Council - Regular Meeting

I now call the April 21st, 2026 finance committee meeting to order at 6:45 p.m. Consideration of claims. Chair would entertain a motion for the approval of claims. I'll move to for consideration of claims to be paid in the amount of 331,85667 Elon credit card in the amount of 6,1346 payroll and liabilities for 472026 and payroll for 416 2026 in the amount of $248,776.73 for a total of $586,746.86. Second. I

have a motion by Councilwoman Johnson and a second by Councilwoman Brothers to approve consideration of claims to be paid in the amount of $331,856.67. Elon credit card in the amount of $6,11346. Payroll and liabilities for April 7th, 2026. and payroll for April 16th, 2026 in the amount of $248,776.73 for a total of $586,746.86. Are there any questions, comments, concerns? All those in favor say I. I. I.

All oppose, same sign. Motion passes. Is there anything additional to come before the committee? Director Harris, Mr. chair. No. Thank you. Without objection, we'll adjourn the meeting at 6:47 p.m. Thanks.

and have a gavvel. Need one? Yeah. Toss it over. Mine. You hurt yourself. Yeah. Good. Nancy. I now call the uh April 21st, 2026 regular meeting of the Riverton City Council to order at 7 p.m. Councilwoman Johnson has agreed to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. after which councilwoman brothers will uh lead us in an invocation. If everyone could please rise for the pledge of allegiance and remove your hats.

Algiance 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. Our dear heavenly father, we thank thee so much for the blessing to be here tonight to be able to discuss what's best for the citizens of Riverton, Wyoming. We thank thee for the first responders and for all that they do for the city. And we pray a blessing to be upon them that they will be able to do their jobs and that they will know that they are that they're we are grateful for all that they do. And we pray that we will know and do what's best for the city tonight and be able to discuss that with the people's best needs at heart. And we say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Thank you. All right, Mr. Batista, could you do me a favor real quick? Could you go to my office and grab my devil? And also, could you grab there's a pen? If you could grab that, too. Well, just grab me. I don't want to steal yours. Every once in a while you just have stars don't align for things. I don't know. All right, that's uh Harris, why don't you start us with the roll call and we'll see if we can get this going right. Thank you. Council member Karen Johnson here. Council member Carla Borders here.

Council member Mike Bailey here. Council member Rebecca Brothers here. Council member Eric Carr here. Mayor Tim Hancock, I am here. Um I know there was a plan for Councilman Larson to be joining us by phone didn't work out. Um Mr. or your honor not Mr. Chairman. Um with the phone system being down, it's not possible to have him remote in through our system. Okay. Just wanted to make sure. So, uh, I'd entertain a motion to excuse, uh, Councilman Larson from tonight's meeting who is, uh, currently in another, uh, state and was wanting to attend by phone but was unable to. So moved. Second.

Have a motion by Councilwoman uh, Borders, second by Councilman Bailey. All in favor say I. Any oppose, say nay. I vote I. Motion passes. Did it work? The key worked. Yep. All right. And the Thank you. Pen might not. Thank you. Thanks, Max. Oh, yeah. And I I should probably take All right. I declare we have a quorum. I'd entertain a motion to approve the agenda as presented. So moved. Second. Motion by Councilwoman Johnson, second by Councilwoman Borders. All in favor say I.

Any oppose say nay. I vote I. Motion passes. Introduction and oath of office. Patrol officers. Patrol officer. Chief's report, please. Thank you, mayor and councel. Uh, tonight we add another member of our uh to our sworn team. And uh before I introduce our new member, I'd like to be joined tonight by Lieutenant Amy Filer and Lieutenant Eric Smiths to be with me as we welcome our new patrol officer.

Perfect.

So I ask Jeff and his wife Megan to please join me up here. Oh, Jeff and his wife Megan come here by the way of Pacific Northwest. Uh Jeff is an Army vet after meeting Megan in the mid 1990s. No, he said Navy chief. I do that. I've teased him about it.

Yeah. After meeting Megan in the mid 90s, 1990s, uh, spent most of his time working for Microsoft, Amazon, T-Mobile, and a few Seattle area executives. He likes playing uh, he likes spending his time cooking and hunting and playing golf. They moved to the Richmond area four years ago, and he's already put down his roots by buying a new home. Uh Jeff was hired two years ago as our first community service officer and he joins us as being promoted to a new patrol officer. Uh after much prompting and with permission of Megan this time, your honor, we we're ready to uh have the oath of office. After Megan, if you would do the honors of placing the badge on Jeff, I think

Oh, I'm waiting until she draws blood and then I'll head down. Try harder. I don't think we've had this before.

This isn't the first time I've sworn you in, is it? No, it is not. All right, raise your right hand if you could repeat after me. I'm going to say I and then you're going to say your name. I'm not going to say your name. I I Jeffrey David Mang do solemnly swear or affirm do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support obey and defend that I will support obey and defend the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Wyoming and the Constitution of the State of Wyoming that I have not knowingly that I've not knowingly violated any law violated any law related to my appointment related to my appointment nor caused it to be done by others nor caused it to be done by others that I will discharge the duties of my office and that I will discharge the duties of my office with fidelity

with fidelity. All right, sir.

Good. You know them. Yes. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. Welcome.

So, the chief kind of was disguisedly making two announcements there. And part why he had uh Lieutenant Filer and Lieutenant uh Eric Smith come up is because we recently have now two new lieutenants over at the police department. So very glad to have you both here. You obviously represent two different styles of lieutenants right now with Amy fully decked out in uh her uh typical uniform and Eric fully decked out in his typical uniform. So, both good things.

Very glad to have you on board, Jeff. Um excited for what you can bring to the department. Very glad to have you available and willing to serve. And um hopefully this means that we'll have more opportunities for you to cook for us. So I think part of the reason was I I know I was going to ask for being the police department. There needs to be a competition first and then we have to decide who actually wins that. So we'll find out. There's some stiff competition. I don't know if there really is actually now that I'm thinking about everybody. Sounds like a find out.

Yeah. There is competition this weekend. Yeah, good. That's right. And I can tell that you still like each other because your wife is sitting between you.

All right. Well, great news. Glad to have you on board. I know we have another officer who we're going to be swearing in here soon. Uh but was unable to have things work out for that to happen. So, and certainly appreciate um Lieutenant Filer. I'm going to get used to saying it. Um and Lieutenant Smith for being willing to step up and uh fill those leadership roles in the department and many years of service. And I think now I think you both did you graduate from the academy pretty close to the same time? Eric, you have her by maybe a couple of months or a year, don't you? Correct. I remember that. So, yeah. All right. Good deal.

All right. Next up, we have a National Apprentice apprenticeship week proclamation. Oh, that is not the one that I was going to sign. Here we go. Uh whereas National Apprenticeship Week is celebrating its 12th anniversary of raising awareness of the vital role that a registered apprenticeships play in providing opportunities to the people of Wyoming by allowing apprentices to earn while they learn and preparing a pathway to good quality jobs and well-paying careers and the ability to advance in those careers. And whereas registered apprenticeship programs enable employers to develop and train their future workforce while offering career seekers affordable paths to secure high paying jobs. And whereas apprenticeship is an important post-secary pathway for Wyoming workers, offering a combination of academic and technical instruction with paid on the job training, resulting in national and industry recognized occupational credential that ensures higher earnings for apprentices and a highly skilled workforce for Wyoming employers, associations, and unions. Whereas registered apprenticeship programs are uniquely able to meet the changing demands of the wyoming economy and provide a path for all qualified individuals, including women, youth, people of color, rural communities, justice involved individuals, and individuals with disabilities to become apprentices and contribute to America's industries. And whereas Wyoming recognized that registered apprenticeship, a proven and industry-driven training model, is a key strategy to improving job quality and creating access to good paying, family sustaining jobs for all. while addressing some of our nation's pressing workforce challenges such as rebuilding our country's infrastructure, addressing critical supply chain demands, supporting a clean energy workforce, modernizing our cyber security response and responding to care economy issues. Whereas the celebration of Wyoming apprenticeship day will honor and encourage industries who utilize or could benefit from apprenticeship models

and recognize the role the apprenticeship system has played in preparing Wyoming apprentices for sustainable careers with family sustaining wages. Now therefore, I Tim Hancock do hereby proclaim April 26, 2026 through May 2nd, 2026 as National Apprenticeship Week week in Riverton and witness whereof I have here and to set my hand and cause the official seal of the city of Riverton to be affixed this 21st day of April 2026. So always good to have apprentices. glad that we have people that are willing to uh I I I think that this words it just very well in terms of learning, earning while they learn, which I think is just an incredible thing that can help a lot of different people. Um I actually have an individual that I had the privilege of prosecuting. That sounds kind of funny, doesn't it? um who has turned his life around completely and he's become a a welder and it's something that uh he started you know just the same sort of thing uh working with others learning on the job that sort of thing and uh it's changed his life completely. He's been able to maintain sobriety for a couple of years now and it's there's a lot of good things about it. So anyway, thank you everyone um for uh providing the proclamation and listening through a long proclamation where I stumbled over a couple words. Next up, reports and comments, council committee reports and council members roundt. Um who haven't we started with lately? Just to throw things off, I think we haven't started with Councilwoman Brothers lately.

All right, perfect. Thank you, your honor. Um, I had uh two things, two meetings. One meeting was the youth council meeting on um let's see, I have it. I think the 8th was when we did last did it. We have it again tomorrow. Um I will be out of town. So, we're going to I don't know who Mr. Butterfield asked to fill in or if he has yet, but uh to be determined tonight.

Okay, awesome. So, um but um we have several things happening um and uh the kids are doing great things. But one of the things that we did uh was we went to the Rotary cleanup. Um uh we had I think four kids come and then my daughter came as well and we did we did a great job. I think we had a really big stretch of a lot of trash. Yes.

And um uh it was really a lot of fun. It's something that makes you feel really good to do and I'm really grateful that the Rotary does that and gives everybody in the community a chance to clean up and feel good about themselves. So, thank you for that. So yeah, um Youth Council's working hard and um uh yeah, I think that we're going to work with um new Cub Scout uh troop that's that's um thinking about getting started here and um we're going to talk to them tomorrow. So yeah, that's it, your honor. Thank you. All right. Just so happens that I know a little bit about that Cub Scout.

Oh, do you? pack. I'm actually the uh from Rotary. I am the um Oh, what's the word for it? I'll think of it later. Mr. Bailey, let us know about what you've got going on.

Thank you, your honor. Um I attended the airport board meeting here this last Friday and the airport is doing well. We're staying on track with where we were last year with uh you know uh inclin, you know, things are moving along very well at the airport. So again, I think it's a wonderful asset we have in our community that helps us get where we need to go and people to be able to fly in here and visit and all that kind of stuff. Saves a lot of time and energy. If we didn't have it, we'd be flying into Casper or Cody or Jackson or whatever. So, and free parking while you're gone. And so, it's really a pretty good bargain. So, um then also again this last Saturday we had the community cleanup which Rotary sort of sponsored and my wife directed. So, I got put to work and uh but we had a great time. We had close to a hundred people come out from multiple different organizations and covered a lot of ground. Um picked up two 16 ft dump trailers full of trash and took them to the landfill. And um you know it's one of those where you don't realize until you really get to look how much trash, you know, blows up in the fences and all that kind of stuff. And so it uh it's it's very satisfying when you're all done to to go out and look and those places are, you know, clear of garbage and stuff. And again, we just need to make sure we keep our community looking nice. And I know we're not going to have any water this year, but I'll bet the weeds will be fine. They seem to survive and thrive no matter what. So, you know, the next thing is I think we all need to keep an eye on our weeds and try to get keep them trimmed down so they don't get out of control. So,

it's almost like they don't even need water. I I think they like not being watered, but uh yeah, so again, great turnout. It's wonderful to see people get out and participate in making our community a better place to live. Um then last of all, the Boys and Girls Club breakfast is tomorrow, uh which is their annual fundraiser. Um again, I think we're on our fourth or fifth year. I can't remember.

I think it's fourth. Um, but the Boys and Girls Club is doing amazing. They've got over 350 kids now enrolled, which we started out and I think they weren't sure if they were going to get to 75 and here we are at 350. So, it's amazing. And they're in the old Ashgrove school building and doing well. And I it's a it's an amazing wonderful, you know, asset to our community where these kids have some places to go after school and help get help with homework and do activities and they've got a summer program. And so I think it's it really is a huge help for the community. And so it's it's an amazing thing. So I encourage you to uh get out and support them. If you don't go to the breakfast, it's free. You're missing out. And but if you'd like, I'm sure I think on their website you there's a place where you could make, you know, monthly donations or whatever, but it's really a good cause for the community. So that's all I have, your honor. Thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Sorry, I was I missed it. Wasn't feeling very well. Hey, that happens. Um, Councilwoman Borders,

your honor, um, I had a couple of meetings, both of them related to the semi-quincentennial celebration July 4th. Um, first I went to the, um, actual event meeting and, um, we're in need of tribal dancers. If anyone knows anyone that would want to participate, we would absolutely love to have them with us. Um, we also are looking for some food vendors and and then limited craft tables. Um, we want to try to limit it to uh patriotic type t-shirts and things like that, celebration t-shirts. Um, let's see what else. Okay, the parade. Basically the same thing. We're looking for some tribal dancers, maybe some horsemen, um, just to join in on the festivities. And then I was going to mention the breakfast tomorrow morning, bright and early, 6:30. Um, Ed McCaffrey will be there if anyone knows the Broncos.

Um, and that is about all I've got. All right, Councilwoman Johnson. Thank you. Um I have not attended any meetings since last week um that were scheduled, but I have been in meetings all week long doing a lot of followup and preparing for this evening's meeting. Um I did want to say thank you to those that participated in the Rotary Cleanup. That was very nice to see and it's good to see that the community's taken an interest in beautifying our community and I think it's much appreciated and so I just wanted to say thank you for that. That's all I have, your honor. Okay. Thank you, Councilman Carr.

Thank you, your honor. Um, no official meetings, but I did attend the chamber lunch and learn on the 9th with Tim Nichols speaking about the 3/4 tax and the um ground transportation and how it relates. He did an excellent job. If you do haven't heard Tim speak, uh he always does a very good job. He's very informative and exceptionally knowledgeable about all things 3/4 cent tax related. So, um please get out and support that as much as possible. Uh just as a reminder, construction season's in full swing now. Uh please watch out for work zones. I every single year I see somebody or am almost hit myself on a construction project. So, please watch out. uh slow down, give the Orange Cones the the distance they deserve. And then just a real quick question uh for Gary uh or maybe Chief Herertado, are do we have a a position open for the community service officer now that what's the plan there?

Sure, your honor. Feel free. Uh yes. So with uh tonight's uh promotion, there is a opening for a community service officer. Uh in anticipation of tonight, we did advertise and there was a selection process and an offer was extended. We're just waiting for backgrounds and everything else to move fast. Awesome. That's good news. Excellent. That's all I have, your honor. Thank you. Okay. Can I just ask a quick follow-up question to that? Is that's a granted position, is it not? And how long does that grant last or do we have to reapply for it or

Sure, your honor? Uh, yes, the is a 100% grant funded position. It was a three-year grant. It ends September of this year and the grant just opened for us to reapply. Thank you. Thank you. Good question. And it's been nice to be able to have that. I mean, as an option, we're fully funded grant positions. It's just a great thing. All right. Um, Mr. Butterfield, did I get everybody? I did.

Thank you, honor. I do have a few things. First, I'd like to start by highlighting our IT team and for their efforts to um restore connectivity and we appreciate when they respond to these emergencies and and assist. Oftentimes, they're the team that's working behind the scenes to make sure everything else goes to plan. So, I want to say thank you to them. Also want to express appreciation to the sheriff's office because uh with some of the um issues that are happening due to the fiber optic line that was hit. We are partnering with the sheriff's office to ensure that all phone calls are being received and services provided especially those who are in need of uh emerent responses. In addition to the um community service officer update that Chief Herertado provided, uh we're happy to announce that three of the recently interviewed patrol officer candidates are in backgrounds and we look forward to continuing the hiring process um for those vacancies. I also want to express uh gratitude and c congratulations to Lieutenant Filer and Lieutenant Smith. They've been part of the team for a long time and look forward to the leadership that they will be providing to our department. There is no planning commission u this week and um there are no other meetings scheduled outside of the youth council um for this week. I would like to highlight that the uh joint committee on funding key services had opportunity to attend the Wind River Intertribal Council last week and from um that uh opportunity the intertribal council approved a resolution of support for the optional 3/4% uh tax that does go towards um serving uh commercial air service, ground transportation or public transportation and also ambulance service.

And finally, um, Mr. Chairman, I would like to, um, highlight June Bailey as well. Um, appreciated the opportunity to to provide service. My kids enjoyed Sunday morning driving past the area that they cleaned and took some pride in that. So, thank you for also assigning me a spot where I didn't have to worry about them getting run over. So, I appreciate that. Worry about my kids getting run over. Yes. Right.

You never know. Um your honor, if it's uh okay, I'd like to defer the remainder of my comments to public works director Tolman to provide an update on the um force committee of the Fixar Road Citizen Committee recommended projects for this construction season and then also to provide a bit of a construction update for the projects that are going on around town. Sounds good. Thank you, Mr. Tommen.

Hey, thank you, your honor. Uh members of the council, excuse me. Last Monday, um, April 13th, the force committee met, the fixer road citizen committee with a, um, with a budget of about, um, just over 4 million in their in their account, for 4,223,000. They recommended uh, seven projects for this upcoming year uh, in the in the amount of um, 3,473 or 475,000. Uh the first project of course being the Riverview Road reconstruction project. Um that project is slated to uh where the city hasn't paid any in construction fees at this point is just over 2 million uh 2,775,000. And the other projects I'll list off are recommended upcoming projects. Um a couple we're working on are right in the works. Uh first of all is a slurry seal project. Has been mentioned a few times. It's a slurry seal and roadway striping project. It's been budgeted at $350,000. Some of the roadway striping has already been already taken place, but after the slurry seal project is completely uh put together uh which includes the South Glenn edition, sections of downtown um parts off of Riverview and then also uh a portion um oh the let me get this right. Excuse me. uh the old town um the Ryan Heights edition. Um on top of the hill between the administrative building and then Smith's on Fremont and Park Street um right next to Main Street is are some streets that are that are perfectly situated for this slurry steel project. Um and and kind of a great candidate as we kind of move around the city to do this project. So again, that project is about uh keeps us about um about 100,000 square yards of asphalt slurry seal uh each year and takes in streets that that

fit uh the parameter that they have a good uh structure to them. The asphalt is holding together, not too worn, not too nice, not not needing it, but also provides a wear surface and then a um UV protectant surface for the for the roadways. So those areas were slated for this year. that project's being worked on. I'll have I can I'll have a a better report towards the end of the week on those exact areas as well. So, um three other or four other projects that were approved by the force committee were the Homestead roadway um section replacement. It's just a drainage issue and the Homestead um the Reach subdivision um a section where Kermit gutter and the roads been buckling because of a poor uh storm drain system. Um multiple citizens have come to the force committee and expressed concern in that area. So they put it aside 110,000 to fix that section of roadway. Um a reclamation portion on chim chimney rock drive in the amount of $40,000. Also concrete drainage and replacement next to the slurry seal projects. And this would be about in the amount of $120,000. And then finally is a um engineering budget, a budget for engineering study and uh design and then to go to bid in the bsentennial subdivision. So this is Liberty Flag and Independence drives and this has been um brought up multiple times with the force community to to do repairs in that area. So

and so what's the plan with it? Is that to do repairs or just to study if it needs to be repaired? Uh um because I can study it and it needs to be repaired. And that's and that that was the recommendation as well is go right to engineering. Absolutely. And then create a project. Sounds good. Thank you. I I wasn't trying to be facitious. It's just the last four or five years we've been talking about flag and independence and every time I drive by there I'm like when are we going to get this done? It needs to be done. So all right. Thanks Mr. Tomman. Glad to hear we're getting on it. Thank you. I appreciate it. We we thought we could do it in house, but in the end, we thought we'd better get someone on board to help us keep moving.

Perfect. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. Carry on. That's perfect. Um I just was telling you I did my own study. I feel pretty comfortable.

No, I only had two other items or or excuse me, three other items. Um there is a will be a replacement of a covert on Webwood Road that's upcoming. Uh we're working with Riverton Valley Irrigation District to do that. They'll close the roadway temporarily to replace the covert. Um I believe that's coming in later this week or early next week. Um the drinking fountain project is uh underway at city park. Um the fountain is the pad's going in as well as the fountain. Um Apodaka construction is uh won the bid to to put in that the fountain and they're moving forward. So and then finally the riverview road project utility work is near complete on that project and uh in preparation of roadway work the next portion is the me next phase is going to put back the west portion of the roadway and focus on uh bringing that back um to be able to be paved when the plant opens up in about a month. So thank you your honor.

Perfect. Well thank you for that report. That's good news. Okay. Uh couple of things then that I'll report on. Number one, we have a Fremont County Association of Governments meeting coming up this Thursday. We're going to be in Hudson starting at 11 o'clock. Um, some good things going with FKAg. I had the opportunity to report and discuss with the county commissioners. When was that? Last week. Last week.

Um, as you may recall, we had the resolution that was passed by Riverton, Lander, Hudson, and Pavilion. um and the county and the county was discussing it and what they wanted to do with it going forward. After some discussion and a work session last week uh to which they invited all of the mayors of the individual communities, um they elected to go forward with their resolution as it was worded and anyway it was good. Some questions were answered and it was good opportunity to visit with them. the um I really appreciate by the way and Mr. Butterfield doesn't uh toot his own horn. Is that the right way to say it? Yeah. Um the whole idea that we've had tribal resolutions in support of this is huge. Um, of course, state statute and and Fremont County is unique because we have uh the reservation here, but and state statute does not require or recognize tribal uh concurrence with a resolution as being required for a resolution to be on the ballot. That being said, they were very cognizant of and wanting to do better at building partnerships with both tribes, particularly with the intertribal council. And I just wanted to applaud that and say that uh it's my understanding you were the one who reported and and got them to approve it and practically didn't have to say a word. They said we're already prepared.

The team effort, your honor.

Yes, that's what he always says. Um so anyway, it was well done and appreciate his hard work in that regard. Um, I finally had to look it up and remember what I am, but so Rotary is actually the chartered organization for the pack, which has just been organized. It's PAC 4044. Um, and likely will be meeting at the Methodist church, which is exciting. So far, don't have a lot of members of it. It's going to be a family pack, Cub Scout pack, and um, excited for what they have to do. They are looking for donations right now. um especially as a new pack. They're looking for things for be able to get uniforms, different things like that. Um great to be able to have uh Rotary is the chartering organization and um anyway, just just good things going on there. Excited to see what they have to do going forward. Uh tomorrow, of course, we have the Boys and Girls Club breakfast. Excited for that. Recognizing Cody Cody and Crystal Meyers. Uh anybody who knows both of those two individuals, they've done a lot for our community over the years. I would say of anybody who would be able to just think of this is a person who is an SRO in Fremont County, they would probably think of Cody Myers. He's like the the poster child.

Um he's not a child anymore. He's getting old. Not that old, but um anyway, he's like the poster child for it. And he and his wife have just done a lot. Uh, one of the things that they've been doing in addition to that is have had a a group that they've been doing that's been doing rodeo, different things like that. Just so many things that benefit the youth in our uh county. So recognizing them is very appropriate. I have a proclamation that I'm going to read tomorrow and uh I think that's incredible as well. Um, let's see. So, is Thursday. Oh, tomorrow we have a DUI task force uh meeting. I haven't been able to attend th those for about the last six months, but I will be attending tomorrow. So, that's good news. Um, we also have a region 4 virtual meeting for um WHAM coming up this week. That's Thursday, too, right? 3 o'clock. Trying to remember. I think it's Thursday at 3.

Yeah, I'll double check that. Um, so we have that coming up this week. uh we'll be talking about different things that affect and uh can benefit our community that through WHAM as an organization. So that's great news there. Your honor, that WHAM meeting is tomorrow.

Tomorrow. Yeah, I'll be there. It's on my calendar somewhere. It's on some calendar. I have too many of them. But that's what we have going on. That's what I've been able to attend and be uh able to participate in and certainly appreciate that. Oh, one more thing. Wind River Visitors Council. For those who don't know, Wind River Visitors Council is a lodging tax tourism board. Uh it's a group that is a joint powers board that is basically set up to take the lodging tax funds. Uh if you're aware of that, if you stay at a hotel in Fremont County, there's a lodging tax that's applied to your lodging and those funds will go towards uh encouraging tourism in the area. So that group is the source of the TAD funds or the tourism asset development funds that the uh city is part of getting sent out to uh different in organizations and some of the discussion lately has been that they had voted and we've talked about them a couple of times

uh and they had discussed well wait a minute the uh uniform municipal fiscal procedures as act or UMPA as it is more commonly known it's not commonly known as that. Um, we want to make sure we follow that. And so they had voted and said we're not going to go through and come to the communities to have our budgets approved anymore. That's a little bit of a difficult pill to swallow when we have a joint powers agreement between Riverton and all of the other communities in Fremont County that says that's what you're supposed to do is come to the different communities to have your budget approved. after that vote had had an opportunity to speak with them a little bit. Uh our representative explained that it just puts us in an untenable position. And if you're going to do that, if you're not going to be having that come for each of the communities for approval for the budget, then if we don't do something about that as the city of Riverton, we're not enforcing our joint powers agreement. we're needing to enforce a contract that we have entered into. So after some discussion, uh I think what they're going to do is move to rescend that and go back to the way that they've done it, which is in accordance with the joint powers agreement. So just FYI, hopefully that goes forward and all is well. All right. Well, that's it for me. Uh anyone in the audience wishing to address the council regarding an item that's scheduled for a public hearing, you'll be given an opportunity to speak during that public hearing. Uh, but if you want to address the council of something that's not set for a public hearing, um, you can come up now or when an agenda item is called that's not set for a public hearing, feel free to come up then, too. I, you know, different mayors do things differently. I certainly don't want people hollering from the gallery or from the audience, but I do not mind at all. If you want an opportunity to come up and speak, please come up and speak. The only thing I ask

you to do is number one, keep your topics germaine to whatever is being discussed. If you're going to come up during an agenda item, number two, keep your uh comments to five minutes if you're an individual or 10 minutes if you're a part of a group. Just split it up between you and the other members of the group. Um, and number three, keep your comments such that they're not going to be fighting words or something that's going to directly comment on the character or attack another person so that we can have it remain professional. So, if you could come up, tell us your name, and if you're with an organization, the organization you're with, we'd love to hear from you. And you have to speak into that mic.

I'm uh Chuck Rogers. I'm speaking for myself. Um, and let me pass three pictures around. And this this will relate to what I'm talking this regard. First, I appreciate uh the amount of time and uh the energy uh that you folks put in to uh to benefit our our community. Thank you. Uh, this relates to the intersection of Hill Street and uh and West Maine up by the college. Uh, it's been a horse I've been riding on. I I I just want to make sure that it is still on our radar or is again on our radar. Uh I didn't hear the force committee uh mentioning it. Um anyway, the uh the first picture, you know, my wife was the day before her 70 before she turned 76, she was in an accident going across Main Street from from the college on Hill Street. and uh first accident she was ever in, you know, and that's pretty amazing. And and she was saying I, you know, I didn't see him, you know, and so I started to

investigate and the first picture there relates, you know, the the wrecked car. It was t-boned. The second picture shows the investigation. You know, if you look out your the passenger side window, you see maybe 30 yards up the up the road on West Main. You have 1.8 seconds. If somebody's driving the speed limit of 45, you have 1.8 seconds between the time when the person is in your the blind spot and that car arrives in the middle of the of the the intersection. So, you know, you can look left, right, left again, pull out, and you're, you know, if that person is on the edge of the inner of the blind spot, you're going to hit him or he'll hit you. You know, you're going to t-bone or get t-boned. Um the So what what you guys did and thank you is you had uh you you painted a triangle up there uh which I think is really helpful. Uh it it causes you, you know, the driver to uh square up to the intersection. So instead of 1.8 eight seconds of lead time, you have 16 seconds. You know, that's quite a difference. So, what I what I would like to do, I mean, the

the ideal solution um would be to modify in my opinion to modify that um intersection, you know, to square it up. And I realize there are all kinds of problems with that u you know uh inter agency stuff and state stuff and you know everything else. Um so I think this is not a bad second solution. Um the uh but we need to put something that forces people to make that that curve to you know to pull the car to the right like um uh you know a small bump uh or a curb you know or an inch uh raise up on the, you know, on the triangle. Something that will allow trucks coming up main to turn without ruining anything. Uh, but also forces a driver to square up to that intersection so that he has 16 seconds of lead time rather than less than two. Um I I think other solutions, you know, are I in my opinion are not as good. You uh if you enforce a 30 mph speed limit instead of 45, then instead of 1.8 seconds, you have 2.7 seconds. You're you're still dead. you know, uh, if you have a light there,

if somebody rides a light, you know, runs a light, you still have two seconds. So, I think, you know, the the number one thing is is to do something with that uh that intersection. So anyway, I want to get that get that back on the uh in your in your focus and uh thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it, Chuck. Good reminder. We've talked about it a couple of times and just so you know, even before Thank you. You came tonight, we had talked about this just about a month or two ago, so it's it's not being forgotten, but there's some complications as you know.

Oh, I know. It's it's an interesting situation where it's not technically our highway. I Yeah, I realize that, you know, so it gets hard. But I think, you know, somebody else is going to get killed eventually. There there's one person that I know of, I think two have died there from that, right?

That you know, from wrecks there. there are, you know, two and a half injuries per year over like a 15-year period. Uh before we did this thing, I don't know what the what the deal is now, but uh you know, somebody's going to sue us. Uh and I think at least we can say, okay, we did what we can do. You know, we we've addressed it as well as we can. We don't have all of the controls. I understand. Uh but we got to do what we can do. So, thank you.

I appreciate you coming in. Thank you, sir. Anyone else? I'm assuming most people are here for another agenda item then. Oh, feel free to come up, sir. Just so you know, new fancy technology, but we have time here so you can keep track of where you're at compared to five minutes.

Thank you. Hello everyone. Uh my name is Larry Wallace. I'm with the wide Wind River Animal Welfare Association has been around for a few years. And I know that some of you here in the room have had and do have good dogs and cats that you love so much in your homes. And uh me self over the years so many different cats and dogs in our homes. And I'm talking today about uh particularly the idea of euthanizing the animals at paw the pause situation. I just learned about this yesterday in the newspaper and uh wanted just to say simply that uh I've worked with paws through the times uh helping them with other animals that I've taken to them that were fraed a place to be and and they take them in and find a way to find them homes. Uh, I even found a dog myself years ago at at the pause that I've had for many, many years and she was such a good dog for me at home. Uh what I would like to say is that when we think about there's so many cats and dogs there that need to be taken care of, I do believe that in our Riverton community and even in the whole uh area around our areas, there are many many people who would like to have good dogs or cats taking them into their homes. So I think if we get out a lot of information about what can be available there and

how they can do that is a way to sort of bring more of those cats and dogs out of the paws and maybe into home situations. Um, I plan to talk with the pause uh this week or next week about the situation that's happening there because about a month ago, I was out there at the pause place and looking at all the cats and dogs they had. There's some really good small dogs and bigger ones and some barked and some wanted to be petted and uh so it was fine to see what was going on there uh at the service that they offer. Uh I'm planning to get this information out about the need some help for the cats and dogs to find homes. I'm good at uh doing posters and things like that and also uh getting things around to different communities like the churches and other thing to let them know that they need to come out to pause and and look at the animals that they might want to take at home. Uh I also certainly realize that we have uh local access on number 191 on TV and I found that and found that to be helpful to me to find a lot of things happening around the city. So I think if we put some information more on that about uh the needs of of the animals to have good homes and to take away from the pause so that uh they have good homes. Uh certainly I've worked with some of the uh uh some of the tribes about this paying that they have going on pretty couple times a year to help keep the puppies and kitties, you know, out of the way

when they don't when they don't need to be in the situation. Uh I also think we need to think about uh Facebook as a possibility sort of open up some of these possibilities for these animals to find new homes. So glad to talk to you this evening and uh uh hope that we can work something to get this thing and make a good uh plan for the cats and dogs and pause. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Wallace. Appreciate that. All right, we'll move on. Thank you for our two that were willing to come up and speak. Anybody that's ever done that knows it's a little bit nerve-wracking. It is for us, too. All right. Uh, consent agenda. Administrative services director, please read the consent agenda items by title only.

Yes, your honor. Minutes of the April 7th, 2026 regular council meeting. Minutes of the April 14th, 2026 council work session. Minutes of the April 21st, 2026 finance committee meeting. Finance committee recommendations from April 21st, 2026. All right, we have any uh well, I'll just say what's the uh report recommendation from the finance committee, Mr. Parr.

Thank you, your honor. The finance committee met at 6:45 p.m. this evening and recommend consideration of claims to be paid in the amount of $331,8567. Elon credit card in the amount of $6,11346. Payroll and liabilities for April 7th, 2026 and uh April 16th, 2026 in the amount of $248,776.73 for a total of $586,746.86. All right. I'd entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. So moved. Second.

Motion by Councilman Bailey. Second by Councilwoman Borders. Discussion. Your honor. All abstain from the Bailey Enterprises line items in the finance committee report. All right. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. Any oppose say nay. I vote I. Motion passes. Community development department community development d department annual report. Mr. Misho, you are ready for this? I am ready. We are ready for this. And may I approach the podium, your honor?

Yes, please. And I see you have a couple of people with you that are employees of the community development department. I recognize them. Other people may recognize them. Not like police officers where if you recognize them, it's probably because you've been arrested or something. I don't know. Have you been arresting anybody lately? No. Have I been arresting anyone? I was just I'm trying to give some delay so that you can get set up. Oh, well, thank you, your honor. I'll do a song and dance routine.

No, I'm thankful. That's the chief's department, but um I did want to go back to uh Officer Jeff um when the patch. He did win the chili cookoff for the city this last year. So, maybe we should create a patch for that. I don't know. Not like boy scouts or cub scouts where you get a badge if you I don't know. I think maybe they should. Wouldn't be a bad idea. Yeah, they've been off for the last couple of minutes. Trophy. Is that your desktop there then? It is not.

Let's see here. Yeah, this is your department, isn't it? We're working on phones and internet, but sorry, there are higher priorities. Connectivity is kind of a big deal. Oh, here he comes. Yeah, usually we figure it out before we make Kirk come out. I bet you're not in presenter mode or do you want to be in presenter mode? I do. Yeah, that'd be great.

Start it. Should have your notes here. Should put. So, if I just go ahead and do this presenter right here. Look at that. Look at that. Thank you, buddy. Left him hanging. Oh man, he's got work to do. All right, back to the control tower.

I would just like to mention I am so grateful to the IT department. They are wonderful and they always help me with my needs in a very very timely manner. So Mia, thanks to you and your crew. Um good evening, your honor and uh members of the city council. Again, I am Gary Misho. I'm the community development director and we have uh our staff here tonight. We have a couple that couldn't make it due to family emergencies, but we're happy to be here and give a report on the community development department. Um, just a little overview of the community development department. We oversee planning, zoning, permits, um, registrations, contractor registrations and building permits and code compliance and building maintenance. And this is our department mission. It's taken right off our page from the city website. It is uh to promote the general health, safety and welfare of the citizens of Riverton to provide quality services to assist the citizens with code and permit processes and planning and zoning and processes to work with owners, developers and contractors to achieve their goals and to work with other city departments for a coordinated effort towards excellence in customer service. So as part of that we uh our department we deal with planning, zoning, building construction and code enforcement. And our code enforcement operates under the current standards with the ICC codes uh the 2024 international building codes and uh the 2023 international or national electrical code and these are required by state statute and they are updated uh the international building codes are updated every three years. So, we'll be looking at 2027, another update there. Um, we also have a lot of resources. We try to be resources for the community with their questions um with for property owners, for contractors, um con for construction and building permits. We've got an assortment of

resources in the front. When the citizens of Riverton walk in, they can use as pamphlets that can help them build decks or anything like that. We especially take pride in having the community development part department open Monday through Friday 8 to 5:00 so the public knows if they need to come in and they need help or they want to get a permit we are open and our our department is super proud of that. And we also uh focus on records management. It's really important that we keep good track of our records, our plats, our maps, our building permits, addresses, lot history, things like that. We have four full-time professionals in the community development side. We have myself as the community development director. And we have Erin Troyer. He's the facilities inspection manager. Um Christy Peterson, who's who was the permit technician. I hope she's home watching and enjoying her retirement. She just retired last week and um super happy for her. And then we have Chelsea Porter who is our community development clerk. And our department works under the planning commission or we work with the planning commission um with the board of adjustment and with the uh construction board of appeals. And um I guess next Chelsea, is it okay if I hand this off to you for a presentation on the planning side of things? Absolutely.

Your honor, council members, I'm Chelsea Porter. I am the clerk for the community development department. In this position, we I work directly with the planning commission, but the community development department is over the planning commission and the construction board of appeals. So, you also hear the board of adjustments that is a subcommittee of planning commission. It's a little breakdown there for you. So for fiscal year 26, I started compiling the list based on what happened in actual fiscal year 26. So here is a breakdown of the meetings that we've had, some of the economic drivers and the actions that we have had happen since my time as the community development clerk in November of 2024 through March of 2026. That chart kind of gives you an breakdown of the different projects that I've been involved in during my time in an effort to save everybody's time. I will not go through each one individually.

Oh, we were planning on that. Um, Christy helped us put this together before she left. I'll let Gary take it back over from there unless there are any questions for me. Any questions? Did Christy retire just to not have to do this? Is that the power of not wanting suspicion? Yeah.

Thanks, Chelsea. We That's correct. Yes. And uh so our planning commission and board of adjustments meets the first and third Thursdays of the month and so we have them almost you regularly unless there's no official business between for them to address. But Chelsea, thank you for that. I appreciate it. Uh so Christy did put this chart together before she left for us. Um this talks about the building department and the permits. Over the past three years, we've processed almost 1,900 permits. Um actually I did some calculations. I think she processed almost 20,000 permits in our time building permits with the city of Riverton, which is impressive. Um construction trends, we had new single family residences, 11 in 2025, which was a 37% increase over the year before. Um 41 major alterations and material projects uh for residential improvements as well. And then if you look on the top uh row there, you'll see that uh we have re-roof permits from 23, 24, and 25. We had a a hail storm was it Aaron that came through and um had a lot of re- roofs uh in that time 700 and some it it was incredible. So we're just getting through that and then we had that big windstorm that came through three or four weeks ago. So now we're seeing a lot of re- roofs come through again and um guess it's just what happens with the weather. But uh a lot of lot of stuff going. We're seeing the U building permits are staying strong. Uh a lot of stuff going on and things are going really well there. Um as far as the code enforcement process, um our mission is to safeguard health, safety and property and public welfare through the enforcement of city adopted technical codes and ordinances um through the enforcement and also through education and um the compliance process.

What we try and do is we we get a lot of citizen reports and we'll try and address those. We also do employee observation, but once we learn about something, we try and take a lot of time to um research and find out what's really going on before we do anything. Um and then we try and work with uh um with the people that are involved to solve things amicably, find out what's going on and just resolve the issues versus um you know creating a lot of conflict there. Um common neighborhood issues, we've got construction without permits or illegal structures. We see that in um contractor registration, temporary merchants. So when you see these food trucks around town, across the street or whatever, they have to be registered with us and um so we have we keep track of that. Home occupations, things like that,

Mr. Misho. And if I recall that temporary permitting process came about with Councilman Carr or who was it that came up with that? When did that come about? Do you remember for the temporary merchants? It was just before I was just before you came in slurs.

And I think it's important for people to recognize that because our code as it stands would suggest you can't be just selling food on the street corner. And so we wanted to build because the recognition was food trucks are becoming a thing. We wanted to build into our code a way that we can do that. I mean, even we had, of course, Phil's dog shack, which has been around for years, but we kind of cobbled together some sort of Frankenstein way to be able to have them allowed to operate, but the temporary merchant permit just makes that much easier and appreciate all the work you do with that.

Well, thank you. I I have to give credit to Chelsea for that and she makes the process really easy. So, if you're a temporary merchant out there or you want to become one, contact Chelsea. she'll get you set up um quick. And it's not a complicated process. We just want to make sure that you're uh certified with like the Department of Agriculture so that you're not like serving something that's illegal. Properly preparing. Yeah. Yeah. Properly preparing food. That's a good way to put it. And we want to make sure that we're aware of you and we know how to get a hold of you if there's any issues and you're registered. I mean, it's not a very complex thing. And sales tax. Yeah. Yes. Complying with the sales tax requirements as well. Mhm. Anyway, just

thank you for that, Mayor. I appreciate it. Yes. And uh contra again, just contractor registration. So, if you're going to be doing work in the city of Riverton, I just want to take this opportunity to say, you know, make sure you get your project permitted. And also, if you're a contractor, please come in and register as a contract with the city. Contractor with the city. Again, you just need to contact Chelsea. You can contact me, too. We just want you to get set up. All right. And then our building inspector, um, he works closely with property owners and contractors during the conceptual design phase, also during the construction phase. Um, he completes inspections throughout a project's process. It's just not it's not typically like, okay, you get the building permit and then we do the final inspection. There's usually inspections that happen throughout that process. Uh he provides some he provides great expertise in building construction. He's ICC certified. He's done a great job getting some certifications with that. Um he including the building plan reviews. He does a lot of our all of our building plan reviews and ensures that our codes are followed. So through that whole process, we try and collaborate and work closely with contractors, property owners, everyone to help make sure that this process goes as smoothly as possible.

And you have someone here with you that kind of looks a little building inspector. Would it be possible to have him come up to the mic and introduce himself? Your honor, we could absolutely have him. And that's actually a great uh continuence into what we're doing with our next uh parts. We want to highlight some of the projects that have been going on in Riverton over the next years. So Erin, if you want to come up and introduce yourself real quick and then we'll

Hi all, my name is Aaron Troyer. Happy to be here. Um, we'll just go through some of these projects. There's not a lot to note as far as negatives. They all went really smooth, all the commercial stuff this year. So um, this first one here was up by the airport. Just basic quite huts for some good storage. pretty beefy footing and stem wall. Um the only issue with that was there appeared to be some ash in the soil and it looked like kind of could be concerning but engineer tucked it out and it was fine. So other than that it went smooth and um it's not quite done yet. They still have to do some flooring, monostlab and some door work and then it'll be complete.

Yeah. Then the AT&T building got a complete revamp inside. Um, new ADA bathroom, our new cosmetic turned out real nice. Um, went real smooth. This one went up fairly fast. Um, no issues. Customer seems happy. Good contractors on that one. Good asset to have in town. Uh, Pragola I designed for public works department. Um, it's per IBC spec, so it's probably a little overly beefed up, but it's never going to go anywhere. And it was pretty cost effective. The materials didn't cost that much, and it turned out real nice. And Rusty and his crew did a good job assembling it. They did everything they were supposed to, and it turned out real nice. I think they're going to add some stain to it. I don't know if they did or not, but I think they're going to, that's the plan moving forward.

Is there any plan, by the way, for the shelter over there at Sunset Park? any sort of modifications or anything we're going to be doing here coming up? Yeah, there I'd been approached about that and kind of put together something. I haven't heard recently, but I think there's a plan to possibly rebuild that one. Okay. This one's kind of neat because it's got slats on top, too. So, you could add like a sh temporary shade or something if you wanted to or your an event or whatever hanging out underneath. Great.

Um, this is the Freedom Liquor Edition, a new refrigerator um area. All new refrigeration units turned out real nice. Um they tied it into the existing building real nice. It's not quite complete yet just due to some of the reefer stuff, but um yeah, they're very happy and they'll be able to stock more. Fremont Center um figured we'd put this in there because it was a county project. They got a new Durlast roof. Um quite a bit of square footage, large roof. turned out real nice. Uh the airplane hanger um turned out exceptional. Concrete work was beautiful. Um there was some debate on the firewall when it started, but we're able to work around that. Um yeah, the owners are very happy and it turned out extremely nice. No issues. Uh midway out on RV. were looking to move in fast. Um, so they have a pre-manufactured building and took a little bit of planning just to make it up the standards, city standards. We got ADA parking. They have a nice apron approaching the deck and the ramp for ADA access. Um, and then the occupancy, you know, we made it to where a family could get in there, you know, for complete sales and they seem to be happy. I'm not sure if their plan is to stay there or not. Um, but I think they're doing well so far on sales and everything. So, we'll see what happens with that. If not sure what their future plan is, but it's set up to where they could stay. Um, Smart Start Preschool. Um, you can see the picture on the left there. That's it's a 2,000 square foot addition

increasing their school size. It's uh the monos lab is a structural monoslab also with the footing and um we went with the ADA bathrooms. It's not so much the kids are going to need them but for future if they end up moving or selling. So nice ADA bathrooms and um egress getting out and entry ADA. And then the Riverton High School auditorium um went very smooth about as smooth as it could be for a project like that. turned out it's beautiful. I don't know if everyone's seen that or not, but it holds around 800 people approximately, 850 people or something like that. Gary might have the exact number, but

that sounds about right. Yeah, but it turned out really nice. I'd recommend taking a look if you haven't checked it out. They've been doing a lot of plays and different stuff there. They've been using it a lot. Good. Yeah, it's it's an awesome facility. It actually was a little bit of a competition between them and the middle school that the middle school was able to do the first plays there and they kind of have that as a feather in their cap that they were the first ones to use. I think they did a play there for u they brought a bunch of people back that were in the speech and debate on that stuff. My daughter actually performed it and it does look very nice. It's very cool in there. Nice space.

And then we have the Amazon building. Um, another project that went extremely well. It took a while to get started, um, to get all the ducks in a row to get it moving, but once it started, it went fine. In the winter cooperated, because they had a lot of concrete work, which would have been a problem, but the way the winter was, it didn't even matter. Didn't phase project at all. Um, turned out real nice. Customer was happy. All the deadlines were met. They were worried about that, but they met it right up to the deadline. They were finished right on time. Um they ended up using electric heat and not gas. So that was kind of different. But um other than that, everything turned out real nice. Not that that didn't, but it was just different, you know. Um and I think the customer's happy. We haven't heard any complaints. And then the new hospital, I only had one inspection there that was for the gas um natural gas system. other than not the city, the department of health has taken over that and the city hasn't had much to do with it. But that's looking really nice. It's a neat uh floor plan. When you walk in there, it's all open, the windows and everything. When you go inside, I think that's going to be really pretty when it's done. And I'll hand it back to Gary.

Didn't mean to throw you off, Gary.

Mayor, we're doing great. You just worked worked perfect in our plans. And just as the council can see, we've had a lot of projects this last year that we should be really proud of as a community. Um Aaron did a nice job helping facilitate those through the building process and thank you for that, Aaron. Uh and also under our department, we do have the building maintenance department and Blaine Hughes is our building maintenance coordinator. He came on this last year. He's been doing a great job. Blaine is back here. Um he's done a a lot of works independently, always working on doing something to make it better around our facilities. Um lately he's been working on the airport up there with the lawns and getting the sprinkler systems going with some issues, but also he's been managing the HVAC upgrades that project that we have going on. And um just last week the contractor came in and put the last two rooftop units up on at the airport. In another week, um the contractor from Denver, the train is going to come and do some fine-tuning and we should be in good shape to close that project out before the end of the fiscal year. And and Blaine has just done a great job. He's a great hand with that and sure appreciate it. Um we also have um Paul Cross here. Paul is another ded we just have such a great dedicated facilities maintenance staff. Paul will step up and do whatever whatever is needed to be done anytime and um does a lot of work up at the airport and public works, but again he'll step in anytime. So appreciate that. Um Anna Rose Green was not able to make it here tonight because of family emergency. Um she works hard also. an we've got her on and she works super hard um to to make sure that they take a lot of pride in making sure that our facilities are super clean and having a method and a process to keep doing that day after day and week after week. So, like I said, can't say it enough, a dedicated staff.

Uh lastly, we've got goals. Um, of course, we want to provide superior customer service, keep our offices open from 8:00 to 5:00 Monday through Friday, and help help the community out. Um, work closely with businesses, developers, and residents and contractors. Um, we've got a lot of deferred maintenance here at city hall, a ton that we're going to need to address in the next couple years, and we've put together a list of those projects. um continue ICC training for our certifications, including getting a new permit tech hired on in the very near future and getting them certified with permit tech. Of course, we've got the EPA Brownfield communitywide assessment grant that we're working through. That's $500,000. There's no match or anything. We've hired IRS as our consultant and they're working through that. We're going to have a steering committee meeting and a kickoff here in the next month. Um and then I I don't want to forget this. We've been working super hard on the 250th by Quinn Centennial Celebration um for our country and this is a really big deal you guys. It's the 250 50th celebration of the signing of one of the most historical documents in the world, the signing of the Declaration of Independence. And it's just an honor to get to work on that and see all the pride coming out in our community. And of course, just to kind of look at it through a 30,000 foot view, we're always focusing on providing excellence in the rendevous city.

So, thank you. Would it be possible to have Mr. Hughes and Mr. Cross come up just so we can see their faces up close here? Hey, see it's just that that way you could kind of have that that uh worry out of the way so we don't lose you down the road the next time we want you to come. Thanks a lot.

Appreciate Appreciate you both. And I'm I I I really do think that you guys do a great job. I will say um you're exactly right, Mr. Misho. We definitely have some deferred maintenance we got to take care of in our in some of our facilities. I know even when I was on the council, so we're talking

eight eight years ago rather than just in the last four years, we've been talking about replacing the carpet in this place for at least eight years now. Finally, we did fix and replace the carpet in the police department, but we need to get the rest of it done. So, in case anyone out there is like, "Your carpet looks terrible." We don't. We're working on it. It still looks good. It's washed. It's regularly carpet cleaned. You guys are on it, and I appreciate it. But, yeah. So, but I mean anytime I'm in one of the restrooms, in one of any of the rooms here, our uh building maintenance staff does an excellent job at just making it feel good. You It doesn't matter what time of day. I'm here in the evenings randomly and Diana is always out there cleaning and doing stuff and so you guys do great work and it's noticed. Okay. Anything else before we let Gary sit down?

I do have a question, your honor. Sure. And you're going to say you're the one that's been doing it, but I routinely get calls from folks um that have concerns about cleanliness in some of the hotels locally. Um and I always refer them down here to you. I don't know if that's the correct method or who they should be talking to. Can you elaborate on that a little bit? who I should be referring them to, or is that something that your department deals with after the fact, after the build, after the inspection process?

Um, your honor, uh, Councilwoman Johnson, yes, that's correct. So, if they have issues with different things with buildings, uh, our department is the correct department to contact and they're welcome to contact me. Um, when it comes to like yards and sidewalks, vehicles, whatever, that's more of a cso officer job, but we work seamlessly. we work together and trying to communicate those and and take care of them. Thank you. So, you're saying to some extent that might get into code enforcement and that sort of thing where you might be getting involved as the community development department. That's very well put, your honor. Yes. Okay. I just wanted to make sure I was making sure talk to the right people. So, thank you.

Yeah. The last thing you want to do is just somebody send somebody down a black hole where nothing ever happens. Well, great. Anything else? Appreciate you, Mr. Misho. Keep up the good work. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your crew being here. Thanks for coming here and sticking around a little bit after hours. It's always good to be able to get faces to names, right? Mind you, I've seen all of you. I recognize all of your faces, but it's good to be able to have the community see you and be able to recognize you. So, keep up the good work. Okay. Yes. Let's take a recess. Anybody okay with that? Yeah.

Yes. Okay. We'll take a recess. It's 8:2. Let's take a recess until We'll take a little longer than usual. Maybe go to 8:35. Okay.

It's 8:36. I even had a longer break and it still wasn't enough time. It's my own fault. We are back in session for our regular meeting uh at 8:36. Just got done with the community development department annual report. Uh, next item on the agenda is consideration of resolution 1549,550 and 1551 utility rate adjustments. Um, I guess do we have a motion in regards to this agenda item? I know we had approved the agenda as was, but did we want to go through this tonight or where do we want to go? Your honor, I would suggest with the amount of stuff we have left and that that we move this discussion off to our next regular meeting.

Okay. So, would that be I guess would it be to table it or how would we do that? Just kind of set this at the next agenda, your honor. Um, it's not necessarily to table because you don't have a motion on the floor to table, but I think you could remove it. You'd amend your agenda to remove it if that's what you wanted to do. Okay. So, your motion is to amend the agenda to remove it. Do we have a second on that? Just a quick way. I'll second, but we're not going to run into any delays on budget if we No. Yeah. Second. Okay. Motion and a second to remove item 13 from the agenda, get this set up for our next council meeting. Um, all in favor say I.

I. Any oppose say nay. I vote I. Motion passes. Item 13. We'll move that on. We'll have our opportunity for people to discuss and everything. I'm just curious if any of our audience members came here to speak to this. Maybe we should hear them since they bothered to come here. Was there anyone here who was wanting to talk about utility rate adjustments? Why don't you go ahead and come on up? We can hear from you now. And then if you want to come back at our next meeting, you're welcome to as well. It'll give you some time to do your homework. Sure. We like homework. If you recall, Chancy was aski. I was here last year.

Yes. And I That's why I didn't say your name because I never have done well at your last name. I'm sorry, Chansancy.

That's fine. If you recall, Mr. Mayor, I told you last year that I was going to be here. I was going to ask you guys a question this year. I told you that I was going to come here and ask you, did my rate increases help us catch up on projects or have we fallen farther behind? You followed that up with the discussion regarding the number of projects outlined in the capital improvement plan. Uh that number that got kicked around last year was 20. So my question would be how many projects did we knock off of that list and how many projects did we add to it?

Great question. We could discuss that more at the next meeting. I can tell you uh we had a lot of different things like uh ultraviolet and the uh what is that called for the I I knew I was going to butcher it, your honor. Yeah, the ultraviolet uh room for disinfection and then also the clarifier project. There were there were several and I'm so glad that uh you've come back. This was something staff discussed because we anticipated this question. So So if if you want we could report next time or we could report now. It's up to you and kind of let you know we're good either way. Mr. Lzeski, I'm happy to come next time. Okay. I do have one other followup from last year. Great.

There was a lovely couple here. Uh I apologize if I butcher a name. I believe it was Linda Drury. She was complaining about a fire hydrant that hadn't been fixed in a couple decades. I think a year is a pretty decent timeline for getting something like that fixed. I'd like to know if that has been fixed. Perfect. We'll make sure we discuss that. Yeah, I think that was something that we took care of almost right away. I think that was part of the Spruce Street improvement project that it was replaced. Mr. Tolman.

Yeah, your honor. that those hydrants have been not only updated, they've been moved to a ideal location so that everybody's covered with fire protection in that area and then one more has been added as well. So there was um three hydrants uh removed and then four installed with with this the with the project and that was u funded over 50% by mineral royalty grants and then the city matched that with uh capital improvement project grants. So 50% was matched with water and sewer fund of that project. About $800,000 project. Good deal. Hey, thank you. I look forward to next time. Thank you. Thanks.

All right. New National Opioid Settlement Agreement, Six Remnant Defendants. That just the title of this just excites me. Mr. Butterfield, tell us about it.

Thank you, your honor. A lot of this information is in your packet. I'll be uh brief because I know you you have a lot of business tonight. Essentially, there is another opportunity part to participate in nationwide settlements as it relates to the opioid uh epidemic. The six remnant defendant settlement uh is dated became available in February of 2026. And what it does is it identifies um six regional pharmaceutical distributors and dispensers that were not part of the initial major opioid settlements. These six uh remnant defendants um settled in an amount of 97,625,000 uh dollars. And um unlike the previous settlements, uh these funds will not be routed through state attorneys general but directly allocated to participating uh local governments. The city of Riverton has opportunity to opt into this and um it is eligible for point23% of the $97 million that equates to $2,310.94 and that's an estimate at this point. So if you choose to opt into uh this settlement agreement that is what is estimated that will be received in a one-time payment. Thus far, the city of Riverton has received to date, and this is as reported on the National Opioid Settlement uh website uh $246,31262. There will be uh subsequent uh settlement payments pursuant to the agreements that the city council has already entered into and uh we

anticipate receiving um an additional approximate $500,000 from the other settlements that you've already engaged in. And that would be and excuse me, I had a a mistype in the staff report. I had said through 2037, but I did not take into account the additional Purdue family settlement, and that runs through 2041. So, these are funds that will be allocated annually for the uh several years to come. Your honor, with that, I recommend that you enter into this agreement and give signatory authority to the city administrator to get those documents off.

Okay. I'd entertain a motion to do that. opt into the six remnant defendant settlement agreement and give signatory authority to the city administrator for us to enter into that litigation. So moved. Second. Motion by councilwoman Johnson, second by councilwoman Borders. Any discussion? Who would be the attorney on this? Your honor. Um forgive me. I'm I'm um forgetting the name right now. Let me provide it back to you. It's the same attorney that has been working with us on the 1 Y and 1 Y2 settlements. Okay, that's what I thought. Okay, all in favor say I. I.

I. Any oppose say nay. I vote I. Motion passes. Consultant selection real estate services. Mr. Butterfield. Thank you, your honor. If you don't mind, let me just pull up the right report. Oh, I'm trying to rush you. That's my goal. Okay. I'm ready.

Go ahead, please. Uh, the city of Riverton has engaged with a local licensed real estate broker since 2011 to assist with the marketing and sale of lots located at the RAW Industrial Park, Energy, excuse me, Energy Industrial Park and Wind River Air Park. City has also relied on this broker to assist with other professional real estate projects and services. The contract with this broker expired in March of 2026. In light of that expiration, the city solicited statements of qualification and experience from local firms uh and specifically firms within the corporate limits of the city of Riverton. Uh the RFQ or statements of requests for statements of qualification centered on um a firm that could provide marketing, evaluation, acquisition, exchange and also the disposition of real property and that could include both private properties, excuse me, private parties and also public agencies. Two local brokerages responded to the request for qualification. A selection committee pursuant to the city's uh professional services selection policy was established consisted of two staff members and one elected official. Included in your packet um are the ratings of the selection committee of the two proposals. They were rated across four um metrics. the submittal quality and completeness uh of the proposal, the experience of the firm, the qualifications specific to the project team, and then also an understanding of the requested services. Both firms scored very high and represent um firms that could do the work that was requested. That being said, home source

re realy uh rated higher than Snyder signature properties by the selection committee. The city council has opportunity now to um enter into a contract negotiation with the highest highest rated firm. It also could direct staff to conduct uh further interviews with the two firms if you'd like to get more information before making that recommendation. Thank you, your honor. Thank you. I appreciate it.

I'd entertain a motion um in regards to the selection of uh real estate services and uh directing staff to finalize a contract for the services. Move to select the highest rated firm. Second. Motion by Councilman Carr. Second by Councilman Bailey, Councilwoman Johnson. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay.

I vote I. Motion passes. Next up on our agenda is Pause for Life Animal League discussion. Mr. Butterfield was struggling with what in the world would we ever put as this for a staff report and I said leave it to me Mr. Butterfield and he said okay. So that's where we're at. So let me kind of introduce the topic and then we'll have you guys come up if you don't mind. You can come up now if you want but then you're just going to be standing there while I talk and nobody likes that. So, first I want to say we've got this on the agenda and the way I had asked him to do it was pause for life animal league discussion and afterwards I realized this actually is not quite the way that it needs to be framed. Um, at least if if online people are to be believed, if somebody uses the word euthanasia up here, everybody decides to donate to Pause. So, if that's going to be the reaction, I'm going to just say it all the time because if it means that pause gets more money, that's what I want. So, um I was just joking with Mr. Bailey about that. A little bit of uh what would you call that? Reverse psychology.

Yeah. Um, so I I I want to say that when it comes to the importance of what PAUSE does and their mission in terms of being a non-kill shelter and wanting to be able to ensure that the animals in our town, animals in our county have a place to stay until they are adopted and encouraging adoption. I fully support that mission. That is I was talking with Pam Canam about this and I've gone to a couple of Paws and Pearls or different PAUS uh events and I think from our recollection at least I'm the only mayor that's ever done that sitting mayor. Not that I'm saying that nobody has ever done it but not saying that I'm not saying that to toot my horn. I'm saying that to say I have put my money where my mouth is on that and have donated to PAUSE in different uh fundraisers and that sort of thing. So this isn't a question of is PA good or is PA a good organization or is PA a worthy organization. This comes down to what I want to discuss is we have an obligation. Our obligation as the city of Riverton under our ordinances, we are required to impound animals that are large. It's at large. It's not discretionary. It's not if we feel like it. If there's an animal at large, we're supposed to be impounding them. Um it's a core public safety function. So part of where we run into issues is that's our op that's our requirement. Now we need to make sure that that is met and we are in a situation where pause whether it's due to funding or whether

it's due to whatever it might be is put in an untenable position where we come in with an animal and they don't have space. So then that puts us in this position where we have this statutory ordinance-wise obligation to be able to make sure that animals at large for public safety concerns, for safety concerns, all of that are seized and impounded. But we have paws who cannot step up and take those animals at times. So this has been ongoing. This has been going on for years. We know it. This has been something that has been a problem. Pause recognizes it as a problem. The city recognizes it as a problem. Something needs to be done about it. Now, if the city could say, "If we put this much money into it, it's going to solve the problem," that'd be great, but that's a little bit hard to do because we have space constraints. We have a lot of different things that we're constrained by in terms of PAS using the city building to be able to complete their mission. So, what I had talked about at our last meeting and I didn't want to have this become something that I was a bit hypocritical and I told this to councilwoman Johnson where I was like, let's not have this turn into something besides we're going to consider these applicants and be able to decide what we're going to do and how much money would go to them. But what I had discussed at our last meeting is we need to be able to wrap our arms around this and figure out what we're going to do because the city has an obligation under our ordinances to ensure that dogs at large are taken and they have a place to stay. They're held for 5 days. Whatever else happens to them after that, city code does allow them to be euthanized in

that set of circumstances if they are not taken back to their home by the owner or if they're not adopted within that period of time. We don't want that. But the reality is we have animals that when they're seized, if we can't put them somewhere, that's a problem because we're not doing what we're supposed to be doing. and pause has a mission and they want to make sure that they have space for all the animals. So my proposal at our last meeting was to say, let's get a committee together or somebody together that can be looking at this. They can figure out what are we going to do? Because to be honest, we've been kicking the can down the road for quite a few years. And I don't mean that as critical of Pause. I don't mean that as critical of the city. It's been I think we've both been looking at that and just hoping something will happen to be able to help solve the problem. Well, nothing's happened. We haven't magically had space added. We haven't magically had everybody decide to spay and their pets. We haven't magically had uh the county or the reservation step up and create their own animal shelter. PA gets animals from everybody in the county. Period. So that's what we've got. And to be frank, we've got an issue because if the city is going to do something and pause is in our building, pause is using the space that we could be using to do something different. Nobody here wants to say, "Let's kick out Paws because we need to be impounding dogs." So we just need to be able to look at it in a way of what in the world can we do to make it so that the city can meet its obligation and pause can keep its mission. And so the question is rather than us sitting up here and

talking about it at nauseium for hours which I can do and I will do. I have no doubt I can do that. I think having a group that can be smaller that can be nimble and that can look at this from all angles would be appropriate. And so that's why I brought that up. Now, somebody, I'm not going to say who, may have been Mr. Butterfield said, "Oh, you really like committees, do you?" Yes, I do like committees. But I do see it as something that' be so much easier than us sitting up here and spending hours talking about this because there's a lot of aspects of what goes on. And Mr. Slack had said, "If we're going to create a committee, I would like to have somebody from the pause board on it." I agree with that completely. It would make no sense to have a committee talking about animals and then say, "But PA is not going to have a representative." That makes no sense. So, I think if we were to do it, it would make sense to have somebody from PAUSE. So, anyway, the point is is for this to be discussion and kind of what does the council want to do? I'm trying to present the problem as best as I can, as bluntly as I can because the last time I said the word euthanasia like a year ago, everybody gasped in the audience and started throwing rocks at me. That's fine. And I said it this year and the newspaper started gasping and throwing rocks at me. And that's fine because reality is if it means that people are going to donate more to pause because they're saying we don't want to euthanize animals in Riverton, guess what the solution probably is? If you don't want to euthanize animals in Riverton, don't come to the city of Riverton and say, "Give them more money." Start writing checks. I hate to say it, but that's what's truthful here.

And adopting pets. And adopting pets. Yeah.

Because we are not made out of money. Okay. I had somebody that was saying, you were sitting here talking about adnauseium for something that is less than 1% of our budget. And I agree it is. It's not very much of our budget. But the reality is it's a pretty tight budget. We run lean. There's not a lot of money to go around. And the reality is also if we decided to give pause another $100,000 or something this year, it's probably not going to solve all of our problems. It's not going to be enough to expand. It's not going to be enough to make sure that we have the space we need. So, if you don't want animals to be euthanized in the city of Riverton, and you can quote me on this, you need to be putting money towards pause. Period. You can come to me and gripe all you like and say Riverton needs to be putting more money into it, but we're not made of money. So, that's open for discussion. What do we want to do? How do we want to get around this problem so that we aren't coming back every year with pause hat in hand acting like they have to sit here and beg for money for them to do what I think is a great service but they can't do it lately. What do we got?

Your honor, I'll let everybody else go first because I've got a lot to say. Okay. And I guess the other point that I think we need to make sure is that we don't just create this cycle of dogs and cats going in, stay there five days, they get kicked back out, and we just keep recycling, which just costs everybody time, energy, and money. So, so I think again, we got to find some permanent type solutions

and the best one would be people adopting them. and people adopting him is by far the best answer. And I I don't know enough about it to say that people our average adoption rate in our communities better or worse than anybody else or whatever, but uh I mean it's huge. Yeah. And then the other one of course is the amount of money we spend on vet bills. You know, I know we've heard stories and I'm not saying it's normal, but you know, where you're spending a large amount of money on an animal that probably is not going to make it anyway and or you know, become adoptable at the end of that process. So again,

it's hard. It again, if we had an unlimited budget wouldn't matter, but we don't. We throw around a lot of great big numbers, okay? But, you know, we talked about the water project that we did. Okay. It was $800,000 to put a water line in for what, four blocks, maybe somewhere in that range. Correct. Okay. You know, the the city has huge responsibilities financially. Our is that my five minutes? No.

Yeah. Um, you know, our study we did several years ago said we have $70 million worth of water infrastructure that needs to be repaired by 2030 or 35 or something. It's not that far away. And I mean, so again, we have we have huge we throw around big numbers and yeah, we get a grant for a half million here and this and that, but that doesn't go far when you're building water lines and and repairing wastewater treatment plants and I can't imagine what the crane cost to lift the lid off the clarifier that we had to repair. You know, thousands of dollars an hour, I'm sure. So,

right. Other discussion. your honor. Um, as our pause liaison,

yes, as a sitting member of council for I'm in my eighth year and this is a problem that doesn't go away. We kick the can down the road. It's highly stressful for pause is stressful for the city because we're not made of money. And I think a task force is a great idea to bring the stakeholders together to sit and have meetings and try to come up with a viable solution for everybody. Um, not a fan of euthanasia. I do think that sometimes if an animal's, like Mike said, if an animal's not going to make it, you spend thousand dollars and and they still aren't going to make it. Well, maybe we do need to think about doing something there. Um, not my favorite thing to do, but I I do believe it might be a responsible thing to do. Um, it's a tough situation. But I think the only way to come to a solution is to meet together, come up with a game plan, um figure out the finances, and hopefully we'll find a solution that works for everybody. Well, and I think that the idea is is we've got a contract for services with PAUSE that PAUSE has been having a hard time being able to keep to what they're saying they can do. But part of the issues that they're having with keeping and doing what they say they're going to do is that they're in a city-owned building and there's some limitations and being able to have expansion. It it just it gets hard. So, yeah,

it does. And and we've all we're always going to have the factor of irresponsible pet owners, people that don't spay and neuter, people that let their dogs run wild and expect somebody else to take care of them. And I don't see that problem ever getting resolved. You just can't you can't make people do the right thing if they're not going to do it. So yeah, task force is my my thought with all the stakeholders involved. Representative from pause. Yes. Okay.

Thank you, your honor. Um I've been thinking about this quite a bit since our last discussion and a word that keeps coming up in my head is systemic. systemic failure on multiple sides, right? And we have an organization that's caught in a catch 22 that has no ability to shed any liability. The city has shed considerable amount of liability, but yet they're held to a standard that that they can't meet. No, I don't think anyone could under the circumstances. And so when we look at studying all of the options and turning over every single rock that I think that's what needs to happen to have a sustainable path forward and have that path be a path to success versus systemic failure. Well, and I think it could also be something where it could say what are the space needs, what are the expansion needs,

correct? How much money would need to go into this to have that expansion need?

I mean, could you imagine PA being able to have a a number where they can say if we had in our pocket today $250,000, for example, this is how we could expand. this is how many more animals we could take. This is what we could do. And I think being able to say that would be the biggest help. But I don't know. It it's it still kind of feels like you've expanded a lot, right? We've got a lot of outdoor kennels now. We've got a lot of different things they've done to try to make the best of the space they have. And it's like now what? Um, it's interesting. I will say not very comparable, but just hoping that things will change down the road sometimes does kind of work out. And by that I mean the Fremont County Detention Center has for years was way over on their prisoners such that they would have to ship prisoners out, that kind of thing. And then all of a sudden they're not. they're usually under capacity lately. And it's been that way for about two or three years. Um, and things like that happen, but they don't happen just overnight. And there has to be something that goes into it. So, it is possible. It is possible to figure out things we can do. So, yeah. Councilman Brothers, just because you're the only one that hasn't said anything yet.

Yeah. Um, thank you. It's been an interesting week, I think, after that conversation um last week and seeing some of the stuff online. Um and like you said, it's not anything that I think any of us would um desire. uh um so I don't think that's where we would want to go um with it but finding a solution truly is u the need um in this case and I think all of us coming to a consensus as to what that is is the important thing um and whether that means like a bigger area but my thing I think the biggest thing that I have been thinking of is like the comments that I'm getting from people um around town or that we've had and this has happened to me are dog bites that have occurred and very literally there haven't been room or if there have been room the police haven't been able to get the dogs into a place um in pause. Uh, and that has been a situation that several um people in town actually have told me about because I had my situation and they said, "Oh, that same thing happened to me." And so um that was my bigger concern is making sure that that there are kennels dedicated to like vicious animals or something because that is an actual law has. And if we can't uphold laws that we have, then we're in trouble. then like you know that that's that's a problem. So

well that's a really good point because part of what kind of prompted this thought process for me was just about a couple of weeks ago I saw a dog out and my thought was oh I should call that in. And then my second thought was no they don't have room I'm just going to create a nuisance for RPD.

Yeah. And so then my thought then becomes the next day after I had a chance to think about my actions. That sounds kind of weird. I realized that dog could bite somebody. That dog could spread rabies. That dog could do so many things that could be destructive to our community. That's why we have the laws we do. And here I am as the mayor and I'm not calling in a stray dog. That's pretty ridiculous. I should have called in that stray dog because we should have a solution available such that that dog can be seized and put somewhere. Period.

Well, there was one actually in my yard as I was leaving barking at me on the way here. Yeah, there was one in a parking lot right as I was driving by about 20 minutes before I came here. I didn't have time to call Shannon. I'm sorry. Um but uh yeah, so the the reality is it's like if we're not able to have citizens that are feeling comfortable, let alone city council members or mayors that feel comfortable saying, "Hey, we need to address this. We're going to call it in." We need to do something. That needs to change. Yeah.

Thank you. Was that a good segue to whatever you have to say, Councilwoman Johnson and our representatives from PAS? I'm certainly not trying to leave high and dry. This was meant to be more of a discussion between the council, but I definitely want to hear your thoughts. Um, and I certainly respected and appreciated you emailing me, Mr. Slack, and saying, "Hey, if we're going to do this, let's do it right." Councilwoman Johnson.

Your honor, um, first of all, I want to start with saying thank you. I have worked the last six days nonstop with our animal control officer, Ashley Solen who's the new treasurer, Whitney who's in the back. Um, and we've had some very transparent and honest conversations about what's taking place. And while I understand that you want to move the conversation to a committee to discuss, I think that in light of the um article that came out and how that put council in such a negative light, I think it's appropriate that we discuss a little bit of it tonight. And I think that um it's important to understand how we got to where we're at and the challenges that they face. Um, understanding overcrowding is um definitely due to lack of spay and neutering. One single female cat can produce 400 kittens in one year. And when people fail to spay and neuter their pets, about half of those find a home. the other half end up living in shelters and um or or being euthanized. Um I think I can speak for everybody up here and say nobody wants to to to use the word euthanization. Nobody wants to see that happen. Um and I came with solutions actually. I'm I'm not just going to gripe, but I think it's only fair that the public understand how Pause has gotten themselves into this situation as well. Um, and I want to invite Ashley up to the to to the counter and and Mr. Slack. Um, because we've had good

conversations and it's a partnership and we're working together and um there's no fingerpointing. There's no there there's none of that. It's not a hea things happen. But the bottom line of it is is there has been um less than stellar accounting practices that has gone on. Would you agree with that? Yes.

Okay. Substantial accounting practices that are making a difference in the numbers that they're seeing and and that they have to come to us for every year. And a lot of it stems from in my opinion and please correct me if you you feel I'm wrong. Um, but a lot of that is is policies and how you operate and procedures and cutting cost and spending wisely. Everything that I see and we went back to 2022 looking at financial records and trying to go over at least I did. I think Ashley went back a year um in doing that. I went back the to the since I so I took over treasurer in February officially at the end of January and I've gone back almost to January of 2025 is how far I've gone back to try to figure out what is happening.

Despite your best efforts, yes, there are still some major errors that that we can identify. We've identified a lot of things that are inconsistent with good accounting practices. And I don't think that that's anything nefarious that's been done. I think it's just a lack of of knowledge in how nonprofits have to keep documentation and appropriate accounting practices. Well, it's just a function of the fact that we're talking about a nonprofit board that's volunteers. Correct. And basically love the mission.

And when you start looking at some of the numbers in 2021, you were operating in a deficit of about 23,600. In 2022, you were in the positive. You ended the the the year 93,910. In 2023, you were again in the negative at 46474. And in 2024, you were in the negative at 14671. Um, your vet bills are because of non-payment. They're they're multiplying because you're not making routine payments. Am I correct there? And you're in you're acrewing interest. Yes. On that it was at 6%. The stock's now reduced that to 3% for last year's bills. and in 2024 she's gone to a uh 1.5%. So there's a lot of interest acrewing on unpaid bills. There's a lot of um inconsistencies with reporting whether it's a revenue, whether it's a payment directly to the stock, opening money market accounts. I I think there's four accounts that hold balances that what what I'm trying to say is even despite your best efforts like tonight um and the updated information that you gave me, there's still a significant difference in the numbers. The yearly total for food on the most recent one that you gave me was 10,3407 from what you could depict from the vendors itself. yet

for a year. That's for the year total is what is recorded from their vendor accounts. Okay. But presented to council was 11,598 just for Riverton City Animals. So, can you help me understand that?

So, go ahead. What I've found um is that whoever was in charge of Paw's QuickBooks created a bunch of random categories. And when the bank account when the bank statements get sent to QuickBooks, they even though the bank account was reconciling, they weren't going in and making sure that the appropriate line item from the the the bank account, the transaction from the bank account matched whatever category it was being put in. And so therefore, when you go into PA's QuickBooks and you try to create a report, the the the categories are so wonky. There's so many different ones and there's so many subcategories and nobody was um putting the appropriate transactions into the appropriate categories. They were hitting reconcile. The bank account was reconciling. They were saying, "Okay, great. We the money's there." But they but then that creates a problem when you're trying to figure out where did that money actually go. So it was being put in. So, with the food, I'm assuming because of what I found, there probably was even more money than the 11,000 whatever for food because Whitney and I went back and checked the um Hill Science Diet account directly from the website and there was way more food purchased during the fiscal year. it's just doesn't show up in QuickBooks because it wasn't put into the appropriate category.

So, you might have had, for example, two different categories for food and it's showing up that it's 11,000, but it could have been that the two combined together might have been the truth. In other words, 21,000.

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Or for instance, some of our pay I was trying to figure out where did all the payroll go because I couldn't I couldn't get payroll to match. Um, and somebody created a category called ATM, and that's where some of the payroll was going was to this ATM category. And I have I have no idea what that even stands for. So, there's just there's so much discrepancy within QuickBooks that it's it's a it's a mess. And so moving forward um the old accountant has been released and um thank you. Mhm.

I we've hired a new accountant and I actually have a meeting with them tomorrow morning at 9:30 to say here this is a mess and we need to figure this out along with the tax returns that have some issues that need to be amended and fixed. Um Ashley, I just want to stop you for a second because that's an important point. Mhm. Um when we talk about the tax returns on their tax returns, the city's asset of the building is being claimed on their tax returns with full depreciation. They're they're the filings are not correct. Okay. You claim depreciation on a building that you don't own.

Exactly. And I and that again that is that is again an issue of either not being trained correctly when providing information to to whoever's filing your taxes or whatever. But it's on there plain as day black and white big as Dallas. And your entire board signed off saying that you knew that was on there which tells me there's some issues there. Right. Um, and I'm not blasting you. I want to make that very clear. I think I think that there's been a lot of um trying to make things work and operate correctly. But then throughout all of this, and I mean, I could be here for hours with the inconsistencies that we found. And I'm I'm I'm really trying hard to avoid that because I think committee is a good suggestion. However, um I think it's it needs to be publicly stated because this is not a city council issue or a city issue for your financial crisis. You you've done this yourself by not seeking out appropriate accounting practices. And when you come before the council and ask for $75,000 and in retrospect, we're giving you near $97,000 a year because reclamation fees, adoption fees, licensing fees, rabies fees, all that stuff was never included prior to the general public doesn't feel as though we're supporting you like we should when we are. It's just not being managed correctly. And So, I'm just going to make a recommendation tonight that that we um with everything we have here,

I I think we need to pay off the bill with the stock minus the uh interest charges that have been incurred. Um giving them a fresh start, zero dollars going forward for the remainder of the year. um and exercise some fiscal responsibility. Um but then I would like to be on the committee if it's the will of the council and work with them on getting some things in the right direction so that they're self- sustaining and not relying on government funding. the amount of money that they're taking in is enough to sustain them through through fundraising and and fees that they collect and all of that stuff. It's enough. It's just got to be budgeted. And currently what's happening is they're their their budget is being developed off of the amount that they're spending versus creating a budget and sticking to that budget and spending within that budget. And there's other solutions. I'm working on a responsible pet owner program which actually ups up updates the cities. It puts us in a new in in technology, the new technology of everything. Um and and lets us be more accountable. There's also things that can be done like with feral cats and and a humane trap and release program which reduces the crowding that they have there. Um, but there there's a lot of there's a lot of solutions out there. We just have to be able to work together and accomplish that. I think PAUSE does good work. Um, and they mean well. I think they just need a little direction and help.

Your honor, Councilman Bailey, I

I guess one of the things we need to remember too though is PAUSE is their own nonprofit. They are not under the city of Riverton. It is not really our job. I mean, and I don't have any problem helping, but it is not our job to make sure their accounting is in order and all of that other than with respect to if we're going to give them money, we want to make sure they're using it for the appropriate use that we're paying for. So again, it's a little tricky for us to be like me saying, I'm going to tell you what you should spend or how which accountant you should use or whatever. that's that's your finances, not my finances. And so, you know, we need to make sure we don't mix those together because it's really not the city of Riverton's job to oversee PAS and their financials. Our job is to manage the animals within the city of Riverton, and we're funding that we're supplying to help them do that with or for us. Well, I'm going to disagree with you, Councilman Bailey, because when we're handing out taxpayers dollars, it is our obligation to make sure it's being spent correctly and understand their financials. And as it relates to telling them how to operate, it's not us telling them how to operate. It's having a seat at the table for them taking care of our animals and coming to a mutual agreement on what's going to work best for both the city and PAS. Um, and that relates to the kennel usage that uh, Shannon needs in order to impound animals and how that can look in a more effective manner and what the shelter needs are in terms of repairs and maybe expansion. And if that's the responsibility of the city, then we should all be sitting at the table discussing that. Your

Councilman Carr. Um, I think that begs the question, we also provide funding for other 501c3s. And so for me, it makes me wonder, are we going down a road that what's good for the goose is good for the gander? Right? If we're going to do it to one, we're going to need to do it to all. That being said, none of the other 501c3s that we give or provide funding to for direct services are taking in direct wards from the city. Right.

They're also not doing something that we're obligated by our or own ordinance to do if they didn't do it.

That's exactly what I'm saying. Yes. We're not obligated to send anyone to a homeless shelter. are not obligated to send anyone uh somewhere else. So, so that creates a very unique situation, very unique. But it's again I I think I go back to the systemic issues that these are all absolutely the minutia of the the entire issue, right? We have systemic failures on both sides. And so I I am fully in support of creating, you know, a committee to look at those systemic failures. Let's see where they're at. I I certainly don't want to get into a situation where we're providing oversight because again, then we have to do it for everybody.

Correct.

And and that would get to be a very sticky situation. But but I think providing assistance to to really take a look at it and in an objective manner to say how can we fix this? What's it going to take? Because right now we have a big black machine that's cranking out product, right? Animals. We have an obligation to take care of those products. you have an obligation to take care of those. How do we do that effectively and with fiscal responsibility? And if we can look at that with a very tight-knit group of stakeholders, I think that that would provide enormous benefit to both parties.

Good point. I would I would agree and I would I'm sorry. I would hold on. like to revisit it in six months to see the progress of that. I think it could be good. Mr. Slack, I'm so glad that you have stepped up been a part of the PAUSE board for the last what is it two years now? Three. Three. And you're the chair currently. Direct director. Director, not the ch I Yes. I appreciate you. Oh, thank you.

Anything that you have to add? I I would say I guess first off I agree wholeheartedly with uh Councilman Bailey and Councilman Carr in the sense of I don't think that the city should be overseeing pause, but I also think if you're open to assistance such as that that Councilwoman Johnson is offering, I think it sounds like a helpful thing. The other thing I would say too, and I'm sorry I interrupted you. Last thing.

Okay. The other thing I would say too is if you're open to being a part of something that we would be discussing the city's issue which is dogs at large and empoundment and that kind of thing and what are we going to do about them? We'd love to have pause be a part of that but it doesn't have to be something where the city is sitting there and saying pause must do x y and z. It would be something where if PAS is able to reach a contract and we're able to do something that'll work for both of us such that PAS can be helping out with this obligation that the city has figure out how we can do it. Anyway,

what do you have to add? I would add that I don't think that it benefits the city or pause not to try and figure something out at all because like you said I you pause this is we're going on 21 years I believe in 21 years ago when pause started maybe these things weren't so hard each year as we all know life gets harder I don't know why but it gets harder and I I think I believe some of when it's like rolling a rock down a hill. It starts picking up momentum, right? Whether good or bad, it's going with going back 21 years. One little item got skipped, one got skipped on our taxes. Uh, and that it just is a problem because as a as a we don't get paid. We we volunteer. We try to do our best. Um, and yes, I I will take full responsibility. my my signature is on most on all these papers at the top that says yes is correct. I can't even figure out my own taxes. I have to have somebody else do it. That's not that's not in my my real my wheelhouse. I I I just my brain does not work that way. So unless there was an accountant that said, you know what, I retired. I have a lot of time. I'll be on the board. I'll do your I'll do your accounting, your taxes. We don't have that. Then here we are. Then we start looking at, are they going to charge us $1,000 a month? Is it $2,000 a month? And then you add that for the whole year. Meanwhile, we're still sticking fingers in the holes that are leaking all over the place. I mean, it just seems that we're just not able to catch up, if that makes sense. And I don't even mean just mean money-wise. I I just mean in general. It it just snowballs to such an extent. Then we're all behind and then some people get burned out. I I'm I need

to be off the board. Then we get somebody else try to get them to motion and then it it just keeps on being that cycle because we don't know how it got there but it's been there said anything and then here we are. Yeah. Not knowing what the heck anybody's doing. So if we were to do a committee, what would you recommend in terms of you're you're saying you'd want to have somebody who would be there from the pause board? Right. Ashley volunteered for that. I did not volunteer her for it. She asked to be part of that. That was the email that I sent. I I remember you could have volunteered too, but I could have, but you know, I I didn't really think about it in

You're fine. Lact. But if you want two people from P, I I will I can too. I mean, we can figure out. But Ashley specifically set out and said if we enter this with the city, I would like to be there. Who else would you think would be good to serve on that? Because I would be inclined to say it would be good to have Carla Borders, but she's also been she's going through a lot right now and has some things going on. Not trying to be like sounding weird, but she's got like a I'm I'm not gonna She's got some things going on. Everything's okay, but she's got a busy summer ahead of her, so I don't want to kind of volunteer for that. and she already serves as the pause liaison. But

I don't mind though, your honor. I I know you don't. But you also serve on like just about more committees than anyone else. Yeah, but Pause is my mainly like I've been their liaison for a long time. It might be good to get some people from some other animal welfare associations or something like that. We just met one today and Larry Wallace. Um, so the other thing we could do is we could just do an advertisement for it and have some people step up and be willing to volunteer kind of in light of what you're saying. Maybe there will be an accountant that's retired and to say, "Hey, not that we're looking for accountants with what we're doing. This is something where we're wanting to look at solutions for

population issues that we're facing, not necessarily looking at it. I I feel very positive about what's going to happen tomorrow. Good. Because I'm making it my mission to figure this out because it needs help. Good. I'm glad you're there then. You're the right person at the right time. Yes. Councilman Bailey. Your honor, I think we need to have a law enforcement animal control presence in that discussion, too, because a lot of what we're going to be talking about, I think, is what they can or cannot do in that scenario where they have to pick up animals and, you know, so I think that would be another valuable uh stakeholder in that process.

So, law enforcement pause representative from the council could be helpful. Veterinary services. I'm sorry. Veterinary services. Veterinary services. That's always nice to have. It would be I think it'd be beneficial for everybody if you have a little component of everything across there. Um you know there's uh a number of times I've been in um RPD sat with chief. We've tried to figure some things out. Yes, we're full. We tried to make sure that if somebody gets a DUI, you just can't leave their doggo in the car. We've got to do something with that. Yes. And you can't. And then we've also talked about um how vicious an animal can be before we can't take it at pause, right?

You know, and um I I know that cannon came up a few times and Mr. Butterfield kind of told me I wasn't supposed to talk about things like that because they kept coming up, but I don't know. Ostriches get loose, horses get loose, cows come to town. They're not coming to paws. You guys aren't taking cows or ostriches. No. No. We're gonna We're just going to stick with dogs and cats. We had a big box of snakes, too. But yeah, we don't need I'm not a reptile fan. I really love critters, but not really.

So, a representative from the council, perhaps somebody from more veterinary services, representative from PAUSE, representative from the RPD, likely a representative from other local animal kind of groups that are interested. The other question, I guess, though, is do we just want to have this be advertised and let people apply and then the council decides who we want to put on it? maybe for an atlarge seat. So maybe have some people apply for atlarge seats. So we would kind of go in with veterinary pause RPD council and then we just don't want it to get too big. Have one or two done. The point is to have it be nimble, not to have it be like 20 members, right? Then we'll get nowhere. Not more than 10. Yeah.

I'd even say seven. Yeah. Yeah. It's nice to have a smaller group at least for initial discussion. And if we need to expand that, we could. Could. Mr. Butterfield's really good at making resolutions, creating committees. He enjoys it. We also are really good at making resolutions, disbanding committees when there's no longer a need. We enjoy that, too. I mean, so I this is an initial effort and trying to figure out what we can do. And I think we just need to be willing to look at it and consider it. So I would like to ask to keep it at an odd number. That's That's kind of where I was saying. So, okay. Yeah. Because if we get even and we split, then it it it just

Well, then you got to whoever it is that's been there the shortest amount of time, you got to just eliminate them. So, Okay. I thought you weren't going to go there. Kick them off. Are we doing Everybody's making everything about youth in Asia today. Yes. Um, okay. I think from my opinion it would make a lot of sense that we uh we get a resolution together for this. I think to whatever extent that you're willing to to serve Councilwoman Johnson, I think it'd be great. I would I would like to continue serving in the the capacity with um Miss Solen and our animal control officer on the board.

You and Miss Borders might have to have an arm rest match or something. Well, I we work just fine. she there. I've just delved knee deep into it and I can always share the information with her as well if she's tied up, you know, and and for pause for me working with RPD has not we've not had a problem. I I don't I don't think we don't not dislike each other. Uh not had a problem working with Shannon. Shannon is always very very forthcoming with me and as much as I can try to be with her as well. So that would be very helpful to keep that bridge.

Well, if we had a representative from RPD, I would think it would make sense for it to be Shannon. Don't necessarily want her to volunteer for things or volunteer. She's just remaining silent today. Um Mr. Dr. Butterfield, I guess what I would say is probably what where we're at, at least appears to be where the council's at, and we could have a motion and a vote for it if we need to, is maybe come to our next meeting. Could you come with the resolution that we could use and then give some thought as to who could serve from those kind of areas, veterinary, pause, RPD, council, and then uh have maybe two or three or one or two at large positions. And would that make sense?

Yes, your honor. Would you need a vote for that today? Because he'd be coming with the proposal at the next meeting. Okay. Does that seem like that would help Mr. Slack, Miss Sloan? Yes. I will have to say though, for the next three weeks, Oh, yeah. I can't take any more time off. We're coming into finals. I'm in class Monday through Thursday evening. So, but you'll be in good hands. It'll be at least that long. It'll take it'll take that long to get this in going anyway. My brain. That's all right. Okay. Okay. Well, if there's nothing else to talk about this, I'm just glad we're not here at 11 o'clock right now. You're welcome. Yeah.

Johnson is like, I could have made it worse. I could have, but I didn't cuz I want I want I want You put in a lot of hours prior to this meeting. I know you did. I really did. She told me that. And actually, uh, Councilwoman Johnson and I put in some time talking to each other, too, so that we could kind of be We did on the same page. And so I just want to see positive solutions all the way around. Did you really just say that? Positive solutions went she has named the committee. It's the positive solutions committee. I hope that's reported on. Yeah. Accurately. Accurately. EAWS. Okay. Thank you very much for being here and thank you for all you do. Thank you for your board members for being here and

I hope you understand. I I don't Our goal is not to be dragging you in front of us like you're some, you know, terrible organization that's committing some terrible crimes or anything. Our goal is just to try to figure out what we can do to come up with ways we can take care of animals in our community. And you guys have done great for it for years. Yeah, exactly. I mean, as a college professor, sometimes I have some really serious, you better answer, better come up with some solution things to get you through. just not my aspect to make somebody flunk. Uh you just sometimes you have to use that figure it out, pick everything up and then move forward in a better position.

Yeah. Well, thank you. Appreciate you guys. All right. So, we don't have a vote or anything. Are we good going just to our next agenda item? Yep. Thank you, Mr. Sack. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Sloan. Have a good evening, everybody. You too. Thank you. Okay. Our next item is an executive session on real estate. I'd entertain a motion to convene into executive session for the purpose of uh real estate. It's Wyoming statute 164405A7. So moved. Second. Motion by Councilman Bailey, second by Councilman Carr. Any other discussion? Uh we would invite Mr. Butterfield. Anybody else that needs to come in with us? Okay. We'd invite Mr. Butterfield to come in with us. All in favor say I.

I. I. Any oppose say nay. Motion passed. Stand convene into executive session at 9:41.

second. Councilman Carr with the motion. Councilwoman Brothers with the second. All in favor say I. That was brothers. Johnson. I was looking at you, Councilwoman. Man, why do we keep getting misqued? All in favor say I. Post say nay. Motion passed. We're reconvened at 10:25. No action items from the executive session. I'd entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Councilwoman Brothers with the motion. Councilwoman Johnson with the second or borders. All in favor say I. I.

Any oppose say nay. Vote I. Motion passes. We are adjourned at 10:26.