City Council - Regular Meeting

We're all new, most of us, except Blair and his position. And so we're going to try Well, you're you're halfway, right? Yeah. All new. Yeah. But um the workshops um are going to become a workshop, a work session, a time where we can all sit and discuss and and work through the issues that are in front of us. So when we have city about should be done here previous then we'll have our city council meetings and we can just go through things pretty quick. That that's the intent. Okay. Um done by 9 uh or earlier earlier. Yeah. Um eight.

Now what what would be ideal and so what may happen with this format is um more people may need to present and so we may need to start sometimes earlier 5:35 at the earliest. I is five an okay time with you guys if we need to. If needed. Yeah.

Okay. But the normal is going to be six. But if we get a bunch of people that need to come in and uh I I'd rather have all that discussion in the front and then come in for an hour meeting and then be done instead of staying till 10:30 at night and hand zoom. So um with that in mind that that's what we're going to do. Um or I'd like to try now on our agenda. You'll notice that um we're going to have a call to order. Okay. And so, um, I've asked Cynthia to do that. So,

we'll do a roll call and start the meeting of January 6, 2026. Please say here when I call your name. Council member Westerard here. Council member Oiler here. Council member Bokeut here. Council member J here. Mayor Roodie here. Council member Lewis.

We have a quorum present. Thank you. Um, now we're going to declare conflict of interest now and we're going to do it again later, but we need to do it now because we're going to be talking about issues that there could be a conflict and so we need to talk about or present those at this point. Uh, after looking at the agenda, does anyone here have any kind of a conflict? Now, do I need to define a conflict? No, we did that. Okay. Oh, well. Uh, our our city conflict of interest states that if you have a financial benefit,

um, anyone in your household, then you need to declare a a conflict and excuse yourself from the discussion. Okay. So, anyway, anyone have a conflict of interest with anything we have discussing today? under that definition. Not necessarily, but my little brother works for Rups Trucking and we're voting on that tonight. So, I just don't want a conflict of interest. So, Okay, great. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Okay, we have uh Cassandra Merrill has um been working with us and her committee and they put together an idea that they want to present to us and I wanted them to come and talk to you guys about it. It's called the emotional wellness committee. And so, uh, Cassandra, do you guys want to come up and sit down and and show us what you've got?

You're part of our committee. Come on up.

Okay. So, um, the idea of this emotional wellness committee came about with all the things that have happened in the last year. My son's a year old and we've had profile of arrests, we've had murders, we've had suicides, we've had just general unrest and people feeling like they're scared, they're nervous, they're not sure what's going on. So, this committee kind of came out of that idea. You might go to the next slide. Um, and here's some data to back up what we've been feeling. Um, the Utah State University does a wellness survey. Um, I don't know how many years they've been doing it, but we have done it the last two times they've done it, and they do it every two years. So, in 2024, we were ranked 48th out of 51 cities that did the survey in the entire state of Utah. So, not good. Um, which just goes to show that what we're feeling is accurate, right? Um, you can go to the next one. Sorry, I wish I could like do this for you. Um, so people I I mean, if you hop on Facebook, you're going to see that people are feeling scared. They're feeling worried. Um, according to the survey, people don't want to recommend living here. They don't they're scared. They're they're nervous. They don't feel like it's a safe place to raise their families. Um, and so on the next slide, um, this committee idea, this committee is to help combat that. It's to help the residents feel, to help ourselves feel like we're doing something, to help us know that we recognize there's a problem and we're going to do something to fix it. We're not going to be complacent. We are going to make an action plan. And obviously, we can't fix all the problems overnight. That's not the plan. We know it's going to be a marathon. It's going to be a baton race, right? We're not all

going to be here in 5, 10, 20 years. But hopefully that as we make changes, the next generation will pick up the baton and make more changes so that Truman overall in the long term will become a happier, better, more welcoming place where people feel like they belong, they feel safe. So with that, the emotional wellness committee's goal is to um cultivate belonging, create action plans and create projects to help people feel like they belong and that they're um connected to the community. So when a tragedy does happen, um they know there's resources to go to or if there something's happening in their life, they can know what resources there are. So hopefully we don't have tragedies. Next. Um, so to create a diverse community like or committee like this, um, we need to have a wide variety of people, a variety of experiences and expertise. And so to do that, we want to have parents and educators, first responders, religious leaders, um, therapists, social workers. We also want to make sure we're including the youth. They're the ones that are right there in the schools that are experiencing a lot of this when they don't have the years of experience to understand and they have all those hormones that help that don't help them to really understand, right? Their brains are still developing. Um, but we also want to make sure we're including the senior citizens because they have a wealth of knowledge that they may have tried something in the past or they may have seen something that worked or that didn't work. Um, and so they can And so they can provide ideas and things and they have they tell a wider variety of experiences to be able to help us know you know what might work or what might not work. So the next slide um with that the proposal at the moment is to start out as an unofficial committee

or as a mayoral committee. Um which would allow us to have a little bit more flexibility as far as um we can if a tragic happens we can meet and have that meeting and we can discuss it. We can discuss on a group chat. Um and we don't need to worry about like we wouldn't be paying city to have like minutes typed up because that would cost money. We're trying to do this fiscally responsibly. Um, and if that need in the future with the mayor and whatever wants to move forward to a more official committee, that's obviously always an option. Um, but it would still be under Chant City. The things that we do and the things that we present would be under the city in the next slide. Um, so I'll get more to that in a second, but just some ideas of things that kind of came up as we were discussing different um, ideas that the committee could do and I hope that when the committee meets the committee members that are chosen or that volunteer to be on it will come with ideas as well. So this is just a starting board of ideas. Um, child abuse prevention prevention events. Last year in April we had the child abuse prevention month with a proclamation. So our goal is this year maybe as a committee we decide to do some events around that so that the proclamation was a start and now we're going to do something else. Um a tragedy plan when tragedy does happen. What are we going to do? What are some healing processes that we can already have in place so that we know okay this happened and now we have some things that we can do to help the community heal from that. Um honoring our fallen respon first responders and veterans. Um, we already have some ideas of how we can honor our two volunteers from last August. Um, Lee Soren, Lee Sorenson and, um, Marstrada, but um, also other first responders. They're not the only ones that we have lost in our community. Um, and veterans as well. There is a wealth of veterans here who deserve to be

honored. So, maybe there's something as a committee that we could do to help honor them. Um, another idea that was presented as we were kind of discussing and brainstorming was a positive Facebook group, something where people could share positive events that have happened in the community or positive story, something that is purely just good things that happen. Um, that, you know, people could share like, oh, someone helped old lady across the street or someone helped this cat or I don't know, whatever, right? Just something to kind of help boost positivity. Um, and supporting other organizations. There are so many groups already out there doing things. Um the Bear River Safe Communities Coalition, the Suicide Prevention Coalition, New Hope Crisis Center, there are a lot of people doing things. So, as a city and as a committee, we could partner with them and help their causes um by providing information or volunteers or whatever if their cause is also supporting what we feel like we need to do in our city. So, um, so kind of back to the slide I mentioned before, we'd be reporting to the mayor in real time because we're a mayoral committee. So, we would be reporting to him as we're doing things, the ideas we're having, the concepts, the events you want to do. Um, but with that, um, we want to make sure that the city council is is up to state up to beat on what we're doing as well. So whether a city council member requests it or the mayor or maybe as a committee we're like this is a really cool thing we want to share with the city council. So whatever whoever u instigates it um we're always welcome to and always u we're always happy to come and present to you guys and share what we've been doing what progress we've seen um and with that we hope to be able to not just do these events and call it fun but to see progress. So seeing with police reports, seeing with the wellness survey and other things that hopefully we can see progress and it's going to be slow

because that's what this kind of stuff does. It's slow progress, but hopefully over time we will see that people are feeling more welcome and they're feeling more heard and that they will feel happier and safer living here in Truman. My last slide. So with that, do you guys have any questions or comments? I do, Cassandra. I really like what you're doing. I think this is something we need a place for people to come together, but is there going to be a way on the city's homepage, if you will, that you could put like the hotline tip numbers and things like I'm just thinking outside the box because sometimes it's hard to come face to face and talk to someone when you're and if they have that phone number there. That's just a suggestion. I'm not telling you what to do.

We have those ideas, too, of like what can we put on the Facebook page or on the um website page. Um yeah, things like that. Like what can we give residents like right when they first move in? Like can we give them like a welcome packet or something where it has that information or yeah, even people that lived here a long time, right? Maybe not they lost that paper or maybe they didn't have that when they moved in. like yeah the it's all it's all part of ideas that are kind of growing in our head and as we meet as a committee we'll kind of decide on what we want to do

and we could actually create on the the website an emotional wellness um you click on it boom here you go and it takes them right to it and a lot of these ideas are coming up with you can just drop in there and then all of us including the citizens can see what you're doing be awesome yeah and it's a great idea I really like the idea of Facebook posts that are positive like that. Yes. That highlight good. Fight fire with fire. That's a great idea. It's a powerful platform. Sure.

Now, this is a a mayor mayoral thing, if you will, and so they'll run with it. We I just wanted you to be aware of what they're doing, okay? So that you're aware. Um the their selection process, they're going to work with Zach. This is kind going to be under Zach's umbrella and they'll put out some applications and they'll do their own selection process and everything. And so uh everything will be handled within this committee.

Okay. And if any of the you want the flyer with the application, I'd be happy to send it to you. I've already contacted a few of the department heads and stuff and so I'll be sending it out to them. So do it. Okay, looks like we're excited. Thank you so much. That's awesome. Thank you. We're excited. And and this is what's been exciting the last month is as we've had citizens coming forward like this of wanting to do fun exciting things and so I'm pumped. Thank you. Thanks Cassandra. Any questions or any thoughts on on this?

Great. You know if we can help just one person, even one person, the efforts that these ladies are doing are going to be worth it. Yep. We've had a rotten year. Rough year. Yeah. Yeah. So, if we can just I'm okay. Right now, I just want one just one person and then it will steamroll. Okay. Well, I also want to add that Cassandra, you've been you've been active in, you know, the city,

you're always here. You're always actively helping. And I love that you found a way to add a lot of value to the city. And so just thank you, you know, for your time and effort that you're putting in. Nobody asked you. Nobody you're you're engaged in the community and it's appreciated. I I hope you get thanked enough for for all that you do and you bring babies, right?

So thank you too for letting her do it, right? It's a family event. Great. Um, next the the last thing I put together here is is a kind of a discussion um training if you will. Um, and some ideas. Now, these are ideas I'm faking, if you will. If you like them, great. If you don't, speak up. Okay? There's no one here telling you we have to do this. We're a team. So, if if there's something that we want to change a little, then let's do it. But we want to work together on this. Um I'm going to read the first this this is a you in your packets uh you have this training and the first paragraph says congratulations to each of you as a brand new team. We have the chance to set a culture of professional excellence from day one. This manual is designed to protect our integrity and the city's tax dollars. Our goal is to hit level six on the dignity scale where the truth is our foundation and respect is our delivery system. Let's lead Tmont by moving heated debates off the screen and into this room where the real work happens. Okay. So, with that in mind, we're going to go we're going to talk about the vision and truth and dignity. Okay. Uh we're going to talk about um the role of the chair. The mayor is kind of like the traffic cop. Okay? And so as city council, when we're having our discussions or our debates or whatnot, let's wait until you recognize before you speak. And I'm not trying to throw authority here, but it it's hard when we're overtalking each other.

And so let's just try to to keep some decorum, okay? And so, um, you know, ask for some time and and and we'll award it as such. And I think that that will make it a little bit easier for us to, uh, openly debate and discuss. Okay. Um, the gotcha moments. I learned this lesson. I'll admit it. Um, I've learned a lot of things, but submit complex questions to the staff in advance. If we've got some questions we want to ask the staff, we're not here to get them. We're not here to embarrass them. They're here to help us understand the issues. They're our resources. They're the experts. So, let's send them the questions. Uh, you know, Blair, if you've got a question or, you know, get a hold of someone and tell them, hey, when you I'd like you to answer this in the meeting. I'm going to ask this or let Lindsay know that this is what's coming and then she can figure out the information and then they're well prepared and then we're working as a team and not at each other. We We don't want that. So, uh I I found that when I started to do that, things started to work much better here in the city. And um and I think that drives a good respect. Respect the vote. Once the vote is taken, the decision is over. And we're united. We don't have to agree, but we're united. And the whatever the vote is, that's the direction we have. So, Any comment on that? Public comments. This is directed to us. Okay. This is kind of a sore subject uh in any city. Okay. But we are here to listen, not debate. We can't debate with the public during public comments. Okay. Uh we acknowledge the input. We thank them. And if there's

any followup or anything, we can't do that uh by law. We'll refer it to the city manager and and uh Cynthia and they'll they'll note it down and we'll make sure that it's followed up and completed. Okay. Um I have a question on that. Yes. Are we if if somebody's making a public comment, can we ask a question like a clarifying question? Clarifying questions. Yes. Okay. But we can't discuss and we can't make decisions. Gotcha. discuss is is I guess wide open because you are discussing by asking the question you know but we can't make decisions that's the most important thing okay yeah but we do need to understand their concerns yes yeah so clarifying questions is absolutely okay and a town hall is different

yes absolutely in that that is the structure of a town hall is for back and forth dialogue you bet you bet okay dress code I'm not going to come in sweats. Okay. Um, as much as we'd like. What kind of dress code do we want? Or do we want one? I don't want to wear a dress every every time. Oh, you could call me either. I think we need I mean, but I feel like there hasn't been really a problem either, but I think we need to wear, you know, nice nicer clothes. Okay. We need to look a little bit professional. Yeah. and not so much like we just walk up the tractor,

right? You know. Well, I put down here business casual. Yeah. Um so, um are you guys okay with that? Well, it it depends. Some of them I'll probably be coming right from Arkansas. So, I can I can throw a collared shirt on. Um Well, you're I don't think that's No, that would not be Well, you're not coming in your pajamas. I mean in your I don't I don't I haven't noticed that we had a problem before. No, I don't. Yeah. The definition of what I dress and the way you dress are two different things and that's up to me. I'm not no coming if you're in your your I don't know that we need one other than if

I know like my my opinion. I mean I think clothing is part of what defines who you are and how you act and what you do. be ourselves. Sometimes you might come from somewhere that that you can't. You didn't have time. Okay. All right. Well, then let's um Fine. No, I mean I think I think if you're something's wrong, then you should somebody should say, "Hey, you know, yeah, don't wear that again. Take a shower." I haven't noticed in the two years I've been here. No problem. That's what I We're going to let Shie be the code enforcement. Okay.

If you think I've dressed sloppy, just let me know. I'd be happy to do that. My wife has to remind me quite often that you don't retire that. I'm color blind. So, if I ever don't match your wife wasn't home when you got Tell me about it, please. You can come with stripes and checks. We'll let you know.

Yeah, please. Okay. Part two. The dignity index. Um, hard conversations require the honest truth and a respectful tone. The truth is our highest priority, but we need to deliver it correctly. So, we as city council, we need to treat each other with the highest level of respect. Um, and we need to treat the citizens the same and expect the same from uh the public when they're they're speaking to us. We we don't go after each other personally. Um if someone's at the uh stand and they go after someone personally, we'll stop it. Okay. And we'll just say please. That needs to be because that's happened. It has and and we need we'll recognize that and

yes and say something. Uh it's about taking care of the problem, not going after some someone in person. Um can I yes comment on it?

Okay. So, I'm I'm I'm fine with it. As far as it pertains to us uh going out and interacting with each other, I'm I'm a little reluctant to tell the public how they have to talk to us. you know, I I think the their freedom of speech to say and and obviously there's a there's a line, you know, but if if I've done something that's upset somebody and they want to come and publicly call me a jerk, okay, well, I've been called a lot a lot worse. Um, I I think as we do it, the tendency will be to have that that feedback come back like that. I just I think that government entities that start down that path, it never it never works out well because now it's us policing what they get to say. And if they say something that we don't like, then we're cutting them off. And you you see it all over all over social media in city councils that do that. And I think it's a it's a

Yeah. It's a I think it's a real bad precedence for us to set um on on coming back the other way. And and that's just how I how I feel about it. I I think that I mean I would I would hope that if we're engaging civily with with them that the same would be returned. But if that doesn't happen, I mean they're the ones that look however they however they look doing it. I just don't think that we should be telling them you can't use that word and you can't use that word, you know, unless you know some it like 100% crosses that that line.

I guess the problem is just a few times, but you can't say anything and they're saying something to you that's maybe inaccurate, whatever. I mean, we all witnessed since I've been here. And it was like, well, needed to stop and say, "Wait a minute. This is, you know, you're complaining about a problem. Let's talk about the problem." Not Mhm. Well, but here's the thing. They get three minutes, right? And so, if they spend that three minutes complaining about the person and not the problem, then obviously we can't get to the problem. And Katie, will you hold that book up? There's a this book it's like it's a great book you know let them like if that's how they're going to be

let them their three minutes will'll expire and then it's okay we didn't get to your problem so see you in two weeks or talk to us afterwards. I mean I just I I don't like the concept of us telling telling citizens what they can say and what they can't say to us. I like the aim of it is kind of liking that. Well, and it's respect, too, because you I mean, you got to have respect both ways. Yeah. I I think we absolutely honor the first amendment, you know, the ability to speak your mind and if somebody wants to call me words, personal attacks, they have the right to do that. I think we

we we have to honor that. That's what this country is about. But as a leadership body, as a as a city council members, I think that's an aim that we have as a city is you just got done talking about wellness. And if we as a leadership body don't promote dignity, we're going to fall into traps of of things that I so I think we should be encouraging it as a leadership body and doing what we can to to make the changes and speak amongst ourselves that way and asking the citizens to participate in that as an invitation. Yeah. Right. And and and an expectation.

But with that Yeah. Absolutely. anybody that wants to speak outside of the dignity if they want to be on a one and we as a community are measuring and we're a one that's the type of community that we are but we will have at least invited people to act according to dignity right so I I agree with you but I do think we should encourage it yeah and I think we do that in how we interact with each other and how we interact with them and and letting and sometimes I mean this is one thing that I found in 28 years of policing Sometimes people just need to bend. Yeah.

And sometimes they just need to say stuff and get it off and you know and okay, you know, it's and if it's directed at me personally, then I try and figure out, you know, what I did to to earn it. And if it's and if it's just directed at the council because of frustrations on something else, okay. But I think that's where we where we can get to the bottom of it. And it and it might be a little bumpy here and there, but I just I Yeah, there's also another book by uh CVY that's called the speed of trust. Yes.

Right. And I think the more we can foster a culture of trust that hey I might not agree with you but I am doing my best and we are you know the more we can breed that type of a culture the faster we're going to get to resolution. Yeah. And so you know I just I do think we should encourage it. Absolutely. But I don't think people should be able to come in here and talk disrespectful to any of us just a citizen. I don't think we should. I don't think that should be allowed. But why not? I mean, that's the that's good. What good is that? It might not do any good, but it's their right to it's their right to talk to me however they want to talk to me. Sometimes I think they

we don't have a right to to rebuttal any of it. That's the That's the hard part. That's the I know. And that's the that's the consequence of sitting on that side of the of the microphone. You know, it's like in in policing, if if somebody comes at me and they're swearing at me and and everything like that. The second that I address that or re-engage in a similar pattern now, who's all over the who's all over the news?

It's not them for doing it. It's look, this cop just lost control and now he's saying everything in the book at them, you know, trying to defend myself. And so I just, you know, and the easiest way to diffuse stuff is by just look at them and okay, I think there's a place for that and I don't think it's here. The one thing that I would like to encourage is is let's not use the city council chamber as a venue to come in and vent against individuals. if if they have an issue with you or if they have an issue with any one of us, let's go and talk to them and and let's encourage dialogue and absolutely.

And so I think that the chamber is not really the place to engage in that one-on-one dialogue. I agree completely. And so I think that's what we want to do is just push it towards that. But if somebody uses their three minutes to do that, I think we have to love them. We have to let them and just go, "Well, I wish it wouldn't have gone that way." But and and really who's the one who's the one that ends up looking bad? Yeah. Well, they do. Do you know one thing? I've been reading a lot about the ind um dignity index that was rolled out by the state of Utah and there's one section in there that says you have to kind of be careful with it that you don't use that to judge someone. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Or to belittle. It's it and they said it has happened. So I think we need to be really careful when we look at somebody if they're if they come with a complaint that's I'm with you. That's their right. It's not a complaint. I'm not talking about the 99% of the problems, but we we had one where somebody attacked a student councilman or something that he didn't do that should not have they should have said, "Okay, we seen there's a problem, but it's not that person's fault. But we also have to recognize that we are in we are in public we are public servants and when we take that on we give up certain things that that uh

and I and that's all I'm all I'm saying is that I think there's a I think there's a good way where we can where we can get this and get that to the end result and and I think you hit it right on the head. It's the it's an invitation. Yeah. And it's the trust and when when when the citizens trust the that we're doing the best that we can and that we're being transparent on things and that we're trying our our hardest to do to make the right calls for the right reasons, I think those those instances go down. I just I I personally won't support anything that that says that we shut anybody down for uh for not talking to us the way that that we would like.

That I'm going to have to agree with you. Me, too. They have the right and we do live in a glass house now. Once you get into office and if the heat's too hot, I'm frying the frying pan, I guess. Yeah. Because we are in a glass house, we're being watched. I think you you'll see you'll notice as the culture develops and we are treating each other with levels of respect that people people will come with that same attitude and we're going to have the the times when that's going to happen. But we need to remember that

as I mentioned in here contempt bruises the truth and so if they're up there and they're just so contemptuous and upset and everything it doesn't really give a lot of validation to what they're saying. and and we want we want them to have validation. So, and in training we do it there's a there's a a phrase that we use all the time and it's to especially when we were training new cadets at the academy and it was the phrase that calm breeds calm and panic breeds panic and when you know it's everybody plays off each other. It's just kind of a natural it's a natural tendency. And so the more that we are

when I you know I would I would add to that the lack of dignity breeds the lack of dignity. Yes. Right. And so that's that's what I'm saying is we just should breed and and create a culture of that and and expect it but also not censor anybody. Yeah. So we we'll tippy toe down this this this path and see where it takes us. And um

Yeah. But I'm I'm I I think we can do some good things with it. Um okay, the law and social media. Okay. Um the forum trap. If you use your personal social media page to conduct city business or announce policy, that page may be legally viewed as public forum. So, if you have public pages, you can't do anything uh that has anything to do with city business. Okay? Just so you know. So, like if we take our our campaign page and turn it to like our official council page and then everything's on there and then if it's something that we want to share to our personal page, then we just share that. How does that

like how can't have a personal page? You you can have one. You just can't take care of I just can't use it to can't talk about cities. Okay. Okay. Yeah.

Um once a page is a public forum, you cannot delete comments or block. So as a city councelor, you know, don't delete anything. Just telling you deleting a neighbor's Let's see. Deleting a neighbor's comment because you don't like their tone can open the city up and you personally to the First Amendment lawsuit. So, be careful of that. Um, OPMA, the uh Open Public Meeting Act or the Walking Forum.

So, a meeting happens anytime three or more discuss city business. Okay. Now, if the four of us were uh at lunch and just sitting there, you know, that's corn, but you do not discuss city business, period. And so, if any of that, it would. So, that's why you you just avoid it. And and honestly, you should just avoid being in in groups of three any time outside of of here, except we will have parties and events and those kind of things that we'll we'll all participate in. So, yeah.

Okay. And you've seen the the the texts going out, but if if you get a text, a group text, do not reply back. Okay? Because if if if you get a group text and we're all in it, you can respond back to the individual, but don't respond back to all. Okay? Because that's could be viewed as a public meeting and we we don't want to do that. So, um and same thing with emails. If you get an email from Cynthia, from me, from anyone, and it's all of you, don't reply all. Just reply back to the person that sent you the email. Okay? Any questions on that?

The text Just for me, like Dustin sends out the text of stuff that still goes to everybody. I mean, to reply on a text is you just have to open a new one and reply to him individually. Yeah, that's what I mean. I mean, on an email, it's easier. Yeah. On this um you know, even a thumbs up on a text could be construed as I agree,

you know, or yes or something. And so we just and I've talked to department heads. They understand that this is the the policy and and so uh they don't expect any returns. If you're commenting on any websites or anything, I just encourage you not to um any public sites, but um uh using we or the city in a personal post implies a unanimous decision has been made by a vote. And so don't use the words we at all in any of your discussions. It's got to be you individually. Okay? So just I um I I don't want it to come across that we've had any discussions outside of our quorums. Okay. Um okay, we talked about that the response protocol. Anyway, you guys can read through these. Uh we included these in the in the uh public um for them to look at. Okay. Now, um FYI, in a week from now, we're going, excuse me, in two weeks from now, we're going to come to you guys with a proposed change in uh the organizational chart. Okay. One of the changes are we we would like to move Cynthia over to report directly to the mayor and the city council, a direct line to them, a dotted line to the city manager. Um there's there's a couple really good reasons and legal reasons for doing this, but it removes all conflicts of interest or any kind of it just removes any kind of conflict that that could exist. And so, um, you as city council, your person to work with is Cynthia.

Mhm. Okay. If you have any questions, you need anything, she's here to take care of you. Her staff, uh, she has an assistant uh, um, recorder,

an assistant recorder, and um, and then she also has the judicial recorder. So, the judicial recorder is the one that has a dotted line to the justice court. And so, um, anyway, this is the we'll we'll I just wanted you to be aware that this will be coming and we'll get more information out to you so that you can see this during the next two weeks and and and then we'll also present a resolution on making these these changes. But, um, I'm I'm excited about it. We've been working with it and it's seems to be working pretty good. So, um, and I've uh I put some W's in there. Uh we don't need to read through all those, but you you're most certainly welcome to pull out the packets and go through those. Um but this is what's been suggested as uh the standard practice in in most cities is to have the recorder report directly to the mayor and the city council. So uh any questions on that? Okay, quickly we want to take about 10 more minutes and then we'll we'll take a break. The agenda. Okay, I I've made some changes on the agenda and uh I want to kind of talk to you a little bit about them. So, we'll have our city council workshops like we're doing here, uh have the discussion. If we have agendas or we have, excuse me, ordinances or resolutions, uh that's when they'll be presented. They'll come in and they'll talk about the resolution. Uh for example, let's do one now. Okay. Um because uh we have a resolution on the table tonight about a bid for um

Rocket Road. Rocket Road. Lindsay, do you want to explain to them what that's all about? I don't Carl.

So, this is a project that we already budgeted for in July's budget. We budgeted 1.5 million for this project to widen Rocket Road. Um, it would include widening the canal, which we've had lots of complaint, I don't know, lots. We've had a few complaints. People have run up on the cement side there. So, that'll be nice to get that widened. Um, we finally got the poles moved, the Rocky Mountain Power poles moved so that we can go forward with this project. Um, an updated engineer's estimate. So, we budgeted 1.5 million. Chris, our engineer, went back and gave us an updated updated engineer's estimate that came in at 1.13 million. Um, we received 18 bids, which I think is the most I've ever seen in my time here.

That was a ton of bids. So, very competitive, which is good for us. Um, we had some ranging from as low as 1.03 million up to 1.87 million. Um, the lowest qualified bid we received is a local contractor. It is Rup Trucking. Um, their bid was for the $1.03 million. So, that is their suggestion is awarding it to the lowest bidder, which would be Rup Trucking. And Carl's suggesting we do that. Now, do you have any questions or any anything you want to discuss on this? just a little bit. Okay. Um I sat down with Carl and had a great conversation with him

and when they're doing that they may include paving the new section of the cemetery roads. And we talked about that the other day and I says if you have the money why have them come out again? So that might be something that they will throw in there too while they're already there with their equipment and their employees. as part of the 1.03 03 or no, it would be an addition on to, but when I talked to him, he says it isn't going we're not going to go anywhere near what we had budgeted for if we do it right now in conjunction with the roadway. He says, and like you said, they're already there instead of paying so many. But I do like using local. Yeah.

Yeah. And and I think if if he does go to extend that, then he'd have to come back to us and let us know. Well, that's what I told you. Would we have to do another would we have to do another bid for that? And and I would imagine that they would come in probably significantly down because they're all still there. But is it a whole new There would be a bid process. No, they would they would just come and say, "Hey, we would like to use this much more to do this road and and it'd be up to you guys if we allow that or not." Okay. I was just supposed to throw that out there. So, I'm glad you got that knows that. Okay. So, um, when it comes time to in this city council meeting, um, are all your questions answered on this?

Yep. Okay. Now, great. Thank you, Lindsay. So, on the city council agenda, um, we'll call it to order. Uh, Cynth, do we don't need to do that again, do we? The

the roll call. Yeah. Uh, tonight we have Is Pastor Markham going to be here? Okay, Pastor Markham's going to do the opening uh invocation for us from the River of Life Church. And then we have a student doing the um the pledge. Um then we'll turn the time over to Cynthia for swearing in of the new officers. Then um then we'll have an approval of the agenda. Now, this is what my thinking is. I want I would like us to completely read the whole agenda to the public so that they know when we're what we're doing that night. They know everything we're talking about.

I'm okay. Now, um I'd like to try that. Okay. Now, I think that that will clear up a lot of problems with people saying, "Oh, we didn't know you were going to talk about that." Let's see. Let's see where that goes. This one isn't bad, but some of them are real. It could be. It could be. Let's Let's see where it goes. Okay. Everybody can pick one, download them, and look at them. And we may not do that. Let's see what happens. I agree. But I can see How far in advance are the agendas? They're out at least Thursday or Friday before. Yeah.

Okay. And then um Okay. Then we'll have a declaration of conflict of interest again because it's it's important to the public hear that we we announce those those um conflicts as well. Tonight we'll have a a presentation. Uh we've got a recognition for uh Mayor Homegrren and for our two council persons that um have served us well for the last little period. Well, four years and and one and a few months.

Yep. And then um then we're going to do the uh Tmont City Citizens Awards for the elementary kids. And I've asked Mayor Homegrren to do those presentations because he's done such a good job of that. And uh we need to recognize that Mayor Homegrren, Wes, and Connie Archabald were the ones that really got that program going and it's been extremely successful. Yes. Then we'll have a year's award uh to Anna Sanders. We going to be doing that tonight. Okay. Okay. Is that something you want to continue doing? That was a mayor freed all thing is we used to just give him the award nobody knew about it.

So he was the one who suggested it's nice to come to city council meeting but I I think it's nice. I don't know that we need the five minutes. I guess if they give like a little bio I don't know. We can talk about What do you guys think? What do you think? I mean, it's nice for him to be honored, I feel like, but it doesn't need to be a big thing either. Yeah. But I think it's nice even if they're not here and they're still mentioned. I think it's the recognition. Okay. Let's continue. Okay. Perfect.

Um then, uh I'd like to switch tonight 8 to and seven, but um citizen engagement. Okay, this is the public comment time. And public comments are comments that have nothing to do with what is on the agenda.

It's just public comments. Comments about whatever they whatever the public wants, they can come up and give it at that time. There will be time later on that they can discuss issues that we're working on. Okay? And so there's no reason to talk about those during the public comment time. What I'd like to do on that is eventually we'll have a sign up on the uh website where people can sign up and they will be given first priority. We've also put a signup sheet on the door so people can come in here and sign up on there and then Cynthia will grab that and then she'll they'll they'll take second priority and then after that uh anyone that wants to come up and give comment can. I'd like to keep it to 30 minutes and three minutes a piece. And we have a timer up on the wall and it will buzz when the time's up. Okay. How does that sound?

Yep. That sounds good. Okay. Now, we're going to have some nights when there's going to be a hot topic and we'll we'll extend the time. Oh. So, um you don't know.

There's a little sarcasm in there. I know. And it says in here, under Utah state law, the council cannot debate or take action on non-aggenda items. So that's uh we can listen and everything's great, but we just can't take action. Okay. Then then we'll do the consent agenda. Now, here's my thought and and I've been doing a lot of research and we can do this. We can put everything in consent agenda except for ordinances. Okay, those need to all be discussed. We can drop all of our resolutions. I think we'll find certain resolutions we won't want to put in the consent agenda that have to do with money and and things like that. We'll keep those out,

but we'll drop, for example, this thing with Carl tonight is put in the consent agenda. We've already discussed it. If you don't have any questions, then we can just approve the consent agenda, which would be the finances, the resolutions, the no everything in that consent agenda. The caveat is if any one of you feel that that needs to have further discussion in that resolution at the time we do the agenda just say I want to drop that resolution down to the strategic business and we'll drop it and then we'll we'll discuss it there which would also allow for some feedback right from the public.

Yeah. So and then the the strategic business this is his ordinances and policies and what we want to do on that is um so we we'll be up on the dis and we'll invite whoever's presenting the ordinance or the policy or whatnot to take their time and just introduce it. Okay? We're not going to debate or anything like that. It's just time for them to introduce whatever it is. Then we're going to turn over 5 to 10 minutes for each of all of us to debate and talk about, ask questions to the person, try to figure out anything. Hopefully, we figured most of this out during our workshops, but we may have to clarify a a last few couple things.

What's that? You're in your 10. Okay, I'm almost there. Um, and then after we've done that, I want to take a 10-minute window and open it to the public for public discussion on that ordinance or that resolution. I like that. So, there'll be three minutes a piece and they can get up and they can discuss what's going on with that ordinance, ask questions, and we can we can engage with them on at that time because it's something we're doing decisions. I like that. Okay. And now that will add a little time to our discussions, but I'm thinking if we take care of things in the front end in the workshops, we can save some time there.

It'll add it, but it'll save it. Yeah. Yeah. And then at the very end, um, we'll have 5 to 10 minutes to make up our mind if we're going to either move forward with the motion or table it or deny it. So, there's no reason to spend an hour debating something. That should have all taken place in the workshop. And if we still haven't come up made our minds and I'll just say uh I'll accept a motion to table till the next meeting and we'll move on. I'd like to try this process. Are you guys okay with it? Absolutely. Sure. Why not? Okay. It'll still it'll still be a three minute. Three minutes. Yeah. For that time.

10 minutes at 10 minutes total. So, three three people is all that can If we ask them if we ask them follow questions in their three minutes, does that chew up their three minutes? We we want to try staying within the 10-minute window, but we'll see where that goes. Okay. I I think the sign up would be good because if somebody's passionate about something, they're going to sign up. Yeah. But if they just get involved in what's going on, then we just you just get the same Yeah. I mean, I don't mean it, but it's the same things you hear again. and we heard it. So I think the sign up be good. It'd be somebody prepare themselves.

And then council reports I would like to do council reports in the workshop not in the not in the good. So at the end of the workshop and we'll need to change that Cynthia but so at the end of our workshops that's when I'd like to do those. So you know and each of you have been assigned departments. Um I'm sure you've been you know which ones you're assigned. work with those people and uh those people work with the department heads and come back with um information they may have want you to share and whatnot. Let's make them very valuable uh time to share what's going on inside of the city. Okay.

So I got a question on Cynthia thing. So So if I have a say I got my department heads and I want to see the budgets for my groups that I'm over. Do I go to Cynthia for that and leave the Are are you saying we should leave everybody else alone or or I mean I'm just asking I mean has that been a problem or I don't think there there's not been any problem. Um, it's just nice to have a go-to, you know, hey, I I have this question, you know. Uh, so Cynthy would be that, but I think she could direct you to who you needed to talk to. But but if I know that Lindsay knows what I want, I can still ask

absolutely there. There's no sacred boundaries here, you know. So, for sure. Well, awesome. I'm excited to get going here. It sounds like we got some fun ahead of us. So, thank you. And uh let's adjourn until we got 6 minutes and then we'll get started with our meeting.

We good? Welcome to our Tmont City Council meeting at 7 o'clock and we'll go ahead and get started. Um, it's always

Yeah, I know what I'm doing. Okay, we will start our meeting tonight. We have an invocation that's going to be given by Pastor Samuel Markham from the River of Life Church. And after that, then we will have my grandson, um, Jake SM's going to lead us in the pledge of allegiance, and we'll go to that. And then we're going to turn the time over to Cynthia. Okay. So, let's go to that point.

Well, it's my honor to be here um to say this prayer and blessing over our city and over our city council and our new mayor and I'm very grateful to be here. So, let's begin with prayer. Father God, thank you so much for this wonderful people and this wonderful city. God, your word says, "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God." God, you rule the nations, and we're grateful for that. You've given us that dominion, and we're thankful for that, God. As we make good decisions, as they guide the city, as we make choices that lift you up and make us a righteous people, we pray that your blessing would be upon us. Lord, we just give you praise and we thank you for all these men and women here gathered in our name in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Thank you. Just right there. Jay King, stand up. Read the pledge of allegiance after me. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay, if I could have all of you come down here except Blair, we'll swear you in. You'll raise your right hand and repeat after me. I do solemnly swear I do solemnly swear that I will support, obey, and defend that I will support, obey, and defend the Constitution of the State of the United States the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Utah and and the Constitution of the State of Utah. And that I will discharge the duties And I will discharge the duties

of my office of my office with fidelity. with fidelity. Thank you. If you want to sign these for me, ONE FOR YOU. Two for

one's for you. You want an hour or later? Okay. Thank you. on. You see? Okay. Um, we would like to move on in our agenda to the approval of the agenda. Do we have any

I'll make a motion that we switch item number seven and eight. Okay. Second that. Okay. With that, is there anyone opposed? No. Agree. All those that ag are what do I say now? Ly. All those that are in favor. All those in favor? I Yes. Yes. Yes. And all those opposed? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Um do we uh do we have a declaration? Any declarations of conflict of interest tonight?

I'll declare a conflict of interest just not necessarily under the definition, but my brother does work for Rup trucking, so I just would like to stay as far away from any potential conflict as I could. Okay, perfect. All right, we have some presentations tonight. Um, we would like to start by recognizing our wonderful past mayor and our city councilors that have served uh diligently for the last four years. And uh is Brandon here?

All right. And and Brandon has helped us uh as well. And so, uh, if, uh, Lyall and Brandon and Wes would come up to the front here, we have a few things we'd like to present to you.

Oh, piece. So we would like to thank you guys for your time, your effort. This is nothing compared to what you have done for us and we we appreciate all that you have done and we just wanted to give you a little recognition that you can put on your desk and and look up there and say I did do that. So Wes, thank you so much.

You survived. Mayor, thank you. And probably most importantly, here's some money for years of service. And here's here's some money service. And um all your MAIL and one one last thing. Um Mayor Homegrren served for

16 years as a as a city counselor, four years as mayor, and so we as a city put this together for him. Um, Lyall Homegrren, 20 years of faithful service as mayor and city counselor. Thank you. NICE. Have fun.

All right, let's have it. Let's get a picture.

Come on. Every week gets like you don't know what to do. Oh, that's true. You're in every one of them. I am. Oh, laws. Every week I'm like,

you need to go take it by the wall or something or have us run away. Now, um I I I'm guessing it was about two years ago that um or a little more for Connie Archbald and Wes come up with this great idea of recognizing our students for their for the efforts and the things that they're doing in school and um and for their citizenship. And so um and the mayor uh has been part of that, Mayor Homegrren has been part of that as well. So, um, we would like to recognize them and thank them for getting this tradition started and we're going to keep it going. I've asked Mayor Homegrren to present those awards to the students tonight as kind of a thank you for everything that that he's done. And so, uh, Mayor Homegrren, we'll invite you back up and let you present these awards to these kids. Can we have the principles come up to the front here, please?

I forgot to take off my coat. It's okay. I didn't build that very good, did I?

Thank you, Mayor Ro. Appreciate this uh privilege to be able to do this and and I uh you know, many times I've thanked the young people who uh received these awards. It's, you know, if if we're going to the idea of civility is so important to our community and what we're doing is these young people are are examples to us older people. These young people are showing us what civility is all about. And so without any further ado, uh we'll go ahead and give out these awards. And here we go. Gunner Williams. Taylor Herbst.

Thank you, Taylor. Will uh wait wheatbrook? There he is.

Did I pronounce that right? Oh, come around this way. There you go. Thank you, Rian Adams. Thank you. Ruby Herpst Betsy uh Bonefor Dominic Diaz Dominic

Dominic I spell that wrong. Diaz, that's right. There you go. Thank you, Dominic. Joseph or Josiah Chadburn. Here you go. Go Jazz. Wakey Tanner. Ruby Cubs. Ruby. We'll make sure Ruby gets her.

I can take it to her. Okay. Maline Nelson,

Izzy Christensen, Mazy Jane. I hope I got that right. Is it Mazy Jane? Mazy. Maisy. Maisy. Okay, I'll call you Maisie. And Aspen. Clout. Cloff. Cluff. PLUFF.

Here you go, Aspen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So, stay there, Mayor. Let's all um what I'd like to do is uh we're going to get a picture. I'd like the city council all stand up. We'll stand up behind you here, get a picture, and then uh she'll move, and you guys are welcome to come get all the pictures you'd like. Okay. Come on up here. You guys

just stand up. And you're not photobudd one. Yeah.

Thank you. Congratulations to these wonderful students. THANK YOU. I THINK WHAT WE'RE KIND of seeing here is something that's really this is democracy in its best form right here. And I think these young people are great to be able to have you here. It's great for your your examples of citizenship, but it's great to be able to witness what democracy is all about. And I think that that's something that we should all be very very proud of. Thank you.

Good man. Just a minute to clear out. So, what are we on now? We're on the citizen engagement. Oh, yeah. Years of service. Who has the years of service awards? Is she here?

Okay. Uh, okay. We're going to go ahead and we're gonna have a a years of service award to Anna Sanders. Do you guys want to come up and do that presentation for us, please?

All right. For the new council, I'm Jenny Christensen. I am the director of the senior center. Uh this is Anna Sanders and she's getting her five-year service award today and Anna does a great job at our senior center. She is one of our Meals on Wheels drivers. I have to read. Excuse me. She lived in Salt Lake City until moving to Tmont about 5 years ago. She was employed by the Granite School District for 29 years where she taught computers. Uh she's widowed. She has two sons that both live here close and four grandchildren. Um, she says her favorite part of working for Totten City is working with the staff at the senior center and serving all the wonderful seniors on her route that live in Tmont and Bothwell and Thatcher. Her favorite quote comes from Leroy FTH, which is one of her uh seniors that she delivers to used to deliver to. Excuse me. Yes. Uh, I am happy. I ain't mad at nobody. All right. And she says if she could eat one meal every day for the rest of her life, it would be prime rib. So,

all right. There you have it, Anna. And we are very happy to have her as an employee at the senior center.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay, this is the time for our general public comments. Now, we're going to uh the general public comments are a time when the public can come up and speak. We're going to we're we'll develop a policy eventually, but we first want to make it available for people to sign up online for public comments. And then we have when you're walking in, we have a signup sheet that you can also sign up to give public comment. I like that because then we can get your name, contact information, and um be able to follow up on these comments a little bit easier. And then uh we'll use that as our priority list. Sign up on there. And then if there's no one that's signed up online or on these lists, then um they're welcome to come up and speak at the pulpit. We're going to give you 3 minutes to speak. We have a timer. It will buzz when the time's up. Now, we by law cannot engage in any discussions or uh make any decisions during this period of time. and we're here to listen and we want to listen and we want to hear your comments and we would like to uh encourage our city manager to uh follow through on on those comments and we'll see what we can do to help come up with

some good resolutions. So, with that in mind, oh, and then we're going to uh from this point on we're going to limit that to 30 minutes a night. So 3 minutes a piece got to give it up uh for so that 10 people can speak and that's why we want people to be able to sign up so they can get on the list in case there's a lot of people that want to have some public comment. So with that in mind, I'd like to open up the time for some public comment.

And I know you know this, but state your name when you come up and thank you. Ben Greener, Tmont resident. Uh I'd like to point out that the uh US Space Force just celebrated its sixth birthday or day of it started and we still don't have a flag up. I know there's a spot for the poll, but uh maybe we'd have have that up before the seventh anniversary of the Space Force. Uh and also I noticed there's there's a light out there. I was wondering why we don't have a light on the flag, US flag. I know it's probably not a requirement, but we have the capability. Could we get a a light on the flag? Another point I'd pardon

right in at the the memorial there, right? Veterans memorial. Another point I'd like to make is our garbage cans in your in the city. You have about a dozen or so out there and they're all open open topped. I don't know how often they get emptied, but not very often. And there's trash that accumulates in them, cups, wrapper paper, and it just blows out. Uh I don't know why they're in certain places. I I don't know. I wouldn't even have them if if it was my choice. I pick them up and let the businesses worry about their own trash. I know in the summer when the guy's watering the flowers, he he collects that trash, but it's like I said, they're open, they collect rain, wind blows trash out, I suggest you get rid of them. Another comment. This happened earlier this year and I thought I'd wait until we had some new new members to bring it up. But on six north over by a thousand west at the canal there's a bridge fairly narrow. This well in the summer like in October I was walking this I walked several miles a day through Tree Mountain and there were four or five kids. They were going over the skate park and they were walking between the bridge and cars. I I couldn't believe it. I don't know why we don't have a pedestrian bridge over that canal for for kids to come out of the housing area and go to that park and even crosswalk maybe at the other further north at the new newer intersection. I don't know the street number, but I'm sure you know where I'm talking.

Uh pedestrian traffic is is horrible. I I've been hit almost hit several times in this town walking in the crosswalks with walk lights. So, anything to help protect our kids, I think would be would be a good idea. Thank you. And that's comments I had for for now.

Great comments. Thank you, Ben. Bill Rosema, been here four and a half years now. Most of you know me here. Jax, you've met me. Congratulations. Congratulations to every one of you here. Um, I'm going to echo the comments of that gentleman. I know I've mentioned this once in in city council before. I am happy to hear that Rocket Road is being widened. There's a canal that runs across down there and the bridge is narrow. It would be really nice to have the sidewalk bridged clear across the canal so that we can safely walk across there without competing with cars. Uh, it's almost like when you walk, if you're walking and you have that scenario, it's almost like, "Oh, there's a guy. Let me see if I can hit him." Okay. Feels like that sometime. Um, I I want to talk a little bit about high density housing. I know I'm not the only one that's opposed to highdensity housing. Uh if anybody's took a look at the town homes they're building on Rocket Road, Tmont Street right down here, you got two town homes and right behind them you got a one lane road right between them and then you got the garages facing them. It's like there's no room. I can just see it an episode on a cartoon where two people are backing out of their garages and they collide. Um, there's that. I don't know that it's all that healthy for massive amounts of people to be housed in a compact area. I

think we're just asking for trouble. Uh, I've heard uh people in the news complaining and raising all kinds of hell over a bunch of chickens all grouped together inside a building or a pin, you know, and how inhumane that is. I kind of consider, well, I do I consider highdensity housing inhumane. I think that we need to have some distance. And I think that when you're talking about planning developments, you got to ask yourself, would I want to live in this environment? If it's not good enough for me, why is it good enough for somebody else? Um, you you all have a lot of power. You guys have the permit. You don't have to give permits. If if the developers don't want to comply uh with a certain amount of distance, don't build. And I'm out of time. So,

thank you.

Thank you. Okay, it looks like we don't have anyone else that would like to do a public comment at this time. So, I'll go ahead and close that portion of the agenda. Now we're going to go into the consent agenda. What the consent agenda is is this bunches together a lot of the things that um we do at one we can do at one time. This would be where financial statements sit where lowhanging fruit if you will. Um we're going to drop uh uh majority of our resolutions are going to belong in this consent agenda. In a consent agenda, the city council can with one motion approve everything underneath that agenda. Now, the city councilors will have the right to pull anything out of the agenda and move it down into the discussion, the strategic discussion portion at any point if they feel that needs to be done. And so, with that in mind, I would like to ask for a motion on the consent agenda tonight. I'll motion to

approve approve the consent agenda. Okay. Do we have a second? I second it. We have a second. Um with with there being a resolution in this, we need to go ahead and do a roll call vote. Correct. We're going to let Cynthia conduct those roll call votes. Okay. Please tell me how you vote. Uh yes or no. Council member Oiler. Yes. Westerard. Yes. Yes. Council member Lewis. Yes. Council member Jex. Yes. Council member Boat. Yes. This motion passes. Thank you.

Now, we're going into tonight. We don't have any strategic business, but I want to explain how this is going to work. This is I think it's an exciting thing we're going to do here. When we get in strategic business, this is ordinances and policies. And so in our workshops, we will discuss these uh openly. We should have all of our information debated and discussed for the most part in our workshops. We'll come to this point and we'll then open it up and we'll invite whoever's the author of the the resol of the ordinance or policy to come forward and present it. They'll present this uh ordinance or policy to us and then the city council will have 5 to 10 minutes to have open discussion with the person about that resolution or ordinance or um policy. After that, we're going to open it up to the public for 10 minutes to come up and they're going to get three minutes a piece to come up and give their opinion, discuss openly that ordinance discussion, uh, ordinance, policy or resolution. This is a great opportunity for the people to then know this is what we're talking about right now. We can be involved and we can discuss it and the city council can open up and and discuss openly. I I think it's going to be a fun thing to try. And so we're going to do that and then after that we'll close the public portion of it and then we'll give the council 5 to 10 minutes to deliberate and then we'll we'll ask for a motion. If at the time we can't come up with a consensus on the motion, we'll just table it till the next meeting. So that's kind of what we're going to

experiment with and try in the future on this section of our agenda. So, just sounds sounds like we we'll give it a try. Okay. All right. Love it.

Um, and this is the part of the program where we're going to turn it over to the city manager. If if she has anything that she would like to report or um give back to the city council, this would be her opportunity. The thing that's going to happen, we're not going to have a lot of the department heads um reporting here unless they come and and ask for an invitation to to come and present, but in department head meeting and whatnot, they'll present a lot of these issues with Lindsay and Lindsay will bring them to the council. And so, uh it should help streamline our process just a bit. So, Lindsay, do you have anything? Nope.

Okay. I want to personally thank Lindsay and the staff for being so wonderful during this last 3 four weeks of this transition. They've been amazing. Um thank you really truly. Um they've been wonderful to work with and we will also do our council reports in the workshop session before this so that they can come back. I've asked each count uh city uh counselor to be in charge of not to be in charge of but to work with certain department heads and so they'll work with them and then they can represent them in a lot of the discussions and debates and whatnot we have here in our meetings. So um but with that in mind uh council do you have anything else we need to discuss tonight?

Yes. When I was visiting with my department, which is public works, he asked if the council would like to come down and take a tour of the facility. He says it would help us understand more of what's going on. I do and what the need is. So council, I say not when it's muddy, but that's my opinion. Not when it's muddy. But if you would like to, I think it we may benefit from going down and seeing what's going on. I'd love that.

Well, maybe we could set up like a uh meet here at 5:30 on a council meeting night and run down or anytime. Do you want to coordinate that? Yeah, I'll coordinate with him. And then he also said, "Tell everybody we're excited for snow." He said, "What? We're excited to plow snow." we are ready to go like so that's my so I'll get with him and and Carl's put in some new pro procedures with that and so I'm excited to see how that uh changes the way that we do our snow in the city so like what's he doing

uh getting on it a little bit earlier and and trying to get the streets cleared a little faster specifically having someone on call for street or yeah plowing also on top of the other on calls they already have I think was part of the plan. Mhm. They'll have three people on call. Yeah. And instead of starting at 7:00, he says if we have to start at three, we'll start at three, which is going to help make the road safer for them, for the police, for us. So, I think what he's doing is awesome.

Thank you. Now, you'll notice that I didn't introduce us all. um our names are in front of us and so I I think everyone can read them. I So I don't plan on doing that in in these meetings. So it's not to show any disrespect or anything. It's just I kind of want to move things along. I I have a question. Do we not have to approve minutes from the previous meeting? We do. We just didn't have any to approve this time in the consent. In the consent agenda. They're in the consent agenda. That's what I wanted. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. So we do that. We don't need to mention each item. We just approve the consent agenda. Wow.

So when we said yes on the consent agenda, we were saying yes to approving the minutes and also approving the resolution. Oh, there it says I was trying to read that before I even asked the question. And and like I said, if you have a concern about any resolution or any item in that consent agenda, you have every right to say, "I'd like to drop that down so we can discuss that further." And we'll pull it out of there and we'll have an individual discussion on it. And you're so welcome to do that. So, so every resolution will be in the consent.

Not every We're going to have like budgets and things like that are really um need a lot of discussion. and we'll try to pull those out and put them in. We'll come up with an objective standard of what should and shouldn't go in there. Okay. Well, enjoy an early evening because this isn't going to happen a lot, but I'm hoping it become more of a standard that we can be done in a in a good amount of time. Could we talk about um one of those items uh a real property potential purchase in a close session?

We can now we have uh a sorry I didn't get that to you before we have on our agenda where we can go into a closed meeting. The only thing that we can close the doors and discuss in private are real property and discussing the character, professional competence or physical or mental health of an individual. Strategic session to discuss pending or res uh uh reasonable eminent litigation. So things that that's very strict in what we can talk about, we can only talk about those things. And so um

and the one specifically that I'm referencing is the strategy session discuss the purchase of real property when public discussion of the transaction would disclose or appraise the appraisal or estimated value of the property under consideration or prevent the public public body from completing the transaction on the best possible terms. So I just have an item that falls in that category. Okay. So with that in mind, do we need to close the m the we just go into the close? Okay. So that then I would entertain an motion to go into close session. Well, I'll make that motion. Second. A second. Second by Charie. All in favor? Yes. Yes. Okay. Thank you everyone for attending tonight.

I Well, so am I. It's just like what the hey. Sorry. Yeah. You know what I had? This is a weird