Work Session
Discussion on fire concerns and fireworks. Last year for
the east side of Canyon Road we prohibited aerials and open fires. The city
encouraged those who wanted to light fireworks to do so at Mesquite Park as a
fire truck would be there and available. We’ve already had a fire this week.
Some teens started a bonfire in the foothills and it got out of control so the
fire department was dispatched. Chief Freeman would like to prohibit open fires
on the east side of Canyon Road, including the foothills. He is talking with
the Forest Service on this as well. Feels we should currently have the same
restrictions as we did last year with the knowledge that there may be
additional restrictions later on based on weather conditions. Chief Freeman
indicated that predictions are this summer will be as dry as it was in 2013,
which is when Alpine dealt with the Quail Fire.
Discussion on American Fork Canyon Vision Project. This
is a group of stakeholders to discuss recreation and transportation issues in
American Fork Canyon. They have had one townhall meeting that was well
attended. Additional studies are being done and is being funded by the state
legislature as well as individuals/businesses in the private sector. Forest
Service is very involved as they are concerned about the damage being caused in
the canyon. There is approximately 1.5 million visits to the Canyon each year. They
will continue to have townhall meetings and other public outreach to get
feedback from interested citizens.
Council Meeting
Public Comment
Jerry Dearinger – Encourages the Council to reconsider
the situation with Kim Holindrake, former city recorder. Doesn’t claim to be
giving legal opinion, but has reviewed case law and her contract and it appears
to him that she was railroaded and made part of a situation she didn’t create
but has caused her damage, including loss of retirement opportunity. Would like
city to reinstate her retirement or give her credit for years worked prior to retirement
being put in place. He didn’t always agree with Kim but felt she was honest and
knowledgeable.
Paul Sorensen – Ask Mayor & Council on behalf of Kim
Holindrake to restore six years of retirement funding. Kim voluntarily resigned
in May 2012 but he feels this was forced. Kim’s career was destroyed and
compromised. Feels former Mayor Richardson and former city manager Konrad
Hildebrandt should be questioned. Brought up Mr. Richardson’s personal legal issues.
Feels she was placed under duress to sign separation agreement. Mr. Sorensen read
parts of her separation agreement.
Curt Crosby – Mr. Crosby continued reading the letter
started by Mr. Sorensen. Continued to read portions of Mrs. Holindrake’s
separation agreement. Mr. Crosby says she was threatened with immediate firing
so it was signed under duress. Feels this is a travesty forced onto an
employee. Feels circumstances were questionable. Mr. Dearinger’s legal opinion
is that the separation agreement is unenforceable. Brought up Mr. Richardson’s
personal legal issues. Asks for restoration of six years of retirement and
wants something in writing.
Sam Bushman – Mr. Bushman is a talk show host but says he
doesn’t usually deal with city issues. Has seen Cedar Hills in the news on
multiple occasions. News has not been favorable. Filed a GRAMA request and
eventually had mediation meeting with the State Records Ombudsman and the city.
He feels there was a debate amongst the mayor and city attorney and realized
things aren’t as transparent as he’d like them to be. Wanted city business
emails and compared it to Hillary Clinton email scandal. CM Crawley was the
only council member willing to sign Mr. Bushman’s affidavit. Wants to discuss
solutions to transparency in Cedar Hills.
**For further information on this issue, please see the
GRAMA portion of the 2014 State of the City Newsletter or see my post titled
GRAMA on my blog.
Ken Cromar – Feels Kim Holindrake was forced to sign a
contract. Claims an illegal meeting took place before the Council meeting in
May 2012. (Reality is that the Council met to celebrate my birthday with cake
before the meeting). Asks why a mayor and city attorney would ask an employee
to sign the separation agreement Kim signed. Says it says more about the former
mayor and attorney. Would like mayor and Council to add to her retirement for
the years she worked for the city prior to the retirement plan being implemented.
Michael Johnson – Received an email from Jeff Maag about
gating off the road on Heiselt’s Hollow. Mr. Johnson has expressed concern
about the speed of the cars coming down the hill. Felt the city should install
a speed bump to solve this and water issues. Concrete barriers were installed
but this was detrimental to fire trucks that needed access to the hillside when
we had a fire in 2013. Feels there is no enforcement to the problems occurring in
that area. He is against gating off that area. Would like the employees to talk
to the residents who live in that area on solutions.
Consent Agenda
Minutes from the April 14, 2015 and April 21, 2015 City
Council meetings were approved.
City Reports
CM Rees – A few members of the Planning Commission, City
Council, and staff met with Blu Line to discuss the concerns the Planning
Commission had with the renderings submitted at the last meeting. Everyone
present gave feedback to Blu Line regarding the design and look of the
building. The Planning Commission has agreed to hold a special meeting on May
12th to review updated plans. The Planning Commission changed their
regularly scheduled meetings and these will now take place on the fourth
Tuesday of every month.
The Daily Herald has been in contact with us on a few
stories, one of those being water restrictions.
Family Festival committee is working hard. The magazine
is with the printers and should go out next week. Banners are now up at the
fire station and roundabout. More will go up as they receive approval. Tickets
are now on sale and for the first time, can be purchased online. Sponsorship
money has exceeded the targeted amount and plans for all events are scheduled.
The Arts Committee will meet again in May but things are
going well. Auditions for the play HONK are complete and practices are being
held. The summer concert series is being planned and the concert for Family
Festival is booked, which consists of Peter Condor, Sabrina Haskett, and the
Bayloaf 4. The Childrens Art Show is planned as part of the Family Festival.
Mayor Gygi – Meets with MAG this Thursday and will report
back.
David Bunker – Community Center is getting very busy and
scheduling more complex but they work through it. HONK practice is occurring in
the basement, as well as karate and other recreation. Golf course is doing
well. Tball and lacrosse registration is now open. Soccer programs are
currently occurring.
CM Zappala – Worked with Chandler to put together a
survey regarding the General Plan and will be sent to residents. Received a
grant to continue developing a city tracker app.
CM Geddes – For UV Dispatch, 8 RFP’s were received for
construction of new dispatch facility. Parks & Trails had a city day of
service last week. One project was beautifying the entrance to Cedar Hills at the
south on Canyon Road. Second project was beautifying the roundabout on Cedar
Hills Drive. Third project was cleaning up trash among trail system. Several
residents participated with all of these projects, guessing about 50.
Advertising in wards may help get additional help in the future.
Review/Action on FY 2015 Budget Amendments
10-69-910 Additional
transfer up to $250,000 (minimum of $100,000) to the Capital Projects fund for
approved capital projects: Bayhill Park, and the golf maintenance shed. Also, to maintain the unrestricted fund
balance in the General fund below 25% of revenues, as required by law.
·
Staff is working on designs for golf maintenance
shed and surveying land. This is a placeholder for next fiscal year. CM Crawley
feels we should do an analysis on other options for the golf course prior to
building this shed. CM Geddes indicated this analysis shouldn’t preclude moving
forward on a shed that will be safe for staff. CM Zappala asked CM Crawley when
he anticipates working on this analysis. CM Crawley stated he has started but
will work on this more and needs some help in various areas. Doesn’t know how
long it will take but wants to start the conversation. CM Augustus felt we’ve done
this already with the Golf Course Financial Advisory Committee, which came back
with a unanimous recommendation that we should continue with the golf course as
there was no other viable option. CM Crawley feels that other options were not
discussed in detail with the Golf Course Finance Committee. He feels other
options haven’t been researched enough. CM Geddes welcomes the discussion but
hates to bring up angst for a small portion of the population. CM Crawley feels
it isn’t a small portion of the population that is concerned with golf course
losses. He feels that we need to do a thorough analysis of other options. My
thoughts are that this maintenance shed was discussed over a year ago and this
analysis has been discussed for over a year. If it’s going to be done, it needs
to be done within the next few months. We can’t continue to push this off for
another year.
·
On Bayhill Park, the FY 2015 budget will be used to
redesign the park according to recommendations made by the Parks & Trails
Committee to increase size of play equipment, landscaping, and moving trail to
aqueduct easement.
10-35-100 Increase
by $5,000 Family Festival Income relating to donations.
10-65-600 Increase
Family Festival expenditures by $5,000 related to the dinner.
10-69-911 Transfer
to Motor Pool Fund, reallocated to various motor pool charge accounts 10-40-275,
10-60-275, 10-61-275, and 10-65-275. These are just reclassifications.
20-80-911 Transfer
to Motor Pool Fund, updated to motor pool charge account 20-80-275.
40-30-801 Additional
transfer in from the General fund up to $250,000 for approved capital projects
and to keep unrestricted fund balance in General fund less than 25% of revenues,
as required by law.
40-30-500 Mass
Transit Sales Tax Revenues levied by the city, but collected and 40-78-100
disbursed by the State of Utah for mass transit projects/operations, which
amounted to less than $10 in the previous fiscal year. This is no longer
collected by the city as the County instituted a county mass transit sales tax.
51-75-911 Transfer
to Motor Pool Fund updated to 51-73-275 Motor Pool Charges (just a
reclassification)
51-38-380 Sewer
impact fees collected for Timpanogos Special Service District (TSSD), and
51-74-471 sewer impact fees distributed to TSSD.
This was approved.
Review/Action to Adopt Tentative Fiscal Year 2016
Budget
The City is also required to approve a tentative budget
for 2015-2016 by the first Council Meeting in May based on Utah Code 10-6-135.
The final budget will not be approved until June, so there is still time to
review any questions or concerns. A few highlights:
·
Charl showed an analysis comparing 2006 to 2016.
In 2016 the majority of our revenue (29%) came from licensing and permits. In
2016, the majority of our revenue comes from sales tax (31%). Property tax has
stayed at about 20%.
·
Increase in Class C road funds as State
Legislature passed an increase in gas tax. This starts January 2016 so the
budgeted amount is for half of a year with an increase of $22,000.
·
Wage increases are an average of 3%. Health
insurance benefits increasing 5.46% and dental insurance premium increasing
3.5%.
·
Golf operating revenues up $24,868 from prior
year though end of March.
·
Legal expenses projected to increase by $20,000
from the FY 2015 budgeted amount.
·
Auditing services projected to decrease by
$9000.
·
Election expenses increases to $15,000 as next
year is an election year.
·
Public safety expenses increases as follows:
Fire/EMS $1,735, Police $18,049, Dispatch $32,000.
·
Placeholder of $8000 for contributing to a
mental health provider at Lone Peak High School (this will require many future
discussion with the district and other cities and is just a placeholder).
·
Motor Pool charges of $50,907 are a change in
how budgeted items are shown. In the past it was a transfer to the golf fund.
This is for approved purchases of maintenance equipment.
·
Parks expenditures will now show a line for
utilities. Projected amount is $12,500.
·
Increase in salaries and benefits for Community
Services. We added a part-time custodian as it was cheaper than contracting
out.
·
Recreation class expense decreasing by $15,000
as Tree Fitness isn’t currently offering classes at the facility.
·
Golf Course utilities increase of $31,000 to
show water usage.
·
Water fees increasing $34,281 for residential
and $37,750 for city departments, such as golf course and city parks. Increase
is based on Bowen & Collins study done in 2012. Additionally, as part of
this study and recommendation, sewer fees are increasing $54,065 and storm
drain fees are increasing $16,928. These increases are to cover estimated
operations, capital projects, and debt service for the water, sewer, storm
drain, and PI systems.
·
TSSD is increasing $49,000 and this is a pass
through cost.
CM Zappala indicated he’d like to see the golf subsidy
go down each year. It did increase this upcoming year to account for new policy
on accounting for utilities and for golf maintenance equipment approved for purchase.
This was approved.
Review/Action on Water Restrictions
In an effort to maintain the ability to
consistently provide an adequate supply of secondary water during peak usage periods
and during unexpected maintenance times, staff has made recommendations for
long term system changes including a tiered billing schedule. However, at this
time a City prescribed watering schedule is under consideration. Staff
acknowledges that past prescribed water scheduling has resulted in spiked water
usage that exceeded the system’s ability to provide the required supply. This
resulted in low water pressures to many areas of the City. Unlike many
jurisdictions with large water storage facilities that need extended time to
refill, Cedar Hills has a few small reservoirs that during high usage can be
rapidly drained. We have found that consistent nightly usage, spread out daily,
allows us to maximize delivery of available water and provide the most consistent
water pressure.
Staff recommends that if water schedules are used,
the City should be divided into six watering zones; three zones on the upper
system and three zones on the lower system. Each watering zone would be
scheduled to water twice weekly, by address (odd/even), this will help maintain
supply and pressure during usage. Sunday would be open for spot watering only
(hose) city wide. Staff recommends that this schedule be followed from May 1st
through September 30th and particularly through the critical months of June,
July and August. To help avoid the past experience of water usage increase staff
recommends that enforcement of the water schedule be consistent and aggressive.
To provide enforcement it is anticipated that two part time employees will be
needed; at a cost of approximately $22,736. This cost would be covered by the
water fund. As this cost would likely be needed on an annual basis it is recommended
that it be added to the Bowen Collins study. Fees collected for violations to
the policy could provide revenue to partially offset costs. We also anticipate
increased depreciation to City vehicles used during the enforcement period.
Additional legal costs could be incurred during the enforcement process as well
as the need for additional current staff time.
Water Conservation Committee and staff didn’t
recommend restrictions as history has shown this has increased water usage. The
recommendation from the committee was to implement a citizen education program.
This was done last year and will continue this year. There has also been an
increase in media coverage. Feels education program could be just as effective as
water restrictions.
David stated that our water levels in our wells
have dropped and that will get worse with population growth and as more cities
rely on culinary water to supplement their PI needs.
Water restrictions will be put in place. We will go
to an odd/even watering schedule with enforcement of first violation – warning,
second violation - $50 fine, third violation - $200 fine. This was approved
unanimously.
