County Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Tonight is September 15th, 2026. We're at the county building on the third floor in the council chambers. The time is 6.43, and we will start with a pledge of allegiance by Curtis, one of our commissioners, and our plan of zoning. Will you all please rise?

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

Thank you, Curtis. As far as roll call, we have our county attorney, Scott Brighthead, present, county council. We have Councilman Hoffman, Councilman Thomas, Councilman Stromberg, Councilman Hamner, and Councilman Wardle present. As far as manager's office, we have our county manager, assistant county manager present, and our county clerk, Tracy Shaw. Thank you for being here. That will bring us down to public comment. Is there anybody in the audience, by raise of hand, that would like to make a public comment? Seeing none, we will go to minutes. Is there any additions or corrections for the August 25th, 2026 council meeting? If not, chair to entertain a motion. Hearing a motion from Councilman Thomas, is there a second?

Second.

Hearing a second from Councilman Stromberg, All those in favor of approval of the minutes, say aye. Aye. All those who may oppose, say nay. Hearing none, that would be unanimous. That will bring us up to the contract with the server room. Uninterruptible power supply. Scott.

evening council um thank you for the opportunity to present um 2023 our ups is that supply backup power for approximately 240 minutes the company went under we have been living off of parts and pieces for the past two years we are now asking to complete that upgrade and replace those with toshiba units We're looking at a cost of about $217,000. We started out at about $300,000 for this, and we've worked our way down through negotiations to get that drop down.

Any other questions or comments for Scott?

Thank you for negotiating well. Yeah. It took a little while.

County Manager, do you have any comment?

Yes, one comment, I think, and we talked about this as well. You may see this in Scott's budget coming up. Prices on the IT are going up significantly. I think before we were, you mentioned this today, we were planning on like 10%. They're going up 15%, 16%, 17% on some of these things.

We're seeing 17% to 25%, which I'll address next week when we have our presentation. But, yeah, we usually budget for about 10%, and it's increased about 17% to 25% depending on what we're getting.

Yeah, so...

Thank you. Thank you. Chair to entertain a motion.

So moved.

Hear a motion from Councilman Stromberg. Is there a second? Second. Hear a second from Councilman Wardle. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those may oppose, say nay. That sounds unanimous. Thank you. That will bring us down to State of Utah contract mending Number six, between the state of Utah and Utah Attorney General's office, Tula County.

Yep.

It has your name down here.

Yeah. This is just our annual edition of the contract. It has the scope of work of what the CJC needs to do with the money that they give us and just adding on the money to the contract.

OK. Any questions or comments for Joe? No? OK. Chair, entertain a motion. So moved. Hear a motion from Councilman Wardle. Is there a second?

Second.

Hear a second from Councilman Hoffman. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those who may oppose, say nay. That sounds unanimous. We will bring us down to Tracy. Agreement with Kennedy Bowles?

Pitney Bowles.

Opposed? OK.

Yep, every five years we have our lease for our mail machine that we use to handle all the county's internal mailing and outgoing mailing. comes up for review and that happened right as I came on a long time ago or five years ago and so now I'm just finished my fifth year so that means the mail machine also is in its fifth year so that's how I keep track of it it's really easy I hadn't done a review for that in that first year just to put that out to bid to see if that this was a good price we've been paying and Daniel helped me to evaluate that with a competitor that's also on the state contract and found that our existing lease was the better deal and the better price. And I see no reason to switch services. So it's just a renewal of our existing lease. There is a slight increase in that, just along with everything else in the world, the costs are going up. And so not by a whole lot, a few hundred dollars a quarter, but the services have been sufficient and we've been able to take care of the machine just fine. So I have no problems with the existing vendor.

Any questions or comments from the council or manager's office? If not, chair, entertain a motion.

So moved.

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

Second.

Hearing a second from Councilman Thomas. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those that may oppose, say nay. That is adopted unanimously. That will bring us down to resolutions. Resolution 2026-27. Please come up and you can state your name and what you're here for. Randall.

uh, uh, members of the council. I'm, my name is Garrett gross. I'm representing Gilmore and bell law firm. We're, we're bond attorneys out of Salt Lake city. Uh, normally you probably have dealt with Randy Larson in the past. He had another commitment. And so, uh, uh, to give you a little bit of an explanation, given that the county is not issuing bonds, I think there's looking at this agenda item, uh, to, to sort of explain what's going on here. Uh, essentially, uh, A company by the name of HealthSide Partners is acquiring all the assets of Quorum Health Corporation. This is a company that has a presence and owns health care facilities nationwide. And a couple of those, well, one of those happens to be locally with the Mountain West Medical Center.

And there's a location in Stansbury Park as well? In Stansbury Park as well.

There's two, correct. There's actually two, yes. So there's two locations that are part of this acquisition. In order to do so, they're issuing tax-exempt bonds, or they're borrowing tax-exempt bonds through a conduit issuer called the Public Finance Authority, and they're based out of Wisconsin. You might ask, why is Wisconsin involved in this? They're an entity that was created for a lot of these so-called not-for-profit tax-exempt financings. so they they help with these large nationwide projects and and provide kind of a centralized entity that helps them issue these bonds or borrow a tax exempt rates so in essence the county is not involved in the cause a conduit issuer it's not involved as an obligor or a borrower but unfortunately federal tax law requires the municipality or the county where any of the assets of the of the financing or the project are located to approve of the financing after a public hearing. So that's why we're here tonight is to look for specifically these two properties as part of the project, as part of the tax, the $1.1 billion taxes and bond issuance, the county has to approve those bonds after a public hearing, giving the public an opportunity to comment as to whether or not they object to or have any concerns about the project or the acquisition. To be clear, there are no assets of the county pledge, there are no assets of the authority in Wisconsin pledged. Strictly, the source that will be used to repay the bonds will be the revenues of the borrower itself. So with that said before, so we're here to one, open it up for a public hearing before the council for the tax exemption on these bonds, which does in fact provide a benefit to the two facilities in these areas, being able to save the borrower costs associated with borrowing. and financing projects at taxable rates, it allows them to do this on a deeper basis. So there is some local benefit despite the fact that this is a huge nationwide endeavor. With that said, before we turn it back over to you to open it up for a public hearing, are there any questions?

Any questions or comments? I see one hand, Councilman Hoffman.

When I was reading about it, so they're going to be issued out of Wisconsin, not Delaware, because somehow it's a corporation doing a DBA out of Delaware, correct?

That's correct. The ultimate borrower is doing it out of Delaware. The tax rules ultimately require a public entity to issue the bonds.

So normally when we do it... No, go ahead.

i said when we do it locally oftentimes the county will sometimes be that conduit issue given the the wide scope of this project this is a nationwide public entity that's used for this process okay

So my question is, are there other counties or are we the only one running a resolution like this to go?

There's in fact, there's a list. I don't know how much was provided to you in your packet, Texas, Utah, Utah, but all over the, all over the country, Wyoming, Texas, Oregon, Kentucky, all over the place.

So there were some comments online today about this, and I just want to make sure that we're clear. The county is not issuing bonds. The county is not in the hospital business. Correct. The county is not on the hook for any of the payment, any of the taxing systems for the payment. We simply are a pass-through for a public hearing to take place that is required by federal law. Correct. Thank you.

Do you have any idea about the bonds, what they'll be rated, and the term of them, interest rate?

We're still working on rates. Obviously, there's some negotiation taking place on there. As I understand, the bonds, from what I've been told, will be amortized over 20 years with a 10 to 15-year term amortized over 20 years.

I think you already answered this more or less. The county's approval does not bring with it any potential liability.

Correct. It's simply to allow for the tax exemption on the interest rate on the financing.

Yeah, we can't handle $1.1 billion.

You see that number and it's very daunting, right? That is correct. No legal liability on the county whatsoever. Or financial liability.

We do have a great bond rating, though, as a county. An exceptional bond rating, actually. But I think that that's the important thing to clear up. When I initially read this, I went, what the heck? And I think that the public has seen that, and it's important to dispel any misunderstanding that this is a legal issue for a nationwide bond that doesn't affect us, but someone, but we have to run, it has to run through a public hearing. That's correct. And we are simply the vehicle for the public hearing. Correct.

And what would happen if we didn't do the resolution? We said, no, we don't want to do it.

Then essentially the proceeds that would be used to finance the assets located in the county wouldn't bear the benefit of that tax exemption.

So Mountain West, if they wanted to use some of the assets that came out of this bond, they were able to do it with a tax exemption, which if they didn't have that, it would probably be passed on in some kind of rates to customers or patients. Correct. So we're trying to keep health care down.

That's exactly right. That's the indirect benefit that it does provide to residents.

Okay. Any other questions or comments? Hoffman, go ahead.

Is it just they're looking to just buy it? They're not looking for expansion here, correct? That's what I was reading.

There will be a small aspect of it will be for renovation of facilities. Okay. Yeah.

Because I didn't notice that was in there.

Mostly, though, for the acquisition of the assets. I think a number of breakdowns.

Right. It was like $135 million, I think, for the hospital out here. Right.

Thank you. Chair, entertain a motion to open up public hearing.

So moved. Second.

A motion from Councilman Wardle, second from Councilman Hoffman. All those in favor open up public hearing on resolution 2026-27. Say aye. Aye. All those who may oppose say nay. It is now open. That was unanimous. Is there anybody in the audience by a raise of hand that would like to speak on resolution 2026-27 specifically? Seeing none, chair to entertain a motion to close public hearing. So moved.

Second.

Hearing a motion from Councilman Hoffman and a second from Councilman Strongberg to close public hearing on resolution 2026-27. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those who may oppose say nay. It is now closed. Chair, entertain a motion on resolution 2026-27. So moved. Hearing a motion from Councilman Wardle for approval on resolution 2026-27. Is there a second?

Second.

Hearing second from Councilman Strongberg. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those that may oppose say nay. That is adopted on resolution 2026-27.

That will come up to... Can I just ask a quick question? Do we need to sign anything tonight on that issue or do you just need the minutes saying that you had the public hearing?

There will need to be signatures, but we can get those.

Okay, thank you. I just want to make sure we take care of them. No, thank you.

Do we need to go to some really nice place in Hawaii to do this?

It's not required. I'm just kidding.

You're so good. I'm just kidding. That was a joke. Context on the point. And I'm joking.

You're watching. That will bring up Council Updates. Councilman Hoffman.

A couple things. So at the UAC board meeting last Tuesday night prior to the UAC convention down in Utah County, a couple things that they're working on that can and will impact us. One is a centrally assessed properties committee. They're trying to put this together to get all the counties working together on centrally assessed issues. how much we love fighting the railroads and the big industries that want to fight us on taxes all the time. And they want representation from all of the counties for this committee, whether it's an attorney, because it's going to be lawsuits, an assessor or commissioner or councilman is kind of what they're looking for. So they feel like if we all work together on this, it'll be we'll be much more successful in fighting the companies that try and avoid paying those taxes and deferring it and stuff like that. The big corporations that fight us all the time on that. So that's an issue. The next thing that we voted on and approved was a thing that's going before the Supreme Court that's gonna impact all of the counties. and states, and well, not all the states, but some of the states, it's to pay for an amicus brief before the US Supreme Court. Because apparently, here in the state of Utah, most jury trials, we are set up for eight and, jump in here anytime, Scott. But there is a lawsuit that, go ahead.

Yeah, so the Utah Constitution State Statute, basically, unless it's a capital case, Capital cases are 12-member juries. Other than that, it's eight.

So there's a lawsuit going before the Supreme Court. And basically, it is to mandate it so that all juries have to be 12 members versus eight. And that's going to impact eight or nine states or something like that, Utah being one of them. They think the bill is probably going to pass because most bills that go before the Supreme Court The Supreme Court doesn't take bills to not pass them, to overturn them. So they said that roughly around 70% of cases that go to the Supreme Court, about 70% of them get overturned. And so they are looking for us to file this amicus brief. I don't know what that does or what that is, but that's just kind of the first step in this. But if this goes through, there's going to be more cost obviously to the counties. Like Utah County attorney, is his name Jeff Gray? He was there talking about it. And they have 11 courtrooms there. And only one of them is set up for 12 jurors. All of the others would require construction and build out and stuff like that for the juries. And the state is saying if this goes through, that any costs associated with this will be passed on to the counties, basically. They're not covering it. So we're going to have to look at this and potentially deal with this because it may be forced on us. The state of Utah will have to change its state constitution if that's the case. But that is an issue that they're watching and they're wanting us to help participate in paying for this $35,000 to file this amicus brief. We voted to accept it. The breakdown of that would be that the five biggest counties would pay $25,000 of it. So each of them would pay $5,000. That's Utah County, Salt Lake County, Weber County, Davis County, and Washington County. The other 10,000 would be split up between the, remaining 25 counties or 24 counties, so that comes to us, our bill will be $416.67. And they need it fairly quickly by October or November is when they're going to be asking for that. Okay. Everybody agreed, especially the smaller counties, it went over, it went past, well, you know, they wanted to accept that before they changed their minds and there wasn't any more money for the counties. help fight this and and stuff so that is in the works okay so we're going to probably need to pay uac another 416 dollars and 67 cents to help fight this thing before the springport that is my update okay thank you councilman hoffman councilman thomas

Yeah, a couple of fun things. We're not going to court to sue anybody. I'm going to give a shout out to Tooele City and their 9-1-1 September 11th walk that they did Saturday. It was pretty dang impressive and fun. Mike Rappage, our next councilman, gave a wonderful, wonderful talk. And the whole procession, we went down to that high school football field and walked around, did the stairs and everything. And it was led by, who was it led by, Paul? Was it the police cadets?

It was the technical college's police cadets.

And it was really cool to see everybody go out and support that. So hats off to Tooele City Fire Department and the wonderful job they did on celebrating and commemorating that day. The other ones, I got to go up to Oldford today with Chris McCormick. Tooele County Tourism Director, kind of promoter. And he got the whole, there was like six or seven of them from the Utah State Tourism Board. And I got to go up there and show them and tell them the story about Ophir. And they said, we didn't even know this was here. And one of them went back, and I don't know her role was.

She says, we have got to talk to the state board.

And I presume that was the tourism board. So hopefully that brought the awareness. She said we had no idea it was here. And while we were there, there was this couple that come down that live in Eagle Mountain. Their parents live in Idaho and says, you've got to go to Ophir. So they took a tour off and I opened up the buildings and let them walk through. So that was pretty nice.

That's my report. What did you say? You told them a story? I can't believe you're not still up there then. Oh, yeah. I'm just teasing. I'm teasing, yeah. Thank you, Councilman Thomas. That's important. They did come down, and they did report that as of March, they've done 14 filmings here in Tooele County of commercials and different parts of movies and musical videos. Very good. Yeah, it was kind of neat. Councilman Stromberg.

Nothing tonight.

Okay, I just gave you that one. Councilman Wardle.

I have nothing.

Okay. Andy. Just a couple quick updates. One, as you see out back, the jail is coming down now. And so that's good to see. And it's fun watching something build. It's really fun watching something torn down. So spend some time out there. Watch them pull it down, because that's no easy task with that building. So we had some hiccups, because we didn't have as-built plans of when things were built here. So they had to work through a good bit of that. That took a couple of extra weeks. So they should be done, I think, mid-October, I think is the plan right now, the 7th of July. And my only other comment is I want to shout out three people in the audience here because they were brave enough to go to the planning conference with me. You had Kelly and you had Chris and you had Curtis. They were all in class and I can verify that they did go to class as well. But they had some good sessions and I really appreciate you guys being there. I haven't seen that in other places where you have you know this type of a group going to those conferences so i really do appreciate that and for all of us learning there i mean we sat together in one of the moderate income housing classes which was really interesting they had a data center class as well that curtis and i were in and so it was good to learn from other communities to see kind of some best practices and so i really appreciate you guys being there so they can confirm I went to class, because I do have to get credit for those classes.

That's why you brought it up, I see.

I have to have witnesses that I go, so thanks, guys. That's all I have.

Thank you, thank you. Our next item will require a closed session. We have some legal updates, and I need a motion to go into a closed session.

So moved.

Hear a motion from Councilman Wardle. Is there a second? Second. Hear a second from Councilman Stromberg. And we'll take a roll call. Councilman Hoffman.

Aye.

Councilman Thomas. Aye. Councilman Stromberg.

Aye.

Councilman Handler's aye. Councilman Wardle. Aye. That sounds unanimous.