City Council - Regular Meeting

But that's okay. Okay. So, public works department Carl and company, thank you for the tour of the treatment plant. It was educational disabled. Um, right now in public works, they're doing okay. they um have they're down two leads, but they feel like they can cover those two leads for the time being as soon and they do feel like they have some really good employees that will be able to pass certification and be able to move into those lead roles within a year or so. So, they're doing they're doing pretty good. The plant is slowly failing and Carl will be talking about this today, so I'm not going to elaborate a whole lot on that. Um, yeah, there was an odor that was reported and they're tracking it down. They have they those guys are like private PIs when it comes to

the current one. Is there one now? Oh, you want to mess around really fast? Um, they're they're going to try and track it down and smell like pretty pebbles or what's that? Smell like pretty pebbles. No, it's I told you come down. Rotten egg like a sulfur. That's not his is better.

Okay. The projects in Rocket Road. They're putting in the bridge portion today. Well, that was yesterday. And they're sticking to the finish section that needs to be done. The bridge needs to be done by April 15th. Okay. Then they'll partially shut down Rocket Road as they finish the whole road. itself like one lane at a time. Secondary water will be going to Homegrown East starting about 1 of May. Secondary water equalization basin is they've ordered the concrete and they'll begin that phase really soon. Culinary water replacement is moving along on 1000 West. The line has been laid out and they're beginning to tie in the connections with the old lines as soon as they can. Uh Fremont Center, Treymont Street, South Tmont Street, that road. This needs to be they'll go in back in and finish the house as all stuff later. Cemetery paving bid came in just to do the the new section of the cemetery. $57,200 and that project was awarded to Ruts and it'll be finished by Memorial Day.

So there's just a lot going on over there. I'll let Carl fill in blanks as we go on. Thanks, Carl. Thank you.

Um on uh on the police side, I think uh it's been it's been really busy. We got a lot of street dealing with death and stuff which positive effect on overtime and things like that. uh had a good uh meeting today uh with on on coming in as close to on target on on budget for the end of the year as as possible. Uh Dustin Scott on it. Um did get a request and this isn't the appropriate time to bring this up but um I don't know when when would uh our speed trailer. We have one and there it gets requested all all over the city. Uh two of the most prominent areas where we have the biggest the biggest concern um is on a thousand north going up radio hill and Iowa string coming into the uh like for the churches there at 9800. Um the uh want to look into the feasibility of of doing a couple of the yeah the permanent the solar powered speed signs. Um they're depending on the type that you get there between 1700 and $3500 a piece. Um, but then the question came up is that are the are signs like that do they come out of police or they come out of public works? And so I I wanted to bring it up

for because I know I know everybody's stretched uh stretched in and I didn't want to just toss something on Carl and say, you know, couldn't find this in your budget. Uh, but I think I think if we had uh two or three of those signs, I think one way on Iowa stream would would be great coming into the city. I think a thousand north needs one at the at the top and at the bottom like coming coming both directions. Um, I'll I'll send everybody the So, Pete Gilchrist has been uh copying all the data that's that's coming that shows over the 10day period uh the the times of day and the speeds and things like that. And there are some speeds that that get up there pretty pretty high. Um, so other than that, I just as we get into um as we get into budget, uh, I'm going to be having neck surgery the day of our next meeting. And so I'll participate by Zoom, but I know that we're going to be starting to talk about budget. And so I just wanted to uh just kind of give a basis for where my thoughts are going to go in the in the coming weeks and months, I guess. Um, and the the analogy that that makes it the most clear for me is as part of the whole process of going through uh my my doc said that he needed to do an injection into into the disc and then he needed to go through the front and I just okay. And so we got on the schedule and and I was just I'm sitting there like all worked up. I'm imagining this needle going through my throat. I'm like, am I going to like if I swallow, am I going to feel it? Am I like all these things

going through my head to the point that I didn't sleep at all the night before, they gave me a really good dose of volume because I was so freaked out by it. The uh the doctor that was doing the injection that so I I had this rolling around in my head for a week and he comes in and he goes, "I need to know that you're going to be able to hold perfectly still because if not, we're not going to do this. And I'm like, I'll be honest with you, even with the volume on board, I'm a little freaked out right now. And he goes, "Okay, what are you freaked out about?" I'm like, "Well, am I gonna like am I going to feel the needle going through my throat? Like, what what is this?" And he was like, "No, we we don't do it that way." He goes, "It's just kind of like right here on the on the side." I'm like, "So, it's not going through my throat?" He goes, "No, why would we do that?" I'm like, "Well, I don't know. I'm not a doctor." But and so I explained to him like this whole panic and not sleeping the night before and all this stuff or if I would just asked my surgeon if he said, you know, when he said we're going to do it through the front, if I would just said, can you explain that to me? Can you run me through the like what exactly that is? Um, and so I I learned a valuable lesson that asking questions as we go through budget and and not even just budget, but throughout the year, it's not a it's not a personal thing. It's not an attack thing. It's It's education. Um, and I think that as we get into it to ask those those hard questions and even some easy questions just to gain some perspective so that we're not just, you know, rubber stamping stuff that we don't that we don't understand. And so as we go through that, there are there are questions about things that um that I may not understand. there can be questions of things that uh that I have concerns with. Um, and so just know that

it's it's nothing personal. It's just trying to wrap my head around it because I I think it's way too easy to uh to get freaked out on stuff that we may not get the whole picture of. Um, and so I just want to just wanted to clarify that going into it. So that's all that's why we're at council so we can discuss. So very good.

Uh Main Street America program. I mentioned that we were going to be following that. Um we went to the the original Kelly Woodland and Jared Lewis and um after that um presentation we we're definitely applying and we're going to be trained to to win that or be a part of that program. So that's the game plan. Um, we're going to be asking Kelly Wood to be the main street director. Um, she is really excited and then we'll be reinvolving uh anybody that wants to be there's going to be a lot of hands- on deck that need to go into that, but she would be full-time. Um, the RDA funds are going to be coming available and we want to make sure that we're on top of that. So, as fast as Main Street America will let us go, there's three tiers. Right now, we'd be in tier one if we get accepted. We most likely will be. She's been working with Chelsea. They head down there and it's looking really good. So, we're headed down that road. It's a model. It's proven. They know Main Streets and it's set up for long-term success.

They have governing, you know, how to set it up, how to go about it. Um, there's a resolution that has been written. Uh, I believe we're getting it to the attorney. Pittsburgh. So, I didn't quite get it in time and so I was hoping to have it tonight, but next meeting we'll be passing a resolution, but I want to get it on everybody's radar that Kellywood is being asked to be the main street director. So, if there are any objections, you know, I'd love to hear them before we move too far down that road. Um, but yeah, really excited about her. Um, we do have I mean, can we are you guys okay if we let Kelly do some work during the next two weeks and start bringing this together? Oh, yes. Okay. Absolutely.

There's a lot with getting committees and Okay. Getting Jared Lewis back involved. You know what I mean? Because he's he's still at Trudy Hatch. There's people that are willing to help. We just got to get him in the right seat and get things going again. So, we'll get through that. Go ahead. Um there's a real estate group uh that we're meeting with next week um that's going to bring in a lot of jobs. We talked about that a couple times in the past and they're coming up to meet with the mayor and I just kind of re recart make sure we're all aligned there um for business and commercial development. And then um there's two items that we'll be talking about tonight that have to deal with real businesses wanting to to deal with us in the city. and there's real estate um conversations that need to be had. So, we'll talk about that in close session for them. And then I left off I just realized tonight looking back at some some notes, the billboard on the freeway is still a pending item in my court. Um I had a question on that. Um what was the amount that we're paying for that?

3,000. 3,000. Okay. I thought we voted on that. So, we agreed to keep going with it. I have a business that wants it and I need to get terms over to them. And so, generally speaking, you know, I have it more than 3,000 more than 3,000. Like, that's kind of what I was thinking. As long as we break even, we're happy with it. A little bit of something about Tmont, too, right? We We haven't decided. I thought that's pending. Yeah, I thought that was part of the deal. If we can that have to be in there somewhere. They get a better deal if they for better terms or 3,000. Yeah. 6,000 if they don't.

But then obviously they have to cover the cost of the and just approve the design with us. Is everybody okay with that? Yep. Okay. I'll move forward with that then. And then Lindsay can help you get the contract and everything in place. And then again some real estate things to talk about tonight. Okay. I don't I don't have a whole lot. I got a couple the fire department stuff's met with him and then they've had spring break. He's been gone. So, I haven't done anything. A couple of things I've heard. I'm sure I'm not the only one. All the the grass people are pissed. The people that don't grass just I'm just cuz it's gone. Yeah. Can't do it no more. And and then greenways.

But when is that open? all the all the time like 85 every day. Um it's open from 8:30 to 6:30 out there. Out there and it's really not that far out Monday. Tuesday through Friday it's open 8:30 to 6:30 Tuesday through Friday. We probably ought to make sure that's on it's it's everywhere. It's been out there. Um I just I mean I just got all the people that it actually get a dump trailer. Yeah. Well, where do you park it?

People have been dumping grass out along the road out there, have they? I haven't noticed. I heard I heard that, too, but when we were out there last week. No, when we took a huge trailer to that place. And it's still a Tree Mountain City. Show your address thing. Oh, it isn't. No, we we need the green ice material and we

Oh, so can I jump onto your discussion here? I had the mayor from Bar River City get a hold of me and wondered if they could utilize that out there as well and they were willing to have their residents pay something. Um, is that something you're interested in looking into or I mean there's nothing stopping any of them from Barrier City or anywhere from and this is where they take the branches and everything as well, right? Yeah. So, I can just tell him that they're welcome. I thought that was just Tmont City. No. Well, last year they had us show our driver's license. It was.

But this year they did not. But I will say and I've had this conversation with Carl. You want to come up here? Okay. Okay. Sorry Carlick on you, miss. Um, so we've had this conversation because a lot of people have reached out to me wanting to know why. I think Tree Mountain has been a community of convenience a little bit. You know, it's there. We knew it was going to be there and it's just really super easy. So I got I was c I called around Bergen City charges the dough. Logan Cash Valley charges the dough. We don't charge anything. So yeah, I think we all understand that. I just I'm just saying that

yeah, I mean if we want we could it's a change. We understand people have to get used to it and and part of trying to keep the level of service is it was unmonitored. I mean, we had cameras and that kind of thing, but like we didn't have gates. It wasn't controlled. People can come from anywhere and dump and did and and so that standard hasn't changed. So, we you know, but the guy there can at least say that doesn't go here.

Yeah. I mean, I I would just say this to Barry River City. Sure, please come. We and that's why we don't the reason why we don't charge right now is because we need the green waste because then we turn it into compost which we do charge something for sort of um but it's just more economical to compost our solids than to landfill them. So, you just want gr yard clippings and treatments out there. Nothing else. Um, we do take weeds. We don't

I don't ask for them, you know, but we we take garden waste. to take anything that's green that's um and I say smaller than or 4 in or smaller in diameter, but it really could be bigger than that, but I didn't know that till last week actually. So, okay, one other thing we talked and I know we're switching with this planner stuff, but what's happened with this uh business on the corner that's falling apart? Reached out. Do you want to take a minute on that please? Sure.

I made contact with the owner. Um, she's in litigation. I didn't realize we put a stop order on this or I would have taken things in a slightly different direction, but she should be out of litigation. I think it's tomorrow. That's top border on construction for the building. So, oh, we we were the ones that stopped it and I wasn't aware of that. Um, but moving forward, our building inspector.

Yeah. And, uh, so moving forward, we'll we've changed that direction. We've implemented what the change that we need to put into that. But moving forward, she's going to let me know how that goes this week. And then next week, we're going to meet with her in person here at the building and we're going to, you know, come together with what we can do for her. And that comes my next thing as a bill inspector. I get phone phone calls on that and I know there's a code there, but is it is he hard case or it seems like it's you know a lot of these guys aren't too happy about it. But maybe it's because they aren't up to code. But I think most of these guys do know what they're doing.

He he does a very good job, reasonable job on that. It's it would be wrong for me to really go into in-depth discussion on this because it's really I'm just bringing up what I um we are looking into that. I mean there's some different different ideas that have come up on that but I'm not you know at liberty to really go into discussion on that. there are other people that could.

So, so one other thing that's probably in Carl's or whatever, but but like uh even the 10,00 North there's still poles that are in the way, but whose job is it to make sure that somebody the engineering that somebody's taking out some of the stuff? And same with the over here where they want to finish that road where the power won't, you know, power company won't come do their thing. Whose job is it to pound them? Is that the contractor or is it address to it? When we do it's been going through when we do construction.

It's on it's on the engineer to make sure everybody knows to move stuff or what? Well, it's it is because their plans have to show what utilities there are and t and that's a formal bid process. So, they're they're involved in construction management. So, that's where that that's a construction management activity. And so, if we're paying them for that, then that's their obligation. So, that's who we get a hold of to find out. But if there's something they're not doing, then we contact you and you get after them, right? We just make it work. Well, I just know

I think it's Christina. I don't know. Just see maybe with with Would it be Christine? I think she's she's taking that on now that the other employee is gone and I've talked to her about it a couple of times. I think it would be Chris. And then I re well the power company over there and it's over by where old fish will go is all them trucks have to go by all them just wearing out all them roads when there's a road right there to go right where they got to be if power companies move so they at least have dirt and and I know the power company's power company it's not us but it just seems like I mean I can do it if I give me a green light in the state is also

I talked to Chris Brifold about it about six weeks ago And part of the holdup is the state. We're waiting for that light to come through, but we're also waiting for River's Edge to finish the road to get to They can't finish the road till they move the fire lines. That's that is that is and it is and it's just kind of power lines the other day laying there. Power poles laying there. They might be working on it. Yeah, I I'm just I'm not trying to I'm just trying to see how I've noticed some of that down looking. We're going to be doing it.

I mean, I know on the on the one on Rocket Road, we called the power company. I had I have a relative that worked for power company for 40 years. He called them and said, "Oh, nobody paid us." And that was just a we mess up. We have a a an agreement with the power company that if we that they agree to move their utilities and I think it even uh identifies that like they have 60 days or something from when we notify them. So it's been you know longer than that but I would think it's they get around to it when they get around to it. Yeah. They probably contract some All right. That's all I got.

No. And I got a note today. So, we'll we'll take that tomorrow. It happens way too frequently. Oh, I know. It's challenging. And then hopefully we get a good result on.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um the food pantry, they brought in a lot of food over that last food drive. She said it was really good. um she her number five families that she's serving, but she still thinks that her food will be good. And the food bank brings money in or brings food in every Monday. So when there's a fifth Monday, they get an extra um donation that month from the food from the food bank. So they got that in March. Um the senior center, the healthcare she said went really good. Had really good attendance to that. she could learn some new things at a conference that she'll be implementing and I didn't talk to the library. So that's all I have.

Thank you and thanks for the reports. I think that it's awesome the way you guys are all involved with the various departments. Um I was contacted by uh Congressman Moore's office today. want to read to you a letter that I put together and this is for your information and this is from me. Congressman Moore, I am writing on behalf of Tree Mountain City and our residents to state our absolute support of renaming the Tree Mountain City Post Office to Sorns and Estrada Post Office. This past year has been a heavy one for our town. Losing two of our officers brought a kind of grief you don't easily shake. But in the middle of the that heartbreak, we saw the truth, the true character of Tani. The bedrock support of this community has been incredible. Our people rallied around the the families and they showed up for our police department. We want to send a clear, undeniable message about where Tmont stands. We deeply appreciate, respect, and love our law enforcement officers. They step in, they step into the gap for us every single day, often in thankless conditions. Putting the names of officer Swordson and Officer Estrada on a federal bill building in the heart of our city does two things. It creates a permanent dignified memorial for the ultimate sacrifice they made. and it serves as a daily reminder to every officer putting on the uniform in this town that their community has their backs. The city of Tmont stands completely united behind this proposal. We appreciate your leadership in carrying this towards the Congress.

Yeah, I wonder if they'll do this. They'll just do No, no, just as it's referenced in. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um, now with that said, if you would like me to put the city council behind this letter, um, I can put together a resolution for a later meeting and we can vote on it and make it a resolution as a support to this, but I need to get this to him tomorrow. So, I I can't ask for your support tonight, so I'm going to send this out as the mayor, but if you would like me to put a resolution together, I'm willing to do so. Yes, I do. That's great. Thanks for doing that.

That's wonderful. Okay, we're running a little short on time, but if we have to, we'll we'll carve out some time during our regular meeting to to discuss some of thisformational uh presentations. Carl, you've got three presentations.

I'll be as brief as I can. Um, the first item is just a justformational uh to follow up on past discussions about water use and um fees associated with that. So, we budgeted for this fiscal year uh $70,000 equally distributed between secondary and culinary to do a rate study and impact fee uh analysis. We are we've just been waiting for our um let's see if stand for uh our

what is it? Sorry. Jones and Associates is doing our um capital facilities plan. There's your CFP for for the water and and I've been that's the first step. Uh and it's the it's the guts. It's the nuts and bolts side of of the impact that water has both culinary and secondary. And then this water rate study and analysis of the impact fees that we want to do is a is just a financial side of that that built off of the capital facilities plan and impact fee uh plan that's put forth there. And so that will I've been trying to squeeze it in. I'm certain it's going to go slightly past July 1, but um it is what it is. Will be very welcome. It would be it would be great to have that done. Uh just to determine what the true cost of water is. um and look for your um participation um and support and we'll communicate that as very openly um so that we can the council can make some of those decisions. Um and and those and those studies and those kind of things, those are just those are recommendations and so the council can take those recommendations, discuss them, make your decisions after that. So I wanted to report that. Um, and then in your packets you'll see that we, and Christy talked about it, we are going to do um secondary water for um,

there's three of them that we've been shuffling around. Homegrren East, uh, Homer Estates East subdivision. We had 15 bids on that which we which is fantastic. Um we we had budgeted 800,000 um for doing the whatever secondary we we could what has to be done there to get home just installing the lines and the and the meters and services everything. That's not You're gonna get it. You're gonna get rocks in your garage.

It's not It's not in our road at all. It is in the house next to mine has it. Not the house next to yours has it right now. Well, they have plumbing. Oh, really? Or they're not? Obviously not. Okay. Crap. Yeah, that's what I ask a secondary water question. Yeah, it's one I've been getting a lot of is as the secondary water expands like is there what's causing the the rate to be so high

like like their monthly bail usage of it? Yeah. Like well it's less than culinary. The secondary is less is less than. Yes. than if they were using culinary. It is less secondary. You have to be careful though. We learned this the hard way. There's a lot of pressure that comes on that pipe. And so it's putting out what I understand. Correct me if I'm wrong, Carl. There's it's a lot there's more pressure. And so if you run your sprinklers on the normal time that you're used to running it when we didn't have secondary, you're putting more water out there and your bill is going to kind of scary at first. So you need to adjust your times. because you are putting more volume on your grass. Okay.

So, that is that is an issue that we had and I've had tons of people reach out to me. So, tell them cut their sprinkler time back mostly because it cost $800,000 for one. Yeah. Well, yeah.

Right. We budgeted that. We budgeted that, but with the 15 quotes that we got, we're I'm recommending that the council award uh this contract to Great Basin Development for $343,61.80. They were the second lowest bid. Our lowest bidder um didn't actually qualify as we looked into it. So, they're they're a new company and they didn't have all their ducks in a row, everything set up, right? So, so is this great basement? They've done it for the city before.

They have not done it for Ching Mountain before, but they've done it for North Ogden and lots of places in Cash Valley and things like that. So, we got good references from them. A little less. It's a little less than we thought. That's great. That's what happens when you get that many because them pumps over there don't have power yet, right? Um, they don't have power yet. I mean, is that if they dig it, is that going to be working this summer? It's supposed to they're supposed to have power before May 1st. Oh, sorry.

And and they won't start it until the start to fill that basin over there, but that has to be done by the time they bring in the canal. So, yeah. So then there will be two two major subdivisions on the south side of Main Street on the east end of town that will next year if we can find money to do it we'll look we save $500,000 here on this any we'll do what we can next year as well.

So and then finally let's let's talk about the treatment plant. My guys were super excited that you all came on the tour. Uh, sounds like it was a wonderful time had by all. It was or at least educational

and they really appreciated being able to spend your year which they did a lot of as you know. So that was that was good. Um, I have a couple of things I sent. I know that's not much time. I sent a copy of this to you last night. Um I I will give you the reader digest version of this. So this this is a a memo that and you met Eric S there works for Aqua Engineering who's our engineer over all things wastewater treatment. So this is this gives me direction on the recommendations of what we do, how much we think it's going to cost and when we do it. So um we let me let me pause for a second and also I have given you this lovely drawing here. this graph. Um, this graph, the magenta line that's on the bottom, shows basically a three-year average of the influence, the amount of water that's coming into the plant. And the straight red line that's at 1.9 million gallons per day is what our our permit limit is. Our plant was designed for two million gallons a day. Don't don't ask me why those two numbers are not the same. I did not write that permit up, but when we renew it, it may be different. Anyways, you might notice that we're flirting pretty heavily with that red line as is right now. And so um if we wanted to just maintain

status quo um there our plant is old and aging and I and like Christie said it's slowly actively failing particularly the aerration basin and so there are three bundles of projects that need to be done at the plant and a lot of them don't even give us additional capacity unless we kind of do all of them then we can get additional capacity. We can get 50% more capacity with potentially more. But it's a if this were an automobile, you would have sold it a long time ago. like unless you're really into restoring old vehicles and I'm I'm I've put a changed out a motor in my truck before, but I've not fully restored a vehicle ever, but it's not really the same vehicle, you know, it's not it's it's a new old vehicle, and that's what we're trying to get our plant to because it is in poor shape. I have lots of concerns on on infrastructure needs within the city, roads, water, but my biggest concern is the status and and the state of the treatment plant just because it's it's really old and it's been neglected for a while and that's just the way it is. So, um, we have set aside, we've dipped into it a little bit. Um, but the council has approved and we have set aside for phase one. And this memorandum talks about three three separate kind of phases. And the first one is aerration basins and secondary clarifiers. And that will breathe some

new life into our plant. That's $7.2 2 million that we already have that we're already working on that it's we're going to be spending over the next year. Um and so that's phase one. The next um group of of projects that are needed um just so we don't catastrophically fail again is the digtor and solids handling rehabilitation. And that's about $3 million. Um and we Eric recommends that we start design on that um this summer so that we can build that next year. So my job and I appreciate all of your support and particularly the Christy and the mayor um is to find a way to get $3 million so that we can do that. And then my next job after that is to find somewhere between four and a half million to $9 million. Uh again depending on how how we how we design and and what um head works needs to happen. That's the third phase is headworks, excuse me. And that will add um significant or that will add capacity. If we do all three of those things, we can have some additional capacity that will buy us 10 to 20 years at the at the plant there. Um, after which time I I think it's time to plan another plant

and that should get us up to like the three, right?

Yeah. with with and this is also I think very important 6 million gallons per day peak hour flow. So when we get crazy storm events or other things like that in it helps smooth those curves out a little bit which is when you look at this graph that's that's the story of the spring is we get really high rain snow runoff melt off events. Um, a a topic for another day and a question you might have is um how do we how do we flatten that out a little bit? That's that's stuff that we would do um with the sewer pipe system itself infiltration and and that kind of thing. So that is something that I'm actively looking at as well. Um, but for your interest, um, when you look at that magenta line, I determined that one home contributes 360 gallons per day. I feel really good about that number. You guys have been asking me for some numbers. And so, a thousand homes, it would be 36 million gallons per day. million gallons per day is just the standard units that we measure influent for the treatment plant. So that orange line there um is those additional thousand homes and and I would say you know we're somewhere between those two lines with what we have um already approved and so

but not built but not built but not built. So as soon as they're built, then that's when the client's going to start seeing extra. And so part of our situation is is if we've approved those lots, we have to provide the service. And so we got to make sure we get this up and going, right? And yeah. Oh yeah. Have service available to those lots that have been approved. Yeah. And and again, part of that is how, you know, can we flatten that out? Can we flatten it out would help? Yeah. Can I ask a question on that? A 20 second question on that, please.

Um, when we were doing the the tour, um, and when you mentioned the rain, you know, rain surge and all of that, that there were some of the storm drains that somewhere in the city that have been connected into the sewer. If if those storm drains were located, they're dumping into the sewer, would that lessen the like is that worth looking at? And and just to be clear, I am I'm in full agreement that it needs to be it needs to be overhauled. Um I'm just wondering if if we locate those, unless I misunderstood the Well, the the storm

storm water is making its way in, but the storm drains themselves should not be connected to the sewer. Okay. Should not. I I don't think that's the problem. The INI is inflow and infiltration problem that we have. It it is obviously getting in somewhere and um I think we have some ideas of where but it will take kind of a study to to figure out is it worth doing that or is it

I think 100% it's worth doing that because we could do that. Let's say it cost us $200,000 to do a really good study. That that then buys us, you know, the ability to uh hook on 100 more or a thousand more homes or something like that

or buys us five years or 10 years in the in the plan. I mean, it could it could be more than that. And we're spending we're spending millions right now and proposing to spend millions more. Doing the kind of study and and then maybe spending another million dollars on some um solutions to flatten that out as well with it, I would say. So Carl, with looking at this and developments coming in, you're in a position to say, are you in a position to say, "Wait a sec, we need to hold off for just a minute till we catch up, till we get this under control." Am I hearing this right? I think um I I think just knowing using this 300 gallons per day per home

value tells us. I mean, we can I didn't do it for today, but I can backtrack what developments have been approved but haven't been built yet. That would I can put a line on this graph that says that's going to be the impact here. And it's just additive. I mean everything you see there is additive and so assuming we do nothing else that will be the impact to the plant. Okay. Thank you.

And and I think and so I think that's can help us as decision makers say no more. We we aren't we have we can't the plant can't take it whatever. Thank you Carl. Thanks. And then this paper I I handed out, Carl and I and Chrissy will be working on updating this. This is just to show you the beginning of this process. A lot of questions to be answered and this is the kind of data that you'll be getting. We we've got 10 minutes and we got Nate here to talk to us and then we'll take a two-minute break. So Nate, come on up and give us your presentation.

I can just make mine really short if you want.

Whatever you want. So you guys have got my presentation in your packets. So I don't necessarily need to go over just for the sake of time. But basically I'm here I want to encourage you guys. There's training available for you guys as elected officials. I'd like to be able to schedule and set up. We can do it right in this very room if you'd like. Um it's the ICS 402 class. Like I said it's specifically for elected officials to teach you guys your role and your responsibilities in emergency because you guys aren't the boots on the ground incident commanders. you know, you guys will be backing us up with policies and that kind of stuff. So, I don't know if there's if you guys are in a position to where we could maybe throw out a couple of dates. Um, Mark know the county emergency manager would be able to to do that for us.

And and if I can, I want to really encourage I think we need to get involved with this. We need the city used to be really strong at this as the legislative branch and and we've not done a good job of that in the last 12 years. And so I I would like to see us get more involved with this. When we get into an emergency like we had this last summer, we need to be there to support people. So um I prefer earlier workshop to be like if I had a preference just come at 5 and do it between 5.

Now this is a 4 hour 3 hour two to four hours depending on questions and that kind of stuff. So it's a little longer class. So he might need to do a Saturday morning or something. Um for right now we could do something later in the year. Right now Mark said the best times for him during the week in the evenings days are pretty.

Would a would like a Thursday evening be best for you guys? Uh Thursday evening. Yeah. my calendar. Why don't you look at a Monday evening or a Thursday evening and then send us whatever and we're just here to encourage you. Let's let's get involved. Probably to me sooner than later we get in the middle of the summer and all. Yeah, for sure.

I mean there is unfortunately where the government's shut down the FEMA website is also shut down. There's a lot of independent study classes um 700, 800 and one 200 that you guys can do on your own that would help understand the same trainings and stuff that the fire department and the police department and stuff is done. So you understand how how the incident command system works. I've already done all of those on the police side the 402. Yeah, just the 402. I got all the others too specifically for like whereas the other ones are more like introduction to introduction to

eventually it'd be nice to start having the tabletops and the disaster drills here in the city so that we can all work together on on how we handle that together as departments and elected officials. Saturday I'll reach out to Mark Millet and see what we can do for Monday or Thursday. Okay. Who? I like it. I did the SER program many years ago. It was probably one of the things I've ever done. Are Mondays better for you personally than Thursdays? I'm retired.

Most people are retired to work Monday. What's that? I feel my time with when I'm not doing city council. Um I think I'm a the 20th I I know the 20th I know but other than that 20th through the 24th I'm evening. Yeah. Thursday's for me next two months my Mondays are Mondays. So I've got like Mon or Thursday the 30th that I can and then after May 21st I'm

so I want to touch base. So what are we going to do? I just told him to go Mondays and Thursdays and just throw us out a few dates and we'll see what we can check. Yeah, we'll do that. I'm excited for what you're gonna do though. Interesting. Thank you.

All right, let's go ahead and break now and tell we wanted to talk budget. We need 10 15 minutes to do that. I would propose that during the strategic business portion of our meeting, maybe we insert that into the agenda. Yeah. Be careful.

I will.

I know you would. I know. Hey Lindsay, I'll need you to bring that presentation up that's on P drive. It's in the budget 2027 and it's the one that remember that I put together. just show the first page. I don't know.

Nope. I was wondering So, somebody

Yeah, the one with percentages. Yeah. We didn't see the whole thing. to be real estate.

Yes. Okay. Is someone reading this one for us? Yeah, this one. They're going to present it. Oh, good. Oh, yeah. This one. This one will be I get the other one. Oh, sorry. She's gonna Someone's coming.

Okay. Should I be

nice? I am stressed for two weeks.

I think that makes more sense. Yeah. Can I write on this like or no? It's just like this. Okay. I'll just try to say

planting instead of read before I leave the police after. Okay,

we're gonna get started with our city council meeting. We'd like to welcome everyone out to city council meeting tonight. Um, we'll go ahead and start our meeting with get the right page here. Calling to order and we'll turn the time over to Lindsay is acting as our recorder and she is our city manager. So, she's wearing two hats today. Yes. Um, council, say if you are present or not. Council member Bokea, yes, present. Council member Oiler, yes, present. Council member Westerard, present. Council member Lewis, present. Council member J, present.

We have a full quorum. Okay, we will start out with an invocation by Councilman Jet and then um brother Jeepson, excuse me, Mr. Jeepson.

I forget my hat. So, Mr. Brother Mr. Brother Jeepson will lead us in the pledge after the invitation. Okay. Our father in heaven, we're gathered here this evening as council and residents to follow the guidance. Father, we're grateful for all that we've been blessed with. We recognize the stewardship that we've been given. We ask for ask spirit to guide us in the in the right ways to provide those things that are that are important to the residents under the under the constitution. Father, we grate for all we have. We know that all we have comes from these things we pray for in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen. Please. 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, now comes one of the best times of the evening. We have our presentations to these wonderful students and we appreciate all that they do. We appreci What's that? Yes, we do. But before we do that, we should approve our agenda. I'll make a motion that we agenda. Can I get a an addition to the agenda to move the budget discussion onto our agenda? Um probably at number just before number 12. Could we also move the financial statements to strategic business also?

Okay. With those two exceptions, I'll make a motion we approve the agenda. We have a motion and a second. All those that approve say I I or yes.

And those oppos say no. Okay. Now, the best part of the evening, we um these are the citizenship awards. Uh they're presented for outstanding citizenship from each one of our local schools. So, we would like to invite our principles to come up and Councilwoman Bokea is going to announce the uh the students. We'd like you to come up and stand up here in front and then after she has announced everyone, let us all stand up behind you and then you can take your pictures. Okay.

Okay, boys and girls, I'm so excited to be here. Worked in the schools for 18 years. For you to get this award today is a big honor. It means you are doing something good and as a city council, we appreciate what you're doing. So when I was working, I would encourage my childrens to do my students to do two things. Share a smile every day. Doesn't cost anything. And do something nice for someone. Even if it is holding the door open. If we spread kindness and smiles, it's going to go a long ways. Parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, whatever you are, I'm proud of you for supporting these little people. And I know the council is too. So let's move on. I hope I pronounce your name right. and our principles. If you'll just stand right back here in front of the principles, we want to see your smiling faces. Crew Jacobson,

Aubrey Carlson Get in right.

Was that operate was coming up? No, they're just they're going to come in. Brady Jones.

Okay, I'm trying on his name. Rosalene. Jones. So proud. Killian Lee,

Leo Hawk,

Nash Bronson. Macy Weathersp. Lake Seismore on vacation. Can you take me?

Grayson Mats, I have these. So, did we miss anything? So, when we take these pictures, we want you to turn these around so you see this. We don't want to see your names because we don't want to be putting your names out on the um

on the internet. There you go. So, Okay, this stand. Good job.

We'd like to thank everyone and we're going to move on to the next portion. You're welcome to stay, but this is where a lot of people like to exit. Ready to go. How are you?

Well, that was great. It's closer. Okay. Now, let's move on to the next section. Declaration of conflict of interest. Do we have any declarations of conflict of interest for this? Okay. Hearing none, we'll move on. Um, we now have a presentation from the American Legion by John Mlen. And we have again right up there at the microphone. And there you can use that microphone as well. take commands for them.

All right. So, real quick, uh on February 21st, we had the honor of posting the American Legion National Commander. That's the uh first time any veteran organization national commanders made in Clark County.

Uh we had that great honor. Uh out of 87 American Legion Post in the state of Utah, we are one of the most active and we've been making a lot of accomplishments over the last year. And uh so we invited uh Mayor Brett Rodie and Garland City Mayor Danny Austin to join us for that breakfast. And uh that right there is a picture of all of us plus the two mayors along with the American Legion National Commander. We like to think of that as a kind of like a bridge of uniting both cities, all the communities together. And uh so with that, we presented Garland City with that same picture and we want to do the same for Tree Mountain just to to share that love and and gratitude for joining us with that. That was pretty special. And uh with that said, we'll go ahead and present that and then uh David Winkler is going to make a quick little thing about our upcoming event. Take a picture to give a picture.

Picture of us and a picture of us. Thank you. Thank you for your support. Thank you. That was awesome. It really was. Thank you. I think we'll be your walk. That's exciting. But we got

we're hoping that people have been noticing uh what our plans are for the USA 250 celebration uh because it's Tmont City's helping us uh by sponsoring it, helping us sponsor it. What we're doing is on May 23rd, we're going to do a gold star walk in honor of all of the uh families who have lost loved ones uh in any wars. And uh the plan is that we're going to walk from um Midland Square out to the cemetery and uh back and that's two miles. If we get 125 people signed up for that, uh, then that'd be 250 miles to celebrate the the 250 years. So, I invite everyone to come and participate. There is going to be a special presentation uh as part of it. We'll we'll officially unveil the battlecross by then. So, it it's it's on its way.

So, and and we see that the stand's been built. I've had some people ask me about that right out there on the They're like, "Well, that's a nice memorial." I says, "Just wait on top of it, right?

It's gonna be really cool." And that's the day we plan on unveiling it for everyone. So, we haven't got all the particulars yet for that, but uh we think that it'll be a real good experience for everyone. So, and uh it is the designed as a fundraiser for the uh um Veterans and Childs Foundation. That's a national foundation from the American Legion that helps support families. And there's a lot of uh deployments going on right now uh with the and so we'd like to to invite people to to donate to to that because it'll help us to to uh support those soldiers that are out there.

Five bucks online. Yeah. So what is it? Yeah. Just the registration is $5. Okay. What time is the walk? It's at 900 a.m. Uh, but that's when we're going to start. So, if we do anything special for the the the um monument, then it'll be the actual walk will be later a little bit later. Thank you.

So, just to reiterate that, uh, we would like to have you say a word if you are able to be there, mayor or or a representative, whoever will be there and or any of the city council to come. But, but we want to give you an opportunity to uh, you know, say a few words and we will do an official unveiling. Just take a few minutes to do that before the walk. So, I don't think it'll take too long. We'll get after it right away. So, I'm really good with time limits. What? A couple minutes or what? Okay. Buster if you want to. That's okay.

Throw a random number at 247. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, everybody's welcome. So, thank you. Thank you. Okay. Next we have a years of service award.

Chief. All right. We have uh Tegan Stokes is uh going to be receiving his fiveear service award today. Um thank you. We'd like to first before we give you the service award, we we'd like to quickly highlight him. Um, Tegan's been with us with Tmont City for five years. He gave his fiveear service award. He was a part-time firefighter with us and then recently last year went to volunteer status. Uh, Tegan is 27 years old. He grew up in building and then after he uh turned 18 he moved out of his house with his parents and then bought his a home here in Tmont uh for six years and last year he sold his home in Tmont and moved back to Philly. Uh team works full-time for Union Pacific and is a trainman. Uh has been with them for nine years. Um he's married to his wonderful wife Katie, who by the way also works for us as a part-time firefighter and is awesome. She's firefighter paramedic. Um and they have been married for almost two years. Um together they have two dogs. Uh is it Millie? Right.

Benny and Vinnie and Millie are the two dogs. Um we asked Tegan a few questions. First one we asked him is what do you do in your spare time? Um and he said he works on cars. He likes to run, he likes woodworking, and most of all traveling. Um, in the last few years, he and his wife Katie have traveled to many places. Um, they have been to Italy, France, Switzerland, Spain, Canada, uh, Scotland, Ireland, and Costa Rica, and I want to go to the next trip. Wow.

Some cool places. Have a lot of fun. That's awesome. Um, another question we asked them is, uh, what's what's your, uh, what's your p what are you passionate about? Sorry, I'm reading two questions at once. What are you passionate about? Um, and he says having having um having the the nicest lawn in this subdivision. He just submitted that. He said he bought a new John Deere tractor to take care of that. Um, and the last question we asked him is, what is your favorite quote? because we have two two lives and the second we the second begins when we realize we only have one. So Tegan, thank you for your years of service. We appreciate it.

Thanks Stephen. Thank you. Okay, now we have two proclamations. We're going to first do our annual Arbor Day proclamation. And I just love passing things off and delegating. So, we're going to let uh Councilwoman Oiler read this for us.

Proclamation encouraging the observation of Arbor Day. Whereas, in 1872, the Nebraska Board of Agriculture established a special day to be set aside for planting of trees. And whereas this holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with planting with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska. And whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world. And whereas trees can be a solution to combating climate change by reducing the erosion of our precious top soil by wind and water, cutting heavy and cool cutting heating and cooling costs, moderating the temperature, cleaning the air, producing life-giving oxygen, and providing habitat for wildlife. And whereas trees are a renewables resource, giving us paper, wood for our homes, fuel for our fires, and countless other wood products. And whereas trees in our city increase property values, enhance the economic vitality of business areas, and beautify our community. And whereas trees wherever they are planted are a source of joy and spiritual renewal. Now therefore, I

Brett Roie, mayor of Tmont City, do hereby bro proa proclaim April 24th, 2026 as Arbor Day. and in the city of Tmont and and I urge all citizens to celebrate Arbor Day and to support efforts to protect our trees and wildlands and further I urge all citizens to plant trees to gladden the heart and promote the well-being of this and future generations. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, next we have um child abuse awareness presentation.

Hello, I'm Mary Sue Swift and um along with Casey Merrill, we've been and many other people um on our committee, we've been working on the wellness uh the emotional wellness committee. Um before we give our proclamation, we have a couple of great guests uh joining us. Wendy Guidewall and Oliv Olivia Holland. Thank you. Um hello. Um Mayor Vodie.

Oh, and and we're happy to be here. We're with Prevent Child Abuse um Utah. We are the state chapter of Permanent Child Abuse America and in Utah so far we have seen proclamations from cities Washington, Springdale, Midvale is happening right now. West Jordan City was this morning. Provo was yesterday. But you know what's different about Trumont is we we got someone sent us an email and said, "Will you come and do this with us?" So, your citizens are very much wanting to prioritize April as child abuse prevention month. It's really important to remind not only organizations such as what we do and other support organizations, but businesses and community members because we all need to work together to really help um prevent child abuse. And it comes with awareness, conversations, and pin wheels as we saw as we walked at um we saw outside. So Olivia is one of our um home visitors, which is one of the programs that many family resource centers do. And she's gonna also say a few words about child abuse awareness month.

Child abuse prevention prevention. Uh well, thank you so much for having us here, Mayor Roie, and all the city council and of course family and friends that are here. Um, I am so honored to be here, but I am also a home visitor, but I'm also a resident of Fremont. Uh, my kids have walked North Park. They have walked Harris. They've graduated from Bar River High School as a a bear. My youngest is part of the Barracuda water polo team. I'm also a dance teacher just down the street at Dance Studios and been here for eight years. And I am just honored that my own city has been so, you know, recognizing that abuse is is part of our community, unfortunately, and that we have reached out to not only a good organization, but the organization that I work with. Um, so I'm proud and honored to be here to speak with you guys and to talk further about other events that you're going to hold in the future with this proclamation or anything that you guys need. I hope to be the face for that. And um I'm just so happy to be here and I'm so happy to be a representative of prevential abuse with my own hometown in my own city.

Okay, so as many of you saw, there were pin wheels, blue pin wheels outside of the building. Those pin wheels are a representative of a happy childhood. Um and so you'll see them throughout the city. Um you'll also uh see them at an event we'll be having on April 21st, Tuesday, um at four o'clock at the library. It's a family event. We'll be passing out resources to help with child abuse prevention and uh doing kindness rocks and and having everybody paint them. And you may see on occasions we distribute rocks throughout the city. So if you ever find a rock, know that somebody thought about you and left it for you. All right. So as for the the proclamation uh proclamation, child abuse prevention and awareness month, whereas the children of Tmont are our city's most precious priority and their safety and well-being are paramount to the strength and future of our community. And whereas every child in Trevontton deserves to grow up in a safe, stable, and nurturing home, protected from the trauma of abuse and neglect. And whereas child abuse is a communitywide issue, that requires a communitywide solution involving the collaboration of our local schools, law enforcement, healthc care providers, and neighbors to ensure a city with a future is also a city that protects its youngest citizens. And whereas we recognize that when families are supported by a strong community network, the risk of child maltreatment decreases and the opportunity for children

to flourish increases. And whereas the blue ribbon and the blue pin wheel serve as symbols of our commitment to preventing child abuse and honoring those who work tirelessly to protect children in Fox Elder County. Now therefore, I, Brett RH, mayor of the city of Tmont, Utah, do hereby proclaim the month of April as child abuse prevention and awareness month in Tmont, Utah. I urge all residents to wear blue, educate themselves on the signs of abuse, and join in collective responsibility to support families and provide every child with a childhood free from harm. In witness whereof, I have here unto set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Tmont to be affixed to this 7th day of April, 2026. Brett Road, mayor of Tmont.

Um, we would like to know if we can get a picture with the city council. There.

Do you want us Is that okay? You want us to stand up? Yeah. We also have Susan Bernett. She's the new director of the family support center. And we have advocate from the new hope crisis center here. They're the sexual assault. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Let's see. Here's the sign population. When did you do this? Cynthia's got a sign. Yeah, we don't have to see a signature, but we could get it to you later. That's good. Thank you so much for coming to Toronto to our wonderful city. Thank you. Up in the north.

And this is just a great example of what our citizen involved community uh committees are doing for us. you know, our wellness committee is so on fire right now. Thank you. They're doing a lot of good things and there's a lot of uh a lot of people involved. So, thank you. Okay, now it's time for our citizen engagement portion. Do we have anyone that signed up? Okay, so this is the time that we use our dignity standard. Hard conversations require the honest truth and a respectful tone. We commit to fixing the problem without making it personal. Let's keep this conversation productive so we can get back to the work of building a better tree line. Uh we'll go ahead and let speakers come up to the microphone. Please state your name. We'll give you three minutes. Under Utah State law, the council cannot debate or take action on non-aggenda items. We ask you to talk about anything that you would like except the financial statement because we're going to discuss that as part of the strategic business and and then you'll have an opportunity to talk about the financial statement at that time. We turn the time over to you.

I guess I'm going to take three minutes. You're on the clock.

Y'all know me, Bill Rosman. Um, I'm really grateful for the opportunity to attend Citizens Academy through the police department. It's cool. It was a lot of fun. U, I like it. I hope it continues. Uh I'm bragging about it to a few people here and there that I think ought to go through it. Uh for I know money's tight. Uh I know you got a tough tough road to hold when it comes to a budget. One of the things that I would really like to see we have you used to have if you go back far enough when you went to school you had gun safety in schools. if you go back far enough. We don't have that anymore. It would be nice if we had hunter education in the schools as in gun safety. That goes hand in hand. What I would really like to see, you know, if you want to hunt, you have to do the hunter safety education course and you got to present your card or you can't get a license. So, how many of us carry firearms? Not everybody goes into the military and not everybody is a law enforcement officer. Um, education is a good thing. I would like to see a state sponsored class statewide. What where your city or your town you could have deadly force training, lawful use of deadly force. um two and a half two three weeks course that people could pay a fee and attend

that for their own educ education and their own enlightenment. Um I I think training like that should be mandatory like hunter's ed game. I really do. I think anybody that carries a gun should go through training like that. Thank you. Thank you. I guess that was short and sweet. Nobody else, huh?

I got one. My name is Ryan Wood. I have some reports I get handed out. I'd like to share with the city. They're involving eight different cities cities from Hyum to Logan to to Smithfield from Pleasant View Northland says u I'm a numbers guy and I've been my whole life. I like them. I use them in my job on my job to date. So after reviewing the city's fee and payload summaries, it's clear that Truman doesn't have a revenue problem. We have a structural one. Their fee report shows that we can generate $2.6 million annually simply by ensuring services pay for themselves. Currently, property taxes are subsidizing roughly $1 million of those services that should be funded by users and develop developers benefiting from it. That's not a revenue gap. That's a policy gap. At the same time, we need to apply the same level of scrutiny to payrolls. Everything I have found is on transparentutah.gov website for a governmental organization to report to. Some simultaneously, our payroll has grown 80% over the last 5 years. Double the rate of our population growth. In some departments, costs have exploded by over 500% without a clear public record of authorization. When costs increase that at that pace without clear public facing discussion, it raises important questions about processes, priorities, transparency, and long-term sustainability. This isn't about questioning the value of city employees. It's about ensuring the growth staffing and compensation is deliberate, justified, and aligned with what the community can easily support. We are asking residents to pay more through fees and taxes. We also have the responsibility to demonstrate the internal growth is being carefully

managed and transparently reviewed. The issue isn't that we need more money from residents. is that we need to ensure growth pays for growth and that both revenue collections and spending are handled with that same discipline and accountability. I ask that you look at these two reports as as as one conversation. The revenue is there. We just need to collect it properly and manage it responsibly and avoid further burdens on our taxpayers who we are who we are. Also, if anyone wants to know more, I can share with my other complete reports with you to see how I came up with the numbers that I've got. Also, don't shoot the messenger. I'm just presenting the numbers. Thank you.

Thank you very if somebody in the audience wants some, I do have other reports for those too. Thanks for doing that work. Okay, we appreciate your participation. We'll go ahead and close this portion of the citizen engagement and we'll move on to the consent agenda. We have moved the adoption of the financial statements out and after further discussion with some of the city council and and some of the citizens, I think we're going to permanently move this out and put it out for so it can be discussed in the strategic business each time. Um if you guys are okay with that.

Um with that in mind, um other than it looks like the only thing we're pulling out of there is the financial statement, but we need the approval of the minutes for March 3rd, the warrant. No, and then approval of the resolution awarding the bid for secondary water. Motion. Okay, I second it. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor say yes. Yes. Yes. Need a roll call. Oh, there's a resolution in there. Oh, good job. That was a test. We went to see if you were on board. Okay. Okay. Roll call vote. Council member Bokeh. Yes. Council member Oiler, yes. Council member Westerard,

yes. Council member Lewis, yes. Council member Dixs, yes. Motion passes.

Thank you. Okay. Next, um it's time for we're we're moving our discussion for our budget uh in here for about 10 to 20 minutes. This is a a time for us to talk and discuss anything that um pertinent to the budget. Now, the budget I've got I put together. Um I I gave you one of these earlier, but these are a new tool that I'm developing. It's a Here's three. It's a strategic. It's called the Tre Mountain Connect data standard. What this does is this is this helps us to understand and give objective data to everything that is being presented. And so, um, yeah, you've got one. Sorry. Um, and this is for your information. Um, in the future, we'll get it out a lot sooner so you have time to study it. But I wanted you to at least look at this and and tell me what we could do to improve on it and make it easier for you to make decisions in the future when it comes to discussions on certain subjects. This one, the uh Oh, I got that one. And now I've got so this one's on we have two departments that are needing more money than what is standard. And so this is on the fire and on the police

that's based off the national benchmark. Yeah, that's off of a national benchmark. Now of course all this stuff's open for discussion. So now to point out that it's off one one benchmark by one group with another group benchmark. So

okay, so this is a spreadsheet that I've put together. Now the spreadsheet goes through and this this takes all of the information that's been given to us from other departments on their requests as their um year-to- date actuals and their budget. So their actuals naturally aren't going to tell the the whole picture. So I think the important thing to look at is what they budgeted for 2026 and what they're asking for in 2027. And as as you scroll through this and and I tried to make this as easy as possible for you to look at.

Small is too small.

Uh I think there okay. Yeah. So um on the very right in the green on the top bar up there it shows you the the national benchmarks. Now these are just like you see these are national things that we can consider. All they are is to say hey this is a ballpark for you to look at. Um in the budgets that were prepared you can see what percentage of the general fund is being requested. Most of the other funds have their own uh budgets. For example, public works um fire department has a good portion of their own budget. We do transfer in 12 to 14% of our general fund into making them whole. Our police department is fully funded through the um the general fund. I've got some ideas on that. Um I'd like to propose that we move the general. Anyway, I think what we can do, I think we have some ideas in mind that we can move the police department to their own department and and pull them out of the general fund, which I would prefer to do that if we could. I think the police department would prefer that as well. And I think we found a way to do that. Uh we we need to wait and see where some contracts go in order to find out what if if we're if we're able to do that. However, with that in mind, um my proposal last year, it seemed that it was really hard for us us and you to come up to make decisions because everything was thrown at us. And I'm trying to find an easier way to do

this. To me, an easy way to do this is if we can come up with percentages that we can then send back to the departments and say, "This is where you need to budget." I don't I I I I know when I did budgets, they'd come to me and say, "This is how much money you have." And and so then I had to build my budget within that. And so I would propose that we do something similar on our budget. It will make it easier for us and it will make it much easier on the department heads to go in and say okay this is how much money I have now I'm going to see what I can do with this. That's one of my proposals. Now in this um data standard I gave you this it talks about all this and we can share this with uh the police and the fire and the citizens. Uh we've got it connected to the the packet now. So point of discussion, we've got the police are needing are asking for 45.9% of the general fund and we have the fire department asking for 14 14.1% of the general fund. Uh they're the two that are over. Police department's over significantly on their ask. The fire department's over a little. Their their benchmark is at 12%. They're at 14.1%. With this spreadsheet, if if we all I I I think one of the speeches I need to give is our job as a city council and as a legislative branch is to take care of the financial future of this city 10 years in in advance. We need to make sure that we're building a future for Tmont City. The decisions we make this year will affect everything

that happens in the future. So, we're going to have to start taking a lot of these um budgets and take it very serious and start setting some some goals and start working towards getting ourselves whole. If you if you scroll down on the percentage there, keep scrolling. Um that final percentage of the so the total expenses the 99.5% does that mean today that.5% is what's left for capital? That's what I'm understanding, right?

Yeah. So we'd have $47,000 left capital expenses on this budget, right? Which means the the sewer plant that we just got done talking about is going to have zero cash left over in the future. Well, there's that. Yeah. The sewer plants sew because it's operational. Yeah. Yeah. But but even the the capital is still has stuff they want out of that too. So if we're not putting any in savings, then we can't. Y I mean, right. that isn't vehicles and big purchase gum capital. That's where we've been transferring money to.

Well, I'd like to I'd like to point out a couple of things. One, I I believe the department heads were asked put together what what the needs are, and so that's what it was was based on. Um, we also have to take into account that costs go up for everything. Uh, I mean, you got the standard cost of living, but we also have in in the various contracts in police and fire, and I'm sure public works does, too. They're they're automatic up to 3% increases that are automatically put into cloud storage and other things. And and so we got to take that into that into account. Um, one other thing that I that I personally like to see is the recommendations there on the right that don't include other recommendations of other of other groups like the International or the International City Managers Association is notorious for undercutting on on things where they they differ from the International Association of Chiefs of Police and from the FBI on on recommended data. So, I think if we're if we're putting comparisons together, then let's put comparisons together and say, okay, this the FBI bases it off off crime rate and population. The city managers association bases it off by ra city managers. Um, and so we got to if we're going to take a if we're going to take an honest look at everything, then I would like to take an honest look at everything. And the the ask we've had conversations before about do we want to be reactive or proactive. And I'm telling you, the reactive policing, you will pay hand over fist down the

road, 10 years down the road, it's going to cost significantly more to let a problem get out of hand by not staying on top of it. Uh, West Jordan, I found this out the hard way when they had to come up with funding. uh in just the eight years that I've been gone, they've increased their manpower by uh 24 officers to take care of the problems that were getting away from because they didn't want to appropriately staff for the rapidly growing population. And so, uh, as we as we come into these and and look, I I've had, uh, conversations with Chief Cordova and he understands that the that the asked, uh, the the reality of the ask that to trim down, but what we asked him for was, hey, in a in a perfect world, like, if we had everything that that you need to to meet that, what would that look like? And I believe that uh he and the fire chief have done that. And so now we go, okay, now we know where that benchmark is for that for that ultimate thing. We need to peel back on it. But if we're going to plan for that 10 years in the future, we've got to include data for more than the MA. And it's got to it's got to factor in crime rate and and drugs and things like that because that's I mean you look at the broken window theory and the I'm telling you 29 years in policing and the broken window theory is absolutely legitimate. What

the broken window theory is take an abandoned house and it can sit there untouched for a long time and as soon as somebody comes by and vandalizes it, breaks one window, then all of a sudden it opens up and before long the house is pretty much destroyed. It's the remember when New York when uh Mayor Giuliani sought to decrease the the violent crime rate? Well, he started it by enforcing the little things, the little small the the toll jumpers at the on the subway and little small crimes because those little small crimes are often times committed by people that uh that are also committing the bigger crimes. And so that's the that's the thing. All these budgets can be can be trimmed back. What we have to ask ourselves is what are we willing to do without? If we want to if we like on the police one, if we went to option C right now, um so which would be a significant decrease from current funding, what are we willing to do without? What are we willing to not have officers respond on? What types of crimes are we willing to not have investigated further beyond beyond patrol? Because that's part of the calculation, too. It's not just it's not just finance. I mean, we do have financial obligations to the residents. We also have obligations to protect them and we have obligations to make sure that the that when they flush the toilets, it doesn't come launching back at them. And so, you know, we talked before about uh you know, a three-legged standard and police, fire, public works, it's that three legs. Other stuff, it's that cushion on the top. People like sitting on the cushion. The cushion's comfortable. But when it comes when it comes right down to it, if one of those three fail

or all of those three fail, we can have the tightest motor parks or whatever and it's not going to matter. It is not going to matter because the fact remains that I mean we could ask the police chief and the fire chief if multiple events happened right now, what would we do? And based off what what the ability is, is that response acceptable? If we ended up with three house fires at once, could the fire department handle all three of them? And how much damage gets done? What if it was your house that was the one on fire or next door to the one on fire? How badly would you want that put out? We've seen a drastic increase in in child abuse cases. every single one of them has to be investigated fully. Um the crime rate is not going down. And so when we when we talk about all these things and and we're looking at numbers, we have we have two full-time detectives and one-on-one from from patrol. Um, right now the police department does not have the capacity to keep up on the call volume line that's coming into the investigations. And so we just got to keep all that in mind that um, you know, I I believe wholeheartedly in transparency, but I also believe in in painting that picture. We we had a great experience out the sewer plant and un a good understanding of what what will happen if that plant fails. Now put in your mind what happens if that if that same catastrophic event happened in the police department or the fire department and ask yourselves

with us sitting up here. Are we willing to deal with the with the fallout what of what happens from uh from not from not seeing all the all the landmarks, you know, and we got a lot of great experience up here. I mean, Blair and I were talking at the at the break. He was my little league coach and I remember the time when he uh we had really we had really done something to earn it. I'm I'm confident of that. But right as the as the siren started going and as he's run to jump into his truck and told us we better still be running by the time he got back. But you know what I learned from Blair growing up was that dedication and I I always knew that I wanted to be a cop and I was like I want to go into it with the dedication that Blair has that he would that he would prioritize that over Lily. And I and I carried that example with me. I was telling him every academy class that I taught, every single academy class was told the story of of Blair Western and the lessons that I learned from him in Little League. Um he's seen the the fire department from straight 100% volunteers to evolving to where we're at now. And and is that enough? I mean, he he really blazs the blazs the trail on that. And now all that all that work that he's invested a lifetime in and all that dedication. Now what now what happens to it? And do we trust our our department heads? I 100% trust our department heads to make the decisions that they see fit for their department. If Carl says the sewer plants failing, I believe him. If I didn't believe him, then why would we have him here? Right? So, that's uh that's my soap box for the

evening, but I just want to make sure that we're that we're looking beyond just percentages and that we're looking just and that we're looking beyond that we're peeling back and we're getting that that big glimpse of what it is that we're doing and making sure that we are operating efficiently. And I I believe that efficiencies are the thing that that we should be focusing on as part of the equation. It's not just a you know hey we cut this amount we cut this amount it's okay what are the other ramifications you know the uh when when we ask departments for presentations on things we're asking them to okay now tell us what happens when that you know when that goes bad and if it failed why it would fail. We need to take that same approach to the stuff that we're doing on on budgeting and everything that this this legislative body encompasses because if we're not, we're not doing our jobs. I don't know how to.

Okay.

Thank you for your insight. I look at things as someone that has seen life from a different angle. We are all being asked to do more with less. in our homes. That's the bottom line. Nobody is living on the same income they had two, three, four years ago. Times are tough. I spent n and a half hours going and I just did two months of the finances. There are ways we can and should make cuts. this the spending outside s going to outside sources it's become the norm to pick up the phone and go we'll just call them and have them do it we'll just call them and have them do it I want to see that cut authority because I know we have smart enough people within our own department heads and in our own town if we need an outside contract back. I'm going to throw one out there. Probably shouldn't, but I'm going to. Building inspecting. I know we did not pay the former building inspector what we're paying right now. I strongly believe we can get someone in house and that's going to cut that budget drastically. But there's many, many other ways. I have sheet after sheet after sheet that I've gone through. And that was just two months worth of budgets. We're all being asked to make cuts. My husband and I are on social security. We are not going to get we didn't get a 3% cola. We have 2.8 and our insurance

gobbled up three4s of it. It's the reality is we need to tighten our belts. It is hard. It's going to be tough. But I have to say, sorry, Carl. I've got to say this. I don't want anything coming back in my house. After that tour, I am We have We do have some serious serious issues down there. Oh, and a lot of this stuff has been pushed down the road. And I said in the meetings, I've said in these meetings since 2019 in here and in planning commission meetings, a lot of stuff was not done the way it should have been done. And now some of our department heads are trying to dig out from that. They're doing the best they can do, but still as a city, as a whole, we can do better and we must. When my husband went on business trips, he had a stipen and he lived by it religiously, if I can use that word again, city council. He knew if he went over his hotels, he paid it. He knew if he went over on his meal aotment for the day, he paid the diff. Well, we paid the difference. What am I saying here? We paid the difference. It took me two 12 years to save enough money to build a walk-in shower that was not a want. It was a need. We don't always get what we want. We have to work for it and say for it. And I think that's how I want to go into this budget meeting. It's going to be rough. I'm not going to I'm not just going to roll over and play dead because I know we can do it as a council. I know we are smart enough to make the cuts where they need to be made

and to trim the fat where it needs to be trimmed because it needs to be trimmed. That's my take.

Well, I I was in the fire service for 42 years and I would love to give Jeff Woody stuff because I'm a fire guy, but after the two years I've been here, there's not enough money. it. There's not enough. There's not enough to I mean, you can give it all, but the the park still need the kids still need to have somewhere to go. We still obviously the sewer treatment, but it's it the eye opener for me is I don't think anybody's just rolled over and said whatever. It's just we still got to have some in there for when when the shooting happened and we had to dump we dumped a bunch of money in the PD for that. We had that in our coppers. If we don't have anything, then we're just like all of us. You don't have your savings. That's the eye opener is is trying to please get the cities. I don't think it's real too fair to say pick what you don't want to go. I mean, I went by a a fire sun Saturday, that freeway out by Salt Air, and they had more fire guys in is in Box County from UFA sitting there, and that would have been way nice. But we'll never have that. Not for ever. So, you know, you get three fires, somebody else got to come and put the other one out. We all know know that. But that's the hard part is if you look at it, we still got to stick stick someone safe. But I don't think I feel attacked when when it comes back that we're we're not supporting somebody. And I feel like just the opposite might

and I didn't and I didn't mean it as No, I'm not saying you did. I mean it that's the way I take it. But I just

I think what it comes down to is we got a we got a bit of a revenue problem. We're we do have some things that that I'm concerned with on the spending side and and those will get addressed, but we we do have a a revenue problem and I mean we see the monthly sales tax revenue and things that come in and you know and those fluctuations and it's I mean I you know encouraging people to to buy local you know it's I know that that if I that there are some things that I'll buy here in down. They're going to cost me a little more even factoring gas than driving over, but if I'm going to I'm going to grab about revenue that I need to be part of of solving the problem, right? And so that's where I'm that's where I'm seeing that's all I that's all I intended wasn't that um you know that we shouldn't have uh that we shouldn't have you know nice parks and and things well done because that it's part that's part of the broken window theory. You know when we're when we're looking at companies that want to come to Tmont they look at how the city presents itself.

Right. Right. And so if we've got disheveled parks and we got trash everywhere, if we look like Bourbon Street in New Orleans, then no company in their right mind is going to want to come. And so it's part of that assessment we do. It's it's part of those hard things. Is it a is it a want or a need? Is it, you know, maybe a little bit of both, you know, and so that's the efficiencies are are on the are on the spending side, but it's doing what we need to do to attract that revenue side if we're going to if we're going to grow that's underway and it takes time and it's it's definitely underway. Um, we're doing a lot of things there. Yeah, that's coming.

Which Oh, yeah. I'm excited about it. You know, Main Street is going to be being renovated with the RDA funds. We're going to see that happen. There's some economic development discussion tonight on land we need to talk about which is directly associated revenue. Right. So I think all of those you're right. I I would be interested to understand a little bit more about the revenue findings that you you see here um that could be available with impact fees. Uh building permits was something that you mentioned already which I think we should zoom in on a little bit. Um business licenses was the other one that I was going to bring up in discussion on revenue.

Um along with Airbnbs. Uh we have people coming out of you know coming in from um out of town staying in Airbnbs inside of our city limits and they're not we're not we're not taking additional business licensing on that. I think that's a revenue source that would open up for especially outsiders coming in. You know, if you look at St. George, that's how they build the things they do down there is because of of tourism. And um and then, you know, I don't know what the utilities, parks, and courts is, services fund, but I I think those are all definitely things that we we should be looking at. And then I would propose that as departments collaboratively there's probably savings there somewhere like in the past where the senior center needed a vehicle and the police department was able to provide that with one of their aging vehicles. I would propose that we get in the next meeting this report pulled up and say okay guys let's go to the exercise al together of finding 500,000 and see if you can do it right. There's got to be there. I think there's stuff there um collaboratively. One that I would like to propose is even just us as city council, you know, put my money where mouth is. Um the way city council is paid is kind of weird. Um it's based off health insurance. I have five kids. That means I get paid more.

I have none. You have none. So what I'm getting paid versus what you're getting paid is peanuts.

It's much different. Let's stabilize that. I'll take a pay cut. Let's bring that down so that we're all getting compensated fair based off regional areas. I would ask that because it's based off of insurance that happens in November. Renewal's due. So I made decisions on what insurance I have based off of what I was getting compensated. So, if we could postpone the cut for a, you know, time it for when that renewal comes, I'm willing to take a pay cut in that and let's let's level that out. But that's one way that I think we can do it. You know, I'll start by saying, "Hey, I got I see a piece of waste there. It's not right. It it doesn't make sense to me. Let's fix it." I think there's more of it throughout. I agree with you. I think it I think there's a lot of it. Do

you know I uncomfortable like we all have to make the sacrifice. I want to piggy back on both for just a second. I did bring up to the city business license. I spoke to a former um employee about it. We own a business and we pay $600 for a business license for one Airbnb in Tmont. zero. And they're working on that. And it isn't it isn't the off the office lady's problem that this has been overlooked. Don't don't throw darts at them. No.

This started in in 2022. There was a study done and the very last page it says to renew it annually and make adjustments. We have so many things that for services that are that are not being compensated. And now a business license is not a revenue generating source. It that it says right in there it is not supposed to be a revenue generating source. But we have services that could use a little bit of a kick. Okay. If it's an if you're getting an income that's a business, apartments, rental homes, rental town homes. Um, the list goes on and on and on that we are not charging business license for. And I'm not saying go out to all the mom and pop stores that are paying business licenses. Now, that is not what I have been proposing since January and I'm calling myself out because I'm the one that brought it to a head. Um, but I know I know the study's being done and I know the ladies are working on it right now. So, I'm super excited to see what they come up with. Um, but I I know that as a city council, we can do this. I have faith in us. It's It isn't going to be fun, but we can do it. I've sat for a week now going through finances and going through these types of things. I've got a list of 16 different items that I consider waste

and almost a million dollars worth of savings or revenue gaining. So, you know, that's that's additional. I think we're I I and I know the city is looking for these things now. Um, everyone's engaged on this. It's really been fun to watch. Yeah. The one thing you know and Brent I I agree the 28% isn't to say this is what you have to do. But if you look at the whole we have a certain percentage of money that we have. And if you're paying 47% of your income on your home you're paying too much.

So somehow we got and I understand that they were asked to come up ask for the world. So I'm not pointing fingers here. I'm not doing that. What I'm what I'm asking is where do we set the limits? Where do we set those percentages so these guys can go back these ladies in their departments can go back and say, "Okay, this is what I have to work with." And that's what I'm asking them. That's what we need them to have. And it it it doesn't matter if it's 38% for the police and and uh 5% for the the the parks. We just need to set some goals for them to start working in the future. I don't want to have the the police chief and the fire chief to go out and guess what we're going to be needing. I want them to know right off this is how much budget I have. We grew this much in revenues this year. I did 35% more. This is what I have to spend.

And now it's going to make the whole budget cycle so much easier every year for all of our departments. And I so I'm trying to simplify this process so it doesn't become heated and discussions over which department um needs money over another department and those numbers can adjust. But that's kind of what I'm asking for tonight is what direction can you give to these managers so that they can go back and start to bring this in line. Do you want savings? Do you want a 10% savings? What number do you want to save this year? I mean 10 10 to 20% of the recommendation, right?

And standard. That's the standard. Yeah. I mean, we should be putting away a million. I think we're capion. We transfer it out to the capital projects funds if we have excess above that

because like 7.2 is going right now, you know. Well, I think I mean the percentages from a from a management standpoint, I think every department head would love to get to the percentages and because you're right, it is it is easier. It's getting it's getting to that percentage without carving into um you know like I said 30 35 or 33 is doesn't give the I mean we got to remember that the we've got colas we got steps and things like that that that go up and one of the hard things that one thing that is the the highlight of public service and anybody that's worked for the government, you know, as as TSA is experiencing right now is that the employees usually are the ones that take the brunt of the of the the service and the the decisions. I don't want Tmont to be known as a place where you just left you just left another agency or you left another another city to come work here and we lured you in with this and just kidding, you know, we cannot be that ethically we can't we can't do that. And so that's where you know when we find efficiencies and things like that and then we start talking about you know okay what can we do to increase those those things to get to that that percentage to where then the departments naturally grow with the with the population and the and the effects of the city.

And so then there's that encouragement to you know to bring grants in. I mean we could we could have a thing where you know and we've talked about some of this before where you get you know you uh you get an employee that writes a sustainable grant that frees up money in another thing. Let's kick them three or five% of of the savings on that. Look at that graph right there.

And this is this is to your point, uh Brent, the one on the right is Tmont and cities. These are our revenues. Okay. The one on the left is national averages. So the blue represents property tax. We're we're we're kind of right in there where the nation's at. The yellow or orange is sales tax. We receive a significant amount more of sales tax or we receive a lot less of other things. And and I think that's the answer. Yeah, absolutely.

And so the purple is intergovernmental spending. So that's grants. We're not doing a good job of ning grants other than we did really good job this year. But and so there's other things we can do now to start to grow those other pieces of the pie and get the revenues in here. And so the other thing that we need I I do need to tell you that there is some fault with my spreadsheet because the the garland contract is part of the total general funding. It shouldn't be. It needs to be the whole thing needs to go to the police. It should go back.

Yeah. And so that's that's going to shift things a little bit and and and I'll make those adjustments. But is that part of the 35% or not? Well, they give 35% of their contract, but they should get the full contract because but but is that so 150 of the 500 or whatever is going is is showing up for them, but really should they should have an additional three whatever, right? So that would bring their So they would they would receive another $300,000 in their in their budget just because which would make the 47% go down. Yeah. Yeah. Drastically drastically. Yeah.

Like down to to 41 40 like 400,000 instead of 800

so my point is is I think we can do this together. Now the message and and this is what happens every year and I just need to say this. This is not about the police or the fire or the public works or our parks department. We're not picking on anyone. We are taking care of our city. Our employees are important and we want to do the right things. So, how are we going to do that? We need to decide that if we can do that now or in the next few weeks, we're gonna Our budget's coming around fast. We're going to have a finance director here on the 27th. She will start going through this and making sure everything's in line, but we still have to discuss this and we still have to discuss capital projects.

I think we need to aim for 15%. And so if we so on this spreadsheet 15% needs to be left for capital allocation at least bare minimum it should put about 1.5 million in savings um now because I mean one more than 1.5 million is being asked of us if we remember our spreadsheet last year was 110 million is being asked

would you like to go through and pull out some of those ideas we have for gaining like some of the projects where we're using contracts and that and we'll gain some money from there. And I think we could probably if we do those things over this year those will change the numbers either less on expenses or more on revenues. You know, each one's going to affect that bottom line a little differently. You know, you and I talked about a way to help with the safety staff. Is that how safety departments? Yeah. You know, public safety. I would really like us to explore that.

Yeah. I I think we could do about $97,000 a year in a impact fee for safety for each department. But we just need to make sure we that we structure that right so you that money has to be used correctly. Yes. And go to the the the right department because right now with all the growth we've had since 2017. We are falling short in public safety. And so what we talked about we'll talk about and I mean Brian's coming over on Monday and I'm gonna find out where he's getting this $2 million. Yeah. because if he's spending $2 million, we're gonna Friday Friday

Friday Friday at 10 o'clock and we're gonna find out where that's coming from because we're open we're open to trying to find a solution here. Yeah. I mean, if if there's 2.6 six in revenue available that is not going to have negative impact on our future growth capacity that economic development if you as soon as you do put in a business license if I'm comparing Tmont versus another city I'm less prone if the other one's for free right so there's always a consequence to every revenue that we do charge not saying we don't I'm just saying you know we do need to keep that lens on as we're increasing revenues that we're also not making ourselves more difficult to work with, which in turn

absolutely challenges our revenue. So, it's kind of a, you know, find that sweet spot, but we still need to tweak that business license there. And the mom and pops, man, they're good. I'm just want people that are not paying that should be paying. I I think impact fees ought to be what we can legally charge. You pay I mean, you pay a lot, but really, if you build a house, you buy it. Yeah, you do it once and then you're out and and the guy that builds every other year build a house, we get more money. I mean, which which of our impact fees because with an impact fee, you legally have to do a study and those studies aren't cheap

and they're also timed. And so I'd love to on Friday with Brian, let's find that out. Okay. I can tell there's a anybody that wants to come, more than welcome. you know, because those impact fees, timing it, you know, we've we've as a city, we've typically been pretty on front of those and timing them about when we think we could actually increase. And so, and Brian's shaking his head. So, happy to hear, you know, if there's improvement there, let's definitely look at those. So, I I think what the goal here is is we want to make ourselves whole.

Okay. And all I'm asking is can we come is there some percentages that we can start working with for right now and um and you know I'm even willing to go back to the the departments can go back and and we can say hey we want you to come close to 15% on this where can you get we all have to do something you know and then they can work on that together as part of that can we not to intentionally heap something under Linds's plate but can we Sorry. Sorry. No, sorry.

About doing a um I would like to know how how much we are outsourcing like a like a cost feasibility of of what things are we outsourcing and look at does it make more sense to bring it inhouse. Yeah. as as part of all this because I've got that in that study. I've already got 16 items and I I did most of those. Okay, great. So, I could show those to you. But there's, like I said, there's almost a million dollars worth of items um that we either reduce or we can increase revenues. And so,

and and I am I will when we get done with the meeting, I will be glad to send that document out to you guys so you can look at it. But um what what would you guys suggest we give Lindsay direction to go back to the the department heads and do with this budget? To me, this simplifies it for us. I mean, I think there's too many nuances for us as a council to to say this has to be the percentage. I think we need the heads to get back together and get back to the 15% somehow. So,

because and I say that because as soon as we pull, you know, uh are we are we low staffed on detectives? No, that figures Sorry, Ryan, but that figure is way my point is as soon as we we don't fund for detectives, we're going to be have issues at the sewer plant. as soon as we don't fund for so as a council there's too many nuances I think for us to make the decision rather we just got to give the guidance that we can't spend more than we have and we have to save for future infrastructure so we have to get to 15% we just have to I agree

it's there's just there's only x amount of dollars now we also do have to consider one thing and it's unpopular and I don't even want to say the words out loud But it's economics. Revenue less expenses. It is

our our city costs are going up with inflation every year. Our property tax is completely flatlined. We do not grow in property tax revenue. The only way we grow is in sales tax revenue. Those take time. We have clear strategic objectives that we're working toward to increase sales tax revenues. I've been working on a lot this week. The reality is is if we aren't adjusting our property tax through truth from taxation with um inflation or social security, we will get behind. That's just that that it happened that that costs are going up, revenue stays flat. So, I'm just being a good steward by saying our costs are going up, and our revenues are being flat. Now, there are revenues that are exposed that we could be doing that we're not. So, I think this year, if we're super aggressive about that, we could go close the gap. But in the long term, if our costs are going up and we are not adjusting a little bit at the same rate that our cola adjustments and social security is going up, we will we're we're punting it to another council. straight up and it's not popular and I don't want to say it and I ne I'm trying to find ways to decrease it and I think we can become an economic center that's so successful that we actually could get rid of property tax as a whole. That'd be awesome,

right? But we're not and our costs are going up. So until that happens, we've got to adjust it now or we I I would suggest that we have to start thinking about that. So, what would that model look like?

I don't know. I think there's enough savings that if we if we go really are stewards and accountable and starting with city council, look at our costs this year, I think we can find what we need to, but then start thinking about next year adjusting with with social security inflation on a yearly basis because it will catch up to you. And we only pull the trigger if sales tax didn't increase, you know what I mean? We sales tax increasing could hold that lever from having to be pulled each year. But at least it's on the agenda and plan so that we're not having an awkward conversation.

But we're just not being good stewards if we don't. We're kicking it for another council to have to do what you guys did five years ago, four years ago when you had to do a 25% to finally get it back up. 9% in 599. I lived in Logan, so it didn't make sense. But I that's the reality. You all of a sudden had to swallow that pill and I'd rather just be a good steward anyway. So that that's where my head's at this year. Let's shoot for it, but next year I think we should start thinking about it. I totally agree. And put sales tax goals to not have to do it. Yeah,

I I agree. I think I think we got to keep up with the coal. I don't I think we wait for 25% not even 50 that somebody's going to be pissed and it's everybody's going to be mad anyway. It's like the grass thing. But if you're if you only got to pay 3% every year and it come goes up so much you can you're going to complain but you're going to just live with it. You can do it because you got it somewhere else. But

well I think and I'll I'll leave with this. I know we're going way long, but part of the part of the the goal of transparency is that and and making these cuts and and part of streamlining the um you know, everything in the percentages and digging into every corner and under every cushion to find out when before we ask for that that increase or state the need for the increase. If if our citizens know and can trust that we've looked in every in every corner, um then I think it's uh I I think that's doable. You know, it's not like the um the Well, no, I'll say that.

Well, I a good discussion. Lindsay, you got your marching orders in department heads meeting. would you work with them and see if they can find 15%. On that bottom line and uh chief, I will fix the garland contract piece so that it reflects correctly. Okay. Um and then you you're meeting with Brian Friday. Yeah. So revenue ideas could be prior Thursday. Prior to the head though I I think the percentage is at least a spot for these guys to aim for try to yeah try to get there and then then see where they're at because realizing

that I mean last year was hard but realizing that they're just just we're not going to go do 59% to get it. So can we as a council start the discussion by saying hey we'll let's address ours our compensation we can look at it flatline it compared against others get normal and well that was one of the items so yeah we'll we'll look at it sure

awesome that was great good discussion um please uh chiefs uh department heads go back to your your departments let them know We do care and we're trying to do the right things. Okay. We really are. Um uh I know that part of the fire department's uh this budget is to get your firemen on a level that's at par where we got our police officers last year. We support that. And so we're trying to do everything we can to make this the greatest place in America. You might go from two bucks an hour to four bucks an hour. Dude,

I don't want to raise. I mean, I did this because I wanted to serve the community. And when I found out, you know, the insurance thing, I just looked at the mayor and I says, I don't want to pay my insurance. You know, my husband actually said, I don't work at Tmont City. Do not pay money. So, you know, it's not that I want it. I Hey, I'm doing this for the residents, not myself. Great. Okay. Uh let's move on. Strategic business. This is we're now going to discuss the financial statements. Uh it's open for any kind of discussion that you guys want to discuss right now. We won't normally have three months at a time. That was unusual. But

yeah, Michelle said there was a lot a few really hard crazy things she had to figure out. She's calling. Anyway, it was Yeah. So, we're gonna be back on track. So I I'm pledging that I will not bring you three financials in one meeting ever again. I know

and the financial director when we've been interviews one of the things that we mentioned to that person is that um they will be working hard on providing better open book policies for everyone to see things easier and to work with the departments to make sure that they have that same kind of I don't want to use transparency because balance but balance. Yeah. so they can see it. You know, like Chief and I were looking for something today, he could just look and find it. And that's the goal. We want to get it so everyone can find everything they need. And and so I'm excited where we're going to go with that.

So any discussion on the financial statements? Not now. I have it. Okay. As part of our process with that, we now open it up for public hearing for three minutes a person on anyone that wants to talk about anything on the financial statements. The fun thing about that, you can come up if you're going to. The fun thing about that is now we can communicate and discuss. Yes. Okay. Again, I'm Bill Rosma. I I have a question. What's what's the sales tax for three months? How much is it

the percentage? 6.625 around 6435 of the state though

much less. So the sales tax in Yuma, Arizona, where I lived for many years, few decades, 9%. That's what sales tax is. Uh it's kind of hard the way inflation is going. Uh, it's kind of scary how much more things cost now than they did not too long ago. Bought my house in 2020. I put money down in uh in November of 2020 on on my house. I got in before the interest rates went stupid. I got in before real estate went stupid. I feel for young people. I really do. But I was kind of curious about that on the sales tax. So we're we're at 6.6

I think somewhere around there. Now there is another thing we could use as a tool. It's a wrap tax, right? That can be added to the sales tax and that's for recreation. It's very minimal amount, but there's those kind of tools that are available to us. And then there's also the the tax that goes on entertainment tax on hotels and that the Yeah. Does that exist? And we always want to be careful with which of those levers we pull. A lot of people will actually come from out of town to buy vehicles and you know a Polaris in in Tmont because the sales tax is lower and they save a bunch on what they pay versus going to opinions. So it brings a lot of revenue to the city. Yeah. Good point.

It does. So we just we got to be careful with it.

When I was in Yuma I was a member of the rod gun club down there. had all kinds of advanced hunting contest, fishing contest. Um, so I ran the Jim Bre Memorial Dub Derby every year and and I would I would raffle things in order to raise funds for that event. I I made I'd start out with $500 to spend. Okay, that's what the gun club would give me. And of course, the way I was running this event, I was making so much money, I was retaining stuff back for the next year, plus making more. Um, but off of about six to seven weeks of raffle tickets, I was generating 3500, $4,000 off of that. Uh, so my thinking is is maybe to raise a little bit more money for the police department. Maybe we raffle off the gun. $5 a ticket or five for 20 depending on the cost of the gun. If it's a three or $400 gun, $5 a ticket or five for 20. If you're talking about $1,000 gun, well, now you're going to, you know, $10 or $20 a ticket. That's just an idea. And then of course you have to put out the disclaimer that if you can't pass a background check, don't bother.

Yeah, sure. Thanks.

All these numbers are from transparent.gov. So anybody can go look up look them up. All I did was take averages and I put three mountain pretty much for on every one of them I did. So, every one of these things like uh impact fees, building permits, business licenses, everything, Fremont sits in the bottom right right here. But out of nine cities, Fremont's like seven or eight consistent. All I brought it up to was third or fourth, not the highest. And then a lot of stuff were right in the middle. And so as far as when I could tell when I could and when I talked to people, we're justified to raise it up to that. But we need to be for like impact fees. We do do need to get that study because I think we've under we haven't collected near the money we've got should have for years.

In which one? Impact fees across the board. All of them. Yeah. We don't collect it. I don't think we collect any of them. Please. We don't. We don't. which everybody else does. Yeah. Why don't we? I did this also. I was in Kuanas about five years ago. I did the study then because mayor came to Kuanas and I did it then. We were then we were still bottom and this I did this on Cash Valley and Northern Davis and we and we're we're still we're still there.

We haven't adjusted impact fees at all. I went with with Blair raise them to the max. Now it's based on 100 homes. For the last few years, we've been building over 100 homes in Tmont. Tmont city, not blocks of county or surrounding areas. I talk city. We've been building over roughly 100 homes every year for the last three or four or five years. Um, also you pay the building fees, we're we're way down, guys. I mean, we haven't looked at these fees forever. uh business licenses. Again, we're we're not collecting what she was talking about. We're not collecting, you know, other cities collect one or two dollars per door for apartments, uh for storage sheds, you know, we're just not collecting at all.

So, it's like there's easy money there. Yeah. Easy money. Low hanging fruit for sure. Yeah. This is low hanging fruit. Uh utilities, parks, and courts. We our court we sub subsidize our court 93%. Out of those out of these eight cities that's not count eight other cities three of them produce make income out of the courts. That's a third of the cities are making money out of courts and we're subsidizing ours 93%. Well, part of that we've had it's been there have been some hurdles over the last couple years in our

I I get that but still I'm talking over the five year I'm talking from 2020 to 2025 we've subsidized our court system that much. Now I just want to throw out one one consideration on that is that um when when cities leverage fines and forefeures in their general I totally get that it the optics of it are we're okay. So if you if you take the eight cities again compared to Tmont they're doing two to three uh tickets a month per officer. We're down roads are illegal. I know but I'm just telling you what they're doing. Yeah, we're doing mile one

based on what I could see. Again, I'm just doing the data. I I I'm a numbers guy. I don't I'm not putting any behind it. I'm just numbers. I just look at the numbers and I tell you what's going on and I tell you I put it in the sheet. That's all I do. Most of this most of this money right here is restricted funds which would be it for your roads, sewer, water, stuff like that. Probably about I think it's about 80% of that is would be restricted to Carl's budget that would definitely help the sewer. Oh yeah.

And everything like that. There's a little bit of flexibility in some of these other ones. Um but you know, you still got roughly two $2.6 $6 million, guys. Okay. Thank you, Brian. Well, thanks. Thank you. Um, with that, I'll I'll entertain a motion. Session. Well, we need to a motion on the financial statements. Oh, yes. Let's approve. I motion that we approve the financial statement for January, February, December, December. December, January, and February. I'll second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor say yes. Opposed say no. Okay, that financial statements passed. Okay, we're we're got some people that have commitments. So, let's try to move through here. Do you have any city manager report that you need to talk about? Okay. So, you'll just take the I'll work with you tomorrow and that we'll get that report for you and then you can work on on your city department head

department head meeting on that uh mandate. Okay. Upcoming calendar events. We have the city. Okay. We have literacy night on April 20th. I'm not gonna say that word, but starts at Genie Stevens on it. Spring cleanup May 6th through the 8th, stamp out hunger food drive on May 9th and library summer reading kickoff party May 29th. We also have the ULCT training in

April 23rd. April 22nd. And so when you get down there, we um we're all going to meet on Wednesday night. So So that would is that Wednesday night? Yeah, that would be a city council week on the 21st. Yeah, we will not be having Okay. Which means council meeting first meeting in May, which is our next meeting is when the tenative budget is. So we're not having one on the No, we won't have one on the 21st. Do we need to have Keep in mind that is tenative budget which means it can be changed but it does have to be passed the first meeting in May not having no it's pretty hard to have that um

and I'll be at that conference all week too so I wouldn't so we normally have not held that um no it starts Thursday but we're and so then what we can do if the department heads go back and they work on and they get this down to 15% and all that then they'll lower their figures I think it'd be pretty easy for them to get their expenses in line and then we'll work on our part on finding efficiencies and and the other parts. Yep. And then we can come back after May and start going over the capital improvement plan. Perfect. Okay, got it. Uh with that, um I would entertain another motion. Make a motion that we go into close session.

Okay, we'll go into close session. We need to talk about the reason we're going to close session is to talk about real property and character of an individual. And with that, we will go into Oh, I need a second. Second. Okay, we have a second. All those in favor say yes. Yes. Opposed. Okay, we'll go into close session now. Thank you for attending. Can I ask a question?

I was just curious if that secondary water project got awarded while I was here. Yes, it did. It did. That guy out there in the hall was great. Carl, ask Carl. He knows who's awarded to. Who are you with? Great. Oh, I think she got it. Got it. I think you did. Check with Carl over. Carl. Carl. Yeah, sure. I don't know where the sign is. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Let's try to get through this as quick as we can. They'd like it to be done here by 9:00.