City Council - Regular Meeting

We'd like to welcome everyone out to our Pleasant Grove City Council meeting on this Tuesday, July 21st, 2026. We have President and Councilmember Williams, Phillips, Anderson, and Limon. We'd like to excuse Councilmember Rogers as he is away. We'd like to welcome all those who are present with us this evening and those who are following with us online. We have asked David Packard, our HR manager, to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. After that, we'll have our opening remarks by Councilmember Phillips.

Our father in heaven, we are so thankful for the opportunity that we have to convene as a city council and to hear the concerns and issues before our city. We're grateful for our citizens who participate in the legal process and are so concerned with our community. We recognize and appreciate how that makes this such a great community, just the involvement and the care that our people take. We pray for guidance that we can listen intently and consider the thoughts that are brought up to us in a way that will be respectful and appreciate the input that we receive. We pray for that guidance and we say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Thank you, David, and Council Member Phillips. Scott, on the approval meeting agenda tonight, I know we have the introductions of the Citizens Academy, but we also, I wanna add a 5B presentation for E. Mark Besant, is that okay?

Yeah, that's fine.

And there's no other changes, right?

No other changes.

All right, with that, Council will entertain a motion to approve tonight's agenda.

Mayor, make a motion that we approve tonight's agenda.

A motion by Council Member Anderson. Do I have a second?

I'll second that.

OK, second by Councilmember Williams. All those in favor?

Aye.

That's unanimous. Thank you. And we'll go ahead and move to the introduction of Citizens Academy participants. Pleasant Grove Police Department, and I think Officer Carl Nelson and Chief Brown are going to handle this. Do we need to make Jim come up too? He'll come up second. OK, we can work peer pressure if we need to.

Well, Mayor and Council, tonight's a pretty good night. This is the end of our Citizens Academy that Carl, Lieutenant Hylson here, put together. Is the mic on? Sorry.

The mic's on.

I'm short, and the mic was high, so sorry. So this is kind of the certificate night for our Citizen Academy, and I'm probably more pleased with this Citizen Academy class than some in recent years. Good class, good activities. We combined with the fire department to put on, what did you do, eight weeks of class and stuff like that, and David attended, Councilman Phillips was in the class, and what a great class it was. I think every week was just a whole different, look at the life of the police and fire department, stuff like that, and that good participation from our class. And it just encourages us to keep this program going. For those that have been in it before, you can come back and do it again. And maybe David will even sing our praises and stuff like that. And he graduated. I didn't think it would happen, but he did. And this is awesome.

I think David made the event by being willing to be tased.

No, this is it. He did take one for the team. He's about an inch shorter, but he did get tased.

I missed that week, so we might have to do a replay or something.

I don't know. This is a credit to Lieutenant Nelson, who's done this before. This is his thing. Carl, I don't know if you want to say anything, and then we'll recognize your people.

I'd just like to say thanks to the citizens who came and participated to know a little bit more about how what police officers do, how they do things, and why they do things the way they do it. So they come out, we said from six to eight, but mostly it was six to nine. It took a little bit longer to get through them, but it was a good class, and we got some more friends out of it, and hopefully everybody learned a little bit more about Pleasant Grove City and how we do things.

As a former graduate, it's an awesome opportunity for citizens and everyone. I'm impressed you got taste. That's really impressive. And I know you have a lot of helpers, volunteers on the back side.

There's that, but it comes from support from mayor and council, the city administration, all the officers and the volunteers, the cadets, the program, and the honorary colonels. The honorary colonels, and I'll sing their praises just for a long time to come, they really go out over and above to help us out and make these things successful and provide just some necessities all the time. And Jim was one of our actors. He might have should have got tased. I mean, if I'm being honest, to be quite honest. But that's what makes it work. And these people working together, it's a great thing. So thanks to Carl. Thank you for allowing us. But we're going to keep doing it. I think it's a good experience. And if you haven't been through it, I'll get you a spot at the table. I've been through it. There you go.

If I can give the feedback, though, the appreciation that I personally gained for both the police and the fire, and I'm sure it's a minuscule perspective of what you go through on a day-to-day basis, the risks that you take for us, the things that you do for us, just a totally new perspective. So thank you to you and Chief Engerman and his team as well for opening my eyes.

I'll let Lieutenant Nelson recognize himself.

Okay, the... And then a couple of them wanted to say a couple of remarks, so... Great.

Carl, are you going to call out their names or are you just going to have... Okay, okay. Carl, can we have the honorary colonels come up, too? The honorary colonels, can we have them come up, too?

Yeah, honorary colonels, do you want to come up and take a picture with us?

Where do you want to take a picture at?

Right here. We'll gather them right here.

All right, and then Jamie wanted to make a comment also.

Yeah, come on up.

Hi, I'm Jamie Rangel. I live in the Mud Hole area. I'm a transplant from California, sorry. But I really love living here. When I first moved here, I used to live right over the border from Mexico, and I was stationed in the Navy in San Diego, And then I lived there for a long time afterwards and built my family there. And it was a very, it was a trying place to live. You were just like constantly worried about your kids and like having them walk out outside the door and play, it was not something that we would like to do because they were constantly getting kidnapped, taken over the border. So it's kind of a funny, like a funny quip to throw out there, but it's just, it was a completely different environment. And when I moved here, I saw like kids walking around in grocery stores and I really enjoyed and was apprehensive about how many small children were walking around in pairs just around the neighborhood. And I would tell people, it's like the 50s here. They don't worry as much about the kids walking around, and I've really enjoyed living here. I wanted to say a couple of things about Citizen Academy. The reason I volunteered to participate is because I've been thinking about being a police officer for a long time. like grew up in a family that was really anti police and I grew up in Los Angeles in the 80s and 90s and their Sheriff's Department was They just did a lot of naughty things and Got in trouble for it eventually and and my family was directly impacted by it and then I ended up going into the military and I really disliked it, but since I've left, I've kind of learned that it was my place. I really liked serving the public and protecting people. So when I signed up for a Citizen Academy, I was actually able to talk to Lieutenant Nielsen for a while. He gave me a lot of time over the phone, and I started asking him about practicals, about becoming a police officer, like how far does your salary go? I didn't ask him directly what his salary was, I asked him if he was married and if he had kids and what the dynamics would be. Does your spouse need to work as well based off of how far your salary goes? I shared some thoughts with him about being a female and becoming a police officer because when I was in the military, I had to come up with a lot of different ways to accomplish tasks that A lot of my like fellow sailors would they would be able to do things, and then I would have to figure out ways to do the exact same thing without needing help. lot smaller. And one time I even played a practical joke on one of my coworkers, and it was the exact same joke he had played on me, and I almost got him killed because I couldn't save him from it, and I hadn't thought it through. But he had pushed me into something, but at the last minute pulled me back, and I ended up doing the exact same thing, and he caught himself, and he's like, you know you can't... you can't support my weight. This was a terrible idea. And he was really angry with me. And I was like, oh, yeah. I should have thought about that. But I discussed this stuff with Lieutenant Nielsen. And I told him I wanted his honest opinion about whether or not it would be a good idea for me to become part of the police force because I was worried about being a lot smaller. I was worried about getting somebody killed, basically. looking for a politically correct answer as to what he thinks about having coworkers who are smaller and probably can't run as fast. And I've always been weaker and smaller than my coworkers in the military. And he had a lot of really great responses to that. didn't listen to any of them. I'm used to hearing like, oh yeah, females are just as important, dah, dah, dah. So when I actually went through Citizen Academy though, I was so blown away by how real everything was. I felt like they went above and beyond to simulate things as realistically as possible for us. I was pretty shocked. Because again, I'm from Southern California and I feel like they would go out of their way to probably water everything down for us. I just had that feeling. So having the chance to see a more realistic version of what our police officers go through and the fire department as well, I didn't expect the fire department to be as involved. You see a lot on TV that Police and fire are at odds with one another, and it can be pretty funny, but that's not the case here, and I really love that. I really enjoyed. I learned how to clear spaces a certain way when I was in the military, and there was a night where they taught us how to clear Pleasant Grove High School in case there was an active shooter situation and I had a lot of questions about the differences of how they were teaching me versus how I was taught in the military and they spent a lot of time discussing that with me and I really appreciated it. Everybody who was a part of the program seemed very enthusiastic to have us there and to give us an incredible experience and to help us in any way possible, enjoy our time there and find whatever we are looking for being part of the program. I am definitely gonna recommend this program to people moving forward, just anybody I run into. It was a great opportunity not only to meet our police department and our fire department, but also to meet other people who are in the community. I'm just really thankful that I was able to be a part of Citizen Academy, and thank you for letting me speak.

Thank you.

Chief Engelman, did you want to add anything? Great. And then also our colonels had a big deal with that. They helped us supply some of our actors. And they had a lot of fun with that. So appreciate that. Jim, with the honorary colonels, do you have anything? Oh, there you are. All right.

How we doing, David?

He's got a big smile on his face. I don't know.

Why'd you flinch? These guys have all heard enough from me. I just wanted to mention one thing that we always kind of skip over is all the time that Carl puts into this. It's amazing. I don't know if he goes home. There's got to be a bed here for Carl. I know he's got a soda supply. So thank you, Carl, for everything you've done. Appreciate that. Would you like to say anything?

And I did the program myself one of the first, I don't know, maybe the first two or three I was involved in. And I think it's amazing and I love how much it's grown and that we have fire involved now. So thank you for allowing us to continue doing it and we look forward to it getting better every year.

Thank you.

So I do need Chief Brown up here, please. Get you twice in a week. So Chief doesn't know what we're doing tonight, but Chief has just celebrated 40 years of service in law enforcement. So 40 years of service, what does it look like? Started with dispatch here in PG, moved over to Orem, then to BYU, back to us. That's 40 years as a protector of strangers, 40 years as a public servant with an excellent record of duty, ethics, and compassion. but also 40 years of missing school functions, birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and personal time. That's the definition of selflessness. How do you get through 40 years of seeing 1,000 lifetimes worth of trauma, pain, and despair? Strategically. Through the anger, sadness, regret, and visuals that never go away, you cling to the near misses, miraculous recoveries, the saves, the could'ves, and a little bit of dark humor. I did bring some examples of dark humor. I don't know if we need those. I mean, I've got some.

We're gonna take Lisa's advice here.

I'll put those two pages away then. So you actually get through it. You get through it with faith, trust, and strength. Now most of the strength comes from the family support. Without it, you're useless. The family, both blood and blue family, will be by your side with support, love, and compassion. The trust comes from the city administration to provide essential tools and provide you with resources. The trust comes from your team, whether it's the reserve or the veteran. You trust your life in their hands. The faith, faith comes from within. Sometimes that faith is easy, sometimes it seems intangible. Kelton leads by example. He doesn't expect officers to do anything he's not willing to do himself. He continues to improve and develop the men and women that protect this city. Tonight, we celebrate Kelton for his 40 years of service in law enforcement. But first, I'd like the Brown family and everybody related to Kelton to please stand up. Now, thank you to each and every one of you for your sacrifices. The appreciation is rarely acknowledged, but tonight we honor you. Kelton. Thank you for your service and your passion you bring to our city. In the words of the greatest band to ever exist, you can retire any time you like, but you can never leave. I asked Jen to come up to present you a little plaque that we had made for you to commemorate the 40 years.

Lisa or Jim, we can have them come right here and get a picture too.

Sorry, we do have a couple little things for Chief as well. First, we have something for Jen. because you're the one that really kind of holds it together. And then we have a, oh, it's a gift cooler, a gift cooler for Chief. Really? So this is also an anniversary gift? And this should cover Labor Day.

We should cover Labor Day. These guys are amazing.

Honorary colonels.

Hey, Chief, bring your family up here, Chief.

Jim and Lisa.

Okay, one, two, three. One, two, three. Okay, one, two, three.

One, two, three. This one's gonna be for city social media here.

One, two, three.

Oh, okay.

What, is Carl gonna introduce him? Carl, go ahead.

Mayor, we have one more person like to, and council. Great. Talk about the Citizens Academy.

We're in the green shirt too, okay.

So I also had the chance to go through a citizen's academy. It was one of the best decisions I got to do. And I have friends who are firefighters. My brother was wanting to pursue being a police officer. My dad went through the academy. And just had me thinking that I wanted to kind of experience, see what the day to life of our first responders are. and I even did EMR classes and law enforcement classes in high school and really had me thinking that maybe this is something I want to do be a first responder and being able to go through the Citizens Academy helped me decide that I want to pursue it and I know it would be hard but Seeing what these first responders do, the sacrifice they make, I want to make that same sacrifice because I've seen what all they've done for us and it's been amazing and I know our first responders work so hard every single day and I appreciate them for that and that I could not thank them enough for what they do. And I just hope that someday I can be a firefighter one of these days. And I know it will be a hard path to do, but I know if I commit to it that I can do it and that I can be as cool as the first responders too. But I'm so glad I got to go through a Citizens Academy and that I have the opportunity to see what they do to the day to day life and that I'll continue to support them. And I hope more people will support our first responders and that I just want to thank them for their sacrifice that they do every day for us.

Great. Thank you. Thank you. All right, thank you. We have one last presentation. It is Emark Besant. We invite him up. Welcome. Yeah, we can see him.

Thank you Wendy. Mayor and members of City Council, I've come this evening basically to say thank you. Too often we go about our daily activities and people have lots of complaints about what is or isn't being done. My purpose for coming tonight is to say thank you. I got a call in the middle of the night There was a water break over in Grove Creek there in front of our orchard. When I went the next morning, early in the morning, there were the city workers down in the most miserable of circumstances. The day wore on when it was 100 degrees outside. They never flinched until the job was done. That's just one example, and we've seen here this evening the kind of collaboration and spirit It fails here in this community. And that's nothing to wink at. It takes a lot of work. And so I know you folks get your fair share of people, particularly this year. People complain about they're not water this and they can't do that. And it's easy to complain. That's the biggest room in the world is the room for improvement. As we work together, we can solve these kinds of problems. So anyway, thanks for the celebration of 250 years, this marvelous country. When I attended some of the events, I thought back of 50 years ago when Bliss Brimley came to me, Judy Ridge's mother. We were celebrating america's 200th birthday she asked me to appear as Abraham Lincoln for the 200th anniversary I know I won't be here for the 300th anniversary I just thought of the wonderful things that occurred in this country in the last 50 years. To come here this evening. to see our people treated with such respect. I thought back last year, a year ago, when we were up in Grove Creek, and Kyle and Carrie were up there leading the charge. They hung that beautiful flag across Grove Creek. After they got done honoring those people who serve in the military, Kyle said, there's something else we need to do. We need to honor our firefighters, first responders, and our policemen, and our pioneers. And it just prompted me to say, yes, we need to do that. I noticed when it came down on Memorial Day. There was that beautiful monument we have down there to the military. I'd gone behind there and noticed that there are places that hadn't been filled. So I contacted Dion Giles. I said, Dion, what's this back here? He said they never did complete the monument. There are spaces here. are set aside to honor the firefighters first responders the police and our pioneer heritage i said right on beyond we need to get going on this so i think we've seen this evening as people mourn across this state that family that lost their lives in that awful uh firefighter from provo We don't need to wait for a tragedy. We need to finish this monument down there in our cemetery. Work with our fire chief, Chief Brown, 40 years. Build a monument just for 40 years, just for him, let alone Mike Ferry and others who served us. I'd like to encourage us to do that. There's a little thank you to the city of Pleasant Grove. Wanted to donate this artwork for the 250th anniversary of Lady Liberty there. The Declaration of Independence in the background. It may be put in an appropriate place. The one I've seen at Strawberry Days. open up the temp times i noticed the city council and mayor had honored the people in our community who are taking care of their history and a way to go way to remember these people do thankless work and so i wanted to donate to that committee this pioneer artwork reminds us it wasn't all just like this It wasn't always just this nice. I saw the flag being carried up this year again up Grove Creek. I remember when Grove Creek didn't have curb and gutter, and there was no sewer and water like we have today. We made a lot of progress. We should never forget these people. I remember my great-great-grandfather, Mark Besant, I came here to Pleasant Grove when I was 10 years old, came from Wales, joined a wagon train in Nebraska on August 10th of 1861, and arrived in Salt Lake on October 20th with 509 people. Stayed here in Pleasant Grove. I just think that's what we've got to do, and that's what we saw this evening. is people who are building and making Pleasant Grove better. And they deserve a lot of credit. So my son David wants to make sure you understand his Camaro, convertible Camaro, is available for Strawberry Days for anybody that wants to ride in a real cool car. My sweet little daughter-in-law, David's wife, said let me refurbish the wreath that is hung each Memorial Day. Could use a little sprucing up with the other things that Miss Pinker does to make it a more lovely occasion. commit that we'll do everything we can to support finishing this memorial down at the cemetery so that not another holiday comes and we've forgotten these wonderful people service day after day in all of any varieties so anyway the buck stops at your desk folks and we thank you from the Besant family for all that you do to make this a better place to live. Thank you for giving me the time to be able to come this evening.

Thank you, Lee Mark. Appreciate it. Thank you. We'll move on to our open session this time. I just want to make the public aware, we do have a public hearing tonight. So if you're here for that, we ask that you wait for item 10A. But as we open up our open session, we ask that you just state your name and you'll have three minutes and we'll open the session now.

Welcome.

thank you hello my name is wayne woodfield i came to introduce myself today as a candidate for state senate and i am running with the forward party which gives me the rare opportunity to focus on pragmatic solutions to state and local issues instead of partisan politics which is something i think that mayors and city councils can relate to very well um I believe that good representation starts with listening. So in the coming months, I'm making an effort to come out and introduce myself to city councils and officials, city leaders throughout the district. And just wanted to let you know that I'll probably send an email out to some of you just in the coming days to extend an invitation if you'd like to, to meet individually with me or as a group just to share priorities for your city or to ask questions about my campaign. And I know that Pleasant Grove particularly has some unique situations in the recent past with local decision making and cooperation with the state legislature, particularly in regard to school district. So I would definitely be interested in hearing about how to address your needs in the new school district. So that is really all I had to say. Just thank you for your service in our community and I appreciate the opportunity to introduce myself. Your recorder, Wendy, was kind enough to hand out my handouts to all of you. You're welcome to take those and hit me up with any questions on my website as well. And I also want to join in congratulating Chief Brown. That was really remarkable.

Great, thank you.

Maybe for Tina Peterson's sake, we won't meet as a group with more than two of us with him.

Anyone else? All right, with that said, we'll go ahead and close our open session at this time. Our next item on here is seven consent items. There's quite a few A through H. I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent items.

Mayor, I'll make a motion that we approve the consent items A through H as presented on the agenda.

We have a motion by Councilmember Phillips. We have a second. I'm gonna second by Council Member Lamone. All those in favor? Aye. It's unanimous, thank you. All right, we don't have any board, commissioner, committee appointments tonight. We already had our presentation. We're gonna move to item 10A, public hearing to consider ordinance 2026-21 to amend city code section 10-15-28 to create a new section for water efficiency standards and amend the landscape requirements included in chapter 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 14. The city is proposing to amend include new landscaping requirements with the intent to conserve the public's water resources by establishing water conservation standards for the installation of grass and turf as outdoor landscaping in all residential, commercial, and industrial zones. Director Cardenas. That was long, okay.

It was quite long, huh? Well, and the reason why it's long, council, is because the new language is not that much, but includes multiple zones that we have. So it affects a lot of zones. So that's what it took most of the time, is to go through our whole code, finding where exactly and what zones we require X amount of landscape and grass, and then changing that. But let me go back to the genesis of this a little bit, okay? So there's a program that I've heard long ago called Flip Your Strip, I think it's that sound. It sounds like flip the strip. Sounds something like my angry grandma. Flip the strip, it sounds like something my angry grandma would do in Las Vegas. So, it sounds something like that. Thank goodness they changed the name, so it's not called like that. It's not called like that, it's not called that, okay? So, this is a program by Central Utah Water, the Conservancy District, where they, actually let me go to their website, so. Let's do it like this. Let me see. There we go. This is Central Utah Water Conservancy District. And they have a whole program called Slow the Flow. And part of that, they have multiple programs. One of them is Landscape Incentives. So this is the name they replace it. This is the Landscape Incentive situation. If we go on that website and then we click right here, it tells about how our residents or the residents of the state of Utah can apply and be part of this incentive program. And there at the bottom, there's a portion where you can check the program eligibility. So you can check if your city is in there, that means that you qualify for a certain amount. If we go to page two, we can see right here, plus and growth. Now, Having said that, I'm gonna go back to my presentation right here, and it's because right now, our Placent Grove residents, the residents of our city, they are eligible right now. But those are the amounts that are eligible to receive at this point, okay? So for the lawn replacement, program that one they can get some sort of like a reimburse of one dollar and fifty uh one dollar and fifty cents per square foot of the strip of uh of land that they are replacing for switch to drip uh they're getting 50 cents and and there's a tree bay for for plant for trees sorry of 50 dollars per tree So everybody right now in our city can go and apply, and that's what they are entitled to receive, or that's what they can work to receive. So the tree rebate, that's if they remove the tree? Plant a new tree. Plant a new tree, yes. We want to plant a new tree, but there's some efficiency standards on how to plant a new tree. central utah water they come out with something and they say hey there's certain regulations that if they're adopted by city code then instead of the residents to be the incentives to be those amounts they can be doubled okay so this is the what happens I'm gonna read from my computer, because this is what happens. If certain regulations are adopted, then the incentive doubles up for the lawn replacement. Then it goes to $3 per square footage of replay grass. So it's not 150, now it's $3. For switch to drip, also doubles up, and now it's $1. instead of 50 cents, and for every tree planted, now you get, that one doesn't change, that stays the same, okay? So now, what are those regulations? Well, the regulations are, that are required to be included in the code are four, four regulations. Number one, that no lawn or grass can be installed on narrow strips of land. And what's considered a narrow strip of land? Anything eight feet or less, okay? Second regulation is that you cannot install grass on slopes that are four to one or 25%. I mean, we all have tried to water that and all the water just runs off. So the utilization is not optimal in that situation. The third one, and I think this is where we're gonna see the most impact because it's very visible, is that land or grass shall not exceed 50% of the total landscape area in the front and side yards of new residential construction. So what does this mean? It's not gonna be retroactive. We're not gonna go to every home in Placent Grove and check, measure, and tell them to comply with this. It's for new residential lots that are happening within our city. Now, It's very common right now for the new homes that are being built. I'm gonna say more than half of the homes are built right now in Placent Grove of the residential units. They're building with a large driveway. In the multifamily or duplexes, we do require a driveway. So in the big lot is in the new homes, and I show recently, and I think I still have some picture. Actually, let's do that really quick. Let me see if I can do this. This is some new homes that were recently built in Placent Grove. Let's see if this works. There we go. Sorry about that. These are some examples of new homes being built in Placent Grove. Again, this requirement is gonna only be applicable to new residential homes. These lots, and I'm gonna go to the smaller lots, but these lots are half acre lots, and you can see what I did right there, I measured the entire front yard and side yard, and then measured how much grass or lawn they have. And we can see that even without we having that requirement, the homes meet their requirements. Why is that again? Because most homes right now are being built with a larger driveway. Now for smaller lots, even for like duplexes, now we require driveway. So imagine now if we have a small lot of only 60 feet on the front and we require a driveway of 20 just by the driveway, we're almost getting right there with the requirement. Okay? So that's why I showed those examples right there. Again, without us even require most of the, if not, I'm going to say 95% of the homes on that street meet already the requirement. Now that change, the requirement changed because three years ago when I presented this item to you guys, the requirement was a little bit more strict. It was 35%. So it looks like they add 15 more, now it's 50%. Okay? Did the incentive change at all? No, no. What changed is before, if you didn't accept this, you were entitled to zero. You couldn't even qualify. Now you can qualify.

So they gave you kind of a first tier and now they've reduced the overall limitations. I like that.

We are qualifying right now for first year. If we adopt this, and this is what we're presenting, if we adopt these regulations, and what I'm trying to show you is that we already meet most of them, so we adopt them, then we can go to tier two and be compensated double, or residents can be compensated. and the next one the last one is in commercial industrial institutional and multi-family development common area landscapes long areas shall not exceed 20 of the total landscape area okay now this one i have never had a developer in our city in the last 10 years requesting to add more grass. They all want to stay away from it. They all want to go, they want to stay away from it. We still require the landscape, we're still gonna require landscape, but what we're trying to reduce right here, or what this regulation is trying to reduce is not the landscape areas, but it's the amount of grass, patches of grass. It's still, they can, we're gonna require something that is not gonna exceed 20% of the total landscape area, okay? So what staff did is we went through the entire code, we identified where we require landscape, where we have landscape requirements, sorry, and then we add those four. There's extra recommendations from Central Utah Water. However, those are just recommendations. I don't wanna minimize them, but those are recommendations. These are requirements, and that's what our code is representing, just the requirements that they have. During this time, I had the opportunity to work with Amanda from Central Utah Water. She actually showed up to our planning commission as well. She's here in the back. She showed to a planning commission. Our planning commission asked them questions. And at the end of the meeting, the planning commission studied this. They talked within themselves, and they Forwarded a unanimous recommendation of approval for these four new regulations for landscape within our city to be able to qualify for Tier two when I call it like that of the Central Utah Water Conservancy District Programs, okay, that's what I have mayor and council. I remember this was this was kind of like Assignment that you guys gave us we work on this we have it and and this is what we came up with. I

Appreciate it. Council, do you have any questions before I open up the public hearing?

Do we have? Sorry, this doesn't affect commercial lots. It's just residential, is that correct?

No, it doesn't affect commercial lots. That's the 20%. That's what I was telling that not commercial developer has asked to add more grass, but it does affect it.

Well, I guess by commercial, I'm talking about businesses.

Yeah. For example, the new hotel that just came in. Yeah, but as I was counting, they have less than 10%. Would you like anyone else to come forward? Pardon?

Do you want anyone else to come forward to answer any questions or we're good? Okay. All right. All right. At this time, uh, since it's a public hearing, we'll go ahead and open it up to the public. And again, if you come forward, just state your name and you have three minutes. Okay. We'll go ahead and close the public hearing and move it back up here for further discussion or questions council, or I'll entertain a motion.

You know, it's interesting how, when did this first come? About three years ago, four years ago? And it just seemed very restrictive back then. It was kind of all or nothing, you know, use it or leave it. And so the fact that we now have two tiers, ultimately the residents can take advantage now, and I think that needs to be a positive message. The fact that we can double it with, very limited restrictions, I think makes a lot more sense for us now. And I'm not sure how many residents would take advantage of it. But I don't see any problem adopting it now because of the restrictions are probably things that we're doing now.

think it will take where's daniel at i'm sorry you're hiding there um i think it'll take a little bit of education right of getting information out and i think we're probably ready to start going down that corridor right okay what's that after the vote yeah after the vote sorry no and what i was going to say as far as the messaging and the education is is i think there's some requirements that the residents have to do like

take pictures or it has to be inspected beforehand. I mean, those kind of things that citizens have to do. I think we should emphasize in the messaging so that people don't kind of get caught after the fact, thinking they're going to be qualified and they're not because they didn't follow the steps.

Correct. Yeah, this is a long time coming to anyone else.

Well, sorry, maybe one more thing. So if they take out grass and put in artificial turf, for example, That counts as the, is it $3?

What do you mean it's not allowed?

Does it qualify?

And our code doesn't allow also artificial turf. So it will be more natural plants. It will be more gravel, rocks, xeriscape. No, xeriscape, but that type of situation. Yeah, but artificial turf, it creates a lot of heat and it's difficult to maintain. So it's actually not permitted in our code either.

It's not permitted in the code. I mean, I've seen it in the city.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure some people do install it right there, but it's not permitted in the front yard, maybe in the side, yeah.

So if they put an artificial turf, this doesn't count? Correct. To the rebate.

Council, anything else? All right, with that, then I'll entertain a motion.

All right, may I make a motion that we approve ordinance 2026-021 and to amend the city code section 10-15-28.

We have a motion by Council Member Anderson. Do I have a second?

I'll second.

Second by Council Member Phillips. This will be a roll call vote. Council Member Lamone? Yes. Council Member Williams? Yes. Council Member Anderson? Yes. And Council Member Phillips? Yes. It's unanimous, thank you. All right, that is our public hearings for tonight.

I'm going to be excused.

Yes, we'll excuse Council Member Anderson at this time. We're going to move on to action items ready for vote. Item 11A, to consider Resolution 2026-36 authorizing the Mayor to sign a special warranty deed in favor of Valley Grove LLC to relocate certain rights of way for property located at 1008 South North County Boulevard, Pleasant Grove, Utah for 368 square feet or .008 acres. Tina.

Mayor and council, the proposition before you is an authorizing resolution authorizing the mayor to sign a warranty deed in favor of Valley Grove 4, LLC. And it's basically an exchange of real property. If you'll look on the screen, the area in green is the area that we're talking about in this warranty deed that the city is going to deed to Valley Grove. LLC, which is really St. John Properties. And then the purple area that you see is the area that they are going to be deeding to us. So as part of the road improvements with their development that's going in on that parcel and also UDOT is putting in a signal. They're going to signalize that intersection. It became necessary to clean up some right-of-way boundaries and we just figured it would be better to make sure that it was lined up appropriately with the sidewalks, et cetera. So even though you don't need to approve them deeding the property to us, the only action item for you is agreeing to deed that small green area to them, we will be receiving the purple area in return. and the resolution also provides that this deed will not be recorded until we receive the deed for the property that's coming to us.

Great, thank you. Council, any questions for Council? Okay, with that said, I'll entertain a motion for Resolution 2026-36.

I make the proposal that we approve the resolution as read by the Mayor.

We have a motion by Councilmember Lamone. Do I have a second? Second by Council Member Williams, this will be a roll call vote. Council Member Lamone?

Yes.

Council Member Williams? Yes. And Council Member Phillips? Yes. And two unanimous with three votes, okay.

Thank you.

All right, item 11B, to consider resolution 2026-37, amending the personal policies and procedures previously approved by the City Council, specifically amending section, 15, 16? Sorry, leaves for absence section two, vacation leave, increasing the number of vacation hours employees may carry forward from calendar year to calendar year. Go ahead.

This is an amendment to our personnel policy and procedure manual. As it says in the short title, we are proposing to increase the number of vacation hours that employees may carry over. Currently the policy manual provides for 168 hours of vacation leave that can be carried over in a calendar year. However, if you have not used, if you have more than 168 hours and you haven't used them by your anniversary date, you forfeit the overage. This issue has become a matter of concern for a number of employees, particularly in public safety in some of the exit interviews that we've been doing and some of the issues that have been raised recently by some of the employees. This is significantly less than surrounding communities and it has become an issue in terms of recruiting and retaining public safety workers. David did a study, he got a spreadsheet of what other cities are doing, and we were low on the scale. This number represents sort of a middle ground, it's not the highest number that one or two of the other cities do. But it's effectively a middle ground. And the other thing to be aware of when we're comparing ourselves to other cities, some of those with higher vacation caps, it's really a total PTO. And so we have to remember that even though our vacation hours may be capped, we are still allowing the employees to earn up to 960 hours of sick leave as well. So if you combine those two benefits together, we feel like we are way comparable in the market to what we're allowing our employees to have as PTO time combined.

Great. Thank you. Council, do you have any questions?

You know, I'll say I'm in favor. It's not really a question, but I think this is super important. But I've also had conversations with some of our first responders about mental health issues, especially in fire and police. It's such a big issue. And while this is an important benefit, I hope we can find ways to help encourage and facilitate their ability to take their time, to take their time away, just because that's from a mental health standpoint, super valuable thing. So I personally believe that our effort to implement the proposed tax increase that we'll be speaking about in a future meeting again, to add the staff hopefully that'll help facilitate the ability of our of our team members to take those time off that they won't leave us so shorthand or they won't feel that pressure to to forego that and build it up because their personal lives are important.

That's something that we have heard feedback as well, that even though they have the time that they can take, it's difficult for them when they're so short staffed. They either feel like they are leaving their team members in the lurch by not showing up. And so I believe that, you know, that issue can be resolved with adequate staffing.

Great, thank you. With that, I'll entertain a motion.

Mayor, I'll make a motion to, on resolution 2026-37, amending the personal policies and procedures previously approved by the city, what, hold on. Is that the one? Personal policies? Yep. By the city council, specifically amending section 20, or 16? Yep. Boy, my high school Roman numeral class work. Leaves of absence section two, vacation leave, increase the number of vacation hours employed

employees may carry forward from calendar year to year we have a motion by council member williams i have a second i'll second second by council member phillips this will be a roll call vote also council member phillips yes council member williams yes council member lamone yes thank you thank you All right, moving on to our last action item, item number 11C, to consider Resolution 2026-38 authorizing the mayor to sign the 2026 Recreation Grant Agreement between Utah County and Pleasant Grove City for Pleasant Grove Library Events Pavilion. Director Giles, welcome.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. This is the same agreement that Tina presented three or four weeks ago. In the meantime, we've submitted our payments for this the 2025 grant and we had a five thousand and fifty three dollars I believe fifty six dollars something like that the only change on this this agreement in front of you is they're adding that they're paying that forward so we'll just think it'd be included in this year's grant so they're rolling it over basically yeah

Any questions, council? If not, I'll entertain a motion.

Mayor, I'll make a motion to adopt Resolution 2026-038, authorize the mayor to sign a 2026 recreational grant agreement between Utah County and Pleasant Grove City for the Pleasant Grove Library Events Pavilion.

Great, we have a motion by Council Member Williams. Do I have a second?

I'll second it.

Second by Council Member Phillips. This will also be a roll call vote. Council Member Lamone? Yes. Council Member Williams? Yes. Council Member Phillips? Yes. Okay, thank you, Stannis. Thank you. All right, that concludes all of our action items for tonight. Moving back to work session, the only person we missed was Chief Brown.

I've exceeded my time for this council meeting and the next two. Police department's in good shape. I was pleased with the city's response to the fireworks around the 4th. We weren't Very busy. That's a good thing. We anticipate a slow weekend with the 24th. I think a lot of people understand the request that was made and have been compliant for the most part. Others either may not know or may roll the dice and we're just giving some warnings, but we just want some safety and no fires and that type of thing. So it's been good. Put on your couch. The next council or city council that we have, just prior to council starting that night in the park is the National Night Out Against Crime. It's a national night recognized by a lot of departments. Orem's doing it. We're doing a little party in the park here, hot dogs, music, candy cannon, maybe a dunk take. Maybe we'll have David get tased again. I don't know. It'll be entertaining, but we'll do that from pre- Sounds like an annual event. Well, this is it. This is it, right? That's great. 3 30 to 5 30 and then uh uh so you can substitute dinner for a dog i'm not saying that we won't compete i don't know but uh so that's next week and then next week we're gonna do a little uh interview for uh new hire testing a couple officers uh we got some um good prospects we're gonna talk to you next wednesday so uh thanks for looking up i love our reserves out there be coming up and making an impact with our younger officers teaching mentoring finding DUIs in our city and making our streets safe out there. With school approaching, it's only a month away, doggone it. We're going to get our speed trailers back out there. Time to start making our streets slow down again. You had your fun, and now we're going to get back to business, right? So we're excited. Love the work. Love working with all of you. Thank you very much. Do you have any questions for me?

Council?

Thanks, Chief. Thank you, Chief. Thank you all. Thanks, Scott, Tina, everybody. Thank you, David.

All right, Scott, review and discussion for August 4th, 2026 City Council meeting and August 11th, Truth and Taxation meeting.

August 4th, we have a couple co-tax amendments for a couple zones at the request of St. John Properties, which will both be public hearings, and then we have a... property that's asking for an AG overlay, which will also be a public hearing. So three public hearings on August 4th. August 11th, of course, will be our truth and taxation hearing, and that will be the only item on the agenda that evening. So that will be August 11th, 6 o'clock p.m.

Okay. All right, Mayor and Council Business, Council Member Lamone, anything? All right, Council Member Phillips. I don't have any. Council Member Williams. I don't, thank you. I just have a little shout out. We do have a board member here from the Timpanogos School District. I'd like to welcome him. Breaking away from his meetings.

Always good to have him.

Always good to have you here. Okay, Scott, anything else on the review of the calendar that you need to send us?

Yeah, just calendar-wise, August 6th, that's a Thursday. That's our city pool party at the... pavilion by the swim pool. So six o'clock, it's for families and we'll have dinner and then we'll have some open swimming.

I think, did you already send that out to us?

I don't, it's on your calendar. I've sent it on your calendar, you have that. We'll be sending out the notice citywide to all the employees here soon.

All right, the step challenge is going great.

For some people.

Wow, okay. Step challenge, the competition. All right. All right. With that said, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

Mayor so moved.

We have a motion by Councilman Williams. Do we have a second?

I'll second it.

Second by Councilmember Phillips. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. We're adjourned.