City Council - Regular Meeting

Are you looking at me?

Longingly looking at you. He's like, hmm. Okay. Okay. That shouldn't be happening. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Fire.

different now yeah i'm sure so long that's it matt he said when he got home he took a shower and he goes and i got out and says i still stunk like smoke i said i still feel like my hair smelled like smoke even though i scrubbed it we're ready ready Okay, we're ready to start our council meeting. I want to welcome all of you here today. It's July 21st, 2026. We'd like to welcome Council Member Spahr, Council Member Saxon, and Alexis Jackson will be joining us on Zoom, and Council Member Wilson, and Council Member Holbert. So now we have a moment of silence in the Pledge of Allegiance, which I will be conducting. So when we have our moment of silence, please think of the citizens that were affected by this horrible tragedy and fire yesterday. Keep them in your prayers. Thank you. Hey, please now join me with Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance 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. Welcome.

OK, we have one consent item. Counsel, you have any comments, any changes, or?

I do have several red marks on mine. So Brittany, I will get photos of that to you. They're just a few minor things, so. OK, so do I have a motion to approve the consent items? I move we approve the consent items with the changes as noted. I have a second.

I second.

OK, all in favor say aye.

Aye. OK, now we're going to go into our public comment period. I want to remind everyone that we ask all attendees to treat one another city staff, and selected officials courtesy and with respect. Outbursts, clapping, shouting, interrupted discussions, or any behavior that disrupts the orderly conduct of the meeting will not be permitted. Individuals who engage in disruptive behavior will be warned. If the behavior continues, they will be asked to leave the meeting so that the city council can continue conducting the public's business. We appreciate everyone cooperating and maintaining a respectful environment where all voices can be heard. So you have three minutes. Come up and talk about anything you would like.

Hello, everyone. My name is Jeff Cox. First thing I want to do is apologize to Matt Andrews for picking on him for about two months, not realizing his total responsibility, so I apologize. The other thing, too, I woke up this morning about 1.45, had a heck of a dream. I want to share it with you. And this is the truth. I did have this dream. I'm sitting in the courtroom here. For whatever reason, the people are all gone. Next thing I know, I hear noises outside in the parking lot. So I run around. What's going on? What's going on? I get out there and I look outside. Here's our fire department with a big, beautiful truck, all shined up as usual, always shining. an icon in Roy, and then I see the new fleet we have, seven vehicles on this side, seven vehicles on this side. I'm looking around, looking around, so I decide to walk on out. There's a bunch of people out there in front of all this, and the next thing I hear is somebody saying, all I do is run numbers. And I walk on, and I thought, well, that's weird. And I walk a little further, and another one says, we're going to keep zoning, too, rezoning. What's that all about? So I keep walking toward the crowd. And I believe the crowd, they were cheering. They were throwing confetti up. Sirens are going off on the fire truck. And I'm going, what the heck? Well, the next thing I know, there's somebody up on the fire truck. throwing out t-shirts. And on these t-shirts, I notice it's on this person, it says, I've saved all the jobs. And I thought, that's weird. And so I see another person looking at the back of the t-shirt and it says, and we saved all of the salaries and the merits and the promotions. I thought, you know, this is just odd. So I walked around and I noticed there's a huge crowd behind the fire truck and the fleet. And it's almost like I'm walking through this portal. And I get around the vehicles and there's a good thousand people there. I don't hear the sirens anymore. I don't hear the cheering or anything. And these people are walking around. with their paper saying you've been evicted from your home. I mean, it's an oddball story. But anyway, and I'm walking around, people are looking gloom and doom and so on and so forth. And I just kind of laid back. Anyway, I got up at 1.45 this morning and didn't go back to sleep. I said, there's a message here and I'm going to relay it. But to be honest with you, most of the time I have these little incidences like that, they become the truth. That's all I have.

Thank you.

Hi, Dennis Brown. I came to the city council about three or four weeks ago and that's the same city council meeting that Alexis made her presentation for a while. I don't know if she can hear me or not, but Alexis made her presentation for a while then Diane you major presentation and after about an hour and a half, we haven't gotten to the public comment yet, and so I I left about quarter to seven or 10 to seven. And most of those two presentations was the council members expressing their reasons why they think they're in favor of a 55% tax increase. I'm going to be out of town when we have our Truth in Taxation meeting. And so I'm here today. asking you to please consider not raising the taxes to 55%. I was at the work session downstairs in the basement when you had that. I was here when the audience was here packed full and out there in the overflow. And the previous mayor was standing right by me and some other county officials were there. And most of the people that day, I think that's the date meeting you had. Where are you going to announce what the tax limit could be? I think that's what you call it. And there was a lot of people spoke up opposing that big of a tax increase. Now, I know that last year the council approved a 28% tax increase, if my number's right, but that was waived because of some technicality, and I don't know the exact reason. I really don't care about that. What I'm asking you to consider is that I know that you have to have a tax increase. I understand that. But I think 55% is excessive. Last year you thought about 28%. It seems like to me and talking and when you had the work session downstairs in the basement three or four weeks ago I handed each one of you a paper. Give you some of my recommendations now i'm not going to go over those again. But um. I'm just asking you to consider something less than 55% tax increase. I've talked to most of my renters. I've told them where you're at, and they've seen the news, and they're not very happy about it. And none of us like taxes. And I know you all live in the city also, so you're subject to the same thing that you approve. But if there's some way you can work the numbers out to where it's less, I'd appreciate that. Now that we're not going to have the Royce City Fire Department, maybe that's something you need to look at. I don't know what the costs are and when that even starts to change place. Probably not until next year or something like that. But anyway, I just want to tell you my opinion because I won't be here in August to speak up. I feel like I'm standing up here and wasting my time, but I thought I would come and talk to you one last time before you guys have your vote. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Melissa Conkling. I'm up for the same reason the other guy was, but unusually we've had a huge tragedy in Roy and I watched that fire and I'm so distraught over people who lost their homes. They lost everything. And that was really, really, really eye opening and scary. And I appreciate Ms. Ann Jackson taking immediate response and saying no fireworks. I am absolutely 100% behind you on that. I know that's going to disappoint a lot of people. But I think with the tinderbox that we have out there and the heat, It's a beautiful thing to do. Thank you very much for that. I know sometimes I complain. A lot of times I complain. I come here and complain. I'm against the 55%, but I understand you have to raise taxes somehow. I'm just asking you do a little less. Maybe, you know... 28 doesn't sound so bad anymore. Thank you, Jason, for your explanation. I know you think that a lot of us are just complainers and whine and scream and shout. We really do come here to try and do the best for Roy. I think I can speak for the rest of us loud and complainers that we do care for the city, deeply care for the city. And I know that you guys' job is very, very tough. And you have to make hugely tough decisions and not everybody's going to like you. We all complain. And some of us don't have to make the decisions that you do. And I appreciate that. I really, really do. I just want to say that I'd like to give the fire department huge shout out. They did an amazing job. All the guys out there that were helping with the hoses. It was tragedy, but it was amazing. The whole city coming together. I know they have a, I don't even know where it's at, but I guess we have a market out here somewhere. I plan on donating to that somehow. But I just want to say, still against those taxes. I'm still against 55%. So take that into consideration with whatever. But I do want to say thank you for the work that you've done. And thank you for being part of Roy.

Thank you.

Hi, everyone. Tim Higgs, resident of Roy. I would echo both of what the previous folks have said. I just have a little bit more to add. And I don't know what may be being done now in an effort of prevention. And I don't know if we're still planning to have the Roy Days fireworks as part of it. I walk the trailways most every day. And today, kind of in retrospect, as I walk the area around 4,000 to 4,800 and then from 4,800 over to 52 and 56, Um, I just, especially in those areas surrounding the golf course, which is where I understood those fireworks would be for the city. There's June grass in some spots, four feet tall. Um, there's weeds, there's surrounding buildings on both sides of those walkways and. And as I see that, I just wonder as whatever is hot that goes up is going to be hot when it comes down. Those are a stone's throw from where those city fireworks would be. And I would hope that there is due diligence being done to ensure that those areas are safe and the fire hazards are removed between now and when the Roy Days celebrations occur. So something in that regard. And then just quickly, I just wanted to state that the My Water app, as we're in the drought, is fantastic. I really love the content that's available on that. So I thank the city for doing that. But I... As I drive through Roy, I see lots and lots and lots of houses where it appears there's no watering being done. The grasses are dead and they will not be coming back. And I worry that people are panicking to the point where they're not even using a portion of the water that is available. So I wonder if there's any messaging that can go out to encourage people, don't let your lawns die. Yes, we need to conserve, but please, as we get out of these drought years and we get into better years, if everyone's lawn is dead, we're in trouble because people won't be able to afford to fix it. So, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, we'll conclude our public comment period.

This is the good part, credit where credit's due. I watch streets and utilities out working, fixing sewer leaks and

I know your name, but you need to tell us.

Yeah, I live here. They do an excellent job of keeping the city up and going. I watched the police department deal with bad accidents in a professional way. Those guys earn their money. Just the other day, we saw the fire department working their butts off, credit where credit's due. I worked at Otterleaf and They trained all their EMTs through Roy City Fire. And the guy that was in charge of EMTs for our section of the building, he said he is sadly disappointed because Roy City was the premier trainer for EMTs. So credit where credit is due. All guys do a good job. My question is, are you going to allow personal fireworks this year? Because I live next to houses where watering less meant watering none. And just from what we saw on Monday, it can be a disaster in a big hurry. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, well now we'll go on to our action items. Chief Williams will present resolution 26-21.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. This is an MOU that was coordinated with Matt Wilson and the Weber Fire District's attorney. to create an MOU where currently we're struggling with staffing. There are several times where some of our apparatus do not have the staffing levels to respond to the calls. So not to make a point, but I think it's important I do. Yesterday during, or Monday during this scenario, we do what's called the jump staffing. And so my point is to drive this home of why this is important. The ambulance had a call, so jump staff is when you take the two people from the ambulance, they jump on the fire apparatus so you have a four-man engine to go to a fire. The ambulance was out, so two firefighters responded to that scenario. With all the fires going on, they saved two homes, just two firefighters, but was not able to get a supply line to the fire truck. So the point of this is to make sure we serve the residents, that that doesn't happen with our current staffing situation. Even though we've hired some new firefighters, they're not trained and ready to go. So we feel like This is a good opportunity to ask Weber to help us when needed. Not all the time, it's just when we're short. So I'm grateful for Matt's work and Weber Fire District attorney to get this MOU. This has already gone in front of their board and approved. So tonight we need you if you feel like this is something you want to prove, that this would be great for us and to slowly start integrating some of their personnel as we begin the annexation. A lot of the bullet points of the reasonings and the purpose are there on the bullet points. Pretty self-explanatory, but definitely here to answer any questions on this MOU.

Council, do you have any questions? I do have a question or two.

Can you hear me? I'll be heard okay.

Yeah, I can hear you great.

Thank you, Chief. So my first question is, just check my understanding on how this is different from the current agreement, which can you name that again for me one more time?

The automatic aid?

automatic yeah thank you so this is different from that because not just the department would be responding but because they'll actually come and help staff our our equipment is that right correct yes they'll be coming into Roy as needed okay thank you and then the second question is um um I guess well never mind on the second question that's that's not important I changed my mind. I was going to ask a little more about yesterday, but I don't think it's as related to this as I thought it was originally, so I'm okay.

I was just trying to speak to the purpose of why we're trying to do the MOU so we don't have those apparatus run short at times. Thank you. We're asking, we're mandatory, we're asking a lot of our employees. Yesterday, many of our firefighters came in, they're exhausted. And so when we do run short, this gives us, provides us an avenue to ensure the apparatus is staffed correctly.

Okay. So, sorry, I guess just one more. Let's see where my notes... Oh, so I thought as I was reading this is we are not going to be hiring at this point. Is that like a from now on thing in the fire department from now until the transition, we don't plan to hire any additional personnel in the fire department?

That would be correct unless we absolutely have to. The hard part is we haven't had firefighters with experience hire into Roy as what's called a lateral hire. And so, to hire brand new firefighters out of the academy, it takes about four to six months by the time they're trained. So it doesn't make sense to hire them, train them, and then they would end up really not helping us out on the staffing. So we figured this is a solution to get the staffing problem fixed. Okay.

Yeah, that makes sense to me. I just want to make sure I understood that right. And then I also, I guess, just wanted to speak to that just a little bit, because I guess in essence, this might be considered a hiring freeze in the fire department, at least with the firefighters. And so I wanted to see maybe if, even though this is a little bit off topic, but it's kind of within the whole topic of the fire department and the budget, which is kind of all wrapped up into one at this point. Can we have any explanation from maybe Matt or Chief Williams, whoever you feel is appropriate to maybe to speak to this, but how a hiring freeze such as this may or may not impact the budget or the tax increases as we talk about that going forward?

I'd be happy to address that. So a hiring freeze, when you don't hire an employee for a short period of time, it does save or potentially save some money. Ultimately speaking, if you end up rehiring that employee later, it doesn't fix anything. So if we're going to do something short-term for short-term fixes, yes, that's a useful tool. But the long-term effects of a hiring freeze is that you just don't have to rehire the employee, period, if you want to not to always save that money. To actually have a reduction of staff would be a long-term effect of that.

Okay, so this is... Oh, go ahead, sorry.

Can I add to that? So again, this is just, if Weber fire can provide, they do have a more robust staffing levels. So, um, I would not be for that this time, because if, if Weber cannot provide the staffing is just to provide an opportunity by chance of what they're doing the wildlife, they don't have somebody available. then the hiring freeze would not be working for us. But again, this is just an agreement that if they have personnel that they could help us, it's a moving target. So I wouldn't say we're doing a hiring freeze. It's just a way we can help with the staffing when needed.

As it pertains to this resolution, sorry to cut in, it could actually cost a little bit more money because you're paying overtime wages when you're bringing them here because it's on overtime shifts. So you're going to be paying their rate, which their firefighters make more at an overtime rate. So it does cost a little bit more than just having a hiring freeze. Right.

And we still are sure a prayer make, and we haven't filled that and do not plan to feel that trying to offset the balance of funds that's potentially have to go to the Weber fire district. So, so we're going to try to keep that. That's one. That's a struggle, uh, where we have the agreement within the County that truck has to roll, like really all of them should. Well, that's when that we are obligated by, um, an agreement that has to roll. And so that was the other intent. We haven't really done just paramedics. It's really any hole that we feel necessary. But paramedics, absolutely, that's one that we would have to fill if we don't have enough.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Any other comments, questions?

I was just going to say on the worksheet, it looks like it says that we'll be financially responsible for the personnel who are assigned to work in our station. So I was just reading that as you were talking about that. So yeah, just so I guess the public knows that's what we're doing when they have to come over to us to fill a position, then we are paying them at their wage, like Matt said.

Yeah. It is slightly more because we're typically going to be paying some of the overtime to get somebody to come in. Right. And so I don't know the difference. It isn't much, but we would be paying the same overtime, but it's just at a higher rate because of the wage gap that they have with us.

And then also to kind of clarify for the public, the reason we're doing that is because we have decided to join the Weber Fire District and so like you said it doesn't make sense to hire new hires on when it takes several months to get them up to where they need to be so I just wanted to clarify that just for people that might be watching.

Yeah we feel like it's an asset to have them begin start integrating in learning our system then well there's a lot of things that we still need to figure out with this MOU of how that's going to happen and we're working on that now.

Right and I agree that is that actually is a positive to it because they'll already start integrating and I like that and and I appreciate that they are trying to they've done lots of things to try to integrate and let the Roy Fire Department know their people their chiefs and everything and every yeah so I do appreciate all of that that they've done so.

Any other comments? Okay, do I have a motion to resolution 26-21? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Okay, so roll call vote. Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Jackson?

Aye.

Council Member Halbert?

Aye. OK. Now we'll go on to the next resolution, and that will be Chief Guinn.

Thank you, Mayor, Council. Before you is an interlocal agreement proposal between Royce City Corporation and Weber School District. This addresses the expired current contract or the expired contract we have with Weber School District. The last time we negotiated a contract was in 2023. It expired this year. This one is actually going to be good for five years. The significant changes are merely addressing the attendance of SROs to the schools and the grace period allowed, as well as the financial obligations to the school district. So previously, The school district was paying about 70% of an officer's salary and benefits for about 70% of the school year. This contract builds in a five-year ramp up. This year, I believe they're paying 80% of the officer's salary and benefits. And then at year five, they'll be paying 100% of the officer's salary and benefits during the entire school year. Those are really the significant changes between the last contract and this pending contract.

Any comments? I was going to say I do appreciate your work on this because I do think that that's fair and that it will ramp up over time to give them time to adjust as well. And by salary and benefits, that means like we still – Roy City obviously is still paying for their vehicles, equipment, things like that.

All capital is still covered by the city, yes. Right.

I had a question in regards to that ramp up, the days of flexibility are, you know, five and that keeps going down. I was just wondering how feasible, I mean, it must be feasible because you're feeling it's good, but getting down to one day of flexibility, that's pretty tight. And I guess that just means we have somebody else that would cover that shift in that situation.

We're actually already doing that practice. So if it's not available, we will try and backfill it as soon as we know that officer is not available. Now, it doesn't cover critical incidents when they have to leave. It does give us some time to replace that officer. But we have officers that are not in the schools that are SRO trained that can go backfill these officers. The district's position is they've had problems with other agencies where those positions were not being backfilled. Fortunately, that's not us. So this is not going to change anything we aren't already doing in practice. We've never gone five days with an officer not being in the school. We don't do that.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, working at Roy High in the office. I love having our SRO there. And whenever anything happened, if he happened to be away from the office, usually Sandridge SRO comes over or somebody else from your police department or sometimes Roy Junior High. But they've never not shown up and let us know if they were going to be out of town at a training event. somebody's always there to cover and it just makes us in the office and in the school feel so much safer and plus they build that relationship with the kids and and just a great great thing for our school to have that there is safety just makes us all feel safer having them there and it's so glad that you renewed the contract.

And I actually appreciate you saying that, Mayor. What this doesn't prevent the officer from doing is leaving, right? It just says if they're not going to be there for the day, they need to be back filled. But if they need to go assist another officer at another school, it allows for that. We expect our junior high officers to leave and tour and meet with the children and the staff at their feeder elementaries. It still will allow for that. This is a complete absence for an entire day. That's really what we're talking.

Yeah. Plus, they attend our ball games. And, you know, you have those rival schools. We need an officer there to keep them all in check. And it's great to have them there also.

Yeah, I just wanted to say thank you as well to them. I've heard rave reviews from the junior high, both junior highs about their SROs. And I don't, I'm not at the high school as much, but I'm sure Ann has heard that. But they do a lot of great things and the kids know them by name. And so I've seen a lot of great things. So I really appreciate them.

I have been told by the current administrators of our schools, I better not touch them.

I'm like, we don't want to lose sand ridges.

Yeah, and I love ours at Roy High right now, and I don't know, is that required to change them every couple years?

So we provide opportunities for rotations. We want our officers to have a breadth of experience that improves their abilities as an officer. It gives newer officers, obviously, a different perspective. And so we want well-rounded officers. SROs are not positions that we mandate they move into. They have to volunteer. They still go through a vetting process. But we don't say you're going to be an SRO or you're going to be an SRO. They're vetted, and we want to make sure we get the right officer for the right fit in each school.

Because I wish they always, at least three years, so then when they follow that kid from a sophomore until he graduates, and they know that they're on their butt, and they know if they're in trouble that they have to come and talk to them because, man, they build those relationships with those kids, and it's great. It's great to see it because they don't get away with much because the officers know what they're up to most of the time.

And we try not to disrupt that.

Yes. Any other comments? Okay, do I have a? Motion to approve resolution 26-22. So moved. Do I have a second? I'll second it. OK, roll call vote.

Saxton? Aye.

Aye.

Saxton?

Aye.

Member Wilson? Aye.

Spire?

Aye.

OK, now we'll go on to resolution 26-23. Matt Wilson will take over that one.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. So this is in regards to personnel policy and a discussion item that was on at our last Council meeting. So before you was policy, I think it's 1201. Yes, 1201. And there's a couple changes in there or suggestions at least based on the feedback I received from Council. One is to completely eliminate the benefit. Now, I did word it so that it is effective as of today's date. Any new hires from today's date would not be eligible for that. Part of that is because current employees are vested in that. It doesn't prevent you from changing that, but there are, I would advise against that just because there are some consequences of that decision that could be that that would affect a lot of employees and could affect budgetary constraints I guess would be the best way to say that or the other one is there was a suggestion of must have completed at least eight years of continuous service prior to retirement with Roy City to be eligible for that benefit and it's the same thing it starts as of today's date that anyone hired after today's date would have to meet that requirement as well. So these are the two options I received. Obviously, it's up to the council to be able to make that decision. You can change it however you'd like. And if you want additional changes, please let me know.

Okay, council, any questions or comments?

I guess just, yeah, to start off with, if I can. So it sounds like this is probably in response to just the last discussion topic that I had brought to the council meeting a couple of weeks ago. And I just wanted to make sure that I understand exactly because it wasn't me that brought it like specifically to staff and said, would you please write this up? But it looks like it was just in response to that. Is that, is that right? Like no one else, you know, tried to bring it in or anything. I just want to make sure we know exactly where it came from after the discussion. So.

That's correct.

Okay. Thank you. So thank you for being on top of that. That was really very proactive of staff. So I appreciate that. Just if I could just look at the second blue paragraph, I'm looking at the actual changes within the document, within the personnel policy. I just want to make sure. Let's see. Employees. No, the eight, sorry, the third line there. This eight-year requirement shall not apply to any employee hired before July 21st, 2026 who otherwise satisfies. I just wonder if that instead of satisfy should be satisfies, employee satisfies. I don't know how important that is, but that may just need to be admitted just for grammar. But, and then I just wanted to also bring up that we could, that like, these aren't just the only changes. These are, you know, just kind of based on what we discuss and just here's a good starting point. So now the council can change it or just reject it. However we see fit. And eight years, I know if I said that, that was just like an arbitrary number. We can still discuss that as that should be changed or whatnot. So I guess with, That's all I have at this time, but I'll probably jump in in a second after I hear some other comments from council.

I think that it's nice to have a few benefits for employees to look at when they come in and apply for a position here. We already know that as they apply that the wage is way under contemporaries in other cities for that. Right now, it's a benefit which isn't overly utilized. and whether that can be good or bad. It doesn't cost us a lot of money, so I don't believe that we should omit it. I believe it should be there. One point I wanted to bring up is a comment had been made, well, what if they retire at age 26 and... then they get this benefit. One thing that I thought was interesting to clarify is when we talk about retire, the city has a definition of retirement, which goes along with the URS, which is the Utah Retirement System. And so that would not be possible because that would not be considered retirement. Retirement needs to be under those specific protocols, which would be depending on which tier you are, 20 or 25 for public safety, 30 and 35 for the other employees, as I believe, and then ages as well. So, I mean, for me, I think maybe eight's a little bit long. First of all, I'm okay to leave it the way it is because I believe that if people are going to be with us towards that time of retirement... That means we've been able to utilize their skills and their skill set from their previous experience. And so that's very helpful. If by chance it was felt that we really needed to add a limit, I believe eight's probably a little long. And I think I would like to lower that. But those are a couple of my thoughts in regards to this. I believe that it's a benefit that looks very nice and could possibly be appealing. It's a benefit that doesn't cost the city. significant money, and I think that it's been nice to look at it and evaluate it. That's kind of where I'm coming from. I don't know if other people have ideas or suggestions in that regard.

As I was saying last time, for me, I'm trying to look at, you know, the cost versus the value. It sounds like this is very, very little utilized as we heard some numbers last time that we talked about this. I think 14 of these passes were in existence at this time. And so it's just, it's not very many people, however it is there. So it's not very utilized. It also costs practically nothing unless these people were going to, you know, pay for a lifetime pass and we just don't know if they were. And so because the facilities are open, that may be a good incentive for them to spend some time here as outlined in the personnel policy. I would say, yeah, I would still push for the change because even though it doesn't, it is likely not happening. Probably people aren't just switching to Roy and staying here for a year just to get this kind of a benefit. We would want their experience for longer. And I think that longevity is part of that experience. And so we, we would like to see, I think, I think I would like to see an employee spend their, their experience here in Roy for five years at least. And then we would be able to benefit from that much more than if they just were here for a year that, that just, isn't long enough I think there's not a longevity there to really benefit the city much and so I would feel better about that kind of takes away that little loophole if you will um and and and I think it could go either way I'm inclined to leave it just because it really it's practically at no cost and I think that that's I think that's an appropriate benefit for the city to offer something that is unique to Roy and so could help a lot but those are my thoughts any

I feel good about five years. I think that that gives us a reasonable amount of time that's certainly achievable. But, you know, if it's felt that that gives it. I don't know if anyone else have. I think if we were going to do it, I would go for five.

I'm in favor of the five years. Well, that one's, that's fine. I wouldn't want to get rid of it altogether. So I think five years is a reasonable one in my opinion. So either keep it the way it is or five years is my opinion.

Right. Brian, what do you think? I mean, keep it the way it is. Yeah.

And I agree with Brian. Just keep it how it is. Don't add additional things.

OK, so do I have a motion for this resolution 26-23 if we? Yeah. So do I have a motion for the resolution of 26-23? I move that we keep the resolution 26-23, that we keep the current policy the way it is.

OK. So how does that work for voting for us? Does that mean we vote against the resolution then in this situation?

Yes.

Yes, you both.

Yes.

OK.

So we're voting against it.

Yeah, basically a motion to deny.

My apologies. My motion is to deny resolution 26-23. OK. I second.

OK, roll call vote. Wait, can I offer a counter motion? Sure. Okay, I'm going to offer a counter motion to approve resolution 26-23 with the changes. The second paragraph under or with a change of five years of continuous service instead of eight and the wording changed from satisfied to satisfied.

You could just call for a second for the counter motion. And if there's no second, then you'd call for a vote.

Okay, so do I have a motion to approve Alexis? Second? Second. Second. So it just dies then, so.

Her motion would die, yes. Then you can just call for a vote since you do have a second. Okay. Unless there's any other discussion.

Okay, so roll call vote, Brittany. Okay.

And we say, if we agree with keeping it, we say nay.

Yeah. If you are one at keeping the way it is because it's a motion to deny, you would vote aye.

I know it's. Okay. So we vote. We do vote aye if we want no changes in the policy. Correct. Now we vote aye.

Correct.

Okay.

Okay. Yeah.

Council Member Jackson. I. I.

Okay, got that taken care of. So now we'll go on to our discussion items and council member Wilson has some points of information she'd like to talk about.

OK, thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple of points that I wanted to bring up that I've received some questions about again. So the first item I would like to discuss would be the turnover. And so I just wanted to review the last five fiscal years turnover and just let people understand where that fits in. So some people say that turnover is healthy and I agree it is, but it's healthy at a certain level. The statistics say that 10 to 12% turnover is considered normal and healthy. But unfortunately for Roy, our turnover in the last five years, for the fire department, it has been 116% turnover. Public works has been a 97% turnover. And I'll backtrack. So that's fire department loss of 51 employees at 116% turnover. Public works loss of 36 employees at 97% turnover. Admin, loss of 18 employees, which is a 68% turnover. And under that subtitle is courts. And the courts probably have really brought that up because they're at about a 325% turnover just for the courts themselves. Police, loss of 22 employees at a 44% turnover. Parks and Rec, loss of seven employees at a 50% turnover. So I just wanted to respond to that concern that maybe turnover is OK. It's part of normal life. And it is to a certain extent. But unfortunately, we've gone beyond anything that would be considered normal and healthy. So that's one item. I don't know. And jump in if you guys have other ideas or other topics you wanted to do. The next item I wanted to bring up is there have been some questions in regard to we are overstaffed as a city. We have too many employees at different things. So some of my brief information there is that it is considered a full service for city employees to have five employees. per 1,000 residents. Roy City has actually gone to four employees per 1,000. Kaysville City is at 4.1 per 1,000, and they were both considered very similar there. And in regards to some of that information, Kaysville actually has 7,000 less citizens than us. They do have one feature that we don't have in electricity, but we do have other features that our staff have to do, which is definitely more than Kaysville. If we look at some of the other cities, they're in between that four. So four is considered very, very lean for a city, and that's where we are right now. So I thought that was interesting information that we can go and just to share that with people so they understood that. And then there have been some comments in regards just because parks and rec does seem to be brought up significantly. Some people are saying parks and rec aren't an essential service to be provided. And depending on certainly the definitions that meets different criteria, but in some of the more recent studies, especially in April, they're saying that 79% of Americans explicitly view parks as essential infrastructure. And we've talked about what some of those different reasons are. But just as a reminder, every time a city invests a dollar and Roy fits in that actually probably on the higher end, because we do have some recreation programs that other cities don't have. We receive $4 in cost savings, and in some areas, some of the studies show $13, up to $13. So I just believe that our... Parks and Rec programs, they have received a lot of discussion, pro and against. And I think when we take a look at data, it looks like really it's there and important. And many people do feel that to be essential because they are so critical in helping some of our other departments, which are fire, police and public works. So we've already talked about some of the other local data for the increasing attendance at complex and aquatic center. But those were some of the three things that had been brought to my attention I wanted to bring up. I don't know if anyone else wants to comment that or if they have other items they want to review.

I did want to say that I independently looked up you know, how many employees as well and found very similar results to what you talked about. So I do appreciate you bringing that up. So, and then also, I just wanted to say, I don't have it with me this meeting, but I'm working on it for our next meeting that I just found out about a new study that was just put out that did a study of the costs of rec centers across the nation. And that was brought up to me by a resident, actually. And so I wanted to present that information next time during your little item that you put on our agenda. So I appreciate you doing that. Great. Thank you.

Yeah, we'll look forward to that. Thank you. Any other?

I do have a couple of other points if I could make. Let's see, I made a few notes earlier during this meeting. The water app, I just wanted to mention. So water app, as I understand it, is provided through Roy Water Conservancy. Am I understanding correctly? Yes. I just wanted to make sure. That was what I was pretty sure. I just want to make sure that was confirmed. So it is a great tool. I wondered if we could see if the staff might consider adding a message on the website or on social media just to encourage people to use their allotment. And then one thing that I do think that's a good idea. Just to let people know, because I know that many people are worried and rightfully so, but the metering and the app is there for us to make sure that we don't go over. And then if they don't, or if a person does go over their allotment, I understand that the water just gets turned off at that point. Is that also correct?

Yes. Yes.

Do they contact them before they turn their water off?

I haven't heard. I heard they just turn it off. I'm not sure.

At any rate, they won't be permitted to go over and over and over. Correct.

That's my understanding, yes. My understanding from the water district is once you use your allotment, they'll come out and turn off the water. That's my understanding.

Okay, so people don't need to be afraid. Those measurements and how much people can use are calculated and people are allowed to use as much as they're permitted with the use of the app and of course the water meters that are installed now. And also just a note on that as well because Council Member Hulbert and I went on a ride along with our code enforcement officer with a resident as well and just to kind of see a few things and we discussed the code and the the complaints we were responding to, or he was responding to, we were tagging along, of course. And we talked about watering, and I found that watering is not in the code. So that's not something that, you know, the code enforcement officer is going to be riding around enforcing because it's not in the code. You're not required to water the lawn. The complaints we were responding to were about weed heights and that kind of thing. So just a note on that. That was something I was surprised to learn that day. We have... Do we know any updates, I guess, on Class C fireworks? I know that, of course, the mayor, in working with our fire department, extended the ban to our city that came down from the governor on an emergency order. And that was at least for the 4th of July. Do we have updates as far as what's going to be coming up during our next festivities?

Well, yeah, we've banned fireworks for the whole city for the 24th.

Okay. So do we have a date on that or anything as to when that be lifted or is it just like until further notice?

It's just the 24th, the 25th. I mean, no fireworks.

Two days before and two days after you can shoot off fireworks. And that's what Roy's City has banned is that. So outside of that limits, it's illegal is what I'm getting at anyway. During that time, we have banned that as well.

Okay, so on a normal year, it's two days before and after. This year, it's just none.

I could have said that better, but yes, that's correct.

Okay, no worries. Yeah, thank you so much. I just want to make sure that was clear for any who might be wondering that from the public. And then I wanted to just, I guess, make a comment on my presentation from a couple of weeks ago. I just wanted to be clear that the intent was to show the many hours of work that I've put into understanding the budget so that I can share that information to bring everybody who was interested in following along to see exactly what I have learned. And so I realized that the budget takes a lot of work to understand and to see exactly what the situations are with every department and funding and everything. And that's not always something that the public is around to see because those are lengthy conversations and discussions and work. behind, behind the scenes. And so I wanted to make sure that I just brought that to the attention of everybody who was, who was interested in viewing that. And I just wanted to be clear that it was in no way me trying to show or to prove that I was, you know, in favor of any sort of a, of a tax increase, but just to show what I had found and how it, it, uh, speaks to the need for a tax increase. And And also to add that there is still a lot of work being done to look and see what can be done to lower that tax rate. And then part of my presentation was to show what has already been done. So I just wanted to make sure that I clarify that. The fire department, incidentally, is a huge part of that budget conversation. I think that that sometimes gets missed because we talk about them separately, but they really do go together. And so the fire department is a huge expense at Royce City. And so annexation will remove a lot of that from the city budget. And that could bring some changes. And so that information is being looked into right now. And we should have some updates moving forward as we find out how much that the the annexation will cost and how much that will change and everything for the personnel we do have to pay and no longer have to pay for. Those are just numbers that we don't have all of them right now. And that's part of the negotiations going forward. So I just wanted to let everybody know who's interested in how the fire department will change the tax situation because it could. And that's something that's being looked into right now. I also wondered if we could have Chief Williams just mention the Roy Days fireworks. So the last that I had talked to him and we had seen that that wasn't a concern, the ability of the fire department to be able to manage the professional fireworks show that was going to be part of Roy Days. Has that changed at all in light of recent events or in recent conditions? Or how does the city and the fire department feel about that right now?

Okay, Chief Williams. Okay.

We have not had any formal conversations except that they were approved to go ahead with the vendor. But we do take precautions. The vendors have a lot more regulations. We have a brush truck on scene and we'll have all units available. We'll talk to the gentleman who came and presented his concerns. I'd like to get more eyes on the areas that he's talking about and see if there's any mitigation that we can provide. Maybe it's wetting it down. But I will ask our fire marshal to have a conversation with this resident. In fact, I'll have it with him today, and we'll go down there and get eyes on it. But it's my understanding, without having any formal conversation, that those are allowed and approved to be launched on Roy Days, with the safety concerns in mind. But we'll be there to be present at the fireworks show, for sure. Does that answer your question?

Yes, it does. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Yeah, I realize it hasn't been like a formal conversation. I wasn't trying to, you know, ask if there's been a decision one way or the other, just so that, you know, that anybody concerned from the public would be able to know how the fire department does monitor that, obviously differently than just Class C fireworks are done differently. Okay.

Okay.

Well yeah when you seven down a really West they used to make sure that detention pond was all cut down and watered and so i'm sure that they'll keep an eye on all the places that can possibly could be a fire, but just knowing that your truck is going to be right there so. yeah any other questions.

Okay, thank you. Can I also point out that the about the firework ban that is posted on the social media page of the city for those that want to look at that so.

Okay. And I get concerned also about, I have neighbors that I keep going over and saying, you know, you can water your lawn now like a couple times a week. And I mean, I just hate seeing trees die also. I mean, grass sometimes comes back, but to see trees, even at some of the schools and Just breaks my heart to see people. I mean, I have a neighbor. I went over to her house, and I said, you know, you can water. And she's like, well, I do water twice a week for 15 minutes. And I'm like, you know, you could probably water a little bit longer. She goes, well, I just don't want to go over my allotment. So there's people that don't have access to the internet. And you can call Royce City Water Conservancy District. Given your address, they will tell you exactly where you're at with your water. Tell you, yeah, you're way above. You've got more to use. You could probably use a little more. But I think that people are afraid of using their water. I mean, every time I've checked, and I mean, I have lots of dead spots on my lawn, but I've been below the average. And my lawn's greener than a lot of my neighbors that they could definitely water their lawn more. And it is hard to drive around Roy and see all the dead lawns. I mean, yesterday being down there at that fire, all the people on the east side, man, they were watering their lawns. And they all had their sprinklers on because they were afraid a spark was going to come over. and land on their lawn and it was sad to say a lot of houses that were burned down they had beautiful green lawns in the front and just is really a hard thing to see.

But in regards to that MiWater app I was just gonna let people know when you sign up it is very helpful and one of the key things is to sign up for a notice if you have a leak because that's one of the hardest things is oftentimes there are leaks that you do not have any idea that they're there or where they're at And so you can sign up and they will give you a notice that says, it looks like you have a leak because you've had a continuous flow for a certain period of time. And that gives you a really nice idea. Some people think they're not watering at all because they haven't turned anything on, but guess what? They've got a leak and they've been using their water allotment the whole time. And it would be really behoove people to sign up. So then you actually know what the real status is. So you're not just wasting water in the lake. And then you could actually use it appropriately for trees and things like that. So I just wanted to mention that.

Yeah, right. So like Alexis talked about, could we on the city platforms, say, remember to go look at your water portal and just link it to the Roy Conservatory. It's not under us, but we can probably link that and remind people to go look at that.

Because we did put it in our last newsletter where they could go to sign up. But maybe people don't read that or look at that. Alexis, was you? Oh, no.

Yeah, that was all for me, sorry. Okay.

Okay. So anything else, council, to discuss? So can you go to the city manager report then?

Yes, thank you, mayor and council. I just have one thing for you. In your city email, you have a schedule of events for Roy Days. So we also printed that out for you as well. Believe it or not, it's right around the corner. And that's it.

Okay, I just want to talk about the incident yesterday. I was down there with Matt. I still can't get the smoke smell out of my nose. It was the hardest thing I think I've ever watched in my life. I knew some of the people that lived in those houses and went over and met with them at the church after and There's no words to say to somebody who just, their house just burnt down with all their memories and possessions in it. I was amazed with the people that came and helped. We had Ogden City Fire, Weber Fire District, Riverdale City Fire Department, Washington Terrace Fire, South Ogden Fire Department, North Davis Fire District, South Weber Fire Department, Layton Fire Department, Hill Air Force Base Fire Department, and Clinton City Fire Department. I mean, that's what you do is you help your neighbors. And that's one of the reasons I'm on a group text with all the mayors in all of Weber County, all discussing whether we were going to ban the fireworks or not. We never saw, we were hoping for monsoon rain. Part of Utah got it, we didn't. And really, the weather didn't change between July 4th and now. And after seeing what happened yesterday, and with maybe you can make your rain one day, we just felt like it was just the best decision in every city in the county made the same decision to ban the fireworks in their cities. And seeing what happened in Roy and seeing how most of their fire departments were in Roy, they were fearful that if something happened in their city, They didn't know if they would have enough people that could come and help them. We just don't know what would be happening on the 24th. So it was a hard decision. I know a lot of people love the fireworks and let's pray for a good winter and more moisture to come next year. It's our 90th year celebration next year so we're hoping we can do something big for that, but I feel very confident in our fire department for the 24 Roy days fireworks and. So I just wanted to thank everybody that came in and helped yesterday, it was definitely. fire department going door to door, police department going door to door, public works was there helping backhoes, animal control, they were at the church also helping people that making sure they all had their pets and they were all taken care of and it was definitely a village. Everybody in this city, everybody was helping with that fire yesterday and It was truly amazing. And I thought about, I don't know if there was any rookies on that fire department. I went down there late last night around 1030 and was talking to some of them. And I mean, I was dying and I didn't have on a jacket and all the apparatus they had on. I mean, they were drinking water constantly. But I mean, I can't even imagine what they go through. And I asked some of them, is this the worst thing you've ever experienced, the hardest fire you've ever been on? And they were like, oh, this was tough. But I'm so proud of everybody that worked on that fire yesterday and all the cities that came to our aid. And I mean, we can never repay them, but that's what you do is you help each other out. And I know there'll probably be some kind of fundraisers or something through the Red Cross or somewhere where we can hopefully help some of those people out that lost everything. My heart goes out to them. But I appreciate the comments that we've had today and the positive comments. And I always think when you look for the bad in mankind expecting to find it, you surely will. But if we choose to look for good in people, we surely will find that too. And I just feel that this is such a hardworking council. look everywhere they can to try to help bring the taxes down and like Alexa said she did all that hard work and did that presentation spent hours and hours and she has a young family she must have had to lock herself in a room so they didn't disturb her I don't know how she did it but all of our council they're just doing the best job that they can to try to move our city in the right direction and it's It's a lot of work. It's a lot of sleepless nights. It's a lot of stress. It's a lot of hope I'm making the right decisions. And I just want to thank all of you for everything that you do for our city. And that's all I have to say. So anybody else need to have a comment?

May I have something for council report if it's in order?

Yeah, go ahead.

I know it's again. Okay. The first thing is a little bit, I guess, in the vein of the tragedy that city experienced yesterday, but it's about the CERT kind of function, I guess, in the city, which hasn't really been worked on a lot in recent years, but I'm hoping to get that back up and running. I don't exactly know what that would have looked like yesterday, but it's possible that a CERT team of volunteers could have, you know, helped with some some things over at wherever they were collecting casualties, that kind of thing. But I wanted to just let everybody know what so far, what I have learned about it. And that's, I guess I'm just kind of working with the county a little bit, their emergency kind of section in there. And then the CERT coordinator, Madeline Durnham below that. And she has just offered to help me take inventory in our um casualty collection points or ccps which are kind of sheds or trailers that have supplies in the event of emergency and and um so i'm working with her a little bit on that to try to see what we have they haven't been touched in probably a decade at least and so it it would be a good opportunity i think for the for the city to take a look at that and see what things that we still have what things we need to um to resupply them within and that kind of thing so i've I'm just starting on that here. That's just in its infancy, but I just want to let everybody know that that's kind of, I'm working on that now. And I did have a quick question, and this was just when I logged in on Zoom. I haven't done that before, but I noticed that it said it was being live streamed. Is that a new thing? Can people access this live now? Can they log in to like a Zoom meeting? I know we kind of talked about maybe that might be something we can do in the future. And I don't know if that's just how it's always been and it's not really like that or if that's kind of new. And then hopefully in the future, we can talk about possibilities or capabilities we have to kind of see if residents can also join Zoom on the live stream and possibly comment in the future.

So, yeah, you can always watch on YouTube, and it's been that way for quite some time. The Zoom is because of a council member coming in. So the only time traditionally that we've done the Zoom meeting is for electronic meetings. But you can always see the Planning Commission and the City Council meetings on YouTube.

Okay. That sounds good. Thank you for clarifying on that.

So I'm glad you're working on that emergency. Um, me and Matt went over high school a couple of years ago or, well, they had a shed out by our auto shop and the holding court and they're like, uh, i didn't know what was in it so they thought it had something to do with the city and it was probably it was all full of emergency stuff in there it was all what 20 years old stuff that we just had to throw in the garbage that they had there for the emergency in case of an emergency so that definitely does need an update so i'm glad you're looking into that alexis so

Any more comments, council? I'll jump right in. I definitely would like to add my gratitude and thanks to the departments of our city, especially the fire department and all the help that we had. And the police department, right down there in the middle of it, helping, helping. Evacuate people, helping get people where they needed to be or keep them from being where they shouldn't have been. The Red Cross for coming. Public Works for being there. I mean, this definitely was all hands on deck. And the staff and the different departments, absolutely critical in helping the citizens. There were so many citizens willing to help each other And just some of the individual stories you see how a little bit of help here actually saved an entire house from going down as well. So just wanted to again put my gratitude, immense gratitude out to all of those people that did help and pitch in. Thank you and thanks.

Because Diane lived on that road where the fire was, clear at the very end. So I was praying it wasn't going to get her house. So any other comments, council?

Hey, I did want to say that I really appreciate the Red Cross as well. They did a great job. They came in and helped a lot. And also the LDS ward there, they opened their building and brought stuff in all day. And they helped the Red Cross and them work together and found housing for people. It was pretty incredible.

It was.

I think that was the worst tragedy, but the best of Roy.

seeing how people came together yesterday right they had officers sitting there taking down everybody's name who was affected by the fire and making sure that they were getting what they needed and it uh it was hard to console some of them i mean you know what do you say to somebody who's lost everything but uh it was uh hopefully something we won't ever see again in my lifetime and um but it was great for Roy City to, you know, put a stop to it. So anyway, so do I have a motion to adjourn?

So moved.

I have a second.

Second. Okay, this meeting's adjourned. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Let's forget that.

Yeah, but they don't know.