County Council - Regular Meeting

recording in progress that's my cue welcome everyone thank you for coming tonight 6 p.m we are june 16 2026 we are located at the county building on the third floor in the council chambers we will have a pledge of allegiance that will be led by corey caldwell we all please stand

of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Corey. Roll call. We have our county attorney, Scott Broadhead, present. As far as counsel, Councilman Hoffman, Councilman Thomas, Councilman Stromberg, Councilman Hamner, Councilman Wardle. County Manager's Office. We have our County Manager, Andy Welch, and Brittany Lopez, Assistant County Manager, and from the Clerk's Office, our County Clerk, Tracy Shaw. And thank you, each of you, for coming this evening. That will bring us down to public comment. Is there anybody in the audience, by raise of hands, that would like to make a public comment? Two. Two. Scott, come up. Let's see. Three minutes? Oh, I need that one.

Okay. Thank you, council, for allowing me tonight. My name is Scott Daggerbeck. I live in Tula City here. I'm here at the annually with my why are you doing this type of thing regarding the budget. I'm a little bit facetious there, but I want to thank Allison for sending me the resolutions and the proposals, and it looks like again this year we might see a small tax increase, if I understood it right. And I'm willing to admit that I don't understand as well as you folks do. But the question that comes to my mind, and it just keeps haunting me, is we're out there promoting growth and come to TWLA, and they do. But when they come, the extra burden falls on the taxpayer. And I just cannot wrap my head around that, why that is the case. If it's causing more inconvenience for the taxpayer, why are we doing it? But, you know, that's something you're going to have to decide and maybe somebody can explain that to me. Anyway, that's it for tonight. So it's short and brief, maybe something for you to think about. Again, I appreciate Allison giving me the budget information I requested on short notice. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Scott.

Thank you, Council. Tonight, I want to briefly comment on the importance of ethics, accountability, and public trust in local government. Recently, Utah has seen several examples of elected officials facing allegations of misconduct that have drawn significant public attention. Regardless of the outcome of any investigation, these situations remind us that public competence is shaped not only by the laws that we took an oath to uphold, but by whether we hold ourselves to the ethical standards our communities expect from those that entrusted with public service. Tolla County residents deserved to know that the concerns raised through established reporting mechanisms are handled consistently, independently, and without interference. accountability systems only work when employees and Public trust that the concerns can be reported without fear of retaliation and the oversight processes remain transparent and free from undue influence Tonight the council is considering significant changes to the county's fraud waste and abuse reporting process into the role of the audit committee I believe it's important to clarify that I was not involved in drafting or developing this ordinance. I While I had conversations with the council chairman regarding the general concerns about the hotline process and possibility of improvements, those discussions did not include a review of this ordinance notification that one was being prepared or an opportunity for me to provide input. Any suggestion that I participated in or was aware of this ordinance before it appeared on the agenda would not accurately reflect those conversations. It is also uncommon for the council to establish detailed policies and procedures governing another independently elected office without that office's direct input or involvement. Healthy government depends on respecting both oversight functions and the independence of elected offices, even when perspectives differ on how those responsibilities should be carried out. I support evaluating and improving county policies when appropriate. However, meaningful changes to accountability structures should be collaborative, thoughtful, and designed to strengthen public confidence. Employees and residents must trust that concerns involving fraud, waste, abuse, or unethical conduct can be raised. and reviewed through fair and independent processes. Meaningful oversight is often uncomfortable. It requires us to evaluate not only financial stewardship, but also whether our actions align with the values of integrity, transparency, and ethical leadership outlined in our policies. The public deserves confidence that concerns involving any individual, regardless of title or position, will be addressed fairly and impartially. Ultimately, the measure of this council's commitment to ethics is not how it responds when issues are easy. It's how it responds when accountability is difficult. I encourage this council to ensure that the changes adopted tonight strengthen the public's trust, preserve independent oversight, and reflect the collaborative spirit that should exist between elected offices serving the same community.

OK. Comments noted on that. Thank you, both of you, for getting up. We will go down to contracts. Contracts between Tooele County and the C&G Landfill Maintenance Building. Wayne.

Good evening, council. We had 11 contractors show up to the pre-bid walkthrough, and seven of those submitted bids. Christensen and Griffith was the low apparent bidder, and I'm looking to have you approve the contract so we can send them their notice to proceed so we can get the project going.

Is there any questions or comments from the council?

Can I have to make one additional comment about what we've been receiving recently, just so that everybody understands where we're at?

Because we've received some funding here that we didn't anticipate. You want to explain the dirt that we've been receiving? Oh, the dirt.

Oh, sorry. I couldn't hear you, Andy. Yes, in regards to our fund balance transfer, we ended up getting a a contract that i secured through a contractor that was cleaning up stockton pass and uh we've received nearly 50 000 tons of dirt and as of today their last day of hauling we brought in around 659 000 that wasn't budgeted for this year so it's a bonus so that's going to help offset any uh

Transfer that we may have had from the fund balance so when at the end of the year when our revenue comes in Our fund balance transfer is going to be lower than we anticipated Wayne maybe you can explain why that because that's environmental dirt my understanding that they're moving from the east side of Stockton Pass down to the landfill maybe Say why that dirt is going to be good to help us years ago when it was first

at the landfill, I obtained a CERCLA certification. And what that does is it allows the landfill, because we're a class four C&D landfill, we're able to take dirt that's called bevel exempt material. And the technical term is called the T-clip, and I can't remember what the acronym stands for, but it's on the lead. And if it's under a certain PARTS PER MILLION, WE'RE ABLE TO TAKE THAT DIRT AND USE IT FOR COVER AT OUR LANDFILL. NOW, THIS IS THE SECOND SUCH PROJECT THAT I'VE HAD THERE IN THE TIME THAT I'VE BEEN AT THE LANDFILL. THE FIRST ONE NETTED US ALMOST $500,000, I BELIEVE, BACK 2022, SOMETHING LIKE THAT. SO WITH THIS CERTIFICATION, WE'RE ABLE TO TAKE THIS DIRT, AND THAT CAN COME TO US FROM ANYWHERE IN THE STATE. WE'RE ONE OF ONLY A COUPLE OF LANDFILLS IN THE STATE THAT ARE CERTIFIED TO TAKE THIS DIRT. Wonderful.

Any other questions or comments? If not, Chair, entertain a motion.

I make a motion that we approve the contract for C&G to do the maintenance building at the landfill.

Hearing a motion from Councilman Thomas, is there a second?

Second.

Hearing a second from Councilman Stromberg, all those in favor say aye. Aye. All those may oppose say nay. Thank you. That sounds unanimous and is adopted. Thank you, Wayne. Public defender agreement, district court. Corey.

Thank you. So we had a budget increase from you all. I appreciate that. With that money, we redrafted all the contracts. We increased some of the duties. Quite frankly, a lot of the attorneys were doing this stuff anyway, but now we obligated it. So if there's turnover, then we're going to be able to make it easier to obligate that in the future. A couple of highlights with that, we're making attorneys stay on cases longer, get these people all the way through probation. We get them through their plea deals, we get them through sentencing. Now we're making our attorneys kind of hold their hand all the way through probation. Let's get them back on their feet if they need a reduction from a felony to a misdemeanor, it's gonna help improve them getting better jobs in the future. That's a big ask that I had of our public defenders. They were all ready and willing to do that. So they're going to stay on these cases longer. I'm hoping that helps with recidivism, fewer people coming back into the court because they're sort of able to get back on their feet with someone holding their hand. Even private attorneys, quite frankly, aren't doing that. So I think that's a huge service that we're asking our attorneys to do. Another big one is we're having, if it's a big trial, basically a felony, even a Class A misdemeanor, we're having attorneys help each other. So normally attorneys are doing these all by themselves. We're going to require that we second chair trials for each other. It's great. We have that team approach. It helps with the client control. It helps make sure that we're reasonable. I think it's just good all around to have a second set of eyes on those. Making sure that people are doing the right continuing education to stay competent in these fields, kind of increasing some of our processes for accountability, doing performance reviews, that type of thing. We appreciate very much the increased funding, and in response, we've put in writing our commitment to do an even better job that I think our attorneys were already doing great, but we've put in writing a commitment to continue with that. So if there's any questions, I'm happy to answer them, but thank you.

Council, any questions on the contracts that are before you? Go ahead, Councilman Thomas.

Part of that, I get to chair the CJC meeting, and Corey plays a very important part of that, and down in Littlefield, and Judge Hogan comes, I mean, How impactful is that CJC and our committee that we meet and having these people stay on task longer? You touched briefly, maybe can you expand that a little bit more?

Yeah, I mean, it's a huge help. We've been able to centralize resources so people have one place they can go to figure out. I mean, it's very common for my client to get ordered to do a substance abuse assessment. And then we might get 15 phone calls like, where do I do this? How do I do this? So now we've got a resource. We can just send them there. They know that it's going to be an approved quality program. So we don't have frustrations with random online programs that probably aren't great trying to market and reach into Tooele that really are just scamming our clients who are very poor out of another $25. So we've got that all centralized. We've been able to make it really efficient to keep people from jail into treatment. That saves money on jail time. It keeps our clients super happy when they know that if they behave in jail, they're going to get an early release to a treatment bed. And we've got a lot of resources that we're able to connect through that program to make sure that People understand that. We're doing the 24-7 program. That was on our topic last week at that meeting. A huge help for people to basically be forced into sobriety. They get their license back in exchange for literally a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week monitoring of their alcohol intake. One slip up, and they're done, and they're back in jail. So it's very motivating for them not to drink any alcohol, not only while they're driving, but any time. for the next year that they're on that program. So we're able to connect resources with that. We were limited to 10 10 monitors with one meeting. We were able to connect the right people and essentially, I think, have an unlimited number of monitors now. So we had capped out that program and within one meeting it was fixed and maxed out. So it's great. A lot of big, a lot of powerful, motivated people in the same room that get things done.

Wonderful. Wonderful. Any other questions from council or manager's office. If not, chair, to entertain a motion.

Chair Greg Musil. Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion to approve the public defender agreements for the district court.

Chair Greg Musil. Hearing a motion, Councilman Thomas, is there a second? Second. Chair Greg Musil.

Is there a second from all the agreements? District court, drug court, justice court, juvenile court, and managing public defenders, right? You mean all of them, right, Kendall? Yes, sir. That's right.

Hearing a motion from Councilman Thomas for all the contracts and a second from Councilman Hoffman. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those that may oppose say nay. That is adopted. Thank you, Cori.

Thank you.

That brings us down to resolution 2026-152026, tax rate in the county. Allison.

All right, Council. It is tax rate season. So we are not only is the county in the process of adopting tax rates, but all the entities throughout the county are in the process of adopting tax rates. This is a process that is part of the tax roll group's purview. We get everything kind of tied up in a bow. The assessor's office sets values for everything. We work with the state, my office works with the state tax commission to get the rates all calculated and all that information into a system. And then we push those rates out to the entities. And so tonight I'm going to be talking about our county tax rates specifically. So the tax rates that our general levy, the help levy, the assessing and collecting levy, and our municipal service levy. So these are rates specific to Tooele County, not Tooele City, not the school district, anything like that. So I just want to make that clear as we go through the presentation. This is kind of how the statistics of our properties break out for this year. You can see that we had some growth in our residential properties, a significant decrease in our secondary residential properties. So these are like investment properties, some growth in our commercial properties. But one thing I want to point out to you is that little, I know it's hard to read in the red there, but Tooele County added an average of 12 parcels a week in 2025. for a total of 659 parcels. So that's new parcels that we added. That doesn't include any work that we were doing on existing parcels. So busy offices, a lot going on. It equates to about a 2% growth. And that doesn't include the work that's sitting out there waiting to be done.

Allison, can I ask you just to kind of explain this? When you say we added 12 new parcels a week, how do you get a new parcel? Maybe you could explain that.

No, that's a great question. So new parcels happen in a lot of different ways. The most common way that they happen is through the subdivision process. So you may have a piece of farm ground that was one parcel, and that gets subdivided into several different parcels, and that's usually the best way. We're not making any new ground, so to speak, but the subdivision process is the most common way.

Thanks, Allison.

OK, certified tax rates in Utah, how they work. I usually do the same presentation every year. But when we go through and explain the certified tax rate process, it's an extremely complex process. And people tell me all the time, allegedly, Utah has the best and the most simple process. And so I'm not sure if that's the truth. But that's what they tell me. Um, property values can increase or decrease, but the idea is that, um, the entities are supposed to get the same amount of revenue every year. Um, unless they do any kind of a tax increase and so. The only way for us to get any kind of, uh. Increase in revenue is like Mr to go back. Mentioned is through new grill and but that new growth comes with a cost like he also mentioned. So we have to build new roads. We have to hire new police officers, things like that. There is no adjustment to the certified tax rate for inflation. So, you know, you hear on the news that inflation is up 3%, it's up 2%, whatever. The certified tax rate does not take that into account. One thing that you've heard me say over and over throughout the years is that the tax rates will go up or down based on what property values do. So if rates go up or values go up, rates should go down. This year we've had an interesting anomaly that's happened where values went up but rates also went up just a little bit and we'll talk about that. So that's why there's a big red star next to that. So history of values in Utah or in Tooele County. This year I've got 2025 and 2026 in red there. We did see, like I mentioned, an increase in our values. So a pretty significant increase. The detailed review area, which means the area, the assessor's office is required to review a specific area every five years. So every year, properties have to have their values looked at, but they have to do a more in-depth review of an area every five years. And so the areas that they reviewed were our commercial properties and the outlying areas, specifically like North Tooele. So that would be like the Stansbury area. Another thing that factors into our tax rate is our collection rate. So right here you can kind of see the trend for our collection rate in 2020 or 2025 reporting in 2026. Our collection rate was at 90% so we're still have about 10% of our taxes that are outstanding at any point. This is our new growth. So new growth isn't factored into the tax rate, but we get to apply the tax rate to our new growth. I just kind of thought this was interesting because I do keep the records. So you can see that in 10 years, so from 2016 to now, we've had a 58.55% increase in new growth over time. So I just thought that was interesting.

Is that year over year?

Just from 2016 to not because it fluctuates so just from 2016 just comparing 2016 to 2026. Okay so our history of tax rates so this is where typically I would say our values went up so our rates went down but you can see here that there is a slight increase in each one of our rates and this has to do more than likely for a couple reasons. We did have a significant, if I go back to this new growth slide, a significant decrease in our new growth right here. If you'll remember last year, we came to you and told you that we had a large amount of public infrastructure districts, PIDs. When we created those PIDs, they created new growth. I don't want to say that it's artificial new growth, but it counts as new growth. We didn't have 50 new PIDs this year, and so We don't have that new growth this year. So that's one aspect of it. Another aspect of it that's kind of something to be aware of is we did do the detailed review area on the commercial properties. And we also had our residential growth. Utah is a nondisclosure state, which means sales data is not reported. There's varying opinions of whether that's a good idea or whether that's a bad idea. But something that happens because of that is that we don't have good sales data on commercial properties, which leads us to believe that our commercial values are underreported. And the reason that we know that they're underreported is because when we go through the Board of Equalization Appeals processes and we do get copies of appraisals as part of that process, we typically see that we are underreported. So when we know what we do have the ability to access residential values, the assessor's office says through the MLS, we see some value shifting when that happens. And so between the new growth and probably some of that commercial valuing, this is probably accounts for this slight either flat or slight increase in value or rates that we're seeing. You can see here, this is the revenue. This is the dollar dollars of those tax rates for those rates expressed in dollars. Um, 1 thing I want to just bring up this will be the last year if you'll recall in 2024, we had an issue with essentially assess properties. This will be the last year that, uh, for those entities that opted to take that rate over 3 years. This will be the last year that that rate will be impacted by that. Um, centrally assessed issue. Finally, these are the rates just kind of all in one slide, all in one area, and also compared to our 2026 budget. Calendar year entities, which is what we are, we go from January 1st to December 31st, are at a little bit of disadvantage when we set our budgets because we're a full year behind. So we kind of have to guess at what new growth is going to be. We have to do our best projections and try not to over ESTIMATE OR UNDERESTIMATE. AND SO WE'RE ABOUT WITHIN 1% OF WHAT OUR ESTIMATES WOULD BE AS FAR AS OUR BUDGETING GOES. SO I'D SAY WE DID FAIRLY GOOD CONSIDERING, YOU KNOW, YOU'RE SHOOTING IN THE DARK FOR MOST OF THE TIME. RIGHT NOW WE'RE ESTIMATING THAT THE TOTAL REVENUE GENERATED OFF OF THESE TAX RATES WILL BE ABOUT $15 MILLION. Yeah, with that, that's my presentation. Any questions?

Any questions from the council?

I have one. For the sake of the public, will you explain where the formula for your state property taxes come from? Because we don't generate them here, but we get blamed for them.

Yeah, so it is a robust formula that includes, I can't, it includes a lot of factors, so including the... The numbers of properties, the values of the properties, the collection rates, new growth, a whole bunch of factors go into it. So it's not just like A plus B equals C. I would recommend anybody that wants to read up on it, the State Tax Commission has a great slideshow presentation. It's about 25 slides long.

For what I'm getting at, for the sake of the public that doesn't understand or doesn't know is that we don't determine the formula that we have to use. If you don't like your property taxes, I keep telling the public, you've got to complain to your state legislatures. Because we are required by law to use their formulas. Absolutely.

So one follow-up question or comment. So understanding that, unless we distinctly say earlier in the year we're going to raise taxes, the taxes may automatically adjust then because of the state's formula for raising them. Is that correct? Yes, correct.

Yeah, and for us, if we wanted to do, so right now, The fiscal year entities are the ones that would be doing tax increases, and I appreciate you bringing that up. We do have a couple of entities that are considering tax increases, including Grantsville, Tula City, and the North Tula City Special Service District.

And the school district, right? No. I thought they told us earlier this year they were going to.

Not at this time, no.

No, they haven't notified. Yeah. That's because it's an election year.

But for us to do a tax increase, we would have to do it in the fall. We would have to notify in the fall that we're planning to do it, and then we wouldn't see that tax increase until this year at this time. And so the timing, like I said, it's a little bit difficult, more difficult for calendar year entities to project.

Okay. Any other questions or comments? Thank you. Is this, wait a minute, this is a resolution, so.

You've got three resolutions, I think it's four resolutions. Is it four or is it three? THERE'S FOUR RATES. I THINK THEY'RE IN THREE RESOLUTIONS.

I THINK WE HAVE TO TAKE EACH OF THEM SEPARATELY BECAUSE THEY'RE ESTABLISHING TAX RATES. IS THAT CORRECT? CORRECT.

OKAY. SO ON RESOLUTION 2026-15, CHAIR, ENTERTAIN A MOTION.

SO MOVED.

HEARING A MOTION FROM COUNCILMAN WARDLE. WHAT HAPPENS IF WE DON'T APPROVE IT? We start shutting doors. I can take a pay cut. Is there a second to the motion? Second. Hearing a second from Councilman Stromberg. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All those who may oppose, say nay.

Nay. Great philosophical question, though.

So it will pass with a four to one vote. Hoffman voted against it. That will bring us down to resolution 2026-16. Is there any questions or comments on that one?

Mr. Chairman, I make a motion to adopt 2026-16.

Hearing a motion from Councilman Wardle on resolution 2026-16. Is there a second?

Second.

Hearing a second from Councilman Thomas. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those in favor say nay. Nay. That is a four to one vote.

Councilman Hoffman voting contrary.

Resolution 2026-17. Is there any other questions or comments or additions to that? If not, Chair, entertain a motion.

So moved.

Hearing a motion from Councilman Stromberg, is there a second? Second. Hearing a second from Councilman Thomas. All those in favor of Resolution 2026-17 say aye. Aye. All those that may oppose, say nay. Nay.

That is a 4 to 1, and recognizing that Councilman Hoffman is in opposition of it.

That will bring us down to Resolution 2026-18, directing and reviewing the ordinance addressing the data center energy, Nathan Harris.

Good evening, Council. GET THAT IN THERE. SO THE RESOLUTION THAT YOU HAVE, 2026-18, HAS COME ABOUT PURELY BECAUSE THERE ARE LOTS OF NEWSWORTHY STORIES THAT ARE HAPPENING AROUND THE STATE WITH REGARDS TO DATA CENTERS. AND WE WOULD LIKE TO GET AHEAD OF IT. What we want to do is we want to make it very clear to the public that we are going to do what we can to make sure that we are setting rules that people need to follow if they're going to come into the county with regards to data centers. We're looking at a possible energy excise tax. THAT HIGH UTILITY CUSTOMERS WOULD BE CHARGED. AND THEN THERE'S ANOTHER REGIONALLY SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENT ZONE OVERLAY STANDARDS THAT WE WANT TO ADOPT. AND SO WE DON'T ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT WE WANT TO DO YET, BUT THIS RESOLUTION PUTS IT OUT THERE THAT AND MAKES IT SO THE PUBLIC IS AWARE OR ANYBODY WHO IS FILING FOR AN APPLICATION THAT WE ARE LOOKING AT CHANGING OUR STANDARDS TO THE LAND USE ORDINANCES AND THAT WE ARE LOOKING AT IMPLEMENTING potentially financially impactful items that may affect developers. And so this doesn't actually adopt anything, but what it does is it directs community development, the manager's office, and the attorney's office to start looking at ways to implement these three items. And so it just puts everybody on notice that we are looking at these things that will temporarily potentially pause some applications that come into community development as we make these rules, but then it's gonna have to go through the Planning Commission and then it would likely come back to you after it's been through that whole process.

And public comments. We're gonna open it up during this time future. Yes. Take public comments from the public.

Yes, yeah. Anything that goes through the Planning Commission will have a public comment and then we'll also be drafting ordinances and having public comments on those as well.

Any other questions or comments?

So, Nathan, you hit on it, but I just want to make sure it's clear. So, with this, if someone comes in, if they came in tomorrow and said, hey, I want to, you know, put in this data center, they're going to have to hold off while we figure this out.

Yes, because right now, in discussions with Rochelle, in our land use ordinances, we don't even address data centers at all, right? We don't have anything that regulates those. There's nothing that addresses that. And so we want to make sure that we are allowing developers to use their land, but also protecting the public interest as well. And so we need some regulations in place to just make it clear what our expectations are as a county and what your expectations are as the council.

So, Nathan, understanding that there is the distinction, though, that MITA, which what happened in Box Elder County, we don't have a lot of say on MITA issues because they're their own land use authority.

That is accurate.

The Inland Port area, we do have somewhat of a say, and we have to sign off on certain portions of anything that takes place there. Is that correct? That is. And with this, that anyone who wanted to bring a data center in, in the general county land, not specifically the city, is receiving the notice that they may have to abide by standards, taxes, zoning regulations that are yet to come, and they are being given notice of that today. That is correct. Perfect, thank you.

Any other questions or comments? I've got a comment. So last month at WIR, I met a guy FROM LOUDON COUNTY. ANDY IS FAMILIAR WITH LOUDON COUNTY. WHY ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THEM?

THEY HAVE THE MOST DATA CENTERS OF ANY COUNTY IN THE COUNTRY.

HE GOES AROUND AND ADVISES MUNICIPALITIES ON DATA CENTERS. THAT'S ONE THING HE DOES. I'm going to pass this around. I'm going to leave the other copies out for the public to take. But these are the main issues that he, it's one and a half pages, very quick and easy to read. The main things that he recommends that municipalities look at and some of the considerations. And so I've given this to Andy a month or so ago. And so he's already put this into, for consideration. But then on the very back, he mentions the pros and cons of data centers, which there are pros and cons. The biggest pro, and I think why they do them a lot, is because they bring in a huge amount of tax revenue for the county. And so it's a good way for them to keep their property taxes lower. But there are some cons as well. And so if this is stuff we're considering, we've got to look at how to mitigate all these cons and stuff. OK. So it's a quick, easy read. Take a look at it. General public, if you guys want it, I'd recommend you take it. And you'll actually have more information than most of the general public does on data centers. So I'm going to put it up here on the table.

Okay. Any other questions or comments? If not, please.

Mr. Chairman, the UAC, we did have a meeting a week ago with the USAC committee regarding this. There will be a summit coming in the first of July regarding data centers and trying to get in front of it. Different counties are addressing it in different ways. I think we've chosen a less Draconian way of a moratorium or some we'll see with moratoriums for 180 days or longer this allows us to move and Use our processes in a manner that we can build the ordinances at the same time of not shutting down anything But I do think that we need to be cautionary. And Ty, I like what you said. We had a great meeting. And if we can be at the USAC meeting in a couple of weeks that will be at UAC's headquarters, there will be lunch. Yeah, there's a whole day like seminar on the day of summers.

OK. Chair, do you want to obtain a motion?

So moved.

Motion from Councilman Stromberg. Is there a second?

Second.

Second for Councilman Thomas. All those in favor of Resolution 2026-18 say aye. Aye. All those who may oppose say nay. That sounds unanimous and that is adopted. We're at Ordinance E, Ordinance 2026-05. Nathan. Thank you, Chairman.

So over the past probably year, in discussions with you guys, you all have expressed a desire to change how our fraud, waste, and abuse complaints are handled at the county level. And so in working through this ordinance with each of you, what has been decided is that we're going to move away from our current system, which is where the auditor would receive a fraud, waste and abuse complaint through a link on her website or an email or a letter where she would then conduct an initial screening of the complaint or she would gather relevant information, including potential applicable policies, statutes or supporting documentation and then forward these complaints or not, depending on her determination, to an audit committee. And you guys have expressed the desire to have more transparency. And I think her comments earlier today just reinforce your guys' desire. So what we have done is we have created a new committee that will handle the fraud, waste, and abuse complaints. In the statute, we define what abuse is and what fraud is and what the screening committee is. In particular, the screening committee is now, if this passes, would be a five-member committee that's made up of the county auditor, the county manager or designee, two members of the Tooele County Council, one of which would be the chairman or the vice chair, and the county attorney or designee of the county attorney. And One important thing is this, because we're creating a new committee, we're gonna have to follow AAPMA rules. The Open and Public Meetings Act is going to apply. Whenever this committee has to meet, we'll have to public notice it. There may be some confidentiality that needs to be safeguarded, but this committee in and of itself is going to have five separate eyes, people with different expertise in different areas. who are going to be able to screen these complaints as they come in and then make a vote on what to do with that complaint. And so it does reinforce the ideas of transparency and more oversight by making it so this committee is the one who is screening it instead of having just one individual. We also have built into this, because we know that sometimes some complaints are going to come in about the counsel. Some complaints might come in about the auditor or the manager or the attorney. And so if a member of that committee, the complaint is about them, that person would have to recuse themselves. And they won't be able to participate in the screening process. And then what we have done is we have bifurcated out this audit committee. Our audit committee was set up in statute reporting to you guys, and their job functions are very financially related. They are meant to come in. They are meant to review audits done by external auditors. They're meant to help with financial safeguards. And so sometimes with this audit committee, with our current system and the fraud, waste and abuse, what's happening is these audit committee members are getting subjects that aren't really pertinent to their expertise. And so we have taken them out of that review process. And so instead of using the audit committee as the screener, it's now this new committee that we have created in this ordinance.

Any other questions or comments from the council? Nope.

I have some questions. But Ty, are you? No, go ahead. A couple of things real quick. A year ago, we were told by our external auditors that at the end of the day, the council has the ultimate responsibility on fraud, waste, and abuse. Was that correct? I believe that's correct. And that this committee will report any issues with fraud, waste, and abuse by report to the county council. Is that correct?

Yes, that is in there as well. So the screening committee has a few options, right? Once they determine that the report meets the definition of fraud, waste, and abuse, the screening committee is going to forward it either to the auditor for her statutory duty review. It can be forwarded to the county legislative body, which is you guys, for a performance audit. It can be forwarded again to you guys for further investigation or perhaps some other external agency needs to look into it. It might be a legal question that another agency might be investigating and so that would go to them instead or you guys can, the committee can decide that there's no merit to it.

It seems like we'd have to involve HR potentially on some of these issues too. Right? If a sexual harassment complaint comes through this or whatever, that's an HR issue as well, right?

Yeah, and so the committee could decide, hey, this is where it needs to go.

So understanding that then the audit committee is being segmented away from those because by ordinance, they really deal with our audits, our financial statements. They don't deal with the other matters that may come in under fraud, waste and abuse.

Yes. And with fraud, waste and abuse complaints, I would generally say that most of them come in and they're multifaceted. They're not going to be simply financial or legal. They're going to be

It's not appropriate for having just the auditor deal with a sexual harassment complaint or a legal issue, correct?

Yeah, it would be good to have multiple eyes on it.

Any other questions? Scott Brighthead, you were involved in this as our county attorney?

Very much so, yes.

Any comments from you?

No, I think we have, we need to have more eyes frankly on these complaints. I think part of the issues that I think we've seen recently is I don't think some items have been screened well and they end up not going to the places they need to go to. If an investigation needs to be done, it's not an audit committee that does an investigation. They have no investigative powers. So we need to get these, if there is something serious, we need to get it to the right people that know how to do investigations and know how to look into these items so we can look at these items seriously.

So understanding that then by defining this in sections A and B, the audit committee will have a better definition of what their roles and responsibilities are and training and that they can start moving forward on their roles and responsibilities because at least in my discussions with a couple of members of the committee, they're just confused and that this would open up a door for us to get them moving down that road for the 2026, 27 years. Is that correct? Okay.

Hearing nothing else, Chair, entertain a motion. So moved. Hearing a motion from Councilman Hoffman, is there a second? Second. Second from Councilman Wardle. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those who may oppose say nay. That is adopted. Council updates. Councilman Hoffman. I have none tonight. Councilman Thomas. Aye. Councilman Strummer. Nothing tonight. Councilman Hamner will pass. Councilman Bortle.

I do have one. We have been working with the COG Committee and to the elected officials here in the room and those that are within our county. One of the things that the Council of Governments has been really focused on this year and going into next year is the growth, and Allison, you showed that in the residential parcels this year. We are growing, and we're going to grow, and we're going to grow fast. There are a couple of things that really concern us about that growth, and that is if we can get in front of it and we can plan it correctly, it will be an incredible benefit. If we don't, it will run us over, and we've seen communities where that has occurred. So on August 3rd or 4th, we'll hold the first growth summit for those in the council of governments. That will be all elected officials within the county. It's not going to be staffs. It will also involve WFRC, Utah Association of Counties, the Utah League of Cities and Towns, and we'll be going through an evening of briefing on the nuclear lifecycle project that we are currently in the middle of we know that state is is Continuing to move forward in their efforts on that and hope to have some better understanding Because if we can get our head around that issue plus the other issues then we will come back in the next quarter and we'll start dealing with housing and Components of that the cities we have a committee that that's worked on that and so we as a council We'll be meeting on that August 3rd at the Tooele Applied Technology College. I think we have 81 who will be there that evening. We're working with Emmy's office, the Department of Energy Development to help us present that night. I spoke with Cameron Deal today and with the Utah Association of Counties, the Wasatch Front Regional Council last week to start to set up November's. We think that Good education leads to good outcomes. Good data leads to good outcomes. And so the better the data we can get, the better we can start getting in front of many of the things that will be coming at us. It was a very interesting conversation with one of the cities that as soon as the Nuclear Life Cycle Campus possibility was announced, some of the major companies in the United States came in looking at land to land speculating their cities. They already understand and it's not just the companies that may locate here, it's the companies that will supply those companies and the companies that supply those companies. And so we just want to make sure that we approach this in a good systemic process and that we have the best tools in our toolbox to be able to do it. So I just wanted to share that.

Can we get an invite on that meeting invite?

Yes. It should be going. If it hasn't gone out, it should go out for Megan. Okay.

Hey, Kendall, you're invited.

We would like you.

Thank you. To wear yellow.

We'll have an update from our county manager.

Just a couple of quick items. I'd like to thank you for your consideration of the data center. That's something that we have been concerned about for months, quite honestly, with what we've been seeing going on. And so we've been working on that for a couple of months, updating it as late as this morning. We want the public to be involved on that as well. And so we're really trying to be deliberative about that and setting guardrails so that we do it right. And so thank you for allowing us the chance to look at that. The other two that we're looking at, one actually would go to the Planning Commission. Two would go to the Planning Commission, the data center and the other long acronym, which regionally significant development zones would go to the Planning Commission. The other one, the excise tax is something that's brand new that counties were not able to charge us up until a month and a half ago. And so at the Utah Association of County meeting, they recommended that we get that in place. And it's just on large data producers. big companies like that. It's not on the general public. And so that's one where we're able to get something back from those big users. And so we think that's legitimate for them to pay that. So there's some nuances that we're trying to walk through as well. But we appreciate you allowing us some time to continue to look at that because this is a big issue. We think you need to be more informed. The public needs to be as well. And one of the things that we had written in there, which is kind of a different way than we've done it before, is typically conditional use is just go to the planning commission. We've written this so far, those big things have to come to you for final decision. It's not, there are such large impacts on the community, it really should be a council decision. And so it's kind of a funny segmentation of how we do that. I don't think we've done that before. But the small ones could go to the Planning Commission, but anything larger than that has to come here because we think this is the right body to make that decision on those types of things. So thank you for allowing us to kind of walk down that road so that we can get this done right. The other thing that I would just say, and this is, I thought it was interesting, we received an email from Matt Holten, and he's helped us with some of the congressional funding. And I was just looking at the congressional funding that we are receiving, $5.2 million from Celeste Malloy through Congress for Droubet. Well, there were 11 applications for road projects that came through Utah, not just from Celeste's office, but through Utah. We are the largest by far. We got $5.2 million. I think there was a total of $18 million. So we received about a third of the road funding came to us through the Drew Bay project. And so we're really excited about that. It typically takes you about two years from the time that we're awarded to the time we start construction. That's been the history so far. And so it may be a couple of years before we start that one. But we are starting, Ibepa is starting this summer. They should be finishing up in September. And so that's exciting. And we had a big kickoff meeting. Jared and I were able to meet with some of the tribal leadership out there as they were having that meeting. Just exciting that on the roadside at least, people apply for other things through this community project funding. Some of it's public safety, but as far as roads, we've hit a sweet spot and we've been pretty successful in doing that. So it's a great project that we're working on. So thank you for your support. That's all I have.

Thank you. And he just mentioned Matt Holden. I don't know if the general public knows who Matt is. Have we heard that from Matt?

He's our federal lobbyist who helps us with federal issues. He has a lot of connections, and he's been very helpful, instrumental in kind of guiding us through how best to navigate the federal government. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. If nothing else, did the chair entertain a motion to adjourn? So moved. We are adjourned and it is 6.50 p.m. Recording stopped.