Municipal Council - Regular Meeting

Should I just start? Yeah. Kick. It's 5:30. We'll call to order the budget workshop for the Logan Municipal Council on May 12th at 5:30 p.m. For our audience that's here tonight, hopefully we have some viewers online. fast. Uh we are going to start with a general budget overview by Rich. You want to take us away Rich?

Absolutely. Thank you. Uh happy to be here council to discuss the mayor proposed budget. Um I'd like to give just a quick overview of the budget documents especially for those who this is their first year. I think we've had discussions but hopefully maybe it's a small benefit. I'll try to be pretty quick. The budget is prop is composed of three main sections. We have a well, it's actually four sections. We have the the mayor's budget or the mayor's proposal. You can see in the very front. Then we go into a summary. It's a one-page view of the entire city budget. That's where you see the total budget of 219,847,429 which is the balanced budget. We're required to pass a balanced budget. All revenue sources are accounted for and all expense all expenses. Following the one-page summary that you find on page two, we have about 20 pages of individual summaries for each fund. And a fund can be thought of as a as a business unit. Um, sometimes in the private sector, you'll have a big company who owns several smaller companies and so they keep books for those smaller companies and then they roll them up into the one big large company. Well, that's what we have here. General fund accounts for all the general public services, police, fire, public works, parks and rec community development and general government which finance HR and legal fall into. Then you have the library obviously accounts for the the services of the library and sometimes citizens will say you know 219 million that's a huge budget. Can't we just have this thing or can't we just cut this or can't we do something other than what's in the

budget? And to a certain extent, sure, it's 219 million. But those business units, of which there are 20, we account for separately. And sometimes those resources cannot be used for other services. For instance, the library budget, legally restricted by state law, can only be used for the library. Cannot be used for any other purpose. Can't plug a pothole with it. Can't uh unless it's right in the middle of the library. a good point.

We can't pay for general services with it. Likewise, we have our 911 fund that you'll see on page seven. We can't use those resources for anything other than running the 911 system, but they're self- sustaining. They're self sustaining as well. Yes.

Then you have things like some of these uh government special governmental funds like the redevelopment agency. Can that be used to to plug a pothole? Maybe in certain circumstances if it rhymes with whatever the purpose of the RDA is. Then you have enterprise funds like the electric fund. Can't we just use their funds to plug a pothole? Maybe under very restrictive circumstances. And if we do it, we could have a new state law named after us. The Logan would stop doing that a lot. So there there although we have 219 million and that's a really big budget as you pair it down you'll find that each of the services it supports are fairly narrow and while it is a tremendously large budget uh we don't quite have the resources we all wish we had. We wish we could hire five more police officers. We wish we had all the funding we needed to open that new station we know we we need for fire. Did I say please? And then fire. We wish we could open another park. We wish we had that other program. If we had $100 million more, we could really do $100 million of great services for our citizens. Instead, we do the best we can with the 219 that we've uh allocated here in this budget. following the summaries for each individual fund. Then you have the detail. This starts on page 24 and goes for quite a while. This is the individual line item detail for all of our budgets. And you can see exactly what is being budgeted for each revenue source and each expenditure account. We also have notations in there occasionally for larger accounts. Just breaks out in a little more detail when necessary. uh what it is that's going into that revenue or that expenditure account. You'll also see just like on the other pages of the summary, the detail

summaries for each fund. And in the detail, it's proposed by uh category. All these categories are required by state law. It's 2025 actual, the 2026 year-to date actual. Then you have the adopted from 26 and the prop and then you have a couple of the columns department proposed estimated for 2026 which is all the amendments the council makes. That's what the estimated is and then you have the mayor proposed. As I look at this budget the two columns that I compare is the 2026 adopted and I compare that to the 2027 mayor proposed. Those are the two columns that are comparable. Everything else is contextual. The 2025 actual gives us context as to what we adopted in 2026 and what we might be adopting in 2027. The year-to- date actual gives us more context, but it's incomplete as well. It's only year to date when I printed this, which was do I have a date on it? I don't, but it was sometime in uh April toward the end of April. Estimated, we've talked about what that is. Department proposed. Department proposal is the least complete of all the columns, but it's a requirement that we send out to departments and they propose what their budget should be. In many cases, it's very similar to what's in the MAR proposed. In other cases, it's just incomplete. We don't do a full-blown administrative fee study. We don't calculate transfers. We don't necessarily project revenues in totality in that column, but we do in the 2027 proposal. That's why when I look at it, I compare the 2026 adopted to the 20207 proposed and then look for context in the other columns. After the detail, then come to the detail regarding um rolling stock,

trailers, cars, other stuff that rolls. And then we have the detail on the capital projects as well. And I I actually did that in reverse. It's capital projects. then um roll this off. All of the relevant data ties into the budget and to the we give specific accounts where it's budgeted. Uh this also gives a five-year kind of projection as to what we think might be coming over the next 5 years. Life changes rapidly. However, we do hope that most of the significant projects are included in this 5-year plan. We also have some other pages that are required by state law including the property tax impact fee schedule or impact property tax impact schedule as well as the transfer schedule that we'll talk about in just one minute. Any questions on the budget book itself. I did give council kind of a relevant pages that tie each of the presentations that you'll hear today as well as uh two weeks from today. Um hopefully that gives some information. If you have any questions, feel free to fire those off.

Well, the capital projects goes much further than 5 years. Many many departments are planning for it. We do have kind of that one column that says to Right. Right. But I think that you know what is critically important in that column is to look at like if you're looking at storm water capital projects and somebody calls you up and says, "Are you going to tear up my road again?" you can say, well, you know, it's not on the plan until 6 to 20 years out. And so it gives some level of confidence to people that we're not going to tear up the road tomorrow.

Perfect. Now, the 2026 column should be coordinated, meaning if we're doing one thing in one area that benefits the storm water fund, hopefully we're doing the same in the water fund. However, as you get three or four or five years out, that isn't as well correlated. However, that should be something the council is looking at and saying, "Yeah, if we're tearing up that road for storm water, let's also do the water and the sewer." Right. But six to 20 sometimes gets changed. Absolutely. And so it's not as reliable as the 5year, but I think that it's important to sort of understand what's in the thought pipeline.

Absolutely. If there are no more questions on the budget book, I'll go on to the fraud risk assessment. Fraud risk assessment is something we're required to discuss in a council meeting. So, we're doing it today. As you can see, our point total as is calculated by this state mandated assessment that we're 355 points of 395, which is in the low to very low category, which is great. We do a great job. The only two items that we don't get um there is a requirement that all council members do it. Oh, that's not required. There's a if all council members participate in the training, we can get a couple more points. It's just hard to make sure that those are done within the last four years. But if council would like to participate, you do have the the uh link there. And if you do do that, please send me the the little confirmation and I will record it and remind you in the future when it happens. Um,

I do those every year. There is also a commitment to abi a commitment in writing to abide by a statement of ethical behavior. This is just simply impact to have every single one of our employees do this and then make sure we're always on top of it. That's why we we will never get those points. It's just impossible. But you can see we we have conflict of interest policies, procurement policies, ethical behavior policies, and I think we do a very very good job. Again, this is the state's request. Is the only way to get those 20 points to have every single city employee part-time, full-time, all temporary, who knows? 500 of them,

every one of them always up to date. And that's why I don't we don't even try. Do we have a hot effective? Do we have a hotline? We do have a fraud hotline. Okay. That's one thing the water district check every Monday. We don't ever get that. my favorite some heavy breathing ones and that's it.

Send out an email once or twice a year just saying hey because it is it is a good thing.

It is. But in my professional opinion, this is good as far as a generic, hey everybody, try something. But we also think there are other things that we need to do and we try to do those and we discuss those at audit committee. The things that we think are important, what will what will prevent and deter fraud. Uh I also have a designation as a certified fraud examiner because I think that's important to be able to identify opportunities for fraud and try to shut those down. It's impossible to shut down every opportunity. Correct. All we can do is try to deter, try to be prepared, try to have good policies in place. But there are lots of people out there trying not to do that. In fact, we get 20 to 30 emails a day where people are trying to steal money from us. That's what happens.

We all get them. You all get them. They're getting scary. It used to be really stupid like kind of sort of send me $20,000. Thank you. You know, that's easy to detect. But now they're getting more sophisticated and it's getting harder. It's harder to tell that. Well, yeah. Harder.

Okay. So, that is the fraud risk assessment pay for performance. We discussed this last time. We have 3% uh set aside pay for performance. We have 2% set aside for uh market adjustments. The reason we separate those is because not everybody gets everything. Even if even if you're just a an employee, 3% is the good employee. That's the one who's performing. If you're not performing, well, your your base could be much smaller. Market adjustments are based on the market and corrections within the department. Things that have to be done in order to prevent massive turnover or other issues as identified by HR and the department head and

so Rich can you talk a little bit about where the 3% came from? Where did we come up with 3% more money? Yeah.

Or whatever you know. So, we've looked through every has a a schedule of what many other cities are doing as as they've reported. And I do think many cities in Utah are going to be doing sub 3%. Total in some fashion. We've been able to do 3% because in the past we've been very very conservative on our revenue projections and we felt like this was a great path to take. Uh it paid huge dividends. we were able to put aside the excess into capital projects and it all it all it does is pay things forward. Then next year we raise our revenue projections still conservatively and we were able to uh fund our budgets. Well, the state is changing their indicators to us and so we've had to change our indicators internally. I've become more aggressive in how I project revenue and you will see that as you look at the budget. You can see it uh sales tax which is our largest revenue source

is relatively flat. However, it's flat as compared year to year. As you compare it to the budget, because I was conservative last year, we still had some flexibility to raise that projection. You can see that in the budget. That's where a majority of our revenue came to the general fund in order to give 3% raises in the general fund. in the library. The revenue levy, sorry, the property tax levy, we anticipate is going to increase about by 3%. Naturally, that's been able to pay for the library. Most of our other enterprise funds, it was conservatism on my side, coupled with a little bit of growth on the rates that's been able to pay for some of the raises. But in the general fund, sales tax is our largest revenue source. It is volatile. It goes up and down. I'm more aggressive in how I'm projecting what that we think that'll be. I'm still a conservative guy, so I'm not getting wild and crazy out there, but I have had to be more aggressive in how I project these. So, what I'd anticipate is we'll have less going to cap to capital on a year-over-year basis.

Why do you have any understanding why the state made that change? Well, they haven't made any significant changes yet, but it it was just threats that they've made. They believe that cities have too much money set aside. They don't want them to have that much money. I get it. I get it. But if it it's not just set aside to sit there, it's set aside and put into capital projects. Yeah. Correct. Which is how you could pay for them. Yeah. But they don't want that. They don't have understanding the states. There's something called inter period equity. Okay?

What that means is that the people who use these stuff in a government environment should be the ones that are paying for it. If you have conservative revenue forecast and you have excess going to capital projects, that's a future capital project, which means the it there's a mismatch between the people who are using it and the people who get to benefit potentially. Sounds exactly like It sounds dumb. No, it sounds exactly like what they're trying to do to water districts. They are. In fact, if you go to the state auditor's office right now, they state that you should bond.

You should be bonding. You shouldn't be saving capital, which I disagree with. I I think it should be a mixture, but I do not agree that you should simply bond every time you need something. Get into debt. That just sounds like a bad idea. I think you should have a mixture a healthy mixture of debt and pay as you go. But the state honors office does not believe and you can go to the state office right now and see that guidance. That's what they believe and that's what our state legislature right now believes. Now, wait a few months, sorry, wait a few years and you'll have a city who's overly aggressive, who gets into trouble and the state is, you know, pounding on their door to fix things. And maybe you'll get a little different signal coming from the state. That's what I anticipate will happen happen because we used to be at 18% fund reserve, then they went to 24, then they went to 35 because they said, "Hey, we've got to be responsible." Now they're willing to pull it back to 25. And then they'll probably pull it back to 18. Then say, "Whoa, we're irresponsible. We got to push back up to 35." Then we have,

but that makes cities that it's really hard on a city. It's very hard. Yeah. Because it took us a long time to get from 18 to 35. It took us a very long time. Yeah. So anyway, that is uh pay for performance and kind of an overview. Ary's got a couple items to cover and then I've got one more item unless there are any questions. That's a good question.

All right. Yep. Unfortunately, you have to listen to me. So, we're lucky to listen to you.

I don't know. All right. So, what I am uh presenting is the resolution that we do have to bring before council every budget year and it's in regards to the URS contributions that we make on behalf of our employees. So we are part of the uh state retirement system which is called the Utah retirement systems and this is where we are required to bring forth the resolution in regards to the contributions or the pickup contributions that we'll make on behalf of employees and in this resolution um it talks about tier ones and tier 2s and that's the one question that I do get with it is what defines an employee as a tier one and what defines them as a tier 2 and it depends on their eligibility date with the Utah retirement systems. We don't define that. It's when they become eligible for retirement and the URS. So they changed it in July of 2011 where if you are hired eligible, not necessarily Logan City, but any URS employer, you're a tier one. Anybody after that date became a tier 2. So again, we have to bring forth this resolution in regards to our pickup regarding the two tiers. So in this we pick up 100% of the employee required contributions for tier one members and then the tier 2 members they are responsible for the employee contributions for the next fiscal year.

Any questions? They're they're responsible for all the employee portion. So there's the employer portion that we always have to pay and then there's the employee and is our employer contribution like 70% or is it less than that? It just depends on what retirement they're in because you have firefighters, you have public safety and you have public employees. Um but like I know public employees are about six I don't want to give you wrong numbers. I could if you wanted me to give them to you later. No, I'm just curious because I do it for the water district. So, I was wondering are they part of the Yeah.

Yeah. So, yeah, there's the three different funds that we have to man or not manage but we have to change the rates for but yeah, there is the employer portion and then the employee. Okay. Thank you. No questions for me. Any other questions for Amber? Thank you. So, we'll see that resolution next meeting. Yes. Next uh it will be at the budget time. I think the June Oh, it won't be. Okay. 16th one, I think. Oh, okay. We don't see it till then. Okay. Thank you. Cuz it's not like one of these meetings. We don't pass stuff in these meetings. We try not to. We try not to do anything important. We can tell.

Okay. Thank you, Emry.

Yep. And then the next one is an ordinance where we are required to adopt the salary schedules for elected officials and for municipal officers. This one's very hard especially for you guys because you guys have to approve your own salary increase. And so we do propose what we suggest that the council and the mayor um should make for the next budget year as well as we give you guys the schedule of what our municipal officers ranges are for the next plan year or budget year as well. And so with the next year we are proposing that the council members annual salary go up to $21,1605. And there's still the same $300 vehicle allowance that we do pay for you guys. And then the mayor, we're proposing uh the salary to go up to 130,000 $914.32 with the $6,000 vehicle allows per year.

So is that both 3%.

It's actually 5%. So we included the pay for performance plus the 2% because history and history of the council members for 10 years they didn't take any raises which really pushed you guys on the lower end of what other council members make and off for example your cash county council they're at 24,000 right now a year and their chair makes 30,000 we don't have a distinction between chair vice chair or council members and then if you look at Ogden. Ogden, their council members make $24,822 a year and they also offer them benefits. So that's an additional cost as well, which ours are part-time non-benefited

benefits. And then Lehi, theirs is $21,24. Um, they are a bigger city, but they also offer benefits, too. And those benefits are worth 40 to $45,000 a piece. Yeah. I know Logan School Board offers benefits to their schoolboard members. Yeah. Actually, something I didn't know. That's new. They just barely cons. So, that's why we're proposing 5% is because we do need to make this an attractive position. So, we want other qualified chemists to run in the future. What I which is hard for you guys to

What I think is really funny is how many people don't know you get paid. I mean, I was surprised it wasn't a full-time position. It was like definitely not living on $20,000 a year, guys. And we've had that in the past where council members that got hired on they said we get paid for this because they they were just doing it more for a service. But even though it's a very very small compensation, you guys do a great job for us, which is why we are proposing it to go up the 5%. And if Herm Olson were here, we wouldn't. No, he wouldn't. But he'd be right next to me advocating for you guys. Any other questions for Ambry?

Okay.

I know the best topic.

So transfers is a somewhat hot button issue at times. It can be. Um we routinely transfer approximately well it's 5 it's not approximately it's 5.5% from the sewer treatment fund 7% from the water and 8% from environmental and electric. It's as a matter of policy that's what we do. So if I were starting a brand new city not in Logan I would probably prefer not to have transfers be a part of that process. It's cumbersome. It's difficult. it's indirect financing. Uh I think it's people sometimes don't like it because they don't understand it. Therefore, I probably would not incorporate that into that new city. However, if I if I was starting a brand new city just like Logan in Logan's position with all the things that Logan has, including a lot of not not for-p profofit and non-t taxable entities, I absolutely would propose that we include transfers. And the reason is it helps defay the cost of providing services to those entities as well as all the other services that we provide. So those non-T taxable entities don't pay property tax but they consume services and as the city of Logan the center of this large valley most of the nonprofits that are not taxable and the governmental agencies and the other entities of these that don't pay property tax are all located within Logan. We have a wonderful university that sits on prime property on our east bench and we love it and there's so many positives that come because of that as a city that they can't really be enumerated. However, there's one large negative and that is that we don't receive property tax on that property. Therefore, to a certain extent, having

this large university makes it difficult for us to survive. However, we do have this transfer which acts as a fee in lie of property tax. Now, the other thing that the city of Logan does or has done to a lesser extent now, but we have done for quite some time, we provide services outside our boundaries. We do that currently with the sewer treatment fund and we do it with a few other areas. We used to do it with our environmental health fund. That's to we still do about half of it, but the the other half of picking up the garbage we no longer do. We don't necessarily get a benefit for providing those services outside our boundaries. However, we do get a transfer which is a fee in lie of that tax and it helps us defay the cost of police, fire, public works and all those other essential things that we do. But for the transfer, we would have to either cut services significantly. You can see what the dollar amount is. It's substantial. It's around. Carry the one car this 6 millionish we bring in through the transfer.

That would be cutting. If you can see on page two, that would be making a cut the size of say our fire department. Fire department. It's pretty substantial. Well, I mean, we could I have an option for you. We could cut half of public works, 3/4 of our police department, and these are all ores, not hands. Or we could cut pretty much everything else in order to sustain a $6 million. $7 million. That's a lot. You forgot to carry the one at seven.

Oh, yikes. So, we'd either cut services substantially or we'd have to raise property taxes substantially. Now, what that would do is it would shift all that burden that we're currently collecting on all these non-T taxable entities, their wonderful entities, indirectly through our transfer. We'd shift that to property tax. They'd no longer pay anything. And our little old lady on a fixed income would end up paying triple.

You could fill in the blank. Well, our our general fund property tax is around 2 and a.5 million. We'd have to replace that with 7 million. So, we'd have to raise our property tax rate that many times. That would be very very tough. Now, let's flip this and and and view this from the taxpayers's perspective. Well, as long as their rate is competitive, they don't really care, do they? For instance, if they were getting power from Utah Power and Utah Power has a uh what's it called? A dividend that they paid to their share shareholders because utility stocks are bought for that purpose. They're called income stocks. So, let's say Utah Power was providing that service here for about the same that we're doing.

How about Rocky Mountain? Rocky Mountain Company. I know. Sorry. Are there Is there another name for them? I was trying to I was like Pacific. There is. There wasn't. I know. I was playing along. Whoever they are anymore, who they want to call themselves this month. Sorry.

They're paying their uh their shareholders a dividend. And as long as our our rate payers are paying a competitive rate, they they shouldn't care necessarily that they're getting a dividend. They are a publicly held company. Well, if the city of Logan is providing that service for a comparable rate, which I don't define as perfectly comparable, but I I define that as their rate plus 8%, which we are, I believe, below in electric and in other areas, then in fact, our taxpayers should be pretty happy with the service they're getting. Not only are they getting a very reliable service and it it is primarily electric as you look at the detail there and as long as they're getting a good product at a competitive rate they should be fairly happy with it. So I do think it's something we need to control. We do have a an ordinance 15-40 that was passed back in 2015 that set these rates. It hasn't been changed since then. these rates are are these transfers are incorporated into every rate study. Most people should be fairly happy with the service they're getting. And I do think it does keep our property tax rate low and it is a responsible way to fund our government as long as we watch it and we be careful with how it works.

Well, isn't there a portion of what each one of those enterprise funds does that is supported in part by the whole? Absolutely. So there is some element of that percentage that's not directly related to the nonpropy taxpaying entities that live in the city of Logan.

You're absolutely right. Absolutely right. I mean there are a lot of services that we don't account for. little things, clearing sidewalks, parks and wreck, maybe mowing or doing some uh landscaping at certain places, including the water fund, the electric fund, and some other areas. Not to mention the fact that our electric fund uses our rideway free of charge for the most part. Well, and they use technology resources, they use the mayor, they use you, they use the attorney, they use risk assessment, which we charge them fees for that. And those fees that are listed here are in addition to the transfer item.

So, there's transfers and then just like Jeannie said, that's more of the administrative fee. And we do charge them for some of those things, but not all. Sure. And our admin fee, by the way, is super reasonable. Anytime there is a question as to whether we're being aggressive or not, we ratchet it down significantly just so there's no argument as to say that we're fleecing any of these organizations for the services we provide internally. How long have we been doing transfers for? The current resolution was 2015. When did they start? I've been saying we've been doing it for 30 plus years, but I've been saying that for 10 years. Did you carry the one? I I think it's been

How many times has the transfer percentage been changed in that time frame? So when I came to the city of Logan, it was like 10%, we reduced it to eight. We split out administrative fees to make sure we can work things accurately. Since that time, we've done nothing but decrease it. And it hasn't been changed since 2015. It has not. Do you feel like that's something we need to review anytime soon? If anything, I think we may need to just watch it in relation to our other revenue sources. We don't want this to become is huge. It already is big. Yeah. We just need to watch it carefully.

This was part of the concern with us providing garbage pickup services across this whole county. We were going to become the the environmental health fund with ancillary city services. So we did pair that back. We made that conscious decision that we can't become the environmental health waste management fund. We want to be the city of Logan. So I think that is likewise we need to be careful we don't become the electric fund of the city of Logan. We need to become the city of Logan and make sure these other services are comparable. I definitely wasn't implying we need to raise it soon because I'm assuming it gets dropped a little bit over time more often than it gets raised.

It has as rates go up and growth happens and more commercial industries come in. I would assume that percentage slightly decreases over the years rather than increases. It has remained steady since 2015. I think we just need to watch it and be careful. Again, it does help fund police, fire, public works, parks. And does the policy from 2015 that this percentage is reflecting? Would that require an updated policy to make that change if that were adjusted? Correct. Council would have to adopt that.

Right. So that would and then um is this what we do here with our transfers are there is this something that is fairly common you know within municipalities I I've just for my own you know I've not looked at this sort of comparison right before and um can you so it is very common in the cities that provide electrical power Okay. And because and that's kind of the key element. They usually do it with the other funds as well, but they a lot of cities won't do it unless they have an electric utility.

Got it. So the UAP sort of entities are going to be the ones that are So you're looking at St. George, Provo, uh,

some of those other ones as well. And you will have some other cities that do it. It is frowned upon by the state auditor's office. They you know there was a law passed several years ago that made it much more difficult. We now have to send this notice to every man, woman and child in the city and then we do have to hold this public hearing uh when we adopt our budget and we have to discuss both transfers and uh administrative fees. So we'll we'll do this again on the 16th I think it is. Any other questions for Rich? Okay, we'll move to our department presentations. Ross has been patiently waiting for us over there sitting there.

I think it's important to hear the important stuff. Take us away, Ross.

I'm going to give you just a quick rundown and then leave time for you uh for any questions you may have with regards to the budget. Um so in the parks and recreation department um it's comprised of couple of different um assets right um 47 parks um a little over 360 acres um 14 different kinds of rightways most of those are associated with the street realignments where the city ends up with this extra space of different sorts. uh three facilities, golf course, cemetery, and the um the law plaza, um 30 miles of trails, and a variety of uh different programs and a few special events. Um so in our budget highlights um we are in our second year of the no fee lease with the school district at the rec center and our current uh public use hours are Monday through Friday from 5:30 in the evening to 9:30 at night and then on Saturdays. Um our the cemetery master plan um we are still working on the improvements for the irrigation system um to gain greater efficiency. Um that plan also um looks at columbarians and cremation garden options that have been brought to our attention in the past. Uh and new indoor restroom and dedicated office space for patrons. It's kind of a embarrassing thing that when we're trying to conduct business with our patrons that they're using the same space that the staff are trying to take their breaks in and so we try to

schedule that. So we have as few interruptions as possible, but they happen from time to time. And it's also embarrassing that we have retired military people who wait for 2 hours to dedicate a grave and they don't have a public restroom. All of those things. Yeah. Yes.

Um and then golf course improvements. Uh we continue with our uh golf cart re Well, we have done our golf cart replacement program. I think we've mentioned that in in our previous meetings with you. Um long-term irrigation uh system upgrades for the golf course and driving range improvements. Um in our fiscal 26, which is our current year, things that have been completed or are underway, um the Maple View Park playgrounds uh are underway. We have the playground units um that will be uh installed by park staff uh later this spring. Uh a disc golf course restroom in the pavilion for that uh project uh is underway currently. They're working on making the utility connections for the restroom. Um the Willow Park Sports Complex, the paving pavement replacement's been done and the softball season actually started last night. Um there at Willow Park um uh Trapper Park trail bridge uh was installed at the end of uh 2025. Um that bridge is now in place at Trapper Park. um 1800 South Trail, Spring Creek Trail, both of those uh projects uh have been completed. Uh and the cart cart pl cart path replacements at Logan River Golf Course uh is ongoing. Um and uh the replacement of the boilers for the leisure pool at the aquatic center uh has been completed and we're now gearing up to open Memorial Day weekend. Is the leisure pool the big one?

Uh, it's the middle size one. Oh, okay. It's what some people refer to as the kitty pool. Okay. Or the mushroom pool like the restroom. That's not referred to as the one I use, but mushroom. Yes, it does. Um, can I ask a question about Tra Park? Is it scheduled to be closed for the rest of the year still? No, we're looking to reopen June 1st. Okay.

Um so we're uh in coordination with two projects that are trying to finish up so that we can reopen by that time. One is the canal pipe through the park and then the other is the um riverbank improvements

um that is mostly under Lakes's U obligations. um they're wrapping that project up as well. So, u when we do reopen and planning on June 1st, uh we're looking at doing a neighborhood ribbon cutting um because the the Spring Creek Trail and 1800 South Trail will connect to Trafford Park, and we'd like to do some kind of neighborhood thing. Um uh for the reopening of the park.

Yeah. Uh and then the the last slide here is just capital improvements moving forward. Um we're continuing to uh uh work on funding and making improvements in the outdoor recreation complex. Uh we have a uh service road in the cemetery that uh we need to construct um this summer. Um and then we have a state grant um uh for the riverbank restoration work. This is from Trapper Park or just downstream of Trapper Park to 600 South. Um the Willow Lakes obligation stops at their property. That's right. So it'll go from there.

So this is from that Willow Lakes obligation to the bridge at 6 South to 6 South. Okay. Yeah. Um and then the Kunler trail, which is the trail that extends from Trapper Park uh through uh Willow Lakes and up to 600 South, uh we received notice uh from County Wraps uh tax u folks uh on our request um to fund part of that.

What part of that is Willow Lake's obligation? They have some obligation. um their obligation is to match or they would say if they were if if you were talking to them that the city is to match. Um so matching funds to build the trail and currently they are looking at providing the um contractor or their task is to build it and then we would match um to the cost of that and there's a little bit of question but but their obligation was 450 or 500,000 um half a million I think I thought so too. Yeah. So,

and that's what our records show that it's a half a million. And we decided where that trail was to go, right? The alignment's already been set. And so, will they have to are they going to do it in a dollar for dollar sort of format or are they going to build their 500,000 and then we build our 450 or whatever? Well, yes. I say it that way because the in the entire scope of the trail also leaves Willow Legs but is still part of the scope, right? Which they aren't entirely a part of, right? Cuz

we're trying to get to Six South, right? So once we leave wherever they end, we still have a cost involved to um construct the remainder of that trail to get to Six South. So it's So when you say Trapper Park to six South, are you really only considering the part of the trail that is at the edge of Willow Lakes to Six South? No, we're we are we are accounting for the end of the bridge which is in Trapper Park, right? is right at once you cross the river the end of the bridge and then then going northwest right through Willow Lakes

but part of that's their responsibility that is their responsibility and that's how we're delineating this too just that the two entities agreed to um matching or to provide a match for funds to get it through Willow Lakes. So this this particular grant won't get it to 600 South.

This grant will get it from the bridge to the confluence essentially, right? In theory, this grant will get us to Willow Legs and then Willow Legs needs to construct um the u the trail somewhere on the conservation easement, right? Because the conservation ement is owned by Willow Lakes. So somewhere in that conservation easement, they pick up move it through Willow Lakes and where they end somewhere on 14th West and I'm presuming at the end of their project. Um then we've got between that point and 600 South to finish the link.

Okay. And that part of it hasn't been engineered out yet. Even though there's been conversations about, you know, how wide it should be, which side of the road it should be on, that it's asphalt. Um, we kind of know that, but we haven't put numbers to that. But isn't is that along that road? I thought we I thought they had to build a separate I say this is this isn't funding the trail section on 14 West because that's part of their agreement on the road. Yeah, there there is that. Um, but getting it to 6 South is where we need to be. And if there is some When you say 6 South, are you talking the 6 South Park? No, I'm talking to 600 South, the intersection of 600 South and 14 West.

14th West. That's part of their obligation. That that road from what would it be like 11 South to 6 South? Yeah, it's about 11 South. Yeah. And that's what I'm not clear on is that section of road if they have the whole obligation for that they do then you know we can talk to public works but it was very clear that they were building that road and as part of that they were putting a quasi trail along it well a separated way a bike path trail I understand it's it's separated just the details of that that is my understanding from all of our our negotiations with them was they were that road was being built with the bike path on it and that was completely separate from

the trail, the trail and the funding that we were spreading with them which went from Trapper Park to their outflow of their bigger lake which would then connect there and then you could go through the neighborhood to the trail. Yeah, that's what I understood was you were coming out you came out from that trail, you know, onto the sidewalk over here. Yeah. Not over here. Mhm. So yeah, he came out on the north side of 11th South as I understand it. No, I thought it was before that. I thought it was or 9inth south maybe somewhere over there before it goes north. Right. No, so their turn south.

I'm walking the project with them again tomorrow on a few questions. So I'll clarify some of this, but um their obligation from what I remember was they had to pave to they were splitting paving with us, the cost to pave to where the water comes out of the lake, which would be at like roughly 1,200 South, but it's like in the middle of their Willow Lake Drive road. Well, that part of it. Yeah. We'd like to get, you know, get that pinned down. Yeah. So the exact trail alignment was never has not been decided yet, but my understanding was we were splitting the funding with them 50/50 for the trail through the conservation easement.

The road portion that runs along 1400 West is 100% on them and that was in agreement to get their clubhouse because that that we understand. My neighborhood would have crucified me if I didn't build that road. Um because you can't run a commercial clubhouse or a residential neighborhood. But um yeah, I think that the road was all one project essentially. Yeah, it's so And then we're splitting the track. Correct. That's what I understand. And we had determined the Does that sound right? Other Russ is nodding at me.

Yeah, that's all codified in the 1727. I can get you a copy of that later. Sure. Thank you. So, are we saying this 450 is for It should be for the trail through the conservation. The 450 is our portion of the trail from the Trapper Park bridge. How far that 450 goes? Um, you know, that that remains the agreement has it gets at least to that spillway. Yeah, you have to get to at least that connection. But from a funding standpoint, well, yeah, we were putting in 450. They they were a little bit sticklers on it, but we were putting in 450 and they were getting it from the bridge to the to the

and they felt like they could get it done if they used their own contract. And they felt like they could do it for that price if they could use their own contractors. But there was no maybe on whether we got at least to the spillway. There was a maybe on maybe we got further, but there was no maybe on the spillway. Correct. Well, and and I share that because to us it really doesn't make any sense to get to a point that is short of the next city right away. And that's our that's the point here is is that this has got to get to six south. Uh on whose dime that is, you know, the certainly what uh what Russ Holly has would be helpful to us, but you know, we just would prefer not having a dead end trail.

Yeah. And it it won't dead end. It'll just currently probably end up on sidewalk for an eighth of a mile. So Russ, but it's not dead end, but it's also not trail. Um on the capital projects detail, um it had 950 for this line item. Um was that what what was proposed to wraps? Now, that is what was proposed to the state because we were also pursuing state Utah outdoor recreation grant funding. So, what we wanted to do was match what might come at the time because we didn't know that wraps was approved. We found that out this week,

right? They just but to match that funding with the state funding to do the project and and make sure that we had enough to take us as far as we need to go. There's one thing in there. It's it's kind of a detail at this point, but it's a concern to us. There is an elevation change getting from the conservation easement into the subdivision. Uh, and the way that it's designed right now is stairs. And so we're trying to figure out is there another way to be able to construct boardwalk uh for persons that can't do the stairs well be able to get in. We went this way and there were no stairs. We didn't go that way right into the development.

The plan was to go west to the spillway, right? And it was stuck with stairs. There is a connection. We go to the east a little bit that would not have stairs, but we're not sure if we have funding to do that right now. Why does the west one I didn't ever remember the west one having stairs at all. Stairs? Yeah, there there is. Yeah, there's definitely stairs. The reason was west was much cheaper to build and you can get way more trail for the dollar. going east required a lot of boardwalk and a lot more work and a lot of environmental because it's all wetland and you were essentially trading like a mile trail for like a quarter mile of trail. I know. And the trade-off was stairs currently. Oh, I didn't. So, we applied for state funding. Um,

so the 950 doesn't include the wraps under great proposed grant funded FY2. I think that's the total project cost. total project cost and so the wraps is included as a part of that a part of that and now we know that we that's been

okay and then my other question um for proposed on the outdoor rec center um here you've got 352 and in the documents we have we have 435 um and I don't know if Um, are we going with 435 or 352? I'm looking at page 131 on the parks and if I'm looking at it correctly, that's for the outdoor rec center proposed 27 and it has 435. Yeah. So, it might show.

Yeah. So, we've had some work that's already been accomplished from what I showed you on the previous slide in the outdoor rec complex, which was a higher figure on the capital part of it. Um, but moving from that, because those projects are already in the queue, u, what we're looking at moving forward, as you see here, is the 352 and what's targeted for that are improvement, infrastructure improvements for the dog park section. Okay. Are you seeing 352? I mean 35. 435. Okay. 435. Okay. I just want to understand. Yeah. Yeah. What? That that's because some of those things are already in the way.

Gotcha. So when we approve this, does it need to reflect the 352? No, it'll be the 435. I just need to find out where it's at. Page 131. Very topline item. Okay. I just wanted to make sure I understand. You're referring to the capital improvement schedule, right? CIP, right? Then it was just saying propose. Yeah. Okay, great. Um, you didn't expect us to grill you here. Sorry.

That's fine. Um, this is the end of the the uh PowerPoint presentation. Um, but I happy to answer any other questions you may have. I mean, I told Rich the other day that I think we should put fountains in the golf course in the ponds. We'll talk about that another time. Like the Bellagio. Well, no, not that big. I was just thinking like some like nice airation to help the ponds look as clean as possible. Also keep the geese off. I also think Russ, if we if we allocated some of finance department's budget for koi for koiish in the ponds, do you feel like that would um I'm not

people could pay 25 cents to go feed the fish while they're golfing. Yeah. You know, the animals create more more work one form or another. So, just be be aware. Well, finance doesn't need the money. I don't have any other questions. Any other questions for Russ? Nope. Thanks, Russ.

Sorry, I have one more. So, for things that are on this capital projects list that are listed as further out that are not being proposed for FY27, um demonstrating sort of the general sort of direction of priorities for the department. Um, are those determined within the department by the board? How here's where my question is coming from as a resident of Hillcross neighborhood. When I look at the I think I guess I don't know if this is the correct one or not but the Foothill Park development and that is the one that so that was something that was you know agreed upon when they when the city sold that land and that was maybe a decade ago and that land sits there and waits for development to happen and of course we have Lunchon Park right there which is the argument that's been made as to why it hasn't been a priority. But I know residents who live right around that area, who look at that undeveloped area, would love for the city to

It's supposed to be an undeveloped park. It's supposed to be a nature park, isn't it? Yes, but with a plan. And we looked at the plan, including a a off leash and leash dog park, a nature walk. There's a plan for it, not heaps of, you know, dirt and which is what it is. So that that's where my question is coming from as someone on like I know residents there when I chair the Hill every year like when are they going to do that? I'm like I don't you know I don't know. Yeah. So where we are right now is we're in a couple of years of catchup,

right? Uh because um you know as we consult with the mayor and others in terms of you know how we prioritize um it would be on the docket, but you know we'll take direction um and move forward from there. And so in large as far as the capital improvement schedule goes, some of those projects they'll move around. Uh obviously there isn't enough resources to do the ones that maybe are two or three years out because you look at that column and they're huge. And so it's it's a living document in in the sense that you know we add additional years of time and then reschedu but things that need to come to the forefront that's how we budget for them. But it's not entirely made up of you know the the department saying that this has got to be. um we're going to want to know that, you know, collectively that this is the direction that we need to head and that's how it gets to the top. Um and that's how the outdoor rec complex came to being. Um there was an opportunity to do something about it. Um funding was put together to make that happen. Um, but it is not a one-year get it done,

but we got a huge grant for that project, too. Which put it top of mind. Sure. Instead of having to wait in line with everything else. Yeah. And unfortunately, we don't have it. We don't have oodles of money. And sometimes we do we have do have the opportunity like with the trapper park bridge we got a lot of money from the federal go from the state and the trail is imminent because the developer it's part of his responsibility and he needs to get done with his responsibility. So you're right there. I mean there are other factors that sometimes come together because of timing,

right? That that could uh take the precedent or priority on other projects. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't think that it's, you know, in in a perfect world, we'd say here's 1 through 10 and we do 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. But we don't Sure. But but the direction comes from the the parks and board, the mayor, the council and grants. And grants money talks. Yeah. Yeah. When we got to use it when we got it. So, okay. You guys set the priority 485 is about what we can sustain right now. 485,000 a year. So, that's you kind of direct that heavily reliant. You can see those future years are heavily reliant on grants. Mhm.

Yeah. You know, 3 to1 matching. So, however we whatever we prioritize, but right now the recreation complex is kind of sucked most of our funding, which I know the neighborhood's very excited to have a park on the west side of 10th west for all the people out there. We're very excited for Maple View Park despite it being named, but we haven't forgotten about Foothill.

I know you haven't that I just seeing it on the list and seeing, you know, sort of projections. I just want to ask the question like how does this come about just because I have gotten asked very regularly in the past, you know, from residents who would like to see something done eventually given the amount of time that's passed. So, yeah. Thank you. If there's nothing else for Ross, we'll see you back in a couple weeks, I guess. All right. In June for the public hearing portion of all of it. Chief Thompson, they come and sit in the corner, right?

I know they do. They all come and sit in the corner while we approve the budget. Chief Thompson, look fly. What's that? She said your look and fly. Well, thank you. You know, trying to look professional. I'm wishing mine was as distinguished as yours. Do you want us to run us through your I'm assuming you have some slides. You'd have to not have red hair. Ouch. Shots fired. You know, it's the dark hair that makes that look impressive. Genie just told me my mustache doesn't look impressive. You just said it didn't look No, I said it doesn't look as good as his and you said it's the dark hair that makes it look impressive. Well, it is the dark hair that makes it look impressive.

They sell stuff. Yeah. Yeah, they sell. I'm going to take a sip of my drink rather than fire back. Someone strategically located me between two shields. I don't know who did it. I just He sat where my name did. I did it. Lucky. He's in charge of that. I did. Sorry, Chief. Can you just Do you want this line? No, no, no. I I understand. It's good. It's good. Take us away. Ready to talk some fire budget? Let's do it.

Excellent. Okay. Thank you. All right. Well, we'll get started. I only have a couple of slides. I know this is a review for some, but we do have new council members, so I think it's kind of nice to just kind of do a quick review on the structure of the fire department. Um, just real quickly, we have total of 72 personnel, uh, 60 in suppression, which you all know that they're crossrained as paramedics or EMTs as well, with us being an allhazards fire department. Uh that gives us 20 personnel per battalion with our three battalions that we currently operate. Uh that gives us one shift battalion per per crew. Uh five in administration, myself with my two assistant chiefs, our training chief and admin assistant. And then in the fire prevention bureau, uh I'm going to talk a little extra about that with you tonight. Uh we have our four people with the fire marshal, the deputy fire marshall, fire inspector, and our receptions, which is quite a retool from what we've been for the last decade or so. So, we'll we'll kind of go over that. So, so with that, I thought it'd be important uh sometimes I I'll take this slide out. I think it's kind of nice to see the structure of the fire department kind of focusing on the fire marshall's office. You know, I kind of feel like they're kind of the unsung heroes of the fire service. I mean their jobs are prevention and they save through those through their policies and how they manage saves a lot of property. Um, you know, and you could say for me it's like, man, it's like some people say they're putting you out of business, but that we're okay with that because there's plenty of other work and we love to see property saved and life saved, right? And so, it's a big deal. And with the departure of Chief Humphre, he was an assistant chief for a very long time in our department. And as we reviewed it as a department, we felt like it was good to get that that leader to be a fire marshal. Uh, Logan City has grown. The demand on that department is huge.

Just to give you an idea, they handle over 3,000 annual inspections and it's a crew of three out in the streets doing that and that includes plan reviews, special event reviews and that stuff just continues to grow and so it's neat to see the growth in Logan obviously and but one one thing people probably forget is when a new business goes into play or a new a new business comes into town those are all good things but the one thing that remains after the building inspection and all the final inspection Now there's an annual inspection for every one of those new companies that the the office handles. So in that restructuring uh we did keep one deputy fire marshal with uh uh John Keller and then we just hired our new fire inspector from the university uh Lauren um Schwanvelt. So we were excited to have her. And then as uh the mayor had mentioned we took our part-time receptionist and made Arian a full-time uh employee. And we did that through Rich helping with some creative maneuvering of dollars. We It was really net zero to the taxpayer. We just took found the money and in our fire budget and made it work. Uh converted some part-time dollars and allocated those to the receptionist. Uh because truly I feel like for a few years that that department's probably been a little neglected. And so we're going to watch it a little closer. I'm going to do a better job at educating you on the on our on our prevention office because they're so important to our operation. Uh they do a ton of public education and uh so we just want to make sure we we're monitoring that that department.

So Nate, do the fees not cover what you need? I mean, they pay fees to do all the inspections.

Uh yeah. Yeah, they do. No, thanks. You that's absolutely true. And and Rich was good. It took us a little fighting. I think we got there though. Um he was good. And and they we're we're going to focus a little more on those. I think what last year, Rich, we saw about 40,000 in dues or fees collected um in in talking with the fire marshall's office. Uh we're going to put a new system in place to ensure that things are being built properly. And so we're we're expecting that to go up and Rich was good to kind of share that with us to to help with this department. So no, that's an excellent point. That was one of the areas that we we were able to utilize. Uh, and then I, like I said, we took the part-time monies and uh, through the North Logan budget in my in in the general fund budget that they contribute to through their contract, their part-time money also contributes to their their part of fire prevention because they use our fire prevention office as well. So,

do we do inspections in North Logan as well? We do. Yes. In fact, we do inspections for all of our contract cities. Do they have the same fee schedule as we have? Uh yes. Yes. Because our contract cities use our system. So they inherit that. Anything that we're doing in Logan City, they they get that service at that. All right. Thank you. You had something to add there, Rich. Almost none of our fees cover the full cost. Well, no, I understand that. No, the private sector fully calculated cost, but I think we do need to look at it going forward because I don't know that we've adjusted those fees for quite some time. A little while. I think we adopted it 3 years ago, four years ago. Yep.

And haven't haven't done anything with it.

Yeah. And and uh I did talk with Fire Marshall Walker on that. I mean, you probably noticed uh in the Herald Durham, you know, I believe the county just upped all of their fear in fees because it's been a while for them as well. So, it's time for us to look at ours and probably adjust those. And I know how fees are we mean but unfort I mean it's just it's a big uh demand on the department particularly if you're going back for three reinspections like if you look at a project for example like Saita was I mean that was a millions and millions of dollar renovation and our fire marshals were there constantly you know reeval you know re re uh uh inspecting fire systems throughout that complex. I mean there's some big big projects that that that they're over. So, uh, we're going to do a better job. We're going to do a better job and, uh, we're super grateful to the prevention office.

Do we know what percentage of an increase it would take to get those fees to where they would cover the cost or is that even possible? I don't know that it's possible. Typically in government, we don't often charge the cost of capital.

Like we'll charge operational, but we don't really because it just gets that fee up into a place where it's hard. But we will look at it. Well, and I think I think a neat goal, too, would be is to at least get to where it could fund a person because right now we're maybe halfway there for full-time employee, wouldn't you? I mean, and so I'd love to see that would be the first goal is to get to where it could fund and uh someone full-time. And then that next step would be is to hopefully introduce another part-time person for inspections that are dealing with the smaller businesses, the I would say the little less complex inspections that have to happen. Um because our fire companies also help with those believe it or not all of the companies help where they can. So

So I understood I don't know I can't remember where I heard it but um was there some change did have we made some changes in the way we do the inspections in the fact that we don't get to come back over and over and over again without it costing the the individual construction project more money.

Yeah. So to this point, we have been pretty good partners. Uh I think just we've been really good as a prevention office to be willing to go back. But that's one of the things is without without there being a consequence or a a hard line in the sand of like, hey, you need to have this sprinkler system tested the next time we're back we come back or else. Um we truly genie we've just probably been really good to our builders and and I think that's good, right? We want to be good partners, but at some point you also have to say, "Hey, this is the line." You know, this is we you don't want them to take advantage of your willingness partner.

Yep. And so that's something we're Yeah. Yeah. We're That's something we're looking at because really we have probably been overly kind and considerate there in terms of that. So

thank you. I would just add um uh that with Lauren coming from she was an employee at Utah State University and having worked on two building projects and Lauren I was working with her consistently over the past three years on our most recent one on almost weekly meetings. the amount of time and investment and what they do. Number one, I'm I was sad for the university, happy for the city that when I heard that she was coming on, she's awesome. Um, but seeing what she the the the time what you're speaking to, it is it's a huge investment of time with new facilities coming on board. It is

um to ensure from that design standpoint to implementation to actual functionality that they're actually doing what they should be doing and the amount like the amount of time it takes a human person to ensure that that's happening along and then multiply that by businesses is that's a lot. So I think you're right like to at least have a to have a goal to at least fund one position or you know look at those and think about the directions so that we can continue that.

Well and and we'll we're going to do we're going to pay really close attention with our forecasting because they do a phenomenal job but at the end of the day you know even with those boots on the ground they usually end up about 300 inspections short annually. like they have to extend those just because there's just not enough time. So, so we're gonna we're going to be diligent there uh this next year and monitor that. Uh and then just real quick, our 2025 statistics uh we had 6332 uh 911 incidents last year. It's a slight downturn from 24, which is kind of surprising. We've been on a up upward tick between two and 8% for probably the last eight years that I can recall since I've been here. So kind of unique kind of a unique little bubble. Um actually our fire calls increase slightly if you see the graph there in 25 fire calls are up and and some of those do include service nature like related calls such as people trapped in elevators uh smoke in a building. I mean the more and more buildings there are I mean we have you know you have bathroom fans and air conditioners should have you know blow smoke through a building and they have to be inspected just like a fire. So even though calls are down slightly, fire calls are up a little, our percentage of EMS has always averaged around 80, but that's been an interesting trend that tends to continue to trend down a little bit to about 78%. Which is starting to trend into a moderate size city in terms of percentage. Uh, and then that also included with those runs, um, with those totals that also included the 11,960 unit responses, which we we monitor those cuz those are bodies on apparatus. So, as you guys know, on a medical call, you get a fire engine with two, an ambulance with two. That's two unit responses. That engine can then leave and go to another call if needed. It's a very efficient way of managing, you know, urban centers that Logan City happens to be now. So, uh,

yeah, that's like no snow in December, 60 accidents. That's your 1% right there. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Well, and beaver mountain calls and crashes in the canyon and snowmoilers. I mean, it's it's funny you bring that up. That's that's one that's one month of of decrease. Well, and probably realistically three. That was 25. Yeah. December 25. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, we didn't have any snow in snow. It is a mild concern in our 590 fund, which is the EMS. It is a mild concern and we're going to continue watching it.

We talked about it at audit committee and it's something we're continue to talk about. We need to watch to see if there's some trend that we're missing. There's some element that isn't being accounted for, but it is a concern. Our expectation is it'll kind of correct itself and work its way out, but yeah, we want to make sure it does. Yeah,

I've got a little data on that for you. So, you know, we I just like to also point out we try not to be a complete drain on the on our our taxpayers in the general fund. Um, just as a it's actually a pretty surprising number. I mean, as I looked at the numbers this year, uh we have been busy. If as you look at those contracts this year, we have renegotiated every one of those uh successfully. North Logan is still a work in progress. That's that's one we're still working on. Uh but regardless, it's still 2.2 million that we bill out in uh contracts. North Logan's dollars, to my understanding, are the only ones that actually come directly into my budget with the fire department. Uh but the other ones do not. So, uh, we did renegotiate with Cash County. You'll notice those, uh, the fourth bullet down. Um, we that was kind of in a that was at a weird number. I think it's much more reflective of the utilization of our services in the canyon and unincorporated parts of the county. So, that was an increase. And then Providence was uh increased to 5% annually. And theirs is now redone for the next four years. So, uh, airport standbys were up for us. Medical standbys are probably up 28,000 over the previous year. Our wildland deployment was pretty close. The deployment uh, revenues that was our that was pretty much net the 1758. And why that's significant is because it gives it cushes our budget a little bit for us to to take care of our four stations. Those that's the money we use to buy things, for example, like new new meds. you just don't think about these things. But to replace beds in four stations, uh you know, the chairs in four stations, kitchen tables, stuff that it's kind of it's it's just kind of difficult with some of those things to be like, hey, we've got to find the dollars in our budget to do those. It gives us that type of money that that helps us a little bit. So, that's after we've paid

our overtime and the and the uh the people that have deployed on those calls. So, last year was a busy year. We expect this year to also be a busy year. Uh for grants, and this was is kind of a good one, too. I think this is nice for for for Melissa and Katie, but with our grant uh our mental health grant, uh we we received that grant of 162,000 back in 2425. Our utilization last year was 5 to6,000 monthly for our personnel. Now, this this was pretty much told we we will have mental health for our first responders through the the new Utah House Bill 23. And so, what we've done with the help of Ambry with HR, we're down to 4,000 a month. Not because our people aren't using it. We actually we have probably uh through our EAP, we have used our we've added our vetted clinicians to the EAP program through the system that Ambry runs. And so wives and families of our first responders are able to utilize our vetted clinicians through the EAP and it's probably dropped our like what's coming out of our grant by almost half monthly. So we have extended this money I believe out of the 162 when I looked the other day we still had about 64,000 left. So we're really we tried to extend that money. It's been a great program. Uh but that's uh we we were our goal last year was to get it down and we've almost cut it in half to our current with our monthly use.

What is EAP? Our employee assistance program. Okay. Through the city. Mhm. And it's it's part of the benefit package and Ambry was it worked with the uh the mental health branch of that and helped us get our three or four what we felt like were our best vetted clinicians for trauma work added to there. and it's been great for our families. Good. It's been good.

Uh and then just a little bit more of the state EMS grant we usually get each year is between 50 and 60,000. Um 59,000 what we got this year and then our state wildland grant of 31,000 which we just approved some of that money for to replace all our wildland shelters. And then I figured you probably already looked at my budget, but uh in terms of the fire overall, obviously the 140 line of the fire budget has those divisions in that. Um I pointed out the North Logan station operations. That's that's one of the subsections there of the fire budget. Uh currently we have 43 uh employees in that budget. And then then our 590, which is the enterprise fund, all those funds come from our ambulance billing revenues um and our EMS themed grants. uh and uh currently 29 employees in that budget. So for for proposal in terms of dollar amounts um with fire the 7 million 205012 uh really uh we I felt like we did pretty good there in terms of uh really the biggest budget increases there are what was what was done by the mayor and and the city and the council with the uh with the proposed increases in in uh obviously wages benefits and overtime for fire. So, uh, we're grateful for that. Uh, otherwise in that budget, it's pretty flat for for us in the fire budget specifically. Um, obviously with the North Logan negotiated rate for 2627, that is a 5.3% increase over 25. It's not where we wanted it to be, but it is that amount. So, that would probably be reflected in that budget as well. Uh, and then in our EMS budget, it's down just a little bit, but last year we had to buy new cardiac monitors. So, there was 700,000 in that budget

last year that's not needed this year. Um, which is good. now and and and also you know to add on to what Richard just said as I pulled the data from revenue from April of 25 to March 26 for that one-year period our revenues in terms of collected dollars deposited were up about 232,000 over that previous same time period the year before. I would call that pretty flat in terms of is what we look for in that budget. So we are watching it. Um, EMS calls in particular, patient transports are down slightly for fiscal year 2526 to date. I think the mayor already nailed it. I put the why. Well, really what we we just feel like the mild winter really made a change for our the nature of our calls. I mean, in the winter, we're typically going on people that have fallen in the snow and hurt their hip. We got all, you know, the elderly that tend to fall a fair amount. We're up the canyon a lot more. We have crashes. um easily could could account for the 1%, but we're we're monitoring it closely. Um and uh we'll see. I mean, maybe it's even this a trend of people not activating 911 for some reason, but I'm just not sure about that one cuz some of the 911 activations are always kind of surprising. We're like, wow. Okay. But, uh we'll monitor that closely. Uh, another I guess one good thing that did come I guess there was other good things that came from the lab session this year, but uh effective May 2026 uh as you know we have to all of our billing for the ambulance service comes from the base rates from the state. We have to follow their rate and their mileage reimbursement rate. So each year annually I believe every February they'll now be required to review the consumer price index of inflation to see what that forecast is going to be. So for example this year if it was 3.1% that's what they would add to our base rates for billing purposes. Okay.

So total total budget for fire with fire and EMS uh 12 12875715. So uh the last little bit here I just have a couple more slides for you to kind of just plant the seed. So, in terms of uh forecasting uh and budgets and operations, uh really Logan's Northwest side has really been on our radar for quite some time. I I can think back even into when Chief Peterson was still here, you know, 15 years ago. We've had to we've been monitoring that zone and that zone uh we have always identified as zone 73. Uh the airport's out in that zone, which is our jurisdiction. Obviously, the west and the northwest continues to grow. And just to kind of give it perspective, you know, NFPA 1710, which is kind of our staffing standard, our response standard for fire and EMS, um the first unit of 911 activation, that standard says we should have at least our first unit on scene within 4 minutes. Um I pulled four calls from the area of 1400 North and 10th West this year. So far, our average is six. And why is that? Why does that happen? So, I think it's important for you just to kind of get the visual. So, the red box I've drawn for you is kind of my imaginary. What we look at is zone 73, which includes the airport. I've just drawn it down just past 10th north just to get a get a feel for the numbers. Now, those numbers you see are actual calls, fire and EMS combined. And with that data just alone in that zone right now where I've drawn the box, that's 1644 calls annually already. Now 56% of those are North Logan, 444% are Logan, but that's the North End right now until it's not. You know, we we we collaborate and we have a contract with North Logan. Um and so that that's kind of what we're looking at. If you look at

the two red dots there on the right side of the screen, those are the locations of the two closest stations into that area. So, you can everyone's driven Main Street, First West, that area. Getting from 1200 East in North Logan or from the University Station um down across town, it just takes time. We have to drive safely. Even if it's lights and sirens, it it can be pretty it can be pretty sketchy. So this is why, you know, it's been on our radar like, hey, at some point we have to make the move with the station on the north end that's on that northwest side to put the to put a fire station and personnel right in the middle of that. So that's just to kind of kind of show you that. I I I fully plan on getting you some more detail on that. I' I'd like to try in the future when we're not in budget zone, we're going to talk some more about it for you to ask questions and and challenge me on things and I'll do my very best to answer your questions um on what we're seeing in terms of concern out there. Uh the other quick thing is just to keep in mind here in the ver here in the urban this corridor here with all of these three and four stories going up, mid-rise and mid uh mid-rise and uh sorry and apartment complexes are great. I get it. Uh but that's transitioning Logan from what would 101 15 years ago probably overall a lowhazard type city which is mainly residential you know homes and smaller businesses. Well here again the NFPA 1710 standard that we try to follow uh for your initial fire response deployment. I mean we can get away on a house 15 is is pretty good. that gives us the right number. Once we're into a medium hazard with or large commercial three-story apartments, that number goes up to 28 people and uh because they take a lot of manpower to manage. So, it's something we need to keep in mind as we

continue to go up. Um I you know, this is one also to keep in mind of maybe where we rate as a city our size. Uh, and look, I I think with the NFPA survey, I would even say you you'll even see the range of firefighters per thousand residents from I'll even say go as low as one. You know, you might have one per thousand and I've seen up to two per thousand. Uh, Logan, currently we we our coverage zone covers about 81,000 people right now with our three contract cities in Logan City combined. And that puts us at about 77 per thousand. So, we're getting there. We've still got a little more work to do, but as we grow, these are the these are the things I have to monitor and, you know, and try to educate you on as as as Yeah. As Logan City continues to grow up and and out

or we say, "Look how efficient we are."

Yeah, super we are, Rich. We are super efficient. And they are they're really good at what they do. Uh so and really really one of the last things uh in term of watch out things I always like to watch for we're obviously we watch the trends in our EMS services and lensure and and payment um I would say our third party biller is doing an exceptional job compared to some others I think he's averaging up to I think he's about up to 42% now rich and most nationally most average between 34 to 36%. So they've done a good job for us. So their collection is good. We just have to watch the trends in transport. And then of course it's always thing, you know, just chasing other cities to retain our professional staff. You know, in terms of compensation, it's super important that we stay in in in uh check with them. So with that, um if you have questions, great. But at the end of the day, we are super proud to serve our community here and uh you know, super grateful to the citizens and the council and the mayor and uh you know, we love serving Logan City and uh super grateful for it. So, uh with that questions.

So, Nate, if Logan City Fire Department only did Logan City, how many residents are you talking about? When I looked at it, I had a had us at about 53,000 for the Utah census for this year. The old census is a little bit lower than that that I think some people use from, but I think we're right in there. About 53. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. You bet. Any other questions for Chief? We'll see you back in a couple weeks. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Chief. Yeah, you can go use them, Michael.

Is this you, Michael? Is this one your Yeah. All right. Show her that one sometimes. It's my my first round on this one. There's plumbers out there that's easy. So sometimes people follow you into it. So not today. Just saying. Scary place to be. We're talking bathrooms.

Yeah. No, I was going to say, do we want to wait? Dive right in. Okay. Uh thank you. Uh for those who don't know, this is my first time out uh doing one of these budget things. Y'all took a took a little pity on me last year after having only been here two months. Uh, no. Um, I'm also No, no more. I know. I'm also, for the record, no capital uh projects and uh because we're still paying off this one. And uh I'm not asking for any money that we don't already have. So, um really I just kind of want to look at this last year, tell you what's going on uh at the library. Uh I want to start with our staff. Uh this staff, these are my heroes. Uh they serve the public every day with a smile on their face and put up with all my crazy changes that I've been uh putting through.

Didn't they try to burn down your office recently though? Yes, they did. But that got us like 100,000 Instagram views. Did Did you call the fire marshal before you tried to burn down your office? I did not. Um this is why I got to watch what they say to them about not setting things on fire. So they did. Look it up. It was It was fun. It was fun.

Yeah. In fact, if you look at one of my windows in my office, I left some of the flames out. So, uh anyways. Yeah. These guys, these guys are great. So, uh, we do have a staff of of 28 people, uh, total, including myself. And I kind of want to run through a lot of the changes that we've been working on. And starting with behind the scenes, the vast majority of the changes that we've been doing over the last year, most of these were actually implemented between uh, June and December because in December, I promised my staff six months of no major changes. Uh so we've been going through a lot from how our uh supervisors meet with all of the staff management team meetings. Uh we've converted over to the city's uh payment system for when we take in our own money. So with that that has smoothed out the vast majority of our internal problems. We've implemented a new uh room booking and maker space booking software called library calendar. We've improved our incident reporting, um, communication channels, Google Workspace. Uh, we've been running through standardization and documentation of of our procedures. Basically, every time somebody says this is how we do something, I'm like, is there a document for that? So, we've building this repository so that if somebody leaves, we know how to do their job uh, and what our standards are. Uh, we built in an internal uh, ticketing system for technology problems. Uh we completely uh speaking of fires, we did what we call we burned our scheduling to the ground and rebuilt it from the ground up so that we knew kind of um we were so I could show that we are best using the resources we have uh person power-wise to cover what we need to cover. Time clocks uh we've been working with the board to update those policies. Uh I've redesigned the statistical report. We've re kind of restarted small volunteer program the staff resources portal and then I've reached out into the community. I've joined the uh cash valley library association board. Uh we

host a cash valley direct library directors lunch once a month. So we are talking with all these other directors and then Logan library has been represented at both ULA, ALA and other state level conferences. So, a lot of behind the scenes that makes us much more efficient and allow us to get all these other things done that I'm that I'm talking about in the moment. So, on the public services side of things, doesn't seem like a big list, but there is a lot under here to make this happen. Uh, when I came in, the book drop was just Steen Bowie.

We've changed it, so people more have to come in. Um, oh yeah, we we've had some visitors. Uh, the maker space has been opened. Uh, we have relaunched holds. Those were shut down kind of with the new building. That was literally the first decision I made as I came in. So, if you want to put books on hold, we will pull those for you and pull that in. And I've had people come up and say like, "That was great." I was like, "You're welcome." Um, we are just about to implement uh recommended purchase book plates. So, you can as a member of the public submit and say, "I think you should buy this for the collection." And if we do, yes, that was added. Um, you will not get your name in the book. Wait, it was the one you donated. Yeah, we did add that to the collection.

You didn't tell me. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Well, I'm not telling you. You didn't know. That's a public record.

Thank you. You're welcome. Uh, so if we buy the book you recommend, we will actually put in a book plate that says this was purchased based on a citizen's recommendation. It's phrased a little different than that. We're not going to name individuals, but it kind of shows people that like we are listening and we are purchasing the books that that you were selecting. And then uh the uh room booking and then also with the maker space that was that's now mostly self-service through that software that we installed. So instead of 17 to 20 something Google calendars that somebody was managing on staff, now it just pretty much runs itself. So if you want to book a room or book equipment, you can just do it online and come in, show up, and we'll let you in the room. Very cool.

Uh programming. We've done a lot of different programs. We've had author Craig Johnson. We had a robot robotics competition. Uh the one in the bottom right was world philosophy day. So we invited a bunch of philosophers to come give a talk. I was not at that one. Um I I just I I heard it was good. Um these are new regular programs. So these are things that these aren't one-offs. These are now ongoing programs that we have implemented in the last year and we've mostly le leveraged a lot of partnerships and some of our new volunteers that we've been pulling in. So we have American Sign Language uh language conservation club. We have a few new book other book clubs uh the American 250 film and speaker series and those have been at least the speaker series has been going so well we're hoping that next year we'll just pick another topic instead of American history. and we've been working with the university to to pull in speakers for that. Uh we've uh added additional story times. We've done a couple of free clothing clothing swaps. Um the drum circle happens to happen when I'm not there. So I you know I didn't I didn't create that one, but it's popular. So we we do drum circle once a month. Uh we have uh go a go the game of go club web development classes, kids club. uh our teen advisory board uh also popular our ukulele playalong uh that happened and then we've also been uh working with the warming center to do in building outreach. So they come once a week to reach out to the folks they serve when they're closed. So all through the summer they will uh have a presence in the library once a week. partnerships that we've uh worked with. Just mentioned the warming center. Uh our volunteers uh we're just showed uh a series from the climate future film uh festival. NOAS is uh legal ser free legal advice to folks who don't necessarily speak English. Cash Valley

Mutual Aid Cash Valley Starlight Alliance. Uh Japanese J um outreach

outreach initiative. Thank you very much. their class, their workshops, they've been doing art, they've been doing sushi, they've been waiting lists for all of their classes. Um, and uh, then the Institute of Government and Politics at Utah State for our America 250 uh, speaker series. Um, so I just want to share a few stats with you. These are numbers of this fiscal year of which only go through uh, April's stats. So we still have May and June compared to the previous fiscal year. Our study room is up study room booking is up 76%. So that's 76% over last year. 88% on the conference rooms, 30% on the community room. Inbuilding programs up 26%, total programs up 36. Children's programming up 120%. We have more than doubled our children's programming and that's through our volunteers including our bilingual story time. adult program attendance up more than doubled, outreach events up 45%, and outreach attendance up 22%. So, we're even doing more out in the community for that.

So, um yes, your children's programs have have grown by 120%. What about the attendance? I didn't pull that number. Okay, because I know it's high. I ran it is it is high. I mean up up until this last year we ran story time twice a week um plus other kids programs but really story time was that core. We have added that crisscross applesauce story time which is a little less of a production and in the children's area smaller attendance but we're doing two two of those a week. So and then our bilingual story time is once a week also. So just the adding of three more story times a week. Yeah. And not everybody shows up to all of them obviously. So yeah, that attendance is definitely up. I just don't have that number in front of me.

Okay. Yep. Next board meeting.

Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, yeah, I I can pull that number on that. So, um and then from a budgetary standpoint, I didn't I didn't pull a an uh I didn't create a slide for this. Really, the only two things I've kind of asked for, and it's just moving money around, is our maker space didn't officially have a budget this last year. So, I wanted to set aside some money. So, I keep I can stop getting the emails saying, "You're overbudget on your zero budget." uh on that. And then um to uh put about $5,000 into our um part-timer budget uh which will allow us to add to what we're calling substitute part-time positions so that when somebody calls out, we can call somebody to just come in and cover a shift. And so it's revenue neutral other than we want them each to work one shift per pay period. later forget how to do the job. Um, so that's about $5,000 a year. So I believe that's my presentation.

Thank you. So we did have a letter from a lady who wants you to increase your budget so she can check out more electronic resources a month. Yes. She asked me who to talk to. So she talked to us and now we talk to him. Yeah. Well, you know, how much do you need? Do you feel like I I for lack of a better term, is that not valid with the general population right now? Do you feel like we're overstraining that portion of the budget?

It's it's spec. So, we have overdrive Libby and we have Hoopla. And this is particular this is specifically a Hoopla issue. and Overdrive, we buy the content and then we either have the content indefinitely or till a certain point and then we have to either buy it again or stop having it. Hoopla is a giant collection that if we put no restrictions on it, we they just check it out and we get charged for it.

And that's how there was a significant budget overrun prior to my time. So, we have set up our our account with a budget that is both daily and total monthly so that we can predict how much we're going to spend. And so the and in that the number of things that could be put on hold was cut to basically the lowest you possibly can go and even once a month the company's calling me going, "Don't you want to upgrade that?" Um, it and you say, "Don't you want to lower your price?" Well, yeah. I've implied it. Um, so at this point there was an initial complaint from the heavy users that you cut it down. Uh,

I know one. Yeah. Okay. We know one. We know one here. Um, I have officially gotten this one complaint in the last year. So I officially last year. Okay. All right. Last two complaints. So there's two two complaints. So two in that. Um, I have to read books now. So listen to them. Darn that. Um, so at this point I wouldn't say it's a priority. If if I was going to ask for serious money it would it would be for staff. So okay, which I'm not doing this year. What are we spending on Hoopla right now? Do you know roughly? Not off the top of my head. Okay. Is it just under your subscriptions? Yeah. Membership.

It's it's in the subscriptions line. So yeah, we don't break it out by type, but correct. So, I read an article the other day that there was the possibility for people who have library cards to also use the resources in libraries that they had some relationship with like um I can't remember exactly what what it said but it made it sound like there were library that if you wanted to use the resources as say St. George, that might be a possibility through using your Logan library card. Do you know anything about that?

Um, a currently no. Okay. Uh I I'm I'm going to guess as to where that was coming from is uh one of the things that we will be doing this year is changing what's called our intergrated library system from a company called TLC to another one called Koha which is being hosted by the state library as a group catalog. So libraries from all of their all over the state consortially are buying into this one catalog. Okay,

that will, side note, save us about $25,000 a year after the first year. Um, once libraries are in a consortial catalog, theoretically, if you decided to, you could see what other libraries had as if it was one catalog. Okay,

at the moment, everybody is well, there's four libraries on the north end of Cash Valley that have joined that have their existing relationship. They're using this system. They can see each other's stuff. We are going to be joining this system. And when we first turn that on, if you come to Logan's website, you will only see Logan's stuff. You theoretically could create agreements to allow that to happen. Okay. There is no proposal to do that at this time. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. I'll see if I can find that article and send it to you just Yeah. I I would like to read that article actually.

Yeah. Um on the fines and interest revenue for um actual there's a a decrease well the adopted for last year was 5,000. The actuals year to date for fines is 12,400 and the proposed is 8,000. So somewhere in between last year's adopted and this year's proposed, but our actuals are a good bit higher. So I was just curious about that. And I'm I'm going to direct that to Rich. He he comes up with those numbers.

So the way we do projections is we look at a three-year historical buy month. And so I don't know specifically but as we were looking at these I think the concern is there's some inconsistency in the revenue and so we didn't feel comfortable we felt comfortable increasing it but just you know 16 could be an aberigation it's also going from 16 to 12 right so we're seeing some we're seeing a little bit of decline and also it could be that much of these that 12,000 was in the beginning months and not so much in the in the last few I can look but it's a relatively minor re

it is I just it seemed the proposed the mayor's proposed was actually low um for the actuals and the which is not it's okay as long as our overall you know and I know you said you moved some I just that's why for for a source of revenue that we don't know how much it's going to be it's better to go low extra somewhere else the same question on interest. Yep.

And so, as a general rule, unless there's something else that overrides it, the way we budget for interest is we'll take the council adopted um reserve level, and multiply that by an average sustainable interest rate, something like 3% maybe. I think it's either three or two and a half that I have. And that's where we get the annual amount for interest, regardless of what it actually is. Because right now there are two things. that the reserves are fairly healthy in the library, but the interest rates are really high as opposed to historical. So, we're earning nearly 6% or have been for the last several years. We anticipate that's going to drop. We hope it drops. We hope interest rates drop just a bit because then we'll get a little more sustainable. So, that's why we picked that 10,000 figure.

Okay. So along those same lines, our intent is to pay off the inner fund loan from the library to the electric fund this year at $600,000. That's a lot. So that'll also cause the interest revenue to go back go down in the future in the future. However, between the revenues that are between the reserves that are generated this year that we're in 26 as well as the ones that are anticipated to be generated next year, we believe that we'll decrease the reserve below the level that council has established as our sustainable level, but we'll quickly come up to it next year, which is remarkable. We'll we'll have paid off that debt in about 8 and 1/2 years. That's that's a lot of years earlier than we anticipated, but it wasn't a lot of years earlier than we hoped.

We were hopeful. We were just realistic that it could take 20 years and it took more like eight, which is pretty awesome. That's impressive. So, what that means to the library, you can see the amount we're putting toward budgetary reserves, 300,000, nearly 10% of the library's budget will be available for some ongoing things. Now, a chunk of that needs to go into uh capital replacement capital like a sinking fund for capital. Yeah.

And with a $20 million library, that needs to be something substantial, but the rest of it can go toward operations, which would be great. That'll be fiscal year 2028 if everything happens as we're anticipating, which I think there's a high likelihood it could. In fact, if during this year the library is able to save, not expend some resources because things worked out a little better than they thought, that'll also go toward paying it off and giving you a reserve in the order. Hopefully that So, and we won't know in finance until this year is complete, more like August, but we'll plan on paying that $600,000 off and then hopefully getting that reserve back up to the target level and then you're ready to go, which would be really great. Yeah.

So 2027 might be a little leaner than we hoped. 2028, if everything works out, as long as we spend those on really good things, it's going to be a good year. Yeah. Clear skies. Yeah. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions for Michael? Thank you, Michael. Thank you. Appreciate it. Good luck next week. Thanks. Oh, yeah. Thank you, Mr. Holly. It's his first turn, too. I know I'm a rookie. Thank you. I saw you running out of the room. I appreciate it. I could have looked it up, but thank you for the time.

Okay. I'm glad that you saved the best for last. Well, Kurt is over there. Oh, shoot. You're welcome. But he's a he's a whole separate ball game. I I have to tap this twice. So yeah, whole separate ball game. We were just so excited for Calm Death. Okay. Calm Death. Uh this is one of the smaller departments from a budgetary standpoint, but often community development is the first point of contact for a lot of citizens. Yes. You

I'm not laughing at you. I'm just like it's very important. If you want to start a business, come to comdev. If you want to build a home, start at COMD. If you want to subdivide a property, come to comdev. If you walk into city hall and you don't know where to go, there's a window. Come to somebody. If you want to make if you want to make a complaint, library, make contact. Um, and then of course the reception desk is right outside the door there. I've done all of those things at least once. You've made a library. Yes, I've done all of those things. Recently subdivided, too.

So, our budget's slightly up from last year. We were about 2.5 million last year. Um, our community development block grant or CDBG is slightly down um from from last year. We have 18 employees, 15 full-time, three part-time. And let me just break up the different divisions. So administration um this covers uh three employees along with a lot of the subscriptions, softwares, trainings, conferences, office supplies, uh consulting fees, um things of that nature. building safety. We have five employees and they do all the building permitting uh inspections. They also do reviews for new developments and then ensure code compliance. Neighborhood improvement is six employees and this division is actually so Aaron when I moved in this position a few months ago Aaron wanted to get back into planning and so Aaron took my old position and so his position is still open here. I'm working on promoting within to fill that position and then uh planning on hiring uh a code compliance officer. Um so that would be a total of six employees in this division. Planning is uh three employees, two planners and and one part-time and they do things Oh, sorry. Let me go back to neighborhood improvement. Uh so they're in charge of all the code enforcement. Uh business licensing, special events, uh neighborhoods, public art is Aaron wanted to keep that and I really wanted

Aaron to keep that. He really enjoys that and he does a good job. So um that actually moved over to planning. Excuse me. uh planning uh like the permitting things like conditional use permits or design review permits, subdivision permits. Uh planning was uh spending a lot of time on the general plans the last uh 18 months. So we do long range planning and then different kind of special things projects. uh the community development block grant. Uh this uh funds one employees salary and then the remaining portion goes to things like new uh ADA corners, new sidewalks, um art, infrastructure, and public services, typically uh nonprofit. So these funds are are geared towards low or moderate income recipients. and Russ just that last budget that dollar amount has been stagnant for many many years and it's declined the last several and so it used to sustain an employee plus some supplies and some general administrative well it doesn't even sustain the employee cost anymore and we anticipate very likely going to get worse in the future so it's something that Russ is just kind of planning for we want to hopefully be able to retain that position to do other things that are important to the department. But just so you're aware that is

we don't know how solid that money is. It might be gone next year. It very well could and we're planning internally to address that if necessary. Thanks very rolling stock. Um we are trading two vehicles based on our 2026 budget. Um, we don't have any allocated for 2027 as we're not changing any of the vehicles um until 2028. Did I see you got like a new colored vehicle recently? Is that your department? Uh, no. Colored? Yeah, it was like green or something. It wasn't white. The parking lot. I was like, very unusual. I was like, who the heck not want my cars?

Which department is it? Do you know? I couldn't remember. It was I think it's parking. Oh, yeah. It was like a Chevy Equinox or some like small crossover in like dark green. It's unusual. I walk in that tunnel every day. Every day. Is that you? Is it Is it better with the art? Yeah, maybe. I wish we hadn't put some things on the other one that I walk through every day, but that's okay. Certain words. Just certain words. Okay. Um, I'm happy to answer questions if there are any. What does that say?

So, Amy's Amy's continuing to be a planner. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. Amy Eggger. She recently advanced in her career and is now a planner, too. Oh, good. Yeah. She's uh beginning her certification process. So, yeah, we're excited. Awesome. And have you had any interest andor thoughts or desires about expanding our enforcement beyond 8 to 5 Monday through Friday to having some alternate shifts perhaps Sunday morning

when you might be able to tell where everybody is really staying

really living. that's been discussed. Um, once you get outside of regular working hours, it I don't know. I mean, it's similar to like a police department at that point where you're 24/7 or um, and we haven't we've budgeted for two code enforcement officers and the plan is, you know, regular working hours. Once in a while they have things like they'll need to monitor a light complaint and so they'll have to adjust their uh workday to go out at night time and take a a light uh reading with our instrument. But um no nothing serious

about that. I I do know that um some people know that after 5:00 Yep. They are off the clock. So, so that's why I signs will go up or that's why I wondered if there was a way that we could do some rotation first because I think it would be effective but probably hard to schedule. So, yeah, I think the majority of the issues are like the garage sale signs and things like that. Oh, I think Sunday morning is a prime time to find seven or eight cars in a park in a driveway and park in front of the trailers.

Yeah, the weekend parties and stuff like that. So, I think she's implying over occupancy. Well, if they're living there, they'll be there Monday morning or Wednesday. They won't be there at 8:00 as they go to work or they go to work or they go to school or they go someplace else. Literally, I did I drove by one residence on Sunday morning and there were one, two, three, four. Are you looking for five, six, seven, eight?

Nine. There were nine cars, a trailer that wasn't hooked up to anything, and another like tow trailer. We'll file a complaint. We'll we'll do an investigation. By 10:00 in the morning, half of them were gone. 10:00 on Sunday morning. I don't by Sunday afternoon, but I just, you know, on a different topic that I talked to public works the other day and the discussion we had recently about the bike plan. They are willing to share as well. So yeah, I'm willing to explore an update to our current plan. And

his budget's pretty simple. I don't really have anything else to go around outside of that one. We can't use CDBG for bike ped plan, could we? No, he has. No, no, but we have some other He has some budget line items we could put towards some flexibility in public works has some to No, I was just wondering if we could we could possibly talk that into being a bike lanes. It partially funded the general plan. So I don't see why it couldn't fund a bike ped plan. Yeah, that's why but I was wondering. Anyway, it's just an aside. Sorry. I think it's possible, but you have other funds that administrative. Yeah. Yeah.

We need to define a scope and then put out an RFQ and get some ideas for budgeting and then go from there for code enforcement. Just back to that um

favorite topic. Do you feel like like what do our numbers look like? How do we uh do we feel like we're I mean I think we're we most people feel we're not adequately staffed perception wise because things don't you know also not understanding the complaint based system. Um the 8 to5 is an interesting one. I never really frankly thought about a lot of like as a concern, you know. Um so I was just curious from a staffing and a

um the amount of enforcement I don't know what you call them, ticket item, you know, code compliance officer

visits. They'll they'll go out and inspect and they find a violation. And so they respond to every single complaint, but then they have to go out and collect evidence before they actually will create a case and begin enforcement action, which begins with a very nice letter. Um, and and eventually can turn into a not so nice letter and then, you know, things like fines and penalties and things like that. But, um, that question is is hard to answer. I talk to folks all the time that think we're too heavy-handed. we're too restrictive, you know, and and we should chill out on our code enforcement. I talked to other people that are like, you need to hire more. We need to clean up this, you know, area. And so, I think the answer to that is collectively you look at the city and you're like, okay, are things in pretty good shape or not in really good shape? And then then you would respond accordingly. As far as complaints and and like active cases, it's been pretty consistent over the last several years and the the three employees um manage the case loads pretty well. They're they're also custom where you'll have an or a person that's in violation, but it's it's a unique situation. They they need a couple extra weeks and then they'll fix it. where other times people are like, "Oh, I can have that done in two days." And so we try to be a little bit flexible because the goal is to fix the issue because if we levy fines and actually we can go to small planes court um and we've done that and we've won some some money, but the the issue there is the judge awards the money but the problem is still there. And so we try to fix the problem.

That's our real first goal. Um and and we try to work with folks and and set reasonable timelines. Obviously, we um we're not totally cush and say, you know, yeah, you know, take six months, you know, take your time kind of thing, but often times they have semester.

Yeah. But if you if you talk to the person, they often they often are in a situation like, "Hey, you know, my nephew's here for a month while he's in between houses, you know, and he's he's got a job in Nebraska, but he doesn't start for three and a half weeks, you know, and so um every situation is unique. So to answer your question, I I think in general the city looks pretty good and and we get a lot of positive feedback. Um, but we hear from both sides too. So, okay, that's good to know. Thank you. I just wasn't sure from your perspective, you know, that area that you hear Yeah.

what people's perception is, but perception and reality, you know, can be very different and I don't know what I don't, you know, I don't know what

I think from a personnel and capability standpoint, we we have the ability to do things. The question is if there's a certain violation or a certain problem that's that's a real issue and it seems to be getting worse, then that's where we could look at that and say, how do we ramp up maybe the fines or ramp up the penalties or the, you know, the enforcement action to really get out ahead of that particular issue? Whether that's, you know, long weeds or, you know, cars on the front lawn, whatever it is, that's probably the better way to tackle it is if we start seeing something that's getting out of hand, let let's target um penalties or enforcement on that particular issue.

I know, Mark, every week you could talk about something people aren't supposed to do. I could just People would love that newsletter. I know. be fun. That would not be fun. I think that would be so much fun. Parking the grass in the front yard. No, that's how you make your kids love you. You know, just tell them what they're doing wrong every week. That's what I do all the time. Try to put your plate away. Pick your socks up. Do your homework. He loves me because of it. Any other questions for Russ? No, I I digressed. I'm sorry. Russ. Wow. One question. It's that time. Comment for Russ or Thank you, Russ. You're good to go. We'll let you slip out before Rich continues to

harassing. So, the chief did bring it up. Station 73, North Logan contract coupled with this fire district, what the what the county is discussing with double taxation, reducing property tax rates. All of these things have come up. Well, we are aware of some of the issues, but all of these things are coming up and so we're going to be on top of it. Cash County is discussing some of that tonight. Tonight, maybe we'll have answers. Maybe we'll have more questions. We don't know.

But all of this is somewhat flux. I know we've had some conversation with council and let them know if these things are happening, but just bring it up in case someone says, um, why didn't you give us any warning? I just we're looking at these. I just worry that it's going to be very complicated and perhaps detrimental to Logan's ability to function the way it has been. Yeah, multiple concerns here with us servicing North Logan being reliant on that contract is a little problematic. Well, the airport the airport is another factor. Yep.

The question is, you know, the chief explained we've got needs in in the station 73 vicinity. It's not a fully blown station yet. Coupled with North Logan, it it is, but not without North Logan, it's it's not. But the problem is when do you staff it? When do you fund it? All of these are questions. We have no good answers, but we're hoping depends on how the conversation goes at Catch County. We may have some proposals or we may not.

Yeah. But we all know this is a concern. It does impact 2027, but it really impacts 2028 potentially. 2027 will get by either way. It's just timing. When is it the most fair to our citizens if we're to open the station and have we fund those things? So stay tuned is what I'm saying. Any other questions before we adjourn our scared? Yeah. Okay. Any other questions before we adjourn our workshop for the and ree council and then and then we'll reassemble for the RDA workshop. But any other questions?

We're adjourned. We need to start our LDA workshop. All right. Reconvene. Reconvene as the redevelopment. We can restart. I don't have to say reconvene. It was a false start. We're going again. Go Kirk. All right. Good evening. We've blown our timeline tonight. I've been doing so good for weeks. All right, we're bringing home the the home stretch, right? RDA. Thanks for

Let's talk RDA for a bit. Um 2027 budget. Uh just a quick update on some projects that have been in the works for the last couple years. Uh photo on the left of course is the what used to be known as the Plaza 45 building. It's uh progressing well. uh the developer Boster Properties that bought it is completing the uh the buildout and likely um in the next several months we'll see some some of the businesses opening there. Uh combination of retail, some service businesses, some office uses. Uh so that'll complement the plaza, help animate that whole area um more so than it is now. Obviously, that's a very popular.

It's going to be retail on the main floor, right? What's that? It'll be retail on the main floor. Um, part of part of the main floor. Yeah. Well, I thought the original intent when we sold it was the entire main floor was to be that was the original intent and we worked long and hard with the developer to pursue that reality. really what uh in my opinion what well the truth of the matter is what a developer is running up against there is the parking um in fact I just did a with the bluebird would open it seems that there would be plenty of parking because all the workers would be gone we don't get emails about that

on a Friday afternoon I think it was last week or the week prior just because uh you know we were brainstorming parking what do we do in the future Um, and it wasn't a a formal audit, but just by observation, the lot behind the plaza was, let's call it, 99% full with about five to six cars circulating looking for a spot. Um, to add to that, the small lot between Jump Moon and uh, Indie Clover there on the corner. I mean, that's a small lot completely full. And even the lot across from the school district building on the south of the school district building across the street uh which we encourage business to have their employees park there and contractors that was probably 90 90% full.

Was that what time on a Friday? Excuse me. What time on a Friday was that? Ah good question. Was it evening like people are going It was probably 11 to 1ish. Okay. 11 to 2 somewhere in there. probably, you know, the lunch hour. The lunch hour. Yeah. Yeah. It's like that every day except for Saturdays. Every day. Well, I think all the There's a lot of employee parking back there, right? But how else are they supposed to get to work and where are they supposed to park? I mean, where are they supposed to play? That's what I've been saying. So circling back to Jeanie's question that was the intent when you started looking at uh restaurant users those kind of things

but really where else uh where it's not dedicated parking and it's public parking it's that's worrisome from a an operator standpoint. Now we know if they open there people will find it they'll walk they'll they'll get there. But when you're making a big uh investment investment with significant risk, um you know, they look at parking and where we're transitioning into a more urban environment as opposed to just the mentality of park at the curb and walk right in. Um you know, caused But we don't want to build a parking garage because it's too scary. I mean, I want to build a parking garage.

Who says it's too scary? Oh, yes. Well, I'll tell you. Some trouble drama. I would love to not park my vehicle. More to come on the parking front. I guess line there.

Well, I just I just feel I'm sad that we anticipated that that would be a a location that would open onto the plaza and be some sort of restaurant or something that would serve help to serve the patrons of the plaza as well as create an experience downtown. to throw a piece of candy at that comment. There will be a retail function there that people I think will be very excited about. It won't be the the total enchilada. I'm using a lot of food analogy. I ate dinner too. I don't know why,

but I think people will find that to be a fun addition to the ground level of the Plaza 45 building. Okay, more to come. Go. So announcements I'm sure will be forthcoming from the developer and the businesses themselves. The photo on the right of course is the old fire station. Um seems like they have a lot of departments including economic development were involved with the sale of that. Uh ironically the the the buyer of that building

is the same that bought Plaza 45 and just doing a great job. It's Foster Properties. So, that building is mostly done. Got some offices already in there. Vessel Kitchen, of course, has been open for a few months. And great project. That turned out better than I thought uh you could do with that exterior the way it was. Um so, moving into this year's budget. Oh, there's not really pink on the target, is there? Looks like it'll be covered by insulation or something. Oh, at the bottom. Yeah. Thank you. That's That's not pink. Kurt's like, "You're color blind. That's red." I was like, "No, there's no there's no pink on the target."

Rebranding to pink Target. So, we went from, you know, the last couple years we've had a modest budget. This budget's modest, too. But we do have one exciting new addition to it, and it is the Cash Valley Marketplace project, which includes obviously the Super Target, which will open uh this summer. Uh look, I mean to a date un so far undisclosed

it it yeah it's close though. I mean you look at that project all the way around and and it's very very close. So they were just doing some landscaping and the parking islands uh last week. Project also includes 312 residential units that they've started pulling permits for and then of course some future retail to the south of the project. I keep getting asked, is there going to be a hotel there or is it just apartment? No hotel condom. Are they There was originally going to be a hotel. Okay. There was originally no longer. Unfortunately, it was a it was a target requirement that they couldn't have a hotel. Target.

Yeah. That's what I was told by the developer. Okay. Anyway, no hotel, but there will be residential. Mhm. Well, the residential is always going to be there. Instead of where the hotel is mostly, you'll have the the box store retail. So, they've they've come through planning commission and city council big box. Midbox. Thank you. Like what size of uh 60,000 maybe for one building, maybe 20 the other or some combination. You know exactly what that is in size, right? Yeah, totally. I know that. No, I thought it was it's it's one building. one building with two two to three

t. So size of a Barnes & Noble in one maybe or something like that, but not the size of a Trader Joe's. Well, well, Target's going to have food, so you can imagine that that's probably not a plan. Yeah. Keep calling, Melissa. I'm trying. I have been trying for years. Going as good as the rec center? Yeah, pretty much. All right. Okay.

On the revenue side of the budget, um just one revenue source that that of course is tax increment, property tax, uh totaling 610,000. That's an estimated figure. Of course, it's to be calculated and generated. Uh and fund reserve, we're pulling no monies from the existing fund reserve this year. on the revenue side, total of 610,000. Uh we do have, just so you're aware, three active project areas uh in the redevelopment agency. Active meaning uh tax increments still being generated and collected by the RDA. Those three areas are the auto mall CDA, which is out north by the Young Auto dealerships, Honda and Toyota out in that area. South Main River, CRPA. That stands for Community Reinvestment Project Area. I know I threw a lot of acronyms at you right there. That's where the big hole is.

That is the under the road highway, which in my mind that's going to be just a great addition. Awesome. Oh, yeah. It's going to be cool. But right now, it's a huge hole. It is going to be and slow travel we might add. Not just on Maine, but everywhere. First east, first west, everywhere. Well, you know, you close Second East and part of Main Street. There's no place else to It's hard. Yeah, it's construction season, right? Yeah. People just ride their bikes. Just a lot of construction.

And then the third one there is what we just discussed. We call that the 1400 North Main CRPA. That includes that whole area around where the cash value marketplace is being built. On the expense side, significant items are really obligations that are tied to the development agreements in those active project areas. And then we've also got some general administrative expenses. So with that, that's my presentation that you want to ask. So current questions. Yeah. What is the status of the development agreement for the housing portion of the Adams management project? Um there's going to be

so I mean they did submit as you're aware of the one time that came through planning commission two or three years ago I think. Um so they're done twice. Yeah I would I would expect another submission here. I don't know have the timing for that but they're working on that. They're are they still visualizing what that concept's going to look like and they're still planning on doing the housing? Yes. Okay. How long do they have to do that before their increment expires? Well, technically the increment what we did on that agreement is there was a cap with two uh with a deadline on the housing. So that deadline's come and gone.

So what happened is the cap on that incentive agreement ratcheted downwards to the tune of I think it was 160. So we don't owe them any money when they build not on that. Right. Unless, you know, I mean, they could always reapproach if they've added elements or added, you know, something that would warrant discussion, but no, to answer your question, we do not owe them anything. Okay. Housing. Thank you. Other questions? Can I ask a really dumb question? It's not because I'm new. Why are you separate from our regular municipal council meeting? Why is the redevelopment? Um, I just like to fly around. Just so you're Kirk doesn't get along with people from from the planning department.

Yeah. Um in some cities you see that as one unit. Um uh just Yeah. Ever since I've been here I've just been associate with the mayor's office. Of course I interact all the time daily probably even with uh with Ross and his staff. Um, wasn't it part of But then again, I spent a lot of time with the mayor, you know, previous mayors as far as what are those next new opportunities and things like that? Wasn't it part of the way it was structured when we started it? Because it was structured as an independent piece. It's a separate legal entity over which you are the board, not the city council. You're the board even though you're the exact same people.

So separate from all our other departments. Sorry business card. We also have a municipal building authority that is it's dormant so we don't utilize it but that we do have an established municipal building authority over which you are the board a completely separate entity and we also have we could have more meetings there's one more like a housing authority or something else another separate legality us over which you're the board which is also government

and so it's it is a completely separate legal entity and It does it does things differently than the city. The city acts in the benefit for the benefit of the city and all city resources. In this entity, you actually receive resources from the county, the school district, and the city and act separately. Even though everybody acknowledges you're the city council and you act in the benefit of the city. So like you, Melissa, I have two titles, too. You're a municipal council person and you're also an RDA board member. And Mike should have put it on the business card. I'm the executive director of the redevelopment agency. The mayor is the chief administrative officer, but I have an RDA title and by the RDA city or is he paid

Okay. He's he's paid by the general fund. It used to be I thought it was that the RDA paid his salary or reimbured his salary to the general fund. RDA doesn't have any money anymore, so they don't. I thought we talk about that. Yeah. Let's find you some money. I know. How do you make money? Let's find some. Sadly, we're going to labor. That's why we save him for the end. I think we deserve We are not doing that. Any other We are getting enough tax revenue. We're getting enough tax. I know, but that's enough tax increment to keep the salary within the RDA. Kirk wanted a raise.

I'm just kidding. It really we wanted to preserve all the resources the RDA had because I mean they were dwindling. It was at one time they were paying his salary and reimbursing us for the overhead that we invest in the RDA. It just doesn't have the ability to do it anymore. That 610 almost 100% of that is paying out on contracts that we've established. If we grew the RDA more potentially it could come back. Right. Well, I've always maintained we needed to grow the RDA. Sorry. Go. We're also limited. Um, usually when we set up an RDA area, uh, you know, 80 90% of those revenues coming in need to be spent on RDA activities,

right? 5% 5% admin, which typically would cover salaries and benefits, those kind of things. So 30 grand. Yeah. So it's just doesn't want to decrease. You don't want to be that. It's sort of like CDBG in that way. It is. Yeah. Can you imagine? He He'd be like, "Jenie, please don't report my house. There's nine people." We're a jerk. Let's go home. Thank you, Curtis. You're welcome. Yeah. Um,