City Council - Regular Meeting

prosper, and thrive. We pray at this time that we'll have thy spirit with us as we discuss the issues of the city, especially the budget, that we will be able to come to a resolution that will be pleasing to those who can thrive. And we are grateful for all that we have, and we say these things in the name of thy son, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Amen. Please rise for the pledge.

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, ladies and gentlemen, can I get a motion to adopt the agenda as written?

So moved. Second.

Moved and seconded. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Our first item of the business meeting tonight is public comment. If there's anyone here to address us, please state your name and address for the record. You have up to three minutes. 30 minutes.

This will work. My name is Shane Croton, address 2353 South 3585 West. I just wanted to make a comment. in preparation for your discussion on item 11 for the freeway signage, um, I think it's really important about the dark sky elements. If you choose to adopt this, um, being the gateway to Antelope Island, I think it's important that we keep that, um, that feel of Syracuse, especially on the west end of the city. Definitely like the signs that they show on the examples on page 251 and 253 for that freeway sign. In addition to that, I'd almost... see if it's possible to go a step further with the monument signs that they're proposing for that development that are around the development off of Antelope Drive and 3000 West. Currently, they show as backlit signs. I believe the light is 5000 Kelvin on those internally lit. With the amount of light they're going to have down in that area from Uh, street lights on Antelope 3000, the development lights for parking. Um, that's a lot of light coming out of those signs horizontally. Um, so if there's any way to make those dark sky signs too, I think it would really make that location an attractive place. And, you know, those who are driving on those roads won't get that additional glare. Um, And actually, I think it'll draw their focus more to those brands, those businesses, just from the color of their brand and sign rather than the light around those. So just some things to think about when you're on that discussion. Thank you.

Is there anyone else here from the public?

Mayor, we did receive one emailed public comment this afternoon.

Okay. I don't see anyone online. So go ahead with the mailed in one.

Okay, it says, Dear Mayor Mon and members of the Syracuse City Council, I would like to submit the following public comment regarding the FY2027 budget, utility fee increases, and future transportation utility fee discussions. First, I would like to thank Mayor Mon for addressing my previous public comment during the May 26th work session. I appreciate the clarification that the population projections contained within the water use and conservation element our planning scenarios rather than growth targets, and that future growth levels will ultimately be determined by decisions made by current and future city councils. After reviewing the June 9th meeting packet, my primary concern is the cumulative financial impact that appears to be developing for Syracuse residents. The proposed utility fee adjustments total approximately $7.89 per month, along with a new paper billing fee for residents who continue to receive MELD utility statements. In addition, the Council is actively discussing a future transportation utility fee to address road maintenance needs. While I understand the need to maintain critical infrastructure and public services, I hope the Council carefully considers the total impact these increases may have on families who are already facing higher costs for housing, insurance, utilities, and everyday living expenses. I was particularly interested in the discussion regarding road maintenance funding. The information presented clearly demonstrates that proactive maintenance is far less expensive than allowing roads to deteriorate to the point of reconstruction. I appreciate the Council's willingness to address this issue before it becomes an even larger financial burden in the future. At the same time, I would encourage the Council to continue examining whether growth is fully paying for itself. Many of the infrastructure challenges discussed in recent meetings, including roads, water infrastructure, public safety services, parks, and other capital needs are directly tied to a growing community. As future funding mechanisms are considered, I hope the city continues to evaluate how much of these costs should be borne by new development versus existing residents. I appreciate the transparency that city staff and the council have shown throughout the budget process and thank you for your service to our community. Respectfully, Eric Wilson.

Okay, if that's the only one, correct? All right, so I will go ahead and close public comment and we will move on to the approval of minutes. Tonight we are approving the minutes for the April 28th special city council business meeting, the May 12th city council regular business meeting, the May 26th city council work session, and a special session on May 26th for council business. Is there any corrections anybody has to those minutes? Seeing none, I will take a motion to approve the minutes as written.

I'll make a motion to approve the minutes under Section 3A through D as written.

Second. Second.

Motion made and seconded. All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, that passes unanimously. Tonight we have two items on the consent agenda. First is to authorize the administration to execute the franchise agreement with Forged Fiber, and we've talked about that in a work session. It is no different than other agreements that we've allowed within all of the fiber networks applying to the city. Also is proposed ordinance 2026-13 repealing section 4.5.20 of the Syracuse Municipal Code pertaining to hours of operation. And this is really just allowing some flexibility where previously it was hard in the manual for exactly what we would do. So if there is anybody who would like to take one of those off the consent agenda or I'll take a motion to approve them as is. Okay, I have a motion. Do I have a second? Seconded. Motion made and seconded. All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, that passes unanimously. The item's on a consent agenda. The next item is item number five, proposed resolution R26-28, appointing planning commissioners. And I did not have a chance to meet with all the candidates before the packet came out, so I will be announcing these here from the pulpit. The planning commissioners that I am nominating for this next term are Kelly Nielsen, who is a current planning commissioner, but he was serving out less than a year remaining on somebody else's term. So this would be a first full term for Kelly Nielsen, and he's doing a good job. And the new planning commissioner that I am nominating is Courtney Haddock, and I met with her last night, and I think she'll be a great addition to our planning commission. She has a background as an architect and also has some legal experience in planning. She's not an attorney yet, but doing some law courses towards that. So we have somebody with both the planning. She works for FFKR, which is a Salt Lake architect that I'm very familiar with. And so I think it would be a great addition. anybody have any questions about those two nominations if not i will take a motion to approve i move that we approve the mayor's nominees for planning commission councilmember watson it's actually a resolution that needs to be adopted oh

Okay, let me try that again. So I move that we approve proposed resolution R26-28 appointing the planning commissioners that the mayor detailed in the meeting.

And again, for the record, that is reappointing Kelly Nelson to a full term and a full term for Courtney Haddock.

Second.

Motion made and seconded. All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed?

That passes unanimously. Item number six is a public hearing for proposed ordinance 2026-10 approving the fiscal year adjacent to an elevated freeway would allow this.

Yeah, four things. Dark sky, ramp, equal, and plan commission.

Those things are out. Okay. All right. Now that's clear. Do I have a second?

Second.

All right. All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Nay. Okay. That passes majority. All right. Next item, proposed ordinance 26-12, amending the Syracuse City General Plan by adding water use and conservation elements. This is required by the state, so we're just updating our code to include the necessary items. Any discussion on this? We do most of it already. It's just new legislation. All right, seeing none, can I get a proposal?

I make a motion to accept the proposed ordinance 2026-12, amending Syracuse general plan by adding water use and conservational elements.

Do I have a second?

Okay, all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Motion passes unanimously. All right, now we move on to public comment. We always allow a second public comment in our business meetings because we thrive on people telling us how we screwed up. So let's... So is there anybody here that would like to comment and make another public comment? This is also a chance to talk about something you might want to have on a future meeting. I'm just joking with the other comment. Seeing nobody get up, I am going to close public comment and move on. I'm going to postpone closing out this meeting because we have other meetings. So I'm going to suspend that meeting and I am going to call to order. the Syracuse City Special Redevelopment Agency meeting because we have to go over their budget every year. So I call this meeting to order and ask that you adopt the agenda. Can I get a motion? So moved.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

Any opposed? Passes unanimously. Now we have to have a public hearing. This is proposed resolution RDA 26-01, adopting the annual budget for the fiscal year 26-27 as required by 17C-1-601 of the Utah code annotated 1953. And just to be really clear, we talked at great length in our work session about all of the different RDAs, where they're at financially. This is just adopting that status. So let me open a public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to comment on our RDA budget hearing? Seeing none, I will close the public hearing. Council, is there any further discussion other than adopting our budget as it currently sits?

Nope.

Can I get a motion to do so? I move that we approve proposed resolution RDA 26-01, adopting the annual budget for the fiscal year 2026-2027.

Moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously, and I will declare us adjourned from that meeting. I will now call to order the Syracuse City Municipal Building Authority, the MBA meeting. This is another fund that we've talked about consistently, and this is mostly about projects that we build in the city have to be done under this authority. So calling this the meeting, can I get a motion to adopt the agenda for this meeting?

So moved. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Now I will open a public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to discuss our current status as our MBA or Municipal Building Authority annual budget? This is mostly just paying debt on bonds that we took out for public facilities. Seeing none, I will close the public hearing, and I will look for a resolution on NBA 26-01, adopting the Municipal Building Authority annual budget for fiscal year 26-27. So moved. Second.

Moved and seconded. All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? I will now close that out. That passes unanimously. And I declare us adjourned from that. And coming out of recess and back into our regular meeting, we have announcements from mayor and council. Abel, I'll let you start tonight.

I have nothing for you. We hashed it all out. That's a great start.

Julie.

Oh, well, don't forget to come to the Miss Syracuse pageant.

Check your mailboxes. Check your mailbox. You all have tickets.

We have a Saturday luncheon at 1, and we have the pageant that evening. It's going to be exciting.

And you get a plus one. Yes, you can bring a date to lunch. You get a plus one to the lunch. And I heard it's going to be really good food. Really good. You need to be there.

All right. Any other announcements, Julie? Okay, thank you. Paul?

I don't have anything.

Andrea? Andrea?

Really excited for the Freedom Run. Yes. I want to challenge people. I want to stomp on people. I hope they sign up. That's it.

Great. Yes. And I would reiterate, we want all of our Heritage Days events to be supported. And we hope that you'll all come out for the Freedom Run, for the Youth Brigade, come out to the museum and take the 1776 Challenge. These are all wonderful events that we have. Now, aside from that, I have a couple of things of business that I need to bring up in my mayor's report. Number one, I have been approached by some people that would like to start a networking meeting amongst local businesses just to support each other and help our businesses grow. I think this is a positive idea, and I can lead this as mayor, and I think that that's the endorsement they're looking for is for the mayor to participate in in maybe a monthly or quarterly meeting, we would work that out. I just want to run this by you because if this were a private event, not a city-sponsored event, we would ask them to rent a facility. But where we're looking at 10 to 12 business owners local just to have a discussion, I don't think that – I mean, if I sponsor it, there's no fee waiver. Does anybody have an issue with that or feel like that's an abuse of – of uh opening up a discussion like this i'm just asking because i would be okay with it as long as i think it's a great idea all business owners would be welcome it's just kind of a way to help them help each other i think it's a great idea okay so we'll move forward with that the next one i want to talk about is um Today I was, this morning I was part of the Wasatch Regional Front Council's active transportation meeting and we discussed e-bikes and the challenge they're addressing across the state. And I'm bringing this up because I got some very different information than I've had before. For example, this year, the legislature did address e-bikes and created some provisions that I was unaware of. Number one, it is now legal for a municipality to impound an e-bike if it is used illegally. This impound is usually recommended that it would just be released to parents if this is a kid. But it's not a teaching opportunity to get people aware of the laws because across the state, there is a real challenge with people having no idea what the laws are. This is a very new thing. And a lot of people are buying these for their kids and assuming that they're free to do whatever. And that is not true. So, does anybody have any issue if we encourage our law enforcement to use as needed? I'm not saying you go out and start pounding bikes, but as needed so that we can get a handle on this before we become one of the challenges.

Colin, did you want to weigh in? Have I misspoken? Just one note. The statute says that law enforcement may seize them. Impound carries with it a whole variety of constitutional property rights. You may have heard the word impound, but the actual word is seize, which is much more informal. And that's what our officers have been taught to do when it's an appropriate thing to do.

Okay, Mr. Van Wagenen of WFRC, you misspoke using the word impound and I repeated your mistake. Okay, so we'll correct that to Cs. All right, here's the other new data that part of this law that most people have no idea. For starters, an operator under the age of eight is not allowed to operate an e-bike. I see a lot of young kids on electrical motorized vehicles, and I didn't know that. Number two, at the age of 14, up until the age of 14, you still have to be accompanied by an adult riding a motorized vehicle of any kind. So this is new information that I learned today.

Is that e-scooters as well?

Yeah, anything motorized. You have to be accompanied by an adult until you are 14. And then at age 16, you are free to operate on your own if you are licensed for motor vehicles. But you cannot just say, okay, kid, here's a e-motorcycle and you don't need a license because you do. So these were all things that came up. The There are definitions of three classes of e-bikes, ones that go under 20 miles an hour, ones that go up and beyond that. And it is not legal to operate these in parks, on park surfaces. That is not OK. You don't get to just freely tear up park fields and trails. You have to be courteous to other trail users. So all of that came out as discussion today, and apparently there were some horror stories of places where e-bike users have injured pedestrians, joggers, walkers. This is something we have not seen an awful rash of this like some other cities have, but we don't want to. And that's why I bring it to you to just educate you as to what I learned today about e-bikes so that we can start promoting that there are some legal limits to what you're supposed to be doing and it's for safety. There have been incidences where seniors have been hospitalized because they were run over by a kid on an e-bike that was just thinking that they were free. If you can buy the e-bike, you can go anywhere.

All right. Mayor, if I may. Yeah, please. The law, even before the amendment, allows local cities and counties to adopt ordinances, different ordinances, more restrictive, less restrictive, and so forth. We are going to bring to your next work meeting such an ordinance, so just keep in mind that we've already addressed between law enforcement and my office some of these issues. We'll be presenting them to you so you can talk about them in your next work meeting.

Very timely. Thank you very much for your hard work on that. And again, it's about safety. We want people to continue to use our parks without worrying about being run over by a stray golf cart or without a kid being injured. These are important things.

Also, Mayor, up to 28 speed. Yeah. So if you're 16 or under, you can still ride the class one or class two. So that would kind of be hard for someone to determine that's watching a youth, you know, fly down the road. Is that a class one bike? Is that a class two bike?

Yeah, I don't know that we're really going to be able to tell the difference. So it's a little strange that they had that in the legislation.

So don't be alarmed if you're seeing 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, you know, riding on a motorized something because it might not be a Class 3 vehicle.

Right. But it is concerning that we do have operators that have no education as to what they can and can't do.

It is. It's a concern.

Because, again, we're talking about people who have maybe run on trails for years and now are dodging bikes. Right. it's scary okay all right i'm going to move on from e-bikes and um i have a request before this meeting i met with a representative from our museum and they have recently added a building which they will be opening on uh the saturday of the parade they will have a ribbon cutting But as this additional building comes up, we have a request that we include that on our insurance. And the suggestion that I have is, would you be OK if we ask our insurance to do an upgraded content evaluation? Because we haven't done that for several years. We've insured a couple of specific items against a value But I think the concern is just that they have an idea of what that is. Now, the museum in their graciousness has said that if raising the value of the contents of the museum changes our insurance rates, they would pay the difference. But I think that we do want to have some kind of idea there. Right now, we are insuring for a grand total of $760,000 worth of content. We have no idea. We've gotten some donations of a vehicle and some other items that may be pricey. We've learned that our fire truck is one of three that exist of that military style in the entire world that still exists and the one that's in the best shape of all of them. So we have some unique items. I don't know what value you put on a two-headed calf, but we would just want to get a fair value if anything were to happen and the museum were damaged. Does anybody have an issue if we ask for a content evaluation update? That's something our insurance company does. It doesn't cost us anything. What it would cost us is maybe increase our rate, but probably with as many things as we ensure as a lump sum package, it probably wouldn't change much. All right, so I'm going to move forward and tell staff to go ahead and put that in process. The next item that I have, council, is a request from the Arts Council. This is a small enough request that doesn't technically need to go through council, but I really firmly believe that I always want to keep you appraised of this. They have asked us for an electronic, if we would purchase for their concerts and plays, an electronic xylophone. What this does is it can be a xylophone, marimba, glockenspiel, all of those different things because it's an electronic one instead of buying all these different instruments. They'd looked at it a couple of times before. The grand total of the software that operates it and the device is $4,207. I would suggest that we add that or take that from BRAP tax because... RapTax does include the A is for Arts, and we have helped them in the past with a piano. Ten years ago, we bought a new piano for the rec center because the piano that had been donated was near death, and we did buy them a keyboard. A couple of years after that, they used for their plays for all of the instruments they don't have and don't buy in a synthesizer, which was more than this request. We also contributed to timpani when they had to have their own. that you know so we've we've just tried to help them empower them to do their things they did come to us one time for a contra base bassoon and we decided that was too specific to one operator and if we didn't have a person that could still play that we would just own an instrument we didn't need and we denied that request but for the most part they haven't asked a lot we've we've helped them with some sound equipment for the the plays that they do in the summer um so it is a wrap tax expense The majority of our wrap taxes go to parks, but do you have any issue if we go ahead and move forward to this? Wrap tax is going to be on the ballot next year. So we want to have some of these things that we show where your money goes in wrap tax, because it is restricted to only money for recreation, arts, and parks. Any objections?

Maybe.

Maybe. Okay. What's your objection?

I would want to get into the weeds a little bit and figure out if the money is available or if it is already, because we already have shortages in our parks.

Yeah, we do.

And so I just feel like we're asking staff to hold tight for a year. I don't think it's unreasonable for an expense of that much to ask them to hold tight for a year and see where we are. There's a lot of things that I think would be better appropriation for the money.

Okay, so wrap tax cannot be used on employees. Wrap tax cannot be used in any other department. Wrap tax, it is a voted on by the citizens, set aside an extra quarter of a percent on sales tax that would go to recreation, arts, or parks only. It has to be in one of those categories. Now, I do understand that our parks are, you know, in wanting, but for example, a lot of the money that we've had in wrap tax has gone to replace a playground set. Those are... 80 to a hundred, sometimes even more thousand dollars for something like that. That's where the bulk of our money has gone is to things like that. Um, we used that money on the dog park, but again, it didn't cover all of the dog park. It covered a very small portion of the dog park. So, um, four thousand dollars compared to the i think 140 that we bring in per year when we have not actually contributed to the arts every year um is a pretty low dollar figure but and that may be fair that may be fair i'm just saying that i would like to see i would like to see what's available what the ask yeah or and talk with staff and figure out if it's something that

is is a reasonable equitable spend not just making a decision right here right now without looking at the detail yeah this came up in our meeting on wednesday crest and i were there and um

Cresta actually said we could do this with wrap tax and it would be the appropriate place to put it. This is a purchase that they've avoided for four years. They have to have it for this year's show and this year's concerts, or they have to go out and find loaners that they would bring in that they're now responsible for. So,

My stance is if we have wrap tax funds available, I don't have any objection for an expenditure to go to the arts to help with that. I understand where you're coming from, Abe, but I probably don't need to get into the weeds on this one as long as there's funds available.

There is this much left in our current fund, but you can tell me if anybody else has a problem. If I have at least three in favor, we move forward. I support that. Okay.

I support it. And as what I understand, they're kind of due. Yeah.

They are kind of due. Yeah. Yeah. We've supported them with a few other things. So anyway, it's appropriate. All right. So... We're not going to discuss it further. Very low dollar item. So that is the balance of things that I came back to support. Having nothing else, I will call for a motion to adjourn our work session. Our business meeting.

Second.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. We are adjourned for the night. Thank you.