City Council - Regular Meeting

to order the regular meeting of the west valley city council this august 11th 2026 we're beginning our meeting at 6 30 p.m in the council chambers of west valley city hall all members of the council are present council member wood council member whetstone council member harmon council member hewn myself council member christensen current council member northvelt And we're joined at the dais with our city manager, Mr. Pealey, and our city recorder, Ms. Kamek. Tonight's opening ceremony will be presented by Councilman Harmon.

Thank you, Mayor. Before we say the pledge, I just Want Dawn and the Christensen family to know our hearts, prayers, and thoughts are with you today as you lost your wife and your mom and grandma.

We love you.

If you'll please stand, we'll say the Pledge of Allegiance.

all right under state law the only matter before the city council this evening are the proposed public tax increase and adoption of the final budget accordingly we will not be approving minutes and there will be no There will not be general public comment period. We will begin with a presentation on the proposed budget followed by a public hearing where anyone wishing to comment on the budget or proposed tax increase will have an opportunity to do so. After the public hearing, the City Council will have the opportunity to discuss the matter and consider any motions. Once the council has concluded this discussion and loving a tax rate that exceeds the city's certified tax rate The proposed tax rate in increase would generate approximately 1 million nine hundred and seven thousand six hundred and sixty two dollars to our city to our finance director Jim Welch and to discuss the budget for fiscal year 2026-2027. Mr. Welch.

Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate the introduction. As the Mayor mentioned, this is the presentation of the fiscal year 2026-2027 budget for the year, and we usually, if there's an adjustment to the certified tax rate, which is calculated by the state, we have a public hearing, and this is presented in August, and so that's what this fulfills. The Senate bill passed, Senate Bill 29 last year, we had a required disclosure, which I will read. We're required to post this, so it's also available for people to inspect, both in paper copies and also on our website, and then also in the regular public disclosure sites. It says the city is considering levering a tax rate that exceeds the city's certified tax rate. The proposed tax rate increase would generate approximately $1,907,662 of additional ad valorem tax revenue to be used to pay for additional operational employee compensation costs. The proposed tax rate increase would increase the city's ad valorem tax revenue by approximately 5%. If the city proceeds with the proposed tax rate increase, the city will provide notice of and conduct a public hearing, which is tonight. as required by Utah Code Section 59-919-4C. With that, this is the property tax impact statement that was referred to. This is also required by the new legislation. It states that the increase, again, is about 5%. For the average homeowner, that represents, based on the average value of a home, about a $32 per year or about $2.73 per month. would be the estimated tax impact. The total bill actually is about 1% compared to what they received last year. So that's the impact from West Valley City. The intent is to cover the cost for nine new firefighter positions and increase compensation for non-sworn personnel. Additionally, there's an increase for employee compensation for the police department. The total budget of the city, just a little over 176 million dollars and the majority of that is included in the general fund which is the operating fund of the city we have other type of business activities which are included outside of the general fund but that's where you'll find most of the expenses for the city the city is a service organization and as such most of those costs are personnel and To take a little bit closer at the general fund, we'll look at the revenues and the expenditures. The money to run the city comes from three primary places. It comes from sales tax, which represents about 41%. It comes from property tax, which is about 33% of the total revenue. And then other, which happens to be things like utility taxes, justice court fines, interest, and other monies that we brought in for permits and things like that. So it's a fairly balanced budget, and we call it kind of a three-legged stool, and we try and keep it that way to keep resilience in the budget. And then the expenditures, the primary purpose of the city is public safety. Just a little over 50% of the general fund budget goes towards public safety. We have the police department, which is 36%. Fire department is about 19% of the general budget. The rest of the budget goes to other operations of the city that are used to support either services for the city or else to support the administration of the city. This slide shows a comparison of last year compared to this year. That's about a 5% increase from last year. There are A few funds have moved around a little bit, but for the most part, it's very similar to last year. We did project some increases in sales tax and then also, of course, the property tax increase. The property tax is unique in that the city can only receive the same amount of money that it received the previous year unless the city council actually takes action. So a property tax increase is necessary in order to cover any kind of an increase in inflation. The only other growth we get is through new construction. So if there's new construction going on, that will also bring additional revenue along with the costs that come from supporting that additional growth in businesses and homes. Some significant inclusions in this budget include some new police officers. There's four of those. There's nine new firefighters, and then there's three new public employees. There's also additions to the compensation program to cover those majority of that goes through police $3.2 million. There's also some operational adjustments, which occurred due to contractual obligations or the cost of operations that they've changed and as they've been needed. This statement is a statement that is published in the newspapers, which is kind of interesting. A lot of people don't get the newspapers, but we've been required to do this since the inception of Truth in Taxation. The information is also posted on all public notice websites as well as on our website. Some interesting points of note is that as property values go up, the rates actually go down. And so last year, our rate was 0.2647. This year, it's 0.2649. So it was almost the same as it was last year. When the property tax increases included, it takes it up about 5%, which is about what we had in the inflation values of the property. There's two parts to this property tax increase. There's the revenue adjustment, which we referred to, which is about $1.9 million. And then there's the judgment levy, which most of you, the public, is probably familiar with. And that's where businesses or large taxpaying entities have come in and protested their value. The Board of Appeals has agreed with those protests. and issued refunds. In order to cover those refunds, it basically says that people have been underpaying their taxes because someone else has been overpaying. And so through the judgment levy process, it allows a municipality or an entity to go back and capture that one time. So that increase does not stay with the municipality. It just allows it to cover the hole that was created by the refunds. So those two items make the judgment levy. The next slide is the combined ad that the county prepares to give taxpayers the opportunity to look at all of the property tax increases that are proposed for the county. And they go through what the revenue was before, what it is after the proposed increase, and the percentage increase. So I know that's really, really small and pretty hard to read. That's also on our website if you'd like to see that. However, we are required to present that in a public meeting. And with that, that concludes my presentation.

Okay, thank you. All right, I will now open the public hearing. Is there anyone here wishing to speak to this matter? Okay, just come up and give us your name and address.

God help me. We're allowed to speak on the protest or anything? Yep.

So just the name, please.

Huh?

Name.

Your name.

Thank you.

I believe I found the root of all evil. It's not money. It's not the love of money. I think it's the obsession of control. I can see that there's really hardly anybody here today. The reason why I think that's happening is everybody's working, too tired, too busy. I've gotten these every year, and this year I feel like I'm obligated to say something. I'm irritated. I'm really frustrated. When I moved in to my house in 2012, my property tax was $1,400. Now after this approval, it's going to be $3,400. So I would say that there would probably be a lot more people in this room as irritated as I am if you just slap another zero right on the end of it. Eventually, it might happen. So I'm going to stick to my notes, see what I can do. Obviously, I'm not the greatest speaker, but I have a problem with my eyes, so bear with me. Everything scrambles up, so hopefully I wrote this down how I can see best. And before I speak, I know that the levels, city or town, city, State, federal, I get it. I totally get it. So thank you for this opportunity to exercise my right to speak. I'm here today to remind my government you work for the people. We, the people, don't work for you. The problem I see is an overreaching, unbridled, pompous government being irresponsible, careless, and a bit selfish with our tax money. It should be criminal on how many ways we are taxed, but to break it down, we are taxed on what we earn, what we buy, and what we own. Every dollar gets taxed multiple times. We live in a system created by past elites like John D. Rockefeller that is designed to influence and control all the masses to become a society of workers instead of thinkers and doers. This system is carefully designed to also break down the families in multiple ways. We went from a father working stay-at-home mom to both parents needing to work in a growing matter. This isn't enough. Many families are working multiple jobs to get by. In a system of workers rather than thinkers and doers, we believe that the government is the only entity capable of solving society problems. Ronald Reagan said it best, government is the problem. You overreach and dig deep in every pocket possible, all while over-regulating society. practically everything for control. You literally steal our liberties and freedoms and liberties and then sell them back to us. You lie and give us an elementary response to where our taxes are going. If it were all true, our infrastructure would include the best roads, bridges, airports, water supply, which I might add, this is a desert. Why are we wasting so much water trying to make a desert read. We can't, zero escape. We have to ask you for permission to do everything. Okay, so including best roads, bridges, airports, water supply, power grids, emergency services, and et cetera in history. That would be the best in history, okay? We could even have a double-decker freeway, one for the public and another one for strictly transporting goods.

Okay, your time is up, sir. Everybody has five minutes. Okay, thank you. Okay, next speaker.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council, Jim Visock. Nobody likes paying taxes. I don't like paying them. We all do what we can to save what we can. This budget with hiring seven new firefighters and police officers, you're never going to hear me complain about that. I don't want to pick up the phone, dial 911, have them say your wait time is 15 minutes or anything like that. So we need that. The three other employees, though, they didn't list where they're at. In one year, I'd like to see the return on investment on those employees. You know, somebody talk about we hired three more for whatever these positions are. How do they benefit the people of West Valley City? About four or five years ago, they hired four employees and bought them two trucks to go clean up the weeds and stuff on city properties. and we still have the issue. The return on investment on those employees, it's not showing up. So that's what I would ask. Just like a business, every time you're taking more money, what's the return on investment? As a citizen, that's what I'd like to see, and hopefully you guys would like to see the return on investment of the money that's being put in. So thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to speak?

Mike Markham, 3008 West Alice Way. I don't have a problem with the budget. We've got to pay for what we use. But I just have a real question in some of the expenditures last year. I don't think we needed to buy three LDS ward houses that needed work, especially lumped as close together as they are. Maybe if we got them spread out across the city. something a little bit farther west, but to have them all right here and then have to go in immediately, start spending money to do stuff on them. I think the city, we need to look at those. If you can sell them, turn them around, get something in there that's going to pay property tax, that's going to pay, like Jim says, start paying back what we're paying out. We've got a lot of properties in this city that's tax-free. We got to start turning some of this stuff around to get some money to come in. And I don't know how you can do that, but I don't think we needed to buy those three buildings to immediately start putting money into. So thanks.

Thank you. Anyone else?

My name is Judy Burr Hamblin, and I'm in the northeast part of West Valley. I was thinking, you know, as much as I am just a single person, I don't live with anybody else. And I'm finding it much more difficult to meet my obligation for paying my taxes. And I have two properties. So one property is not enough, right? Mom's home is mine, too. That means I have to come up with double. So that's like $4,000 a year. That wasn't that much. That was 35 last year. So it's escalating every year. And I'm finding that very difficult to really want to agree with it. I don't have children in school. So I don't have school tax. Well, you know, you do because the community needs that for growth and whatnot. But I understand the needs of the community. And I'm very thankful. for the opportunity to have our programs that we have. We have so many good things going on, but the taxation is going way over the charts. I'm not happy with it. And if we can do something to try and lower it for people like me who are retired or not quite retired, but I still work jobs. But I've had to work four jobs in the past and That's extra pressure on me. It raises your health concerns and all that other, as you continue to try to make ends meet and pay your bills. But I see it as being an obligation to be able to stay in your home. And as you get older, and I'm 75, I don't want to be booted out of my home because I can't pay my taxes. Four years later, they come and take my home and evict me. So I don't need that. How many of you will stay in my home? I've been in it for 49 years. So let me stay in my home. And don't take my home from me. It's going to go to my daughter. So, but, you know, I just think this needs to be brought to light and people need to see that government is getting so fancy, if you want to say it that way, that we need to have that. But the standard needs to be high, but it needs to be lowered a little bit so that we can still have the quality and not have to have the burden of not being able to make the ends meet. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else wish to speak on this matter?

Good evening, Council. It's Ryan Mahoney. I just want to start off by saying sorry for your lost tone. Nobody likes tax increases. The cost of living is through the roof. cost of fuels through the roof. But I also understand there's a big separation between state-level taxes and municipal taxes. If we are going to be raising taxes, I'm a big proponent in supporting infrastructure. Police and firefighters are included in that. I ask that we have the best police and firefighters in the state, hopefully. I know that if we don't stay competitive, we lose our firefighters and our police to other cities, or they just go out of being uh, police altogether. And then you lose your investment of, of getting them trained and bringing them in and going through all that in the first place. And then you're wasting more than you are, uh, retaining them long-term anyway. Uh, that being said, uh, it's hard to fight against it when you understand some of the why it has to happen. I mean, inflation affects everybody, including the city. Uh, So that being said, I mean, I have to support it to some degree. Nobody likes it, but it's one of those things that's a necessary evil. Thank you for your time.

Okay, thank you. Anyone else wish to speak? Okay, seeing no other speakers, I will now close the public comment period. And I'll miss Kamek first. Is there anyone online?

No, ma'am.

Okay, thank you.

I always forget that one.

Okay, I will now close the public hearing and turn the time to the council for discussion or a motion on Resolution 26-89.

Mayor, I want to say something, Mayor. But first of all, I want to say just condolences to Christensen. I didn't realize that until today. Yeah. Well, here I want to tell you, I want to explain to you too. August 18, we have another taxes, increased taxes. It's the Granite School District. Okay, so we have a county taxes, Granite School District, mosquito abatement, city taxes, assessment, other assessment, Let's pile up to now some, we have to pay over $3,000, some is over $4,000 for our house. And we are here as a council member. We're supposed to lift up our residents, the burden, but not living up them, not help them out, but make more life difficult for them. I think it's incredible. I think it's bizarre. We have other option. We can solve this problem. Of course, we can spend money to hire firemen or police department, support for police department, support for the fire department. Of course, great thing. But we have other option we can do that. We can sell to gop. courses the Mavis Center and we can solve this problem see right there to go courses we allow our past council members and present council members like us for free for life who pay money for that we I'm paying money for that people sitting here pay money for that hundred 84,000 people, I mean, 45,000 people in this city pay money for that. And they're young. They can pay their game for themselves. And we have a luxury suite in Mavis Center. And our council, our prison council members attend there at no cost. So who pay money for that? Because all these three items right here is underwater. And the city had to subsidize almost practically over the years, million and million and million of dollars. Recently, Mavis Center made a profit, modest profit. But that's not the case because it's an old building, over 30 years old, outdated. We need to renovate it, remodel it, and do a lot of things. It's going to cost a million and million of dollars. Why we sold the hotel? And we're not selling two golf courses and a Mavis Center. Hotel also is our property, and we sold it last year, two years ago. Why? Why we didn't sell two golf courses and Mavis Center? Because we have a benefit on those. Play golf for free, sit in there, watch the game, no cost. Who pay money for that? We pay money for that. People here in this city pay money for that. And that bothered me so much. I went there a couple of times in the past, Mavis Center. And that stadium have 17,000 seats, okay? And we have only 2,000 or 3,000 people watch the game, hockey game. I went there long ago. You see how much it's going to cost for running that business? If they are private sector, they probably closed that business long ago. They were probably going to go underbelly. But now, because why? City government, we can support that. And where we get money to support that? Taxpayers. Our city seems like we're not thinking outside the box. Here, I'll tell you why. Some cities, you do study, some cities, they don't need the property tax. They just use sale tax and they manage their money, they manage the city well done. No property tax. Okay? And you go out there and you study that. That's our job. Okay? Think about it. You're talking about water. We ask people to zero-skip like one of the gentlemen said and we spend thousands and thousands of gallons of water to make the two gulps green okay and on the other hand we go out we preach people have to do zero scale is that we are hypocrite we are very fake we are not real we say one thing we do in order that's bizarre Another thing is the city allow us just accept any gift below $50, okay? And now the golf course, we have to pay $75 per game and play. And we doing that year after year. Are we come in line with the city, the rule, regulation? Are we come in line with that? We need the city attorney to look into it. See, luxury suite in Mavis Center. How much for a night we spend there? Of course, more than $50. And that reason why I against this increased property tax right here. Why? Because we just basically we take every Every penny from our resident, we can't, and that's not right. And we have other options. We can manage other options. We can do what we ignore, not doing it. Like I said, many cities out there, they don't need property tax here in Utah. Here in Utah. Are we studying that? We know that? It's on the council right here. We do not need, because they can do that. We can do that too. They don't need property tax here in Utah. They can run business. They can run the city nicely. And we're lazy to look into our sale tax, to manage, to study how to do our job. Why some guy, so-and-so, Smith can do that, and we cannot? We're retarded. That's crazy. Yeah, I think we need to think harder. As we here, are we serving our people, our community, or we put our benefit and other things ahead of the residents they elected us to serve? And I just want to close that.

Anyone else wish to speak?

I'm on now. Hi. I'm a resident of West Valley City. I've lived here for over 40 years. I worked my entire life. I've paid my taxes. And in turn for all of that, I expect things to be provided for me. I have a great police force that protects me, a fire department that on a call can be there in a split second. I have a city staff who is concerned about the city. Property taxes is one way any community can raise money to provide amenities for their citizens. Some of the smaller towns, that's the only way that they can fund their towns is through property tax. In October, we had several public hearings about the West Ridge Golf Course. We listened to our residents, people who were passionate, I don't golf. I've never golfed for free, if I have. But our residents expect amenities. Our fitness center. I mean, thousands of people visit our fitness center. It is funded by the city. It is an amenity that our residents need and want. That's part of city government, is to provide services for their residents. I don't feel like that our city spends anything that they don't think about seriously. And if you attend meetings, there will be some expenditures that some council members may not approve and others may. And that's what is great about a municipal government. It's nonpartisan. We don't represent a party. We represent the residents of West Valley City. And I feel that I am doing my best to support the residents, respond to them, help them work through problems and issues. And in turn, I expect my city as a resident to provide that for me. So we need more police officers. We need more fire. firefighters we need people to run our city and unfortunately that costs money because they all have families to support as well so I am in favor of this tax increase when you break it down on the average home it's $30 a month a year $30 a year and I am okay paying that and mine was more than that depends on where you live but I am in support of it I believe our council, the majority of our council wants to do the best for the residents. It's not about them. It's about our residents. Thank you.

I want to say something about Councilwoman Wood. The money we have in equity in our home increased. We cannot get it. You have two options. Option number one, you can sell it, and you can get that money. Option number two, you can borrow money against that equity. And you borrow against that equity, you have to pay the interest for that. And people over here in this city, they love this city so much, they don't want to sell their house. They move somewhere. They want to stay here. So that doesn't work out. The second thing is about the government. Two good courses at Mavis Center. It's the private. should be the private sector. It's not a government running. I wouldn't mind. I wouldn't mind so-and-so and Smith. They come here and they say, well, I won't buy that, and I want to run as is, golf course. That's fine with me, no problem. We just stay out of that kind of business. We're not in that kind of people to run in for the private sector. For example, like the hotel. Why we sold the hotel? Because we are not good at it. We're running for garbage can, trying to find out when to pick up, roll, all the things, police. We're not running for a hotel. We're not running for the Mavis Center. We're not running for a golf course. They can buy it, and they can modify that. They can renovate it. They can make it better. They can make profit for that. I have no problem with that. We just stay out, private sector. that we need to do, and we use that money to benefit our people here in the city. We're talking about we want to do something good for our city, we want to do something good for our community, but we're saying we're trying hard about that, but not really hard. Why are the cities in this state of Utah, not far from here, you got to do your homework, not far from here, They don't need property tax. They can run their city nicely. Why? Why we cannot do that? Why we cannot do it right here in this, not far from our city? We didn't study. We always just, just property tax increase, increase. Just call a private bank and people get hurt. For example, one lady, she came up here, she said she's losing it because she doesn't have money to pay for food, doesn't have money to pay for property tax, and she's losing it. And every time she has a check or something, they withdraw money from her check. They get a fund. It's sad to see that. A lot of people in our city is senior people, and they run into the same problem. That lady, she came up here and she spoke to them a microphone earlier. I think that's ridiculous. We didn't work hard enough. We said we love people, but no, our action is so otherwise.

May I say something? Raising taxes is not something that anyone likes to do. But the way our state laws are, if we don't increase the property taxes, then our revenue source for our city is not sustainable. And we've all been hit with inflation recently. each of us individually, but also our city has been hit. And if we want to keep the best police officers, then they need to have an increase in pay. And I know this isn't what people like to hear, but this is how good people govern. They make hard decisions that aren't popular but are necessary. So I'd like to make a motion that we approve Resolution 26-89.

The other thing is, I know what you're saying.

Let me finish with that, please.

Okay. Second. Yeah, I think there's a law, regulation, state or city, about increased property tax. But we have to look at, like I said earlier, some cities just nearby, not far from our city, they don't need, they do not need property tax. What city? Huh? What city? Christensen, Councilman Christensen, you got to study by yourself.

No, I want you to tell me. What city doesn't use property tax?

You've got to study by yourself. How long have you been here?

It's our same size.

Huh? Same size or small size or whatever. They can manage that.

Do they have a police force?

They have everything.

They don't. They don't have a fire department.

They don't have a police force.

They have everything.

While you were talking, you also said the mosquito abatement was raising taxes this year. That's next year.

And it's a whole dollar a year. So the next year, you won't count? I mean, so next year, because next year you won't count?

It still counts.

This year or next year, the same. So no, it isn't. Yeah.

And I still want to know. Maybe you're not paying right now, but you're going to pay next year. I want to know what city. That's all I ask. Name me one city that doesn't use property tax. Oh, multiple.

One city. Multiple. Multiple. Give us the names. Okay. West Heaven, Marriott, Slaterville, multiple. More? You want more? I didn't understand. See, right there, you've been there for years, and you don't know. We haven't been here as long as you have, Tom. The thing is, that makes me crazy. Why? You say, well, because I have to increase property tax. Other people say, well, I can manage that. I can study with the sale tax, try to figure out how that works. with the inflation and all things, and I can manage our city nicely without property tax. More?

You want to double the sales tax in West Valley to cover the lack of revenue we would have for no property tax?

Yeah.

That would be helpful for all of our residents, wouldn't it? I'm being sarcastic.

I understand. But the thing is, you don't study, Scott Harmon. If we spend time, we ask, Our staff to study and try to do something about it you can figure out why are she the second do about it, we cannot.

Okay, we have a motion and a second miss comic can you take a roll call vote, please Council member would yes Council member what stone yes Council member Herman yes Council member no. Council Member Christensen?

Yes.

Council Member Nordfeldt? Yes. And Mayor Ling? Yes. Motion passes by majority. Thank you.

We have no other business, so we just need one more motion to close the meeting.

Motion to adjourn.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

And we stand adjourned. Thank you.