City Council - Regular Meeting

Good job. Thank you.

Let's go. Thanks.

Thank you. Thank you. so so Thank you.

It got really quiet in here. Does that mean it's time to start? I think it is. Are you ready, Christina? All right. So it is a 5 o'clock, so we're going to go ahead and get started with our city council meeting tonight. Welcome, everybody who's here. I did not see our Michael Cruz. Are you out there? Did not see you. Okay. In that case, I've asked Councilwoman Natalie Larson to give us a prayer to get started with our meeting today.

Our Heavenly Father, we're grateful to gather this evening as a city council and our residents. Our Heavenly Father, we ask at this time that we may have thy spirit be with us, that we may be able to speak freely and our residents who have come to make public comment will be heard and will be able to say what they want to say. At this time, we ask that this area be blessed with rain that we desperately need for our hills and mountains and livestock and our residents. We're grateful for our law enforcement that protects this area and all the residents who watch out for each other and care for each other. And we say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Thank you, Natalie. Sean, would you be willing to come up to the microphone and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

Thank you, Mayor. Please stand. Begin after me. 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.

Okay, before we get into our agenda, we do have a couple of things that we want to take care of, some pre-agenda items. First of all, we have a very special recognition All right, just making sure I'm doing this in the right order. So we had a wonderful pledge here from our, what I call my former city attorney, who's now our government affairs director, for the next five days? Or is it less? Yeah, we're extending that to 10 days. And he's staying until 5 o'clock every day. He's not leaving at any time early. After how many years, Sean? Over 24 years, which is amazing for a guy that's over 80 years old to be able to do that. So today is Sean's last city council meeting after all those years. So Sean's been here, I've been here a long time, but Sean's been here way before me. And it's been a privilege to be able to have someone with his knowledge, his connections, his wisdom, And I like to say, and this might be kind of inappropriate, but he knows where the bodies are, where they're buried, right? And there's so much institutional knowledge there that it's really, really going to be hard to replace that. But we wanted to take a moment tonight, and we're going to have a big party for Sean, don't you worry. On the 26th, is it 26th? We're going to have a big party for Sean where we're going to do a whole lot more of this and have a lot of fun gifts. Sean, tell us who you have here with you before I finish my little speech. Tell us who you have here with you tonight.

At 80 years old, it's hard for me to remember everybody's name, but of course, I have my wonderful wife, Suzanne, and this little guy is Wesley, my grandson. This is my grandson, Mateo. This is my daughter-in-law, Sarah, my son, Wyatt, my daughter, Isa, Isabel, and my daughter, Pilar, and my little grandson, Luca, and my granddaughter, Sochi, my grandson, Leo, And my son-in-law, Rafael, we call him Rafa. He, by the way, is a part-time deputy as well.

Awesome. Yeah, give him a round of applause. Oh, I have a son.

Yeah. That's Noah. And he's got Camilo, another grandchild. We went from zero to eight grandchildren in eight years. So thank heavens. Yes. Before at 80, you got to take them.

Yeah. Us old guys look up to that kind of stuff. Yeah. No. Thank you guys for being here and supporting your dad and grandpa. He's a pretty good guy. So what I was saying is over the years, not only has it been a privilege to work with Sean, but become what I consider a friend. And I know most of all of our staff probably feels that way about Sean as he's Very genuine person who has taken the time to get to know people like myself as from a brand new council person on up through the ranks. And every single employee, you can ask him about any department and he usually knows most of the people in there. So I'm super pleased to have been able to work with Sean for a few years. And I've told him this myself, it's going to be really hard to fill those shoes. Not that he has big feet, but he just knows a lot and has done a lot over his career. So council, I want to give you all some time. If there's something that you want to kind of say about Sean quickly, then we'll do that. So go ahead.

I'd love to, I could talk about Sean all day because he's just such a wonderful person and he's been such a great contributor to our community. I was telling him the other day that there are very few people in this city who could look from building to building to installation to art project to person to organization, and everywhere you look in this city, Shawn Guzman touched that. Shawn Guzman helped with that. Shawn Guzman was our friend and our advocate in this, and he has been doing that for years, helping people to create a community here. St. George just isn't just a place to Shawn. He loves it here, and he has really demonstrated that with his service. for so many years. So I also consider him a very dear friend. And he and Suzanne, I'm excited for them and for their kids and for their grandkids to have a little more time with their wonderful dad. But we're going to miss him at the city. And he has an absolutely incredible legacy. So thank you, Sean.

I have a little bit different story about Sean. Sean was it is Sean's fault that I got involved in politics. He's the one who called me and asked me, told me that the mayor had asked him to ask me if I would be willing to serve on the planning commission. And we argued for about 10 minutes, and I was like, no, no, no. He's like, yes, yes, yes. So that was an interaction. The other interaction that sticks out in my mind, besides all of the, obviously, all the things he knows and everything he does, We needed to go to Delta for it was some kind of a political something or other. And Sean was had I think he'd been ill or something. And Suzanne, being in the medical profession, said, no, you're not. You're not driving up there. It's not happening. And I was like, I got it. So I went and picked up Sean and.

Isabel.

Isabel. Yes. She's an angel, by the way.

She is.

Okay. And we drove all the way up to Delta and spent the whole day in Delta and drove all the way back after a brutal, long meeting. And we had some great conversation and. Isabel was, like I said, an absolute angel. She was super patient with two old men, you know, sitting in front of him, talking in the truck on the way back and on the way up. And it just really cemented for me how much Sean cares, not only about the city, but obviously about his family and about modeling for his family, you know, what public service means. And I think he's done a great job. And we really appreciate him. And congratulations to Suzanne. You're going to have to tell those guys over there, you know, that you're going to need some time off or a little more time off. Congratulations.

Thank you.

Well, I don't know what I'm going to do, honestly, without Sean, because he is my go-to person on everything. He knows everything there is to know about the city and really within the state. I mean, he has been such an advocate for all the amazing things. we've been able to do with the city and our relationships with the state as well. And I don't know who else would sneak into the West Wing of the White House with me other than Sean. So you are going to be tremendously missed and I can't imagine you slowing down. So I'll probably still be bothering you a lot. Sorry, Suzanne, but we just, you know, we have to still have Sean as a resource. You guys are so amazing.

So right after I got elected, I was in Salt Lake City with Sean in the Capitol. And looking at his grandchildren, it kind of reminds me of the same thing. Like if you've walked with a toddler and all of a sudden they're gone, that was Sean. And it would take about 15 steps. And where was Sean? Oh, he was talking to this person. Then this person would stop him. Then that person would stop him. We'd go down the hall about... 25 yards and it was the same thing like everybody wanted to talk to Sean everybody knew Sean it was different and I thought well that was kind of a one-off that was what was going on so they all knew Sean that day I can tell you clear till this last trip in Washington DC we're walking down a street. No, I mean, and it's like, not, not in front of any statue, not anything, just a street. And all of a sudden, I hear, Sean and Suzanne. And all of that in Washington, DC, there was another person who recognized Sean and Suzanne. who wanted 20 minutes of their time, actually. But no matter where you go, people approach Sean because they make him feel comfortable, like they're seen. He mostly can remember everybody's name, or he knows the relationship he has with them, which is very commendable because Thousands and thousands of contacts but but people seek him out just like Michelle just mentioned Because of his vast knowledge and the kindness he shows other people and respect Thank you.

Well, I don't have very much time Knowing Sean on in this position. So I've been here very long, but I do remember probably 18 years ago I had a problem with the city and you know, I was just a young businessman and I I was fighting with the city, and I finally got a hold of Sean, and Sean pulled me in, treated me with respect, helped me resolve it, and he didn't have to do that. He treated me just like he would the mayor at that point, and I just always respected that. I'm like, man, that guy really listened, jumped to it, and I appreciate your long service to the city. I know despite what the public may think, this isn't the most— The city doesn't pay as much as the private sector by no means, and we have a ton of people at the city that truly make financial sacrifices to work here and to have you for as long as we had, and we really appreciate it, and I just appreciate your service. Thank you.

Mayor? Yes. So... About once a month, when somebody finds out I'm the city attorney, they say, I thought Sean Guzman was the city attorney. And then I repeat his resume, how long he's been, where he's gone, government affairs director. And so now it'll just be easier to say, oh, Sean retired. And then but when he moved to the government affairs director or position, he still was a quasi member of the city attorney's office. And so it's been super helpful, not only personally, but also as a mentor that we wouldn't be where we are today, even in the legal attorney's office right now without Sean Guzman. So super sad that he's leaving, excited for where he's going and especially where he's going in October.

Why are you looking at me, Sean?

I'm looking at you nervously right now.

You know, I've never been bullied and laughed all at the same time as I do when Sean Guzman makes fun of me. I've known Sean for a really long time, and I consider him a really good friend. We have been through a lot. When I took this position, I knew that I could lean on Sean and he was there to back me up. And if I ever need to get something done, I knew that I could give it to Sean and he'd get it done. What I think, and I think Danielle kind of touched on a little bit, and that is, Sean, you're going to be able to drive all over this community and you're going to be able to see all the good work that you've done. and you're gonna be able to point and show all your grandkids and your kids what amazing, amazing impact that you've had. You know, Austin mentioned that we do these things and we get paid for them. But you're the guy that can get paid a lot more doing it. But you do it because you love the community. And I know you love the community. You're the only guy that every time I'm walking with you, you're like, oh, wait, hold on. I need to pick up this piece of litter. I have this goal of picking up, you know, a piece of litter a day. And I'm like, man. what this guy is just he's just so sincere and so i i appreciate our friendship guzman and anytime you need to come back and bully me feel free and i hope sean that you still come around because i i've really appreciated you and our friendship thank you john and i've got to say um

You all have been too kind to me with your comments. And I couldn't have done this without the fantastic leadership this city has had. The mayors and city council members that I've worked with, even those who came into office saying there are so many things that need to be changed. And then after a while, they'd say, you know what? After I've been here, you guys are doing a great job. They see what we do behind the scenes. And when I say we, There's nothing that I've done here that I couldn't have done without a fantastic group of department heads and employees from linemen and the people working on the water lines and sewer lines or anything all the way up to the top. We are truly blessed in this community. I want to say too that I brought my wife up here, one, because she's had to be alone a lot over the years with the kids, which is why they're still alive, by the way. But two, I was at my last job in Salt Lake, and I got a call at work. Now, this was back in the days when there were newspapers. Remember those? They used to come printed. And I had a stack of them at home that I was going to read. And she got tired one day and said, okay, I am throwing these papers away. And then she called me later on and said, do you know what? There's an ad for the St. George City Attorney. You ought to apply for that job. Because she knows. I've loved St. George since the first time I came here in 1982. And I've always wanted to get down here. The county was kind enough to offer me a job, but I wasn't able to take it at the time. And so I said, I don't know about that. But then the county commissioners heard that and they got right on it and said, you got to apply for this. You got to do it. That there's no way they'll take a chance on a guy that's had a law school for five years, six years. And they did. And I have loved this place. from the time I got here. And so I will say it's thanks to Suzanne who said, we'll take a cut and pay a move if that makes you happy. We'll uproot the family, move out of Utah County, the orbit of her family there, and go out to St. George. And we did. And art changed our lives incredibly. And I am truly grateful that you all took a chance on me and that my wife had the foresight and the impression to give me a call and say, apply for that job. And as Mayor McArthur used to say, there may be people who love St. George as much as I do. But there's no one who loves it just any more than I do because I truly love this community. And thank you, John, for the invitation to come back and harass you. I will take you up on that. And we'll see you on the 26th, I guess.

Yeah, we'll have a lot more of this. And I understand you have to go because you're going to debate, moderate a debate tonight.

I am going to go moderate the debate.

So again, Sean's not just the city attorney or a city, our government affairs director, but he volunteers in the community. He cares about the community. One problem I have, we, over the years, we've had a deal, we've gone back and forth about you got to stay here until I'm done. And I would say, you got to stay here until I'm done. Let the record straight. You are leaving before I was done.

I will commit to give you my business when it all comes to an end. How's that? Yeah.

It kind of felt like we were having an obituary tonight, a eulogy or something. So, Sean, before you go, wouldn't it be fun to have you come up here with your family in front of the dais, and we'll stand behind you and have you take a picture. We'll have David take a picture really quick.

That would be great.

Thank you.

Or you could just have it with your family if you don't want us in it. I think we can be in it. You can take a family one another time.

Christina.

Alrighty.

Thank you guys again. Okay, now we have another really cool recognition that we want to do for a very incredible young man that we want to give the mayor's recognition to. And I'm going to have I got a little write up here. I'm going to have Danielle actually read this. Danielle kind of brought this to my attention and I was fascinated by this young man, his accomplishments. So, Danielle, will you go ahead and read that and then we'll have John come up.

Thanks, Mayor. John Haller has taken an extraordinary path, and we are proud to recognize him tonight. While balancing high school, athletics, and college coursework, John completed both a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems and Analytics, graduating cum laude, and an Associate of Science in Business Management with high honors from Utah Tech University, all before graduating from high school. He began taking college classes in ninth grade and completed his bachelor's degree concurrently in just three and a half years. In addition to his academic success, John is a varsity tennis player at Crimson Cliffs High School. His achievements have also taken him to distinguished opportunities beyond the United States, including a summer leadership program at Oxford in London, and advanced training at internationally recognized tennis academies such as the Rafa Nadal Academy in Spain and the Chris Evert Tennis Academy in Florida. At just 17 years old, John was accepted into the University of Utah's Masters of Business Creation program. He also founded Math Up Utah to help other students pursue academic advanced opportunities and to see what is possible beyond the traditional path. John hopes to return to St. George after his graduate work and mission service to support the growth of business and technology in our community. It is our great pleasure to present John Holler with the Mayor's Special Recognition Award.

Let's give him a round of applause. Stand up, John. So I asked John if he wanted to say something and he was like, oh, I'm not sure I want to say anything. If you do want to say anything or if your mom or dad want to say anything, you're welcome to come up too.

I wrote stuff down. Okay, good. Good idea. Okay, so thank you so much for this acknowledgement. I want to thank the Councilwoman Danielle Larkin and my family, especially my mom, and Utah Tech and all the administrators there for letting me pursue this. unorthodox way of doing schooling and making this path possible. I would appreciate the opportunity to push myself in school and hope to open doors for more students like me to follow. It's been exciting to be a part of St. George, Utah here and I really love it. Thank you so much.

Awesome. Give John another round of applause. Truly incredible. Also, we want you to come up. I've got a certificate I'm going to give you. We'll come right up here like we did and we'll take a picture. We can do it with just you and I or we can bring your family up. How about if we bring them up too? And I've got a certificate for John and a gift card to Swig. So I'll come right down.

Can I ask a quick question? As a mother of a 12-year-old boy, how can I motivate him to do what you are doing? Maybe this is kind of a question for the parents and for John. What inspired you to accomplish what you've accomplished thus far? And parents, what are you doing so that we can do this with our kids?

yeah absolutely so one thing john has always just been very diligent at school and we came from california and he was at the top of his class got a's in all of his classes but in his math class i asked could he get into the higher rated class and they said oh he doesn't qualify and i was like If he's top of his class and has an A, how does that work? So when we moved to St. George and we found out all of the amazing things that you guys were doing with technology and math and just all the things we signed up John from an early age when we first moved here. And he took the coding classes, the Utah Tech STEM. What else?

Dixie Prep.

Dixie Prep. Well, now it's Utah Tech Prep. And we were at GWA and I said, well, what if we did a summer class and then you would already be ahead? And so we did that and we talked to the administration and he just flew through all of the high school math classes in middle school. And so he was able to take calculus three as a junior and get an A in that which I thought was just incredible and I talked to my friends that live in Chicago or LA and they're like how in the world did you get your son to be able to do this and I said it's because of our community and the technology and the motivation that we have to like create a culture of in a pipeline. So it's just been really because of you and what you've been able to kind of harbor here. And John, I think if you have an A student, just open the door because John, you know, he's a dutiful son. but he also loves a challenge and if kids are just okay with the status quo that's probably what they'll raise to but if you say if you give them an opportunity john was just hungry for everything and able to do everything so easily that it was kind of like maybe we just need to lift our thinking about what these kids are capable of because i think they're capable of a lot more than we give them credit if that makes sense

She sums it up Well, that's amazing and super inspiring so keep up the great work.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you guys Okay Brian come on up we have an another group of great incredible fantastic people we want to recognize and

Well, one of the cool things, I mean, we're the largest public power company in the state of Utah. And so we do a lot of stuff that other communities just don't do, from generation to scheduling power to the maintenance. What we wanted to recognize is that over the last year, we were able to get these three awards that show our commitment to safety and our commitment to being a reliable public power provider and to our community. giving reliable power. As I showed to the council on some of that, on the federal measurements of outage stuff, St. George City has come in number one in the state for the past few years. In fact, it's estimated you should expect to be out, depending on where you are, in the state of Utah for on average 106 minutes. If you're on Garkana Energy, it's like 500. If you're on Rocky Mountain, it's 108, but ours is 18.7 minutes a year. So we're doing phenomenally better than anyone else. And that comes down to the work that everyone does and the tools they use and the commitment to excellence. Like if you look at power poles, ours will look really good. Our substations are beautiful, and I know some customers don't like them near their houses, but make sure they're as good looking as they can be. And they do that work to keep it there, and the investment you guys have made in these people is paying off in spades because they just are able to do those great things. So we just want to recognize these three, and I have some of my people that have shown up. You guys want to come up here really quick?

Yeah, coming up, guys.

Coming up here, guys. And, I mean, it's huge. There's about 89 people in our department from utility billing, meter reading, linemen, operators, engineers, generation operators and planning. There's so much they do to get this done. And I wanted to take the time to let you guys know the amazing work they do. And this is only a small amount of our guys. And they all show up and they all give... 100% every day. So you should be proud of the people you have here. That's what I got.

Yeah. You got some awards?

Yeah. We got these ones. I'll show you. This is our Excellence in Reliability one. Our RP3. which is we meet standards and we've had this designation since 2006 so we continue providing that

Which means you have to maintain a certain standard for three years in a row.

Yep.

And then so you've continually maintained that since 2006. Yeah. So I'm not very good at math. I'm not like John, but that's 20 years.

Yeah. Yeah. They've been doing phenomenal. And our Safety Excellence Award for We Go Above. average on safety, like the amount of time our guys are out, because safety is such a huge cultural piece of what we do. It's our number one. It's make everyone safe and take care of things. You really see that difference in everything.

And what was our last one about the reliability?

This is showing that our power is on and that you can expect it to be on. And because we are public power, it's one of the benefits we have is we can focus on keeping the lights on. We're not out. We don't focus just on the capital and the making money, which is, say, like Rocky Mountain Power. That's one of their big drivers in it. does lead to some not as much investment in preventative maintenance but we do that because to us making sure those lights are on happens when we have big incidents like when the lines blew over in the toniquin area a couple years ago we had that back up in a few hours whereas i mean i think steven said that looks like something to be out for like a week and we got it back on really quick yeah because these guys care and they're here

So those numbers were kind of cool to me. So it was like the reliability was like 18 average minutes of 18 or something like that?

Yeah, what you should expect is essentially it says how many minutes the utility was down divided by the number of customers, and it would come down to about 18 minutes a year.

In comparison to the next closest city to it, that's the lowest in the state, correct?

Yeah, the lowest in the state, yeah.

Okay. And how does that compare nationally?

A lot better. Like 100, I believe the national was 160 minutes.

Yeah. So we're doing pretty good. Yeah. And when I press, Brian, a little more on that and why we've been able to do that, It's still, we talk about all those things. We have tried to have good training, good equipment, all the right tools, but he still funneled it back to the fact that none of that's possible without incredible people, without incredible people. So that's fantastic. Thank you guys for your work. Anything else you wanted to say before we take a picture? Council, anything you want to say? Yeah, each one of you, before we come up, take a picture. Tell us, make sure we know who you are at the microphone, the ones that came up.

I'm Danny Spencer, and I work in power generation. Tom Angstad, I'm the power generation manager.

Tom loves his job. We had a good conversation earlier today.

I'm Jed Ludlow. I'm a line supervisor.

I'm Tom Burrell, I do substations.

Braden Williams, I'm an electrical engineer.

Brian Jepson, energy resource manager. Weston Nelson, engineer.

Rhiannon Jack, electrical engineer.

Give these fine people another round of applause.

Are you related to Colin Jack? I thought so. He's my dad. I thought so. Awesome. Colin's great.

Nice and tight.

Thank you.

Okay. Again, thank you guys. We do have some incredible people here at the city. Well, at some point we do need to go for some of you who may haven't been in a while and tour the power facilities and some of the, you know, the turbines, even the room where they do power trading. All that stuff's really cool to see, so we'll have to do that at some point in the future. Okay. Usually on this meeting at this point, we, this first meeting of the month, we take comments from the public, but we don't have any that have been turned in. so well guess not do that part and we'll go on to our agenda are there any changes to the agenda

One change, item number 3C will not be heard tonight.

Okay, so remove that from the consent calendar.

All right, take us away. So tonight, the consent calendar item number 3, there are three items on the consent calendar this evening. These are administrative items. Staff has reviewed these and recommend approval. However, if the council would like to remove any of these for specific consideration, we can culminate that otherwise staff recommends approval again item number 3c is removed from the consent calendar council mayor i'd like to make a motion that we approve the consent calendar as presented with item 3c removed second we have a motion by steve a second by austin all in favor say aye aye any opposed motion carries unanimously I'm number four as a public hearing to receive input on the fiscal year 2026-27 budget, and Robert will present this item.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Let me pull up my presentation real quick. So tonight's item is the first public hearing of two public hearings planned as part of the fiscal year 27 budget process. The second public hearing is planned for on Thursday, June the 18th. And then following the second public hearing, we have the planned adoption of the fiscal year 27 budget immediately following that second public hearing item. Before I begin my presentation tonight and give some comments on the fiscal year 27 budget, I wanted to start it off with a video that our communications team has put together to provide some really great overview of the fiscal year 27 budget.

One of the most important tasks each year for the City Council is adopting the City's budget, which is used to pay for the wide array of services provided to our community, including 24-7 police and fire services and 911 dispatch, which keeps our homes, businesses, and community safe. Street and traffic signal maintenance to ensure efficient and safe travel throughout the community. Utility services that provide clean drinking water and bring power to our homes and businesses. The maintenance of the parks, trail system, and parks facilities which provides clean and safe areas to gather, play, and recreate. Parks programming from youth to adult sports to community events like the St. George Art Festival and St. George Marathon. You help make these services possible through the taxes and fees you pay to the City of St. George. It's an important investment in your home and community as these services help make St. George such a great place to live, work, and play. The City's budget is all about planning smart, spending wisely, and making sure your tax dollars are used effectively. To further these efforts, we have delivered the business plan as a guiding document within this year's budget. The business plan lays out a clear roadmap for the year ahead, supports strategic investments in the community's future, and ensures that every dollar is used to deliver meaningful results for St. George residents. The fiscal year 2027 budget and business plan includes a number of key investments focused on achieving the City Council's priorities identified in the business plan. Some of these investments include critical utility and transportation improvements, such as building a bridge and a roadway connecting George Washington Boulevard to Crosby Way, continuation of the SR7 trail project, and Gap Canyon Parkway. finishing the construction of the St. George Air Traffic Control Tower, continuing design of the expansion of the airport terminal, funding to continue our pavement management and sidewalk programs, investments in public safety including new equipment such as a new fire apparatus and 13 replacement vehicles, A major remodel of the old city hall and police headquarters to create a unified campus to support the growth of the police department. Designed for a new fire station in the Tanaquint neighborhood, investment in new equipment and technology continued development of the city's parks and trail system with the implementation of the 2023 voter approved general obligation bond including finishing the renovations of the dixie sun bowl in time for the dixie roundup rodeo construction of Curly Hollow Park Phase One, Lizard Wash Park, and the expansion of Thunder Junction, Santa Clara River Trail. Thanks to the city's AA plus bond rating, taxpayers are seeing substantial savings in interest costs, helping each dollar go further. To find out more about the city's budget, please visit our website, sgcityutah.gov slash budget.

Just wanted to commend David and his team. I think they did a fantastic job providing a really good overview of the 27 budget. So as part of my comments tonight, I want to talk a little bit about this year's budget process and then talk a little bit about some of the investments that are proposed for fiscal year 27. Development of fiscal year 27 budget will center around the creation of the fiscal year 27 business plan, which reflects the city council's priorities and direction for the year ahead. The business plan lays out clear objectives and strategies that are tied directly to the city council's priorities and serves as a roadmap for the city's work in the upcoming year. The business plan forms the foundation for the investments that are proposed in this year's budget. Development of the budget is an intensive process that involves a significant time and effort across the organization as we work to fund the projects and services that meet the demands of our growing community. The budget's not just the financial document, it's our plan for action in delivering those high quality services to our residents, businesses, and visitors to meet the expectations for the community. Some key investments in the fiscal year 27 budget are shown above. These include things like enhancements in public safety through technology, equipment, and facility improvements, critical utility and transportation infrastructure improvements, continued expansion of the parks and trails supported by the 2023 general obligation bond approved by voters, and then targeted initiatives focused on financial stability, operational excellence, workforce development, and customer service. On the revenue side of the budget, I'm pleased to note the fiscal year 27 budget does not propose a property tax increase. Fee adjustments are proposed across a number of services to help cover the rising costs providing service to a growing community. The fiscal year 27 combined budget across all 40 plus funds is $540.2 million. The budget's balanced and continues to support the city's long-term financial health. When looking at the overall city budget, I think it's helpful to think about the budget in two pieces. You have the general fund, which is what's shown above, and that's the city's primary budget. That pays for the majority of services that our residents rely on, such as police, fire, 911 dispatch, street traffic signal maintenance, parks and trails maintenance, parks programming, development review and code enforcement, golf, and all the other departments that provide support to these frontline services. This portion of the budget is funded primarily through the majority of property tax and sales taxes that our residents pay the city. Franchise taxes, overhead reimbursements, charges for service, fines, permits, and other revenues. And from that above pie chart, you can see that the biggest portion of the pie for fiscal year 27 is proposed in public safety at 47%. The other portion of our budget is in all of our other funds. These funds pay for the utility services that we provide to residents, including St. George Power, water and sewer maintenance service, and sewer treatment. the wastewater treatment plant, the St. George Regional Airport, major infrastructure projects including new streets, new utility lines and more facility additions and new parks, the Suntran bus service, and a number of other restricted purposes. This part of the budget is paid for by fees charged to customers, impact fees, grants, debt, and other restricted revenue sources. The city's budget does have a few unique factors that I feel are worth highlighting. St. George continues to stand out as one of the fastest growing cities in the nation and currently ranks as the fifth largest city in Utah. With a geographic footprint of 78 1⁄2 square miles spanning rivers, mesas, and canyons, St. George faces unique infrastructure and staffing challenges that go beyond those of a typical community. These physical characteristics, combined with the rapid growth, increase the need for additional roads, additional utility lines, additional parks, additional fire stations, and additional other public infrastructure to continue to provide service to a growing community. And that's in addition to additional personnel and equipment as well. Capital investments, which is one indicator of this in our budget for fiscal year 27, totals $178 million of proposed investments. Another unique factor in the city's budget is that it funds not only community-based services like police and fire and dispatch, but also more regional-based services that serve residents all throughout Washington County. Some of these services include the night woman dispatch, St. George Regional Airport, Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant, and the Suntran bus service. Along these same lines, the city also provides public power to a large portion of the community, which is something that's also unique for a city. These operations are not only vital to St. George residents, but the surrounding community as well. And while they increase the scope and scale of the city's budget, they also deliver long-term value and savings for the overall community. In fiscal year 27, these regional services accounted for $160 million of the overall proposed budget, or about 30% of the budget. And then in conclusion, I want to touch on the property tax our residents pay for city services. As part of this year's budget process, staff reviewed the property tax cost of city services across the top 20 largest cities in Utah. We're proud to report that even with our expanded responsibilities and service area, St. George continues to offer exceptional value. While the city ranks as the fifth largest city in Utah, we are the third lowest property tax rate of the top 20 cities, and second lowest in Washington County. full fiscal year 27 budget's been available on the city website and the city recorder's office since may the 7th is available for public review we look forward to receiving input from our residents tonight and through the coming weeks ahead and with that that completes my presentation any questions for robert comments

Okay, this is, we do have an opportunity for a public hearing. Yeah, yeah, so just, I'm gonna open up the public hearing, Chris. So this is a public hearing, so we'll go ahead and open the public hearing for those who have come to make comments in regards to the budget. When you come up to the microphone, if you'll just state your name clearly for the record and try to keep your comments as brief as you can. So the microphone is now yours.

Hello. My name is Chris Neal. And first, I got to thank you for having a really good staff at the shelter. Jimmy, it's turned around like 1000%. I love them. But, you know, it's been discussed a new building for 25 years.

Can you pull that microphone over so we can hear you a little better? Yeah.

Can you can you tell us the plans for the new shelter or a second shelter?

Absolutely. Let's see. Who's here that want to think? Mark? Where's Mark? Yeah, come on up and tell us about that.

The new shelter is currently under design right now. We have appropriated a budget of $3.5 million for construction of the animal shelter. The location will be near the wastewater treatment plant in the Bloomington area, and we hope to be under construction later this summer. So we're nearing completion on the plan, and we hope to be building that thing soon. Have you seen those plans, Chris?

Okay. Will you get with Mark, because he can tell you where, and let's make them so they're, I mean, it's going to be part of our upcoming, an upcoming agenda, right? So it'll be public record.

Yes. Yeah. I'd be happy to share them with Chris.

Okay. Perfect.

Mark, do you want to, yeah, give her some information. That'd be awesome. Yep, is there anybody else that has comment that would like to come to the microphone? Okay, we'll let Mark take care of that. Thank you. No one else? Tom, come on up. I can tell you're itching to say something. And we like it.

Well, it's nice to talk to you about an item an agenda item that I think was done really great the budget in the business plan I Think was top-notch. I've only spent maybe three or four hours with it I submitted some comments through the portal on your website, so I won't repeat those here, but just wanted to Give the City Council and the management of the city and Robert Really Heartfelt congratulations on a good job. We've only touched a few points together, working together, and they haven't been the most positive areas. I hope we can work more on those too, but it's good to have a positive area we can share.

Got to start somewhere, right? And for the record, Tom Butine. That was Tom Butine. Sorry.

Sorry.

Yeah. Thank you, Tom. Time is now yours. If there's anyone else who would like to come up and say something, questions, concerns. Again, remember to state your name for the record.

Hi, Terry Brandenburg, and I just had a question about the budget, about the golf. I want to, maybe I can see this online, but do the revenues exceed the expenses for the golf courses, the city golf courses? And also, it's come to my attention that there are often chemicals used on the golf courses to keep them green and looking nice, but that that can sometimes seep into our water. And so I want to know if water is tested near homes and near the golf courses. So I think that covers it.

Thank you. Thank you. And we can, Mark's also one that can address some of that as far as revenues and expenses. The question was, are our revenues exceeding our expenses on golf courses?

They certainly are. For about three years now, we've seen revenues exceed expenses at the golf courses. I will say that we've never seen play like we've seen recently in the last few years. And so the golf courses are exceeding and actually planning for future capital projects with the excess funds that we've generated above and beyond the expenditures. for operations.

Which has not always been the case. We've worked really hard to get to that point and encourage people to golf more.

That's correct. Yeah, exactly. We've got also the Healthiest Jag program, the Junior Association of Golfers program in the state of Utah. We believe that's kind of a pipeline for future golf. So we're obviously catering to our public, to the visitors, and also generating future players.

And also not budget related, but if you'd get, it was Terry, right? We've met before. Terry had some questions that maybe you could help answer on what we use as far as treating off the golf course and if there's any issues with cross contamination, if you could give some of that information to her offline. Thank you. Not necessarily budget related, but a good question nevertheless. Any other comments from the public? No one's itching to say anything. Maverick sound asleep, so he's not going to say anything. Okay. If there are no other comments, we will have, I'll go ahead and close the public hearing. We will have one more public hearing on the 18th. So we will have another opportunity for those of you that might come up with other questions. We will have, again, our meeting on the 18th. We will have another presentation and public comment period. And on that meeting, no, not that meeting. Will we adopt the budget? Yes, we will adopt the budget at that meeting. Okay. OR NOT. YEAH. THAT WILL BE UP FOR DISCUSSION. OKAY. GO AHEAD, JOHN.

OKAY. I HAVE NUMBER FIVE AS A PUBLIC HEARING CONSIDERATION OF ORDINANCE NUMBER 2026-046, VACATING A PORTION OF THE MUNICIPAL UTILITY EASEMENT LOCATED FIVE FEET INSIDE THE NORTHERLY LOT LINE AND WITHIN THE ADJACENT COMMON AREA OF LOT 406 DESERT COLOR RESORT PHASE 4B AND PHASE 6.

Okay, sorry about that. So this is lot 406. Within the desert color development, normally we have seven and a half foot utility easements along the sides. And in desert color they have five foot utility easements. Basically what they're requesting to do, this right over here is common area to desert color. They have talked to them and they have been willing, they're willing to sell them this portion of that property right there. And basically you're vacating. So on this side right here, there is a five foot utility easement that runs all the way along here. They're only vacating, this is kind of different than usual. They're only vacating the hatched area. And then they'll have this line that will go out here that will become their new property line. And they'll put back the easement there and then just vacate this. Their proposal is just to vacate that common area. They're leaving this alone right here because there are some utility infrastructure right there. That's why they're not extending that vacation down there. It's just this hatched area.

Any questions for Wes? no but i'll make a motion love it i moved sorry oh public hearing i was really on a roll here this is a public hearing so and that i'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing for those who have come to comment on audit number five see no comments i'll go ahead and close the public hearing come back to you michelle

I move to approve ordinance number 2026-046, vacating a portion of a municipal utility easement located five feet inside the northerly lot line and within the adjacent comment area of lot 406, Desert Color Resort Phase 4B and Phase 6. Second.

So we have a motion by Michelle, second by Danielle. This is an ordinance requiring a roll call vote, starting with Michelle.

Michelle Tanner, aye. Danielle Larkin, aye. Natalie Larson, aye.

Steve Kemp, aye.

Austin Anderson, aye.

Motion carries unanimously.

Item number six, consider approval of ordinance number 2026-047 to amend the hillside ridgeline map at 785 West Cermonte Drive.

Okay, so... Okay, so this is a 785 West Urbani Drive. I can't remember who owned this before. But anyways, you all know where this is located. It's there in Southgate. Anyway, so this is just their contour map. So back in, like, a long time ago, long before my time, and... So this is kind of your general plan and your zoning. The city established the hillside ridgeline map. And back then they took the ridgelines within the hillside overlay zone and defined some of them as cuestas and plateaus. Most of them were defined as cuestas. A couple of them were plateaus. So they drew this map here. to outline where those ridge lines are that are cuesta and plateaus. At that time, they determined that a cuesta would have a 100-foot setback to any structure on those ridge lines that are defined as a cuesta and a 50-foot setback to those that were defined as a plateau. The rest of the ridge lines that were in the hillside overlay zone, then the city just determined that that would be a 30-foot ridge line setback. So only these here are shown on the map, the ones they determined were plateaus and cuestas. So the applicant, I'll just give you a quick backstory, or kind of where we are. So I met the applicant a couple times out there on his lot to talk about, he wanted, his proposal is to build a ADU slash pool house right here in this area here. So he submitted a building permit, and I met with him a couple times out there because the building permit was flagged to determine its relationship to the ridgeline setback, and it was defined as a cuesta. So it was 100 feet. So I met him a couple times out here. We walked it, looked at where we kind of thought the ridgeline was measured. He was within that 100 feet and so forth. Anyway, a little bit later, his builder who's building this came down and brought an engineer with him, and they walked the site with him. And the engineer basically showed him what he considered was the Cuesta and not the Cuesta and basically said, you know, you can't have two Cuestas come together like this map shows. So he called me, brought me back out there. We looked at it. We walked the site. Um, I could see his argument was a pretty solid argument. So then I said, well, here's the way you need to do this. You need to submit an application and go through the hillside hillside committee. So that's what he did. He took it to the hillside committee. We went up there met on site and then discussed this and basically the hillside committee agreed that. So, so a question is a fairly steep. Upgrade and then as it as it crests, then it's more of a more gentler grade. So right here. And so this, you can see, fairly steep grade here, hits the ridge line, and then it drops as a kind of a more gentle one. Over here, and this is what the hillside agreed to, was that this comes up, fairly steep, but then it flattens out. And they argued it wasn't really a plateau, but it isn't really a cuesta once you get around that point. Right there, and so they felt like his argument was solid that this was really just. Just a bridge line within the hillside overlay zone and not a question. So that's where we took so they voted on that. It was a unanimous vote. Took it to planning commission last. Planning commission, there was a vote of 5 to 25 in favor to not in favor. And then I just highlighted, so basically, and this is, I just redlined the drawing. So basically this is where it's located, is right there. And so this is, this isn't in your packet. I highlighted that just to add it to give clarification. This is what the applicants requesting is that this portion. Be removed from the ridge line hillside map and just be what's classified as just a ridge line. And then you can kind of see it here. So, here, here's where it is. That's what. The request is to pull that out of the ridgeline, off of the ridgeline hillside map as a Cuesta. You can see there's that other ridgeline over here that ends right here, but that's on that map I showed you. So that's what's before you. The applicant is here if you have any questions for him.

I have a question, Wes. The part that's still confusing to me is help me understand why the differentiation, like why would we want a setback that's much further on a cuesta as opposed to a setback on a ridgeline or a plateau ridgeline?

I think it's just to kind of keep the structures off of the ridge lines so they're set back and they're not so, you know... ominous or whatever. I think that's what they did. I don't know. I wasn't there. John probably has a better answer than I have.

But I guess that's why it's confusing to me because a cuesta with it having the downward grade, you could be closer to a ridgeline, but you're going downhill. And so you would see it less from away as opposed to a plateau. You're going to see it because it's flat. So it's just confusing to me that it's not the opposite.

Okay, so I spent many sleepless nights trying to figure that too. And I just figured I was dumb, but that's the way it is. That somehow I'm missing the point. But yeah, you make a pretty strong argument.

I think that map was done quite a few years ago. And when you look at it, you can look, it's really the big predominant ridgelines in the community. But I agree, it never made no sense to me. You had two opposing slopes that you would assume if it's to mitigate what the visual impact would be, if I'm sloping down, then it's less visible.

It makes me feel better you picked that out because I thought I was missing something.

My understanding of this is that the concept of the Cuesta is that it would be a long, slow, but gradual slope going down that would be visible from a very far distance away, where conceptually, the plateau would be, you could see that ridge line, like you see something up on that ridge line from the steep side, and then the plateau, you would be able to see it only if you were at or above that level, which is the case in this situation. But if the plateau was higher than everything else, like say, Foremaster Ridge, where the plateau is up higher and there isn't something else right next to it that's higher than that, then the setback can be shorter and you're not looking on, it's not breaking the ridgeline visual.

That was my understanding from the research I did.

But again, I agree with Councilwoman Larkin that it is confusing.

Well, and I guess the reason for that question is because, you know, because it's confusing, I think we have to make a decision on what was the intent of these setbacks. So meeting the intent of the setback is really the question.

I think we also need to take into account the fact that we we look at several slopes throughout the community and we look at them and we say is that a natural slope or is that something that's previously been disturbed in some way and that we find those in places around I reflect on this I grew up out in the area looking up at that that point my whole life as I was a child and growing up and I remember when that home was built And you could see it very clearly from the Bloomington side. But there's been enough disturbance over the years previously and things that have happened up there that I think that what is being requested, it does make sense for there to make this change based on the history and what's happened at this point.

Wes, where do you measure the ridgeline at? Are you going to go and put points in exact areas where this is where we're going to measure the 30 feet from?

Usually we do do that. We haven't done that on this one. Like I said, I just met Greg out there a couple times, and I kind of showed him where I thought the ridgeline was. We didn't do that with hillside. The question was, is this a quest or not? We didn't really draw a hard line. But when we were out there, we kind of picked what we thought, Greg and I, and felt like, yeah, that was probably about where the ridge line. We can take it back to Hillside and establish that, but it fell outside of that 30 feet if it's defined as a ridge line is the point. So, you know, like on four master, we brought a couple of them forward to you where you have that setback and it said from the ridge line and the ridge line was really the property line. We brought that in and we've actually gone out there and defined the ridge line and brought those forward to you.

I guess that's why I'm asking if we're changing to a ridge line, do we know where the ridge line is going to be? Does the applicant know where it's going to be measured from?

We haven't really established that. Like I said, we just picked it and kind of the two of us looked at it and felt like that was originally.

Could that be part of the motion though?

Yeah, usually in the past, staff's actually gone out there and kind of established that we've only really brought it to the hillside if there was some question on where it was exactly. But usually it's abrupt enough that we can kind of tell where that ridgeline is at. And Wes has kind of been the point that he's been the one that's gone out and done that. What's interesting about this particular building is that it was done prior to that, and there were a whole bunch of buildings out there, and the property owner's actually gone through and cleaned that up, and some of those buildings were actually within that Ridgeline setback before, and so the proposal to put the ADU and make the termination is not a cuesta. It's still the property's less imposing visually than it was in the past.

I would agree. I went out and met with Mr. Raff on the property. We walked, just like he did with Wes, we walked the ridge line or suggested where the ridge line would be. And I agree with Wes that the ridge line is where they, it makes the most sense where you get the steep drop off. And it is a steep drop off. You know when you're going off the edge. um i also was um i've been impressed with adding to john's point with the property owners attempts to make the home as unimposing as possible with the colors the redesign of the roof line and the other things and this would not This addition next to the pool single story would not change the visual look from where you're from anywhere that I can tell based on having been up on the site.

I'll make a motion if you're ready I'm ready okay make a motion that we approve the hillside permit to change the West Ridge line on this parcel from a question Ridge line as shown in the city's Ridge line map to a Ridge line.

I was second.

We have a motion by Danielle and a second by Steve. This is an ordinance requiring roll call votes, starting with Austin.

Austin Anderson, aye.

Steve Kemp, aye.

Natalie Larson, aye. Danielle Larkin, aye. Michelle Tanner, aye.

Motion carries unanimously. You don't have anything else, Wes? Gosh dang, what does that mean? It means we're done? Nice. Do we have any reports? Austin, you got any reports?

No report?

No reports, Mayor. Awesome.

I just have one quick one, Mayor. I went up with our marathon team yesterday, and they won best of state, best sporting event in the state for our 50th year of the marathon. So just really proud of them. And they were able to receive an award at the Salt Palace.

Phenomenal event. Nothing? Michelle? Okay. The last item is about a closed meeting, and we do not have one. So I will entertain another motion. I'll make a motion to adjourn, Mayor.

Second.

A motion by Austin, second by Michelle. All in favor say aye. Aye. We stand adjourned. Thank you, guys.

Thank you.