City Council - Regular Meeting

Hey Brian, do you want to do the moment of silence? I can dodon. What did we learn? I'm gonna You are What is that? Oh, yeah. [laughter]

I don't know. Britney's just telling me that I might have to try to get used to an Apple. I usually use an Android. Oh, really? I don't know. But it'll be a bigger one. will be able to see better. [laughter] [clears throat]

Don't know if congratulations or condolences. You truly you're with I had your snack. So well I just wanted to appreciate hopefully we can find a way through all this stuff. We were just like it's a it's like trying to drink out of a fire. Yeah. I I'm just like I knew there was going to be some. I mean at least you know planning a lot of stuff, but I knew there was going to be a lot of new stuff, too. So,

I usually talk to Randy going on right now.

Just like I just want to tell him to Okay. Wait for her to see if we're ready. So,

Britney, we ready? Okay. Okay. Get We're ready to go.

It's 5:30. So, we'd like to thank all of you come out to our meeting tonight. Um, we have we'd like to recognize Council Member Hullbert, Council Member Wilson, Council Member Jackson, Council Member Saxon, and our newly appointed Council Member Spar with us tonight. And so now, Council Member Saxton is going to lead us in a moment of silence and the pledge of allegiance. if we would please. Um, former mayor Bob Daty and his wife Carol are experiencing some troubles. And so, uh, when we take a moment, have them in your hearts, please. Thanks. Thanks, guys. Uh, repeat after me. [laughter] I aliance 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.

Thanks. Okay. Tonight we have a few consent items that we have listed here. Does um council members have any comments on those? I have a few u minor changes to the minutes and I've already submitted those to Britney. Okay. And so, do we have a motion to approve those consent items? I move that we approve the consent items with the slight changes as already submitted. Okay. Do I have a second? A second. Okay. All those in favor say I. I.

Okay. Now, we're going to have a few presentations tonight. And our first will be with uh Steve from my hometown, and this is going to be a great thing for our city. I just want you to know, I've met with him. I've driven around with him, and what what he can bring to our city is going to be so exciting. And so, I will turn the time over to Steve if you want to come up to the podium and talk loud. Thank [laughter] you, Mayor Jackson. Can I just give this to you to pass down?

Thank you, Mayor Jackson. It's good to be in Roy City tonight. I appreciate it. I'm a lifelong Weber County kid and uh can't tell you how many times I've swam at the complex or competed at Roy High. Sometimes better than others, but I am grateful to be here tonight. My name is Steve Griffin. I represent my hometown which is an initiative of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in conjunction with other municipalities. Uh we work extensively within the state of Utah right now with other cities and entities to be able to lift and better communities as a whole. Um some of you have been to some of our events over in Ogden in Weber County. Right now, we're currently serving inside of Ogden City where we have approximately 284 missionaries and we regularly on our days of service have about 1,500 to,800 volunteers that come into the city to help and support us on those days of service. Let me tell you a little bit about what uh my hometown Ogden or I should say my hometown does. What we do is is we have two focus areas. That first area is what we call days of service. Those days of service are where we identify in collaboration with other entities in the city as well as the municipality itself projects that need done inside of the city for beautifification and for improvement or to generally lift the community. We identify those projects. We work and plan them. We facilitate the equipment and the needs as well as the funding working alongside the city with permitting and all the things that are needed to be able to better those homes and to help those individuals. How do we find some of those projects? collaboration, like I said, but also the city provides us um code violations that we're able to go out and help those individuals alleviate their code violation that they may not be able to

themselves or that they may not have the funds to do that. In Ogden City alone, um we have alleviated well over 330 code violations, which accumulates almost to a half a million dollars in a beta. So, we are we are proud of that fact. The mayor has written a letter that I've given you all a copy there from Ogden. And the reason I brought that is because it is the closest city that we're working in right now. But there's a couple things I wanted to share with you. He lists some of the metrics that the city measures in what we have done there. But if you'll look on that second page, I updated those metrics to include 2025. The metrics that I'll share with you here is what has happened in your neighboring city here, Ogden, with my hometown in four years. And in those metrics, you'll see that we've had over 21,149 volunteers come in from the city and into the city. 73,000 over 73,000 service hours, 1334 projects. that represents homes that have had driveways, landscaping, porches, uh handicap ramps, uh painting of all kind, any kind of repairs that are needed, even hoarding violations and other things that have been clear that the city has directed us and pointed us to. The city evaluates that at a $2.5 million service value in the last four years that we've provided in beautifying the inner city of Ogden. If you look below, you'll see the second part of what we do and who we are in my hometown. We have what we call community resource centers in Ogden. There are three in Roy here. We've identified already a facility uh here inside of the city that would be turned in and used to as a resource center. That resource

center focuses on bettering individuals, strengthening families, and supporting vulnerable populations. We provide a variety of classes. Annually, we're providing in Ogden over 220 different classes that provide those types of support to the community and they are all free of charge. They are staffed by service missionaries as well as professionals as well as city personnel and as well as individuals from local hospitals, universities and school districts as well as Weaver County Morgan Health that help us to provide those individual type classes to those entities. You can see that we have had over 12,420 patrons in those facilities and it is making a difference inside of the communities in the state of Utah. Right now we are in 18 communities hopefully 19 with Roy being the 19th with many more waiting. We are scaling as fast as we can but it takes money it takes people personnel and it takes effort. So, I'm here today to answer questions about my hometown. We would love to come to Roy City. We are prepared and we are ready to come to Roy City. In fact, we already have uh service missionaries serving in Ogden that are from Roy that we would like to bring home to work inside of your city boundaries and to help. It does require the support of the city to be able to work effectively. Let me just share one line right here real quick from uh Mayor Nadowski. If you look towards the bottom uh of that letter that he wrote, he says this. These accomplishments are more than numbers. They represent the spirit of unity, service, and transformation. The impact of my hometown can be seen not only in cleaner streets and educated

families, but also in strengthened bonds between neighbors and a growing sense of civic pride. Ogden has been proud to serve as a model city for this program and we wholeheartedly support its expansion into other communities. The success we have experienced stands as a testament to what is possible when cities and residents work hand in hand with purpose and compassion. We work very hard to focus on two things connection and collaboration. It is imperative when we are trying to lift certain parts of a community that we connect them with others that they might be able to lift them and create those relationships and bring in those resources to those communities. Collaboration. We work extremely hard to collaborate with the municipalities that we work within that we might be able to do what their needs are and work with them handinand as well as the other charitable groups and entities within the city. We like to think that we work as a central hub to make sure that we are not crossing over the top of each other, but that we're better utilizing all of our efforts together in making a difference inside the community. Just one real brief thought here. Last night I was in another meeting and we had an individual who had had their home uh repaired by my hometown missionaries and volunteers from within the city. This individual is partially disabled. When her door was originally knocked on, and it was knocked on by a My Hometown service missionary at the request of the city as a code violation, she was nervous of us, but she let us talk to her on that porch and accepted the help that we offered. We asked her about her neighbors and she said, "I wouldn't dare talk to anybody. I don't talk to anybody. I think they're all bad

people." Quote, they're not. But in time, what happened was is we provided an opportunity to help her with her home there in making some outside repairs and some sidewalk pairs that went up to the front of her porch. At the end, her neighbors came out and were invited to help. They met each other. They talked. Three more projects came as a result. And our former missionary there then approached this lady several months later just to check in on her and see how it was. and she referred to her as a dear friend. And this little lady said back to her, "What did you call me?" And she said, "Well, my dear friend." And she said, "I've never been anyone's dear friend." So, there is a difference that can be made inside these communities by connecting all of us together in the entirety and to be able to help your community and our home. My hometown isn't where we're from, it's who I am.

Right. And so, is there any questions that I can answer? I just wanted to say that my son had the opportunity to build a wheelchair ramp in um a downtown Ogden. And the main thing he said was the great community service and the pride that he felt and everybody working together. And I know that you say that it's um church oriented, but it's a lot of people might shy away if they think that the church is running it. And so you say that all denominations, you don't have anything you on you that says that you're from the church.

No, mayor. That's a really good question. We are nonproitting. We are civic-based. in in Utah, there are 800 of our service missionaries, but there are 600 volunteers who are not part of that service missionaries who work alongside with us. And so, we work in the community as a whole as a civic-based 501c3. We just use the the church as part of our support and part of our networking in being able to get volunteers. But I will tell you in Ogden, there are volunteers, half of them, that come from other entities as well, right? corporations, other charitable groups and entities within the city that we work closely with.

Well, me and Diane and Janelle had the opportunity last year to go around Agen and see some of the things that they they acts of kindness and service that they did. And I was just amazed at all the people that did it. The and the um I just want you to know that it's all outside of homes. They don't enter inside anybody's home, do anything inside. So, it's cement uh repairs on um and like you said, there were some hoarders. We went to their houses and they had a hard time giving some of that stuff up. But, uh but then they have a professional tree surfaces come in if they need trees cut down, but they've laid saw, they've put up fences, they've done house painting. I mean, um just beautifies the neighborhood. And then like you have said before, neighbors that we're going to be, you know, have you come to their house, they're like, "Well, I think I can do this on my own now." And then you ask for maybe that homeowner if they can put any money towards it. And then maybe they'll be more apt to, you know, keep it up. But if they can't,

then you provide like Lowe's and Home Depot, everybody. It's all provided all the materials and all we do is the labor.

That is correct. And and actually the equipment, the support, the materials all come in from all directions within the city and from without of the city. Just to give you an idea of some some of the environmental impacts that we've made in Ogden City, we have taken to the Weber County Transfer Station. Over 2,800 tons of refuge and over 1,800 yards of green waste have been picked up or taken from inside of inner city Ogden. So, there's a lot of benefits in that as well. and we work closely with the businesses inside of the communities as well as other state entities to be able to provide the funds as well as the materials and the equipment that is needed. So any given day of service that you may have been in in Ogden, you'll see between 15 and 1,800 volunteers. And the last time we had a day of service, just to give you an idea how many things are moving, there was 180 dump trailers moving that day.

Wow. inside of the city along with the city's backhoe dump trucks and their personnel and the men that are behind me here. They are a critical part on both and women over here on both sides are a critical part of our support on those big days because there's a lot of people and a lot of movement inside of the city on that particular four hours on that Saturday morning. So, and so you do usually May, June, August, September, right? Correct. On a Saturday, but to where we're just new to the whole, you know, concept, we would probably only be August, September this year if we get all our everything going.

Yes. I would need to meet again with the individuals that this council would deem that I need to be with to be able to organize that to make sure that we're all in alignment on what is needed with our cooperation agreement. And then we would plan for at a minimum one day of service this year in Roy City, possibly two. It'll take us a while to staff up and to get trained and be able to move forward and get everything in place, not only with the city, but with our side of the agreement. And then also the uh community resource center would open much faster than that. The resource center would probably open in June. Uh and we would work to be able to have a fall semester then.

So can you tell you've told me but can you tell them some of the things that resource center that that offers? Yeah, absolutely. We teach ESL English uh as a second language. We teach um sewing. We teach personal finance and family finance. We teach uh mental health strength. We teach family and marriage counseling classes and strength. We teach uh help me Ray behind me. Piano and ukulele. I've already

Yeah, we teach guitar. We teach piano. We have hundreds of young students that are learning piano in Ogden right now. Literally, that we teach in our community resource centers as well as in the Marshall White Center in Ogden. Now, uh, so we're teaching piano. We teach, uh, theater classes for young children, we teach youth impact classes and work directly with them. We teach classes on, uh, how to improve your home or how to um, care for your automotive or small engines or yard care or gardening, all of those types of things. So, those classes are based on strengthening the individual, the family, and vulnerable populations. We work closely with Nomos, if you're familiar with that. NOMAS offers free legal services to immigrants in helping them to be uh coming citizens of the United States. So they work within our centers and closely with us. Um

Thank you. And did you do one for all the elderly people that don't have grandchildren? Teach them how to work on their cell phones?

Uh yes, you did a class for that. We kind of smiled at that, but we we offered a class on cell phone usage and understanding how to use a cell phone. And we had about 85 senior citizens in there, and it was the coolest thing to see them all on their phones and and a 19-year-old young man at the front teaching them how [laughter] to do it all. And you know what? I I would have never thought that would have been intended, but that was something that that we were carrying on on a regular basis now that they really really appreciated. They all night they helped them to get hooked on to Facebook or or how to read their text messages or how to clear their windows or their screens, but there was a lot of good things that happened that night.

So, do you council, do you have any questions or any comments? Well, I was curious of where you and I think I asked this when we went and did the tour, but I don't quite remember of where you house some of these classes. I know that that was kind of probably in it's individual to every city, but I wasn't sure

it is. So, the way we start is is because we are a 501c3 of the church, it's really easy for us to acquire room within a given building here in the community that sits properly. And we usually start within a church building to work. Although that is not our ideal way, but it is the easiest way for us to get started. We've identified the building here on 4900 South and 2000 West by the elementary school where we would start, but ultimately we would love to move like we have with Ogden to city owned buildings or a collaboration together in a building where we can offer that out of a religious institution. And that's what we've done already in Ogden uh in two of the three resource centers that are in Ogden. Did that help? And do you require like storage in those buildings or how

small amount of storage? We need to store keyboards, uh, computers, uh, just materials that are needed in those types of areas, but not a large amount of storage. No. Okay. So, that's the red stake center. That's just right. The older one. Yes. [clears throat] Called the barn. Great big yellow building. Yes. It has the detached big uh gymnasium behind it. Hence, that's probably what we'd use quite often. Yeah,

in that resource center. So, it takes us a minute to get them up and advertised. Roy would immediately come up once we are to that point on the state's website where all of my hometown is housed and all the different communities come up and then it would start advertising and pushing out to your residents in Roy so that we could have those patrons come to the classes that they desired. So,

have a question. Yes. Um so it sounds like there's a lot of benefits that this um has for the city especially addressing some concerns that um residents have had in the past with beautifification and you know improving you know the city and and things. And so my question I guess to you is that what cost if any would there be to the city and what support that the city would need to to make this run? Like what what did you need from the city on this?

So that's a very good question. Here's what we really look for in the city. one is is collaboration and cooperation together so that we have open lines of communication. We want to meet your needs and we want to work within your guidelines. As far as financial costs, when we uh acquire the volunteers and we as my hometown will go out and recruit, for lack of better words, those volunteers that are within the city and from surrounding areas, we would need the city to background check them. And then on the days of service, when we bring in volunteers from all over surrounding areas here, we would need the insurance on those days of service. Those are the two major expenses. As well as on the day of service, we would need the support of your good staff that would be working alongside of us to help us to make sure that we're meeting guidelines, that we're staying within permitting and all of the things that are needed there. Did that answer your council member Jackson? Thank you.

Yes. And we've already got our insurance approved that it would right Matt. So yeah, they actually have a policy that there's no additional charge. Mhm. Perfect. So So anything else anybody want to ask? I mean, normally you said that you work with the code enforcer because obviously code violation loves my hometown. I'm not

the code officers, enforcement officers do like us. We act um as a buffer, if you will, when there are violations. Sometimes city personnel aren't treated well. Can I say that from residents and sometimes we can step in and go offer to alleviate that violation and and we tell them that we're there as volunteers and it really makes a difference and then the code violation is there of course as well to make sure we do what is needed. So

what's the next step? So the next step for us was tonight to be able to uh let me informally hear from this council and your mayor that you would like us to be a part of Roy City. The next step for us is is we are approving and finalizing budgeting right now and we will do that and we will work forward in having that done. We will then begin to put our personnel or our volunteers together to get them trained. we'll identify the CRC and we will move forward so that we can open that as soon as possible. So what we would need to do is as I get down a little further down the road here, I would need to meet with the key personnel that you each deem that I should meet with to be able to coordinate our efforts. And in Ogden, I I will be honest with you. Um it works so well in Ogden because of this one thing. during the busy season May to September when we are doing the outside projects on those four days and they are large projects and large numbers of projects we meet with Ogden City's key personnel every two weeks for a half hour making sure we coordinate making sure you understand every project that we're doing that that um your risk management sees those projects and make sure that we're meeting their needs. that your insurance is good. We walk through it all with everybody so that they're aware. And one little thing, too, this is at the end of the day of service, we provide tacos for all of the all the volunteers. And in Ogden right now, that's about 6,500 tacos on that day.

So, um, and it, you know, that we smile at that, but people really like that. [laughter] Yeah. Yeah. So, hey, anything else? Yeah, those talkers are why I'll be [laughter] serving. Just kidding. Um, so you'd meet every two weeks and but it sounds like from what I understand that you guys will grow as we kind of want you to grow as well. Like financially, we're not going to be paying more than we could actually afford or anything like that.

No. And that's that's the that's the purpose of us collaborating, communicating, and meeting regularly. We will grow. Obviously, Roy is not the size of Ogden. It's not going to have near the number of volunteers, but there are still a lot of good projects that could be done inside of the city as well as your patrons and citizens that could benefit from the CRC. So, yes, we will grow at the pace that the city feels is appropriate and we feel that we could manage ourselves on our side of that agreement. And for the background checks, just to clarify, that's just for the main volunteers that you're working with that would be working with people or youth or so the people like teaching the classes maybe or people

That's correct. That would be the missionaries, if you will, that are um working with us on a part-time basis, not the volunteers that are coming in on those days of service. Okay. I just wanted to clarify. We do have the release forms of those kinds of things for those volunteers that come in that holds each of our entities harmless at that point. So we would work with you to be able to make sure that that meets your needs as a city as well. Okay. Thanks. And plus there's no age limit. So can be a family affair day of service. So bring on those days of service we identify family uh friendly projects. Some are and many aren't. Right. So yeah.

Okay. Thank you. Well, we're way excited. I'm way excited. Roy City, like I told you, was the most beautiful city back in the 60s, and we got a lot of work to bring it back up. And um I think this just is a great thing, an opportunity for our city. And you've already gone through so many loopholes to get us to where we're at now. And I'm very excited for this opportunity to have my hometown come to Roy City. So, thank you for if if that's a formal formal yes for me to move ahead. I' I'd like to see all of you shake your head. Yes. [laughter] And we jump up and down and wave our fans.

We are going to work to move ahead. I will contact you, mayor, and we'll take those next steps and we'll begin to move forward. Thank you so much for coming. If there are any questions on your small pamphlet here from any of you, my contact information is on the back of that at the bottom. Please, any one of you reach out or any one of the city personnel, please reach out to me. So, okay. Do you have any additional of these that you could maybe I can bring you some. Okay, that'd be great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you so much, Steve. Have a good evening for coming. [snorts] Okay. Now, next we have Chief Clark. Who's or is it Chief Theren is going to talk? I'll I'll do the introduction.

Okay. Okay. Chief Theren is going to introduce. Okay. Thank you, Mayor Council. Um I just we're just going to kind of keep this brief before I turn time over to Chief Clark and um Chief Taylor. Um I just want to introduce that this this topic has come up. It's been instigated by me that it's not something they came to me nor did Matt ask me. This is something that I have really brought to the table as an option. [snorts] Um, as most of you know, and I I'm trying to be as transparent with you as a council and also the residents who need to know the condition of the current fire department situation. Um, about during Christmas time, Christmas Eve, we had um a time in our staffing where we had to brown out a station. And it's been known over the last four years, we've lost a lot of firefighters. We've had a a large turnover. In three years, we've lost 28 firefighters. and that has a really young workforce and so it's getting harder and harder to keep firefighters and it's it's mainly due to the wages. When when we do an exit interview, uh we we ask them the reasons why and the majority almost every one of is because of the low wages where the gap between other fire departments surrounding us is getting larger and larger that gap and so uh as an option we have options and really um I take my responsibility to provide the residents and to fulfill my ultimate responsibility to give every resident the best emergency services to keep the city safe. We're now starting to see that that's getting harder and harder because we're losing the firefighters. So, tonight I don't want to go in a lot of depth of of all the different aspects that were the challenges that we're facing. Um, what I've tried to do is create options and and to introduce to you as a council we were fires an option. If you remember a while back about a year ago, uh there

was a discussion about a southern district study and at that time we thought, well, if we're going to explore creating a southern district, why don't we entertain uh joining a neighboring district with Weber Fire and that so that's why we're doing looking at the options that we're facing with these uh challenges with the fire department. Um I've asked that chief clerk introduce what Weber Fire is and just kind of walk us through. So really tonight is a is an opportunity for them to explore and help you understand who they are, that the residents know this current situation we're in, and really just bring it to the table, bring it publicly so we can be fully transparent with you as a council and also with the the public. So with that, um, I'll turn that time over to Chief Clark. And if I kind of have to interject during the conversation, we're happy to entertain questions. Um, but I'll turn that time over to Chief Clark. Chief Clark. Mayor and Council, um I am honored to be here to be able to talk to you tonight. Um as Chief Williams said, um I know you're looking at a lot of options. We're at Weaver Fire District, we're truly honored to be an option that you're looking at and we understand that we're an option. Um and I think it's important too with Chief Williams what he said. We we don't pursue this. Um, but as a as a district, we feel that when cities reach out to us, we have an obligation to to answer that and tell you what we can offer, maybe a benefit that we can offer. Um, just as a quick introduction, my name is Brick Clark. Um, I've been in in the fire service for about 23 years now. Um, I actually worked here at Roy City from 2008 to I think about 2016, 17 as a part-timer. Um, I started with uh Weber Fire in 2015 and I've become the deputy chief in 2018 and the chief just since 2024. So, I'm a little bit new as the chief. Um, but by way of introduction and and I got to tell as I was in the audience listening to the my hometown presentation, I realized that

this probably would have gone a lot better if I brought tacos, but I didn't and I apologize. Um, everything goes better with tacos. But, um, I just wanted to come up and introduce who we are, kind of where we came from, and maybe some benefits that we could offer to Roy City. And, um, first of all, um, who we are was we're fire district. We started in 1936 as Weber County Fire Department. And 1982, we were formed into a special service district. Um today we serve the communities of Far West, uh Marriott, Slaterville, West Haven, Hooper, Uenta, Huntsville, and now just recently Ogden Valley City. They just became a city, so we serve them. And then we also serve all of the unincorporated Weaver County. So we we cover about 515 square miles and we have currently six stations that we cover that with. We're all full-time stations. Um this year we're starting a project. We're building a new station in Hooper that will be an additional, so we'll be seven stations. Um, we're building another new station in West Haven that will be replacing an older station. That's a uh it was built, best I can tell, was built in the 60s, so it's kind of served its time. And then we're building a training facility which includes a training building with classrooms in it, a workout facility, some offices, and then that facility will also include a four-story training tower, fire training tower. Um that's kind of uh some of the assets that we have. Um kind of uh looking at what we can offer. I think one of the biggest things that we can offer to Roy City is just the fact that we're we're a special service district. And if I'm sure all of you are familiar with special service districts, there are a lot of them around and they serve different things. But the purpose for a special service district is to take um several communities, bring them together, and offer a specialized uh service. In in our case, it's fire and EMS to those communities at a cheaper

price, but a higher service level than they could afford on their own. And as you look around at a lot of the cities that we cover, they're they're smaller cities, but they're able to um afford a a good solid service um that we can provide to them. One of the benefits of uh service districts is we have a wider base, a wider tax base, so we can offer a more stabilized uh service spread out a lot over a lot of more people and we can um offer that stabilized and cheaper usually. Um and as you can see with all of our districts or excuse me, all of our stations um we have a lot of resources that we can bring to bear. And in the fire and EMS service, you never really know what's going to happen. one day I know was a firefighter um you go a day and hardly get a call and the next day you're busy all day and you're running calls all over the all over the city and that's one of the benefits here is we have worked with Roy City for many years um as you know we serve West Haven um Roy City has come to West Haven we've come to Roy City to help each other out in that sense we really offer the same service that you have now and Roy City offers an outstanding service right now and we can and we can come in and offer that same service. Now, but one of the benefits too we I think we can offer is we can offer more resources. Um we have we offer fire, we offer EMS, we contract with the county for paramedic service to provide par paramedic services just like Roy City does. Um we also have specialized stations in heavy rescue and hazmat. At those stations, we have techs that focus on those those specific skills. And so they get all the certifications they need to be experts in that field. And that frees them having more resources that frees them up to be able to focus in and be really really good hazmat techs or really really good um heavy rescue techs. And along with that we can focus buying equipment for those stations where if we get a hazmat response or we get a heavy rescue response we can respond out with

not only the training but also with the specialized equipment that's need needed to take care of that as quickly as possible. Um in addition to that we also have a very robust wildland um division. Um, in that we respond not only locally to wildland fires, but we also respond all over the west. Um, pretty much from uh Colorado and Wyoming all the way west. Um, we actually have a individual in Texas right now serving as a task force leader. Um, but we've served all the way up to Montana and we go all over the country and a lot of people ask you why would a fire service want to do that? Um, a lot of benefits to it. First of all, it brings back a lot of experience and certifications into our local area. Um, when we get fires, um, I myself did seven years as a wildland firefighter and I saw massive fires and so when we get fires around here, we're able to just get on them and be aggressive and knock them out. So, we bring back a lot of experience. We bring back a lot of advanced certifications. But really one of the benefits to our citizens is we bring back money and we buy equipment and our taxpayers don't pay for that equipment. Um we've bought several wildland apparatus um tenders uh PPE equipment um training with for lack of a better term somebody else's taxpayers money and we bring it back here into our city and our citizens benefit from that because we have better equipment, it's more specialized, we have better training. So, um, we offer those resources to all of our citizens. Um, again, at a at a lower, more stabilized price. Um, I'm not sure exactly what the format is. I'm I'm open to any questions that you have. Um, I can answer some of them. Maybe some of them I might have to come back and answer. Um, do you have any?

Well, one of the most important things you bring is you bring our firemen up to the pay scale that most already other cities have, right? Yeah, that's that that is a benefit that we can bring because of our the way we um we we're financed basically. We rely heavily on property tax and nobody likes to pay property tax, but it is more stable and so we can bring our firefighters into a competitive range and we can keep them there better um longer. And really when you hire a new firefighter, it takes a lot of money and a lot of time and a lot of equipment to train them. and the last thing you want them to do is in two or three years to leave and go to another city and then that that city gets all of that investment you poured into that individual. um that pay is part of that and benefits um and culture which having worked at Roy you don't have a culture problem you have a great department but um being able to offer a situation where your young firefighters can come in and they can see a whole career in there it's a benefit because you your do your tax dollars don't go to waste um they're building that those uh certifications they're building that experience and as those firefighters move through they become engineers and paramedics and captains and battalion chiefs and all of that investment that you put on the front end, it starts to pay off on the back end with that incredible leadership that you can keep in your community. So that that is a benefit I think that we could we could offer and we do offer.

Okay. So council, do you have any questions? Can you tell us where your pay scale fits generally amongst other fire districts and departments? You know, like are you on the top and the low end? First question. Second question, where does Roy Fire Department then fall compared to your pay scale? So, um, [clears throat] and and maybe I forgot to say this, I'll just hit it real quick. We're governed by a board of trustees.

Um, a lot of people think that Weber Fire District is governed by the county. We're not. We serve the county, but we have a separate board of trustees, which is made up of four elected at large representatives and then representatives from our city. So, it's it's local control. they make the decisions. To answer your question, um, several years ago, we came up with a plan to make sure we stayed in the market with our employees. And what we did is we looked at all the fire service districts along the Wasatch front because we tax the same and we can compare against them. And we decided we're going to stay in the top two/irds of that every year and we're going to look at it every year. So, we we stay in the top two/3s and we adjusted this last year. We adjusted our engineers who had fallen behind a little bit and we take we make those little adjustments every year. Um, with Roy City, I can only speak in generalities. We have been talking to Chief Williams a little bit. Um, and we have compared where your current people are compared to our people and I can tell you that it's anywhere from 10 up to 30 plus percent. Um, Royy's below us about 10 up to 35%. So in some in some cases it's pretty significant. So, as I understand it in the meeting I had with you that if Roy did go to the Weber Fire District, um, everyone still keep their positions in like we wouldn't demote Chief Williams to like captain or anything and then he would stay there, but then everything would just be renamed all our trucks and everything and then we all of our employees would just join. What? You have a hundred 100?

Yeah, we have 110. And then they and then they would go to Huntsville and they would be able to they would service all those different areas. Our firemen once they joined your district would not be just in Roy no more. They would be they go up to the valley and and some might like those experiences and some might want to just stay in Roy. But that's is actually what would happen.

Yeah. and and there's, you know, there there's a lot of pieces to that to put together, but in speaking on generalities, um if uh Roy decided to annex the Weber Fire District, I don't see us changing anything as far as your service goes. So, as far as your current firefighter, your level of staffing, um I don't see how it could change. You're a busy city. You have a you have a lot of calls.

Um so, the staffing really wouldn't change much. There would be opportunities opened up for your firefighters to move around if they wanted to move around. And that is a benefit of Weber Fire District. We have everything from city to uh rural to in the upper valley. We go to ski resorts all the time. There's a lot of different types of calls that we go on and they they would have that opportunity to move around. We don't generally force people around that. We usually have open bids where they can bid if they desire to move. And so that that would definitely be an option for them. But uh they would also um and I'll just throw this in instead of you know two stations wanting want wanting to advance the captain um they would have with your addition that would be nine stations and so three captains at each station three engineers um we would add a battalion so you'd have six battalion chiefs um there's a lot of opportunities for them to advance their careers in with Weber Fire District

and if we decided to go to Weaver Fire District when would you need to know by um really we could make it could happen anytime. Okay. Um you know and that's just something we'd have to sit down and figure out what makes the best sense for Roy City. Okay. And then we prior district.

So So I just wanted to say something that you said I think I just wanted to point out just for the public's benefit. Um and when I met with you it was something that I didn't catch at first but understood after you explained it more. um that because we do have so many calls and things in Roy that that's kind of how you decide where stations are needed, where personnel are needed and stuff. So, in fact, we wouldn't be losing because I know that has been a concern like that we would lose the same type of coverage or whatever, but it is depending on you know the activity. It's not just um it's not just a random choice or whatever. It's it's based on the data and how things like where the calls are, how much activities in certain areas and things like that. So, I do appreciate that knowing that and and I also learned um and this is more for the public's benefit that it would actually enhance the services we have now um for some of the reasons you mentioned, but there's also other things that would be enhanced maybe like community engagement. You guys have more resources for that and stuff. So, um, not that Roy fire right now, they I think the chief and their team has done a great job about reaching out to our community, but that they don't have all the resources that of the things that they want to do right now. But anyway, I just wanted people to understand that as well. So,

okay, I I can expound on a little bit of that. Yeah, sure. If you'd like. So,

yeah, station location and staffing is in the fire service is based off data and we have national response standards. And so when somebody picks up the phone and calls 911, it's not random how quick we come. Um it's actually planned out. We have standards we have to meet. And so call volume is part of that. Um travel time is part of that. And then you know there's times when you have to understand there there's only so much you can do. We have areas that takes us a long time to try to get to a call, but we cover 516 square miles. And so one or two houses, we're not going to put a station right there for one or two houses. But we try to do the core where most of our calls are happening. That's how the decisions are made. They're driven by data. They're driven by hitting those national response standards as close as we possibly can with within reason. Um I can say as far as um community engagement, as you mentioned, um Roy City has done an amazing job, but they could do more. And I'll be honest, Weber Fire District, we've done an amazing job with community engagement, but we could do more if we had more resources. And that's really what it comes down to. When you have a fire department, their number one job and really where to hang their hat and where the money is is when your citizen calls 911, how quick do they get there? And that is number one. It's what they have to do. And other things have to come in after that. And so, yes, resources are are huge. We do a lot more community engagement because we have more resources to um we do more prevention because we have more resources to. That doesn't mean that Roy City hasn't done that or or is failing. It just means that they need more resources to meet those demands. Um and and there is a lot more opportunities too as I that we could bring to Roy City. Just to go back, you reminded me of something you said. Um training our our training tower right now. But it's hard to have a city as busy as yours and

take an engine out of service for two hours to go get really good training. Um, with more resources, we can bring engines in to back that. Your firefighters have got to have training.

Um, there is so much that they do and and I mentioned a bunch of them. They they're they're firefighters. Um, they're EMTs and paramedics. They're hazmat whether they're a tech or not. They're hazmat people. Um, they're wildland firefighters. their prevention. Um they're helping people get back in bed. They're trying to figure out if it's uh power cable or cable just cable laying across the street. Um they do a lot and they have to train on it. And so that's a valuable to have those resources to be able to pull your people out. Let them go just focus on training for a couple hours and be backed up in your city so you don't lose your calls is another big benefit. So in regards to this, if this joins up then basically all of our fire equipment, our fire stations just then are turned over to we were fire district and all assets would just be joined in there straight across.

Yeah. Um, essentially, I mean, the function's a lot more complicated than that, but essentially your citizens have already purchased them. And if you annexed Wever Fire District, your services or your citizens would still get the same service out of the same equipment. It wouldn't make any sense for them to buy it back um from the city. Um, like I said, that's the very easy explanation, but it's more complicated, but essentially, yeah. And if for some reason it doesn't work out and we decided we want to backtrack and and go back. Is that possible or just just give a kind of a feel for that? It's like super possible, absolutely not impossible. Somewhere in between, you know.

Well, it's definitely not impossible. There's always ways to get out of districts in every district. And you hear about it. Um up in Salt Lake UPD, they had people exit a district. um Unified Fire Authority, which is the largest fire district, actually is the largest fire service provider in the state. They had um Draper City Exit. So, I mean, is it possible? Absolutely. But like I told you before, you would never have a reason to leave Weber if you joined us. We'll we'll provide the same service that you're getting and and hopefully enhance it and improve it. So,

could you talk about a little bit more about the representation that Roy would have um like on your board on the board of trustees? Um just because that was something that I found really interesting and I did not realize. So,

yeah. So, our board is made up. Um right now we just moved to 11 with Ogden Valley City coming on. We have four positions that are elected at large and so if you live in unincorporated county, you can run for one of our positions. Um, and the rest of them are all representatives from the city appointed by the mayor. And so for all those jurisdictions or all those cities that I told you about, they've all appointed an individual to the to serve on our board. And that's where all of our governance comes from. They make the decisions. Obviously, as administrators, we run the district day in and day out, but every month we answer to them. We take issues to them and they make those calls. So

is this where we would talk a little bit about what the cost would be for us to do that or would that come in later conversation later later? Any other questions? Yes, I do. Um well, I guess not to then flesh out the conversation about the cost, but you're your own taxing entity. So you tax like it's a property tax and uh based on the property values. So it's going to look different for each person.

Okay. So we [clears throat] will talk about that later. Um so the locations of our stations right now, the two of them. Um according to national response standards, are they still in appropriate locations where if you absorbed them, would they still be in good spots? Does it does that make sense? I don't really how to articulate that, but yeah, it makes perfect sense. And um

or would you have to like change where they are? I mean, we we could do the data on them to see kind of how they're falling, but having worked here, I can tell you for the most part that they're pretty quick to all their responses. And I think if you look countywide, I would bet that Roy City has some of the best response times. Um, because you do have great station locations, you have great people, you have a good dispatch system. Um, I I don't think that they would change. I mean, you can always run data to try to take a look at it and things change a little bit, but honestly, Royy's kind of been built close to out for a while and you've been serving it with what you have. So, I I think it would probably stay the same.

Okay. I was just wanting to make sure that like it wouldn't come up later where it's like, oh, well, now that this is part of the larger area we serve, these two stations way out here should actually be moved closer to the general area. And I just Do you see what I mean? I do. I wouldn't want to, you know, get down the road and be like, "Oh, they're actually in a bad spot now that we're in part of that larger area that was served." So,

yeah, the benefit that you do have is um in Weber County and and I've worked in several counties in the state. In Weber County, we have one of the best cooperative counties for fire service in the state. And we respond in to Roy if both your engines and are out. It's not uncommon for Wever Fire District to respond in to Roy for fire or an ambulance to respond in. And so those times have been tested from outside agencies and coming in and spreading out and going back and forth. So I I think the spots, you know, without doing data, I could say the spots are probably pretty good where they're at because you're getting the new one that might be kind of close to our second station, but with the increased growth, you feel that both of those would still probably be needed.

Yeah. The the tricky thing about station locations is is a lot of people say, "Well, it's really close to the other one." But there's so much other stuff that goes into that. Um, there's population and there's there's density that will play on those times. There's traffic, which anybody that's lived in Wever County for a few years knows that's changing rapidly. So, it takes longer to get places. Um, those all fall into it. It will be closer, but I don't know that it would change a whole lot. And we're going to talk specifically about station 32 because that's what the one we're talking about. Um, I don't know with the call volume where it is, the population density. um and those two stations. I don't know that it would make sense to do a lot there. Now, that's saying that without running any data.

Um but we would always run data and try to do what's best for the district as a whole because we would be the largest if we joined. We would be the largest city. You to be Yeah. by quite a bit really. I mean, I guess West Haven's creeping up on us, but West Haven's sneaking up on you, but I don't think they got you yet. Right. So, and do you find that that to be possibly a challenge in the representation of the board where some are very small, you know, it's kind of guess like the Senate and Congress kind of concept, you know, how does that fit and do you see that possibly changing with that big difference or do you find a problem with that?

Um, the way the way we're structured, we're structured and we do serve a lot of cities and we serve a lot of entities. Um, we serve unincorporated. um the the areas are all different how they're structured. We have areas that are recreational, we have areas that are farming, we have areas that are city, but we don't look at it as all these different areas. We look at it as one. And so, as we figure out our responses and where our staffing is and how we place our state station locations, even down to the equipment we put in stations, we look at how it's going to serve the district as a whole. And so, each city has one represent one representative in there. So, you'll always have the equal say. Um, you know, we've never really looked at it as, you know, if Roy gets this, then, you know, West Haven gets this, or if Huntsville gets this, then Hooker gets this. We we try to and we always sell it when we go to our board for for items, we'll go in and tell them why it's the best for the district as a whole, and that's really the concept we push. So,

and did Brian, did you still have something? Yeah, a couple. Um, since 82 Since we formed, have we had any cities jump out of the district? The district? No. No, we haven't lost any.

Yeah, we've never had a city leave. Um, Uent is our most Well, I was going to say Uent is our most recent city to join. That's kind of not true because Ogden Valley City did, but they were already in our area, so that's a little bit different. But um you went to city was all volunteer and they got to the point where they only had one volunteer that even lived in town. So they joined us. But other than that, we've never had any cities leave us. And then do you know about what population you're serving? Yeah, right now we're just about 70,000. Oh, without without Roy. Without Roy. Yeah.

Okay. That's over a large area though. You you have a lot more density than we have anywhere else for sure. Okay.

So, um I appreciate that Chief Williams is kind of preface this all with saying that we're looking at options and so here's one of the options. So, supposing that we intended to you called it annex annex into the into the district. Um what does a time frame look like that? because I know we're up against a real time clock here and we're really wanting to do right by our firefighters and we're wanting to provide service to the residents that they truly need. And so I just wonder if we can kind of get a good ballpark like not certainly but like it this is silly but is it two weeks or is it like three years like what is kind of the general time frame look like?

Well, we we talked about this a little bit before and there's really kind of two factors. There's the the legal part of it which actually is fairly short. We probably do it in a couple months, maybe three months. Um, and then there's the negotiation part, which just takes as long as it takes about how things all play out, which there's a lot of little pieces that form that whole will. But, um, I mean, we we you you would have to tell us kind of what you're looking at doing and then we could like kind of build that out and see how that could play out.

Yep. So looking at the timeline, I I I to your question, I think it's important that I'm the one kind of directing the timeline. Um we had thought because they are calendar, which is January, um where they do their budgeting, we're fiscal. And so really timeline that I was considering and kind of advising uh Chief Clark to look at would be uh January 2027. um that gives firefighters time to adjust if they you want to come, if they don't, and then really we need to look at timeline as far as making decision um I'd say by June um as we start to build our budget. So I think those are the ballparks we're looking for that we've discussed. Nothing like I said really we haven't negotiated anything that's just being uh upfront and honest. It's really we're trying to introduce this this concept as an option, but that would be the best timelines we can give you that for fairness to them, it'd be January 2027. Uh but the council would need to give direction, I would say, by Junish uh for Roy City and for them so they can start prepping uh all the things that they've got to do with the county. So, is that fair?

Yeah, I I totally agree. So, okay, that answers it perfectly. Perfectly. Thank you. Yes. Okay, any other questions? Okay, thank you so much for coming. Looks like we've got our homework cut out for us. So, thank you. Thank you so much. Okay, now at last, our city attorney Matt Wilson is going to be doing our open and public meeting act training. Last but not least, sorry about that, Matt. [laughter] I was also hoping that we would have had three follically challenged presenters, but the fire district decided to go a different way with that.

I even came up with some ideas for a band like the Bald and the Beautiful, the Balding Buddies. I don't know. [laughter] Just thinking of a few things. Anyways, I know you're all so excited about this and that you live your lives so that you can hear me tell you about open and public meetings. Um, it's always the most exciting part of my year, so I hope it is for you as well. And there's no tacos either. [laughter] All right. So, the act was created by the Utah State Legislature. The purpose is so that public bodies deliberate openly, that they have their meetings openly. There are a few exceptions that we'll get into with that. up. Um it applies when there's a quorum present when the council convenes. Um purpose of discussing, receiving comments or acting on matters over which council has jurisdiction or advisory power. Um [snorts] it applies to work sessions, executive sessions, planning commission, other committees where there is a quorum. Uh which means there's more than two council members and the mayor. Well, you don't necessarily have to have and the mayor, but more than two council members would constitute a quorum. Uh it doesn't apply to chance meetings or social gatherings. That doesn't mean that's an exception to, you know, three of you end up at the same place and then you get to talk about city business. That's that's a no. That's I'm very good at telling people that. No. So just figure if you want to talk about things outside of a public meeting, just think back to this. No. So um meetings, they are open to the public with like I said limited exceptions. Uh there is a requirement for notice of meetings which 24 hours uh and minutes and recordings are required for your meetings. So, as we talked about those exceptions to the meeting, there are closed meetings which no final action

can take place in a closed meeting. Um, we've gone through some of those purposes which I'm happy to share with you more, but um, we have one tonight actually, purchase, sale, exchange, or lease of real property or [snorts] project area, all that jazz. There's lots of good fun, but I won't bore you with that. Um, the requirements for the closed meeting, it is a roll call vote. It needs to be stated on the record in the motion to close a meeting. The purpose of the closed meeting and where it's going to occur and then you have to have at least twothirds of the members who are present vote to close the meeting. [snorts] Um closed meetings are for the most part are recorded and detailed minutes are kept. There are a few exceptions to that as well where an affidavit would take place of a recording. Uh [clears throat] so at any meeting your discussion in the meetings shall be limited to the the item that is noticed on the agenda doesn't and I know some of you have heard either myself or assistant city manager Brody Flint reign you in on a few things. There's a horse reference for you Brody. Uh ordinance resolution contracts can't be approved at a closed meeting. And as you all got to see today, uh interview for a person applying for an elected position for appointed position must occur openly. [snorts] Um and then enforcement. Any final action taken in violation of the act is voidable and the actions to either seek that to have an action voided or um must occur within 90 days. Suit commenced by the person denied in the under the suit is commenced by anyone that is denied a right under this act. City could be liable for court costs and attorney's fees and that is likely to be enforced by the attorney general or county attorney's office. Any person who violates any of the

closed meeting provisions is guilty of a first-degree felony. I'm kidding. It's a class B misdemeanor. Still don't want to do that. um disclosure of information discussed in a closed meeting without the permission of the council is may be a violation of grandma um or your ethics act. Also, we have adopted an ordinance that allows members of the council to participate electronically or virtually. And the most common violations uh of the open and public meetings act or not listening to your attorney. You're kidding. It's discussing matters in a closed meeting that should not be discussed and that should be discussed during an open meeting. Taking official or final action in a closed meeting. Closing meetings without members of the body voting first in an open meeting to closed meeting. Conducting a closed meeting for reasons other than those allowed. Uh failing to provide adequate notice of a meeting and also um failing to provide that notice of where the the meeting is occurring. So any questions?

So do we get a handout, an updated handout on that so we can peruse it ourselves? I can evening time entertainment. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. So now we're going to go into our public comment portion of our meeting. Um just keep in mind that you are have three minutes. If you feel you need additional time, um there's um some comment uh papers up there that you can uh write down your contact name and follow up and um each appropriate department or person you want to contact will get a hold of you. And when you come up to um for your comment, all we need is your name. So, anybody have any public comments they want to make tonight? Marilyn.

My name is Marilyn Jones. I think with the talk about the fire department that one big element was left out and it might have be on purpose, but it's the financial part. I understand and I'm not saying this is honest truth figures, but I was told that Roy City would probably get a 3% deduction in property taxes to go with the fire district. So, we would all think as residents, oh, we're going to pay less in taxes because that's what we've object to objected to when it's been suggested that we had a 28% increase to fund our departments. Well, I want to know how much is more is our property tax going to increase once we become part of that district because I've been told it will be more than what we've anticipated coming through Roy City to keep our own fire department going. And just for me, I would rather see as a large city that we are that we keep our own fire department. And if we have to pay eight n$9 dollars more a month in taxes to fund it, I'm for it. And I'm not for more taxes. But I am for that to keep us taken care of better than 516 acres being covered by a 100 people. Right. Thank you,

Dennis Brown. I came here with the intention of not speaking tonight, but um after listening to the presentation, I just want to give you some a couple things to think about. When you're talking about millions of dollars in those buildings being get turned over to Weber County, is that what you want to do of you have personal property, meaning the fire trucks and things like that, and you also have the buildings themselves, fixed fixed assets. Number two, um I was a state delegate for the Republican party this last year for the last election and Diane I think you were also. I cannot think I cannot remember the name of the senator or the senator who was a mayor of um where the prison used to be. Um,

where was the prison at? Draper.

That man who ran for the state senate who was not elected. He received a majority of the votes from the delegates. But his his basis was that he lowered the taxes, the tax base, the property tax base for his city as mayor. And he did it by changing the I can't remember if the if they went from a district to a city or from a city to a county, but I I asked one of you to contact if I saw the picture of the delegates who ran for Sen. I could tell you who it was, but contact that man and ask him how he reduced the the cost to the city of the police and the fire department. uh he he ran on that as his as his uh one of his uh platforms this as a as a US senator and I cannot remember his name but I encourage you to um find out who that was and call and talk to him. Um I listened to him speak probably three or four times. In fact, I personally voted for the man myself. The other thing to think about, what amount of control will you lose? Will Matt still be in charge of the fire department? If they're no if they're no longer part of the Weber count, if they're I think Matt, you're probably the manager of the fire department. Is that correct? So that mean he may not be the manager of the fire department with this turn over to Weber County. And like Mrs. Jones said if you raise the salary of the fire department people in Roy and I'm not saying that's not that's not what we want I'm not saying either for or against if your tax if your t property tax base is not raised the county's tax base will be raised to pay for those those increased salaries so the tax is going to come to the residents of city one way or the other that's how I see it from

just sitting back there uh just listening to this presentation. It may be a great thing to go to the county. I don't know the answer, [music] but I would definitely contact the guy in to find out how he did it and did it work for their city. Okay. Thank you.

My name is Kevin Homer. I live here in Roy and right now I I feel like I put myself into a very very strange situation because what I wanted to talk about for just a minute is the presentation of my hometown. [sighs] I'm probably going to be perceived as a Scrooge or a Grinch or something like that. But I'm concerned about even though it is a good and worthy project to be able to take volunteer time and help out in our community and help neighbors help each other. Those are all very good things. but by obligating Roy City to pay for portions of this program, which for me should be a totally voluntary program that is supported by the city. They're asking for funds to be committed from our city that we already know we have a spending problem. Um, uh, in November 2023 on the news newsroom section of the LDS church website, they talk about the hometown initiative. Uh area president uh Car Kevin Kevin Pearson said the cities provided equipment, trucks, backhoes, all these dumpsters. Individuals who wanted to help paid for the materials and black captains help organize this. So there seems to be a significant amount of money that is required of the cities out of taxpayer funds to fund what should be a voluntary organ uh voluntary effort. Uh there are a lot of really good and worthy volunt um volunteer organizations like YCC and they're going to be back here sometime this year to ask for more money from from the city. I kind of follow the words of James Madison, one of my very favorite founding people. Charity has no part in the legislative process, which means to

take money from people to pay for even good and worthy projects like this. All I would do is let's look into this really hard, be very cautious, air on the side of caution as far as whether or not this city commits taxpayer funds to pay for a volunteer program like this. Thank you, [clears throat]

Randy Scadden. First and foremost, congratulations, Jason, and thank you all for actually the consideration to serve with you back on the council. Just so you know, this will not be the first nor the last time you see me from this side of the die. Um, as it relates to the fire department, this is going to be an incredibly incredibly hard and nuanced thing um with which uh you're going to have to figure out how to best communicate to uh the community. Uh this was honestly put in motion because again we did that study with the southern district. Um found that it wasn't like financially viable in terms of for us to take and stand up that southern fire district because Roy City would have borne the vast majority of the cost for that. Hence why you're looking at Weber Fire because they already have the infrastructure in place. things to take into consideration is you know as as Chief Williams alluded to we are losing firefighters uh you know hand and foot because again we're about 25% under market um you know rates and so if you're a new incoming firefighter you're going to come to Roy and be trained and then you're going to take your skills out into the free market and go get that you know increase in pay but as you're going through these things also to um Mr. Brown's point too, as you're going through and doing, you're going to be doing a lot of horse and pony trading, and there are um assets that the city actually has. One thing that kind of stands out for the city as it relates to like the fire department is we have a higher uh the national average collection rate of ambulance services. Um in fact, we like outpace the vast majority of our peers. And so that's one of the questions that I'd probably have you, you know, want to ask the fire district is what is your collection rate on your ambulances? because we and Roy actually that's a revenue offset. Uh ambulances never go through and like pay for themselves, but they do help to offset the revenue. And so as you're going through these negotiations, make sure you're digging into the nuance of what um the actual, you know, financial numbers and the impacts are because um

what's interesting is knowing that this was coming up, I looked into it. The current fire station that sits in this same lot is on a same parcel as this building and as Memorial Park. So, as you're going through and looking to devest of those types of things, you're going to probably have to um if if you're going to devest the station 31 over to the the Weber Fire District, you're going to have to figure out how to break off title and get that, you know, handed over. Station 32, not nearly as impactful because it's on its own, you know, parcel. So, you're able to take into best of that. Again, make sure as you're going through and doing this, um, this is a long-term play that is in the best interest of the firefighters because the way that the system works is they're incentivized to go out and maximize what their retirement payout is, especially for those that are in tier one versus tier 2 um, the retirement system. And with that, I thank you for your time.

Okay. Thank you, Randy.

Any more public comments? help.

My name is Janet Satderly and Madame Mayor and councel. Uh Sheila Courtourtney had to leave and I would like to echo what she would have said to the council. Our church uh New Hope Lutheran would like to thank the city for our facility rental of the Hope Center for our meetings and services. We have had a great partnership and really appreciate the city and all you have done to help facilitate this for us. So, thank you.

Thank you. Any more public comment? Okay, we will go out of our public comment period and we'll go um we have an action item tonight, but we actually um are going to table that because we still need do do a lot of work. Um I had a lot of questions and so can I have a motion to table that? I move that we table the action item consideration of resolution 26-2. Do I have a second? Yes, seconded. Okay. All those in favor say I. I.

I. Okay. So, that will be tabled and we'll do some more work on that. And so, now we have a couple of discussion items. Um Matt's going to be leading that in the wage study committee. Yes. Thank you, Mayor Jackson. Um, this should be a pretty easy discussion item. Back uh during the budget adoption, we talked about doing a wage committee for the city. I'm having some council members um volunteer some time to come and look into the current pay scales to look into the surveys, everything like that. Um, so two questions. Um, one, do you still want to do that? And two, if so, what council members would you like to appoint to that committee?

Well, I'll jump in. Is that something we can volunteer for? Possibly. Yeah, for sure. Right. So, anybody else want to volunteer for that study? When do you think the meetings would be? I would say that that's more up to you guys. Yeah. And so, yeah, it' probably be at your convenience. So, I will if nobody else wants to, but So, how many people do you want? Uh, two council members would be ideal. Okay. So, Janelle and Diane, unless someone's like really wants to. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Perfect. We want to get going on this pretty soon. So, we'll send out some um some emails to get something set up for a meeting. Okay. And then you're also doing the the Roy CTC.

Yes. Thank you. Um, Ogden Weaver Community Action Partners, um, better known as OCAP, has approached Roy City to discuss the possibility of Roy City assuming the role of the grant administrator for the Roy community that cares, also known as the CTC coalition. So, a little bit of a history with AAP. It was kind of a hailmary pass to ALCAP about 5 years ago with this grant. Um it had something to do with the high schools administering this program and uh ALCAP took it over about five years ago. Um due to capacities of AAP right now they that's why they're asking these questions to see if we would take on that role. Um recently they took on a couple of grants dealing with housing that is just taking a massive amount of their resources and so they would they would like somebody else to kind of take this on. Um the CTC is covered by federal grants. that's where the cost actually comes from. And so that's the timeline that we're under right now is those grants are due and they would like to know that answer as soon as possible so they could apply for those grants. Um so anyway, you've seen kind of the little layout into the council packet of things to consider. Um so I'll just turn the time over to you um for that discussion.

Okay. Can any of us Yeah. I just wasn't sure if the mayor had to say something first. Okay. Um,

so I've participated in CTC for I don't know how many years now, but um and I think it's a fabulous great program. I've seen I worked particularly with the youth council and I saw a lot of growth in those youth and um they've had a lot of opportunities. Having said all of that, um I don't necessarily think that at this time especially that it would be a great fit for our city um to take on as a city. I would love to see the organization continue in the community. I think it has a lot of value to our community, but I would I just don't think that that's um a good fit right now for us, especially to take on another thing that we're helping with, I guess. So, I think for me the first question is, is this a duty or responsibility uh that a city should in um encompass? And I don't believe it meets that standard. I don't believe that even though it is a great program, it sounds like, you know, with Janelle, I've worked with it some in the past as well. I I just don't believe that should be a function or duty of of the city to do that.

Okay. Any other comments? I guess I'm just uh so um AAP is is the fiscal agent now. Why is it that CTC is not asking us to why is it ACAP? Because there it's I mean this isn't a good way to put it, but they're trying to kind of try to offload what they're doing for CTC. So why is it not that CTC is looking for different fiscal agent and AAP is doing that for them? I guess

that's a a good question. One of the employees that was really the administrator over the CTC is now actually an employee for AAP and has changed positions. And so there is a part-timer over there with ACAP um employed by ACAP being paid for by by some of these grants. But um you know all know Chararda, she has moved positions in Accap. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that definitely played into who's having the conversations because she's not there anymore. So that does make sense. Yeah.

I just in my mind it would be like CTC like oh they can't do it anymore like who else can? And so I was just confused by how it was coming from ALCAP um and not straight from CTC. But I I kind of agree I think with what's already been shared, which is just that it doesn't seem to be a responsibility of the city. Not to mean that we can't pitch in from time to time here and there, but I feel like at this time it's not a good time for us to just kind of take on this as well. Yeah. And I because if we took it over then we would actually pay their wages, those employees. Well, the grant would Yes. But it would be money flowing through the city to pay for those. Yes. But the there would be a revenue offset of that grant. Right.

So we wouldn't pay for any part of it. The grant would but we're still you know have the facility things like that. So it's still our staff would still be involved. Um you know you just couldn't separate that out. Yeah. So like for instance you know Amber does our financial stuff. if the CTC, they would pay her specifically from the grant for her hours. So they she would be paid by that grant, but she would still be spending some of her time from the city, if that makes sense. So that's just an example of

So is that something that we just do a consensus that we don't want to do it? I just need a direction to get back to them. And so, so it looks like the majority doesn't want to take on that responsibility then. Correct. So, but I would encourage everyone to join the CTC and participate because it's stronger when there's more people and they've grown a ton and it really is a great program for our community to have. So, and I'm hoping they'll get to work with hometown maybe a little bit. So, well, thank you. Okay. Now, Matt manager.

Yes. I actually have nothing to report on today. So, back to you guys.

So, you don't have anything to say? Well, oh my gosh. Okay. Well, I just trying to find this email from our athletic director, Mike Peusy. Um once again, the unified high school basketball tournament with our Special Olympics is going to be held this um on this Monday, February 9th, and it's at Roy High, but then we use um the gym in the complex also. Just such a great opportunity. They wanted if any of you is from 9:45 in the morning till 12:45. I had I went over last year and was able to watch some of these special needs kids in wheelchairs and make baskets and Roy High actually made it to the championship game last year which was held in the Delta Center. My granddaughter was involved in it, helped with the special needs kid and uh he made a buzzer beater shot at the buzzer beater and we won the championship and uh you thought we'd won the NBA championship. I don't know if I jumped up and we were all crying and it was just so exciting because you'd have to know this kid. He waits for buzzer beers. We would have won in regulation but he waited and missed the shot so went into overtime and then he waited and watches the clock and put it up and we won. And so it was it's just such a special event. And he wanted me to let the citizens of Roy and the council know if you had any time on your hands to go over there and um see this great um tournament that they have for these kids. They do a soccer tournament also and it's uh a real big deal for the whole state, but we are hosting it for part of it on Monday, February 9th. And so, um, he wanted me to make sure and bring that up. And other than that, um, just want to thank everybody for coming

tonight. And sorry, I did have something. And then, um, I'm excited for our new council member to have that seat filled. And so, I will not be here at the next council. Um, Mayor Prom Diane will be here. I'm going to Florida, watch my granddaughter play soccer, which I did before I even was going to run for mayor. I had that. And so, but Janelle, what did you what would you like to say?

Sorry. Um, I just wanted to kind of report to just so the public and the rest of the council knows that Matt and I took our youth council up to the cap. I guess it's been over a week ago, so a couple weeks ago. And um we were able to we got really spoiled and lucky um because as we know our planning commission chair he works at the capital and so he got us able we were able to go see the governor's office and the met the lieutenant governor and then we got to they got to sit on the floor with um Chief Gwyn actually and um our representative representative Sawyer and the kids really loved that. And um yeah, they got to see all kinds of things at the capital and learn all about how the government works and have some conversations with legislators and different things like that. And I think it was a it was good for us to kind of see how that day went and how it was organized and also I think the kids really enjoyed it and um I hope to be able to do that again in the future. So or let one of you have the opportunity because it was fun. So

that's neat. Then again, thank you to everyone and welcome Jason. Look forward to working with you. I've got just a thing. Is it is it now the right time? I don't know for the

kind roundroin deal. Um so I am finishing up a cert training community emergency response team um which is um we have um access to I guess through Wever County right now. And so they are accepting people to enroll and start to um start to join that and that's going to be during the spring. Um it's at most I believe through them every six months. So it doesn't come along very often that opportunity, but it's just a really great way to get involved and so I'll be I'll be finishing that up. There's an online portion and then an in-class um kind of class portion in inerson class portion, excuse me. Um so that's coming up and it sounds like we might be able to get that information on the website. So that'll be great. So check out the website um and we'll uh yeah it's just a good uh opportunity to get involved. So

Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Now if there's no other comments then I guess we'll have a motion to adjourn and then Nope. Nope. Okay. [snorts] Motion to to close the meeting. Yeah. To close the meeting because we're going into a and enter the close. We have to have the the reason for why be included in the motion and that where it would be located which would have motion for a closed dooror meeting to discuss

strategy to discuss the purchase exchange or lease of real property including any form of a water right or water shares or to discuss a proposed development agreement project proposal or financing proposal related to the development of land owned by the state or a political subdivision. So, so yeah, to be held in the council chambers. Okay. So moved. Okay, we have a second. Second. Okay. All those in favor? It's a Oh, roll call vote. Okay. Council member Jackson, I. Council member Saxton, I. Council member Wilson, I. Council member Spar,

I. And council member Hbert. I Okay, then I guess now we'll now enter a closed door meeting. You know how hard it is for me to not when you say council member Jackson not say I every time I'm like yeah that's not me. So you want to take a small little break? Okay. We'll we'll convene back here like in five minutes. Yeah. Yeah. Potty break. I need that. Yeah. I need I'm gonna go to my office and get my chapstick. Mayor,

does the standard know about February 9th? Let's try again. I'm giving it all. I got Once you're out there, you're good.

I don't think I'll just enjoy it. We got about Oops.

Hallelujah. Ever been

There we go. Three weeks in a row.

Okay. to keep you waiting. Robert