City Council - Regular Meeting

By memory, I want to say they applied for like 3.2 million or something like that because it was it's going to be a pretty costly project just to do the um expansion of the compost. Um I did have a board meeting with um the sewer district last week and really it was more about going over the budget and kind of finalizing that and getting that adopted. Um there wasn't any major changes there at all. Um you know, we'd already knew about um the increases they plan on implementing or have. So that was really about it on that board. I mean, it was a long meeting. We did had dove into a lot of other um personnel and and information like that that we had to deal with. But um and singing along pretty good there, too. So, those were the only two boards I had to report back on. Anybody else?

I can report on CTC. Um great.

Um so, we've had we had like our end of year celebration which was really good. Um but just this week we got an email um you all probably received it too from as a key leader but the CTC largely is about prevention and um receives grants puts out for grants to try and help put on the programs because we know that a dollar of prevention is like saves7 to10 worth of um nonprevention. Um, and so they put out a call to action this week because the state opioid task force asked for 27% of that opioid settlement money to go towards um, prevention services so that we could try and help curb things before they happen and all of the other effects that take place after that. And the budget that came out, the governor's budget came out and it showed that it was about 4% that they're supposed to get out of that. And that's about it's over $400 million in that entire settlement. And largely it was supposed to be or it was it was stated that it was supposed to be used for prevention. And if only 4% of that is being put towards prevention programs, that will heavily affect um our CTC, the other CTC's in Davis County and the work that they get to do. So, they put out a call to action asking for folks to reach out to their legislators um and just remind them of what that opioid settlement money was originally supposed to be doing. Um and they're asking for people to do that by tomorrow. um send an email or reach out to their legislator. Um as I mentioned, Davis County has four working CTC's. Um ours spans the largest area because we have Leighton um and then South Wever folks, but then we also have South

Davis, Central Davis, and North Davis CTC's. And so that money comes to the county and then it's distributed out to each of our areas CTC's where as we saw the presentation last last time that we use our data for our kids, our families to put programs together that will help um with prevention efforts for our kids and our communities. And so um that's just a call to action I wanted to bring up um that when we reach out to folks, some of our legislators, you reach out to anybody else? I just got the email today. So, I haven't yet, but I plan to tomorrow. Um, but yeah, that was just something I thought I better re I better mention tonight

since it's time sensitive. We uh sub for Santa's over. Yeah. But what I want to say is we did all the wrapping uh downstairs uh for the second or third time, but there must have been 20 ladies. I mean, literally 15 minutes where they did Yeah. 15 minutes. 20 minutes we were done. I was like, you know, it used to be my wife. I helped like cookie table. I don't know how to rap. Well, we used to

it was unreal. So they were fire parks and recre a group from from uh finance legal had you know I mean it was oh good a lot of ladies and you know and couple of firemen is it firemen or police I don't know they I think it was fire they came over him and the men are at I was like you know what you're doing and they did but anyway I just wanted to pass that on to the heads to let them know that that was greatly appreciated. Yeah, that's cool. I ran into the kids shopping and that was fun, too. Different group.

Yeah. They were doing supper Santa for I talked to the kids downstairs. Oh, okay. All right. Anyone else have anything to share?

Uh, just the mosquito baitman passed their budget on the 11th and with the increase that we talked about the last couple meetings. There were a couple people there uh from the couple citizens to the to the hearing. Um nobody really saying we don't want mosquito abatement but just concern on the increasing the revenue for the tax. I think everyone left state after a half hour talking to all the residents. So I think it's understood the need but just challenging times.

Okay. All right. Well, there's no other reports then. Um we're going to go ahead and turn the time over to Chris. Oh, sorry. There you are back there. I think we're more to go. Um on the victims of crime grant, thanks Okay. So, I'm Kristen. I'm the victim service coordinator. Um, that's my contact information. And then my coworker, Kelly, he's a victim advocate and a housing advocate. That's also his contact information. Um, so these are just some stats from this year. I don't have the end of the year stats just yet. So, this is just January 1st to September 30th.

Wow. Um the number of victims we served so far is 926. So that's going to be well over a thousand once I get the next um quarters. Um most of the people that we help are victims of domestic violence. We had 42% that were domestic violence related cases. 29% included adult assault. 11% were stalking and harassment. 10% child abuse. 6% other. So this is like non-domemestic vi domestic violence, property damage and disorderly conduct, things like that. 1% sexual assault and then 1% of financial crimes. Um some of the services that we provided in 2025 was accompanyment to court hearings. Um me and Kelly work hard to make sure that court is a safe place. If a victim wants to attend, they have the right to. So we work with them and work together to make sure that they're able to feel safe and heard. And then we accompany them to police and prosecutor interviews if they have ever have to meet with either of those. Assistance with victim impact statements. So it's probably one of the most important things that we do. That's a right that a victim has is to make a statement at sentencing. Um they can tell the judge like what happened, how this affected them, and they can recommend a sentence for the judge. So that's a big thing we do. Um, we assist with protective orders. We provide referrals. Um, we notify them of all um, updates on the case or future court dates. And then we provide crisis intervention. So, just emotional deescalation, stuff like that. And then, um, I know I talked about this last time a little bit, our housing funds were reduced quite significantly. We still do have some housing funds. So, we've switched that from paying like rent and stuff like that to more security cameras or locks, stuff like

that to make their houses more safe. Um, with our housing funds being cut, we had to kind of decide what we wanted to do with a little bit extra time that we had. So, I looked into some things and I applied and got into the um CAP program. It's certified advocate partners program. It's through the Community Justice Advocates of Utah. Um, so it's a cool program that will allow me to offer limited legal advice to people seeking protective orders. Um, that includes drafting requests for protective orders on behalf of the client, explaining documents that are filed by opposing parties, assisting clients in preparing to present their case, including identifying legal arguments, and explaining how to lay the foundation for evidence. And then I can also sit with a client at the table during relevant court hearings and provide quiet prompts to support and support on how to present their case and interact with all the parties in the courtroom. Um, so right now all me and Kelly can do with civil protective orders is we can just direct them to the website and we can sit there and support them if they need it, but that's about all we can do. So this will just be able to help us provide some more services for them. Um, as of right now, there are no community justice advocates in Davis County. So, this will be a huge help for Davis County. Um, legal assistance can be very expensive and they are welcome to represent theirelves, but that is that's a big thing to ask of somebody who's been through so much already. And then there is some limited um state and federal funding for assistance, but it's really hard to get and by the end of the year it's always gone. And then I know Dave mentioned this, but the suffer Santa was it's always a huge success for us and I just wanted to share a couple success stories. Um we were able to help three different families this year. Um one case was a

child abuse case where the grandma received c custody of two young children. She had to completely start over this year. She had to buy beds, car seats, clothes, all the stuff for kids. So she was a little tight this Christmas. So that was a huge help to her. And then there was another child abuse case that left a single mom with some huge attorney bills this year that she could not afford. So that was a big help to them. And then the last one that we helped was a mother and her two young children who fled a domestic violence situation. He was abusive towards her and the children and they left with very little personal belonging. So yeah, that is everything. Does anyone have any questions? I don't have a question, but um when I was reading through that budget, I saw the BOCA grant and I saw I mean I remembered the report that you gave before and how the funding was cut and I saw that line item on there also. Um so I might also suggest that people advocate for some of that shifting of funds to go to the VOA grant because we know like the the funds actually help people like we see

the funds helping people. Absolutely. We really need it. So, and hopefully we can get more next time we apply. We'll apply again and it's every two years that we apply. So, hopefully by then we can get some more funding. So, we apply again in 2026 or 2027.

Seems like that's a three-year impact instead of a two-year impact. Yeah, we do because this this funding cycle is the 20. It starts July 2025 and ends in June 2027. Okay. And then we apply the beginning of 2027 for the new funding. Can can a community block grant funds be used for this?

No, I don't think they can be used for that. There there is a county grant that we have utilized in the past and we may utilize it in the future. Um we evaluated it um last year and with um the requirements and and what the program would serve it it wasn't quite a fit for what we were hoping to do with the program this year. So we we opted to not apply and we've maintained that relationship and told them that we intend to apply in the future. just with some of the changes in focus that we've had over the past year or two, we we just didn't feel like it was going to be an effective use of the of the grant money. So, um, for now, um, that's about the only grant that we're aware of that we can we can utilize and and we will in the future.

They were really happy with it when we used it in the past. You do use you do work kind of hand to hand with St. Harbor. Yeah. So, it's kind we are kind of using it even That's right. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for what you do and for working with all those folks. Those numbers are pretty alarming. Yeah, absolutely. Just curious year over year. What what type of a percentage you see an increase in like the domestic violence area? I I don't know if we've done any of our like actual stats, but I have noticed an increase this year. This year seems a little bit.

Yeah, we haven't. We just got the notification to start our annual report for this year. So, I I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, but Okay. It feels like it's been more this year. Yeah. Feels a lot busier. Did you get the car seats? I did. Yes. Okay. I mean, they're missing from my house. Yes. They are now in my office. Thank you. Yep. Okay. Good. Well, thank you everyone. Okay. Thank you. All right. Um, now we get to go on to the numbers game. Tracy uh presenting our speaker. Hello. Hello.

So, first off, um, I'd like to just comment to the and thank publicly in front of the whole council our two audit committee members that we've had for the last three years. They didn't stay for the meeting tonight, but Doug Bell and Dan Christensen, both um very very professional men have provided a lot of insight over the last three years that they served on that committee. Um I asked them at the first maybe I shouldn't have asked, right? I asked them at the start of this audit cycle if they you know had they taken their turn and they both expressed yeah they felt like they've

done a good service and they really have. I mean it's it's pretty good. It's a a very thorough review when my staff can go through things and then I go through it and then Rob goes through it and at least one of our members of the audit committee still had some things that you know could tweak as far as wording or just consistency

consistency throughout the book. And so you know you know you have a good group when they're very very thorough on what's going on. But we'll run through some of these numbers real quick and then I'll turn some time over to your auditor, Robert Wood, and he can explain the reports and so forth. Um, you can see here the G talk a little bit about the general fund first um since that's what covers most of the expenses outside of utilities. So, we can see our revenues uh were good, fairly stable for the year. down here in the in the financial report, we have to report BNC road funds and alcohol funds within the general fund. We don't really as a city, we don't keep track of it that way. We track those funds separately because they have their own requirements. So, if you were to look about this line item, you could see the budget to actual, we were 1.9 million under budget. A big chunk of that um I was probably quite light on estimating what interest income would do. I thought maybe interest rates would fall a little quicker than they have and so you know about 700,000 of this number here is made up of interest income. Uh sales tax remained pretty good and there's a slide here in a minute that I'll show you. It's about 3% over the prior year and uh you know well over budget at 780,000. So we did well there. Uh some of these others are just kind of steady or you know falling a little. The energy tax can go up and down just depending on how warm or cold it is in a year literally. I mean it's it fluctuates like that. So um all in all revenue picture looked good for the year. um the expense side and I realize there's a million numbers on this and I'll send these over to you so you can kind of digest it a little more and if

you have other questions but what I attempt to do here is go by uh each division in the general fund. So you have the admin and legal, the finance divisions, the police divisions, fire, public works, parks and wreck, all their different divisions. And look at what their actual was last year, the budget for the year that we've audited now, and then what the actual was for that year. And then here's our over and under budget. And so you can see that there was 2.6 million under budget uh across the general fund. So what I like to point out is that 1.3 of that almost half of that was related to wages and so it would just simply be you know retirement of of senior employees and so the positions get filled with maybe lower paid individuals or in some cases where we had departments I know parks and recck had a hard time all pretty much across the city had a difficult time filling positions and so then you end up you know like here in parks where you've got $264,000 in wages that were budgeted, but we didn't have employees to do the job, so we didn't spend the money. Um, anyway, that's what that column represents is just to kind of explain away some of this underbudget number. And then also within this number, there's 587,000 in purchase orders that get carried over to this current year. And so if you take 1.8 away from 2.6, six, you know, that narrows it down quite a bit to about 800,000. Well, I guess I have the number right over here, 730,000 under budget. And so that's a good thing, right? What that shows me is that people are only spending the money they need to spend and that they didn't just go out and say, well, they didn't they didn't take a across the city, we've never taken a use it or lose it type of

attitude. We've taken more of an attitude of well if I don't need it then I'll give it back and if I need some next year I know that the city manager the council have been good to accommodate those needs as they come up because everybody's aware that we're being you know as frugal as we can be across the board. So that's the expenditures. So then as we look at the unassigned fund balance which is kind of our you know we could call it a reserve. If we look down here, we can see that it's 11.14 million. Last year, 2024, we ended at 11 11,390,000. So, it it went it went down slightly from year to year, but you know, that's not really much in as big a budget as we have that it only went down 280,000. We had projected it to go down several million dollars. So, you know, we had thought that we were going to end up at about 8.8 8 million and we remained here because of one like I mentioned the good revenue picture and then the savings on the expenditure side of things that allows us to maintain this right around 22 23%. If you look in the actual financial statements you'll see that this number calculates out at 22% because we include B and C and things in there. So that's a good solid place to be. Um, the more and more I look at these things over the years, I think this is a a great place to be. When we start getting too much lower than this, even we kind of shoot for a 15%.

Yeah. But we start we start looking at some cash squeeze, right? And I don't really maybe years ago I didn't really recognize that. I just thought, well, 15% that's a that's a good place to be because I've been other places where they took it down to five. I don't know how the they handled the cash situation then because you can have a reserve but you have to have cash to pay your bills, right?

And those two numbers aren't always exactly the same. Anyway, that's where we are there. Um Oh, yeah. Right here. Unassigned fund balance from 2024 to 2025. $281,000 difference. As we look across the enterprise funds, so water, storm, sewer, EMS, and the swimming pool that we ended with their unrestricted reserve, we can call it down this row 2025 or these amounts here. So for instance, this one went down a little bit. This is up up. This EMS is down a little bit. But then I take from that reserve because you might think to yourself, well, $34 million in the water fund, that that seems like a lot. Well, we already have projects that are carrying over from last year to this year of almost $17 million. So that automatically, we've already committed to spend half of that reserve in the current year that we're in. And this pension adjustment here, I throw that in there just to kind of keep keep us honest on what our reserve actually is just because of the way the accounting standards require us to treat our pension and our obligations there. One other part that I wanted to add in here was just to show you charges for services, you know, so in 2024 we had 13 million in water revenue. In 2025, we had 14.6 million in water revenue. And so that you know that went up one mostly from consumption um but also from the effective rate increases that have been imposed. Um trying to think if there's some others. So in some cases this line here would show that not only do we have carryover projects that need to come out of that reserve but we have in 2026 the current year we're in we budgeted to use some of

that reserve in order to balance the budget. So that's what that line represents. Other funds that are out there that are enterprise funds, the street lighting fund, you can see that that reserve has come down a bit intentionally. You know, we're spending to put street lights out there.

The same with the refuge fund. that fund built itself up a little bit over the first few years of our contract and now it's intentionally coming down to where we would anticipate here in six months when we end 2026 that we would be at about 600,000. So I guess one note on that is that we're probably, you know, we're getting close to being due for a new contract and that we will pro that new contract would most likely have some sort of a rate increase in it. um so that we can then keep that reserve and that fund to cover that service. The other funds that we have out there uh basically just showing you a budget to actual uh one that's notable is capital projects. You know, when we say that we have some large reserves, well, we still have $30 million worth of commitments in capital projects and we've the money is all sitting in the capital projects fund. So, that's different than the general fund, right? But just so you know, I mean, we the audit got delayed a little bit this year. I mean, here we are reporting the last meeting in December instead of maybe the last meeting in November or the first one in December. And I would attribute most of that to the large volume of projects that are going on throughout the city and it's just a lot of things to track, you know, a lot of transactions to track. Anyway, that's that's the financial numbers for last fiscal year. And all in all, from my perspective, the city sits in a in a good financial position uh with good healthy reserves across all funds at this point. So, that's great. As far as just a quick sales tax review, can see that in 2025, the actual 2024 to actual 2025, it was a 2.1% increase. The budget to actual was a 3.3% increase. I mean, you will notice

that the budget that I put in there for 2025 was actually a little less than what we actually received in 2024. I don't really have any way of knowing that at the time we had to adopt the budget. So, that's how that works. Now, in this current fiscal year, things have slowed down. And so at this point uh actual to actual from 25 to 26 we're at 1.26%. And budget to actual we're at8% increase. So you can see that there's been some slowing across those first three months and we won't have October as numbers until a little might get it the first of next week and I can send that out to you so that you know where we ended up in October. But that's my presentation. turn some time over to your auditor, Robert Wood, and who can explain the audit and the reports. Pleasure to be with you again. Decorations look fabulous.

Can't believe Christmas is what a week away.

Um like Tracy said, a little bit of delay on their end in getting this and we've been going through a lot of information, but one of the things we're able to do with that is actually complete your single audit. So within the financial aer book that you have before you, it also in the back of the book includes your federally required single audit. If you sp basically that requirement indicates if you have more than $750,000 in federal expenditures. No matter whether you're the direct recipient or pass through from some other organization, you have to have a separate audit on those funds. But I'll just cover that report first. This year you had over $8 million that was spent uh from federal sources. A lot of it, you know, the dispatch center going in just over here that's being spent with ARPA money for the most part. Plus, you figure out what you're going to do with any overages that'll have to come from other city funds and that. But you have that one. You've had some Steve's been busy. In fact, I think it was Monday or Tuesday he brought some documentation to Maryland that changed our opinion. So, we've been scrambling the last couple days to add a project in conjunction with Weber Basin Water Conservatory District that actually was offering funding. They first said, "You guys are going to be a vendor and they would handle all this stuff." Well, apparently they changed their mind over the weekend and said, "You're a subreient. You're required to uh turn in all this stuff." Luckily, I had already audited all the funds that were spent on that particular project. uh at least up to date, you've spent about a million out of the 2.5 million that they gave you. So happy to report on your single audit standpoint. We have given you a clean opinion. We feel that all the money that you received and that you've appropriated and spent uh has been done so in proper channels following all the federal regulations. I don't get to decide what's done each federal agency puts

out. there could potentially be up to 12 or so requirements and then they tell us which require which requirements are applicable per grant and then we go in and test and make sure you've done your reporting your budget work uh you have exp controls over the dispersement of those funds. So from a single audit standpoint which is in the back of this book we've given you a clean opinion on the uh standards and following those procedures and we feel that your schedule of expenditures that you presented within the book is fairly stated for all the grants you heard one of them earlier tonight the Vulca grant the Vulca grant is part of that this past year I looked that up because I just curious that had $146,000 in expenditures this past year like Tracy mentioned there's some other stuff that we youth. Um main reason and those that are looking at your financial statements want to see are you following generally accepted accounting principles and are you following the government uh standards is they required to reporting that report is upfront leads off kind of the financial statement after some introductory stuff independent auditors report for us that's an unmodified opinion for your organization that's the best opinion I can give your organization now we coordinate with a lot of outside agencies that help provide provide you money either collecting your taxes, managing your bank accounts, your investments. We do a lot of confirmations with them on what their records show that they've either provided you or they're maintaining for you and then compare that to the city's books. Uh so a lot of efforts in this obviously if you look at everything that you do as a city, we can't audit every single transaction. So we do a lot of stuff on the sample basis and so forth in order to get to our opinion. So after proposing a few adjustments to management during the audit, uh we feel that these statements are fairly presented in accordance with generally accepted with GAP. U we don't feel there's any material misstatements

within the funds, the entitywide statements, the reconciliations, footnotes, and some of your schedules within here. Not to say that those couldn't exist, but we, you know, one of the reports that we do towards the back of the book is your compliance with financial reporting, segregation of duties, compliance of laws and regulations and so forth. So that's not an opinion. It's just a report noticing we did not notice any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies or control deficiencies that need to be reported to you as a governing body. We feel the city is well managed. Alex and Tracy and their group do a fabulous job and as already been mentioned, you've got a great audit or I guess have a great audit committee. That's my new the new members are, but one of those members helped train me when I came out of college and so I've known Van Christensen for quite a while. Um, but he and Doug do a great job in assisting and going through the reviews. This is 16 what one pages long. So, it's a voluminous document. It's a lot of stuff to go through. Uh the final report that we do is uh required by the state auditor's office. They put together a state compliance guide and it goes through some state laws that you're supposed to follow. One of those obviously that you come up every there's stuff we test every year. There's stuff we test every three years. Some of the stuff you face every year. Adopting budgets, amending budgets, doing truth and taxation if you follow down that route. on how you set your governmental fees, uh the cost that you incur for those compared to the fee that you charge. State wants us to do certain stuff on that, the bonding for treasure and crime insurance and so forth. There's a lot of stuff that we check uh from what the state puts out. We did have one finding in that area this year and that is the discrete component unit in the Davis Metro uh strike force actually went over budget on their expenditures. And it's not that they

were just frivolous in their expenditures. It's because of an accounting gimmick uh and a requirement they need to do for reporting. They ended up leasing some new vehicles uh for their operations. Well, because those vehicles were longer than one year in a lease, there's an accounting standard out there called Gazby 87, which covers leases and gives you a right to use somebody else's vehicle and you just make payments. But this accounting standard since you have that lease and it's an agreement for more than one year requires you to recognize a net present value of the cost of those vehicles. So that comes in as proceeds. And then you also have to recognize the full-on expense uh for that same amount. Well, that unfortunately was $141,000 and they didn't have enough savings in their budget to cover what in essence is a paper entry because that money never flowed through your bank account, never went into your PTI account. So you just didn't see it. This is just something that Tracy and his group need to pick up based on what you do with contracts. That was done after the fact. Too late to come in and do a budget amendment. So that's just the one dean that we have on the city's financial statements. One of the things you look at, and he's gone over several, you've got healthy balances in all funds. Uh the general fund is one that the state looks at. They require your general fund for any committed, assigned, or unassigned fund balance. You can be between 5% at minimum to 35% at maximum. Right now, you're sitting at 31.6% on your allocation for those funds. So, you're on that upper echelon tier, but you're in a comfortable position. One of the things I love about the city is we do this for about 20 organ or 20 municipalities throughout the state during this time of year. So, obviously, this time is busy, but if I were to do like we get often asked, well, how do we compare? How do we stack up? So, cities on your side, even just cities overall,

this organization operates effectively and it has the least amount of debt out of anybody I test and I look at a lot of reports. There's a lot of money that's out there, a lot for projects. Uh you've adopted the or or the philosophy is say we're going to make sure that we have the cash before we get into this debt. So, I want to commend you as a council. See, sometimes those are tough decisions to make. You know, probably if you have if you're in need of money, sometimes you get some good rates out there and go ahead and do it, but it takes an effort, a team effort to run an organization like that. So, we appreciate what you guys do. Now, Tracy would say this is you got a thorough examination, a lot of feedback, comments, and that, but I mean, that's what we do. We try and say, "Hey, we're just a team. I'm not here to slam you or pull something out or try and get a news article or whatever that's out. I'm trying to help the city uh do well." If I see something that that needs to be corrected or reported, you do it. And I know one of the last changes that I had when we reviewed the first draft of this report, I'm like, Tracy's not going to like this because this is going to flow through everything. But the the the response that we got back is if it needs to be done, let's just do it. I'll put in the time we want to get it right. And that that's the attitude that this city has had. And I think that tone comes from the top. So, we appreciate the diligent effort that you guys all provide towards managing the finances of the city. So, thank you.

Thank you. Thanks for all your work on this. Yep. And yeah, Doug and Van are going to be missed, but we'll find the replacement. I have one last thing. Sure. Got to fulfill your last audit requirement. So, I changed my opinion. I forgot to do this right at the beginning. Pass these down here. Here's the stuff. And

so we we're required to go through with the council as a city. We have to go through this fraud risk assessment and I have to present it to you in a city council meeting. And so what it does on the second page, it goes through basic separation of duties. And we're able to go through all of these and answer yes, that we have all of these basic separation of duties in place. the tests and things are separated out the way they're supposed to be. Then we go down the checklist and talk about conflicts of interest and procurement policies and ethical behavior. And you will have noticed that since you've been here that we've added a few things to our signature thing when you do your, you know, end of year for ethical behavior, conflicts of interest, all that kind of stuff. Uh the one that we don't have that at the top you'll see that we get a 375 out of 395 which still keeps us in the very low category is that we don't have a formal internal audit function. And so there's some organizations, for example, Davis County, they have an employee and that's his job is to be an internal auditor and he reports directly to the county county commission, right? The commissioners and we haven't seen a need for that here in the past and so we haven't done it. And if you look at the cost benefit, at least as far as this risk assessment goes, it wouldn't really do anything for us. uh we take on that role in my office uh going out and auditing different parts of the city throughout the year and you know verifying how they're handling cash and how they're processing their invoices and what they're doing with their credit cards and so we monitor all that throughout the year. Anyway, that's the fraud risk assessment. I've officially presented it to you so you can check that box out there

that's our

I just have a question. Is there a threshold um to where that internal audit function would be necessary? Like I have um you know I do budget and treasury stuff for other organizations where like if you had a certain amount of revenues or whatever then you had to have separate audit kind of like what we are doing here. Is there a threshold that we think the city would get to at some point where that be something to look at? Well, Ralph could provide his opinion on that as well, and maybe he sees this in other organizations, but to me, it might depend on how how your actual audit ends up, right? If we're seeing consistent findings, material weaknesses, significant deficiencies in the way that we're doing things as a city, if we had if we had had a number of fraud instances where maybe someone stole cash or stole inventory or something like that, well then or we were doing inappropriate purchases, right? We found purchases that people weren't following purchasing policy. If we had those kinds of patterns consistently, well then I think that would be a good time to have an internal auditor that can just spend all their time. You know, that's their full-time job is to go out and check every single little thing all the time and review every process all the time. And so I do you have there's not a dollar threshold. I mean, we do this for like 20 organizations. I'm not aware of one that has an internal audit function. I've had an agency that that checked it. I'm like, um, I'm not aware of who your internal audit person is. Do you This says formal. Formal means you're given reports like this. It's written reports. It's not just, hey, I'm I'm checking to make sure you signed off on your expense report and that it got reviewed by somebody. That's not an internal audit. An internal audit is going through and assessing risk, performing procedures, and then reporting on it. Uh so with all

the organizations that we do from I mean we all the way up in Logan to down um Napleton's Springville area we audit organizations between that range none of them have reported there's not a dollar threshold either it really comes down to he's brought up some good points looking at it from a costbenefit standpoint would providing the cost for somebody to do all that work could you really reap the benefits out of And I'd probably say with where you're at, especially you as a city, I don't think it would be beneficial. I don't think the cost outweigh the benefits would outweigh the cost. Good. Okay. Thank you.

Really, what the state does on this, they still require this and they have this point scale system that that goes to it. their effort when I've talked to the local government division when they first put it out their encouragement with it is you are talking about your policies you're talking about your procedures you're reviewing those technology and other stuff changes so this is a good opportunity for you to look and say well what are our credit card policies what are our dispersement policies do we need to change our thresholds you know stuff is continuing to go up is like we were just talking about one earlier it's like we've had this benefit of the firm on life insurance and costs have gone way up, but this benefit has stayed where it's at. It's like should there be change for inflation and other stuff like that, but that really the encouragement on this is you're discussing it. That's what the state auditor's office wants. What they do with that outside of this, I don't really know.

Thank you. Okay. Okay. Thank you, gentlemen. Appreciate that. Y very good. Okay. We've got our uh fire department that's up next which um Gavin Gavin's gonna present on the wildland urban interface code. Sounds exciting.

Oh yeah. So, we're back again to uh just talk about the WOOI program and really the effects that came from the legislature passing House Bill 48 in March. Um the city participates in CWS, which is a cooperative wildfire system. Easiest way to think of it is it's just an insurance policy. Essentially, we we are we commit to a certain amount of of input into this program through different uh areas. So prevention of wildfires, preparedness and then uh mitigation. So actually removing fuels and making communities safer. Uh we've participated in it since this the state organized a program and we have some these are just some of our responsibilities. So we have a responsibility for initial attack which is we will actually respond to the fire initially and we'll do everything we can to stop the fire. We have to implement a community wildfire preparedness plan, which we've had one since the inception of this program. We just updated that one this this month, actually. Uh we have to complete an annual participation commitment statement. That's where the state provides us the amount of money that we have to put into this program. Um this year they reduced we went from like around $7,800. This year they reduced us to like 600 just based off our risk. So they are they are looking at a risk and they're saying, "Hey, you're not having big fires. We're not seeing problems out there." So we they lowered us to $600. So our actual what we actually have to put in this program is only around $600 to participate. Uh we have to fulfill that participation commitment and we fulfill that in those three different areas. So we don't actually write a check to them or anything like that. It's just day-to-day operations essentially, training, doing educa, community education, and then helping with mitigation projects as a as the city uh wants them or neighborhoods want them. We report it all to the

forestry, fire, state lands. We all we have uh minimally trained firefighters. We have all the equipment we need to and then we're responsible for initiating cost recovery actions. So if somebody does set a fire either intentionally or negligently uh we'll work with legal to actually recover costs from them. The other big thing we have to do is we have to adopt and enforce the WOOI code. So House Bill 48 this year came out and said you will adopt you want to participate in this program you will adopt the 2006 Utah wildland urban interface code. Historically we've adopted the international wildland urban interface code. So, they're they're pretty similar, but they're a little bit different. And then we have to have a c county fire warrant. So, we're we're hitting all the things we need to do to participate in this program. Uh but with House Bill 48 changing, what we had to adopt, we needed to have an ordinance that says we are going to adopt the 2006 Wildland interface code. So, this ordinance, part one of it says we're just asking to adopt it. So this is the ordinance and we're changing it to 2006 Utah wildland interface code. There's quite a bit of red in this ordinance if you if you noticed what that was is for some reason there was a bunch of language in there in the ordinance that didn't apply to this code any longer. So we're just removing it al together. Um the other thing we had to do when we actually got into designing the map is So they the state came out and said, "Okay, you guys need to give us a map to where you want this WOOI code to apply

to." So we looked at it and this was our our current map. It was quite large. So we we sat down together as a fire department workg group and essentially had fire chiefs on it, emergency management, fire prevention guys, and then experienced wildfire uh officers and captains. And we came up with this map. And it's still it's still fairly large, but we took a lot out of it. Um the way we actually did this map is we decided to we weren't going to talk to each other about how we were going to originally draw it. Let's just draw it and then layer them on top of each other and see where it comes out as. and we were all really really close. There was a little areas we had to tweak, but this is the map that the fire department felt that was the most applicable. So, this map right here is where that WOOI code will apply to. That WOI code is a land use code and a building code. Essentially, it it kind of directs people on how they will have to build their homes if they if they meet a certain threshold for risk. Um, there's some some other requirements such as fireworks. The wood code actually does say that you shall not use or possess fireworks in a wildland urban interface area. So when we talked to legal about this, we were concerned that if we adopted this wildland urban interface code, would it create a a conflicting ordinance and we can't make codes less restrictive? We can only make them more restrictive. So it's not something we could amend out. So, and this is if we don't change the map, the wild interface map at all. This was the old one. All of this would essentially become restricted if we don't change the map. So, we sat down and we said, "Okay, here's what we'll do. We're as we've modified these buoy areas, this now will become totally restricted." So, all the red is totally restricted. The orange is just aerial restricted, but the red will

be totally restricted. We we did this based off of we we were trying to make this as le less impactful to the actual community, but I I just we weren't sure how we could get away from addressing the actual risk and staying compliant with the CWS program and to make sure we didn't have a conflicting ordinance. So, this is what we're proposing. Could you just go back to the one. Sure. On this one, the restricted areas were just here, right? Correct. It was just east of 89 and then west of west of 89 was just aerial restricted till you got to Fairfield.

Thank you. question about um I know they had there were open houses and stuff along the Wasach front and everywhere about this about insurance rates and home inspections and

yeah so when when House Bill 48 really what they were trying to do is they were trying to raise funds to support this CWS program so this the state there's two maps essentially that are going around there's the map that we have control over which is our map that's where we want this fire this code to apply to the map that the state was putting together was a high-risisk WOOI map and that's where these fees would apply to homeowners that were in these high-risisk areas and where these assessments would apply to. As of today, the map I saw, there's no homes in Leighton City that are actually affected by it. So, as far as we're aware, there won't be any fees on the citizens. There won't be any assessment requirements or anything like that. So, and that just happened today. They put that out. You guys have any other questions?

Sorry. Is is it uh you said use or possess in all of the restricted areas or that type of firewood? Yeah, it just says you shall not use or possess fireworks in there. Is the possess part is that new or is that always been there? Well, it's it's new for Well, this code's from 2006, so it's been around for a while, but it's it's new for us as the adoption of it, actually. Okay. Thanks. So, they can't possess it in their home here, but if they can't possess it at all, they can't even take it and go somewhere else and use it, right? Is that what you're getting at, Jason? The question of possession. Yeah. I was just curious.

You can add to the question. It's fine. I added to the question. Absolutely. And it's a complete band. It's a little Timmy with his sparkler who lives on Analopee and just off the Church Street. Correct. Illegal firework. They would be in an illegal area. Yes. The enforcement of possession is going to be a bit hard on it like that. Like a spark because a parent would buy it. They knew they couldn't do it in their area, but they're going to go to the park or go to the designated areas. So I I don't What are the parks? No parks. No parks. But we had designated areas, right? Outside of this outside of this restricted area.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Yeah. And we we we're trying to be mindful of that and that's why we wanted to reduce this map down. We're not the fun police, right? But I I'm just not sure how we stay compliant with the CWS program, which I in my opinion, I think is important for us to be in. the the cost of a wildfire can get into the hundreds of thousand dollars, not millions in a day just based off of what's required, right? And it could be aircraft, whatever it may be, just manpower, it could severely affect the city. So, we're just trying to balance everything that we were given with this bill, I guess.

Okay, you guys good? I have one more. So that that map you mentioned from today that just got put out correct but had assessments potentially that map's not designed not created by us it's created by somebody else. We had no control over no input into it. It was all done by the state.

Does our in does our adoption of this WOOI map allow for future maps to potentially include latent that would have would include an assessment? they they the states all is going to take their own data and their own risk and deal with whatever we didn't we never had any input from it from the beginning they never asked any opinions we were just we were just tasked with where do you want this we code to apply to I do know that so when we adopt this code we are required every three years to actually look at this map and change it if needed so if we if we feel that the risk has changed in certain areas we can reduce map or increase it depending on whatever is needed essentially But we had we had no control over what they did with their map. And it doesn't look like it affected anybody in Digs County for that matter. It really affected canyon areas, right? So, Immigration Canyon, Augen Canyon, those those areas.

Yeah, Zach. the the current map that the state has created goes from a high hazard of seven to 10 where our map is through the URAP map that only shows five in the restricted area to moderates with the the other areas. So it's a it's offset quite a bit.

The way we ended up with this just based off of our weird topography in Leighton, right? We have these areas that just kind of finger down in the city. Some cities were really easy because they just they knew it was all this side of the road and it was it was easy. But for us, we were trying to balance how we how we made it safe going down into the city without being totally restrictive. So, we appreciate that and everyone else part of that. Do you have anything you wanted to add or you're good? No. Okay. Thank you. All right. Very good. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. Um that brings us down to item number six. But before everybody departs, I think Uh, probably ought to acknowledge Tyson's birthday again every year. It's a good thing it happened again.

I'm happy. Yeah. Yeah. Really? So, um, Tyson's request was eclair's. Oh. So, we've got some eclaresa's we'll pass around and um I guess those who want them. You have to take first first pick there. Oh, there's natives and plates back here.

Guess I did that backwards. Here's your plates. Yeah. Giving me more time to get sugar off my breath. Yeah. So, birthday boy, do you want to pass? Yeah. Okay. We'll let Tyson pass them around to those who' like them. And then after that we are scheduled to go into a close meeting but certainly enjoying the CL have two I don't need to get one either.

No, I'll take that one. at church on Sunday. We march right in front of your window. Oh no. Thinking about like Romeo and Juliet.

Unless my wife I do. You in the truck. Yeah, that's a good request. Best two to go along with our decor. Compliments of Natalie, I think, is the one that decorated in here.

Happy birthday. Do you guys want to just roll right into this then? I'll need a I'll need a motion to go into a closed door session. We have so moved. No on the work. I apologize.

Leighton City Council meeting this evening tonight. Uh the date is September or September. Uh the weather feels like September, but uh December 18th and our start time is 7:01. As customary, we like to always start out our uh meetings with a prayer and a pledge. And tonight, I'm going to turn the time over to Council Member Roberts for him to conduct that ceremony. Thank you, Mayor. Um I've asked a couple Leighton City residents to help me out. Uh first of all, we'll have a prayer by our city manager, Alex Jensen. After that, knew this was coming.

I was trying not to. um a citizen of 88 years here in Leighton. My dad and uh and Army veteran will leave it lead us in the pledge.

Okay. Our dear father in heaven, we are grateful this evening for the opportunity we have as elected officials, staff and residents of this wonderful city to gather together to do the city's business. We pray father for thy spirit to be upon us to guide our elected officials to make the decisions which will give benefit to the residents and the community at large. We're thankful, Father, for the service of Tyson and those who through the years have carried on the legacy of good governance here in this community. We pray that that would bless him in his future endeavors and that he may have a heart full of uh that will understand the appreciation of the community for what he has done and the way in which he has done it. We pray for the citizens of this community that they will have a desire to be and do good and be willing to reach out to their neighbors and friends to be of support and and um strength. We're grateful, Father, for the privilege to live in this country and are so thankful for those who through the years and generations have sacrificed even their blood and lives. um for the continuence of this wonderful experiment. We pray now for thy blessings to be upon us and that we may have thy again thy spirit to guide us and direct us. We pray that we may be cordial and respectful in our dialogue. In these things we pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen. Will you please repeat the pledge of allegiance with me to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much for a beautiful prayer and being led by one of our veterans, Tyson. I hope this whole meeting doesn't go this way. But um it's it's great to see everyone here in the audience tonight and especially those that are um waving and being of good cheer for us. Um that's would be Tyson's family here. So um we have an opportunity to be able to as a governing body kind of help the youth in our in our area and we have what's called our youth council and each time we can uh get them involved and sit up here on the dis with us. We like to do that. Tonight we have Eric King with us. Uh he's a member of our youth council. And I'm just going to have Eric just quickly maybe say what you like about the youth council or anything that you want people to know um and your experience.

Yeah. Um so I'm a new member of the youth council. Um, but my favorite part of it so far has just been uh the opportunity to serve my community and um it's really given me the motivation to get out there and uh I get to work with a lot of my my friends and make new friends from uh from kids outside my high school. And uh yeah, I think I mean it's just been a a great opportunity to to see what's happening in the city and see what's happening in the in the leadership and uh to serve other people. So yeah, perfect. That's makings of a future council or mayor. Um, so thank you, Eric, and we appreciate you sitting up here with us and learning the importance of this role and and the process that we go through. So, um, before we get going on anything else, we do have some set of minutes that we need to approve. We have three sets of minutes, actually. So, council, if uh you don't have any corrections to that, I'd appreciate a motion to approve. And if you could just state the uh the meeting and the date, please. Madame Mayor, I I I move that we approve the minutes of Leighton City Council work meeting on October 16th, 2025. The minutes of Leighton City Council meeting on October 16th, 2025, and the minutes of Leighton City Council meeting council special meeting on November 18th, 2025.

Okay. Is there a second? Second. Okay. It's been moved and second that we uh approve the minutes as written. All in favor, please say I. Any opposed? Okay, thank you very much. Okay, we'll go on to our municipal announcements at this time. I know that this is a fun time of year. We've got a lot happening, but uh with that council, uh anyone wish to report?

Yes. Thank you, mayor. Uh as a representative for the parks and recck commission, uh parks and wreck has a lot of things going on. Uh first of all, the lights before Christmas that are going on just outside here uh north of the Surf and Swim in Constitution Circle. Uh they'll be lit from 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. through December 31st. Had the opportunity to take our family through there yesterday. Great time. Most of them found the elf. I didn't. So go look for the elf that's hidden in the lights. Um, additionally, uh, the museum just across the plaza here to the south, Leighton Heritage Museum has several, uh, great exhibits going on right now. One in preparation for the celebration of the 250 years, um, of the birth of America. Um, a traveling exhibit titled The Pen is Mightier. Um it's a great um great exhibit that we're lucky to have here in Leighton. Um talking about the the history um in of of developing the country and throughout the country in the written form. So uh take the family there. I believe also there's a nutcracker display um some of which have been donated or or loaned by residents of our great city of Leighton. So um good great opportunity to take the family out. Um, coming up in January, January 10th, also uh part of the celebration of uh America's 250, Leighton City Parks or Recreation will be having a puzzle competition, jigsaw puzzle competition. I believe it's the second annual, very popular last year. Uh there'll be three different tiers.

bring the family. You can uh sign up in three different uh difficulty categories, I guess. Um stars, stripes, or eagles. So, following the theme of two 250, um does require registration. So, go to the Leighton City website to the parks and wreck page and look for open registrations. And that's all I have. Mayor, thank you. Okay. You can see parks and recck keeps us all uh enjoying life here in the city. So, does anyone else have any announcements they'd like to share? Do you want to do Rotary with Coco? Oh,

you can. I was thinking of something else. Sorry. Okay,

the rodeo's the rodeo is in the back, but the train is in the front. I don't know where I got rodeo. Anyway, if you want to go and have fun, for all you that are listening or here, get on the little train, drive around. It's quite an experience. Great drivers for the most part. And uh but it's been a lot of fun. I don't know. Well, I do know how the lights before Christmas got invented, but it's sure grown beyond what we ever dreamed of. And it's it's been a great thing for Leighton City. So,

Okay. Thank you. And in addition to that, they're selling hot chocolate and churros as well. And all the proceeds that the Rotarians collect on those sales will end up going staying here in the community. we uh actually tried to give out scholarships for the youth and especially those that have helped us um throughout the year. So anyway, good cause and um fun time to kind of enjoy the park, especially this year when you can get out of your cars and walk around and and really embrace um some of the fun interactive uh features that the parks have put together on that. Okay, there's no other municipal announcements. Um, we'll jump down then to our citizens comment. This is the portion of our median meeting with anyone who wishes to address this governing body. You're more than welcome to just stand up to the podium and please state your name and what city you're from. Hi, I was here on the last meeting so some of you might remember me but I'll repeat a few of the things and I've been good Santa so

okay I deserve some of these things I decide that not yet oh that's true um so I've lived here for Excuse me state your name again sorry Dale Ro and East Leighton been here since uh 1984. So, I've been here quite a few years and I'm here to support the u idea of the dog park.

And a couple reasons. Uh I mentioned last time I had my knee replaced and um most people say, "Oh, it's the best thing I ever did in my life. You know, it's wonderful." Mine hasn't been that great. I don't walk as far anymore. I was walking the dogs about four miles. Um, I got in about 1.3 today and that pretty much wore me out. Um, I've been out to Syracuse where they have a dog park. It's called Wagging Tails. And it's not just for someone like me who maybe can't walk the dogs as far as they can. There are handicapped dogs there. I don't like to think of myself as handicapped, but there are handicapped dogs there that the people take. I It's amazing how well all the dogs get along. There's Great Danes and there's little tiny dogs there and never seen a fight or anything like that. So, I'm just here to support the idea of the dog park. And it's great socially. Uh the people we get to talk to and meet uh while we're there, it's a it makes it a fun time. And it's always, you know, how long have you had your dog for? And you know, what kind of dog is it? because some of them are mixed and sometimes you guess and the person say, "Oh, you got that right. That's pretty good." So, just here to support that and appreciate the lights when I come in. It's amazing, you know. So, I think a dog park would be a nice thing to add to what we have going here in Leighton and it's it's grown so much. Uh when I moved here in ' 84, we as we drove down Main Street, we came across I believe a McDonald's and we said, "Oh my gosh, I think we can live here." because there there were not there wasn't much going and I I taught in South Weieber for uh 30 years. So there there weren't many,

you know, stores and there was mostly uh agricultural and uh horses and cows as you'd go out towards South Weaver. So it's it's amazing how it's grown. So we appreciate uh everything you've done and all the time that you put into this. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you very much. Is there anyone else that wish to address us? Okay, seeing that there's no other comments, we'll go ahead and move on then to item number five, which is our consent items. Um, our consent items tonight, we've got a good list of them to go through. Um, the way that we'll handle this is basically all items will be presented and then this council can um act upon those items in a single motion. So at that point then we'll go ahead and take a vote on them. But uh for now let's go ahead and start with item number A which our finance director Mr. Tracy Probertt will be presenting this. This is uh our audit and financial report for the fiscal year ending uh June 30th of 2025.

Mayor, members of the council, good evening and uh also like to thank Council Member Roberts for all of his time working with us. It's been a pleasure to work with you and appreciate all that you've done. Uh we've come to the end of our audit for as the mayor mentioned fiscal year 2025 and we have our annual comprehensive financial report 161 pages of fun if you're into reading about finance. But, uh, one couple of spots in here for the citizens out there that would be important would be if you go online come Monday and you want to look through this just to get the nuts and bolts, you could go to page 11 and there's about 10 pages of management's discussion and analysis. And so, it goes through just all of the kind of summary of what's going on financially in the city. And then another section that's good to look at is starts on page 124 and it's a statistical section. And so most of those pages in that section have a 10-year history of the financial numbers, tax rates, different things like that. Other than that, um, you know, you're welcome to look at all the rest of it obviously, but it's a lot of numbers in here. happy to report that the city as of June 30th, 2025 finds itself in very good financial condition with healthy reserves in all of our funds. I wouldn't call it excessive reserves. I just call it healthy reserves so that we can keep the city operating and uh do the things that we need to do and provide the safety and all of that that we need to provide for the citizens here. That's as as far as I'll say as with the financial piece of it. I'll turn some time over to your independent auditor, Robert Wood, and he'll explain some of the process and the reports.

Pleasure to be with you tonight. Appreciate all that you do, Tyson. Thank you for your service that you provided to the city. We've had a an excellent time with the city and going through their the financial records and making sure they're in compliance with generally accepted accounting principles. As Tracy mentioned, we do some reports in your ACTRE. Uh the first one would be the independent auditor's report. This the one that everybody's looking at for to see how the financial statements are prepared and are they in accordance with the the accounting standards. Happy to report that we've given you an unmodified opinion on that report. That's the best opinion I as an independent organization accounting firm can give your organization for their audit. We don't feel there's any material misstatements in the financial statements as presented, but obviously we can't audit every single transaction uh that the city enters into. We do a lot of stuff that on high high dollars and sample items and we've made some adjustments with the city and feel the statements presented before you that Tracy just mentions are in accordance with what they're supposed to be uh from an accounting standpoint. There's also a couple of reports with this year we have three reports in the back. Uh, one of those reports is on your internal controls over financial reporting, your compliance with laws, contracts, agreements, and so forth. Happy to report we didn't have any items to report from a material weakness or a significant deficiency. So, really the best report that I can give your organization at this time. The very last report in the book is required by the state auditor's office. They have stuff that we need to go through every year and then stuff that we go through on a three-year rotational basis. We had one finding as we went through that pro process and as we discussed in the work session meeting that really they were over budget on their expenditures, but it was more from a paper entry that had to be recorded in reference to some vehicles that were leased for multiple years and how that had to be accounted

for in accordance with Gazsby 87. And then the last report, you're an organization that had a lot of federal dollars. As you've been around the city, there's a lot going on. Uh some of that a lot of those projects are being funded through ARPA funding through the federal government and the department of treasury. Uh you had over $8 million in expenditures this past year. So we have reviewed the ARPA compliance uh as a major federal program here at your city and we found no issues that we need to report from an internal control standpoint or from a compliance standpoint. So, those documents are also included in your financial statements this year. I'd ask, do you guys have any questions that I can answer for you?

Council, do you have any additional questions? I know we went over this in pretty good detail in the work meeting, but is there anything additional? Can you just mention, you mentioned it in our work meeting about debt?

Yeah. So, my firm, we do probably about 20 municipality government audits and I would say by far this city operates very responsibly when it comes to their funding as far as uh testing of debt, bond debt, notes payable, and so forth. This city has the lowest debt that I've seen across the Wasatch for the organizations that we do. I've reviewed a lot of reports. I managed seven or eight of the cities that we do and you have by far the lowest debt. So I appreciate uh the responsibility that you take to say do we have the funding for it rather than accumulate a bunch of debt. You make sure you have cash and resources for your projects before you do them. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Any other questions?

If not, I just want to uh give a shout out also to our citizens audit committee. It's uh we've had two gentlemen that have sat on that committee for us for the past uh three years. Three years um which is Doug and Van and they've done an excellent job for us. And I know um if you want to speak to the how well they've done that' be good too so that people understand that uh you know not just this council but as two citizens at large we've had help with this audit. Yes, Leighton City has created an audit committee and as part of that process, they look to the outside citizen public to say, "Do we have any financial expertise individuals that would like to serve on that audit committee?" Uh, one of the members on there, Van Christensen, is actually a gentleman that trained me when I came out of college uh and started with the state auditor's office. He was one of my first seniors that I worked for. So, I've known Van for 25 plus years. uh he actually currently leads the state finance department and prepares the state's uh aer which is a huge task. I I've been there done that for over five years. Uh great job. And then Doug Bellon, he works with uh BYU and their accounting uh department. So two individuals that really know their stuff. I work with a bunch of different audit committees at these different cities that have them. And by and far large, you have the most expertise that I've ever seen on an audit committee. So, I commend your citizens for participating uh in that process and reviewing the financial statement. Tracy can attest of not only the comments that I gave. I mean, he's a CPA. He reviews it. I had comments as we went through it and so did Ban and Doug. So, great reviews overall to give you a very, very impressive final report. One of my partners, we do a concurring review and he found one small issue in the financial statement. and he says, "Wow, this is one of the best reports I've

seen." So, so kudos to you and the city. I I just think it speaks well to to our citizens and in within our boundaries that are willing to step up and help in in these different commissions, but in this case with the committee that audits all of the all of the books. So, it's a way of just letting all of our citizens know that rest assure we we do make sure we keep tight reigns on this. So, thank you. Thank you everyone for your help on that. Yep. Thank you.

Okay. All right, we'll go on to item number B and uh Gavin Moffett is going to be presenting this. It's we regarding our Utah Wildlands urban interface code, otherwise known as WOOI WOI. Okay. Thank you, council. I thought you guys would all chime in there. We should have

I know it. I should have I should have teed up better. So, I'm I'm here today for your to present your for your consideration ordinance 25-26. Um, the purpose of this ordinance is to adopt the 2006 Utah Wildland Urban Interface Code. Uh, the city has previously adopted the 2006 International Wildland Urban Interface Code. In March of this year, the uh state legislature passed House Bill 48, which required that any entity that participated in what's called the cooperative wildfire system comply by some new rules. And one of those rules was adopting this new code. New being 2006. So with that, we sat down as a work group from the fire department. This included uh fire chiefs, uh wildland firefighters, fire prevention guys, emergency management, the county fire warden, and we want to take a good hard look at this map and made sure that it made sense for the citizens to where this code should apply to. Uh this code is not just a land use code, but it does apply to some building features as well. So, we wanted to make sure that this made sense. Um presented is what the current wildland urban interface map is. It's quite large. Um, this was created several years ago, but as mentioned before, the the city's gone through a lot of growth and development, and with that, uh, we felt that we could reduce some of it. So, if we just scroll down some, we'll go to the next map. Yep, that is the map that we are proposing. This map will be used to uh where this code will apply to. So, if you fall within these areas, this wildland interface code will apply to you. The second part of this ordinance is that the wildland the new wildland urban interface code states that any people shall not possess use or possess

fireworks within a wildland urban interface area. So the top map is what the current firework restrictions map looks like. So the red is everything east of 89 was totally restricted. west of 89 down to Fairfield, that orange color was just restricted for aerials. So with this new code being adopted, we had to make any wildland interface area restricted so that we weren't creating a conflicting ordinance. So we're presenting this as the new map. Uh we feel that this is the best map based off of all of our experience and all the data that we had. Uh we use data from the state of Utah. you the wildlife wildfire risk map. So we we we feel this is the best that we had and we this makes sense for us. So is there any questions?

Council, thanks Mayor Gavin. Could you speak to um and I know we talked about this in the work meeting last meeting and also tonight, but could you speak to why um the fire department feels it's important for Leighton to participate in this wildlife urban interface?

Sure. So, Leighton City's participated in the cooperative wildfire system since its inception. And essentially what this program is is it's it's like an insurance policy. We have to do we have to put into it. So, we put into it for through mitigation actions. That's the community actually reducing fuel um hazards in their community preparedness. Uh that's the fire department training and this is stuff they're already doing. And then prevention. So that's our open house. That's community meetings. That's anything that we go when every time we go out and educate anybody, we we can apply it towards this participation commitment. They the state says that if you do this and you're compliant with all this, if you have a catastrophic wildfire and you have to def you have to defer to the state to actually take over this, then they will cover the cost of that. Uh wildfires can be significantly impactful, not just to the community, but find not just their property, but the actual financial side of it. um you can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars pretty rapidly if not millions to to fight it. And that's based off of manpower, aircraft that needs to be brought in, what whatever they need to to actually stop the fire. So, we feel that for the little bit that we have to put into this program, which we're accomplishing by dayto-day actions that are already happening, that we get a a pretty good deal out of it and protecting the community, not just on the wildfire side, but the financial side of it as well. So,

yeah, that's good. That's a big deal. Okay, any other questions?

Um, just a statement. I we um representative Miss Smith Edmonton represent or referenced our previous work meeting and I originally I had concern about the island in the middle having you know neighbors that have different restrictions and it was kind of explained in that meeting. In your presentation in our work meeting, you talked about kind of the process of building these maps and the the amount of the people that fight the fires that uh enforce the rules. I appreciate the work that's gone into it and yeah, I support you guys wholeheartedly and appreciate uh what you guys do and and bringing this forward. So, thank you.

Yeah, thank you. Uhu. Uh Gavin, could you I know just a question with the new fire station up above Gordon above 89. Is that how is that helped with in this process or was it a consideration?

Uh so the the way we came to this map is is taking the state's wildfire risk data that they had available. It's publicly available. Um, as far as a station going up there, it it it helps with the response times into these actual uh areas, right? So, the city is always going to be responsible for initial attack. So, initial attack being we will be initially be dispatched to any sort of fire within those areas and we have to aggressively go after it to stop the fire. So, adding a new station there just increased our capabilities to actually respond adequately and get there in a in a meaningful time. If we don't ever have to use the CWS program, that's that's great. That's that's ideal. If we can always just attack the fire and put it out where it ends, then we're we're good. And that's that's why that station went up there was to help with those response times.

Y excellent. Okay. Anyone else? Not. Thank you very much presenting that. That's good information for everyone to understand. Okay. We'll go on to item C of our consent items. and uh Mr. Joan Grandy's is going to present this item for us and it's regarding a um third quarter transportation sales tax grant revenue. So,

thank you madame mayor and city council members. It's a pleasure to be here this evening. Um, I am here to represent resolution 2554, which is an interlocal cooperation transportation project reimbursement amendment to the agreement for accepting Davis County's 2025 third quarter transportation sales tax revenue grant for the Case Creek Trail pedestrian overpass. Um, I do have a couple slides just to help. I know that we've been here a couple times as I've brought forward as we have brought forward additional reports on funding, but for those who may be watching today or here in the um chambers, uh I wanted to make sure that they knew where we were referencing. So, this is a map that shows where this new um Case Creek Trail pedestrian overpass will be located. It's right near um Main Street, just south of Gentile and um right next to the Leon Front Runner Station. This is the area where the future pedestrian bridge is proposed to go over the Union Pacific Railroad and UTA rail lines and then uh land right there next to the Front Runner station and Main Street. This is a map that shows uh the plan view or the site plan for the new pedestrian overpass. So on the uh right side you'll see the FrontRunner station. Um, we will have stairs as well as an elevator that will be able to provide access over the railway corridor and then it will land over on the west side near the the MOA apartments and the the new um Tanner Clinic area. And then this is a a rendering provided to us that just illustrates what this will look like. Um so now with that context in mind um on July 31st of this year um we submitted a grant through the Davis Countyy's options sales and use tax for transportation funding. Um, and we were notified on November 26th of this year

that we had been awarded an additional $677,000 uh through their revenue to be able to assist us with funding the overpass. Um, this is a report of our financial plan that we've been working on. As you can see, it's been a number of years. We've been putting together multiple grants and funding to be able to uh fund raise and be ready for building this overpass. We're slated to build it in 2026. And so we're we're right there. Um so, uh with that said, um tonight staff recommends that council adopt resolution 2554 authorizing the city manager to conduct negotiations and the mayor to execute the interlocal cooperation transportation project reimbursement agreement between Leighton City and Davis County for funding assistance with the construction of the Case Creek Trail pedestrian overpass. Are there any questions that I may answer? Okay, council. Go ahead.

Are you have a special thing in there that'll help Clint get his bike somewhere? Yes. There will go. Um there it's it's called a rund. And so if you were to take your bike and want to go up the stairs, there's just a little like a little ramp that you can like roll your bike up alongside of you. So yes, Clint, we've got you taken care of. Okay. Any other questions on this?

Go ahead. I I just look at this spreadsheet and you have grant grant prop one which we've all agreed is can be used for trails and these sorts of as a community um ramp and then this grant grant grant grant I that's we mentioned earlier how the city doesn't like to as a as a philosophy go into debt for things. Yeah, we're going to have to wait for a little bit and and I'm not saying that other cities they they do things how they want to do things. So there are reasons to um bond for projects and things. I'm not discounting that other but here we like to do it this way and and so when this is done it's it's paid for. I mean, we're not Anyway, I I love that about the philosophy of the city and this council councils before and especially uh the staff for that being the philosophy and thank you for and and bird dogging for the lack of a better term all of these grants and and what's been available. It's it's this is a lot of work

and um just appreciate your efforts and and you're going to say, "Well, yeah, my my team and all of them." So, thank you. You're representing them and you. So, thank you. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure. We're very grateful for all the partners that have helped us with this. Um, you'll you'll note at the bottom it says external funds. We were able to put together 10.6. Um, and the city's bringing 2.2. So, um, we couldn't do this without partners. So, we're very grateful that Thank you. Yeah. A lot of good effort, Joan. I appreciate it. I won't reiterate that, but uh, we appreciate the entire staff and what they're doing here. Thank you.

Any other comments? Okay, very good. We'll go on to item number D then, which is it. Um, Mr. Steve Jackson is going to be presenting this item and the one afterwards, but it's an interlocal cooperation agreement between Leighton City and Davis County.

Uh, yes, Mayor, Council, it's good to be with you tonight. um a second interlocal cooperation agreement for Davis County transportation uh sales and use tax uh that was awarded to Leighton City along with uh the information Joelan provided. We will um uh we in engineering submitted a plan to realign Sugar Street with Angel Street and this is a concept drawing that was submitted with that um proposal. Um the the I think the community is very aware of the challenge right here with Angel Street, Sugar Street being so close together and then also we've got the DNRG trail right there that feels a little bit like playing Frogger when people cross there instead of going down to the signal. So it's a very important intersection that uh between parks and and engineering we've tried to look at and figure out a way to make this trail crossing safer but also improve the traffic in the area. So, uh, the project consists of realigning Sugar Street, uh, through to the west side of the DNRG trail and line it up with the traffic signal currently at Angel Street, uh, culde-sacing the Sugar Street current connection to Gentile and then relocating the trail to the west to the traffic signal and then on the west side of the um, new Sugar Street alignment so that it will be a more uh, functional and seamless area for transportation both for pedestrian, cyclists, and uh, motorists. Um so again, Leighton City submitted third quarter uh funding application for this. The um the COG approved a funding amount of $2,670,000 for the project. Um it's a partial reimbursement. The city's participation would be $664,000 for this project. Um staff recommends the council Oh, excuse me. The city has agreed to complete the project on or before December 31st of 2030. So, it does give us a little bit of time to finish property acquisitions and and construct this project. Um, so staff

would recommend the council adopt resolution 2555 and authorize the mayor to execute the interlocal agreement between Lakeon City and Davis County for the transportation project reimbursement. Are there pro questions that I can answer for any of the council or mayor? Council, do you have any questions on this?

Sure, mayor. Thank you. Um, thanks Steve for this presentation. Um, I just have some questions that I would like you to respond to for us and also for the public just about how the other portion of the current alignment works once this is done. Um, just for functionality for for example the gas station that's there currently. Um, right now they have the two entrances and so just kind of explain what I know this is conceptually, but if you could help kind of explain what this concept would would look like to an actual person driving, not just an engineering picture.

So So the access on Gentile Street will remain unchanged to the gas station. The access on Sugar Street will uh still remain on Sugar Street. However, instead of being able to exit and go south towards Gentile and then make a left or right turn, the vehicles would need to enter from the Sugar Street towards the the top of the drawing there and then come down to the traffic signal. Um, we feel like that's a much safer um movement and and methodology to use. Right now, we've we've had a lot of complaints from people that that intersection at Sugar Street and Gentile feels a little bit um dangerous and and so we're we're trying to help improve that. Uh obviously we would still want people to be able to walk across Gentile or or the the former Sugar Street. So a sidewalk and curb gutter will be installed there as well and then access could be uh used still by pedestrians to to walk north along the former Sugar Street alignment. So does that answer your question?

Yes, mostly. So that curve would end up kind of looking like a culde-sac. Yes, that that uh little blue area there is new curb and gutter and sidewalk. So, it would be a a complete culde-sac there that then um people could use to walk up and down that if they chose or or they could drive in off of Sugar Street down to the the gas station. Um the storage unit access would also be preserved there as well. Um both the the south access and the north access we would extend out onto the the roadway once we finalize all the designs on that.

Cool. Thanks. Um, I am excited for what this will turn into because I see tons of folks, not just kids, but trying to cross at that trail and it is literally like playing chicken. So, this this is very important for safety purposes. So, thank you.

I I will add we're in the middle of a a intersection study with methods consulting. They are um analyzing this intersection. they've come back with five different kind of ideas or concepts as to what could or couldn't happen with the trail. And so we're we're processing those right now and they're they're in their final kind of evaluations on those to to bring back. So they'll be uh sometime early next year we'll we'll have some information to bring back to the council as well on that. Okay. Very good. Any other questions? Yeah, I live right in this area and that's uh definitely needed. Okay, Mr. Jackson, you're up on the next one, which is uh to amend the transportation impact fees.

All right. Um, mayor, council, before you is ordinance 25-27. It's the amendment to the consolidated fee schedule um to amend transportation impact fees and then add the sewer impact fees that were recently approved in our transportation master plan and wastewater uh master plans. Um so on the screen here this is the new schedule that was approved in our transportation uh master plan and impact fee analysis. And so our proposal is to to remove the old schedule and put this new schedule in. This is the first page of that. And then there's the the following page. So so different uh land uses that come in and develop. These fees are paid um as the development occurs. They're not charged to to existing users or anything like that. It's only for new development as people come into the city. Um the the proposal is for this consolidated fee schedule to take effect January 5th for the transportation impact fees. Um and then on this screen here is the proposed sanitary sewer impact fees that were approved with our wastewater master plan. Uh and those are proposed to become effective February 23rd, 2026. Um is there any questions I can answer for you on these? They were discussed in length in the other meetings but but this is just amending our consolidated fee schedule to match the the new MA impact fee analysis that we did.

Okay. Questions? Just a Yeah, the staggering of the effective dates are because we're adopting them now and there has to be a certain time period before they actually go into effect. Yes. when when the fees were adopted in the plans, they have to have a 90day delay period on that. So, the transportation fee um was adopted so that it could become effective January 5th and then the wastewater fee, sewer fee was adopted so that it could become effective February 23rd. So, this is consistent with what was approved in those fees or those previous uh meetings.

Okay, any additional questions? Okay, thank you very much. Okay, we'll move on to our last item this evening on our consent items, which our legal counsel Clint Drake will be presenting um telecommunication service agreement.

Thank you, mayor. This is um an agreement for between the city, a franchise agreement for the city and uh internet service provider Senow. Um I'm going to be brief because this is a form that we use all the time. This is the same form that we use for all of our franchise agreements. I'm happy to answer any questions if you have any, but this is a form that you've seen before. Um, just briefly, franchise agreements allow for uh private companies to use the public right of way to provide services. In this case, Senave is actually an internet service provider that provides through Utopia. Uh, but they've got some a private need that is a separate from Utopia that they need to get access to part of the ride ofway. So, they've applied for a franchise agreement. Um, so that would allow them to work within the rightway subject to the terms and conditions of this agreement and of course our ordinances and engineering standards. Um, happy to answer any questions you have. Otherwise, I'll turn it over to you.

Okay. Council, do you have any questions on this? We just know that uh, internet works great, especially Utopia's line. Just just one. And just just so everyone knows, Clint, uh the city gets paid for them using this through the correct franchise tax. Yep. There's a franchise tax that gets paid. There's a formula that's uh uh outlined in in state code and and we get a portion of that through that tax.

Okay. There's no other questions. Then council, I'll bring it back to you to take action regarding the consent items. Um, if you could just uh kind of describe what it is and then obviously the resident uh resolution number as you uh make this final presentation there. We're all looking at you, Tyson. One last time. Yep. One last time.

Mayor, I'd be happy to make one final motion. I'd make a motion that we adopt our approve our consent items um as listed um item Audit and financial reports fiscal year ending June 20th 2025 item B ordinance 25-26 item C resolution 25-54 item D resolution 25-55 item E ordinance 25-27 and item F, resolution 25-56. Okay.

Okay. It's been moved and second that we uh adopt these uh consent items as presented. All in favor, please say I. I.

Any oppose? Okay. Thank you very much. Um that's actually our last item of business, official business. However, we do have some unfinished business to take care of. And this is one of those things that I knew I couldn't do it in the beginning of the meeting because we know that tonight is council member Robert's last council meeting here with this governing body. Who knows what his future will hold for us? Hint. But um um you know, I think that uh we want to just take the time to acknowledge it and kind of each one of us kind of share, you know, just what we how much we appreciate Tyson and what he's done here and uh present them. Yeah, these are some fun photos that I've have taken over the years that I thought would be good to share and let you know how much Tyson is involved in our community and and in fact all of us, but uh in particular u there's our veteran right there. That was the purpose of that photo just so you know so that everybody can see these. But we do have some um parting gifts that we would like to share with you. Tyson. Um, I think what we'll do is, uh, start out with You guys want to do our board first? Okay. We thought we'd kind of do something a little different. Um, hang on. for um Alex to present. Okay, Tyson, you know that uh um I kind of like to do woodworking. So, um I won't take this out of the box

because it's still got its oil in it, but this is your uh official shakuderie slashcutting board slash iconic Robert's um farms Robert's um board and it states your dates of service here with the city. But as a council, we kind of had to add some fun things to it. So, Zach, do you want to start out um with what you want to add?

So, I I always uh we come to these meetings and when we leave our jobs and come to our other job and I was always hungry and then Tyson came in and said and always made sure that they had beef jerky stocked in that thing. So, I got used some beef jerky to place on this little shootery board. Um, but one thing I actually was was thinking about as I was driving over here today is I've sat next to you for for four years now. Uh, and learned a lot from you. Uh, not just out here, but in other meetings and just the way you treat people. Um, and my kids are growing up on a a piece of property that I'll always remember you for because it's Welden Way and it's Mary's Meadow and um I remember moving in there and when Tyson when you were elected I remember thinking like we stand on the shoulders of giants because this ground was a sacred ground to Leighton City, a sacred ground for for Tyson and so that's where I get to raise my kids and so we'll will always have that connection. And so we're going to I'm going to miss sitting next to you and and discussing these issues and Leighton City is going to miss you, but we hope we haven't seen the end of you.

Okay. Uh Clint, you want to go? Sure.

Um I I just want to um thank Tyson for his service. Uh you mentioned his heart. Uh, I don't I don't think I've ever met someone with um in what and in what we do with a without a bigger heart. And I I appreciate your how you have come prepared uh your and and I'll tell everybody what about Tyson, what's his story? Mike, he asks the best questions uh than than any of us that that I and and that goes for your service planning commission. You wanted to know you wanted to to the reasons why and and just the qu again the question like how do you think of that? So I I appreciate that. I I I need to be better and follow your example. And you've got a great dad. Um he does a lot. He and not just here the other other with the Farm Bureau and he's wanted in other areas and needed maybe just not here may in other areas. And so I I I'm I'm also excited to see where where we see Tyson uh in the future. And if it's just with you all then you've won. And and so anyway, sorry. Um I I wanted to grab a couple of things that I don't know if if you can grow mangoes and dried apricots. Well, apricots we can, can't we?

Yeah, we probably got so on a sh We're talking about our shakuderie board. So, uh apricots and can't grow mangoes and and then nuts. What sort of nuts can we grow here? Got cashews, almonds, Brazil nuts, pistachios, and pecans. I'll say I grew peanuts in high school. There we go. Just once. wasn't successful. You have walnut and peanuts. I got a walnut tree. And the mayor. And last but not least, the nectar of the gods that Tyson loves. I And it got to be many because it's on the Shakuri board. Some Mountain Dew. Probably he's not going to share. Um but let's add that to the to the board as well. So, thank you, Tyson.

Yeah. Oh, you got something. Okay. All right. We're going in order here. So, Betatina.

Okay. So, the mayor asked if I had anything because I've been traveling. Um, and so it was a little last minute on what I was able to get, but when I thought of Tyson, so of course the jerky, but I figured somebody else would get that. So, I'm glad I didn't get jerky. But thinking of Tyson and our service together, um, one of the things that we've shared a ton in is the fact that we both have, um, children that are in the same age group. So, his twins. Hey, girls. um are the same age as my daughter and my son is a year younger and so we always do things together for the city. Um they've helped to help us pack popsicles for the 4th of July. Um they helped and were able to get corn and I had to text Tyson and tell him that my kids and my family told me to tell him that it was the best corn they ever had that they were able to eat it without it even having to cook it and they just loved it and they wanted more of it. So I thought, well, what can I get? I can't get jerky because somebody else is going to get it. I can't get popcorn because they sell the popcorn. So why would I buy popcorn to give to him that they already sell the best? So I thought something that could go on a shakuderie board that could also be shared.

Oh, you sneaky Santa over here. So, I got the pink strawberry for the girls, but I got these pocky sticks because they're sweet and they go perfect on a shakuderie board and it's something that you can share with your family because everything that you do involves sharing with your family from your heart. Um, I hope that we don't have to miss times coming to the farm and helping pack things together in the coming summers, but I thank you for the opportunity um to just learn and grow with you. We came in on the council together and um we've bounced things off of one another and kind of, you know, played the spades game with the eyes like what are you doing? what are you doing type of thing. Um, but we have a really good relationship and I am thankful for that. I'm thankful for your family. Um, and just getting to hang with you guys and see you all the time. So, um, I'm going to miss you on the council, but we live close. So, I I don't expect to not see you guys around, but here you go.

Thank you, Mr. Thomas. pretty intelligent guy. He struggles a little on history which we had an opportunity to talk about the other day. I met Wesley.

He met Wes Leighton. So he we won't go through the story. I look at your family and I what's the word I want to use? I'm thankful you married a pretty wife because you got good-looking kids and and I don't apologize but I it most of it didn't come from the Roberts family and don't take that mean. It's just that Yeah. But uh what a great guy. I mean, you know, he's a farmer. He thinks like a farmer, acts like a farmer,

and he is and I appreciate it. Well, and he is a farmer, but he's learned from good people and that I know I don't know how many older brothers you have, too, that I know of. Four. You have four? Three older. Three. I know two for sure. I may know the other one. Been around a long time. I I didn't know what a what kind of board you call that? Shuttery.

I had to ask my wife. I said, "What is this shery board?" She says, "You cut on it." I said, "It's a cutting board." She goes, "Well, yeah." But anyway, so I don't I didn't know what to get, but I'd been working on a project. There you go.

This is a uh it was a John Deere, but now it's a Massie Ferguson because it's got a flat tire, right? So, anyway, I figured you'd appreciate it more than anything. I will tell you one thing. It already fell out. There was a coin in there. Oh. And and I didn't know how to keep it in. I didn't want to glue it. It's probably still in here. Yeah. One of those cheap coins that we made for 100 years.

There. See? So that's the 100redyear celebration or whatever you call it. Centennial. Centennial. So pass that down. Says Robert's Farms, Councilman Tyson Roberts. That's awesome. There you go, bud. You can figure out how to keep the coin in. I'll always think of your bandage thumb when I look at it. Right on. From the from the bandsaw. Y. Okay. You're not done. No. No. Can I sit down because it's awkward?

Sure. So, we got two more items and obviously they go together, but uh um Alex and I uh got two items here. This is uh your loaf of bread, your sourdough bread that goes on a could go on a shakuderie board, but it's really not good unless you have maybe some unusual type of spread to go with it. So, um I'll let Alex elaborate on that one. Yes, this is this is bacon jam that you guys have we heard of that before family. So

yeah, it's amazing. Thank you. Very good. I'll keep it away from Dave then. I'll put it on this side. Well, can I say something, Mayor?

Absolutely. That's purpose. Typically, I haven't had a chance to do this, which is fine. It should be from your peers, but I I just wanted to tell you personally, Tyson, and on behalf of the staff, what a a blessing uh and a privilege it's been to interact with you. And um I think has has been spoken by your peers, one of the things that sets you apart, uh in my mind, at least there's many things, but one of them is is not just what you do, but how you do it. and in um in political arenas in the world today that is very very unique and um I uh have recently been reading a little bit which is neither here nor there except you remind me of somebody of some of the great books that David McCullik wrote u about the founding of this great country and uh I remember reading something recently where he talked about uh Benjamin Franklin who was a member of that body that deliberated um the constitution declaration and so forth but that he he generally was kind of off to himself in thought and while there were a lot of other people posturing and positioning to be heard and to say this is what need to be done and that needed to be done. he would sit quietly and then generally after everybody else had spoken he would he would uh suggest that he might have a little bit to contribute and when he did everybody else would go silent and listen because of of um the wisdom that he spoke with and so you you have you remind me of of that you have that gift that that talent and so it as I said it's been a I know the staff feels the same way it's been a privilege. You're you're a man of uh honesty and integrity

uh compassion and goodness and uh again those are unfortunately becoming rare qualities in all of us uh in society. And so I would also just say maybe to add to what uh uh Mr. Morris said, Council Member Morris, you you you do uh have your dad in you, but you also have your dear mother in you. and I privileged to know both of them and you you are a perfect combination of both of their best qualities and of course your beautiful wife as well. So you're a a you're a good man. You're a good man and as say it's been a blessing and a privilege to rub shoulders with you and uh you've done much good here. So thank you. Okay, speaking of a good wife, Dana, would you mind coming up here on the stand with Tyson?

Sorry. Yeah, as mentioned earlier, it really takes a family to support you in this. And Dana, you've been there. Each one of your kids have been there. I've seen and witnessed every one of them helping and contributing, whether it's been packing popsicles or passing out popsicles or if it's helping with the food drives, helping with um cleaning. We've done some service projects together. I mean, you guys are a great family. You're you're pillar in our in our city. Um Roberts is a legacy family in this city. And with that, we do have a couple more items that we'd like to present on behalf of the entire city and staff, which um do you want to present, Alex, or you want me to do it?

Okay. Um so, as customary, we do like to present you with a clock on behalf of Leighton City. It does have your years of service on there. And um just a little momento for you to remember. But my favorite part, I'm trying to keep this positive so we don't woohoo, is the tradition that really takes place and that it's very well earned and needs to be passed on. And that is a Leighton City sign that intentionally was said corner because you now have do the farm now sits kind of on the corner there at Mary's house which is his grandmother's house that Tyson now lives in and has beautifully restored and also I know Dixon Ruth you are there on the property as well. So it's just an awesome family. We all love you. We're going to miss you, but we have high hopes for you as well. I'm not going to get teareyed. I'm not going to get into it because I Alls I can say is you better take advantage of that $2 bill and make it work for somebody else as well. So, with that, I'll turn the time over to you. Thank you.

Wow. Um, thanks mayor. Thanks everyone. Um, it's very personal and very appreciated. Uh um one of you, one of my colleagues up here told me in the first couple months I was elected um said, "I don't care how you vote on any action as long as you vote with your heart and what you believe at the time and what's best for the for the city, for the residents, for the future." And I've really thought about thought about that often, especially on the difficult nights. Um, I've told my wife a couple times when I get home about 11:00 or closer to midnight. Um, so those those difficult nights are sometimes the most rewarding. Um espec especially working with uh those of you that that make those important decisions alongside. It's nice to to know that you you put that effort into to making the right decision and you show up with the questions that need to be asked. The the questions that the 87,000 people that live in this city are asking. I've also thought probably in my first year I thought I wish every one of those 87,000 people could have the opportunity to sit here and um learn what you learn sitting here um not only from the decisions that you have to make but um understanding what

what goes into to providing the services that the city does. It's uh um we use the analogy a lot of times in public works that um everything in public works for the most part is underneath and underneath us, but if it wasn't there, we'd essentially be in a third world country. And it's uh it's it's important to learn the the blessings that you don't know you were receiving. And that's a one big thing that I've learned here. Uh it's been a pleasure working with each of you, but uh but also with the staff. Um I I spent a couple years on the planning commission before and that was drinking from a fire hose when it comes to land use decisions and um what goes on in the city. um that continued here on the council. But such a blessing to have um members of the that work for the city that are working for the good of of those of all the residents here in the city. And I've I've benefited from that for 50 years now. And and uh my roots are pretty deep. So I don't plan on leaving soon. Um, but uh, heartfelt thank you to to all those that have that have served before us as I've grown up in this city, as I've raised my family, as I continue to raise my family. Um, and uh, thanks to the the members of the city employees at this time that continue to work to make it a good place to live, but also a safe place to live.

Um, and the the people on the front row, thanks for letting me do this. It was a was a tough decision to to decide not to run again, but looking at them on the front row, it makes it uh a little easier. spend maybe some Thursday nights at home. So anyway, thank you all. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Tyson. Wow, that's the best unfinished business we've had in a long time. So, with that, perhaps you'll like to make final motion to adjurnn. Dyson,

I'd love to. Motion to adjurnn, Mayor. Okay, I'll acknowledge that. Thank you everyone for attending our uh city council meeting this evening and this is our last meeting of the year. So on behalf of all of us here, we want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. Thank you.