County Council - Regular Meeting

WELCOME, EVERYONE. THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE. TODAY IS AUGUST 18th, 2026, TUESDAY. WE ARE LOCATED AT THE COUNTY BUILDING ON THE THIRD FLOOR IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS. AND THE TIME IS 6 O'CLOCK, SO P.M. THANK YOU FOR SPENDING YOUR EVENING WITH US. WE WILL BE LED IN A PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE BY GRANT, THE DIRECTOR OF THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT. Thank you, Grant. As far as roll call, we have our county attorney present, Scott Broadhead, with council. Councilman Hoffman is excused tonight. We have Councilman Thomas, Councilman Stromberg, Councilman Hamner, and Councilman Wardle present. From the county manager's office, we have our county manager, Andy Welch, and Brittany Lopez, assistant county manager. Nikki, thank you for being here from the clerk's office taking notes. THAT WILL BRING US DOWN TO PUBLIC COMMENTS. IS THERE ANYBODY IN THE AUDIENCE BY RAISE OF HAND THAT WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A PUBLIC COMMENT? SEEING TWO, OKAY. TWO MINUTES, OKAY. WONDERFUL. WE'LL START WITH YOU. AND BRITTANY WILL BE OUR TIMER. WOULD YOU PUSH THAT BUTTON AND JUST STATE YOUR NAME, WHERE YOU'RE FROM?

My name is Natalie Merriam, and I've lived in Tooele for 10 years. I wanted to respond tonight to Councilman Hoffman's comments at the August 4th County Council meeting. It's a shame he's not here today. He related that two representatives from Google sat by him and told him that, in their opinion, and they weren't supposed to say it, but in their opinion, all of the negativity towards data centers is coming from China. Perhaps Councilman Hoffman is not aware that Kevin O'Leary made the same accusation on Fox News towards a group called Elevate Utah. And since that accusation is false, Kevin O'Leary had to publicly retract his statement, and I'm happy to provide links. So I would hope that Councilman Hoffman and anyone else that shares the same thoughts would ask themselves why Google won't go on the record to say that. He said that those Google representatives said they weren't supposed to say it. Maybe it's because they have zero evidence to back it up and they don't want to get sued. Frankly, I'm embarrassed for Councilman Hoffman for saying something like that and that the conflict of interest of Google reps infiltrating a meeting on data centers is lost on him. I would hope that he would consider that they have a financial interest in getting you guys to believe something like that. We expect our elected officials to be more discerning than this. China didn't tell the people in Eagle Mountain to be upset about their taxes going up 183% while the metadata center got a 20-year tax break. He didn't tell people in Lake Tahoe to be upset when they had to find a new electricity provider because all their electricity had to be reallocated to the data center. He didn't tell farmers in Michigan and Kentucky to turn down the data center proposals and turn down tens of millions of dollars for their property. He didn't tell the people in Georgia to be upset about their water running brown because they're not getting water because the data centers are taking it all. These are facts that are coming from people on our own American soil.

Thank you. We'd ask you to refrain from the applause. Thank you. Ma'am?

I'm Amy Lawson. On August 12th, the Planning Commission voted to table sub 2026-084 and sub 2025-133, the subdivision plans until an independent third party review of the existing traffic study is completed. But we are asking and in fact demanding for a new independent third party study that includes these five things. A truly independent reviewer, someone who has no prior business relationship with Hales Engineering, TVPID, Zenith Development or any other project in the UIPA Tooele Valley project area. We want the name of the reviewer and any conflict of interest is closed before work begins. Two, a real scope of work, not just another look at the same numbers. The proposed use of this area has shifted across versions of the project and the review should confirm the traffic model uses current and accurate land use inputs and not recycled assumptions from an earlier version of the project. It needs to account for the entire project and not just one area plat at a time. It also needs to consider the 20 Wells Lakeview Business Park project that projects over 50,000 daily trips at full build. Number three, we need a written public report available to the public, not a private briefing or verbal summary to the Planning Commission. Four, we want a real chance for public comment on the review itself before the Planning Commission or the Council has any vote, not within the same meeting, to just have a presentation and a vote. And five, we require the reviewer to be given full access to the original data and modeling files from Hale Engineering's report, not just summaries and conclusions, and make those available to the public. whether the independent review is a genuine safety check or a rubber stamp depends entirely on how you guys scope it do us a solid appreciate your comment okay that will bring us down to uh presentation one kind act a day amy

Oh, I'm sorry, it says Amy down here.

That's okay, that's okay. I am here to represent her.

She wasn't sick, was she?

I just want to.

From the health department, she's not. It was a joke, it was a joke.

What?

Oh, bad joke, bad daddy joke.

Councilman Thomas, I see you on there.

Yes. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to talk about the One Kind Act Today program. My name is Bea Kovach, and I am the supervisor for the senior centers in Tooele County. So a little bit about the program. About a year ago, Councilman Thomas shared some information about the One Kind Act Today program. So our director, Amy Hoff Deezer and I, looked into it and reached out to the organization and decided that we were going to dive into this new adventure. We all shared the information about the program with our participants and that included all of our staff, our volunteers at the senior centers and our participants. and we had the support from our leaders and administration and we were able to start this journey where we took a pledge of kindness where we were intentionally do an act of kindness every day and try to create an environment that it will invite, people will feel welcome and seen, safe, and just validated and welcomed. And so we started this at the senior centers by doing, after taking the pledge, we put signs at the entrance of the centers. They had messages about kindness or ideas of what can you do for a kindness today. And this could be something very small or something very big. and this inspired many participants and staff to start doing things for one another and for the community and so for the centers we had participants starting to do uh every day something small like somebody new will come to the center and instead of having that cliquish environment it will be welcoming somebody smile and it doesn't matter how different you are you're welcome to our centers It will be something like, let me help you take your tray, because you have a walker. Instead, let me take it to the window for you. And there will be bigger things. We collected garbage, not garbage, grocery bags for months, and the seniors weaved these mats that were donated to the homeless shelters in our community. And we also organized and got gifts together to donate to the Children's Justice Center during the holidays. And like I said, bigger things, smaller things, but it just created that culture based on kindness. We saw firsthand the ripple effect, the chain reaction that it had when everybody every day looked for something kind to do. We incorporated kindness in all of the activities that we planned, the events that we put together. And we, talking about chain reaction, we had a paper chain that went all around the centers and the chain were made of links. Every link was a piece of paper written with a name or somebody that did something kind to them or a kindness that they saw somebody else do for one another. And they put this chain together and we put them all around the centers and pretty soon we had this ginormous chain. And so it did create a chain reaction in our participants in this culture of kindness. And we didn't have 100%. conflict-free centers, but we saw the difference how they reminded one another to be kind to, to try to resolve conflicts in a kind way. And so having seen how kindness has the power to make a difference, I really do hope that other organizations in our community join this and take a kindness pledge and try to do this because it really does have a positive impact in our personal, physical, mental health in our families, in our neighborhoods, in our communities. We heard some seniors share with us, or we read in the chain and the examples of some of the things that they had to, they refrained themselves from honking a really bad driver that they had while they were going home. And they paid for the coffee of the person behind them at the coffee show line. Or they just welcomed somebody that had had a really hard time, and the one that was really impressive to me was somebody that they didn't like, because it's harder for us to be kind to those that we don't like. That was the hard thing for them to do, but yet they felt inspired to do so because they wanted to join the movement. So again, having seen this firsthand, I do hope that other organizations join. Last year, after one year of keeping up with the plan that we put together, we received a certification to be the first organization in Tooele County to be a certified center of kindness and the first senior centers in the state of Utah to be a certified center of kindness. So I feel really proud about all of our participants, again, our leadership, our staff, and our volunteers that help make this possible, and I appreciate your support with this program. And when we have the certification, I appreciate you coming over to support us. And I do hope, like I said, that others join us in this movement.

Thanks so much, Bea. This is a real tribute to Bea Kolevich and Amy Hoftheser, their leadership, and showing it by example as well. It's made a huge difference across the whole health department. But the most important thing is to see the seniors, the older adults, see that little shift in their countenance and just a little pep in their step. So there's research on this, right, that if we

have practiced a little bit of gratitude a little bit of kindness that makes it permeates across um everything so thank you pay up any comments from the council councilman thomas it was really good to go over to uh the ward and recognize you almost thought it was a testimony meeting at church kind of a deal with the involvement that your team I called you the quarterback of the center when you definitely are. You got other good people in the press box helping you. But to have you involved with the people and seniors are having a tough time. They're having a tough time and this really made a big difference. Huge difference, the power of kindness. And so thank you. for your leadership, for your love, and you go over to the center and you know that staff loves the clients that come in there. So thank you, ma'am.

Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Please, Councilman Wharton.

I echo what Councilman Thomas has said. Councilman Thomas, thank you. for bringing this into the county and championing this effort. It's interesting that the One Kind Act today is just not far from my office, about a mile and a half from my office. And to see the effect in the neighborhoods there that are very diverse, politically, sociologically, racially, And to be able to go through those neighborhoods and see these signs and see that it's coming from the kids all the way up through the seniors, I think it makes an absolute difference when we talk culture and our behavior within our culture. We can unite behind that, even though we come with various backgrounds. And so thank you, and Kendall, thank you for sending this up.

Just kind of a side note, I go to the prison now on Thursday mornings. And usually, and I teach a class with another guy from the office where Scott's talking about, and deal with the prisoners for one hour a day. And the changes in them, their life situations, how maybe they didn't have the same kind of family I did that made bad choices. But usually when I come home from Salt Lake, I go 90 miles an hour. I hurry to get home, hurry to get somewhere. And when I leave there, because we were involved in a class that talked about changing people's lives, how you conduct your lives, I go 70 miles an hour. I go under the speed limit and almost get ran over. Because I'm so humbled about the ability to reach out to change per generation people's lives. So anyhow, thank you so much. In fact, I'm trying to get the food bank to take it on. And because what do they do? Every day. Every day. So anyhow, thank you.

The last thing I would just mention that you never know what life you'll touch and what will result in that. There's a man that they call the candy man that at the end of World War II, that he dropped a little bit of whatever candy he had, and they still remember that ultimately, or Schindler's List, when he took a turn to help where he can. And if you don't have anything, a smile is pretty contagious also. So thank you.

If I might give a shout-out to Tooele City, the mayor is leading with that as well. Oh, the mayor. Thank you so much, Council.

Thank you. Okay, that will bring us down to our own Eric Stromberg.

All right, Council. So we did get all the applications through for our third quarter and corridor preservation. Projects that were approved by COG. I'll run through those really quick. So under third quarter, Tula City is asking for $881,786.40. County for Village Boulevard. is $6,246,712.80. Then for Drew Bay, as well for the county, $1,243,931. And then Stockton is getting $114,386. All under third quarter. Just to remind you that for Village Boulevard, we did approve the purchase of those two pieces of land so this is to start the construction of village boulevard and then for a quarter preservation uh two projects uh again for the county for the pole canyon right away is 1.5 million and then for Grantsville City to be able to start to purchase what's being referred to as the Depot Road along the south piece of Grantsville at 890,000 on that one. So those were the recommendations from COG. We just need to approve them as the council or i guess didn't i am if anyone really wants to i won't say we have to approve them but that is what we need to do in this meeting so we can work it into the budget so let me ask a question it's on the presentation is this a voting item should that be right now no i think we we do need to bring it back but this was under a presentation one other thing i guess just to be to be clear on the

on Village Boulevard that's what the what the request was but cog did not recommend I was gonna say that it was way harder than I yeah it was two and a half two and a half million I think that's what cog actually approved so we probably should bring back the approved list that cog is recommending back to you for a vote and then to add it into the budget yeah wonderful as a when I saw that they didn't like him yeah I wish but yeah get their money

I mean, what's kind of a timeline for that?

So everything is post-performance. So when they get it done. Oh, so go ahead.

Your check's in the mail. Go ahead and submit it.

No, so we're budgeting for this for next year. So if they started the project in January, then we could start paying them back as post-performance. But, yeah, this is for next year's funding cycle.

It'd be the 27 budget. Right. Okay. And they have... TWO YEARS TO DO IT OR THEY HAVE TO COME ASK FOR AN EXTENSION. SO MOVE FORWARD.

SO COUNCIL, WE OKAY IF WE MOVE THAT FOR THE NEXT MEETING ON ACTION ITEMS?

SO IF WE CAN, CHAIR, JUST TO ANSWER, I WILL SAY, SO WE TALKED ABOUT IN JUST, YOU KNOW, WITH THE SMALLER COMMUNITIES TO THE SOUTH, SO THAT'S STOCKTON, RUSH VALLEY AND VERNON. THE DISCUSSION WE'VE HAD FOR THEM IS TO ALLOCATE AN AMOUNT FOR THEM EVERY YEAR, WHICH IS WHAT STOCKTON AND THOSE THREE COMMUNITIES ARE WORKING TOGETHER TO DECIDE WHETHER IT MAKES MORE SENSE FOR THEM TO ALL ASK FOR A THIRD OR ASK FOR LARGER SUMS. AND WHAT THEY'VE REALIZED IS IT'S EASIER FOR THEM TO COME IN ON A ROTATING BASIS AND ASK FOR MORE OF IT BECAUSE THAT HAS A BETTER IMPACT ON THEIR BUDGET, WHAT THEY ACCOUNT FOR FOR the maintenance. So I think we are seeing it right now. And I will say as a whole, I think we're seeing this process getting better, the scoring better. I've mentioned this in cog, there's still some improvements, but if I go back and look, when we started this, you know, four years ago, as I was part of this subcommittee, we are improved. And I think that's just one of them where we're there working together to say, know we could each take say 50 000 but that doesn't have as much impact if every three years we can get 150 or 114 and do one thing so so that's why you're not seeing those other two communities down there so thanks chair thank you so we'll move that one forward to our next meeting for an action item

That will bring us down to six minutes. August 4th, 2026, council meeting minutes. Is there any corrections or additions to the minutes? If not, chair, entertain a motion.

I make the motion we approve our minutes from August 4th.

Hearing a motion from Councilman Stromberg, is there a second? Second. Hear a second from Councilman Thomas. All those in favor of approving the August 4th, 2026 council meeting minutes, say aye.

Aye.

All those who may oppose, say nay. That is adopted. For discussion items, we have the courthouse land sale agreement. We'll have a public hearing on that. Nathan Harris.

thank you chairman so in our last meeting we announced that we were going to be selling the courthouse property that we were looking at selling it to the state as part of that surplus of property process we need to have a public hearing about it we published our notice in the newspaper and now this is the opportunity for the public to get up and address concerns if they have any uh with with the the purchase agreement. So again, the process that's being sold is process number 02-026-0-0028, which is literally just east of us that the courthouse sits on. And the purchase price um is going to be 2.5 million dollars and at the last meeting i went through all the other benefits that we're getting from this you know we're getting free rent for the county attorney's office for 20 years we're getting another 10 years on top of that at a 50 rate they're also going to be installing a new sally corp for the sheriff's office to help with transportation into the courthouse for inmates who need to get to the courthouse they're going to be putting in a parking lot there are a lot more other benefits of the county's getting in addition to that $2.5 million that will be paid over a two-year time frame. So with that, I will... Any questions or comments?

The chair recognizes county attorney Scott Bryan. It's also for the...

It's also for the Justice Corps as well. So all the county spaces within that building. So it's approximately one-third of the building space.

Yes, I forget that the Justice Court actually is part of us all the time. But they are.

And the 50% is actually for the maintenance costs, not even 50% of rent. It's 50% of the maintenance costs during that 10-year period. So it's even lower, actually.

So the 2.5 come back to us in over how many years?

It's a two-year period. So once we get this approved, the state has already done their initial phase one kind of survey that they needed to do. I got an email about it today. They're awaiting us to have our public hearing and then to vote on this at a later meeting. But we're going to get $1 million the first year in 2026, and then in 2027, the payment plan is the other $1.5 million.

So just to clarify, we're using that money to tear down the old jail, too. So we're kind of net neutral in some ways on this. So we're not going into the general fund to take down the jail to do that project. So there's a balance there. Is that correct?

I'm hoping that there's a little extra. Yes. I don't believe our jail term is 2.5 million, but I don't remember the dollar value. I think it was more around 3 quarters of a million. Yes, this initial payment is about $500,000.

They actually were starting that today, but they've got to cut some utilities, and they're finding out where some utilities were that they didn't expect, and so they're working through some of those things right now.

Yeah, we're trying to net more than the cost of the teardown.

Good deal. Okay. That will bring us to a public hearing. Chair, entertain a motion to open up public hearing on the courthouse land sale agreement.

So moved.

Hearing a motion from Councilman Strongberg, is there a second?

Second.

Hearing a second from Councilman Wardle, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those who may oppose. That is adopted. That means public hearing is now open. Is there anybody in the audience, by raise of hand, that would like to speak specifically to the courthouse land sale agreement? I'm seeing one. Come up. Will you make sure that's green? Push that button. State your name, where you're from.

I'm Cameron Ortikowski. I just live on the north side of Tula City. Okay.

You have two minutes.

Yeah. My only question with it is I'm just curious, why is the state, one, buying it, two, what are they going to do with it? Because I understand they're going to be leasing it right back for court stuff, so why was the state of interest in buying it? I'm just out of curiosity. No complaints. But...

so this is a comment period yeah yeah it's common i understand this you're going to answer the questions after the comment period no that's why i'm just asking for rhetorical now to be answered later if you'll go sit right over there nathan will answer it for you all right thank you that's my only comment i can take my best stab at it if you want oh you want to go ahead yes it's not that complicated so way back when the county owned the land the state built the courthouse owned the building we've had this 20-year kind of joint ownership that went on for 20 years. The 20 years has passed, so that contract is over, which triggered either the state has to buy the building from us or they have to give it up. So this is the state exercising their right to buy the building so they can operate it as a courthouse. The court's not going anywhere.

It's a great deal for us. It's a great deal for us.

Yeah, I was just confused, listening, like, that just doesn't make much sense on what is going on here. So I'm like, what?

Thank you for your comment.

They want to keep the courthouse here, so they want to buy it.

I don't think we'll get that deal in the future.

No, no.

That's a great deal for the county.

Thank you for your comment. Chair to entertain a motion to close public hearing. So moved. Second. Hearing a motion from Councilman Thomas, a second from Councilman Warren, we'll close public hearing. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those who may oppose, say nay. Okay, public hearing is now closed. And this is going to be a vote on next meeting. Is that what you're?

Yes, Chairman. This item is on our 25th, the meeting on the 25th at noon. It's the current only item. I believe we may have to add another to that, but that will be reposted and posted again so the public is aware of what we're doing at that meeting. But this will be up for your guys' decision to vote yes or no to move forward with the contract next week at noon.

So we're meeting on that at noon? I won't be able to be in that meeting. Will we have a quorum?

I sure hope so. Because you're gone too. Can you be on by Zoom?

I'll be here. Okay.

Okay. I'll bring us down to contracts. And that will bring up Cory. You are a better version of Cory.

Cory looks a little different tonight. So Corey's son was coming home from his mission early tonight or unexpectedly. So I am stepping in for him.

So wonderful.

Good circumstances, though, just to make that clear. OK, so I am here tonight to present to you. If you remember, Corey came to you to talk about some of the items that we would be purchasing outside of the peak master plan because it was cheaper for us to purchase them as the county. having the contractor build them. So the next item now is the Musco Sports Lighting. This is for the installation and purchase and delivery of the new sports field lighting for all of the fields that we'll be building on the back of the complex. This has gone through a competitive process. We ended up using the state Co-op contract. MOCA has also vetted this, and they feel really comfortable with where we are. For public knowledge, MOCA is our contract manager that we have for the peak, and so we're just asking for the approval for this purchase this evening.

Okay, any questions or comments about this item? All right, then chair to entertain a motion.

I make a motion that we buy the lights.

Hearing a motion, Councilman Wardle on the contract for the lighting.

Second.

Hearing a second from Councilman Thomas. I'll bring up a vote. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those who may oppose say nay. Okay, that is adopted. Stay right there, Brittany. We're going to talk about the approval, apply for the 2027 Rural County Part A grant.

Thank you. Good evening, Council. Today I come to you now as the co-chair of the CEO board. Each year we come to you and present to you a budget that we'd like to apply for the Rural County Part A grant. This is some funding that we use. Each year, I always come and talk to you about the small business development grants, different items that that board helps recommend to the council. So we've come together as a board and we have a budget that we'd like to present to you. And I'd just like to walk through it with you and answer any questions that you have before we submit for this grant. So the first is for $10,000 for the Placer AI subscription. This is the subscription that gives us, it can identify uses of people from out of county coming in our county and where they're spending money so that we know what kind of businesses to target, work on, or tourism events to bring to our community. THE NEXT IS $20,000 THAT WE GIVE TO THE SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER. THIS IS A CONTRACT THAT YOU GUYS ACTUALLY HAVE GONE INTO WITH THE SBDC THAT EACH YEAR WE WOULD PROVIDE THEM THIS $20,000. THEY DO ALLOW FOR $20,000 ADMINISTRATION COST. THIS HELPS US COVER THE COST OF THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT AND THE ADMINISTER SUPPORT THAT THEY PROVIDE US DURING THE PROCESS FOR THIS BOARD AND THE GRANTS MANAGEMENT PROCESS. The next one is for an economic development professional for $68,400. I do want to talk to you about this a little bit. GOEO has changed the requirements of how we can use that with that business professional. So we actually have to send them a list of assigned projects to show that that's how we're using that person. You can't just put it directly towards their salary. So Rochelle and I are working on the developed projects and what that would look like. And then the last would be the $81,600 to go into the small business grants that we provide each year, so for a total of $200,000. Again, this is just so that we can apply to the state. We have to give them this budget, but we also need your approval before we can do that.

Okay. I see a hand up, so Chair, recognize Councilman Wardle.

On the economic development professional enlisted projects, are we RFPing the economic development professional this year, and will the... THE LIST OF PROJECTS BE PART OF THAT OR WILL WE ASSIGN THOSE AFTER?

ASK THAT AGAIN. I'M SORRY, I DIDN'T.

SO THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PROFESSIONAL THAT WE FUND PARTIALLY. ARE WE SUBMITTING AN RFP REQUEST FOR?

A NEW.

OR TO REUP WITH WHO WE HAVE, BUT WE HAVEN'T DONE THAT FOR A FEW YEARS.

WE HAVEN'T IDENTIFIED THAT YET AT THIS POINT. WE JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE WE IDENTIFIED THE FUNDING FOR THAT SPECIFIC. We use Better Cities. They are very beneficial in a lot of places for us. It doesn't completely get us what we need. And so that's where Rochelle and I'd like to sit down and walk through what the priorities are. So there's been an abundance of RFIs that are being responded to back and forth, providing support also to the cities with that person helping. direct to their economic development professionals?

I think it would be really good that whatever we're doing with economic development, that there's some kind of report from Better Cities for us of what's been worked on, what projects, that the council has an idea of that. And then if we could get tentatively when that RFP might go out,

um we've been with better cities for six years and we could stay with better cities but it's just always good to to look at those so yep i think that i think that the rfp is a good option any other comments or questions no okay uh council uh chair to entertain a motion so move Hear a motion from Councilman Thomas. Second from Councilman Strongberg. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those who may oppose say nay. That is adopted. Now I'll bring down to the allocation of funds for the third quarter audit of traffic study for planning commission. Michelle.

Thank you, Chairman and Council Members. Due to public comment on a couple of subdivision plots that were before the Planning Commission last week, the Planning Commission has tabled the two subdivisions on the condition that will a county hire a third-party traffic engineer to review the traffic study that was submitted with the applications. I have received two quotes. They are under the $15,000, so I can just do those out of my budget, but wanted to make the Council aware of the requirement placed on those subdivisions by the Planning Commission.

So you don't need a vote on this, Michelle?

I do not. If you are inclined to do an independent traffic study as requested by the public this morning, or this morning earlier in your meeting, I will need money for that. That would be a $100,000 plus range.

I think you have it within your budget to have that second opinion on it. Any questions or comments from the council?

No, but that was an interesting meeting Planning has only went through, and it was lively discussion. And so anyhow, thanks for being responsive, Rochelle, and moving us forward. Is there a timeline when this could be done by, the study, and back to the Planning Commission?

Once we get a signed contract, the engineer anticipates two weeks.

Two weeks, OK. So Rochelle, did you put this on my table?

This must have been for Planning Commission. That's the traffic study itself. Right.

So, Council, I have it here.

Just so you can see how lengthy it is.

Well, over 100 pages, if anybody would like to review that also. Then, okay. Any other questions or comments? Go ahead, Scott. Actually, no, you go, and then I'll go.

Okay.

So I just want to clarify a couple things because of the questions that came up today. Whenever we do an RFP, we try to avoid any conflict of interest that anyone would have within the county. Is that correct? Correct. And when we look at these things, we look at them through an independent lens versus a thumb on the scale lens of what we want to come back because there are times when it comes back that we don't want anything. Is that correct? Yes. I know that my experience in Tooele City was when we would look at RFPs, whether it would be for engineering services, whether it be for sewer, I know that one came back on a sewer system that we didn't like the outcome of it. But the fact is that we have these done by people who are experts in their fields to come to a conclusion that's unbiased to get us to a point to make good public policy. Would that be fair? Absolutely. Okay, thank you.

Just one other thing. Because this is the truck stop that's going in down there, will this traffic study break that out to say this portion of the number will come out of the truck stop compared to traffic out of the port?

All this is is to have an independent third-party engineer review that traffic study that is in your packet. see if there's any holes, anything that doesn't appear to meet the modeling requirement, and recommend any mitigation measures that they believe need to be put into place that may not be in the report.

Thank you.

That's all this is.

Yep. I have a comment. Councilman Wardle.

I am growing concerned that regardless of what goes in in certain areas of the county, that when these studies are requested by us to the applicant in the application process, and then for an additional review, and an additional review, that it opens us up for litigation. Because if we're not requiring it evolve, It appears to be punitive. Well, I don't know if it's punitive, but arbitrary for a specific applicant. And I would hope that when we get through this process that it resolves some of those issues, whether or not the outcome's acceptable to people or not. At the end of the day, these are tax dollars that are being used. Correct. We've been through several of these studies, and we're a data-driven council. And I just think that if you don't like it and there's a study that comes back and you don't like the data from the study, that doesn't mean the study's wrong. And I think that that's an important part of this process. And we talk about this often that you can see that you can have competing trues that are still true. You don't have to like whether it's a truck stop, whether it's a warehouse area or a heavy manufacturing area, but that doesn't negate the application process that we ask applicants to go through. And we have to justify those application processes through various things like impact fee studies, are fee studies that we implement because we can't charge outrageous fees because they're looked at it like a tax. I just think that that's a critical component that we start looking at in this process.

And the Planning Commission can request this. Absolutely. It's the impact that the public brought up. This could have upwards of 14,000 trips per day. The majority of them are going to get off the freeway, go to the truck stop, and get right back on the freeway, and really will not have any impact on our roads. It will have more impact on UDOT's roads. However, this is the condition they placed. You are correct. It is 100% taxpayer dollars that are paying for this third-party review. It is not the applicant.

I'll make a quick suggestion on the issue you're bringing up. If it's not required by our ordinances, then if you're going to go have these second reviews, I think you need to put on the, you need to articulate on the record why this is, you believe this should be reviewed. Not just, not just, you know, it's a big project. I think, yeah, I mean, cause then you, like you said, you can get into this battle of, well, how come this applicant had to pay, you know, go through this and the other one didn't. I think you need to make sure you're articulating

The finding, the planning commission's findings in their motion.

Why it is specifically that you need, you feel like you need it. Not just, it's a big project, I think we should. I don't think that's going to carry the mustard.

I think that the planning commission is, I've watched the last couple of them particularly with interest. They're doing a fantastic job.

They really are.

Thank you. These are difficult issues that are highly emotional. and that cutting through that is hard, but I do think that we have to put on the record that this has been requested by the Planning Commission because of 16,000 trips a day. However, these aren't on the county roads, they're more on UDOT's roads leading to and from a truck stop, and that the applicant was required to do this as part of the application process, and that we, have to ensure that the public process is done without bias, without conflicts of interest, and I think that needs to be put on the record too. I think to suggest otherwise would mean that we would be failing our fiduciary responsibility as county councilmen or county councilors in this process to the citizenry.

And when a traffic study is submitted by an applicant, we see that it is done by a reputable firm and that it is stamped by a licensed traffic engineer in the state of Utah. I'm not a traffic engineer. I don't believe any of you are traffic engineers. We are not qualified to make an opinion on that report.

Correct. Thank you. Thanks, Rochelle.

You're welcome.

For that, thank you. And I concur with everything that has been said, one thing is we try to do everything within our policy and within the state. I hope that is clear because if you don't follow the law, that's when cities and counties lose lawsuits of quite a bit and then taxes will affect. With that said, we have one vacancy in aging on the board. In fact, let me just refer you to our website. If anybody has interest to apply for the boards that we have, one being Aging, Historical Preservation, Housing Authority, Planning Commission, Recreation Special Services, Rush Valley Water, Conservation District, Lake Point Cemetery, there's an application there to fill out, and it will go to the clerk's office. We'll get it to us. We'd love to have... more community involvement, and we'd love to have you fill that out if that's of interest or if you know somebody. That said, we'll go to a council update. Councilman Thomas? Pass. Councilman Stromberg? Nothing tonight. Councilman Hamner will also suspend. Councilman Wardle?

I got nothing.

Okay. That'll bring us up to our county manager. Just two quick items. Really? Really? Nothing.

Just for an update, on Ibapa Road, they're continuing on. If you look on Facebook, that's part of the, what's the group called? Ibapa Community. They're doing a cold in place replacement, cold surface, cold in place recycle, that's what it's called. And just on their post, I was just reading here, they're eight days ahead of schedule on that. So we figure they'll be finishing late, mid to late September on that road. So that's, Good to see that one. That was a big, big project. That's an $18 million project that we had to match with $270,000 of local match, which is the best match we'll ever do. The other thing I'll mention is Rochelle gets to stand up just briefly.

You're going to sing the song.

Rochelle just graduated from the Utah Rural Leadership Academy and that process takes about a year, right? It's a lot of work and so we're just pleased that she was able to put in that time and to complete that, so congratulations.

That's all I have. Thank you. Andy? There was a gal that's talking about Ivapaw, and they had some frustration with trying to get a building permit and get things done out there. They wanted to give some ground to a sun. And people in rural Ivapaw don't do a whole lot of dealing with these kind of requirements. So I asked Rochelle if she could set up a Zoom meeting with the applicant coming in. Millie and Rochelle was super. And he set it up, made it work. She's still frustrated. She has to do it and go to the expense. But Rochelle, I got to tell you, you changed lives. And Millie was so kind. She was great. So do you and your staff. I just want to let you know how much they appreciated you doing that. That was a great step. Yeah. Good job, Rochelle.

Thank you. Our next item will require a closed session on personnel future litigation that will require us to go into a closed session. Therefore, I would look for a motion to go into a closed session. So moved.

Second.

Hearing a motion from Councilman Wardle, second from Councilman Stromberg. And we'll have to do a roll call vote. Councilman Thomas, how do you vote? Councilman Stromberg? Aye. Councilman Hamner votes aye. Councilman Wardle? Aye. We're in closed session at 6.48 p.m.

Recording stopped.