City Council - Regular Meeting

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there's still a long way to go. I don't know. coast. Hey Sorry.

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Anybody else? Whatever. in the jury box. All those in the back if you don't want to stand

all these seats right here. Anybody wants to sit in the jury over here instead of standing in the back, you can sit over in these chairs right here. I don't know.

Thanks.

Okay, we're gonna go ahead and start. So, we'd like to welcome everybody for coming out tonight to our Roy City Council meeting. I want to mention a couple of things before we get started. First, we'll be holding a town hall meeting right after at 7 o'clock here in the chambers. This town hall meeting will be focused on the potential annexation with the Weber Fire District. Second, I want to clear up a couple of misinformations on tonight's meeting. We are here only for a budget presentation where staff will turn over the repaired budget to council. We are not setting a tax rate tonight. That will the maximum tax rate will be set June 16th. I mean, yeah, June 16th. Third, I just want to remind everyone to be respectful of the public meeting. There are several budget items to get through since the state legislature changed the requirements. Please be mindful of the noise level so everyone can hear. So, let's get started. So today is May 5th. In attendance we have Council Member Spar, Council Member Saxton, Council Member Jackson, Council Member Hbert, and Council Member Wilson. And Council Member Hbert is going to lead us in a moment of silence in the pledge of allegiance. Will you all join me for a moment of silence? Will you all stand for the pledge? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Council Member Halbert. And so tonight we have just one consent item and they are the March 2026 financial statements. Are there any questions or comments about this? Want to make any changes? No. So there's no questions. Do I have a motion to approve? I'll approve the consent item. Okay. Do I have a second? I'll second it. All in favor say I. I. I.

Okay. Now we have time. Now, this is our public comment period and so you have three minutes to come up and say anything that you want. We will not be answering you during this public comment period. We want you to have all three minutes during the public comment period when we have our hometown is when we can respond to your questions. Just state your name. You don't have to give your address. Just state your name and come up and and um give us your thoughts about anything you want. Go. Yeah. Now, just make sure you talk loud. I'll talk loud. Dale Ben. Okay.

Yesterday, I got this um notice in the mail, community development department from Roy City and it said that you guys want to annex a little bit of property into Roy City down. Can you state your name first? Dale Ben. I did. Oh, you did? Sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't hear that. Okay. It's okay. Um, so whether we annex that property or not is one thing,

but this paper is like it says go back to sleep. Don't attend the hearing. In my opinion, it just does has no information on it. And so I called yesterday and ended up talking to Brody Flynn and he told me that people wanted to just clean it up. That's all there was to it. And I said, 'Well, I don't can't imagine someone spending $100,000 clean all those Russian olive trees over there just to clean it up just for the privilege of cleaning it up. So anyway, over a couple minutes of more conversation, I managed to find out kind of what it was. But this we could have had so much more information on here like who owns the property next to it and who owns the property that it that um you want to annex. It's like I I really felt like this was a disservice to our city. I felt like there was a real lack of transparency that you could have put in there who owned the property, who owns the other property, and what what would be the benefit and everything else because it's like when you get something like this, people want to know why why should I attend? You know, this had zero of that information. And I mean, I kind of found out what's going on. And you know, it's the same people who own the county property and the and the city property right there. The Hansen's who now it's called the Cedar Crest Brothers LLC, you know.

But you can find that out, you know, like digging into it. But transparency, that's all I have to say. Okay. Thank you. Hi gang. I'm glad we're all here. My name is Dan Dabney. Okay. Um, well, we're not doing the taxes tonight, but you're going to soon find out that you're not going to be able to do it anyway, so we're not going to go there. My big complaint is what is the committee's outlook for water conservation?

Well, you're not going to answer me and I know that. I just want to kind of sink in. Um, I don't know how many of you know that the uh Hoover Dam's been shut down. They're not producing electricity anymore. That's bad sign right there. But I watched video from that going up the river all the way up through Colorado and any lines that used to go out, they're not there. It's turning into basically just a stream. Um, we have one problem out here that for some reason the Sizzy doesn't want to face. I think the most strips need to be all all trees and that need to be gone. All the dead trees, even though they're dead, they still draw water. Those need to be gone. But there are certain trees we have out here, cottonwood trees, 250 gallons of water a day. So, and you can fact check me on that. That's not a problem at all. But anyway, I don't want to take up everybody's time, but

Okay. Thank you. Okay. I I'll come and see you by myself. Thank you. Yeah, you're more than welcome to.

Good evening. I'm Seth Jansen. First of all, I want to thank Mayor Jackson and all you city council members and other who put in so much time to support our community. I have a safety concern I want to raise. There's a crosswalk on 3100 West at 4950 South. It's used by elementary school children from Midland Elementary, which is two blocks away, as well as junior high students who catch the bus at that intersection. 3100 West is no longer a quiet residential street. It's a busy thoroughare, and it's become even busier with the new traffic light at 5600 and 3100 West. And the average speed is not 30 miles an hour. It's something above that, I'm sure. I go out there occasionally and observe when the school children are crossing and cars just do not stop. Drivers don't see the children at that crosswalk. Last week, there were four cars in a row that passed through the crosswalk while six children were waiting to cross. Earlier, uh I observed uh one student step out into the traffic and was pulled back by a friend as a car whizzed by. It's a hazardous crosswalk. Let me compare three others. A few blocks further south on 5,500 South and 3100 West is another

crosswalk. It's two blocks from Roy Elementary and it's marked as a school crossing, 20 mph speed limit, flashing lights,

and has a crossing guard. This crosswalk at 4950 has none of those. near my uh my children, my grandchildren where they live in in Washington Terrace is a similar crosswalk where they installed flashing lights that are activated by pedestrians. That dramatically improved safety there. As I drove up up today, I noticed one on 4,800 at uh 2275 West with flashing lights. People see flashing lights. They don't see children. There are many things could be done, but I'm asking we at least get some flashing lights installed there that are activated by the pedestrians.

Yes. May save a life. Thank you. talk with me after I have an update on what you just proposed. So,

my name is Kelby Gittens. Um, I'm going to talk about the property tax. Uh, was on my way to on my way home from work today. It's the first time I'm hearing about it. 55% is what you guys are wanting to raise is what I'm hearing. 55.4. I just don't see that as doable. Me and my wife, we make pretty good living. I feel like we're doing pretty well for ourselves, but that would increase our home uh bill by almost another $1,300 spread out through the year, of course. But that that's a lot of money. I don't know where it's going to come from. Companies aren't giving raises like they used to. They say, "Here, here's a 3% raise. Cool. That 3% raise is maybe a dollar that's going to what they're raising my insuranceances now. So that dollar doesn't go anywhere because my insurance raises, property taxes are raising, food is going up. I mean, we're paying 450 for gas right now.

It's insane. And 55% and I don't know how you guys are going to do it if it's individual homes are being hit at certain rates. I mean, still that's that's ridiculous. 55% is a lot of money to ask. I know you guys are redoing roads and all these things and you know that's awesome, but it's going to be pushing families out of Roy. And I remember getting an email, it wasn't too long ago, how we want to keep families in Roy because Roy is shrinking. It seems like we're not bringing anything in. We're not going to we're not going to keep families in Roy. You're going to push them out of Roy by doing this. I mean, I see the state doing things like this. We're pushing people out of the state. We're having people from California, other states coming in that can afford these things. Pushing people out of Utah. We have to move to Idaho, Mississippi, to these middle of the country states where the cost of living is actually affordable. And I've lived in Utah my whole life. I'm 36 years old. I don't want to move, but I'm being forced to. It seems like with these with these rate increases and it's just ridiculous. And I think, you know, also along with the water conversion, you know, if I'm going to be asked to conserve my water and not water my lawn and let it burn, I don't want to see city parks using water as much as they have. Golf courses using water as much as they need to, businesses. I'm a member of the church and it's sad to say churches will have to conserve their water. I appreciate the time you give me. Thank you.

Hey, thank you.

Hi folks. I'm Jim Panagopoulos and uh again I'm speaking to the tax issue. Uh when I first saw this uh it really troubled me that uh that that much of an increase was going to be proposed to the city. A lot of people say, "Oh, well, if it go if we don't get it, we're going to do out with do without some things." But I started looking into the salaries of the people of the city of Roy. You can get on the Utah website and it's there. Um, of the 90 of the 100 employees, the top 65 employees make $125,000 a year or more. That's with benefits. 40 are making 150,000 a year and more. I went through this and I I took a look at those those ones, the 40 making 150,000 a year or more, and that comes out to about $10 million for those 40. If you take I've been in business before and I'm I'm a I'm a pastor in a church. Sometimes things have to be cut and things have to be changed. I'm proposing temporarily that for the the top ones, except for as I went back and reooked this, except for our first responders, let's do a 10% reduction in pay temporarily till this mess gets fixed because the the budget shortfalls are not the resident's fault, but we're being blamed for it and all the burden's putting on us. So, I think everybody, even employees of the city of Roy, if we love Roy so much, let's all share in this. It's a it's about equal sacrifice. And I I think if we do this, I think then we can see some headway in this. But raising up to 55%. I agree with my friend who just spoke. You're going to have people leave and then you're going to be in a worse bind than when you started. The median income in the city of Roy is $92,000.

And you got all these other ones in there again, except for some of the first responders that are making over $200,000 a year. Something is out of whack. And I'm sorry if I offend somebody, but tough. We're getting offended because of the tax increase that's going to be on our backs to cover a mess that happened years ago that we can't we're not recovering from. I think the best way that you could get get some leeway on this tax issue is start bringing in viable businesses, not building homes, because then you're putting more pressure on residents where if you get viable businesses in, the income that comes from that tax revenue can in later on outweigh what the residents are going to be dealing with. So, I hope when you when you sit down and really look at this proposal that you're proposing, the 55% increase, really think about how out of whack the salaries are and what other cuts can be made before we just put it on the back of the residents. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, Deian Chaston. At this time, I I am against the tax increase. The entire increase is built on the assumption that city employees are underpaid. If that data isn't sound, then this entire tax increase request falls apart. The city put together a wage survey committee to assemble the data that justifies this tax increase. Let's point out who was on this committee. City Manager Matt Andrews, Management Services Director Amber Kelly, Human Resources Coordinator Natalie Pierce, Mayor Anne Jackson, Council Member Janelle Holbert, and Council Member Diane Wilson. Of course, employees sitting on this wage survey committee have a personal biased interest in making sure they get paid more. The city manager, who is paid $243,000 including benefits, including a monthly $700 vehicle allowance, wants 12.29% more pay. The management services director, who is paid $26,000 including benefits, a monthly $350 vehicle allowance, wants 8.76% more pay. The HR coordinator, who was paid 113,000 with benefits, wants 8.84% more pay. When other cities contemplate wage increases, they hire a third-party unbiased consultant or consult reliable database such as TechNet built on real time muni municipal wages that consider not only job title but also job description, city size, and populations. If you look in the packet for this meeting, a salary survey was published on page 105 through 107 listing job titles and percent below average for each position. That's it. What data were these percentages derived from? According to budget documents, the tax increase would increase employee pay for market levels.

What market was studied? Government municipal markets for which cities? the general job market for which areas. Page 13 says the wage correction adjustment would bring full-time employees to the average wage for similar positions in the surrounding area. Page 26 mentions average wage of comparable positions. And Roy wants to be in the middle of the surrounding cities for beginning pay raises or pay rates. This survey did not mention which cities Roy was compared to. It did not even mention if Roy was compared to city jobs, county jobs, state jobs, federal jobs, or just the job market in general. If it was other city jobs, it did not say that city was comparable to Roy in population, square miles, number of homes and businesses, etc. While Roy City builds its justification for a 55.45% tax increase on this salary survey, it does not detail for us the validity of that data. I asked for a copy of this data 20 days ago. I still have not received it. Until this data pro is provided, scrutinized, and verified by the public, the justification for such a large tax increase is simply not sound. Good evening, council. Thank you for my three minutes and thank you for your attention. I appreciate this opportunity. I am against the property tax increase. I think there are things that can be done before the city council asks as much as they are of their residents. 55 54 52%.

Did you say your name? Sorry, Miss

Marlene Scott. Sorry. 55% is insane. Roy employs around 160 people. 160 people and half of them take care of our public safety. I have never been against the fire and police getting the pay they deserve to keep our community a safe place. I have needed them and I am very thankful. They have been there. I have needed EMS three times and I am so grateful. We need our police. They need to be paid. But I think you all need to cut back and conserve. I'm on a fixed income. I don't make a lot of money. Where is it going to come from? You've got employees in this organization making six figures, 150,000 in salary. The data is telling me that we have enough people in this organization to stop the list of fundamentally people are making more than they need to make. Why benefit them and not take care of the people at the bottom? In a salary survey done last year, Mayor Dan Dod said the data points suggested a decrease for both deputy director and in parks of wreck as well as recreational supervisor. He also said the salary survey needs more points. Why? He wanted 30 data points for a minimum si sample size. The salary survey was finding none for the storm water superintendent and any fire positions and only one for the maintenance tech one and two as well as the GI GIS tech. Mayor Dan Doy also warned against comparing Royy's employees pay to Ogden's employees pay. Ogden has more than double the population of Roy. They have three times more square miles and also substantial homelessness program problem. Airport, different forms of government. What one city manager does is one city is not necessarily the same that is expected for another city. It's easy to see how certain employees should be paid more in Ogden than in Roy. In August of last

year, council um member Wilson and Roy needed 1.2 2 million each year of new money to just keep up with 163 employees, merit and cola increases. This is unsustainable and would mean the taxes would go up every year. The council may need to consider hiring freezes, staff cuts. However, when I worked in the hospital setting, I had to do a job of two to three people back in East. Not saying out here, I love Utah. It's more family oriented, but we have to scrimp and save. It is a fixed income. Where is the money going to come from for this 55%. If we don't pay, we're going to go to jail. I am a law-abiding citizen. Thank you for listening to me. I'm against the tax. Please, please consider us poor people.

Thank you.

I'm Jerry Williams. I'm also here about the tax increase, but I do also want to make one comment on the water issue that the one guy talked about. First of all, uh we all know we're in a bad drought. We all know we need to conserve, but can you speak up to that?

I'm sorry. Uh we all know that we're in a drought. We all know that we have to conserve, but as far as I can understand, just doing some internet research, uh residents make up 10% of our water use in Utah. So I I get a little tired of this coming after residents for to save all because if if I stop using all my water completely, you're going to save 10% if I understand it correctly. So So let's look at some other big water users besides just the poor residents that use 10% of the water. If if my information I got is correct. The other issue is this 55% increase. It's rid I can't even believe you guys would even ask for it. That it's just ridiculous. I mean, the problem is I've heard people say, "Well, it's only this much on my bill at the end of the year." Yeah, but it's it's Roy City, it's Weber County, it's the school district, it's the water conservatory, it's the it's uh ramp, it's pretty quick, it's, you know, I mean, you know, little bit and then it goes and then next thing you know, it's this big and and property taxes are a pro are a problem in the state, well, not just the state of Utah, states in general. I I think we really need to go to the legislature and try to get some kind of legislation on stopping this kind of nonsense because in my opinion, every one of you should be ashamed of yourself because it's nonsense. 55%. Come on. You know what I mean? It's ridiculous. I mean I mean less I don't want to see anybody lose their job. Believe me, I've been laid off. It's not fun. But you know what? If if we if we have to lay people off or we have to cut programs, sometimes you have to dig deep and sometimes it hurts. I know I got laid off because of a budget cut. It hurt. It didn't feel good. But you know what? The company stayed going because they got rid of me. And sometimes that just has to happen. I know everybody wants a raise. I get that part, too. I know that we all want to drive nice brand new trucks that you see running around Roy City. Maybe that's the best option. I don't know. Maybe we should have older trucks that we keep going. I don't I don't know that this I don't

know. And then then you then in in the letter it says that they're doing it because we we're losing so many employees. Well, what what actually is your what is your rate of of job loss that you have here? I mean, I see a lot of people that have been working for Roy City for a long time. You can't count summer hires because they're you're going to lose them anyway. And you can't count some of your lower paid jobs. Those people are people that are going to school or just waiting for their next good job. So, we we don't have good data. I mean, I think even asking for a 10% increase would be is ridiculous. But you got 55%. I I mean I don't even know what to say to you other than you should be ashamed of yourself. You shouldn't you should be all looking down with shame in my opinion. I mean property taxes just keep going up and up every single year. It's up and up and up. Where does it stop? I live in Roy. I'm paying $4,000 a year for taxes. Nothing against Roy, but I'm not living in Park City. I'm not living in in South Ogden. I'm living in Roy.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Dave Anne Neil. I am a resident of Roy and I've heard what the people have said. I just want to go over a couple of of salaries that other people have said. So, the city manager, Matt Andrews, my understanding is you make $243,000 a year with benefits and a $700 a month car allowance. And now you're wanting a 12.29% increase. Is that correct? Okay. I guess you don't have to answer that. Also, we have management services director Amber Kelly making 206,000 a year, requesting 8.76% increase. We have HR director Natalie Pierce making 113K with benefits wants an 8.83 I mean 8.84% increase overall all of the salary increases that are being requested. It's my understanding that not just those few people but is $2.78 million of our money. That is a lot of money. I am a financial regulator. I make about $20 an hour for the state of Utah. I have my benefits, but I personally would be willing to do any of your jobs for even $50,000 a year plus loss benefits with never an increase because what matters is the people of Roy. Our homes are being based on the fact that if you bought a home for 100,000 and now it's worth 400,000, we're being taxed on the 400,000 which is unrecognized gains.

This is really hard because most people that I know when it comes to yearly increases gets maybe 3 4% which doesn't even keep up with the cost of inflation. So as representatives I feel like we're getting taxation without much representation. We have recreation Thank you. We have recreation facility that's going in the negative each year. then why don't we close it? Why don't we make cuts where we need to make cuts? So, I propose anybody here in this room who wants to give me their name and number, I have an attorney. We need to do something about and and I I don't mean to attack because I'm sure all of you do good things, but this is too much. I have a plan that we can actually lower property taxes a little over 4% for the property uh for small businesses and homes here. And I'm willing to sit with any one of you and go through how that plan can happen. So again, if anybody here wants to get on board with me, give me your name and your number and we're starting tomorrow. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Hi, I'm Chris Lewis, 5126 South, 3550 West. Um, I'm against a property tax increase and I know a lot can be done before the city council asks so much of the residents. Last year, Mayor Dandoi shared 24 things the city council has been discussing since January in an attempt to balance the budget. Of those 24 things, the council has done six of them, including limiting aquatic center operating hours, reworking the fees in the fee schedule, not giving council members a cost of living increase, selling city properties, increasing volunteers at Roy Days, and raising property taxes. The city council discussed but did not carry out 18 other options. My question is why? In January of 2025, Mayor Danoi also mentioned in these items, change the form of government, increase dependency on interlocal agreements, draw from fund balance. I'll add that council member Saxton also tried to get this approved. Thank you, Brian, for all that you do. In August of last year, council member Wilson mentioned cutting a few things. They were the Christmas lights on 1900 West, $25,000 worth of fireworks, and the salmon bake event during Roy Days. Why aren't we talking about those cuts again? If the council has decided against these things, please tell the public why before you ask for a large increase like you're asking for. Even though that's not what we're supposed to be talking about tonight, that's what everybody's here for. It's obvious. I'll also make note that there are some individuals on social media who are misleading others

to believe that the city has indeed facilitated tax cuts. The fact is budget shortfalls are not tax cuts. Roy residents want to see budget cuts. Cut out the fluff and all the unnecessary things that are included in your budget like public works getting all kinds of free food and breakfast and all that fun stuff. Learn to manage money like successful business owners do. I did that for 38 years. Never ran in the red once. Not once. Myself and and these people behind me, we elected you to manage our tax dollars well. It's apparent to us that you are failing. Thank you. Thank you.

Scott Bradford. I live at 4281 West, 5250 South. Um I'm a simple guy. I really am. And I think this is really a simple issue, right? Um over the I've I've purchased a house, built a house about six years ago. My house has increased almost 65 to 70% since I built it. Um I've received a 60% increase in taxes in that period of time. I imagine if if prices continue to go like they have been, I'm going to have another tax increase. And that's not even considering the 50 54% that we're having discussed here. I know that this is a city government and sometimes often sometimes governments forget who their employer is. Um all of you have been elected and elections have consequences. We understand that. Um, please let's find a way to not increase our taxes more. We've already received over the past five years a 60% increase already without even having anything increased in in percentages. if it continues for the next six years. My good friend Jim Nicks right over here, uh he's a veteran that's on a fixed income who right now is struggling to get his to to keep everything together because of that. Jim Nicks will struggle because of this increase. Um Jim is not the only one. I imagine there are many people that are here in Roy that are on fixed incomes. I imagine that a large percentage of

people are there and you know 60% plus 54% is brutal. I'm not retired yet. I actually make a very good living, but I don't make as much as many of those those that were talked about that that the Roy City employees do. and I still do very well for myself. Um, we need to maintain the market. First responders I get, you know what I would say? If we need to pay for them, great. After that, after that, it starts to get a little sketchy. Roy Days is a really cool thing that I've never attended in the 21 years that I've lived in Roy. I think it's way cool. The the the lights are way fun. We take our youth there every year. I think that's cool. We could just as soon go right downtown Ogden to one of the Christmas tree things that aren't put on by the city. You know, there are lots of things that can be done and that really maybe the city should consider farming out and letting us pay for them.

Thank you for for everything.

Thank you. My name is Karly Cheney and I want to address you about the proposed tax increase. I am a full-time respiratory therapist. I am there on the worst day of somebody's life. I am a first responder. I worked through COVID. I have worked the 12 hours that have turned into 24. I have worked the on call. I have worked the death scene. I have been there the worst day of someone's life. I am telling you that this proposed tax increase will ruin my life. I make a fair decent living, but I also work another job. I also have a part-time job here in Ogden. This proposed tax increase will raise my already stretched expenses $1,300. I work a job and a half and chase a 2-year-old that has to go to daycare. I don't believe that it's fair to myself or the people of my generation to have to pay another 50% increase on my already stretched, already couponed, already extremely penny pinched budget. We don't go to movies. I don't take my daughter to Lagoon. I don't take my daughter on vacation. Actually, the last vacation I had was three years ago. So, this proposed tax increase will harm not just your long-term citizens who those who are on fixed incomes, but those who want to increase and have a plentiful Americanized life. The goal of buying a

house and having that American dream is fading. And it is fading at an alarming rate. You should be worried. You should be worried for the individuals in your life who are around my age, in their 20s, in their 30s, and even approaching their 40s, who are looking at their daytoday expenses and going, "Holy crap, what is next?"

Because we don't have emergency funds. Some of us don't even have retirements because we are working so dang much to get just the dayto-day expenses to make sure that my daughter has diapers, she has wipes. I could care less that my car is 20 years old and has 200,000 miles on it. I will Fred Flintstone her. Please, please do not do this. It will cause more harm than you realize. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. MY NAME IS Shannon Jackson, members of the city council. I'm here today to speak about the proposed 55% tax increase. And to be very clear, this is not just a number on paper. This is a direct impact on families in our community. It affects single parents, retirees on fixed incomes, and working households already doing their best to keep up with the rising cost. A tax increase of this size is not a small adjustment. It's a burden. What's most concerning is that this feels like a solution being placed on residents for a problem we did not create. This is not a resident problem. This is a city management problem. For years, there have been visible signs that something isn't working. Neighborhoods lack curb appeal. Yards are neglected. Some buildings across our city are deteriorating. These aren't sudden issues. They've developed over time. This tells us there has been missed opportunities to plan, maintain, and invest wisely. Budget challenges don't appear overnight. They build over time and they should be addressed with foresight, transparency, and accountability. Asking res residents to absorb a 55 in% increase now are those opportunities have those after those opportunities have passed feels like less like a solution and more like a consequence of delayed decisions. There also are concerns about how past investments have been handled. Projects that have not delivered value to the community raised value questions. Before asking residents to contribute more, it's reasonable to expect a full evaluation of spending priorities and outcomes. We need to understand what is working, what is not, and what changes will be made moving forward. This community deserves

leadership that prioritizes its people. Leadership that listens, plans ahead, and makes decisions that strengthen the city over time. A significant tax increase should be one last option, not the first response. I urge you to reconsider this proposal. Look closely at internal efficiencies, spending choices, and long-term planning strategies. Engage with the community in a meaningful way and rebuild trust through transparency and accountability. Because at the end of the day, the people of this city are not just taxpayers. They are the foundation of this community and they deserve to be supported, not stretched beyond their limits. Thank you.

Thank you. Hello, my name is Jeff Cox. Department department departmental requests of 224,000 were not included in this year's budget. This included not creating a full-time justice court position, new police records, clerk position, part-time fire wages, and police and fire overtime. These are not cuts, just an unfilled wish list. The budget contemplates maintaining service levels. Have you considered that residents may not want service levels maintained? Before Roy forces an exorbitant tax increase on its residents, consider the following: cuts, incremental budgeting, moratorum, structural reductions, targeted cuts, and re-evaluating priorities. We have not heard these words uttered either in our meetings or in this report. The citizens of Roy are representing these considerations to the council. The Roy complex has run in the red for years before and even after the $1.28 28 million renovation completion in July 24. With a total budget of 937.5 million last year and a decrease in revenue compared to 2024, it is now set for the next year's budget to increase 60 million to 997.5 million. This equates to 35.5% proposed to the 55.45 45 tax increase. So to be honest, let's just call it for what it is. I have named this the million-doll honey bucket baby. So what are the options? Increase admission rates like you did for the aquatic center March 25th. Already too high compared to local

fitness centers. Include discontinuing employees free annual complex pass. That is a start but is just a bug mark on the windshield. shut down the Roy Aquatic Center, which ran in the red, $235,000 last year. That was too much of a rabbit hole. So, our solutions are you take your losses, either sell it to the school district to give to Roy High School, the district, the school district owns the land anyway, or sell it to a private entity. Smarter idea of the two. Th this cell would allow the facility to write off our losses, move from tax exempt status to a tax generating asset, bringing in new tax revenues for the city, school, district, and county. Total savings of profit in the millions. Thank you. And I'm Ty Chaston and I'm just adding to what uh Scott what Mr. Cox has just been speaking about forgo spending $80,000 painting light post on 5600 South $80,000 savings. Roy has a vacuum truck and a street sweeper which they do not use while hiring third party services. Certify your drivers or get rid of them. surplus. Drop wreck football, there's a $180,000 savings. Um especially when there's somebody else that's running it just as well. And then there's some $25,000 in savings just with the uh league and equipment that has to be purchased every year. Forgo $60,000 park study. They they inventory and evaluate existing parks, recreation programs,

facilities, and trail systems. $60,000 savings, moratorium on 3,000 donations from Miss Roy scholarships. I know that's a that's a hard one, but when you don't have the money, you don't pay for that either. Reduce the 7000 $700 monthly car allowance, the $350 car allowance to the economic director, city attorney, management service directors, and judge. There's also no requirement for the city gas cards. Uh yeah, we have a gas cards mileage. We don't track the mileage. We don't track the gas cards. They can use them for whatever. They can go up to Boxeller County and have their little ways up there, but they won't give us that information either. Where did the money go in the last budget for snow removal? We had snow removal. We don't know where that went. That's not transparency. again.

Are we holding employees accountable for these gas cards? We bought a new IT truck for $70,000. Make him a director and he gets a truck. Brand new truck and a gas card. We don't track that. At least like I don't know. We gram request stuff, but we can't get it. Uh new playground at Fox Glenn Park, 51,000. A new truck for the IT department, 70,000. Planning improvements for the complex walkway, $6,000. Planning a new toddler playground in Maro Park, $113,000. And then providing travel expenses for council members to train to take a training in St. George when they said they weren't going to, but they did anyways. I thought we weren't going to do that. Thank you. I'm Tara Codddle. Um, I do appreciate you guys serving our city and trying to be transparent about your problem. Um, however, I am here to respectfully oppose the proposed 55.45 um, property tax increase. An increase in this size implemented um all at once places a significant burden on residents, especially seniors, fixed income households, and working families who already face raising costs with food, housing, utilities, insurance, health care. While I understand that you need to address wage problems, um, and but it's way too difficult to do that big of a jump. Um, so far I've lived in um, a couple houses in Roy. This last house that I purchased, my my taxes actually have gone up already

57.62% in the last eight years. Um, first I I want to um recognize that employee uh comp compensations and decisions to keep Roy Fire Department independent. Um, I respect those goals. However, there are a lot of cities around us that don't pay for their depart uh fire department. they have um aligned with a different city or with the county and it just kind of makes me wonder why why does that work for them but it doesn't work for us. Um I would like to also urge Roy um to focus on stronger like bringing in stronger businesses into our city and keeping sales tax dollars here. Sales tax is one of the largest revenue sources in Utah cities, often accounting for more than onethird of uh total city revenue. And like property taxes shared by residents and non-residents alike. Too often, Roy City um residents shop and dine um and seek services in Riverdale and Clinton and all of the other surrounding cities because those communities have invested in commercial development. Um, expanding Royy's business base, whether through retail services, mix base uses, um, would help shift more of that revenue burden away from homeowners and onto the onto economic activity. Um, as of right now, we have a bunch of businesses in Roy that are vacant, that are run down, and they should be utilized. They're in our city. Um, so they should be utilized.

Second, I ask the city to more actively enforce existing property maintenance and nuisance ordinances. Thank you. Thank you.

My name is Pete Brent. I spent some time today trying to compare Roy City's tax rate to other comparable cities. Syracuse, Clearfield, Clinton. That's a very much of a quagmire. It's difficult to take my house and move it to another city and see what it would be taxed at because there's quite a few mathematics that get involved. Um, I'd like to see the city, the city council produce for us a comparison that way to show us where we are in this state with comparable cities. If my house was $200,000, what would it cost for me to live in Clearfield or Clinton or North Ogden or comparable cities? Not Ogden City, not Leighton. They're obviously not like Roy. Um I feel like the city council for many years has pushed aside the opportunities that we have had to develop retail and commerce in Roy. We are a pass through city. A lot of people come and go and nobody stops here. The other day I was I was leaving the city and there was a big line going out and nobody coming in and it just struck me that nobody comes to Roy to stay here except all unless we live here. Um I feel like the city council is driving us to bankruptcy. If that occurs, many cities have joined with other cities and become one entity. That is an actual solution to this problem. West Haven, Hooper, all these small communities, we could just join with them and do things. I even feel like people talked about our recreation programs. Clinton has a great recreation program. I knew the mayor of Clinton for

years. He did a great job of bringing in retail, changing the nature of the city and providing a great foundation for future. I don't see that happening here. Um, it is your job to negotiate with retail developers to bring in the kind of of of industry and and uh retailers that we need. Um, on another point, it appears that we are paying our city managers an awful lot of money compared with their uh responsibilities. I worked for the federal government and I knew never knew any manager that had less than 200 people working for him that made over $150,000 a year. and and I know that our responsibility was national defense and it was a a nightmare to work there and they still didn't make as much money as we're getting as you're getting here.

Um I looked at the budget that came with the packet that was sent out for this meeting and just in a glance most of the areas were under 75% and we still need money. Thank you.

Thank you. Samuel Fernandez. I'm not in favor of this tax rate hike. Um, no one wants to lose experienced personnel. Uh, it's a tragedy that sometimes that happens. Uh, as a city official, you're supposed to be serving the public. There should be caps on their salaries. if they can't manage their funds or the money that they're getting from the city, they need to go out to the look into the private sector and let those people that are underneath rise up to the challenge and keep the city running. One thing I haven't heard is how this is going to affect the senior citizens. They're already struggling with Medicare costs, prescription costs. Now you're going to have them choose whether they can keep their home food in their refrigerators, pay the bills for electricity, water, heating. It's a travesty that you guys are even thinking about a 55% increase. You need to find a different solution. There's a lot of good information here and I hope you take good notes, but realistically you're going to kill the community. Thank you,

Phyllis Williamson. Um, being a sub at the school, I just think please don't raise the taxes. I hear the kids, you know, tell me how their parents are working two jobs just to pay for their housing. And it's just so sad to me. And I just think maybe we can do away with Roy Days and we can just get together as a community and have a big picnic or something. But thanks. My name is Nancy Inman and when I heard about this tax increase, I sent out about 60 text messages. And I got various responses, most of which I can't repeat in this atmosphere. And then I've got some that said, "Oh, time to move." So, a tax increase like this is doing just the opposite of what you want it to do. It's driving people out of the city. I sat down and I wrote a little spiel here that I was going to talk about how the senior citizens are disproportionately affected by this tax increase more so than the 40 18 to 45 year old groups. But there's plenty of those here, too, saying that they don't know where they're going to get the money either. But the senior citizens

are the they're the bulk of the harm here. They make up 80 to 90% in the 55 and over age range own their homes. So, it's a disproportionate 2:1 over the group that are 18 to 45 that own their homes because those that group makes up maybe 45% of homeownership. So, the senior citizens get hurt the hardest and they're the ones that use the services the least. So, I don't use the complex. Never been there. It's just not something I'm going to do. I walk around the city in the summer and I tripped on the horrible sidewalks and broke my arm one year. So maybe uh look at improving some of the things that the seniors do and I see plenty of them walking around. But as far as the complex, that's just a money pit and you put 1.2 million into it, 600,000 here, and nobody's using it anymore. So maybe it's time to think about making some cuts. There isn't a government agency that isn't wasteful. There there are just none. There's plenty of places that can be cut. So, it's your job, your job to do the the the tough decisions and not raise our property taxes.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Andrew Wilco. Uh my uh my concern or issue that I'm bringing to the the council is a little bit different than uh specifically taxes. Uh mine is from a p a perspective of a uh a father who also uh signs his son up for row recreational baseball. Uh this year I volunteered to uh coach baseball. Um there are too many parents who have volunteered. So I understand that you know not everybody can be volunteered or can be the coach of that team. However, when I reached out to the coach who uh who was selected said, "Hey, do you have any help or do you need any help with uh taking care of the kids or or coaching?" He said, "No, we have it. We're just fine." and and then found out that he outsourced all other help to his wife's brother and his and her father. Um I brought that to the attention of uh the director Michelle Howard and said, "Hey, I think that it's a parent's right to be involved with their son or their child in sports before they outsource it to that family's, you know, extended family." Um but they they just they don't have a policy. They say that the free the coach has the freedom to make a decision on who they want to coach. Um, I feel that a uh right as a parent has been stolen to me and given to their own family in the in the in the way of nepotism. And uh I would implore that the city council work with the department of recreation to establish a policy that when parents are selected to coach, they be required to ask other parents who are on that team if they would like to help support their team and their kids in coaching or in games prior to not asking any parents whatsoever with the premeditated manner of having their own family be the only ones participating with their kids. Uh that's the only that's my only issue with that. But is there any questions? pretty clear.

Yeah. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Yeah. I'm Darren Albbright and I remember we talked similar to something last last year. I remember getting in some of these communities I came into and the mayor Dan Doy had talked about different changes that need to be made like some other comments have already been made uh to basically to make some changes and do some different things. And as of yet to this time, I've not seen one list, nothing has broke down that has said or even suggested what we can do to make some cuts. We are It's easy enough to make to raise taxes. Let's just raise taxes. I listened to a podcast that was about spending money and I thought it was really good. It said uh about spend money on what seemed to be really good projects, but that's all it was was just money. spending money. And I quote, "Is is it money that solves society ills?" Think about this. I want you guys to really think about this. The world has poured two trillion dollars in addressing chronic illness in Africa. Granted, it's not Roy. Why isn't the situation better? You tell me. Because money isn't the real issue. It's not about the money. Lasting progress comes through trusted relationship and transparency, infrastructure, reducing corruption and ability of people working together. Money doesn't necessarily create those things. They must be developed alongside this resource. And frankly, that is much harder work. It's a lot harder to work with the citizens and less work with you. And it's not happening. This isn't going very good. And so until you we gain your trust and you gain our trust, you guys are going nowhere. and neither are we. And we're going to be in the same situation that we are last year. And it's going to continue to be the same thing. The old saying goes, if you don't make changes, it's not going to change. You got to make changes. And you guys haven't made any progress. I've not seen any cuts. Haven't seen anything real big changes that you guys have

really made. Um we need to connect with goodness and with people around us. It seems to me this council, except for one, would rather just raise taxes, spend money instead of looking um for the real issue. That's hard work that takes time. So, as what I'm saying is you guys need to work with us and we have to work with you. If you guys are unwilling to do so and you guys just give us lip service, that's what you're going to get from us. You're going to get the same stuff back from us and you guys aren't going to be very happy and neither are we. And guess what? We're still going to be the same problem next. You're going to be asking for more money. And just because it's just a small amount of money, $17.7 $17.76 a month doesn't seem like much. But when you add Weaver County's money to that and my gas and everything else, it's a lot of money. So if it's just Roy City, great. I'm okay to pay $7 $17.76. But sometimes we forget there's other things we have to pay for. My son's home's worth about $300,000 more than mine in Farmington. I'm paying $600 more in taxes every year than he is. And that's the reason why we need to work together. Hi there, Roger Bordley. Uh, when I read the newspaper article looked like everything's the same thing as Dan Toy said a while back says we don't have enough money to keep our employees and our police and fire. And I disagree. Uh when I started out working like three bucks well buck 95 but 316 wor an hour saw a job out there for 540 different you know different company different job took that and it wasn't very good really so I went back to this 316 an hour job

could you just speak into the microphone a little bit better thank you

after a few more months or so a year uh they transferred me over to another manager and I didn't like him much and the conditions were kind bad. So I quit that again too down to zero. Went back guy picked me up again. Stayed there for the next 28 and nine years. Played manager for 25 29 of those years there for 34 pardon me and found that and we paid beans pretty much all those years still do. Had many employees working with me for 10 20 some years working for beans. The pay is not what keeps people around. It's management. It's always management. You leave jobs that suck and you stay where you're enjoying yourself. So, we don't really need this pay more. It's nice if you're in the job to get more. I won't fault that. But that's not what keeps anyone around. Money is a maintenance thing. Once you make enough, you're good. More isn't really going to get more woo out of you. So to pay more, to keep going on the same faulty premise of we need more is it's ludicrous. Your people are going to leave and it won't solve anything except the people who remain in the job they're comfortable, they get more money, but it won't solve the problems of employee turnover whatsoever. Worked with several other managers, they always had problems with turnover. They were kind of difficult to work with. Not a surprise. Uh guys, I'm sorry, but it's the environment that you guys create that people leave. I'm not paying a target on my back, but that's the truth. I don't have too much more to offer. That's not the solution. More money won't solve it. If you get the if you pay enough money for people to stay that don't want to stay, you don't get the employees that you want anyway. Just reality check people.

I'm a short. My name is U. Patricia Panagopoulos. Um, I'm here to talk for my neighbor. She's a single mom with one child. She has no family, nothing. If you raise the taxes, she's going to have to lose her home. She's going to be homeless. And I know she is not the only one that is suffering and going through this. We've learned to adapt, my husband and I. True leadership sacrifices and they adapt. I really think you need to really think about this tax hike because it's going to affect not you guys, it's going to affect others. That's all I have to say. I'm Victor Chaston and I wanted to go over a little history lesson so we can kind of put this in comparison. Our founding fathers rebelled against the British Empire when they imposed taxes. The Sugar Act, which was a 50% increase on sugar. The Stamped Act, which made a 30% increase on all documents that were posted. Our American founding fathers rebelled for a 30 to 50% tax increase. And actually after we got independence from the British Empire, America for the next hundred years had little to no taxes and was a nation founded on these principles and was a stable nation and became an economic powerhouse with zero to little taxes across the state, across the nations, across all cities in America. I feel like this is an important comparison we can make because you sit here and say taxes are vital for civilization. Taxes have to be done to be take care of the poor. But if we uh overall can look at how America was

being founded about how they had little to no taxes, that would show that history proves your points wrong. Sure, I understand there's public works that we like to pay, and I'm not saying that the city's council should go from necessarily to 0% taxes, but our founding fathers show that it's possible that the people should have representation when it comes to taxation. And how is this not representation by the citizens? I would further want to clarify, I am 17 going on to 18. I'm not even voting. I didn't vote for you last session, but I'm also I'm already mystified by how much you could diminish the American dream for me who hasn't even got married, who doesn't have kids, who doesn't have a job yet, and you've already destroyed democracy, destroyed the American dream, and gave up all my hopes and inspiration for what democracy could look like, what the founding fathers wanted from their nation. To me, from my standpoint and my observations in history, it overall looks like you guys are not protecting what our founding fathers wanted. I understand times change. I understand that we have to make edits here and there. That's what the Constitution was for, for edits. But these are the people. We are your employers. We vote for you. Why are you not representing what we want? Do you do you really want to be like the British Empire and tax us and not listen to our voices? Give us these insane three minutes public comments. Make it so we can't comment to you. Make it so when we want to appear and even when we do give you our choice, you still don't make the decision. If anything, this seems like in comparison to the British Empire and we are the struggling American colonists. And I don't know what to do at this point. As Thomas Payne even said in common sense, many grievances against the American people because of the British Empire. And the more I study history, the more I see you

guys representing the British Empire and me, a colonist in America.

Hello. Um, I'm Garrett Chaston. Um, so just like a lot of people here tonight, I'm also against the tax increase. Um, I just wanted to share two statistics tonight. Um, also in part that, you know, liberals love statistics. So here we go. So I am in what we would call Gen Z. So that's people that are like still in high school or people in their early 20s. Um, so it's estimated that roughly 60% of my generation um are living at home with their parents because they can't afford to live and undo. And unlike popular belief, Gen Z is actually very hardworking and not lazy. So I don't know where people get that from. Third off, um it is also estimated that up to 63% of Gen Z is childless and I personally have met women in my age group that have said that I don't want to have a child because I simply can't afford one. So with all of that in if you believe statistics or not, either way, everyone knows a Gen Zer and they all know that they can't even afford food, let alone a child. So if you want to add to the problem, raise the taxes. That's all I have to say. Hello, my name is Nicholas Meldrum and last year the Roy Council came to the public and asked for 28%. This year they came and asked for 55%. What is it going to be next year? 90%. When does it end? I don't understand it. It's not

This is not a budget problem. This is a mismanagement problem. Okay. $300 a year might not seem like a lot to people who make a ton of money, but guess what? That's a car payment for somebody. That is a power payment for somebody. That is food for somebody for a month. It's too much. Manage yourself better. Cut where you need to cut. Don't put it on us to fix your problems for you. It's ridiculous. How How well have you guys managed this? You guys asked for 28% increase last time. Where did all that money go? Did it make it better for all the public? Did it make it better for the employees? Are you still losing the same amount of employees? What has changed? Why are you asking for more money? Did the 28% that you asked for last time do anything? Will the 55% that you asked for do anything this time? When does it stop? Fix your own stuff. Fire people that need to be fired. Cut budgets where need to be cut. And stop asking us for more money. That's all I have to say.

Hi, my name is Lisa Spencer. I have lived in Roy for the last 12 years. I did live here previously as a child. Um during this last 12 years, my property taxes have more than doubled. So they've been raised by over 100% since I've been here. So that means that you guys should be able to account for 100% in increases of all of the um all of the extra taxes that you're receiving for those last even 10 years. It's increased 100% in 10 years. Um so that means that the city is receiving double what they did 10 years ago. Are you doing double what you did 10 years ago? Um, so you like to talk sometimes about um not having made many increases or increases that should have been made a couple years ago or whatever, whatever. Um, but you never account for that 100% more that you've gotten in this last 10 years. And you know, I see people roll their eyes on this council regularly. Um, but it's true. It's the truth. And so I'd like to see some accountability for where all of that extra money has gone over this last 10 years. Um, I I am not a person that is against taxes. Okay? I understand the need to pay for um community things like of course the police and the fire and the roads and you know a lot of other um items that that are necessities.

Um but I don't think that you guys manage this money as if it is your own. Um, I think that you just see it as a bottomless pit of something that you can take from and it's just not right. So, my name is Trevor Phillips. Uh, speaking on the tax issue, I am somebody who's against taxes and I'm even more against an irresponsible government asking struggling citizens to carry the consequences of failed financial discipline. A government should demonstrate fiscal restraint before demanding more from the people who fund it. Right now, working families and elder generations are being crushed by rising fuel costs, groceries, utilities, insurance, rent, mortgage, and even construction costs. I'm a small I'm a small general contractor. I I couldn't even get tiny jobs anymore here in Roy. Nobody can afford it. Doesn't matter how much I cut for them, how much I did for them, how much I tried to make it cheaper for them. I could not get these jobs anywhere. And now this council is considering policies that would increase housing cost by another one to $300 per month for for families already barely hanging onto their homes. Government budgets may be strained, but the people paying those budgets are the ones actually holding that burden. Why is it acceptable for citizens to absorb economic hardship while government spending continues to grow and somehow insulated from the same reality?

Citizens support police, they support fire, support roads, and actual essential infrastructure. What they do not support is unchecked expansion, administrative growth, non-essential spending, and financial management that repeatedly returns to taxpayers demanding more. Transparency must come before the taxation. What was cut first? What waste was eliminated? What if what if inefficiencies were corrected? What sacrifice did government make before deciding the citizens should suffer instead? Because history has proven something very clearly. Temporary taxes increase, temporary tax increases do not stay temporary. Permanent revenue increases always become permanent spending increases. And without a structural reform, the exact same problem returns later, only larger. And if this problem was created by poor forecasting, irresponsible budgeting, or unsustainable spending growth, then why are permanent tax burdens being placed on the people instead of permanent reforms being placed on the government? At some point, cumulative taxes tax increases stop being manageable and start forcing working people, retirees, young families, and small businesses out of the communities they helped build. Dang it,

Brian. You were the only one that that was against this last time and I hope that's the same. Please continue. Thank you.

I'm going to introduce myself to you guys. You guys already know me. I'm Stephanie Spar. Hi everybody. I'm Stephanie Spar.

I want you to know that our taxes are going to go up too. Jason's, Mines's, Brian's, Alexis, Anne, Diane, Janelle, everybody. Theren, Matt, everybody is going to go up. But the problem does not lie solely with the city. You need to go up the chain. Go up. Go up to the county. What's happened to your property taxes? Look at your county property taxes as opposed to your city. What has happened to Utah state taxes? Look at your state taxes as opposed to Weber County as opposed to Roy City. go up even higher. Go up to the country. Did you know in 1997 since 1997, I should say, inflation has rose 100%. A family making an average income in the United States, $250,000, $200,000. It's up and down all over different counties, states, whatever. Should not be struggling to put food on the table. Take this where it belongs. This is not a Roy City issue. This is not a county issue. This is not a state issue. Go up. Go up higher.

It is not a Roy issue. It's not Not a Roy is

Uh, hi. My name is Haley Kramer. I've actually never even been to a city council meeting before and I have lived in Roy now for 26 years. We built my husband and I built our home out in West Roy. Um, I'm from Hoover, so just down the road, so we've been in this area our whole lives. Um, I just kind of wanted to reiterate a little bit about uh, you know, to talk about the senior citizen population, which is a a big problem, but I'm 46 years old. Um, again, I've raised my three children here. One, uh, who had a liver transplant when he was 10 years old, and I was not able to work this whole time because I've been trying to take care of my children. And now I'm in a need in need of a kidney transplant, and I can't work. at 46 years old. My husband is 10 years older than me and has to continue where he can't he can't retire. We have no idea when it will happen. But if these increases keep taking place, I mean, we're just the people like us are going to suffer and you know, we've used the resources of Roy City as my kids have been little going to the uh aquatic center, going to the complex, and it's been fun and it's been great. And this is a great city we live in. We don't want to move. We don't want to change. Um but again like you know when we built our house for $119,000 now it's worth nearly $500,000 so we have to pay so much more

and again you know when I am unable to work we're on a one-inccome household and uh it'll just it'll affect more people than you think it will affect um that are out there. So, thank you,

Kurt Bailey. I'd like to bring a a little different perspective. As a landlord, when an increase happens, who pays it? The tenant. I've done it several times. Um, I also want to bring up another thing. My wife made made sure I live across from Municipal, Elementary, and Park. It's a very nice park. I want to thank you for that. Um, in the time we've lived here, four years, we've had five trees die. I would like them replaced, please. Just they've died. Natural causes, I suppose, but just a little maintenance, please. Thank you. Hi, my name is James Gross and I've lived here 24 years and I think you guys are a little out of touch with how bad it is out there right now. I haven't had a race since 2020. I haven't had cola since 2020. It is tough. Practically every month, electricity, gas, water, food, everything keeps going up. We have to keep cutting till there's nothing left. It's all bone. And you guys now want to jack this up more. You're going to drive people out. This is no longer the place that everybody wants to be. That's all I have to say.

Thank you. Thank you.

I'm Brent Saxton. Many of you know me. I've lived in Roy for over 50 years. So, a longtime resident, proud graduate of Bedmond High School, though. Anyhow, made a couple of notes here. I just wanted to address there's been a lot of responses here. a lot of tele intelligent responses, informed responses, talking about wages, salaries. Maybe 40% of our employees are making in excess of $150,000 a year. Is that what I heard?

Is that accurate? That's amazing. That's amazing. I live on I'm one of those raised their hands. I live on a fixed income. Not a wealthy man. My home is worth a lot more today than it was when I built it 30 years ago. But I'm paying rent every month. It's paid for. But I pay a monthly rent to remain in that home to the city, to the council, county, to the state. A home that I paid for. I'm still paying to live there.

It wasn't that many years ago. I don't remember. We were paying $100 every two months on our water bill. What's that water bill today? It's a $100 monthly. It has been It is double in not that long a period. I may have misread it, but I walked by city offices. I saw the name of the city manager there, but I think I also saw assistant city manager. Is that right? Do we have an assistant city manager?

Why? Yeah, we shouldn't be necessary. We've got to look at this from a different standpoint. We have to make reductions. About six or eight months ago, I took the advice of a very wise man that I should be a peacemaker. I didn't come here to be contentious, but Thank you. Thank you, Brent.

I'm a Grayson or um I don't mind paying a fair tax. Uh I don't like unjust taxes. I'm a conservative. a conservative and I believe you all ran on a conservative ticket. If I wanted to pay this much, I would have voted Democrat. You know, uh, but I also know this is government and one thing I do not trust is government. What Ronald Reagan said is very true today. If someone says, "I'm here from the government and I'm here to help you, you better run." Okay? I do not trust government. And I do not believe I mean there's been a lot of research done here. There's been a lot of good things said and pointed out, but I imagine come voting time we'll be paying 54 or 55%. Because that's just what government does. But I'm a conservative. I'm an elephant. Come voting time, elephants don't forget. Shelley Pollston. When I moved to Roy, my property tax was almost $800 a year. My property tax is $2300 a year. So a wise man once said it's very easy to spend other people's money and I think that you forget that that you are spending other people's money. You talked about transparency.

I think we need a list of what Roy City needs to cut. I think you need to read the constitution and see exactly what your responsibilities are and everything else you do needs to stop because I don't believe that you are supposed to be providing entertainment for people. That's not your role. We can do that just fine. But I think you really need to look at that constitution, see what your job is, and then that's all you do. Get rid of the rest because you're just wasting our money. And I really appreciate all the comments because it really is the responsibility. We gave you this job and if you can't do it, there's always voting season next time. So, you need to think about who you work for. The Constitution was written to protect us from the government and you guys are there. So, anyway, thank you. Hi, my name is Nick Wrigley. Um, I came here to listen tonight and there's been a lot of good points and I just felt like I need to stand up. First of all, I do want to thank the fire and police their services. I don't think they should be defunded. I love them. They need to be here. However, there's been a lot of great points brought up. And one of the thing I just kind of want to say to everyone else here, like any everyone knows the term bargaining, I feel like this is going to happen. They're saying 54% right now, which is ridiculous.

Everything goes up. I get that. I've been a homeowner for 10 years. I've watched things go up. I've seen things down. Right now, they say my house is worth nearly $480,000. I don't believe it. But because of that, my taxes have gone up. That's just the way it is. But to increase the tax, that's ridiculous. Especially this high. So, like I mentioned bargaining earlier, everyone just be aware. They're saying 54% now. don't buy it when they come back and say 20 15 and think that's a great idea because it's still a crap idea if we're I don't have the facts but if people are making as much as they are where I work when you make that much money you wear more hats you get more responsibility you do more jobs you work longer hours if that's not the case step down let somebody else do it for half the price and we'll get the job done any either way because that's what working people do get the job done things have to get done we get it Hello, my name is Mandy Christianson. I've lived in the city almost my whole life, so almost 48 years. I am the owner of a home that was built, one of the first built on 3100 and it was my grandparents home and I spent many, many years there. And now it's my dream fulfilled being able to own that home. I don't want to get super emotional. My mom was like, "No, don't go do it." But I feel like it's very important. Um, I was raised in this city. I went to all the schools in this city. I'm proud of this city. But if if with all the development up the hill on the base and all the new restaurants that Riverdale is attracting, restaurants and businesses that Riverdale is attracting and then and then coming home every day and then getting the news that the taxes are going to go up, what what am I being provided as a homeowner, a single homeowner by the way? And I'm fortunate, more fortunate than most because I have a very lucrative job. I have a I have a college degree. I have a very lucrative job. And I am very fortunate than most

that wouldn't be able to live in their grandparents home and pay for that on their own um as a as a single woman. So that's a huge deal to me. But what what am I getting? You're you're going to go raise my taxes. And what and what is in this city? What is in this city that excites me and and makes me want to hang out or spend money in my own city? I look around and I don't see much. So, what I ask of you is that if you want to do this, you guys need to put your money where your mouth is first and then I'm happy to support that. Um, and I'm and I'm happy to remain a citizen. But by doing this with no buyin on my end, what what buyin do I have? I see nothing. Um, code code code enforcement and you drive around and the city the city is lacking in code enforcement and keeping our city beautiful and sometimes people make fun of me because I'm from Roy. They say it's the armpit of Weber County and and that makes me feel bad. I' I've lived here. I'm repeating myself. I get that. But what I'm saying is you need to offer your citizens a buyin and something that we can agree to to support because without that you're just taking you're not giving. So thank you. So, we need to close the um public comment period to go on with the rest of our council so we can get to our hometown where you can ask us questions and we will actually be able to answer your questions. And so, um and we're going to turn the time over to Amber, our financial person, to present the budget. Okay.

So, hope all of you that had comments, if you'll stick around, we could be able to answer a lot of the things that you asked us before or meet with us individually. We're willing to do that also.

Okay. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Just a minute. Guess I get to be your agenda guide for the next one through nine items. We'll try to get through this as quickly as possible. Okay. So, Utah State Code requires the budget officer to present and file with the governing body a tenative budget at the first meeting scheduled in May. In the 2026 legislative session, there were a lot of changes to the budget process and notification requirements if a city is planning on increasing the certified tax rate. Tonight is our first step in the process, and you will notice things to be different than from past years. The major focus from the bills that were passed in the legislative session focused on informing the public earlier in the process and making sure that they felt informed and able to comment on the budget. Action item number one on the agenda is notifying the public that the

budget officer intends to make a statement that the tenative budget includes a proposed property tax increase. Action item number two is me making that statement to you. The proposed tenative budget for fiscal year 2027 includes a proposed property tax rate increase. Action item number three is a presentation of the fiscal year 2027 tenative budget. Royce City is considering a tax rate that exceeds the certified tax rate. The fiscal year 2027 budget includes a tax increase of approximately 55.45%. This would generate approximately 2,87,745 in additional tax revenue. The tax increase would be for the following. to balance the budget due to a revenue shortfall resulting from the cost of living adjustment given to employees in the current fiscal year. To give a 2.8 cost of living adjustment to employees in the 2027 fiscal year to give wage correction adjustments to all full-time employees. If the city proceeds with a proposed tax increase, the city shall provide notice of and conduct a public hearing as required where members of the public will have an opportunity to comment on the proposed tax rate increase. Okay, I have a video here from uh it was prepared by Utah League of Cities and Towns that kind of shows how property taxes work. Property values are key to determining how much property tax an owner pays. County assessors determine the market value of each property. The market value assessment is intended to be close to

what your house would sell for. The market value is also the base amount that a tax rate is applied to. Properties are taxed at 100% of market value unless they qualify for a residential exemption. Only 55% of the assessed market value of a primary residence is taxed, regardless of whether the owner or a renter lives there. Property values change due to market shifts, property improvements, or the county's reassessment of the property. Counties provide property owners with an opportunity to appeal market value. Increased property values do not result in your local government collecting more money. However, different increases in property values can result in tax shifts between property owners. For example, if your home's value increases $10,000 and your neighbors stays the same, you may pay more in property tax than you did last year, while they may pay less. Local governments set their budgets independently of property values, meaning rising values alone don't increase government revenue. But changing values can shift the tax burden among property owners.

Okay, hopefully that helps explain it a little bit. If your booty looks like this, if your belly looks like this, and your arms look like this, this Monday, May 4th, we start Taichi Challenge for beginners. On Monday, May 4th, we're starting the Taichi program for beginners. Build strength and lose up belly fat with just 7 minutes a day. In one week, you'll feel it. In 2 weeks, you'll see it. In a month, you'll be turning Okay. Thank you.

I think we're good now. Okay.

Okay. Just add a little excitement to the meeting. There you go. Okay. So, hopefully that video shows an example of how property taxes work. Roy City receives the same dollar amount of property taxes every year regardless of home values. The only way to increase the amount we receive is by going through Truth and Taxation and requesting to receive more money. As the video demonstrated, if your home value increased more than other homes in Roy, then your property taxes would go up while other homes would go down, but Roy City would still receive the same dollar amount. Another reason your property taxes could go up is if another taxing entity increases their tax amount. Uh the tax rate website has history going back 28 years to 1997. In those 28 years, Roy City has increased property taxes five times. Uh this slide shows a history of that. So you can see the year the percent increase and the dollar amount that was generated by those increases. So we have 15% in 2005, 3% in 2010, 27% in 2016, 9% in 2022, and almost 10% in 2024. So we did not have a property tax increase last year. That's like froze on there, I think. There we go. There we go. There we go. Okay. So, this slide shows an example of where your property taxes go. This information is from Weber County and represents the average home value in Roy. The average Roy home has a market value of 432,000.

The taxable value of that home would be $237,500, resulting in a total tax bill of $2,448. Of that amount, 56% goes to schools, 20% goes to the county, 15% goes to the city, and the remaining 7% goes to several other small districts such as Roy Secondary Water, North Davis Sewer District, and the Mosquito Abatement District. So, if your total tax bill of $2,448, $384.39 goes to Roy City. If we increase taxes, the proposed um $213, that would increase your total tax bill by 8.71%. Okay, this slide shows you general fund revenue sources by type. As you can see, taxes are our biggest revenue source. Uh the second largest revenue source is charges for services at 3.7 million. This includes ambulance services, complex and aquatic center and recreation revenue. Class C roads and transportation revenue at the bottom for $2 million each are funds received from the state for road repairs and can only be used for that purpose. Uh this slide breaks down the revenue received from taxes. So you can see 8.7 million is received from sales tax, 7.9 is received from property taxes. This does include the proposed increase. Without that increase, we see fi we receive five million in property taxes. And then we also receive $3 million from franchise taxes received from utility companies. Uh this graph shows expenditures by department. Uh police is the highest at $8.4 million followed by fire at $7 million. Police and fire together account for about 50% of the general fund expenditures. Parks and recreation is the next largest at 4 million. The funding for class C roads and transportation together total 4.2 million and those are restricted for road improvements. Um they are not available to use for wages or other

general fund activities and the remaining general fund departments together total 6.6 million. Okay. Included in the proposed budget is a 2.8% cola for all employees which is the same amount given by social security in 2026. um and wage correction adjustments resulting from the salary survey. The average increase from the salary survey would be 12.93% and we would need the proposed tax increase to fund both of those wage increases. Okay. Action item number four on your agenda is for the budget officer to provide and make available a property tax impact schedule. This is part of the new legislative requirements. uh some of the requirements for the impact schedule. It has to be presented at the first meeting in May. It has to be available at every public hearing that discusses the budget. It has to be separate document from all other budget documents. And then it needs to detail the dollar amount of the additional revenue, the percentage increase, the dollar amount of the increase that would be paid on a residence and on a commercial property. And then for each department, it has to um articulate the budget increase or decrease resulting from the tax increase and then articulate the operational impact if the tax increase is proposed. Uh so the property tax impact schedule was included in the meeting packet for today's meeting. We also have hard copies up here available on the table and some people have came and grabbed those. Um, and then I wanted to show you, hopefully we don't get another video here. Thanks, Matt. Um, I wanted to show you and the residents where they can go to access these items. So, this is our website. If you go to www.royutah.gov, Uh there's a banner here.

This does not show up on my screen. I am technology. Yeah, if you can. It won't let me move. Okay, we'll have Britney show you. Okay, so here's our website. Um, the banner there has information about Roy City property tax information. Uh, then when you scroll down, it has the arrow there that says visit taxes. Um, there's two buttons, one taxes, one that says property tax impact schedule. If you click on the property tax impact schedule button that will take you directly to the document. Uh, the document here will show you So, it shows you the percentage increase and then it shows the dollar amount um increase to a primary residence of $21316 annually per year or $17.76 per month and then the increase to a business at $387 annually, $32 per month. Um, as you scroll through, you can see how much money would go through each department. And then we knew this was a large ask of council and of the citizens. So, what we did was prepare a few additional property tax impact schedules that could be alternates as we discussed in our last um work session of additional things that we could do to try to get this percent down. Uh this doesn't mean you're limited to these alternate options. You're welcome to propose a different one or give us suggestions on how you would like that to change. These were just ideas I came up with according to our last work session to try to give an idea of ways you could get that percent down. Um, if you do click on the taxes button right there and then scroll down, you'll have information for each one of our meetings that we are required to have on the budget.

So, the first one right there is today's. It has the agenda for today, the full budget document, the property tax impact schedule, and then it also includes all of my budget presentation slides from today if you would like access to that or the public would like to see any of that. Okay. Okay, we're going to take a break for a second from the general fund and talk about our utility funds. The city has three utility enterprise funds that include water and sewer fund, the storm water fund, and the solid waste fund. Uh in the water and sewer fund, we received an increase from Wever Bas and Water for annual water charges of $163,500. That's the increase they are charging us. Uh this increase will need to be passed along to the customers. For an average fourperson household, this will result in an increase of $130 per month, but that could vary depending on their water usage. Uh there are no increases proposed to the storm water fee or the solid waste fee. So the total utility bill increase will be approximately $130 per month. Uh looking forward to next year, Weaver Basin Water is proposing a similar increase for next year. And then North Davis Sewer District has already notified us that they will be increasing their rates $2.50 per user per month. And that's effective July 1st, 2027. Okay. So the administration's proposed budget is now the city council's tenative budget to review, make changes, and consider for approval. As shown earlier, the budget document and property tax impact schedule are available on our website for public inspection. On June 16th at 5:30m, we will have a public hearing specifically dedicated to the budget and we will

adopt an interim budget. This is the meeting you will need to decide the maximum proposed tax amount. You can adopt a lower amount later, but will not be able to go higher. The interimm budget will be in effect from July 1st until the state tax commission certifies our tax rate, which will be midepptember. and any amount proposed by the property tax impact schedule cannot be spent during that time. On August 11th at 6 PM, we will hold another public hearing and adopt the final budget. This meeting is scheduled for a different week than our regular meeting schedule because we cannot have any other business items on the agenda at this meeting. That is a new requirement by the legislature. Uh action item number five on the agenda is consideration of resolution 26-7 to adopt the tenative budget and property tax impact schedule and schedule public hearings to receive public comment before the interim budget and final budgets are adopted. This resolution is adopting that staff presented the budget to the governing body. It does not give us any spending power or commit you to anything. At this time, staff recommends adopting resolution 26-7. Hey, do we have a motion to adopt this resolution? Resolution.

So moved. Do I have a second? Second. This a roll call vote. Britney. Council member Wilson. I. Council member Halbert. I. Council member Saxton. Nay. Council member Spar. I. Council member Jackson. I. Okay. Amber,

thank you. Action item number six on the agenda is consideration of resolution 26-8 declaring the intent of the Roy City Council to adopt a property tax that exceeds the certified tax rate and provides notice of a public hearing. This resolution does not bind the city council to increase the tax rate, but only to hold the public hearing and go through the truth and taxation process. This public hearing is scheduled for August 11th, 2026 at 6 PM in the Roy City Council Chambers, 5051 South, 1900 West, Roy, Utah, pending council and Weber County approval. This meeting will be coordinated with Weber County to ensure it does not overlap with any other taxing entities public hearings. Residents will have the option to participate in the public hearing in person or through a Zoom link, allowing them to virtually participate as well. The Zoom link will be sent out 24 hours before the scheduled hearing. At this time, staff recommends adopting resolution 26-8.

Okay. Do we have a motion for 26-8? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Britney, you do a roll call vote. So, council member Jackson, I. Council member Hbert, I. Council member, I. Council member Saxton, I. Council member Wilson, I.

Okay, thank you. Action item number seven on the agenda is notifying the public that the budget officer intends to make a statement that Roy City is considering levying a tax rate that exceeds its certified tax rate along with the approximate dollar amount, purpose, percentage, and public hearing notice. Action item number eight is me making that statement. Roy City is considering levying a tax rate that exceeds the certified tax rate. Roy City is considering increasing the certified tax rate to generate an additional 2,87,745 in tax revenue. The purpose of the increase is for one to balance the budget due to revenue shortfall resulting from the cost of living adjustment giving to employees in the current fiscal year. Two, to give a 2.8% 8% cost of living adjustment to employees in the 2027 fiscal year and three to give wage correction adjustments to all full-time employees. The proposed tax rate increase is approximately 55.45%. If the city proceeds with a proposed tax increase, the city shall provide notice of and conduct a public hearing as required where members of the public have an opportunity to comment on the proposed increase. Action item number nine is consideration of resolution 26-9. This resolution acknowledges that a separate item was included on the agenda notifying the public that the budget officer intended to make the previous statement as required by state code, that the budget officer made the statement as required by state code, and that council has set the date, time, and place of the public hearing on the proposed tax increase as required by state code. At this time, staff recommends adopting resolution 26-9. Okay, we have a motion for 26-9.

So, motion um a motion to approve resolution 26-9. Do I have a second? I'll second it. Okay, Britney. Council member Spar I member Saxton I. Council member Wilson I. Council member Jackson I. Council member Hbert I. And with that, I will turn it over to Matt Wilson, I believe. Oh, whoever's doing action item number 10.

All right. Uh, this resolution 26-10 is just um changing some things in our personnel policy. This is coming down from the state of Utah. Um there was there was two different ways that um the federal government and the state observed Junth holiday and Roy City was piggybacking on what the state did in this legislative session. They changed the way they observe that holiday and so we were wanting to mimic them and it will also be the same as uh the federal government. So basically the observation date is the on June 19th. Um there's another section of the policy that we wanted to change and this was done last year and it was calling out to um prohibit Tik Tok from being on the like any device that from the city. Um we wanted to take the Tik Tok out and just put any um anything prohibited by the federal government or state government because we're finding that there was a lot more. We're not seeing any problems with this, but we just wanted to um broaden that scope. Um but that's easily searched up on Google to see what would be prohibited, but it basically outlines companies. But anyway, we'd recommend you adopt that resolution.

Okay. Council, you have any comments on this resolution? So, we call for a motion. A motion to approve resolution 26-10. Do I have a second? I'll second. And roll call vote. Council member Halbert. I. Council member Spar I. Council member Wilson. I. Council member Jackson. I. Council member Saxton. I.

Okay. Now we'll go into the city manager and council report. I just have a couple of items. Um, just a reminder, next week we're going to have the dumpsters open at public works from 6:30 a.m. to 5 5:00 p p.m. Monday through Friday and then 8:00 a.m. through uh 300 p.m. on Saturday. And then also, I wanted to talk a little bit about the roundabout on 4400 South. You're going to see that that's going to be completed pretty soon. Um, probably the middle of next week. But the concrete does have to cure down there. So we'll have to keep it closed for an additional two weeks after that. Just wanted to let you know. But you might get some questions because it will look completed.

So that's it.

Okay. Council, do you have any comments you want to make? No. I just want to thank everybody who came out tonight. Uh it's great to hear from all of you. Um, we have we'd like to meet with any of you individually to answer questions that we weren't able to answer tonight. We have worked very hard on trying to do what's best for this city. I am too a senior citizen and I do want to retire one day and I don't want my taxes to keep going up neither because I'm a widow of 20 years and I have my own income and um it worries me as much as it does all of you. I'm on Medicare. I have supplemental income also. And these guys have worked a lot on trying to come up with solutions to try to keep our city running. I think that um when you hear everything that they have prepared tonight on whether we're going to, you know, keep our fire department or go to the Weber Fire District, they've put a lot of work and effort, endless hours into it. And they do want what's best. We all still we all pay the same taxes. I've lived in Roy since I was four and I have children that live in Roy and all played for Roy, go to the aquatic center. I think that's what makes Roy such a wonderful community is all the amenities that we have. Lots of senior citizens use that complex. They say it saves their lives. They've only met friends there that they go and see daily. aquatic center such a great facility and I think that's what makes Roy such a great city is everything that we have that makes us a great community. If you choose to take all those things away I don't know I I think it would be a sad situation. I think w programs are great

for children. Teaches them to be on a team. Teaches them um teaches them a skill that some of them go on and play school and college. It teaches them how to how be a good sport and it keeps him out outside and off a computer and off of his cell phone I feel. But that that is just um these are just my opinions. And so with that, I'd like to call for um an adjournment. So we'll move on into our H tone town hometown vote um town hall and we'll move on to that. So, do I have anyone wants to propose? I

move that we adjourn the council meeting. Okay. Do we have a second? Second. So, all in favor say I. I. So, are we going to take a few minutes or like meet back here for like 5 10 minute break and then we'll have our home town home. I watch too much HTV TV. I say hometown. Okay. Thank you. if you want to go step out and get a drink or we'll meet back in here in just a few minutes. Sorry. I hope that wasn't too much. I just