City Council - Regular Meeting

Gary Garrett, Craig Christensen, Patrice McKay, Rachel Whipple, Peggy Bogman, Travis Hoben, Jeff Whitlock.

Today's prayer will be given to us by a new resident, Joanne Osmond. She's recently moved here. And then after her, we'll have a pledge of allegiance by counselor Rachel Whipple. She was on the school board for 35 years, guys. Our most gracious heavenly father, we're very grateful to be here on this beautiful earth to be able to serve thee and to serve the members of this community. I pray that you will have thy spirit be with us as we as they make decisions and they look at the needs of the residents of this area. We're so very grateful for all that we have and for our families that support us. And I say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen. Please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. On another note, April 1st was our 175th birthday of Provo. Wow.

So that's cool, too. All right. As indicated on the screen, a required public hearing will be held for certain agenda items prior to council action. After each such item has been presented, time to comment will be provided for all those who wish to speak. For items that do not require a public hearing, public comment will still be taken following presentation of the item, but will be limited to 10 minutes. At this time, up to 15 minutes have been set aside for an open public comment period, which is intended to allow comment on matters that do not appear on the agenda, but are limited to topics regarding municipal business or within municipal council purview. Persons who speak during this time to an item that is on the agenda will not normally be afforded a second opportunity to speak during the comment period specific to that item. During any public comment period, each speaker will generally be limited to 2 minutes. Due to noticing requirements, no formal action will be taken in this meeting on matters that do not appear on the agenda. Those with comments are invited to approach the podium. Those with those participating on Zoom will need to use the raise hand feature to indicate they wish to comment. The chair may choose to alternate between inerson and online commenters. Please begin your comments by stating your name and your city of residence. And whoever wishes to comment now has two minutes. Members of the council, my name is Joshua John's and I'm a resident of Provo. And um these are my daughters Amelia and Sophia. Um, they have been missing since last July when their mother abducted them. And since that day, I've spent every moment that I can and every resource that I can to try and bring them home. But from my first interaction with the Provo Police Department to the most recent one I had just yesterday, uh, I've been met with responses that were callous, dismissive, and cold. I've spent tens of thousands of dollars on private investigators and lawyers. I've cooperated fully, tried to make contact with the FBI, I've waited

weeks for missing posters to be approved by the local police, and even after obtaining a rid of assistance from a judge commanding the police to help locate my daughters, I was told it was a civil matter and that they would not act on it. I'm not only their father, but I'm their sole custodial parent. But I've been treated more or less like this was just a missed weekend with my kids. But Amelia and Sophia, my daughters and residences of your city, have not been seen or heard from by anybody that we know of since July. And I wanted to come here initially to ask you to implore the local police to do more or even just to follow their own internal procedures when it comes to missing children. But honestly, my faith in that institution is a bit shaken right now. And so I don't know how good that would actually do. And instead, I'm just asking for awareness to this matter. I'm asking you to please remember Amelia and Sophia, my daughters. They're seven years old. And to please use your voices, uh, whether it's on social media or in your own circles, to just help bring attention to this so that we can bring them home. Um, I have several.

Can you please leave a flyer with our staff there and include your name and number and email? Thank you.

My name is Glenn John's. I'm from Springville. And my twin granddaughters, Amelia and Sophia, are missing. They've been missing for nine months. And I think as parents and grandparents, I'd like for you to reflect for a moment of how you would feel if this happened to you. We've been met, we have met with local and federal officials on this matter, and here are the few of the examples of the things that we've been told. This is a civil matter. No laws have been broken. they're not missing. They're with their mother. We have submitted a case and it's been declined. Or we only prosecute felony offenses and we cannot go prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they have left the state. And still my grandchildren are missing for nearly nine months. To the point of when people say they are not missing, they're with their mother. I'd like to share with you a quote from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. I quote, "We now we also now recognize children are deeply and permanently affected by family abduction. The emotional scarring caused by these events requires officers to recognize family abduction not as a harm harmless offense where two parents are arguing over who loves the children more, but instead as an insidious form of child abuse. I've come here tonight to ask the city council three things. Number one, urge the police department to make this case a higher priority and give them the resources that they need to do that. Number two, use your personal and agency

social media accounts to spread the word about children. And if I may give one more comment, support and assist our future efforts to change the state laws to prevent better response to missing children like Mia and Sophia. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, an implied motion on a resolution approving the appropriation of 96,547 to pay for three new firefighters and their equipment between May and June for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2026. This will be presented by Jeremy Hedman, our fire chief. And this is an item that we have heard um multiple times in a work meeting. Council, thanks for giving me a few minutes this evening to talk to you about our request. Uh I know you've heard all heard it already, but uh we're requesting that we hire three firefighters uh for just for June and July of this year. We're requesting an appropriation for $96,547. Um 60 of that is for the three firefighters. 36 of that is for the equipment we need to get them started. Um, the reason we need these firefighters, it'll put one additional firefighter per shift, which helps us with our staffing needs. Um, the reason we need these firefighters now instead of later is it helps us with our training for the the camp. We run them through an 8week camp. It'll make it so we only have to do that once instead of three three firefighters now, three firefighters later. Um, and then on top of that, we have recently done a test. We have a list and we have some good candidates on that list that we'd like to hire before they get hired somewhere else. Uh, two of those firefighters that were on the list or candidates have already been hired in other fire departments. So, we'd like to to get the best of the best while we can. Um,

so do we still have three that are available? We do. We have three great great quality firefighter candidates still on the list. Okay. All right. Thank you, Chief. Any questions for Chief? Okay. Thank you. We will open this item up for public comment. Is there any public comment on this item? Seeing no public comment, we'll go to council discussion. Is there any council discussion on this item?

All right, we'll have a councelor Whitlock. Um, just I think maybe for the benefit of the public who wasn't part of the work meetings, I I really appreciate what we're doing here. We're hiring full-time staff which is going to be covered by reductions in uh overtime budget. So on a run rate basis or on an ongoing basis, this is going to be budget neutral. Thank you. All right, we will now call for a vote on the implied motion. Councelor Garrett, yes. Councelor McKay, yes. Councelor Christensen, yes. Councelor Whitlock, yes. Councelor Bogdan, yes. Councelor Hoben, yes. Councelor Whipple,

yes. So, the motion passes 70. And if there's no objection, we will now adjourn the promisal council by unanimous consent.