City Council - Regular Meeting

We'll um do a roll call of the elected officials. Gary Garrett, Patrice McKay, Craig Christensen, Rachel Whipple.

Although this is a public meeting, only the presenters and those invited by the council may speak or ask questions unless otherwise invited by the chair. Please wait to speak until called upon by the council chair. When speaking, please be sure to use a microphone so the records clear and those attending virtually can hear you. Please also be sure to limit side conversations as they interfere with the audio recording. If you need to have a side conversation, please step out of the work meeting room. Is proposed that we approve the following minutes: February 10th, 2026 council meeting, April 28th, 2026 work meeting, and the April 28th, 2026 council meeting. Are there any objections or requested changes? All right, seeing no objection, I declare the minutes approved by unanimous consent. We'll go to our first order of business and it'll be a presentation regarding the children's mental health services in Utah County. It'll presented by Rebecca Dustin who's the president and CEO of the Children's Center in Utah.

Welcome.

Thank you very much, Chair McCay, and to all the members and staff who are here today. We're really proud to have an opportunity to present to you and share a little bit of the work of the Children's Center Utah and how we hope to be impacting um for better uh the mental health of children and families in Utah County. We're very excited to be coming and and to be here at your council meeting today. So, um as the chair said, I'm Rebecca Dudson. I'm our president and CEO and I wanted to introduce a colleague who is with me here today um Stephanie Warner who is our government relations manager. Um, I would like to begin by telling you just a little bit about the work of the Children's Center Utah and then I would like to talk about the challenges that we face in Utah surrounding children's mental health and then um some of the work that the Children's Center Utah is doing in the form of public private partnership to help address the state's needs. So to begin, the Children's Center Utah has been around for going on 63 years. We were established in 1962 by a woman named Auggie Plank. She is a doctor of psychology and she really was ahead of her time understanding that if we could work with young children together with their caregivers and their families around their mental health and behavioral health concerns that we really could change the trajectory of their lives, giving them the tools that they need along with their families to manage their big emotions. and we have been working in uh the Salt Lake County area for all of these years now. I'll talk a little bit about our expansion in just a moment, but first just to give you a snapshot of the kind of work that

we do. What we're very well known for is our direct clinical services to children and families. So, we are licensed outpatient mental health center and a licensed day treatment center for children ages birth to six. Our mission of course is to enhance the emotional well-being of infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and their families using evidence-based and traumainformed therapies that are diatic in nature. So, we're working together with children and families. This gives you an idea of the reach that we have in Salt Lake County right now. So, we serve approximately 1,000 families per year. Um, the child being the client and then of course their caregivers joining us. And you can see, you know, with just a quick glance at the screen, we have a full complement of um services that we provide from the original, you know, initial mental health assessment that children receive to further psychological testing, maybe psychiatric services. Um, but primarily the focus is on that relationship and strengthening the attachment between the child and their caregivers. In addition, we work a lot to help not only um consult with but train and coach early childhood providers of all backgrounds. And that is a statewide work that we have been doing for several years now, including teleconultation and training. And we offer 100 free hours of webinars and consultation to early ch childhood providers of all backgrounds. So it could be a preschool or a child care provider all the way through to a

licensed mental health professional um pediatricians whomever might be working with children. um that is run by a member of our psychology team and that is free and we have reached thousands of providers throughout the state um since we have been doing that. It's all virtual and the idea is so that we can reach into our very rural areas of the state and give equal access to providers to help them better understand early childhood mental health. Um, we also offer a lot of consultation and coaching into child care and preschools throughout the state as well. And we are contracted with the state of Utah to do that. And so I know that we're working with child care providers, for example, in your area already. Um, these are a couple of specialized programs that we have. And interestingly enough, two of the teams on our infant toddler court program are working right here in um Utah County um both with I want to get the um judge Peterson and Judge Bazelle in the fourth district. And this is, you know, working with families who are in the welfare system in court process. Maybe the families um are still together with the child in the home, but the child may be out of home, for example, in a foster placement, but this is putting the child at the center and bringing all of the services that are needed to support that child and family. So, that's an example. And then the trauma program for young children is to help us reach children and providers again in rural areas who may not have access to the type of providers that we have in our more urban areas. Uh both of these programs are federally funded.

It's also important to have a strong um policy effort within the state when we think about all the the things that impact families and their ability to access service. So, we're really focused on capacity building and working to address, for example, the barriers that families might have if they're on Medicaid and what codes are available to help support those families. So there are things like that and and efforts that help us provide greater access to families to receive services. Of course, public awareness is a big component of just families understanding that mental health exists for all of us, including children who are our very youngest and that services are available, that there's no shaming in asking for help. And also that adults understand this um that when we see children who are really struggling um maybe not what we thought we would see that it's okay to reach out for help and there's professional effective help available. Now, what you're seeing here is a picture of an annual conference that we hold that attracts several hundred providers from throughout the state each year to provide training, including um not only licensed mental health professionals and early childhood providers of all backgrounds, but pediatricians as well. So, they can earn CEUs and CMEs at this conference. And that will be coming up again in November. and we have great um national presenters who are speaking on children's behavioral and emotional health. I would just also note that the Children's Center Utah has been

prominent in raising awareness and providing data for the public to understand the mental health needs in our state. So, for example, in 2020, we commissioned an independent study by the Gardener Institute um which was released and the first ever study of its kind for Utah that helped us understand really what children are facing with their mental health. And so, we'll talk a little bit about some of those statistics, but we try to be everywhere that we can be. um days on the hill uh meeting with our legislators, meeting in groups like this to help our elected officials understand the important services that we have available for families. Now, just a quick snapshot of our board. Um we do have representatives from Utah County as we are working to expand statewide. Um Senator Balder joined our board about a year ago. Um, so we're really thrilled to have the caliber of people from our various communities who are committed to helping families access the important mental health treatment that's available. I'll just quickly talk about the need. You're probably very aware of these statistics, but I want to highlight them because it's so important to understand that in our state, one in five, so as many as 20% of our children ages birth to eight will experience a mental, behavioral, emotional, or developmental challenge at some point during that time. with the population that we have of children, that's a lot of children who need help. And that is part of our effort not only to expand our services statewide in terms of the direct clinical services that we're currently providing in Utah

County, but also the efforts that we're making to reach providers and train them so that they can better interact with kids and get them the level of care that they need. This is something that is always alarming to me, no matter how many times I point this out, but our children in our state, ages 3 to 17, almost 60% of the children who have a diagnosis are not receiving treatment in Utah. Now it's, you know, it's challenging to talk about, but the real realities are that suicide remains the leading cause of death among children ages 10 to 17 in Utah. And I think that's unacceptable to all of us. And so we know that children before they reach that age have had many challenges with their mental health long before they would make that decision. And so this is part of the work of the Children's Center Utah and why we're trying to do more across the state. Um we're a state that cares about children. We care about families. Our work is entirely focused on strengthening the attachment between the child and their family so that they have those protective factors around them to help them deal with life's challenges and also experience life's joys to the fullest. Now often people will say why do we have so many children who are not being treated? I mean, one of the challenges you may realize is that we have fewer behavioral health providers per 100,000 people than the average across the rest of the nation. Fully onethird fewer.

And we have a lot of children. So, just a lot of things working together um to to create the need that we do have in our state. So, we're very excited about the public private partnership that we have built and continue to strengthen in order to expand our services throughout the state. And our first stop moving outside of Utah County is or excuse me, out of Salt Lake County is in Utah County. Um, and we have done that with support from the legislature. Um, we've received investments to create a new hub in Salt Lake from which we'll expand and every dollar that has been invested by the state, we have matched with private donations either one and in the case of the Utah County location, we've matched those 2 to one. So I want to give you a glimpse into the type of center that families enter and the feeling that is there from a team who are experts in their field. We train people from all across the US and even outside of the US who come to learn about infant and early childhood mental health and they welcome they're welcomed by our team into a bright warm space. We meet that family where they are and that child. um we assess them and we provide the therapeutic treatment that's evidence-based and trauma informed that best meets the challenge that child might be having. And people often say, "What are those challenges?" And as people stop and reflect, we probably have experienced it in our own families

or we know families who have. But is that child withdrawing much more and staying away more than typical? Are they having tantrums that are much more frequent and lasting longer than are typical? Are they regressing in their skills? Is their sleep becoming messed up? Is their toileting um you know falling apart? These types of things. Chair Rebecca, I just wanted to give you a heads up. We have like two more minutes. Okay. And then I want to be able to take a few questions so great.

Very good. Um, so this just gives you an idea of what we're hoping to do and I would like to extend a personal invitation for each of you to join us at our ribbon cutting which will be October 1. This is our Lehi Center which will be located on the Inter Mountain Primary Children's Hospital, Larry H. and Gal Miller Family Campus in Lehi. will be providing the outpatient family therapy and also the day treatment the therapeutic preschool for children who need more intensive services. So, perfect timing and happy to ask answer any questions.

I do have a question and this it is on a sliding scale, correct? Yes. So, families of all Yes, we accept private pay and also Medicaid. Um, everything is on a sliding fee scale. If we are the right place to treat a child and their family, we do not turn them away. Okay. Um, we do raise funds privately from the philanthropic sector to help us meet the needs. It costs more to do the worldclass treatment that our team provides um than we are reimbursed. All right, any other questions? It's tremendous. Very exciting.

Um, do you often have children aging out and then do you refer them to other services,

other partners? Yeah, very important question. In fact, one of the reasons that we're located um right next door to Primary Children's Hospital um in Lehi, you probably recognize they have a strong focus on behavioral health, we have the front end of that pipeline. So, we've got strong partnerships not only with Inter Mountain, with Huntsman Mental Health, with Valley Behavioral, with Wasatch here in Utah County and the referral stream back and forth. So yes, um it may be that children have not received in their family all the treatment that they need by the time that they leave our services. And do you do any court ordered therapy or court involved therapy programs?

Um some of that is happening through the infant toddler court program. So there is some of that and of course we do see families who potentially a child has been in an abusive situation and the family may be coming into therapy. We have many children who are in foster care. So it kind of runs the the gamut for the reasons that families come. I would also just want to you know mention that we all know that mental health doesn't know socioeconomic boundaries though many mental health situations are exacerbated by social determinance of health and and barriers that face families. So this this work this early intervention is so important. It helps address the complicated uh histories that families have. It works both with parents and the child, breaking those cycles that help us get out of intergenerational poverty and intergenerational trauma.

Gary Garrett, first, thank you, Rebecca, for the tremendous service you provide for for our valley now. And uh Malia, please help us get this when we get more details on our calendar. um re referring to some of the court uh services you provide. It made me think of other organizations, children focused organizations in Provo like the Children's Justice Center. Yes. I assume it's not a duplicating services so much as collaborating with these existing organizations.

Yes. And we have spoken with their director. We're trying to reach and connect with all. I think they're actually coming up for a tour of our facility in West Valley so that they'll have a better understanding of the services that we'll be bringing. So there is a lot of effort to coordinate because there is just not enough service providers to go around. Sure. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, we Provo is the seed of the county and we do hold so many wonderful nonprofits that do great services here, but it's nice to see another one that's not necessarily in Provo, but can be a resource for Provo citizens as well. So, I just want to get that your name out there so people know that it's a resource that they can use. And we will put your stuff on our neighborhood in our neighborhood meetings, but people can pick up the flyer if they want. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for your time. Um, you know how to find us. Um, we look forward to seeing you in October and we're even happy to schedule a specific site visit that's just for your group if you'd like on either the first or second after the ribbon cutting. So, thank you so much. Thanks, Rebecca. Thank you.

All right. Next, we have a resolution approving the appropriation of $57,765.50 in the general fund for a contractual sales tax increment post performance payment to East Bay Shopping Center. This is presented by Cody Hill, our economic development division director. Thank you. Right. Did you get my PowerPoint that I sent an hour ago, hour and a half ago? There's some table I wanted to add to all four. Um but yeah, council members, thank you so much for your time. Um we are we have basically four items that are a little bit cookie cutter. So we have based to read them all through right now.

Sure. If if a resolution approving the appropriation of $83,851Ds to the general fund for a contractual sales tax increment post payment to Parkway Village. And we also have the same appropriate another appropriation of $31,000 at $3.33 for a contractual sales tax post performance to the shop at Riverwoods. And then we have an appropriation of $13,5921 for contractual sales tax increment post performance payment today's market. And Cody will go over all of them.

Yeah, I think that's probably a good way to do it because they're all very very similar. So these four payments have um resolutions date going back to 2016, 2018, 2018, and 2019. Perfect. Thank you so much, Kevin. Appreciate you. Um, so they have been around for for a little while and the I got some feedback from u from Kirstson upstairs who had been, you know, watching Provo Forward and and getting some criticism, some comments, some concerns about sales tax. So, I thought I'd just kind of talk about that briefly since I've got 20 minutes for all four. Um, but I feel like it's just really just one discussion with four parts to it. Um, but just in speaking in general to sales, tax, rebittance, payments, um, I think there's two ways to look at it, um, or I guess two different times that it will come to the city. Um, the first time is someone that's looking to come here, um, and set up a business, set up a big box store, something of that nature, and they're looking for an incentive to help overcome costs or to improve the store's facade or whatever the the reasons may be. Um and then the second is if we already have a uh an outlet here that is maybe going downhill that is a little bit um um past its prime that is looking to make improvements make um you know modifications expand it uh whatever the reasons may be. And so those are kind of the two categories that we that we really see it in.

These aren't legal anymore right? These aren't what aren't these not allowed anymore by the state? They're they're not allowed by the state under most conditions. It would have to be from a redevelopment agency. They're no longer from city who the the end you the developer or the outlet. Correct. Thank you. And so there there needs to be that redevelopment agency um kind of mediating the if that's going to happen.

And so the um some of the concerns were is is you know is the city being extorted? um is is this just you know businesses just being greedy and and and what is Provo doing having you know having made these obligations and there there really is a significant boost in the amount of sales tax revenue that the city has received from all of these. Um in no ways is it is extortion because you know these were already here. We weren't going to lose lose them. They weren't going to up any you know Riverwoods wasn't going anywhere. Um, and so it it it wasn't extortion. It it was just basically an opportunity that that the city had to support them in in their desires to expand, remodel, improve the facade, improve the the I guess the shopping center for Riverwoods and for um kind of Parkway Village as well. And so um that's a little bit of background context in in how I take these payments. Well, I think the biggest point is you're improving the the development such that we get more sales tax. It brings more money. We're doing something to get more money in the end. It's not just making it prettier just to help them out.

Yeah. And I also had a question from from Becky Baldin about well it looks like the caps are are pretty big like the the total amount to um the max reimbursement 100,000 1.1 million 1 million and 1.5 million. And it doesn't look like any of these entities are on schedule to actually achieve those cap amounts of what they're able to receive. And I'm I wasn't here in 2019, 2018. Um so I can't speak to where they landed on those caps. Um it looked like it was about half of a list of qualified improvements that the city was agreeing to reimburse them for. And not necessarily. we have done this market study and we anticipate a growth of this much revenue over this period of time and if we're tracking that growth then we will be in line to reach this cap after 10 or I think Riverwoods is 15 years um it looks like it was just basically tacked to the total amount of the improvement which for pro from Provo City's perspective not meeting the cap is good and bad. It's it's it's good in the sense that we're giving away less of our tax dollars. Um it's bad in the sense that just that just means that they generated more revenues um that the that the city has enjoyed. So um those are just kind of my setting the table my thoughts on sales tax increment from a high level and then also just speaking to um the reimbursement amount as well. Um so the payments as you said um are for days market 13,59 East Bay 57766 Parkway Village 83,852 and for Riverwoods $31,3. Um the only curious thing that I didn't expect and I'm still looking into is that payment to East Bay. Um that was

the only one that really had a drop from 65,000 last year to 57 this year. And so I've sent the list of businesses that I captured the the sales tax revenues from to the representatives at Eastbay and and just said, "Hey, will you double check my work? Make sure that I'm capturing everything." As well as there was a couple of businesses, one had a negative amount for their sales tax um number, which could be they overpaid last year by a lot and then the state would make that adjustment. Um, and then there was another one that just looked very low. And so, uh, Daniel followed over in finances helping me get to the bottom of of that one, but the other three looked really in line as well. Is Parkway Village where the neighborhood Walmart is?

Yes. Well, they're killing it. The neighborhood Walmart and then um the killing it. Yeah. The Alpath retail that they have. So, I mean, they're by far making a lot more money than any Yeah, that's But that's huge, right? that that is everything that it's only half of the increment. Yes. Yeah. So I mean that there's an enormous difference there between Yeah. because East Bay is big. But even so you look at market well in I mean that's just a small square but East Bay does not include keep that in mind

right it's only a certain number of the properties there. It's not the entire east of university and Parkway Village is just the strip mall. It's not the out that's not the outskirt buildings, right? Or is it the whole thing? It's it's the Walmart. It is the attached. And then I think there's two detached alpad. That's what it includes. There's other wings. Is it the wing stop and the postal place? Yeah. And then there's like the And then the twisted sugar. Yeah, exactly. Twisted sugar and then the Bahama Bucks. That's what it was. That's what I was looking for. Yeah. Squash, the new one that just opened. Yeah, that will that is there as well. Yeah. So, page market is just the store, not the full strip.

Correct. Yeah. And so, we would definitely anticipate seeing a boost in in Parkway Village now that the is a Pizza Cafe, but that that space is filled with First Watch. But Oh, so you think that building's included in this room? Oh, okay. Yeah, probably sign. Yeah, there's offices that are behind it and other spaces behind it. Those are not included. But the Walmart, the attached outpad, and then the detached outpad as well, but not the 7-Eleven. No. Cody, what does base amount mean? Does is that the first year payment or so that's when they came were before?

Yeah, presumably that so that is when they come to us and they say, "Hey, we want sales tax increment." And in I see you know increment is basically above certain amount base amount. Exactly. So when they came to us back in you know 2019 for today's market they said right now we're we're bringing in consistent level of this amount. This will be our base year. Everything over that half of it will go to and that's just the 1% we collect right the point of sale the yeah the half percent. So their increase isn't actually that much then if you're looking I wasn't I didn't realize that with that base. Yeah.

Well, their increase I mean if that is the base amount over there at Parkway Village 136,000 and now they're bringing in 83 which is half the increment. Then again you have to adjust that for inflation. Look how much lower the Riverwoods is for their base. Well, Riverwoods, I mean, they wanted what a lot more and they're not even going to be on track to do that. So, it doesn't look like Riverwoods is performing as well as they had hoped to. Yeah. A jump. We definitely saw a jump from, you know, 20 24 2025 payment of 9,000.

But you're saying when they did this, they were making 118. Their base amount was 118 as opposed these numbers would say their base is like 60. Yes. Well, are they making 118 plus the 20,000 plus the base? Yeah, it's above. Thank you. That is making sense. Yeah. Yeah. It's 118 plus 40, right? Because it's 50%. Exactly. Okay. So, yes, Parkway's still killing it. Okay. I feel much better. Well, or it would be 60 for this year's payment, right, Gary? Instead of 40 for the 2025. Yeah. So I but I love this format.

No, but he's he told me that he did the figures for East Bay and when you adjust East Bay for inflation, that's a 40% increase. Yes. Yeah, that's pretty good. 68% increase from the first payment to today and then adjusting for inflation, it's so a 40% increase on East Bay is pretty good in my opinion. No, I just had an airhead moment. Thank you. But I love this Cody and I would love to see this continued forward to have us just allow us to have the same kind of format every single time you do argument all at once kind of easy to compare to digest. Yes,

we never did get this before and so this is just so helpful to me to be able to see that and to to know that. But even if you want to throw in and this is what has increased from inflation, I wouldn't even be upset about that. I can add that as well for city council lady. Just put it out there. Well, it'd be cool to see how much they're actually bringing in more than they did before. Yeah.

Cody, if you go back to 2016, 18, and 19, how did these um groups become did the economic development approach them and say, if you'll do a facade upgrade, we'll enter into this agreement, or did they just learn about this pool and inquire about it? Or maybe you don't have that history. I don't have that information. It could have been actively economic development approaching them more likely. It's it's they were contemplating, you know, improvements and looking for support with that. For my years of watching council meetings, they tried to find a different owner for East Bay because East Bay just was not doing well. And so that is what drew them in.

Day's market needed that to help them remodel. Yeah. It was just something and I listen to George Stewart say, you know, these guys have been such a staple to our community for so long. We really do need to give back. Um, Parkway Village was for that light to go back and forth to the old shopco complex that's there on University Parkway and Riverwoods just needed some love. Yeah. Okay.

I think it was more Riverwoods kind of approaching once they saw this stuff going going on. Any other questions or comments or concerns? I have the other staff reports kind of up if there's high level details we want, but I think this is the main Cody. So, why is this no longer legal at the state level? different um tools have replaced it or

No, I think I if I'm gonna get into the legislator's heads then it's it's uh I think it's it's cities getting pitted against each other by a big big box retailer. So, you know, a Costco we we saw this in with Costco and you know, just south of us when they were saying, "Hey, Springville, what's your best offer? Spanish, what's your best offer? Springville, Costco offered us this much. Can you go above and beyond?" And so I think just a history just to level the playing field a little bit more.

Yeah. just to kind of get rid of that. Um, you know, we we need this, we want this, we're going to go as deep in as, you know, as hard as we can to get this and it ending up really not being we're decreasing the the benefit that the community is getting. And at the end, if if we really play that game and and it gets competitive, then then it's I think it's not unwise for the state to to take that off the table as a tool um for big box. Okay. Interesting. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions for Cody? All right. Thanks, Cody. Thank you. All right. Well, you just took us to the end here. We just killed it.

Um, all right. We are going to have a closed session. So, council will consider a motion to close meeting. Gary, if you want to. Yes. Thank you. Um I understand the topic for discussion uh is a strate strategy session for the sale of real property. Um that is a permissible reason under the statutes. Okay. So um we will take a motion for a close session. I move to move into close session. Second. All right. We have a first and second. Any discussion on the close motion? We'll do a vote. Councelor Bogdan. Yes. Councelor Whipple. Yes. Council Christian. Yes. Council McKay. Yes. Councelor Garrett. Yes.

And we will now recess approval council work meeting and reconvene in the pre-unction room for close meeting. Recording stopped.