City Council - workshop

We're good, we're recording everything. Welcome to our City Council work meeting for Wednesday, July 8th. Just looking ahead a little bit, we are going to try to get through work meeting early, try to go into closed, that's kind of the goal right now. Work meeting closed, general.

We also have a CDRA meeting.

And a CDRA meeting, okay. Is that for 7? 6.30. So we can go in there at 6.30, okay. Perfect, thank you, Jackie. So we'll move in. Any other items on 1.1, review of the agenda for the meeting? Okay, 1.2, future agenda items. 1.3, council discussion of future citizen recognitions. We have three tonight, right?

If they come.

We'll know when we walk out there.

DECA is planning on August 11th.

So tonight's rugby track. Mayor, back to the future items. Do you want to talk about the potential September 30th meeting? Oh, yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I think the commission has made a request. They want council feedback on some items, kind of objective goals. Is that kind of what I'm understanding from the council? They want to have some priorities set out on what they, their priorities.

And so it would be, we thought it would be best to align those with the strategic plan and make sure planning commissions and council staff are all in alignment, so.

So just requesting planning commission, so I thought we could honor that. We don't do the fifth ones very often. Is everybody available on September 30th? I'm sure. Yes. I will tell you when the game schedule is coming out. Seriously. probably like an hour and a half max. Yeah, we'll set a, we'll set a specific amount of time so we're not just ending this conversation. We won't talk about any projects, just the items. Okay. Okay. Yeah, we can plan it and then if we have stuff we can plan accordingly. I think we'll be okay. Okay, we'll go to 2.1 then, Southwest Athletic Complex Project Update.

I've been living in athletic complex land for the last couple weeks, so I think we'll be okay. I think we'll get through it. We were asked just to bring back and update kind of where we're at and what's happening with the athletic complex. So that's what we're doing. This is the current layout, 14 builds with a trailhead maintenance building, complex operations, lots of parking, lots of free restrooms. And that's Jackson Park to the north there. What we've done for application purposes is we've broken the complex down into phases. Phase one consists of five fields, three restroom facilities, the maintenance and operation building, the complex operation building, and everything that you see that's not blurred out there. This was applied to with the recreation grant there that tells you exactly what's there, what's included in that phase. the projected budget for that phase is listed there that's based on the engineers estimate about half the project budget filled out and we requested almost 25 million dollars from the zap recreation grant and then included our match in that grant as well That $3,461,500 includes design and our feasibility study cost. It does not include the land cost. Did we put the land in the grant program? I did. It broke up.

That's right.

I thought I was going to say something. And I based the land value, you can see up there, the $19 million, I based that on the acres that covered that base. There's a pro forma thanks to Nathan and Trevor. on Phase 1. That's, again, the five fields. This is Phase 1A, which is significantly less. I've heard from several people that there's not going to be a lot of funding in the ZAP Recreation Grant, so we wanted to give some different options. And this would be more of a Kickstarter project to hopefully energize investors and donations to the site. So we paired it down to two fields. A restroom facility, parking infrastructure, much smaller. The projected budget for that phase is just over $12 million. Again, we asked for $10 million on this application and the same grant match. There's the pro forma for the two fields, assuming that we grant it at a 75% rate. And by that, I mean use rate. And then, just because I was having fun writing grants for two weeks, at 11.30, 11.30 on the day the grant was due, 11.30 at night, so I was feeling pretty good and tired, I decided to write a grant for the TRCC grant. This phase, we're calling 1A+, because it's the two fields the roadways, and the trailhead. And what I specifically asked for in the TRCC grant was money towards the trailhead. So I asked for $2.5 million. But that would only come if we get the ZAP recreation bond. So they're kind of dependent on each other. That kind of tells you what's there. That's the update. That's where we're at. We've met with some private investors. We've met with some potential partners. There's a lot of interest, but I think they just want to see something moving a little bit further along. I don't know, Mayor Nathan, you were in those meetings with you.

I think once activity starts, there will be a different conversation. The one group specifically, they were very interested in doing some sort of partner even. Yeah, they brought it up to me last Monday. They're talking about it. They're excited.

We are presenting Friday for the ZAP Procreation Bond. How many do you remember coming here?

There's not a lot. Except they're presenting, I think there's only 12 presenting. Okay.

So we're presenting that on Friday, the phase one and phase 1A, and then eventually be presenting for the TRCC board as well, I assume. I also put in a grant application to the TRCC board for the Butterfields Arena and Event Center design. So we'll see if we get funding for that, just taking what we currently have and retrofitting it.

So any benefit to having any kind of council representation show up for that presentation?

I'll be there. Nathan will be there. John Nunley, who's worked tirelessly on this project, will be there. We've got packets. We've got information. All day tomorrow, I'm just going to be laser-focused.

What time are you?

10.30?

Yeah, 10.45, something like that.

And I did do two sessions for each application. We'll see what they're going to do.

So when you are giving the sales pitch for this, what do you tell people, top reasons why we're doing this? What's in the nutshell? The need.

It frees up our public parks for our resident to use and economic development. I think those are my top three.

I think there's maybe, and Mary will know better about this, there's kind of an acknowledgement that we're underserved out here. So I think that's a big one. And then, right, our public parks are completely overrun with organized sports. So that helps with that. And then, yeah, the economic need, it's been interesting to me with some of the municipalities, say County and others, they're very interested in the dollar. And that's the thing is when you look at that, they stand to make more from these things than we do. How big is that? Our half of 1% is minuscule compared to what they get. I see. Yeah. So before we had that one meeting, I had kind of even blocked that out. I hadn't even thought about it. They brought it up and was like, we need to make that business proposition to them because those dollar amounts escalate on the county and statewide scale from all of it.

The other thing, I asked Shelley today to set up a meeting with South Jordan on that recreation district, the taxing district. Sandy and Draper have formed a taxing entity that gives them an extra percentage of sales tax on hotel stays. And now that we have hotels, it may be a benefit for us to look into that more. South Jordan had shot it down once. I don't know if you were there when they did that. But now their council's interested in it as well. And so if we form it together, we think there's good synergy there with what's happening in Daybreak and what's happening in Harriman. And with the hotels that are coming in, it'll be beneficial for both of us, I think. That'd be cool. Yeah.

And going back to ZAP, did I explain to everybody the percentages available from this bond? So it's a bond. Even if we're approved by the committee, the board, this still has to go to the county council. This has to go to the voters. So we're trying to thread the needles of the committee because there's about 96 million. Forty percent has to go to deferred maintenance, which a lot of people are concerned about that, honestly, being in a bond, just flat out, just that beauty. to the voters. So I think that's a concern already.

And it's all Salt Lake County different things, right?

Yeah, all county stuff. It's all existing project parks. 51 million in sprinkler repairs needed throughout the county on their parks. It's just an insane number.

I hear there's a program called Flip the Strip.

And then there's 30% goes to continuing existing parks. So, like, Caterville Regional isn't finished, they're saying. Beacon Creek maybe isn't finished. There's a few, so there's 30% in that area. Then there's 30% to new projects. They kept saying over and over again, the new stuff... the county staff kept saying the new stuff has to be in the southwest. Like, that's where the growth is, that's where there's a hole. But still, see, that's great, but there's, you know, that's 30 times, I mean, you're about $28 million, $29 million total in new projects. We're asking for $25. The only real big one is a rec center in another city on this side of the valley. So I don't know where that would stand. There's some other smaller ones, $2 or $4 million ones. But... So I don't know where I stand. We'll see. We haven't had any interview. We interview everybody on Friday. Doing all the interviews in one day and then we've already decided on the other 40 and 30 percent buckets. We haven't. This is the last bucket. But then there's even some push from people to not approve as many new ones because that just creates more deferred maintenance, more overhead from the county. But I think ours is a strong... Ours doesn't. Ours doesn't. That's what I said. I think that's why... Ours has got a strong match. It might not create any more overhead for the county. I think ours is a strong application. We'll see. Thank you for all your hard work.

It was a team effort. We have a good team. John with the communications is very helpful, and like I said, John Nunley and Nathan and Trevor. It's good.

Hats off to John Nunley. It's been fun to see him kind of grow into this new role. It's been fun to see him. He's been great. He's doing great. Love it. Okay, any other questions from the council? Okay.

Thank you, Wendy.

We'll go to 2.2, discussion of the Thomas Butterfield Community Service Scholarship program. Jackie.

So I just wanted to take a minute and kind of just do a council roundtable to make sure that the Thomas Butterfield Community Service Scholarship is meeting the vision of the council and if we needed to do any changes. We've been budgeting about $2,200. Up until 2026, all of the applications we're receiving, first place received $1,000, second place received $700, third was $500. Now we've just switched it to the committee can choose how those funds are allocated. We just want to make sure that this program is aligned with what the council would like. So if there's any changes that you guys feel like need to be... brought forth, we would work to do those. If it's functioning as you want, that's great too.

Who comprises the committee?

So it's, by policy, it's two councillors, and then an appointment for me, so I usually . Yeah, it was . Terri, do you want to go first?

Sure. What I noticed this last round was the application should be updated. And then, like, there's a couple of long answers in the application, and you also wrote an essay, and that's kind of confusing. I think we could just revamp that. I also think that, like, right now, the interview is worth more than the essay. Like, I personally think it should probably be evenly weighted. And then just more clarity in the application. And I think it would be wise to consider raising the scholarship amount, too. Because $2,200 isn't as much as it was five or eight years ago. Or 20 years ago when it started. Yeah. So I think those would be things that I would like to see considered. Would you like to see the essay be completely removed from the... I think the essay is great, but I think there was confusion because the essay prompt was similar to the long answer prompt in the application. There was overlap. Kind of just combine that. Yeah, I think we can make it a lot more clear for people.

Speaking for any introverts that might be applying, the essay is great and equally weighted with the interview.

So we saw that. We had an applicant who was super strong but did not interview well, and it was a little unfortunate to have to mark down in that. So it kind of depends on, like, what kind of candidate are you looking for? Like, when we're giving away this service scholarship, does it matter that they can interview well? Like, should that be 10, 15% of the weighted application? I mean, I'm not so sure that it should be.

I agree. I wonder if the essay should be more.

Well, you know, so when I was doing it a couple years ago, it's like service. You could write down you did service. There wasn't any accountability. There wasn't, like, any metric to measure that you, yeah, I helped in my church service. Sorry, I helped in the soup kitchen.

Like, how is that verifiable? I mean, it's not a lot of money. We did require some sort of verification on those hours by somebody.

Right, so they wrote down what they did, how many hours, and then it was signed by the person who... The application says city official, but, like, we gave them the opportunity, like, if you volunteered with a non-profit organization, that that non-profit leader could sign for the hours, too. And talking to them, like, it's pretty clear whether they did it or not, right? So, I mean, how well they could talk about it and if they had a deliverable and, you know, like... So there's some accountability there now, and that would be something to look at. Oh, I told him.

I concur with all that.

We can update it to make sure that whoever is over that project can say nothing.

I wonder if there's a range of like city scholarships that are comparable. If $1,000 still hits that mark, it may be fine. But I agree with you, college isn't getting cheaper.

So the way we broke it down this time was $1,000 for first place and $600 for second and third. They were tied. So you just think about how much tuition cost. They weren't around $5,000 a semester. It's good. I like the visibility that it gives our city when we go present at the high school. I think that's nice to be able to give the award there and just talk about how our city prioritizes and emphasizes service. So I think that's really neat. I'm gonna talk about maybe changing something like that. I think that's great.

We can just include to have it done here as well as at the awards. I would like that, and I think we can notify them ourselves. I don't think we need to wait for the schools. The policy now does, we do notify them before they actually get it in the, they get it in their schools.

Awards ceremony. Awards ceremony, yes. Right. Yeah, I know we kind of went back and forth with that a little bit, right? And so that's fine.

Do you have a recommendation on what you would like to see that budget at? Or are you just looking more for a recommendation on...

It's trickier because it's taxpayer dollars, right? So it's tricky. You want to find a balance. The $600 is... I mean, that's gas money from school to home.

I mean, if any of you have ever gone through that with your kids, I mean, there's a lot of those types of scholarships, and you apply for them, and we call them all together. I mean, it's taxpayer money. It's not our job to fund people's educations and things, but it's good to recognize kids that are involved in the service. So all that to say, I don't know what the answer is.

What is it now? 22.

One really great thing is this year we had lots of applicants. We talked about it more at youth council. I think communications got out the word really well too. So that was really nice compared to I heard a couple other years that maybe just had like two or three or one applicant. So if we continue to have a good amount, then you could think about us set for second and third, but the flexibility was nice for us this year.

The flexibility of the amount I think is beneficial to the committee, just if somebody It just knocks it out of the park. It just gives some discretion there.

One thing I need to make sure we say though is I don't think there should be a two-year window to collect the money. I think it should be like three months or something.

Yeah, the only caveat is if they're going on a service mission, they can't...

It just gets deposited in their 529, and so that shouldn't matter.

It kind of absolves us of... You may have to instruct people on how to do that, but they should be doing that anyway.

We do it for our youth council, too, and I think it's Angie or maybe you who asked, like, this is what you do and how you do it if you don't have one already.

Yeah, it's not hard to set one up. They do have to initiate to go set up a 529 and then give us the information so we can get the funding there. Would you want to do the, like, the three months from, like, the application date or, like, the awarding date? Because that's where you would get into a different budget year if you do the end of May.

I don't think you can get it in by the end of the current fiscal year. That would be, I think, a lot to ask. But it would be like four weeks or something. And six weeks.

Yeah, six weeks. It's much easier if we just put it there and then have to track for a couple of years. We used to do half and then it happened. Half and then half is extremely difficult. And then when we got the personnel changes, it made it even more challenging. Or if they come back a couple of years later, we're asking for it.

We had several that were multi-years later. I mean, even 24 and 25 was from a 2021 award.

And that's the method that 529 is sending it to an institution, right? And so, I don't know. It probably doesn't matter when it is as long as it's the same. Like, if it always hits August 1st every year, then it doesn't matter.

We could put something in policy, like, by a certain date. By a certain date. If you award it and they have six months to...

They can't take it upon themselves to set up the account, which is really just a couple of steps on mine, then we give them the instructions that... Yeah, six months.

I'll make a recommendation. We talked 3,000. What if we did 1,200, 1,800? And again, I'll look at you guys, too.

I don't even know if you need to set that. Maybe the first place you have to set, and then the ambiguity or the flexibility on the second and third.

I thought the flexibility for this was beneficial.

Yeah, that's right. 3,000 sounds great. If you guys want to look at budgets, . We put 3,000 in the budget. Oh, okay, so it is. Perfect. So, good guess. So good. Somebody knew that. So good. We all should know that, but. Crystal ball. Salt then, okay. Any other changes? Are you good with that? You'd like me and the school then to present it? Yeah. You'd like that?

Yeah. So do you want to put in the policy that we're going to set first place to a certain amount?

No. If that, if staff like, I mean, if you guys like the flexibility.

Do you need a message out of the scholarship up to a certain amount or? Because if they're applying and they're like, oh, I might get 3,000.

I would say 3,000 is available.

We can put that as part of our messaging, that whatever that current budget is, maybe not set it in the policy, but when we do our messaging through communications, that we can say scholarships are available up to a certain amount. Like 1,500 or something. But yeah, if you want to set a specific amount, that's fantastic as well.

Just to say up to, and then you have flexibility. Up to an amount and up to divided amongst up to three winners.

Okay. You guys good with that? You guys good with that?

I just have to say, it was really fun interviewing them all. It was cool to see the difference that they had done.

Okay. That brings the end of our work meeting tonight. So we will go ahead and go into close. We'll try to get that done by 6.30 then. That's the goal. We'll try to set it by 6.30 and then I think we'll get to close again. You see the RA at 6.30 and then 7.

Okay, I'll look for a motion to go into closing. I make a motion to temporarily recess the City Council meeting and go into closed session for the following purposes as provided by Utah State Code Annotated 52-4-205 for strategy session to discuss pending or reasonable imminent litigation. strategy session to discuss the purchase exchange or lease of real property or to discuss foreclosed development agreement project proposal for financing proposal related to the development of land owned by the city.

Okay, that's my map. Can we include character and confidence?

Oh yes, let's do that, we'd like to. The first one? A. And the discussion of character, professional competence, or physical or mental health of an individual.

Okay. Second. Second by Teddy. We'll go Matt. Yes. Teddy. Yes. Garrett. Yes. Garrett. Yes. We're going to close. The motion carries. We'll stay in here. We need counsel. We need Todd, Nathan, Blake, Wendy.