City Council - Regular Meeting

this meeting to order and get started. Thank you everybody for being here tonight. We might actually, Paul chastised me for saying this earlier, said I'm jinxing it, but we might have a decently short meeting tonight. I don't think there's anything too heavy on here.

Do I need to second that, Mayor? Let's go.

So we'll see. I might have jinxed this. We'll start tonight. David I must hear from the Church of Christ, and thank you for being here and being willing to pray for us again. And then I will lead us in the pledge.

Let's go to our Father in prayer. Our great and majestic Father in heaven, we're so thankful for this day, Father, and for this opportunity to be here. We're so thankful to be able to approach you who rule all things and to have this privilege to come and convey our needs and our cares and concerns to you. We're so thankful to you, Father, for the nation that we live in, for the city that we live in, Father, and our community here and all the blessings that you ascribe to us through it. We're so thankful, Father, that, again, we can come and speak to you about the things that are going on in our town as we prepare for this meeting together today. And in so doing, Father, we're coming to you to ask you for wisdom and for strength and for encouragement to do what's right. We're so thankful for our officials, Father, and for the work that they do. And we pray that you would give them an opportunity to make decisions that would let us lead a life in quietness and peacefulness with all godliness and dignity. We pray, Father, that as they would give us those opportunities, that we as citizens would pursue that same life that pleases you. Because, Father, we understand that you are the one who rules all things. And we ask these in the name of your son, the King of Kings. Amen. Amen.

Please follow me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge 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, David. Okay.

Mayor, I would move that we approve this agenda order for tonight's work meeting September the 2nd.

We have a motion. Second. And a second. We'll call that Waldo.

Yep.

All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Fantastic. First one then is I won't take full credit for. We got contacted by the Daughters of the American Revolution and we kind of talked about some ideas of ways to to kind of use this Constitution month to bring recognition and remind people of the importance of our founding Constitution. And so we're going to do a proclamation about Constitution Week. So I will read that. Proclamation for Constitution Week in Cedar City. Whereas the Constitution of the United States of America, the guardian of our liberties, embodies the principles of limited government in a republic dedicated to rule by law. And whereas September 17th, 2026 marks the 239th anniversary of the framing of the Constitution of the United States of America, by the Constitutional Convention, and whereas it is fitting and proper to accord official recognition to this magnificent document and its memorable anniversary, and to the patriotic celebrations which will commemorate it, and whereas Public Law 915 grants the guarantees the issuance of a proclamation each year by the President of the United States, declaring September 17th through the 23rd as Constitution Week. Now, therefore, let it be resolved that I, Steve Nelson, by virtue of the authority vested in me as the mayor of Cedar City, do hereby proclaim the week of September 17th through the 23rd as Constitution Week, and ask our citizens to reaffirm the ideals the founders of the Constitution had in 1787 by vigilantly protecting the freedoms guaranteed to us through this guardian of our liberties.

Here, here. Here, here.

That was an easy one for me to get behind. So I thought it was a great idea, and I'm grateful for the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Thank you for doing that, Mayor.

And all of your comments in the Mayor's newsletter relative to that as well. Thank you. Thank you.

It's been fun this year to kind of come up with some of those principles and write about them, so I've enjoyed it too. Okay, we'll jump then to our business agenda. First one is to consider purchase of canine vehicles. Our vehicle

Yeah, don't give them an inch. Don't give them an inch. That's right. Good evening. Jimmy Rowland with the Police Department. Yes, it's the purchase of a single vehicle. We're just over the $50,000 limit in the purchasing policy. We're here to seek approval from council. It's a vehicle that's already been approved in our budget, so it's not new money. It's just we're looking for permission to spend the money you've already given us.

Is this, if I may ask a question, is this... Hey, it's finally a Ford! Well, you guys are going to be surprised 2028. But what does the vehicle look like? Is it everything that you need in it, all the equipment and so forth, or is there a further expense after the purchase of the vehicle?

There is a further expense after.

And do you know what that estimate would be?

It's about $25,000. Okay.

Can you just share with us what it would comprise of more or less? Sure.

All of the vehicles are similar except this one is a canine. We use the bigger platform. The others are like an Explorer. They're called Police Interceptor Utility. They're just a little smaller. For the canine vehicle, it does have a little bit of extra equipment. It has a kennel, essentially, that goes behind the driver. It has a system in there that regulates temperature. And then they have a remote so they can pop the door and the dog can get out with remote access and some things like that. So it does require the larger platform for the canine vehicle. That's why this particular vehicle will be the Expedition instead of the Explorer.

Very good. Thank you.

Mayor, I would move that we put this on consent.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye.

Thank you so much. This meeting is fast. Wait until next week.

We'll be out of here real quick. Okay, next one. Chief Phillips has got a couple. It's actually, as I went through these actually, it is kind of funny because we put them in the budget. As long as they were through budget, I'm like, why do we even have to approve them again?

Because it's over $50,000.

Plus, we'd love to see you up there. Is it adjusted for inflation?

Anyway, this is just part two of that squad vehicle. This is a service body for it, so I'd just like you to approve that.

May I make a motion that we approve the purchase of the service body for 27 Chevy?

Sorry. No, you got to put it down there. This is not an action meeting. Put it on consent. Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Great. Next one, chief.

Next one is the masticator head to go on a John Deere that the city already, John Deere track, all the city already has. We went to the state bid, which was $99,000. And it was kind of like buying a Chevy pickup truck and putting a power stroke engine into it.

Why would you ever do something so stupid?

Well, that's kind of what we were trying to do with the caterpillar head. So we went to John Deere, and they gave us a better price than the state bid price. That's awesome. Very good.

For those that don't know what those are, they're really cool. They can chop a tree sideways down, mulch it. Just about a minute and a half.

I'm jealous. You have that toy. Just a question. John Deere. It's ours. The tractor is already ours, right?

Yeah, it's part of our public works. Okay. It sounds like Robert wants to come and play with it.

So is the idea behind this is to use it on like active for cutting like brush lines or is it for...

Preventative? What do you use it for? Preventative. So fuels work. So all the city-owned property, we can use it to destroy all those trees on it. And then they do use them once in a while on wildland fires for building lines as it comes into communities. So it would be put up as a national resource.

But our main use is going to be the thinning so we can help with risk of fire. This is on a Mini-X, right?

If you look north, all that hillside patches, that's what it does.

So get some free seed from the RCS, broadcast it, then chop the tree down.

And cedar trees, don't miss one of them. Mayor, I would move that we put this item on the consent agenda for next week. Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Any opposed?

I love trees. On a side note, so my new hire, my new part-time administrative assistant, her son works for the NRCS. Oh, cool.

Got it in there. Good, good. I have a guy that has a drone that'll broadcast it if you need, so let me know. Thank you, Chief. Hard time.

Okay, next one is to consider approval of Fitters Canyon Trail Extension UDOT agreement.

Yeah, so this agreement, this is for where we're taking the trail underneath Main Street through the big large box culvert there that handles that fiddler's drainage channel. There were some issues we needed to work through with UDOT on this. The big sticking point was on a, They wanted us to put gates in. That's what the AG's office wanted. I appreciate the phone calls that were made that helped us overcome that. This final version of the agreement does not include that language. That used to be another bullet point in here. And so yeah, we would recommend that this agreement with UDOT be approved so we can move that forward. Mayor, I think that's great.

Thank you for all that. And I make a... Move this to consent for next week.

I have a motion.

Second.

And a second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Fantastic. Thank you.

Good job, Kent.

Consider purchase of the budgeted broom sweeper.

Eric.

Eric Witzke, Cedar City Street Department. Thank you for saying budgeted.

I didn't want to call you to repent and try to stand here.

This is for the purchase of a sweeper that you did already approve during the budget. We actually have it in hand. Now you need to pay for it. This was done on a government contract source well. We have actually most of our vehicles that we purchase go through source well. So this is a government contract.

And what's the other part?

So the sweeper we're replacing is an older unit, and we've had issues with overheating, things like that, but we travel long distances. I mean, we drive sometimes clear down by Canaryville to sweep, so... The airport would like to acquire the sweeper to sweep on airport property, use for their parking lot, taxiways, around the hangars. They can't use their big broom around the hangars because it just throws the rock where this would actually sweep and clean up. So it would actually be beneficial to just give this.

So did you buy it out of streets or storm drain?

Bought it out of streets. Okay. No, it's not in the enterprise fund. Okay.

Does that need to be part of this? That's a separate thing, right? That's a separate discussion, isn't it? We'll just do it. Yes, it's just part, it's just in our.

We'll make a motion that we put this on consent for next week.

Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? Mr. Whiskey, just before you leave, I'd just like to say thank you for all the work your crews have done this summer on the streets. Throughout the city, they look really terrific, and I think they did a great job, so thank you very much.

You get a lot of comments from people, I do.

Yep.

Well, the other thing that probably a lot of you don't realize is he's spent a lot of time cleaning all the storm drain ditches out. And so, sorry, he's got a lot of trees that have been gone. However, he has cleaned probably miles of irrigation ditches.

I noticed it behind the cemetery. I don't know if that's your people.

Now I want to point out that the Chief Phillips masticator head that's going on our piece of equipment, I will use in those ditches. It's a fair trade, right? Wouldn't expect anything less.

Take down a tree, plant three, okay? In different spots. I don't expect an answer right now if you don't know it, but do you know how much longer 1600 North will be closed down for that road closure?

Probably until about October 10th or so.

Oh, my goodness.

They're trying to get all the storm drain in, trying to get all the sewer in, trying to get all of the utilities in, and they have to pay before October 15th, so we know it'll be done by then. On a side note, I won't let them close 3900 until 1600 is done, so okay.

Oh, out by you guys.

Good, good, good. Thank you.

Thank you, Eric. Okay, so the last one is a committee. that you'll see got marked up some. So to try to move it along, I actually used AI to create the first draft and then Randall and Paul have both given some edits to it.

So can I ask you a question, Mayor? Yes. Why the need for change?

On the language? Yeah. I don't really care. If it's whatever they say is good. As long as the committee gets formed, I'm good.

I'm just not going to change the function of the committee. Yeah, I know. So I read the whole thing.

They're smarter than AI, let's just say that.

I was just like my dog when she was a puppy.

So the overall concept, and welcome to any critique if you want to add it, but this is the one where during campaign and soon after, if you remember Cleve Weaver, rather than just whine and complain, wanted to talk about how do we do something to help us with our cleaning up weeds and intersections of the freeway and those kinds of things. And this was the idea that we came up with as we talked was let's start a community board, a committee that has committee members that kind of help facilitate and organize those projects with the support of the Public Works Department. And then they go recruit people. So then when you have somebody call you and complain about why is there weeds here, you can say, hey, there's a committee you can join. Here's the information and let's get the.

Ann.

Yeah. But I think there's a lot of people like that, Ann, right? I think there's a lot of people. I saw some out in front of Black Rock that just this old couple that was just pulling weeds, right? There's people that want to be a part of and help and not just complain. And I think this will give an avenue that we can support our street department and potentially be able to use in parks at times and create a good community. I think so.

So why did you strike the CCC? I think that's pretty cool. A CCC project, like the dams and all sorts of stuff.

That's still what I think the acronym for it should be.

Well, it will be. People will...

And I can envision the committee, they'll come up with like T-shirts that we can put on all the volunteers and make it feel like an organization that people are a part of.

There's a couple dams in the Virgin River in my backyard where I grew up that were built by the CCC.

Yeah, my grandpa worked on them.

I had a guy call the other day that some of his crew got a little out of hand and they were serving time in the crowbar jail. But he said they had to do community service and they talked about The weeds and that, but anyway, they were told that they were not allowed to do that.

Yeah, so this would be an opportunity that we could connect them with and be a part of our projects.

So somebody could do service time through this organization. I mean, I would think. Or account for service hours because right now they were told that.

Because we don't have a structure for it, right? There's nobody to sign off on.

So this would help that. Yeah, it would give a structure for it. Good.

And right now I've got four of the five people Well, I haven't talked to the one of you that I would like to assign this to yet, so I'll save that for next time. But of the other four members, I've got three of them that I'm ready to appoint and just working on one more. I kind of thought to get it going, we'd tap some of the larger institutions in town and get them to to kind of buy in and help recruit from their organizations. So I just got one of the four that I thought of that I'm waiting to hear back from. And so once we approve this, then we'll subsequently get the board members.

And it's great. And I'm glad to know, Mayor, that there's a plan to move forward. Could we can create the committee, but if there's not. Yeah, we're following right up.

They're going to be right behind.

Perfect. Excellent.

Thank you. I will take the most of the credit goes to Cleve. So thank you. Thank you, thank you.

Do we need to put this on consent? Action, yeah, because it's a new.

Yeah, I created a resolution. You party pooper. We had a perfect thing going for next week. It'll still be pretty fast unless you have edits that you want to add to this. I read through it. I'm fine with it.

Go ahead. You go on. I move that we put this on action.

I'll second.

Have a motion and whatever you want to put as a second.

Councilman Cox can second that.

All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? Mayor, I would move that we close this meeting and go into closed session. Do we have public comments today? No, that's on action. Moving to closed session.

Yeah, closed session. Second. We have a motion to second. Roll call starting with Councilman Phillips.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you.

Thank you.