City Council - Regular Meeting

Everyone this evening. Welcome to the Pro Municipal Council regular meeting. It is July 14th, 2026. It is 530 p.m. We'll have a roll call of the elected officials. We have Councillor Rachel Whipple, Councillor Becky Bogdan, myself, Catrice McKay, Councillor Craig Christensen, Councillor Jeff Whitlock and Councillor Travis Hoban. Today, our prayer will be provided by one of the Collins family. It's going to be a surprise which one. And then we have a pledge of allegiance by myself, Catrice McKay. So we'll have one of the Collins up for the opening prayer. Thank you.

Thank you.

Our kind Father in heaven, we humbly bow our heads to thee with gratitude for all of our many blessings. Father, we appreciate the opportunity to meet here this evening and to honor those who protect and serve us. And we pray that thou will guide all those in uniform, protect them as they continue to serve us. And Father, we're thankful for all of the great leaders of this community and for the leaders of this state and for our country. We pray that they will be blessed with thy wisdom and thy guidance to continue to lead us down the path that would have us go. We give thanks for all that we have. Say so humbly and do so in the name of thy son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.

Thank you so much. Please rise.

Pledge allegiance to the flag. Okay, this is one of our favorite things that we get to witness.

We're going to have a ceremony for the badge pinning of six new firefighters. And this will be presented by our fire chief, Jeremy Hedman.

Thank you, Council. It's an honor to be here today and to introduce you to, it's actually five today. One of them wasn't able to make it, but we have two more coming in a couple weeks. We'll bring him then. But five new firefighters. These five firefighters have been through eight weeks of training. They are on shift now and out there. running calls and taking care of emergencies every day. I'd like to start by calling up Rhett Collins. Rhett is a 24-year-old from South Jordan, Utah. He joined the fire service to challenge himself to embrace new opportunities for personal growth and to serve his community. The most important things in Rhett's life are his family and the relationships he has with the people he loves. Their support example have inspired him to pursue a life of hard work and service, making it possible for him to reach this milestone in his career. Rhett is going to be pinned by his girlfriend, Alana. Alana.

Sorry.

Next, I'd like to invite Italo Perdomo to come up. So Italo was born and raised in El Salvador. He moved to the United States in 2014, but he first moved to Texas. And then after serving in an LDS mission in Utah, he decided this was the place to raise his family. He moved to Utah at the end of 2019. Shortly after that, he was married. Since then, he has worked to pursue his career as a firefighter. He is currently working on a bachelor's of emergency services administration degree. And he has a beautiful two-year-old son who he loves dearly. And he hopes one day that he will fall on his footsteps and become a firefighter.

Italo, I didn't have you pronounce your wife.

Ari? His wife Ari is going to come up and pin his badge. Next, I'd like to invite Jake Johnston up. Jake was born in Redlands, California, but he's grown up around Orem and is now living in Mapleton. He loves the outdoors and activities such as dirt biking, shooting, hiking, surfing, which I don't know where he does that in Utah, and snowboarding. Jake and his wife love traveling to find new adventures together. He first got interested in fire service his sophomore year in high school. He took a basic EMR class. From that point, he continued to learn about it and wanted to have a career in the fire service. He's very excited to be joining the Provo Fire Department and starting his career here. His wife, Katie, is going to come up and pin his badge. Next, I'd like to invite Blake Evans to come up. Blake grew up in Las Vegas. He lived there for 16 years. He moved to Utah in Harriman. He loves to do anything outdoors like golf, pickleball, hiking, fishing, just about anything outside. Blake is excited to serve a great community and be part of something bigger than himself and to help people and be there for people what might be their worst day. Blake is going to be pinned by his father, Alan Evans. And finally, I'd like to invite Daniel Monson up. Daniel was raised in West Jordan and feels fortunate to call Utah his home. Inspired to serve his community, he completed his EMT certification at Utah Valley University before continuing on with the university's Recruit Candidate Academy, where he earned his fire certifications. Daniel is proud to join the Provo Fire Department. I'd like to thank his family, friends, and his girlfriend, Caitlin, especially for writing this bio. like to invite caitlin up to pin his badge congratulations It's a pretty fun time to hire five new firefighters. hire once or twice a year. These guys have all been outstanding. The trainers that trained them for the last eight weeks or before they went on shift had nothing but great things to say about these young men. And we're excited to see what they can do to make Provo Fire and Provo City a better place. I'd like to ask Heidi to come up and swear them in.

I do solemnly swear that I will support, obey, and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Utah, and that I will discharge the duties of my office with fidelity.

with fidelity thank you You're good, I was standing behind you, so. One, two. Councilor Bogdan, can you scoot? You're right. Yeah. Thank you.

Congratulations to all the new firefighters. We're really excited. And there is some treats and refreshments in the community room. And all the family and friends are welcome to come. Thank you so much.

Oh, so strong and yawns. Love it. Oh, the pinning. Thank you

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 an item, but will be limited to 10 minutes. Please note that items 6 through 12 will be continued to a future meeting, and we will not hold a public hearing for them in tonight's meeting. 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 two 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 participating on Zoom will need to use the raise hand feature to indicate they wish to comment. The chair may choose to alternate between in-person and online commenters. Please begin your comments by stating your name and your city of residence. You will have two minutes to speak. Are there any online commenters at this time or anyone in the public who would like to come up and comment?

All right, we will move on.

You just need to say your name and your city of residence, please.

My name is Burns. I'm from Provo, literally, just a little ways up here. Yeah, we just need your full name, please. My name is Burns Johanson. Recently, there's been news about content creators and dealing with things going on in Provo and it's sparking some concerns. I work as a content creator myself and it seems concerning to me because recently with what's going on with a content creator, it seems that someone's verbal communication, saying that someone is doing something as in threats or something like that, has caused Provo police to do a subpoena to get all the information from the person who doesn't seem to have any evidence that they said any of those things. And it kind of seems like Provo is trying to wait it out, which I can kind of understand why this is a very sensitive subject, but considering both the subpoena and the remarks by the prosecution representing Provo, It kind of seems alarming to work as a content creator in Provo now knowing that if someone calls into the police and says I threaten them with no proof whatsoever, the police will work to get a subpoena for all of my information and likely cause other damages to my life. And I get you guys will not be making a comment about it today, but... As someone who's lived here and worked with other content creators who were in this city and some of the major YouTubers who have created what is now YouTube and online content, a lot of us are worried because we don't want someone getting upset with us and destroying our entire lives and being able to get any information that they want. I hope you guys make a comment or take some sort of action because at this point we're scared and we want some sort of movement on this. Thanks.

Thank you. It's very good timing. All right. Any other public comment? All right. First, we have an applied motion on an ordinance vacating section of 1600 West to deed back to the adjoining property owners. And this will be presented by Megan Jensen, our city planner.

Thank you, Council. We talked about this in the work session earlier, but essentially this portion of 1600 West was dedicated to the city for right-of-way in a subdivision several years ago, and the improvements have been completed, and there is a remaining portion about 20 feet in width, and that would just be deeded back to the adjacent property owners. And There were some questions about the width of the road. So I got that information from Public Works. So it would be 36 feet of asphalt, six foot of sidewalk, and variable width for the mow strip. That's what's planned for 1600 West. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Great. Thanks, Megan. Any questions for Megan? Councilor Bogdan.

So 36 feet is what's planned, but that's not what's there today, correct?

No, I don't. I think that would. Well, that might be a better question for public works, but I think that would be widening out, including the mow strip and the sidewalk as planned.

Gordon Public Works. So when this road is built on the new cross section, the asphalt will be 36 feet, the entire width until it expands out further down as we get closer to 64th and it'll go to Lakeview Parkway and then we will have the normal size roadway section. So just through this section and down where we have existing development only be 36 feet of asphalt.

So that's what we're looking at is 36 feet, not what exists today.

Right. So as curb and gutter gets put in there, we'll have 36 through the whole. The minimum size of the smallest section of the road will be 36 feet of asphalt.

Will be eventually. Okay. And then we talked about this. I want to, we're in a public meeting because this road is really, really narrow. And this road, we're looking at this as a collector road. This is not... For the public and for the people that live along here and the people that live in the neighborhood, this is more of an alleyway. And this is a collector road. This is not a neighborhood street. And this is planned to go all the way from Center Street, which it does today. And it ends at 1150 South. It's planned to go through all the way to Lakeview Parkway. And we talked about in order to do this, you'd have to buy nine homes.

Around 9,000, I'd have to get the exact number, but there's a number of them, yeah.

And for safety purposes, because the elementary school is just two houses right here to the north, we're giving that back so that the sidewalk's there to start to build the sidewalk down to 890 because Shoreline Middle is like a few blocks to the east. And kids do walk from the elementary school and for the Shoreline Middle School down this road. So for that reason, I will vote yes. But I do acknowledge that this is a road that is very small. And we don't have any plans to widen it for generations.

Yeah, we'd have to buy homes, and I would envision just it's more important to get the sidewalks in place today so that we have a place for the children particularly and people to walk while we wait for a time when we do want to buy homes and widen the road.

So it's going to be widened on the west side?

Yeah, we plan to start doing this whole road as we're working with each of the property owners to get right away as we get them. What you'll see will be a 36-foot asphalt section with the variable parts grip and then six-foot sidewalks on both sides of this road. That's what we're going to be working on. We think this is an important pedestrian corridor. We need to get that going.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate that.

All right. We will open this item up for public comment. Any public comment on this item? All right, we'll turn it over to council discussion. Any council discussion on this item? Councilor Jeff Whitlock.

Thank you. I just want to say I think this is fair. If we don't have eminent plans to use it, that we give it back. This was essentially given to us and giving it back. And then I also appreciate the proactive nature of recognizing we need to get sidewalks that are safe for kids so they can get to school safely.

All right, we'll take a vote on the implied motion. Councilor Garrett is excused. Councilor McKay, yes. Councilor Christensen?

Yes.

Councilor Whitlock?

Yes.

Councilor Bogdan? Yes. Councilor Hoban?

Yes.

And Councillor Whipple? Yes. And this passes 6-0. Next, an applied motion on a resolution attesting to the review of the Missile Wastewater Planning Program survey for calendar year 2025 in accordance with the Utah Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems Permit. This will be presented by Dave Torgerson, our Wastewater Superintendent.

evening. Thank you for this opportunity. I was hoping that Chief Hedman would have had the whole audience to hear this. They had other things to go do. But this is a self-annual survey that we conduct every year. As we discussed in the work session, we were a little bit late in doing it this year, but the state sent out the survey to the wrong individual, so we've rectified that. But what we're here tonight to do is to get a resolution approving that you've reviewed the self-assessment that we've completed. The self-assessment covers several sections, first of which is financial self-evaluation. It goes through several topics on the health of our financial situation to fund the sewer utilities. It also covers the collection system, the health of the collection system, the age of it, how many backups and overflows that we've had throughout the year and whatnot. One of the things I wanted to highlight, Councilor McKay in the work session pointed out that I need to do a better job of doing my public service announcement. in admonishing to not flush flushable wipes. Also, don't pour fats, oils, grease, things like that down the drain. they will end up causing problems. So please don't do that. That's part of what causes backups that we have to go and do and repair those. So the section also covers the wastewater treatment plant. the condition, the capacity, any upgrades that have been made. It evaluates the staff that we've had, new development that's come in and how that affects the system. So with that, we're seeking a resolution to adopt that. And are there any questions?

Any questions for Dave?

i don't think so you're good dave all right thank you all right we'll open this item up for public comment any public comment on this item any council discussion on this item counselor christiansen this is the kind of topic that no one really discusses uh we're so grateful for your good work as we went through this in the work meeting uh a great deal of good work goes into making sure this happens because When these things don't happen, work well, we feel it. So thank you for your good work. It's like you never think about it until there's a very stinky problem. And so we're grateful that we don't have to think about that.

And Rachel Whippen, I love reading this survey. It's one of our favorites.

We really do enjoy it. And I do really want the public to know, never flush those flushable wipes. They will go down, but they will not degrade. They will clog up the system. Don't do it. Don't.

All right. We'll take a vote on the implied motion. Counselor... McKay, yes. Councillor Christensen?

Yes.

Councillor Whitlock?

Yes.

Councillor Bogdan? Yes. Councillor Hoban?

Yes.

Councillor Whipple? Yes. And Councillor Garrett is excused. That passes 6-0. Next, we have a resolution approving Level 2 fire restrictions within the Provo City watershed. It was presented by Kobe Hubs. We are very serious about no fires.

Unlike Mr. Torgerson, I wish no one was here to hear me talk. This year has kind of been unique. The county enacted level two fire restrictions on June 26th. And if you remember what happened the day after, we had all the snow on temp. So typically we kind of follow suit right behind them. We kind of held off to see if those were going to hold, if we had any moisture, didn't. So we wanted to make sure we went with those level two. So I made an emergency order right before the 4th of July on Tuesday. July 2nd at 5 p.m. I enacted those level two fire restrictions. We don't see anything in the near future that will rescind those. So we're just here for council to go ahead and accept those until something changes and we get hopefully maybe some good monsoon rains.

All right, thank you. Any questions for Corey? Kobe, sorry.

Close enough.

All right. Thanks, Kobe. All right. Open for public comment. Is there any public comment on this item? All right. We'll move ahead to council discussion. Any council discussion on this item? All right, we'll call for a vote of the applied motion. Councilor Christensen? Yes. Councilor Whitlock? Yes. Councilor Bogdan? Yes. Councilor Hoban?

Yes.

Councilor Whipple? Yes. Councilor Garrett is excused. Councilor McKay, yes. That passes 6-0. If there is no objection, we will now adjourn the program of council by unanimous consent.

Recording stopped.