevent this from happening. Four options were presented. 1-Extend the driving range fencing, 2- Reposition tee boxes, 3- Install fence at resident property, 4- Plant trees at resident property. Options 1 and 2 would be quite expensive.

This isn't a unique incident. There are many homes right next to the golf course and there are some risks. Concern expressed is that this sets a precedent for every home near the golf course. We are going to have to replace nets and poles within next year or so anyway so this is a good discussion to have in next budget season. Council feels we should do nothing at this point and discuss again at budget time.

Discussion on Utah Valley Dispatch Contract
UV Dispatch has proposed new contract to LPPSD. Board members were concerned when we were looking at potentially utilizing a different dispatch. Term and termination would be for five year period and auto renew for five years, if we wanted to get out prior to five years we would have to pay a fee to leave. Right now both AFPD and LPPSD use UV Dispatch. Only LPPSD is being asked to sign, they haven't asked other cities to sign. CM Jackman expressed concern over five year lock down, should be one year so it corresponds with the budget year and we should have the option to give a years notice and change if we want. I expressed concern that AFPD could switch dispatch centers and if we locked down with Utah Valley then we could pay for two dispatch services. Council agrees that nobody is comfortable with five year lockdown or us being the only one being asked to sign.

Discussion on North Pointe Solid Waste Contract
North Pointe wants to lock us in for an 8 year period for two consecutive auto renewal terms of eight years. Buyout would be around $100,000. Orem is biggest proponent, but smaller cities are not in favor as buyout is so high it would be impossible. David is talking to other cities who don't use North Pointe to determine costs of other providers.

Discussion on Name Change for Clubhouse Drive
This has been discussed at several Council meetings. Sammy's and Tree Fitness are opposed and so is staff. No compelling reason to change. Item is tabled.

Review/Action on Branding
See notes from work session. CM Augustus recommended we bid out creative work to other individuals, not just companies. Tagline will be Trailhead to Adventure. Item tabled. Will come back as future discussion.

Discussion on Water Outlook
City is using too much water. Historically, when we've tried to ration PI usage has gone up as people panic. Also, PI meters break easily because it is dirty water and includes pepples. City is going to have to also reduce usage and monitor and fix issues with during watering rain storms and over watering. Residents have been asked to voluntarily reduce PI water usage to no more than three times per week. Watering restrictions may be placed next year.