City Council - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress.

All right, welcome. It says recording in progress, but that is good to go even though it doesn't say recording started. So, uh, welcome to this special city council meeting being held on December 2nd at 5:30 rather than at 7:00 to give residents, council member staff if they so are inclined to attend the the county uh potential uh property, the county uh tax discussion tonight at 6:00. Uh we want to make sure that we can uh we we have a rom here. So it looks like we we do. Gina Hurst, Shayen Haymon, Brian Plameumber, uh Spencer Summer Hayes, and Robin Mikum are all present from city council. We have one item on the agenda. It is uh a notice from the South Davis Rec District of a proposed tax increase. Our representative uh for South Davis Recreation District is Councilman Summer Hayes and uh he will uh present that to us as as required by statute. So Spencer,

thanks Mayor. Um, I highlighted this I think uh in a quick update to all the council members, but in order to meet uh state statute, uh we want to do this in open public session and uh within their reporting requirements as well, similar to what council member Heymon did with the mosquito abatement um uh uh increase that's been proposed. I don't know, did that already pass? Was that in December or the next week? We did that uh two or four weeks ago. Well, sorry. But the actual uh truth and taxation hearing sh happen. Yeah, that that hasn't happened yet. Yeah. Okay. That's what I was think.

Okay. Um so Lisa just wanted me to make sure I ran through each of the uh uh points that we need to state. And that is first off, we did pass a tenative budget on November 10th. Um and we did that in advance of presenting a truth and taxation uh hearing last week which uh is a proposal of increasing the levy increase. And as a reminder when I say levy increase there are two components of the South Davis rec uh district uh tax uh calculation. One is for the general obligation bond which was the construction and uh development of the facility and then the other is the levy uh for the ongoing operations of the facility. Uh so this is just for the levy increase uh and that is equal to $86,200 which represents a 5% increase uh uh over uh last year's um amount. Um, for a reference, uh, COLA was 5.3, uh,%. So, it's under that. And really, this is just offset inflationary costs. Um, and I forwarded to you the uh the PDF packet that the uh staff at the district had provided. But in uh examples of um the inflationary costs would be something like uh utilities we increased a 15%. So from uh in 2023 our utility cost was 568,000 and change and last year it was 645,000. So that was a 13.5% increase. I think I'm kind of preaching to the choir, but these are the uh amounts. Uh our

insurance increased by 16%. Our pool chemicals uh for uh chlorine and other things were up 33%. So this is a reflection of uh many of the inflationary pressures that we're seeing. U 5% is equivalent across the district. Our median uh household value, residence value is $623,000. So on a average median priced home, that's $2.11 per year or about 18 per month. Um, so I think Lisa, just correct me if I'm wrong. I think we've met the statuto uh and more statutory requirements in terms of uh stating the facts. Anything I missed?

No, it looks like you hit the four items. Um, and the council is welcome to weigh in on their sentiments on this. Um, but really it's just mainly helping get the information out to the public about uh the rec district's proposed tax increase. Thanks, Lisa. So, yeah, I'm happy to answer any questions that council may have for me uh and answer them as best as I can. If not, I suppose we'll just go to the public hearing portion of it. Mayor, uh, we don't have it down as a public hearing. public hearing on it. Sorry, maybe it's not a public hearing. Sorry, did I miss that?

The statute just says that we have to allow time for comment, but um you know, if anyone wants to comment, they're welcome to would like to say something, mayor, whenever you're ready for that. Um yeah, go ahead. Councilwoman Hurst, I want to say thank you to Spencer. um he has spent a ton of time working with the rec district and working on some really complicated issues and thank you for all of your efforts to to help get the budgets where they needed to be for our rec district so we have it for many more years to come.

Um thank you. Uh I I did state to the public um in our truth and taxation hearing, this is just the beginning because there's still a lot of things that need to happen there, but I think we've now are trending in a trough and headed back up in terms of our cash reserves. Um, you know, it's been a delicate balance to really push staff to uh curtail costs and reign in programs that just didn't make financial sense. We got a lot of backlash for uh cutting the spooktacular. We were losing $15,000 a year on it. Um there's other events like that where you know we just have some people saying it costs too much to do comp basketball and we've said we're the rec center, we're not the comp center. And so it's been we've gotten some people that say you're charging too much and other people that say you're not charging enough because we don't want this tax increase to happen. So uh it is definitely a fine balance that we've been trying to weigh. We've cut our own uh pay, if you want to call it, uh a couple years ago, we slashed that out of our budget, so we're not even getting a stipen for that either. Um so, we've uh done a lot of work and like I said, a lot more to come, but thank you, Council Member Hurst.

I want to agree with her. She Spencer, you've done an amazing job over there, and I'm glad you were there and and have helped with that because I do think that they're much better for your input.

Well, thank you. I think we have a great board. We did switch the board a couple years from an eight member board to a seven member board. Uh so we didn't get into these kind of stalemates. There are five uh elected officials from each one of the municipalities that represent us plus two at large seats from members of the community. And those two members are I think very valuable. So, and I I think most everybody or the general feeling is is we still have work to do on the financial side of it and yet still be this great community asset. And I think what the public misses sometimes, Councilman Summers, is it's a it's a fabulous asset that we the five cities have there with the recreation center, but it's not necessarily provided to be there to uh run at a loss. I I I mean, programs have to support themselves. And if I'm not mistaken, in your four years, this is the first tax increase. Is that correct? No, we had that massive one two years ago. So that was the that was the challenge at the recck district really is that for some reason and I have no idea why anybody would have committed to this or maybe there was a gross misunderstanding but there was this uh representation at least uh presented by some of the community members that there would never be any tax increase and I just don't know how that can ever happen when you expect to pay a competitive wage when you have to pay for supplies that continue to go up in costs and utilities and insurance and all the other costs that go with it. So really that was a it was an interesting debate. So just for historical uh institutional knowledge some members of that board at that time wanted to increase the levy by

150%. And there were those of us uh me and director Bradshaw who is mayor elect at Bountiful and Mayor Westergard were vehement opposers to that and we said no we're comfortable increasing the taxes commensurate with a inflationary increase but not above that that shouldn't happen. So there was that big increase to make up for 15 years of not keeping up with costs. So this is this is the last two years and is a reflection of the last two years worth.

And I remember that now when you say that cuz I remember back then uh when it was on the ballot to for the bond for the rec center I I was one that uh was a got the impression that there was never going to be any increases but I said to my wife and many other people that's impossible to do. Uh so, uh I'd never read that anywhere, but that was being talked about. So, you you you had an impossible task, but not only did you you had the increase, but I know the type of cuts you had to make as well, too.

And that's a great great example of combining uh the cuts you had to make with the increase. Things like, for example, uh the food out front that was operating a loss. It was just ridiculous. just just one example. So, thank you. Any other questions for Councilman Summers?

I I know Councilman, you're almost off this uh committee, but uh I just wanted to maybe give you some insight. I was at a facility up in Cameas not too long ago and they have converted to um a system called Chlor King that basically is a selfcllorinator and they were paying somewhere around $8 a gallon for bulk chlorine and now they're paying 48 cents a gallon. So chlorinator.

Yeah. So I don't know if they're using that currently there or if they're buying b chlorine like most places are. There is a little bit of investment to buy the system. It's about $100,000. It might be different for your guys' body of water, but I think it's definitely something you should look into to cuz over time you could pay that off pretty quickly. Yeah, good. That's a good suggestion. Thanks, Bryce. Thank you.

I think looking back, Mayor, Director Bradshaw gave me a very uh sentimental gift. Uh it was a Stanley bottle, but it had the inscription, it said Spencer's Motion on it. And I did take a lot of flak because uh I was the one that let out when uh we had a different board makeup. Uh the board wanted to, you know, buy fields and expand. And my motion was a five-point motion that essentially said, "Hey, we got to get our financial house in order before we're even thinking about those things." And there were some people that weren't too happy with me, but uh it's been a kind of a not a it's a just a an interesting process for sure.

Yeah. Even though this on the agenda doesn't say a public hearing, if there's any members of the public that are in on this meeting, uh do you do you have any comments or questions uh for us? I would I would allow that. I don't know that there is, but if there is, speak up. I don't see anybody. Do you, Jennifer? No. And there's nobody here at city hall either.

Okay. All right. So, uh, so, uh, the public has been notified. they they could theyigh in on it now uh you know to members of the rec board or to to us as council uh and the staff that sort of thing. But uh if there's no other questions for Councilman Summerh this isn't something that uh we're taking any type of vote on. We just uh by by statute as he said had to get it out to the public. So, and for everybody's information, our final budget is being presented uh on Monday, December 15th. Okay. Two weeks from yesterday.

Yep. And mayor, just to follow up with regard to the mosquito abatement, that hearing is next Thursday and it starts at 7. Yeah, there is going to be an early board meeting at 6:00 with our normal time and then we've specifically scheduled that truth and taxation at 7. I just double checked. Okay, thank you. Anybody else? Anything else? Uh, for Spencer, uh, or Councilman Summer. Then I will look for a motion to adjourn. So move. Second. All in favor? I I I Oh, I don't vote, but I did. So, thank you.

Thanks everybody. Meetings adjourned.