County Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome, everyone. Thank you for coming tonight. Tonight's August 4, 2026. We're located at the county building on the third floor in the county chambers. We welcome all of you being here. We'll be led by the Pledge of Allegiance by Councilman Wardle.

indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Councilman. As far as roll call, we have Nathan Harris representing the County Attorney's Office. As far as Councilman, we have Councilman Hoffman, Councilman Thomas, Councilman Stromberg, Councilman Hamner, and Councilman Wardle present. From the County Manager's Office, we have Andy Welch, County Manager, Assistant County Manager Brittany Lopez, and Tracy Shaw as our County Clerk. Thank you all for being here.

Mr. Chairman, as a point of order, would you be willing to entertain a motion to amend the agenda?

Chair recognizes Councilman Wardle.

Mr. Chairman, if we could amend the agenda to move Item 9C... to after the public comments, which is the commercial property assessment services by our assessor, Joy Peters, so we can take care of that matter early and then go back to the regular agenda. That is my motion. Chair Greg Musil.

Hearing a motion from Councilman Wardle, is there a second? Second.

Chair Greg Musil.

Hearing a second from Councilman Strongberg. All those in favor of this change to the agenda, say aye.

Aye.

All those that may oppose, say nay. That is adopted. and that brings down to public comment is there anybody in the audience by the raise of hand that would like to make a public comment seeing one seeing two we have two three minutes why don't you please come up will you make sure that that green light oh yeah there's a green light thank you my name is anita dalrymple i've been a

Resident of the county now for 24 years. I have a few comments about public access To information I found with meeting with various citizen groups trying to understand our most critical issues and how people feel about them One of the biggest things that's come up is the difficulty of finding information And I did submit written comments that covers the specific issues that were that I'm talking about but I just want to briefly mention what we're talking about, having a hard time finding information. One example is that I object to flock cameras because I do believe that they violate our Fourth Amendment rights. And so I called the sheriff's office to try to find out what our contract is with flock you know, how many cameras we're going to have and all that sort of information. And what I was told is call the Utah Highway Patrol. So what I'm asking of the council is to figure out ways to make the contract available to the public, more specific information available to the public so we understand exactly what the county has signed up for. Another example of information that's difficult to find, I met with an epidemiologist about the potential nuclear campus. And he said that, um, we had a right to know who in the county was agreeing to even have a center consideration. And I can't find anything about that sort of thing. Um, that's another thing I'd really like more transparency about. And then the final thing I want to mention right now, just due to time is that, um, we're spending tax dollars. It sounds like on an attorney to review the nuclear campus. Memo of understanding. I'm very concerned that we're spending money outside of our regular budget to do something like this I don't I don't see yet how this is an advantageous project for the county and yet We're pick dollars that we're all paying into the funds Are now going to this project that many of us don't support and we have not committed to at this point so I would ask that there's more transparency about why we're paying for that and why our our salaried attorneys aren't doing that work. Thank you so much for your time.

Please.

Good evening. Thank you. Uh, my name is Rose Moore and I did sign in and I've been a resident here for only six years. I found a really hot guy, married him and he made me move here. So that was actually, that was a good thing. If he was here, he'd kill me. Um, two areas that I wanted to address. During the July meeting, there was a proposition, this RSDZ overlay, T-C-U-L-O 26-100. The way that that was proposed on the agenda that we were able to see upfront I believe was very deceptive and or misleading, you know, probably not intentionally. That was the title of it. It had to do with the overlay. Most of the citizens that were here were completely blindsided and were not prepared to make any meaningful public comment with regard to the subject matter of that, which did include the data center. So one thing that I would ask is on the MOU that would be coming up, anything that would have to do with notice that had to do with the proposed nuclear campus, that that is really clear in how it's labeled. So when we're looking at the agenda, we know what we're looking for and can address it properly. To that end, I would ask if someone would be considered to make a motion to reopen public comment on that overlay proposition. My understanding, based on the last meeting, was that it was supposed to be resubmitted Review because there was things that were missing there were blanks and that it had to be revised I've never seen an actual copy of it, too To take a look at and redline on my own The other thing with regard to that line item J the retention of Holland and Hart LLP for the MOU I did submit a written Comment today one thing that I wanted to make sure and bring to your attention is that In the event of the worst case happens, that this nuclear thing blows up, right? I did personal injury work a long time ago. Don't kill me. I don't do that now. One thing that I was able to find was that, you know, you have to sue if you have damages. You get sick, whatever the radiation affects you, you're either suing the government if it was their negligence, or you're suing the contractor who's responsible for the daily maintenance of it. However, those things take a long time, and they're very tedious and expensive for someone who's sick and injured. The MOU, when you get to that point, should include verbiage that would require the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, also known as RECA. Utah can specifically provide for this in that contract, which allows victims under RECA to bypass all of the problems issues associated with following federal lawsuit entirely and receive a tax-free lump sum payment simply by approving medical diagnosis and geographic proximity. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. That will bring us down to where it has been amended on 9C. That is a commercial property assessment service agreement. Services agreement with the commercial assistance to you act provides for the county's agreement and terms and outline joy Good evening council.

Thank you so much for amending that and allowing me to Provide for that so that I can get home and take care of needed things a while ago a couple years ago you act entertained because there were counties in trouble that needed assistance immediately and to provide commercial assistance that's up and running and going. We talked about that at UAC when they announced it, and I bounced all over the room because I was so excited about having that as a possibility. I really appreciate Andy and Nathan working with me and going through the presentation that UAC did with us. John Ulibarri presented all of the things that we would be doing and the assistance that was made. in the past contracted with appraiser services that provide valuation they'll help with appeals and they'll help with permits but the uac assistance is all the way down to a daily task should they need to step in and help with the county that can't do commercial things property splits and looking at all of the valuation and determining land guides and updates and market analysis this is something that i believe is going to be more beneficial for the county because it does right down to the day-to-day what happens in a county that needs for commercial needs it's my way of trying to provide absolute and complete sustainability with commercial uh... regardless of whether you have a commercial appraiser in the office or not it's training and providing uh... additional assistance with us we are moving in carving out roles that are different so that we have our appraisers learning to do some of the commercial things that they'll be able to do going forward. We have different things that they'll help us with as far as the permits as well as detailed review as well as the commercial valuation and audits of the data to make sure that we're equitable, we're reasonable with our values and that we're on task with market. I really feel like and when I brought it to Andy and Nathan to review for the contractual agreement as well as the process and what we provided, I wanted it to be a decision that you were involved with as well. I wanted you to understand the transparency and what we were trying to do and why. I feel like it will be a cost savings as well that will allow us to move in different directions for other things that we can do with the budget that we really need. I feel like this is the best alternative for the county to go forward. It will meet the needs better. It will be sustainable. I'm asking for a three-year contract so that it will continue and be consistent and provide for that so that there's no breaks in it from year to year or deviations that could cause problems. Do you have questions about any of the things that I've given you?

I have a couple, but I'll turn it over to the council. Any questions, Councilman Hoffman? Not at this point. Councilman Thomas?

Always a good joy. Thank you. Councilman Stromberg, Councilman Wardle. I appreciate your presentation. Thank you.

Just the one question. On a three-year, when would you reevaluate that? Would you do that after they've done two years and you'd say, hey, do we want to re-up for another three years? Yes.

In the contract, it provides that either party can discontinue if they don't feel like it's meeting the needs. The third year was just because I'm up for a reelection in two years. And I kind of got nervous and thought, if I don't win the election, because I will have a challenge. That's something that I'm concerned about and that extra year to have that stability there is very important to me. I feel like that is a necessity.

Good. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. If there's not any other questions, charity entertain a motion.

I just make one quick comment. I just appreciate joy. She brought a lot of information to us that we, we went through a couple of times and just, she showed the trend lines of how it's been in the past, what they're projecting. And so I really appreciate bringing that information. So I'm very comfortable with what she's requesting.

Chair to entertain a motion. So moved in a motion. Councilman Hoffman is there a second second here. Second councilman Stromberg, all those in favor. Say aye. Aye. All those that may oppose, say nay. That is adopted.

Thank you so much.

You bet.

Enjoy your meeting.

That will bring us back to presentations, and we have our tourism director, Chris McCormick.

Thank you, council and staff. I appreciate the opportunity to meet with you today and and present on a project I've been working on for a little bit. It's called SPEED, which stands for Sports Performance Entertainment and Adventure District. And so the county owns 200 acres directly across the street from the peak. And I've been looking at different opportunities to grow tourism in the county. I've been working with a number of the different tourism assets that are already here and different communities. But I've been looking into ways that we can develop things that hopefully will have a long-term impact on tourism, but also on economic development for the county. So Tooele County has an incredible legacy that spans over a thousand years from the go shoot pioneers, miners, modern day transplants. Previous generations built legacies that have lasted for many, many years. They built farms, mills, roads, neighborhoods, mines, railroads, and even the military. Every generation left something significant of worth behind, and I think we have that opportunity with this project as well. Our real assets aren't top of mind, unfortunately, for most people. When I go out to other areas and ask about Tooele, I hear things about the county, the typical things that we're used to hearing, toxic waste, nuclear waste, things like that, and the Army Depot. We're not really overly known for our assets. We have UMC. We have the Peak. We have a lot of great things here. We have some incredible hikes and tourist areas, but they're not top of mind for people. So I've been looking at some ideas. Oh, you're ahead of me. Boy, you're good. All right. Speed is a connected district, not a standalone entity. There are four year-round demand engines, sports tourism, motor sports, entertainment, adventure, and if we're able to get a convention center hotel, then we'll have conferences as well, which would be another engine. So you have the peak, UMC, mountain landscapes, future lodging and dining, and it's all in one destination, one untamed district, which gives us a clean slate to really build from. If we can go to the next slide. Thank you. Tooele County already owns the 200 acres. No acquisition cost, the county maintains long-term control. It's across the street from the peak, close to UMC, near the Salt Lake Airport, and has a large regional market to draw from. The aim is to connect these assets in a way that multiplies all of their values. Next slide. Every figure in this presentation is illustrative planning range. It's not a guarantee. So we will test these through market validation, operator talks, cost analysis and a comprehensive capital plan. The goal is to utilize public infrastructure to unlock private development. Private operators carry the facility and operating risk, not the county. The county keeps the land and captures revenue through leases, events, tourism, lodging and sponsorships. These numbers are a starting hypothesis, not a promise. Our job over the next several months is to validate those numbers and to really try to make them more concrete. Quality of life developments are economic infrastructure, not just a nice to have thing. Companies relocating ask questions like, what do our employees do in their off time? What do they do on weekends? Will they want to live here? Speed provides residents with recreation, entertainment, dining, and drives overnight visitor spending. Tourism, community pride, workforce retention, and recruitment reinforce each other. Speed gives employers one more reason to choose Tooele County and our families another reason to stay. The next couple of slides, if you'll advance. Thank you. The next couple of slides are a conceptual plan only, not a final site layout. The way I designed this was more in line with like Lagoon and Disney, where you have parking in one area and then you have all the other things that you visit and experience in another area. The goal is to make the entire district stronger and turn Tooele County into a recreation and adventure epic center for Northern Utah. And based on my research, there's no other place like this in the Mountain Northwest. So I think that's really, really important. The images depicted serve as vision tools only, not commitments. Speed will encourage numerous overnight stays, local spending, and repeat visits. UMC race weekends will become multi-day visits, and corporate groups will blend meetings and recreation. Speed is the flywheel that will create more reasons to visit, stay, spend, and return again and again. The next slide has potential tenants. I've looked at these and validated them through a number of different analysis. Every one of these depicted on here is looking for places to expand and to grow their brand. Some of these are actually Utah-based, so there's some real opportunities there. The next thing is the 2034 Winter Olympics. That's a huge, huge drawing card, not only for Utah, but for Tooele. We're in close proximity. And it gives us a real opportunity to make a presence and have something lasting. Years ago, when I was managing a resort in southern Utah during the 2002 Winter Olympics, we had a whole busload of international media folks that came down and they saw our properties, saw Bryce Canyon, saw that, and it really has a lasting impact. And so we could have the same thing here, whether we do this or not, we can still really plan to have a presence during the Olympics. The next slide, um, vision balanced with prudent stewardship can offer incredible returns to Tooele County. The county retains the land in perpetuity. Private operators finance their own facilities. The county is able to collect taxes on those properties as well. Infrastructure advances only after commitments, deposits, grants, and feasible capital stack are secured. The objective, no general fund backfill, no construction bid before evidence. And that's really the main crux of this, is I don't want to really put the county in a bad situation. I'm asking for you all to be bold but disciplined at the same time. Modern day pioneers who also protect the county's treasury. Next slide. The goal is balanced mix, not one headline tenant. Indoor anchors that are weather resistant provide a reason for people to visit year round. Every prospect will be evaluated by dwell time, hotel nights, community value, and synergy with the neighbors. No single organization should carry this alone. I'm sorry. Next slide. My apologies. So this should be a team approach. And these are the individuals or organizations that I think would be good people to put together on a launch committee. And it's basically an investigative committee. It's not something that commits anybody to anything other than to do some research, to look at potential tenants, and to really test this to see if this is viable. Next slide. So we organize, package, recruit, validate, and then return and report to the council. What success looks like is evidence, operator conversations, letters of interest, developer engagement. In addition, we will strive to determine realistic costs with feasible funding paths. If the evidence is weak, we will stop or adjust based on the county council's recommendation. If the evidence is strong, we roll up our sleeves, work hand in hand with the county council and staff, and do our best to bring this to fruition. My ask today is to authorize Tooele County Chamber and Tourism to organize a committee to develop promotional tools, pursue tenants, operators, and a convention hotel developer, sponsors, and partners, and with a mandate to report back to the council on or before December 31st, 2027. This gives us time to really evaluate. If we find that we have a strong interest early on, obviously we'll come back sooner. This authorizes us to conduct preliminary market and partnership work, no construction, no debt or major financial obligation until proof is returned. The yesterday doesn't build anything. It gives us permission to go find out, validate and then return and report to the council. Next slide. The county was built by pioneers, entrepreneurs and people with a quest for a better life. Speed can serve as an economic development tool that can benefit many generations. It can also help to shift public perception from what people perceive from the outside to a premier destination and business community. I invite you all to join me in this quest to take Tooele County to a whole new level. I'm asking you to give us the chance to build a new chapter that Tooele families will be proud of to inherit. And then the last slide, please. Willa County was built by people who saw possibility, worked through uncertainty, and still came out ahead. I'm not asking for approval to build. I'm asking to test whether the vision can earn its own way forward. I have met with Grantsville, with Utah Motorsports, with The Peak, and I've had some very good conversations and very, very healthy conversations. So I ask that you give us the chance to recruit partners, create something that can have a powerful economic impact, not just for today, but for future generations. Any questions?

Questions from, excuse me, questions from the council.

I'm sorry.

So Chris, I really appreciate this. I like the direction I, and I, You had Grantsville in there. I guess the one thing as we do this, knowing what their plans or what they've talked about going just to the west of the peak, right? So I think we just need to make sure if we move forward this, we're not competing against each other for something. And I know you had that. I think it's just important that we really are looking at those two projects.

I think you're spot on. So I have met with Mayor Hammond and with the county manager, and they've embraced this wholeheartedly and see it as a piece of what they want to build. And so they just think it's a really positive fit.

Any other questions from council?

You and I have talked about this, Chris. Thanks for working on this. You know, one of the biggest complaints out on 2411 and all the other social media spots is that there's not much to do out here. People have to go into Salt Lake and stuff like this. So I think it's a great idea to at least entertain it and take a look at it to see what it would look like. Because I don't think most people realize, but the pool that we just got done doing is the most utilized public pool in the state of Utah.

Oh, it's busy. I stopped by to visit the peak the other day and it was packed.

We need more recreation things in here, and I'm all in favor of at least looking at the idea because we often hear from the public that we need more recreation-type stuff out here.

I agree. Thank you. Councilman Thomas, did you have something you were going to say?

I do. When you and I first visited, my first concern was Andy doesn't need anything more to do. And that goes to staff, but your focus was clearly from the beginning is this is your thing that you're going to take on. You're developing a network to move forward, and I don't know what the actual cost would be. Is there startup money required, where that would come from? But hopefully we can find some support. I think it's worth exploring.

So I would like to have either somebody from the council or somebody that council points to be on this committee, just so that there is continuity back with the county. And so I did meet with Andy as well. And what he got was a whole lot thicker than what you got. You got a piece of paper, and you got a whole notebook. So I apologize for that. But I'm trying to be thorough and make sure that we're looking at every avenue possible to make this work, and that we don't hurt the county in any way, but we actually do something that has a long-term positive benefit.

you guys saw i had no skills on that so she wants to do it as well oh i i i uh councilman you want me to ask questions now yeah okay you and i didn't meet you requested to meet with me and i was gone for 18 19 days so if i could get a couple things can i get the book you gave him can what i get the book you gave him

Yeah, he's got it. You can take my book. I have a digital copy. You want a copy? I have a digital copy.

I'm a hard copy reader.

You want to check that out from the library? You can have mine.

Yeah, I just, the more information we can gather, for me, that's always better.

Oh, I totally agree.

Number, I guess the second thing is, is I understand doing LOIs, and I understand doing ground lease agreements and those sort of things. The question is, would we want to partner with a company who specializes in this, whether it's Cushman Wakefield, You know, there's several out of Salt Lake, but there's the national groups to sit on this committee and possibly engage services with them. So they're attending many of the events, whether it's the big event in Las Vegas over the week before Memorial Day, some of those national LOI signings, so that you're not having to run everywhere. I'm worried about workload and how we go through this. What are your thoughts about that?

I'm perfectly fine with whoever you want involved in this committee. I'm just trying to save dollars as much as possible on the front end. That's why I looked at EDC Utah, GOEO, and some of the others that have these connections. I know Jared knows a couple of people at Larry H. Miller Group. He also knows some other folks. I think there's other folks that have good connections. That was my approach. I'm just trying to do it as conservatively as possible. If you choose to If the council chooses to go that path, I'm perfectly good with whoever you put on the committee.

TODD BANDUCCI- And I appreciate you being willing to do that. I think it's something that we should consider. Because at the end of the day, I don't think any of us on this council has ever written an LOI. I don't know if we've ever done a ground lease agreement. I don't know if you have.

Not anything to this scale.

And I think having individuals with those expertise always moves things faster, especially when they can open the doors. The second thing is I love this. I think that that corridor is, with everything else that is taking place, has the opportunity to explode. And it has the opportunity to become the center of the valley and everything else growing out of it and will feed the other environments. And so I love this concept, love the idea. And Kendall, I agree with you when we talk about different things in terms of what will this look like to start up. I say we go gather the information, make great decisions.

Scott, just a question for you. When would you recommend bringing on somebody like that? Right at the very beginning or after it's approved?

I think the committee needs to look at that and look at various companies. I know in my experience in Tooele City, and these projects take years.

Well, I know.

You know, we had colliers that we, and usually when you hire them, they get paid post-performance, not pre-performance, so it's not as expensive. There may be initial upfront money, but I think that when we look at some of those things, I think we developed the business plan and the strategy, and I think he should have a designee. I think we should probably have.

Well, that's fine. I just, you know, I didn't know everybody, so I figured he was the guy that probably had his pulse on everything going on.

And I can talk to you about a couple of those that we could look at. Those national meetings are absolutely some of the most critical that I think anyone can be in. I know that when you look at 1000 North, the discussions with Ross and TJ Maxx were happening, I know that they built last year. Those discussions started 12 years ago.

Sure.

And they are discussions that bear fruit as you build the relationships over time. And that's going to need to happen, so.

No, I totally agree. Okay.

Wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you. That brings us down to minutes on June 16th, June 30th, and July 6th, 2026. Is there any corrections or additions to the minutes? I didn't see any. If not, the chair would entertain a motion on these minutes.

Well, I wasn't here for the July meeting, so I'll make a motion to approve the June meetings. And abstain from the July one. You want to take them separate?

Council?

Okay.

So you're going to make a motion on which one? The two June ones. The two June ones. June 16th, June 30th. With that, I hear a motion from Councilman Hoffman. Is there a second? Second. We hear a second from Councilman Strongberg. All those in favor of approval of the minutes from June 16th, 2026, June 30th, 2026, say aye. Aye. Aye. All those who may oppose, say nay. Those two minutes are adopted. Is there any corrections or additions to the July 6th, 2026 minutes? If not, Chair, entertain a motion.

Motion approved, July 6th minutes.

Hearing a motion from Councilman Stromberg to approve the July 6th minutes. Is there a second? Second. Hearing a second, Councilman Thomas. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those who may oppose, say nay. I abstain. noting that Councilman Hoffman hasn't abstained from that vote. Thank you. That will bring us down to discussion item, presentation and acceptance of the 2025 Annual Financial Statement External Audit. Alice McCoy.

All right, Council. We are happy to have John Hatterley with us tonight. He's going to present our external audit. He'll do a little presentation and then I'll come in at the end and

So you can mess up, because she's going to clean up.

Thanks for letting us take a few minutes. I'll probably be a little bit longer than a few minutes. And you can tell me if this is out of line. Just one thing on that presentation. I think that's a fantastic idea. My recommendation, I'm an auditor. I'm going to give you the Debbie Downer news now. um i concur with councilman wardle on getting a consultant who is a part of these that understands what the ongoing cost is going to be to operate something like this i live in utah county it's a lot harder for us to have something like that just like you guys a lot easier in salt lake where you have the population and the tax base so that's my two cents i'm not leaning either way i think it's a fantastic idea but that's what i would look for in a consultant is not only the construction piece but the ongoing operations and and what that looks like all right okay is that a pre-op audit observation All right, so we're going to start on page three. So what I'm going to do is I'll go through all the reports that we were required to issue, but go through the findings, and then I'm going to give a little bit of a discussion and training on the financial statements to help the council and the general public kind of understand government financial statements. And I promise that'll be quick, but there are some things I want to point out. So page three, this is the independent auditors report. This is the first report that we are required to issue, and this contains our opinion on the financial statements. This is the primary scope of our audit. We're looking at the fair presentation of the material correctness of the financial statements. That opinion is unmodified or unqualified. I know you're not going to see those two terms in the second paragraph, but what those terms mean is that we have not had to modify or change this report based on things that came up during the audit that we could not give an opinion on or it affected our opinion. So clean opinion on the financial statements. Under the responsibilities of management for the financial statements, just remember these are your financial statements and you're responsible for the fair presentation, knowing and understanding the accounting principles, knowing what accounting principles are up and coming, which ones you need to implement. Obviously, you have staff that knows and understands that, but I would recommend as a council that you also understand the financial statements. In that second paragraph, this is what I wanted to point out is Over time, things happen in the world, and then based on those happenings, it changes our standards. And if you remember, about six years ago, we had this awesome thing called COVID. Whether or not you liked it or agreed with it or disagreed with it, I don't really care. But what happened was nobody wanted to talk about what was happening to their business in their financial statements, including governments. In Utah, we fared fairly well. We actually did really well in the state of Utah as far as government fiscal responsibility and actually improving during that time period. However, outside of Utah, not so much the case. What this did is it changed our standards. Now you and Alison's office are required to look for or identify events that happened during the current period that would prohibit you from continuing as a going concern. I know you're not going to stop continuing as a going concern. It just doesn't happen in government. So they're actually changing that term. It's now going to be financial distress. So any situation that potentially could put you into a financial distress, then you have to identify it, do the financial analysis, provide that to us. We also have that same requirement is we're looking for those things. So now when I'm reviewing financial statements, I'll usually pull up the last five years and I'm looking for like negative trends in revenue, a spike in expenditures, things like that that would trigger some sort of financial distress. So just remember that the standards changed and that's now one of your responsibilities. All right, not much more I wanna report on that. I don't wanna take too much of your time. So we're gonna hop back near the end, page 123. So this report, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this report either, but this is the second report that we're required to issue. This just outlines that we performed your audit in accordance with government auditing standards. Part of those standards dictate that we look at your internal controls. We don't test enough individual transactions and controls to give an opinion on your controls. But we are testing them to, A, make sure that they exist, and B, they're actually functioning the way they're supposed to. So you can sit here and implement controls all day long, but if they're not going to function the way they're intended to, then it doesn't do you any good to have internal controls. So that's all this letter is outlining. If we find significant control deficiencies that are causing misstatements in the financial statements, then we're required to put them in this letter, however we found none. All right, page 125, this is the third report that we're required to issue, and this contains the second opinion. This is for the Utah State Auditor. Every year they issue their compliance guide with certain aspects of Utah code that we're required to look at. And you can see the ones that were applicable to the county this year. your budgetary compliance, the justice courts, fraud risk assessment, cash management, the fund balance, government fees, restricted taxes. And if you guys have questions on those, feel free to call me on them. I don't know if I need to take the time to go through all of them. Um, So our opinion on your compliance, so this is kind of a twofold opinion. On this one, we are looking at your compliance, making sure that you comply with Utah code. And then B, we're looking at the controls over the compliance. So we do test your controls over your compliance here. This is actually kind of a, crappy assignment that we give to Allison is we have to make her go through every compliance step and she's got to identify for us what the controls are, who does what when to make sure that A, you're not out of compliance this year and B, you're not going to become non-compliant hopefully in the future. So unmodified opinion on your compliance as well as the internal controls over compliance. There was one state compliance finding that we'll talk about that was kind of non-major. But we're going to flip to page 128. This is the fourth report that we're required to issue and a third opinion, and this one is for the federal government. So if you spend prior to October 1st, 2024, 750,000, after that date, a million dollars in federal money, now it's not the money that you receive, but it's the money you spend in the period that we're auditing. You're required to have a separate federal single audit. So we're looking specifically at your federal awards and how you spent them. And this is kind of a twofold opinion too. and they're very, very strict on these opinions. We've been audited by the federal government, and they are very stickler in our audit documentation as well as your compliance and your internal control. So if they ever come and want to look at one of your programs, let's say the Department of Education comes and look at you, your first thing they're going to do is pull up, okay, what controls do you have to make sure that you're going to spend our money the right way? Funny how that works, huh? When you're a state or a local government, but it doesn't happen in the federal government. So, but, so it's over your controls on how that money is spent as well as the compliance requirements for each major program. So also an unmodified or an unqualified opinion. If you want to turn to page, now we're going to move to page 133. So this is kind of a summary and this gets submitted to the federal government and this kind of outlines our entire audit process. So the financial statement audit and the federal single audit. So the first section is on the financial statements. So our opinion on the financial statements was unmodified. We identified no material weaknesses and we identified no significant deficiencies and we identified no noncompliance material to the financial statements. Now for the federal wards, we didn't identify any material weaknesses and we issued an unmodified opinion and there were no findings that are required to be disclosed under the uniform guidance. And then you can see there that those four programs were the four major programs that we were required to test this year as part of your federal single audit. And that dollar threshold right there, that tells you that all of that is new money. So when I say new money, it means contracts that you've entered into after October 1, 2024. So anything before that's old money. So everything that we tested this program is all the new standards. just for your information they just issued another supplement that's supposed to hopefully be released well i hope it doesn't get released in august but that's their intent and it's going to change single audits and make them even more cumbersome for both you guys and us as auditors so they're making it easier every year okay so let's go through the findings real quick so this year like i said no financial statement findings um last year uh there was a payroll material weakness and that was the the urs audit that you were undergoing um and and we really consider that open because it really hasn't been finalized that this that the final amounts that they're going to assess to the county on a complete and total basis however i can tell you that we do test individual paychecks to make sure that those calculations are being done correctly now Um, so currently it's being done now. It's just kind of the, the, whatever the URS says is the final, the balance. So it's kind of partially open just waiting on them. All right. So this year in state compliance, there was one budget finding, and this was the behavioral health payments, um, human services fund, um, So they were over budget and you can see down there under the client response that it, it really, the majority of it was one invoice that came early in the year, but then nobody caught it. And it was very, very late in the year when the vendor said, Hey, this has never been paid. And then as the county looked for it, it had never been paid. And because it was so late in the year, it had to be paid out of this year's funds. So that, that was the majority of it. Um, We usually look at materiality when it comes to compliance. It used to be that if you were a dollar over, then we had to give you a finding, and now the state auditors have given you a little bit of grace, and now we calculated materiality on your budget. So I don't know, outside of that one invoice, if it still would have been a budget finding. I can calculate it and figure it out. I should have done that before the meeting, but I didn't. Really, our recommendation is just keep an eye on things and give yourself a little bit of grace. Don't so overshoot your budget that you're being wasteful in what you think you're going to spend. If you think you're going to spend $10,000, don't set your budget at $100,000. That's not what I'm saying, but give yourself some grace because this constantly happens. I see late invoices all the time, and then it causes a problem when you think you have everything, and all of a sudden you don't, and then you have a budget finding. All right, and then last year, there were some deposits. So this was 2024. So this is a prior year finding. Some deposits weren't deposited within the seven days. That was corrected in the current period. And then the next page is no federal award findings that we needed to report this year. So now let me give you a little bit of information and description. So immediately following the audit report is a management discussion analysis. That is an important part of the financial statements, even though it's not considered part of the basic financial statements. The intent is that is to help non-financial users understand what's happening in the financial statements. In fact, it's so important that they just issued another GASB that's going to be implemented this next year. And one of the main intents of that is to make sure that mdna is very descriptive about what happened during the year so if you're used to looking at private company financial statements typically you'll see the current year and immediately preceding year side by side so you can see oh hey our cash went up our receivables went down well in government financial statements the way that The way they're set up, and because you're dealing with so many funds, there's not room in the statements to have that comparative data. So that's the whole point of the MD&A is that you can look at it and say, OK, here's where we were this year compared to last year. And then there's descriptions as to why things changed. So maybe all of a sudden you have a huge surplus this year, and the reason is property tax increased by this amount of money. So that's going to be describing why fund balance went up. So it's important to pay attention to the MD&A, especially if you're not a financial person or if you don't understand government financial statements. They are very cumbersome. So that's the first place that I would tell you to read. However, everything in the MD&A is based on the government-wide financial statements. And I'm going to show you the difference between the statements and where you need to pay attention. So just know that majority of the information that you get out of there is going to be off the government-wide financial statements which for you as a governing body is not going to make a whole lot of sense so take it for what it's worth there is fund analysis so it does talk about okay this is what happened in the general fund this will happen in our capital projects fund those are the areas that i would say pay more attention to okay so now i'm going to give you a little bit of Just some quick overview of the financial statements. So if you want to turn to page 22, put your finger in page 22 and then page 31. So put your finger in between those. The first two statements that you come to, they're called the government-wide financial statements. That rolls in all of your governmental funds as governmental activities, and it rolls in all of your business-type activities as business-type activities. You can see those two columns. You can also see the Tooele County Recreation District because it's a discretely presented component unit. It's off to the side, the far right. These statements are set up on the full accrual basis. So they're presented like a private company financial statement. That means that you have long-term assets, meaning capital assets that are going to appreciate over time. You have long-term debt that you're going to pay for over time. On the next page, so page 24, this is the government-wide income statement. So you can raise your hand if you want to, but I'm not going to make you raise your hand. But this does not look like a private company financial statement, correct? But it is very ingenious the way government sets up their financial statements because in a private company, you are concerned with net income, right? That shows profitability, tells the shareholders, hey, we're making you rich because we have net income every year. So net income is a driving factor in private company financial statements. However, in the public sector or the government, We're not so much concerned about net income as we are can the government provide the services that it is required to to the general public based on the revenue that it receives. So it's more concerned with how you pay for expenditures through the taxes that you charge. So if you look at that top section under the governmental activities, and we'll just look at the governmental activities, the first column is your expenses. these are the expun expenses based on the function that they are supposed to support so general government tourism public safety public health highways and on down so you can see those are your total expenditures and then we have anything that you can charge specific to those programs or grants you receive specific to those programs and then if you look under the Fifth column, so this is your net revenue or expense. And you can see that all those numbers are negative. Can you see that column? What this tells you is based on what those programs can actually charge as a government, governmental entity, they don't pay for themselves, right? They're all in the hole. And then you follow that column down under, now you'll get to the general revenues. And these are revenues that you collect that spread across all programs. So that's why they're considered general revenue. So property taxes, sales tax, transit room tax, then you get down and you can see down there that government wide, you made $18 million this year. Okay, so I want you to keep that figure in mind, but does that make sense how this is set up? So that tells you that really governmental programs don't pay for themselves. That's why we have property tax. That's why we have sales tax. Now, I don't know paying taxes either. I understand it, but if you want the services that the government provides, that's the cost of living in a place where they provide services. Okay, so now if you want to flip to page 31, So this is your governmental funds. So all of these roll up into your governmental activities, right? However, these are presented on the modified accrual. So if you consider full accrual and then you think about cash basis where you recognize cash as you receive it. And full accrual is when the transaction actually happens. This is somewhere in the middle. So this is where you need to spend your world as a council. And this is where Allison's office, Mike's office, everybody needs to spend their world here because this is how you operate as a government. So all you care about is do you have the revenue to pay for expenditures in the next 12 months? So this is more of a short term focus. So if you look at the balance sheet, you're not going to see capital assets. You're not going to see debt because all you care about is do we have enough money to make our debt payments this year? Do we have enough to go out and buy a fire truck? So knowing that, yeah, our government wide is going to get capitalized and we're going to depreciate it over time, but you have to pay for that this year. So that's that's the focus of these statements. So if you look down at the second to last column, The one, two, three, fourth number from the bottom, that number is $2,092,000. Oh, sorry, $692,000. I had my glasses on. So remember I told you to remember the $18 million? On the government-wide, the county made $18 million in their governmental activities. However, in these statements, you only made $2.6 million. So don't call me. I had a county do this. This is why I'm doing these trainings now is because I had a county and I had a commissioner that was arguing with me for months and months and months. Because he read the MD&A and he looked at the government wide and he said, we made $10 million. We don't need to raise taxes because we made 10 million. And I'm not talking about raising taxes. This is their situation. But it shows the misunderstanding. And I said, well, yes, you made $10 million on the government wide. But if you go to the fund statements that really matter, you lost $25 million. That's a big deal. That's a big change. And so you have to make sure that you have enough to cover your expenditures So that's why I say this is where you need to spend your world is in the fund financial statements. The purpose for the government-wide financial statements really is for the external parties. Your bondholders are going to want a copy of the financial statements. Bond rating agencies, they're going to look at the government-wide because they want to know what economic resources you have, not just what the current resources are that you have to pay for services. Sorry, it was long-winded, but hopefully it made a little bit of sense. Do you have any questions for me?

Excuse me.

Any questions for John? I have one. John, if you don't mind. We've applied for federal grants and we get them, but we don't get the cash in hand. We are awarded that, so it goes to the state.

So the state needs to report or re-audit it. It depends on if it finally funnels its way down to you.

Well, they're doing the service, so they're building the road.

Then they would be. OK. They go through UDOT? Yes. Yeah. So UDOT would. OK.

I want to make sure of that, but yet we get a letter from the federal government, you've been awarded this, you've done that, but you didn't have any of the transaction.

Does the money go directly to UDOT or does it come through you and then it goes to UDOT?

No, it goes right to UDOT.

So, yeah, I mean, and you just need to let them know. I mean, I'm sure they know that, hey, and they have such a huge single audit. I mean, they're trading federal money with people all the time, and so we understand that they, but there could be sub-recipients. I mean, it really just depends on... where the contract, if the contract is with the county, technically you should count it as federal expenditures based on what they spend, but then you show it as a subrecipient. So you paid that money. So 100% of what you received, you sent to them. That tells the federal government, okay, I need to go look on these guys on their single lot for these expenditures. So it really just depends on who the contract's with and what the contract says.

Any other questions or comments? Okay. Clean up.

All right, council. Um, I just want to, uh, thank Larson for, and their team for the great work that they do with our office. Um, we start this audit process in January every year. Um, it's a long process. Um, there's not a part of the county that they don't touch. Um, and it's a lot of work for our team. Um, we gather, we work with all of the departments. We gather everything from roads reports to. solid waste reports. There's over 50 departments that we track line items on. And John says that there's a little bit of latitude, but we make sure that the audits are easy so that there's not overages. And the overage that he was talking about with that vendor, that invoice was actually two years old, and the vendor came back to us and said, you owe the invoice. And so our departments do a phenomenal job of making sure that they're on top of things. And so I really want to give credit to the departments for the great work that they do to help us have an unqualified opinion, but also to my team for the dedication. And they just don't give up. If we have issues or if there's something that we need to correct, they're right on it and make sure that John and his team have exactly what they need.

Wonderful. And I hope you take it back to your team. We appreciate that because that's a big deal to work through six months or longer.

I'm not going to pat my team on the back.

Go ahead. You never looked at me. Sorry. You always look away. I apologize to chair recognize councilman John to your company. I think that there's not a more important thing that we're part of than the finances and understanding that the values that we have are Anytime we take property taxes. It's a taking it's never a revenue and when it's looked at as a revenue, that's a problem and I also appreciate, and Allison and your department, but all the departments, the budget discipline that occurs. Because at the end of the day, my experience has been that we are becoming more excellent at that. And we are getting better and achieving places where the services are being rendered in such a way that it's not only effective and efficient, but so beneficial to the public. So thank you very much.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. That will, let's see. I need a motion to accept the audit.

So moved.

Hearing motion, what's that? Hearing motion, Councilman Wardle, is there a second?

Second.

Hearing second, Councilman Hoffman. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those in favor, say nay. Okay, that is accepted. That will bring us to resolution 2026-22, amending and increasing the 2026 Florida County budget. Allison. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, council, um, just a few budget adjustments for you tonight. Uh, the first one that we have is for, uh, uh, right away acquisition for village Boulevard. Uh, this will be for $350,000. Uh, the next one that we have is for, uh, to increase, uh, uh, by $60,000 for our insurance premium. Um, and then the next one that we have is for a fire cost recovery count for $14,000. And then the rest of these that I have are for grants that we have received. So the first one is for a first responder mental health grant that we'll be rolling over from last year for $73,000. The next one is for a mitigation grant for Soldier Canyon for $365,000. The next one are for opioid related grants for prevention. One is for $37,100. The next one's for $38,400. Another grant, these are related to the environmental health budget, both for $5,000. And then the last one is for donations that they receive at the senior center. These donations just go in and out. They get donations regularly down there for various things, and then they just spend them at the senior center. And so they want to have a revolving account for about $6,000 just so that they can accept the donations and then spend it back.

Okay. Any questions on that, council? Okay. Then chair and entertain a motion to open up public hearing. So moved. Hear a motion from Councilman Wardle. Is there a second? Second. There's a second from Councilman Strongberg. All those in favor, open up public hearing on Resolution 2026-22. Say aye. Aye. All those who may oppose, say nay. Okay, public hearing is now open. Is there anybody in the audience that would like to speak specifically to resolution 2026-22 by raise of hand? Please. You have that timer? Okay, thanks.

My name's Anita Dalrymple again. My only statement is just that the resolution doesn't make clear how this impacts estate property taxes or other tax collection methods and just from public concern that would be my only concern is just how this is going to impact our tax collection you know the amounts okay um is there there was no other ones is there a motion chair and entertain a motion to close public hearing

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

Second.

Hearing a second from Councilman Thomas, all those in favor of closing public hearing on Resolution 2026-22 say aye.

Aye.

All those that may oppose say nay. Okay. It is now closed. Chair, entertain a motion on Resolution 2026-22. So moved. Hear a motion from Councilman Hoffman on approval of resolution 2026-22. Is there a second? Second. Hear a second from Councilman Stromberg. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those that may oppose, say nay. That is resolution 2026-22 is adopted. Sounds unanimous to me. That will bring us down to resolution 2026-23. declaring three partials of real property as surplus properties. Nathan Harris.

Thank you, Chairman. So as part of the process for the county to actually dispose of any real property in the county, we have to declare it a surplus. And so the first portion of that is a resolution just declaring it that we would like to sell it. There are some other notice requirements that we'll have to do if we want to dispose of significant property, which is defined as property valued over $100,000, which one of these is. But the three that are on there are two that we acquired through the tax sale. One is definitely a de minimis property, not valued it very much. The other one I've had appraised. It probably will likely fall under the $100,000. And then the last property that we have that we would like to sell is the courthouse property. We have boundary line adjustment done. We've consolidated it all. Our lease for that building will be When we entered into the agreement when the courthouse was built, we are going to become the owners of that building, which the state would like to avoid. It's their courthouse. They're the ones who run the court system. And so we own the land underneath. They own the building currently. And so we would like to sell that property. So this resolution just declares those three properties as surplus so we can move forward in selling those.

Okay. Any questions for Nathan on those properties?

Just one comment, I guess. The property here, I believe it consisted of eight or nine parcels when we started this. It was a convoluted mess, and so we got, we have our piece here now, we have their piece there, then there's a little piece on the road now that we've cleaned up the property lines.

Yeah, we tried to clean up some property lines and make it so it was just one parcel being sold to the state for their, the courthouse building.

If there's not any other questions, then Chair, entertain a motion on resolution 2026-23. So moved. Hearing a motion from Councilman Hoffman, there's approval for resolution 2026-23, declaring three parcels to real property. Is there a second?

Second.

Hearing a second from Councilman Strongberg. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those that may oppose, say nay. That is adopted. That will bring us down to ordinance 2026-09. Millie.

Thank you, Councilman. So this was formally application number 2026-051. It's to rezone a property from MU40 to MGEX. They went through all of the required processes with the county to be able to get the rezoned planning commission. They addressed all of their questions and concerns. And they made a motion to do a favorable recommendation with all seven planning commissioners voting yes. The applicant is here today with a fellow professional to answer some questions if you guys have any questions. But as of right now, we're asking for approval of this rezone.

Is there any questions for Millie? No. And do you, is there any questions for the?

Just one comment. I went to that planning and zoning discussion and this was, you do a good job, Curtis, as a board member and all the board members. Commissioners do a great job and asking the questions and so I'll make a motion to approve Okay, so no more questions.

We have a motion on the table for approval from councilman Thomas.

Is there a second?

I'll second it here a second from councilman Wardle all those in favor of the ordinance 2026-09 say aye aye all those who may oppose say nay I is adopted.

Thank you.

Thank you. Now it brings down to number nine contracts, contracts to purchase right away for village Boulevard, a six mile ranch. Nathan,

Thank you, Chairman. So the purchase contract that's before you today is for the Village Boulevard extension. We would like to purchase the right-of-way so we can start moving forward with constructing Village Boulevard to connect into the Mid-Valley Highway that's already been built. And so we have this contract because Six Mile Ranch is the owner of half of that right-of-way, the way it's been drawn and the way we would like to move forward with community development. The price for this that we've agreed on is $641,000. And that's going to be immediately upon closing. Since we're just purchasing it, we're going to be doing that pretty quick. It is a substantial amount of money, but that road is crucial to Stansbury Park and moving things forward in that area.

Any questions for Nathan? Can I comment? Please. Andy Welch.

Just a quick, just a reminder. A couple of years ago, we submitted an application to COG for a million dollars to buy the right-of-way, and then I think we have some more money to do the engineering. And so, sorry it took so long, but we know there was some litigation between one of the property owners in UDOT, and they finally made it through that, and so it took a couple of years for us to get to this point, but we appreciate all of your patience in helping us to get to this point, but this is something we started a couple of years ago, if you recall. Thank you, Andy.

And it's always good to know where those funds are coming from, that we already have the money. I don't always know those details. I just know what's in the contract, so I write.

If there's no other questions, chair, to entertain a motion.

So moved.

Hear a motion from Councilman Thomas. Is there a second? Second. Hear a second from Councilman Wardle. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those that may oppose, say nay. That is adopted.

Hey, when's construction going to start?

Tomorrow.

I'm just kidding. We've started engineering, actually, already. So we are working on that. long and this is recall earlier on you there was a budget amendment and that was to move some more money to pay the total cost we didn't have enough from cogs so that extra helped us pay for both the properties that'll bring us down to um almost similar to the same road the contract purchased right away village boulevard with the war family uh nathan

Thank you, Chairman. So this is the other half of that right-of-way that we need. This is the other property owner. So this is the C&J War Family Properties LLC. And this one we are purchasing at $588,250. They have some other requests that they've needed. We're going to be installing a fence. They get a few more access points along that road to facilitate how they can move cattle back and forth. and to help them with that. But again, this is the same contract, just slightly different amount, but with a few other stipulations that we would have to do.

Any other questions or comments?

You know, Mr. Chairman, I think that this is, and I appreciate what Andy and what Rochelle's team has done. Kendall, you were spot on. This is long overdue. This is a critical road to help ease congestion on SR 36. It pushes people out of Stansbury that way to Mid-Valley Highway. And as we heard from UDOT last year, I don't know if there's very many things that will help us more in easing traffic congestion than the interconnectivity from within the valley. So we appreciate the members of COG who have supported this process.

Okay. Chair, do you entertain a motion? I need the motion to approve.

I'm second.

I entertain a motion from Councilman Strongberg approving the contract purchase right away, Village Boulevard from the Warr family. Second from Councilman Hoffman. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All those who may oppose, say nay. That is adopted. If you're following along, we did move up the number C, commercial property, and we have already addressed that. That will bring us down to D, the peak contract for pool coverings. Corey.

Good evening, council. Before I get to the contract, I do want to just publicly thank the manager's office, the county council, other elected officials, and department heads for their support of Heritage Days. It was hot, and I understand some of you got a little wet, so that's a very great thing.

Deservedly so.

Good for that. So in all honesty, I appreciate everything you did to support us. Tula County Parks and Recreation is requesting to use Master Plan money to purchase loop-lock covers for the Energy Solutions outdoor pool. As a matter of information, there are a couple of ways you can winterize an outdoor pool in northern Utah. The first is to drain it completely and then to blow out the lines and hopefully you get all the water out of that. The second, which is what we're requesting, is to... to lower it a little bit and then put covers over it the pool still circulates all the systems still run and there's there's a lot of advantage to that in areas where we get freezes and thaws and different things of that nature in addition to these loop lock coverage are a safety issue as well they will support the weight of a of a man if somebody you know happens to enter the pool They lock the pool down so that people you could technically walk on them. So we're gonna Purchase them from landmark aquatics who built the pool and they will be at two hundred eight thousand nine hundred and fifty dollars Any questions or comments it's a quick question on them Are they on a track or they you lay them out or how do they how do you lay them out?

So they're not on a track Any other questions did you have a comment Andy I

I just wanted to make it clear that we did review this with the local government trust to ask what their opinion on which would be the safest and less risk for us.

they actually recommend people who are municipalities that have poles um to purchase these um there's been no accidents in places that have these loop block covers so where do you store them at we have a storage building so they fold up i mean which is kind of an interesting statement because they're probably the size of this room or this you know stand here when they fold up but they can fold up so And they're specifically made for each pool, so there will be a little lead time on them because they come out and measure your pool, and then they fit tightly on your pool.

Any other questions or comments? None. Chair, do you want to take a motion?

So moved.

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 who may oppose, say nay. and is adopted. Thank you. Thank you, Corey. That brings us to Contracts Landmark Companies for the Health Department Painting.

Grant. Hello again. Thank you, Chairman. So this is, like you said, a contract for painting the health department here in Tooele. We appreciate working with Jason Sparks Maintenance and Daniel Foulkes in setting this up. It's within the council approved budget increase this year. And this is with a state contracted company. So looking to be very thorough throughout all of our offices, stairwells, All the needed places any other questions is some of this covered by grant No, this is part from our fund balance. Okay, so yeah, we've been saving up for this. It's all covered by grant Yeah, I've never heard that one before

So you're covering it all. Thank you. We appreciate that. Well, the pool cover might be another thing. You don't have to hold me up or anything.

I make that motion to approve.

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

Second.

Hearing a second from Councilman Hoffman. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those who may oppose, say nay. That is adopted, the contract with Landmark Companies. Thank you for that. Now bring us down to the contract with Fairbanks for supplies and installation of the solid waste scales. Wayne.

Good evening. You guys all should have a smile as wide as the Cheshire cat. This is the last time I'm going to be here to ask you for money. You have before you the purchase of the scales for the next phase of our contract. build out to the landfill for the scale office the those plans will be submitted to the community development shortly to get approval and get submitted for bids on that so they poured concrete today for the foundation wall for the building and the water system and all that so we're moving forward with that so this is the next phase when's completions are you hoping for don't know i won't be here

Any other questions or comments?

First, thank you for everything that you've done. You've had a long, distinguished career here with the county, and I think that that needs to be acknowledged. Secondly, we're moving in a direction that the landfill, this is a very important part of the business strategy that you helped to develop and implement, so thank you. It will help us be more financially stable there and be able to collect money in a manner that will be I hate these words. Well, I don't hate these words. It will be more effective in what we're doing in terms of having people come in and paying and what the revenue sources will be. So thank you.

You're welcome. It definitely will give the landfill consistency with the operation out there. Absolutely.

Okay. Before I make the motion to approve that, I want to express my appreciation, too, as the way you've moved it when you worked at the roads and the improvements you made out to the They've been noticed and significant. They're going to have a long impact. So thank you. So I'll make that motion to approve the contract for the Fairbank scale.

I'll second it.

Hearing a motion from Councilman Thomas, second from Councilman Wardle. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those who may oppose say nay. That is adopted. Thank you. Thank you. Now it brings down to contract with Big Horn for horse stalls at the peak. Corey.

thank you uh the whole start these horse stalls will be covered so i thought i just had that good as a matter of information um in phase four the county itself will purchase three things um outside of of the contract with with the contractor we do that because we get better state pricing if we purchase them as opposed to the contractor, so it saves us money. This is the first of those three things, horse stalls, field bites, and bleachers. So I'll bring the other two when they're ready, but these, we're looking to purchase horse stalls for the new horse barn, 192 stalls in that horse barn, and we've selected Big Horn to buy those stalls from. They were solicited through competition with our with Mocha Systems, which is our project management firm for Facebook. The total for those stalls is $327,175.50. Okay.

Any other questions or comments?

How many stalls is that? 192.

And they'll install them, right? The contractor will install them. That's not us installing them.

Right. We're just simply purchasing, again, for price and depreciation issues that come about. They're going to install them.

May I, Chairman?

Oh, please.

I think understanding the process of how we selected this, it's more than just a competitive bid process. We worked closely with the vendor to help them understand that we are a county, so we don't need quarter horse stalls. We need to have something that's nice, that's lasting, but a reasonable price for a county to own. So they worked closely with us to make sure that the specs were appropriate for a government agency to own.

I appreciate you saying that because one stall is that much at the Kentucky Derby. That's true. One stall. That's true. Any other questions or comments?

That was a fun fact.

Yeah, put that in your GWIS book.

That's another fun fact.

If not, Chair, entertain a motion.

Motion to approve the contract for the horse stalls.

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

Second.

There's a second from Councilman Hoffman. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those that may oppose, say nay. That is adopted. Thank you, Corey. Courthouse lands, I'm sorry?

Oh.

Courthouse land sale agreement. Nathan.

Thank you, Chairman. So this purchase contract is not one where we are spending money, but one where we are going to receive money. And this is the, out of the three surplus properties, this is the one that is going to meet that threshold of the $100,000 significant parcel. I've had it appraised because that's part of what we need to do. We need to get our properties appraised. We need to sell them for fair market value. And I can tell you, without releasing the details of the appraisal, The purchase price in this purchase contract of $2.5 million is above the appraisal price that I received back. So we meet that criteria. We need to have it appraised, and we need to sell it for that fair market value at a minimum. Some of the other things, and tonight I'm actually going to ask that you not to do anything with this, that we table it until the next meeting so we can have public comment before we approve this contract. But I do want to provide the notice that's required under our surplus code through this contract. And by giving it, I believe we've already met the requirements, but I'm going to go through it again. So the description of the parcel that we want to sell is the parcel number 02-026-0-0028. In the contract, there is a legal description. I'm not going to bore you with reading it because the feats and chains and all that business, I actually don't even really understand. But Jerry's office does really well, and they've given us that legal description. And that's in there. The location of the parcel is actually at 74 South, 100 East, in Tooele, Utah, 84074. The State of Utah Division of Facilities is the purchaser. They're the ones who want to buy the property. They're the ones who want to maintain it. And again, the purchase price that we will get for dollar value is $2.5 million. But I do want to talk about the other value that is added in here as well. We're going to get a, uh, the rest of my office, the county attorney's office is located in that building and we've had a rent free. We've been using the space. Um, I don't get to be over in that office. There's not enough space. So I get to be over here, but you're the stepchild of that pretty much. And that's okay. Cause I enjoy, I enjoy. the work that I get to do.

The Justice Court's there as well.

Yes, the Justice Court is also there. I don't know if that was actually included in the rent space. I think it is. We'll look at it. Yeah, we may have to amend something, but I'm not sure if that was included. But yeah, the Justice Court employees are also over there, and they occupy space on the first floor while the county attorney's office is on the second. so in addition to the 2.5 million dollars in cash we are getting 20 years rent free from from the state again we will maintain that space and add any internal improvements that we want but they will maintain the building the exterior and all of that and also some of the facilities stuff in that building but if we want to make it additions or subtractions to the to the space that we're renting, we'll have to pay for that. But we do get a rent free for 20 years. After that, we get a 10-year renewal period, if we would like, at 50% of the cost of what it would be fair market value. So again, there's a lot more than just $2.5 million that we're getting, free rent for.

And a parking lot.

Yeah. Yes, haven't gotten there yet. So we're getting all this value in rent that we're not going to have to pay. We're also getting a parking lot. We do have to demo the jail. That is part of this. We will have to demo the old jail, which we've already started that process. That's already a part of the facilities budget and they are taking care of that. So this money will cover that for sure. And then we are also gonna get the parking lot. We're also gonna end up with the old Sally Port that will remain. And the state will build a new one that will serve the sheriff's office better than the one that currently is there. So we're getting a lot of value. And I mean, yeah, it's great for us. This was a good, somehow this worked out really, really well in our favor. So whoever drafted the original lease agreement 50 some odd years ago or whenever the building was built, good for them. I hope to emulate them in everything that I do.

Wonderful. Any other comments or questions?

Andy? Just quickly, the demo will begin, I think it's on August 17th, is that correct? So the demo will begin. So with that money, as Nate said, we're able to do the demolition, this money that we're receiving from the state. So it's a great deal for the county. And we get some additional parking, which is helpful, around the building. And we kind of clean up that building THAT END WHICH WILL HAVE FACILITIES WILL HAVE SOME EXTRA SPACE THERE TO MOVE SOME OTHER STUFF. SO THIS IS ANOTHER GOOD PROJECT. THERE WILL BE SOME DISRUPTIONS AS WE'RE DOING THE DEMOLITION OF COURSE BECAUSE JAIL WALLS TYPICALLY ARE PRETTY THICK AND THEY'RE NOT EASY TO TEAR DOWN SO AS IT SHOULD BE.

I OFFERED A FEW SUGGESTIONS. YEAH, WE DIDN'T LIKE HIS SUGGESTIONS. WOULD HAVE BEEN GREAT.

SO IS THE STATE GOING TO PAY US TO DISPOSE OF IT FOR OUR LANDFILL?

It's part of the contract, yes. Part of the contract. Chair recognizes Councilman Wardle.

So just a matter of business, is tabling it to the 18th, I believe that's our next meeting? Yes. Does that allow us to have enough public notice?

So we have to give at least 14 days. 14 days have to have passed since the public disclosure was first made. And I actually would argue that the public disclosure of this was made when we posted it on Friday. So yes.

So if we table until August 18, then you're good.

Yep, and I'll be able to post my notice in the newspaper, meet that requirement, and then on the 18th, we would have a public hearing. Anybody can come and talk about this, the sale of the property to the state.

I've got a question, too, but maybe you don't know the answer.

And then you could approve or deny the contract at that point.

Okay. Chair recognizes Councilman Hoffman.

Do you know if this is already in the state budget for this, or is it something that's got to go through the next session?

So the way the contract is right now, we would receive $1 million in 2026. the state division of facilities has that money in their budget right now. And then they would get the 1.5 in the next calendar year allocated. But even if they didn't get that allocated, my communications with them have been that they have that money in the next budget anyways. So we'll be fine.

Okay. So, Chair, entertain a motion to table this to our next meeting on the 18th. So moved. Hearing a motion from Councilman Hoffman, is there a second?

Second.

Second from Councilman Strongberg. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those who may oppose, say nay. And it is tabled. Thank you.

Grant. Hello again. I have something else that's not covered by our grants, not covered by me personally, but by our fund balance. So I appreciate the chance to clarify on this. This is part two of the same process. This is for contract with certified sales and service for carpet replacements throughout the Tooele County Health Department building here in Tooele. This is a state vendor as well, and the replacement cost is $159,441.95. And it does include the process of moving the furniture just enough so they can put those new tiles in there and take all the old ones.

Any questions or comments on this?

I have a comment, Chairman.

Please. Chair recognizes Assistant County Manager Brittany Lopez.

I think that it's important for the public to know that, again, this is a process that we learned through our facility studies, that it's important for us to do these updates. And what we've done is we've streamlined the updates. So to save money in the long run where there is only specific paint and specific carpet that we can pick and that can be remade. So all of our buildings moving forward will have to utilize the same carpets and the same paint. And so that's one of the things that It was time to redo theirs based off of their facility study. If you remember, every building had those done. And then now we've kind of streamlined it so we don't have 20 different types of carpet in every facility we own. So we're streamlining it. It makes it easier for facilities to replace these down the road. This company says they can remake tiles for us if we need them. So we won't run like this tile in here is not made anymore because it wasn't part of the program. So again, it's another long-term strategy that we've

implemented within facilities to help be more cost-effective long-term wonderful yes there's no more comments charity entertain a motion motion for the contract for the carpet in the health department here a motion from councilman strungberg is there a second second there's a second from councilman wardle all those in favor say aye aye all those who may oppose say nay That is adopted.

Thank you, Council. I appreciate you.

I'll bring us down to contract between Holland and Hart. Tula County, Andy Welch, County Manager.

And we can tag team on this one. But as you recall, the state announced the MOU with the federal government for the nuclear campus. And as part of that agreement, there is a provision that they have to work on a host agreement by the end of September, which is a little bit more ambitious than we expected. But realizing the complexity of this issue, we need some outside counsel that has some expertise in the nuclear issues. And so the chairman and I met with this company and we had, I think we met with five attorneys, two or three were there with us, one was from Wyoming and another was coming from D.C. And the four, absent the head of the firm, They all have experience in nuclear, different aspects of the nuclear life cycle, some of the disposal, just the different pieces, and we're impressed by their expertise, which we don't have, and it's a very complex issue. And so we wanted to enter into an agreement with them to help us through this next phase with the host agreement to make sure that we're taken care of. Everything that we need to look at so that's the recommendation as we it's an hourly based on our need and we'll make sure we're very Judicious about when we use them not just for emails and stuff like that. So Anything you'd like to add German?

No, there there's many different stories Yucca Mountains one that if you don't have somebody fighting in your corner you don't understand the contracts or what is being said and you can be taken advantage of or you're not aware of what is happening. So that's where we take precautionary measures so we have somebody who is in the industry, understands what is being said from the federal government, from the state, what's being agreed to uh for 12 counties so that's what we're fighting for county and they came with high recommendations from other law firms that have been sought out that they know exactly what they're talking about and how to talk about it and how to read those contracts i mentioned with our local attorneys as they deal with other things they can understand what the words are saying but what that means in a nuclear, like I said, once again, we don't wanna end up like other states or counties that did not know what they were agreeing to on that. So that would be a recommendation from our side.

So Mr. Chairman, I'm gonna just walk through a couple of things so we can inform the public. Number one, there are several complex issues coming up that we'll be discussing financial matters, liabilities, and those contracts will have to be signed if the project is to move forward, is that correct?

Correct.

And that the hope is that we find the greatest protection and benefit for the citizens and the county, Tooele County, including our school systems, our cities, our fire services, and for the employment that may be coming here, is that correct? Correct. And that the liability financially is limited to the county versus the state or the federal? partners in this because they are the ones who have already set money aside and will be looking for looking to fund this in different manners in which we don't always understand what that would look like so this would allow us to engage that expertise to know how best to engage it and and to get the most benefit from it yeah how to address it and where it benefits for the county thank you any other questions or comments from the council

So with that, if there's no other comments, chair, entertain a motion. So moved. Hear a motion from Councilman Wardle for approval. Is there a second?

Second.

Hear a second from Councilman Stromberg. All those in favor of the contract, say aye.

Aye.

All those who may oppose, say nay. Okay, that will bring us down to boards and committees. Kendall, do you have a...

i'm sorry is that you eric okay go ahead all right yeah so we do have uh application for the council of aging for um jerry fiddler for that i'm assuming this is probably from when we did the member we just lost. So, yeah, so I'll present his name for appointment on the Council of Aging.

Okay.

Second.

Hearing a motion from Councilman Stromberg and a second from Councilman Thomas, appointing Jerry to the Council of Aging.

Just a quick question. Did the board member that we lost, did he age out or what? Really?

All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those who may oppose, say nay.

Stay with your day-dive job.

OK. And we'll bring this down to council updates. Councilman Hoffman.

The only update I want to give is just quickly about the NACO conference that we were at. It's in regards to the issue of data centers, which is an issue for every freaking county in the country, not just ours. And that's going to be a big issue coming up for not just our county, but everybody else. But there was one specific meeting that was there about data centers. And they specifically gave things, recommendations for us to make sure we have checklists in place if we're going to ever consider them and stuff like that. There's that checklist up there, the pros and cons about data centers that's up there. But one issue or one thing that was interesting is after that meeting, Jared and I were sitting at a table, and two ladies sat down by us. And we started talking to them, asking what county they were from and stuff like that. And they said, well, we're not with a county. I was like, OK, you're with attorneys? Who are you? And finally, they said, we are with Google. It was very interesting to get their perspective on it. And we got talking about the negativity that's around data centers. And the conversation came up that most of that is they believe, and they can't say it, the negativity is being driven by China. And because, well, the one lady said that she worked in, the oil industry prior to being working for Google. And she said a lot of the negativity from fracking on fracking was being driven by China as well. The other thing that they mentioned was that China the week before just surpassed the United States in AI computing power, which is kind of scary. So those are the issues that we are facing because As we go to these meetings and stuff, we hear a lot about the current Cold War that we are fighting right now is with China on AI. And it's going to be an issue for us if we lose this. So that's what every county is hearing and dealing with. So just wanted to put that out there.

Thank you, Councilman Hoffman. Councilman Thomas. I'll pass it on. Okay, Councilman Strongberg.

I just want to say, and I know Corey's left, but pass the appreciation on to him and Brittany and all the county staff for the Heritage Days. I think it went really well, a lot of good things happening over the weekend, and I think we're just, you know, starting to see, you know, what we can do with the peak and the improvements we're doing there and the focus on, you know, GIVEN A SPOT FOR OUR RESIDENTS TO GO AND PLAY. SO THANK YOU ALL FOR A GREAT WEEKEND. AND, YOU KNOW, SOME PEOPLE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO GET SOME OF US WET AND THEY DIDN'T TAKE IT. SO I GUESS MAYBE NEXT YEAR. THEY TOOK IT WHEN I WAS THERE.

THEY TOOK EVERY OPPORTUNITY.

THANK YOU. LET ME JUST GIVE AN UPDATE, IF YOU'RE OKAY TO CARRY UP THE KABOOS. while attending in the livestock show. This is a livestock show in Tooele County where these young boys and girls have taken an animal, whether it's a sheep, goat, cow, pig, I think, and have raised it, fed it, cared for it. And when I say care for it, teach it how to walk on a lead, teach it where to move, working on handling it so it's not as wild when it's in the arena, how to look, grooming it, making sure it's bathed correctly, how it stands. And that was very evident this Saturday when we were there on behalf of the county. And these young boys and girls from all ages showed off their animals. And these are some of the ribbons that we received of the animals that were purchased from those boys and girls. And the notes that they have down here. what they hope to do as they go on further their education at trade or in college. So just want to recognize that the county played a huge part in being able to provide that down at the peak. Those kids were very beneficial, and the parents beaming with pride that their child was there. And there were some tears that were shed when the animals left their presence and was going somewhere else. Some of those kids were not very happy and sad. I'm trying to put it nicely, Chris. They were purchased by other departments to use for meat packaging. But it was a great event, and thank you for participating in that. Councilman Wardle.

So close. You were so close. I know.

That's right.

So close.

I agree with the comments that have been made about the Heritage Days, and I want to thank the committee. I travel a lot during July, and I'm not here usually the first part of July or August, and had the opportunity to be here this year, and to not only look at the facilities, I think that... One day I won't see the world through this lens, but to see it through a business operating lens, to see what we're trying to do with Deseret Peak, to have discussions with those who are not only in our county, but outside of our county. And the idea of constant improvement was part of the culture that I experienced when I was there. from those who attended and who have noticed consistent improvement. And that's a culture that I think I've seen in our departments with our department heads, with those who are employed. Excellence is something that we always will aim at. And it should be because at the end of the day, we're taking the most precious resource. And I've sat in living rooms where When taxes are raised, it literally has caused families not to buy new shoes for their children. And it should not be a taking that we take lightly. With that, I'm going to report on two things. Number one, I also attended the NACO conference. I sit on the Community Economic Workforce and Development Committee. And two things became very paramount. Number one, funding that was taken in during COVID and used for ongoing programs has now become problematic for many of the counties and states in the United States. And wanting to keep that funding for ongoing programs is going to be a discussion and a point of contention for many years to come. We cannot, and it was, in a way it was tragic that One-time monies are being used for long-term programming and that's just not sound fiscal policy. And there's a great discussion that will take place over the next year about sound fiscal policy. The second thing is I serve also on a committee with the American City Council Exchange and just by way was appointed to the executive board for that committee now. And we deal with model policies, principles, and legislative issues that work with the state legislatures. Two things became very apparent out of that meeting. Number one, there was a statement of principles when it comes to taxation that they are recommending that all city councils and county councils or county commissions look at adopting before we raise taxes. It's four distinct principles. I'll be getting a copy of that to each of you. It talks about transparency and what we look at when we start principles that should guide our decision making and our information gathering. The second one that became really cool, the discussion is data centers. It's being had by everyone in every part of the nation right now. When I brought up the discussion that took place last Wednesday night, and I want to commend our staff and those who did not make personal attacks at people during the public process. There are not binaries here. You can have two truths that are opposite that are both true. And no one should be vilified for holding those truths. we are going to have to work through an incredibly difficult issue. The ordinance that we are proposing, it was fascinating on a nationwide level that we are ahead of the game. This is not something that's being done in other places and they're grappling because data centers, many of them in states, have been defined in the code as warehousing. That's a dangerous precedent. because it assures nothing to protect the environment, the water, the sound, the discharge, the manner in which it's provided for in terms of electricity. So I want to commend our staff in engaging with the public and our planning commission and us as a council for looking forward right now. It doesn't mean we have to have them, it means we need to have guard wells for them. And that when we sit down and have this discussion, and we all know what happened in Box Elder County. Please do not look at Box Elder County as the only example. In fact, if you look at it from a research perspective, it's an outlier. And so we look at Utah County, we look at other places within the state and the nation, but we must come to good policy. But vilifying people for holding a position that is true, that is opposite of another truth, should never take place in public discourse. And I hope that that's the manner in which it goes forward in the future. We have to have these discussions. Good policy comes from competing positions. But it is not the place where people should be threatened. And threats are happening. And I wanted to put that on the record because it deeply troubles me. That when people have to have police parked out of their side of their house because they're considering a decision, that is never okay. And it's my hope that as we go forward in this discussion, that we will be based in fact, that we will be based in truth, even if the truths are opposite. that you can have two trues that are competing, or three, or four. That is an incredibly important principle for civility. So I wanted to leave that with you tonight.

Thank you, Councilman Wardle. Andy, as you're up.

Yes, thank you for that. Just a couple updates here. First, I had a request to update you on some of the road projects that we have going on. 33rd Parkway being one right now. It's in design in the environmental phase. Horrocks Engineering is working on that right now. Village Boulevard, which we just talked about. The right-of-way will be ours pretty soon, so we'll be able to start the engineering, as I mentioned. The other one that's come up before is Sheep Lane. We have a tangential issue with that. It was just a little easement that we had to give to UDOT. We've given that to them. They're finalizing their design, so we're not sure on the timeline yet. That's still up to UDOT. Drew Bay Road is one other one that we're looking, as you know, there's a part of that that's dirt right now. We're working with engineering to work out the alignment to get that straightened out so that we can apply for another congressional grant next year. So we're hopeful that will be taken care of pretty soon. A couple of other things. One was on the nuclear lifecycle campus. I appreciate what Councilman Wardle just said. I was deeply concerned with what happened in Box Elder County. This is probably 10 weeks ago, I started looking at what can we do to provide information to the public. On the nuclear campus, about 10 weeks ago, I posted on our growtowilla.com site information on nuclear campus, the best that we could put forward. Fast forward to late last week, and we're meeting with the State Office of Energy Development, and they're copying our site exactly to post out for everybody else. So we'll be merging the two actually together. The state has actually given me admin rights to their site, so that we can work jointly on this. It will be called nlicnc.utah.gov. We've got to come up with a better name. so it is live now you can look it up yeah i looked it up earlier today and lic.utah.gov and that's where we're just providing information the best that we can as well on that site is some information on data centers because i'm concerned with what happened in box elder as well we actually had a jurisdiction today who was working on a data center ordinance i said well how long is it they said it's six pages and ours is 32 pages right now And so I shared a copy, and they responded back. That gives them some better information to look at including. So we're trying to get the word out the best that we can. We know these are tough issues. The last issue for me, or last item for me, and this is a Robert's Rules of Order. This is for Ty. So look this up. It said... Let me just say, and then this will be helpful. So it should be noted that a member's absence from a meeting for which the minutes are being approved does not prevent the member from participating in their correction or approval. So if you're not here, you can. I know I can. You absolutely can. So feel free to do that. So that's not a problem. Brittany, I think you may have just a couple of comments as well.

I do. I just, again, thank you guys for acknowledging Corey and his team for all their hard work on Heritage Days. It's a lot of, it's a year in the making to make that happen, believe it or not. But I wanted to give a shout out to all the people that helped with the dunk tank. What a great cause. I don't know, obviously it's a personal thing for me being a fire auxiliary member. That's our main purpose is to create collect donations and provides some service to the University of Utah Burns Center. I want you guys to know that your donations that you raised that day will go to help a child go to burn camp. And burn camp actually happens here in our county. It happens at Camp Wapiti. And I didn't even realize it was actually happening last weekend, because some of the firefighters from our community were up there. So we raised a good portion, so we should be able to sponsor one child to go to burn camp next year, which is pretty amazing. So thank you for my, I really am sorry, I did accidentally dunk you. That was an accident.

There was no accident. I watched her hand go up, I watched her smile, and then I watched this giggle after.

It was more shocked, and then I was like, today's the day I'm going to get fired. Also, Sheriff, thank you for participating. We had Trevor Whiting, who is our fire warden and our assistant fire warden, Dylan Belinder, and Jason Belinder from Rush Valley Fire. Mayor Manzion also participated, which was fantastic. Tracy was a good sport. She did it last minute. And she did it for free. Oh y'all did it for free Just kidding, but thank you all for doing that It was really important and it's really great to see us all come together for a bit a cause bigger than us So, thank you.

Thank you This next item will will require a closed session legal updates with that I would like to have a motion or charity entertain a motion to go into closed session so moved Hear a motion from Councilman Wardle. Is there a second? Second. Hear a second from Councilman Strongberg. We'll take a roll call. Councilman Hoffman, how do you vote? Aye. Councilman Thomas, how do you vote? Yes. Councilman Strongberg, how do you vote? Aye. Councilman Hander votes aye. Councilman Wardle, how do you vote? Aye. Okay. We are in a closed session.