City Council - Regular Meeting

of allegiance 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, Chief. Uh, I'll offer our invocation tonight. Our Father in heaven, as we come before thee this evening in our city council meeting, we ask that thou would bless us, that we would have thy spirit to lead us and guide us. We're so very grateful um for the opportunity we have to serve in in this capacity and the opportunity we have to make decisions that will hopefully benefit uh the residents of our community and help them to live their best lives. We're grateful for uh all of our city employees and especially for our uh public safety employees and and the safety uh and comfort that they provide to us. And we we ask a blessing upon them that that would watch over them and protect them. Uh help them to perform to the best of their abilities and and return home each night to their families. And we ask that same blessing upon all our our city employees. We're grateful for the the freedoms and liberties that we enjoy in this country and the ability we have to share our opinions and and speak freely freely and uh we ask that thou would help us to always defend that right and and be grateful for it. We're grateful once again for the many blessings that we enjoy and ask that thou would help us uh to make decisions that are that are fair and in accordance with thy will. And we offer this prayer in the name of thy son Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.

All right. We now have a time for public comment. This is an opportunity to address the city council uh regarding your concerns or ideas. No action will be taken during the public comment period. If you choose to come up to the microphone, please state your name and your city of residence and try to limit your comments to three minutes. Seeing no public comment, we'll move on to presentations and reports. uh for the mayor's report. Uh I have a couple of things. We did have a meeting with UD do yesterday uh concerning the timeline for the bridge project and uh it was somewhat disappointing. Um they're planning on being done sometime in midmay. Uh I asked them how we could go from having a project that was going to take about 3 months from August to Black Friday um to going to something that's five months where they've been working on it a month already. But they just said they said they'd sent their crews to I215 projects. Um they were planning on working around the clock back on that at that time. That's no longer going to happen. So um Mr. Douglas uh [sighs and gasps] he's not here tonight, but uh he he always does such a good job and he pushed him and just said, "Well, can you please bring those crews back and make them work 24 hours?" And he always asked the hard questions. They said they would try to and see if they can shave a couple weeks off it, but it's just going to be it's going to be May. So, it's unfortunate. Um, we also pressed them about our uh interchange request on Interstate 84 and that uh apparently is probably not going to work. Um, but they did have other options of maybe some ways to access that area. [sighs] Um, I had wake last night and, uh, it was kind of fun. Uh, being one of the more experienced people with nine new mayors, uh, we had, uh, I don't want to say we'd made too much of a plan in advance, but, we kind of had, [laughter] those of us that had been around a little bit. And so, uh, when all those

committees came available, uh, me and Mayor Porter and, uh, and, uh, Mayor Allen just kind of, uh, went through real quick. uh and even even Commissioner Harvey. And uh so I'm I'm on the regional growth committee. Um I'm on the the uh the trans transportation coordinated committee, which is both the long-term and short-term funding for uh for uh transportation projects. Uh I was able to stay on the housing or sorry, I'm on the transportation funding for the county. Uh and I'm also the vice chair of Wakeog. So it was pretty reductive. So anyway, it was good and and it was it was kind of funny to see those other mayors. They didn't really know what to expect and pretty soon it was over and all the places were taken and uh it was kind of fun being experienced. So um hopefully we can put that to good use. Um Andrew Guber was there from the Wasach Front Regional Council and and I'm excited to get back into some of those committees and see if we can do some things to help Riverdale with that. So uh that's all I have. Um city council assignment reports. anything from your assignments? Okay. Uh swearing in. Miss Maraggoni is going to take care of swearing in. Uh we have uh some newly elected officials tonight and uh also a new police officer we're going to swear in. So we will turn that over to Miss Maraggoni.

All right. [clears throat] Sure. [clears throat]

Wherever. Over here. I go over here. I forgot who was over there. Okay. Okay. So, raise your right hand and repeat after me. I state your name. I, Braden Mitchell, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America and the State of Utah and the State of Utah against all enemies, foreign and domestic against all enemies, foreign and domestic and that I will discharge my duties with fidelity. and that I will discharge my duties with fidelity.

[applause] What are you gonna do? You need to [laughter] be the vice chair of Wakeog. That's pretty important. It is important, isn't it? Yeah, I'm excited. Okay. Should have wore your top hat. Oh, I should have wore the whole costume and everything. over here a little bit more.

Picture. I state your name. I, Annie Hansen, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support and defend that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America the Constitution of the United States of America and the State of Utah and and the State of Utah against all enemies, foreign and domestic against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And that I will discharge my duties with fidelity and that I will discharge my duties with fidelity. [applause] Guys, I would

you [laughter] got to bring this one next time. got photographer. Okay, raise your right hand and repeat after me. Closer. It's okay. I can zoom this technology down. [laughter] I state your name. Bart, I Bart Stevens, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support and defend that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America

the Constitution of the United States of America and the State of Utah and the State of Utah against all enemies, foreign and domestic against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And that I will discharge my duties with fidelity. And I will discharge my duties with fidelity. [applause] You want to say something first? No. No. I I've said enough so far. [laughter]

Let's see here. All right. There he is. All right. I just want to take a second to briefly introduce you to Parker Eert. I spoke to you guys a few weeks ago about Parker and I just can't express how excited I am to have him as a part of our police department. Uh Parker is really invested in being here in Riverdale. He spent his entire life growing up as a part of our family in the police department. Some of you know uh he's got a proud father over here, James Eert, who retired from Riverdale Police Department, I believe after 22 23 years um as a lieutenant. And so James did a great job. I want to take a brief second and just acknowledge him and thank him for his contributions to our police department. There's a lot of uh good principles and and culture things that he helped implement that we're still utilizing and build upon today. And I know a lot of those principles that were very uh positive and important to our department, James has also implemented within his own home with Parker. So, it's easy for me to say, "Hey, you know, but uh Parker really wanted to work for Riverdale City. He he could have worked a lot of at a lot of different departments. He was employed by South Ogden uh with their public works. They were recruiting him pretty heavy as well. And he he wanted to work for us. And so we don't typically sponsor. So he even took it a step further and resigned from his position, put himself to the academy in hopes that we would have an opportunity coming up. And if not, then he would have went somewhere and then came right to us hopefully as soon as soon as we had the opportunity. cuz we we talked about this a bunch, but uh we we were lucky that the stars aligned and we were able to get Parker as a part of our team. And so, um as I went to his graduation this last week, um it was the Parker Eert show. He he was the class leader in both sessions of the police academy. They select certain people to be the leaders of the class and he was uh nominated for

both of those positions. He obtained the leadership uh excuse me, the academic award, the PT award, I believe, and the firearms award. Just about every award you could get, he should have just stayed up there. So, um it's not too often that you have a cadet that achieves all of those accomplishments. And so, it was pretty exceptional. And so, I just like I says, I'm really super proud to have him here. He's he's a pretty big guy. Steve was joking wondering where he gets his height from. Sorry, James. [laughter] But uh I couldn't be more proud because I know he's truly invested in this city. You know, he's spent a lot of Christmases at home as a kid worrying about his dad and uh you know coming to our parties and and you know growing up at our police department and you know it's kind of what a great story to be able to have his career here and have those same sacrifices that he experienced with his dad and be able to serve this community as well. and he knows how lucky he is to work for such a great city because he heard it his entire life. Um I brag to my kids how awesome Riverdale City is and that we work for the best city in the state of Utah. And I know he heard that his entire life as well. And so it's truly an honor. I'll let you say a few words then we'll swear in if you'd like. Come on, James. I bet he's calling him James here. I know he I was told [clears throat] he was being quiet, but I'm like, you just got to get him out of the shell. I am very illprepared for this. I didn't know I was going to be talking, but uh like Chief Warren said, um I did a lot of investing and looking into agencies around the whole entire state. And I never heard a single bad thing about Riverdale. And so that's one of the biggest reasons why I really, you know, pushed because I wanted to, you know, really build a a positive foundation in starting my career in law enforcement. And I am more than pleased. Um, I haven't been working too long, but

I'm more than pleased uh with not only all the officers that I work with, but also all the support staff and everything like that. So, thank you. That being said, we swear. He said, "If you want to you want to You sure if I want to? Yes, I'm sure. [laughter] Raise your right hand. Repeat after me. I state your name. I, Parker Eert, do solemnly swear Do solemnly swear that I will support and defend that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America the Constitution of the United States of America and the State of Utah and the State of Utah against all enemies, foreign and domestic against all enemies, foreign and domestic. and that I will discharge my duties

and that I will discharge my duties as a Riverdale City Police Officer with fidelity. as a Riverdale City Police Officer with fidelity. [applause]

Councelor Stevens Parker, I've I've seen your dad run and literally chase down suspects. Can you run like him? I'm I'm a little bit faster, but yeah, I'm good. [laughter] I'm a little faster than my dad, too. 2.0 upgrades.

Well, um you know, it's interesting. I was thinking I I think James is a lieutenant here back in the day. And uh and now we've got his son here. We have the former Chief Brinkman's son here as well. And that that speaks quite a bit that those two would want to come back to the department and work here. um they obviously have heard good things and uh and I know the chief shared about your awards again and uh we don't hire a lot of new graduates in Riverdale. We usually let the other cities train them and uh kind of weed them out and sort through them, you know, the good ones and then once we we know that we got a real good one, then we'll go snag them from somewhere. And we've had good luck with that. But uh when he talked about all your awards and how, you know, plus your bloodline, we knew we were getting a good one. And I I I have a friend that just started the police academy yesterday. I've worked with him in the pharmacy for years and years, but he always wanted to be a police officer. And uh and and I told him I said, "Hey, we just hired a guy right out of the academy." I said, "He got every award they had there." I said, "You better lock in and be ready to get that stuff because that's your that's your chance to be successful." So, uh anyway, we're thrilled to have you. Uh you have our full support. We're we're proud that we support our police officers the way we do and uh you know we're looking forward to forward to a long a long career with you and uh and hopefully we can just keep you around for a long time. So, welcome.

Yeah. Anybody else? Okay. Perfect. Thank you. All right. Consent [clears throat] items. Number one, consideration to approve the meeting minutes from the December 16th, 2025 council work session and council meeting. Yeah, he doesn't know how loud he is. All right. I don't think he cares.

All right. So, we've got those consent items. Uh, are there any corrections or changes to those minutes? Seeing none, we would need a motion to approve. Councelor Arnold. Move to approve the meeting minutes from December 16th Burke session and council meeting. Very good. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion to second. Any discussion on that motion? All in favor say yes. Yes. Yes.

Any opposed? Okay. That passes and they are approved. [clears throat] We'll now move on to our action items. Number one, consideration of ordinance 999 regarding proposed text amendments to the Riverdale City Code Title 10, chapter 22, planned residential unit developments. Uh, Mr. Cooper or Mr. Brooks, I'm Oh, sorry. All right.

I was just going to say um before we talked about it, decide to talk about it, I'm concerned that what we were provided isn't the final ordinance because it didn't have any of the recommendations from the planning commission included. And so I don't know honestly if it's appropriate for us to discuss it if we haven't had a chance to review that with those recommendations and I wanted to bring it up first because if the rest of the council or if Mr. Brooks thinks we should proceed, I'm I'm fine. I just felt like we needed to address that what we've seen doesn't have any of those changes included in it.

Okay. Thank you, Council Arnold. Well, I I was going to ask if we could table it for this meeting, just take it to the next meeting with it being a full rewrite. It seems like just the way it was presented that um I didn't have an opportunity to go through it as thorough as I wanted to. And so I was going to ask the council if we could I don't think it's in a dire need that we pass it today that if we can at least table it for two weeks and get an opportunity to uh look at it more for myself to look at it more thoroughly that I would ask that favor from the council. And

so are you making a motion to table? Um, if there's a can I'll make a motion to table to see if there's a possibility of of just pushing it back two weeks. We have a motion to table. Do we have a second? I'll second so that we can have discussion if there's discussion. Okay. So, we have a motion and a second. Is there discussion on the motion? Councelor Stevens. We can get uh the the verbiage corrected from the coun from the planning commission. Correct. In in that time in that time. that won't validate the invalidate what's on here. I mean, we just pull it up and substitute it.

The stuff that's in your packet won't change. It would just be some of the supplemental stuff that we'll supply you with. So, it'll be fine. The ordinance is missing some of the language. So, we don't have the final ordinance from what I understand, unless I'm misunderstanding.

No, that's that's true. I was um on vacation over the break and unfortunately I realized that um we didn't get those included. I was going to recommend in my presentation that you just in your motion include the the uh the recommendation. It's really two simple ones. Um one swapping a couple of um a couple of uh numbers and then the second one was just adding a provision for that's already in our code but just belt and suspenders adding a provision that would require amenities to be in a first phase. But if you feel more comfortable having that written both in the transmitt and in the ordinance, I totally understand that. Uh, council Arnold,

one of the things about the PRUD ordinance is it's always bit us in the butt. We we had to go to a moratorum for a little bit because um when these things come in and they come in under this ordinance and they have I mean we've had street problems, garbage problems, sewer,

sewer um fire hydrant. I mean there's there's not a thing about these that um hasn't been kind of a problem for us. And that's why I was I was hoping just to be able to go through it a little more. I mean something as simple as the landscaping you know it's calls for 75% um live plants and things it can be 25% can be supplemented with rocks [snorts] and stuff like that and um you know the zeroscaping and I I think I don't know what we're going to be looking at this summer I think we might be a little dry and so I mean if we have the ability to do some of this thing where we can actually dial it in a a little better. That's that's one of the reasons I I just asked for the the two weeks to look at a little closer.

It it's a massive document. I mean, I I I read the whole thing, but I probably didn't even give it the, you know what I mean, the the time and and that I probably should have devoted to it, but I caught all those things. And it might be nice to have Mr. Douglas here as we discuss it, too. Um, he he has had some strong opinions in the past. Um I thought he might be here tonight but uh okay so not too much talking about it though because we are going we have a motion and a second to put it on the table. Um so uh with that is any more discussion on that? Miss Maragoni, will you please poll the council? Councelor Hansen. Yes. Councelor Richtor. Yes. Councelor Arnold. Yes. Councelor Stevens. Yes.

Okay. Um, so that is tabled and uh we will just hope to get that uh final clean version in in our meeting for two weeks. Want to say that was my fault. Okay. It was not her fault. She's taking the blame. [laughter] I I was incomplete in my packet. I'll take the my fault too cuz I didn't read it and I mean I wasn't prepared for that one because I put so much in the other documents and stuff that Yeah. And I did assume I mean with the holidays I figured [clears throat] there was some Yeah, it is a big important I just didn't know legally if like because it wasn't the actual recommendation if we could actually even do it. That's all I was concerned about. So I think it's good. Yeah. To have extra time

or it's not under a time constraint. So yeah. And it was even bigger. I pulled a big chunk out of it at the last minute. So it was it was really jumbled there towards the end. So I I'm not sure that our uh planning commission unders even understood. some of the the gravity of what what what it they probably don't know the history which some of us know you know what I mean I'm not sure they understood what they were undertaking that thing is massive well and and state laws change too and and this incorporates some of that and those things will be different to you than what you're used to compared to our old ones so um I think that's a good move I don't have issues with that

and so if we have the next two weeks can I just ask if there are references to the state code that have changed it wasn't really included in ordinance, could you just shoot them to us so as we're reviewing it, we can kind of go back and forth between Yeah. rather than just in the packet when we only have the weekend or Yeah. Yeah. Just if we're going to have the extra time anyway so we can match it up. Yeah. Thank you. And are you open to some questions throughout the week here? Yeah.

Oh, yeah. This is as as Allan said, this is huge. Yeah. Um, as we as development changes, patterns of development changes, um, this is going to be a heavily used ordinance since we have to get it as right as we can. No code is perfect, but getting it as right as we can up front is going to be massively helpful. Well, and people that move into these developments, it's like they almost need a disclaimer to understand what they're moving into because they move in thinking it's a normal home or under the same guidelines of things and then they just they're like, "Oh, we have a leak." And they call Sean and he's like, "Sorry, it isn't anything to do with me." And they're like, "How dare you?" So, it's a big deal. Yeah. Okay. Very good. Uh, next item number two, consideration to enter into a closed session pursuant to Utah code 52-4-205. Uh, do we have a motion to enter into a closed session?

So moved. Have a motion. Uh, second. Do we need to state why we're going into that closed session? We should list the code section, too. So, um it's 1 C or 1 A up for uh personnel character fitness kind of stuff and it's one I don't know if it's D if it's a potential lawsuit. I don't know what what it's going as. So, this is the list of things. Oh, great. Of options. Um, they don't have ABC me for it. Somebody's got to make the motion for what section you're going into.

Um, so under a and I would say D. Are we going? Are the boxes ABCD? Is that what you said? Coming down? Yeah. Okay. So, A, D, and possibly E, I guess. Will you say what those are so we know?

Oh, yeah. Sorry. Um, discussion of character, professional competence, or physical and mental health of an individual. Um uh strategy session to discuss the purchase, exchange, lease or of real property and more than that but and then um strategy session on the sale of real property again with water rights and water shares. No litigation. Not yet. Bummer. You want litigation on there? I I don't know any Let's open it up so we can go anywhere.

Okay. Okay. So, we have a motion uh to go into a close session for uh reasons 1 A, D, and E. Do we have a second or do we need those reread or anything? A second. Okay, we have a second. Any discussion on that motion? Seeing none, Miss Marley, will you please pull the council? Arnold, yes. Councelor Hansen, yes. Councelor Stevens. Yes. Rick. Yes. Okay. So, we are going into close session. Uh we're going to

and I don't know if I needed to ask this, but I would ask that none of the staff be present because these weren't issues that were brought by the staff and we're not taking any action and you can follow up with anything pertinent. Yeah. So that we can have an open conversation about it. Okay. Since those things are concerns, talk to the mayor about that and how we would work that. and to ask that Michelle and Steve hang on out there. Yeah. if we and bring them in and bring them in if we need to and we can just track the time on who makes the motion to come out if we don't on the back of that that I