Council Work Session Meeting

11:44Welcome to the June 2nd, 2020, 60th Council Work Session Meeting. Our meetings are public and you are welcome to join us in person or by watching from the Council agenda page, Zoom or YouTube. We hope you continue to join us whichever manner you feel the most comfortable. This is a work session meeting during which there is not public comment.

12:04Please join us tonight during the 7 p.m. formal meeting and share your comments. We of course welcome feedback from you anytime. You can mail it to us at PO Box 145476, Salt Lake City, Utah 8414. You can also email it to us at council.coments at slc.gov.

12:28Or you can call our 24-hour phone line, 8015357654. Every comment that we receive on agenda topics are shared with Council members and posted on our website. You can visit that at slc.gov slash council. Our first agenda item is an informational update from the administration and we welcome Western Clark, Director of Community Outreach, and Andrew Johnston, Director of Homeless Policy and Outreach to the table.

13:01It's your time now, thank you. Good afternoon.

13:08We will jump right into some engagement updates. Next slide, the regular reminder to go check out SHAPE SLC, which is a great place to engage in a lot of city projects and is being more being added every day. So go check it out and you can sign up to follow certain projects and be alerted when there's any changes. It's really a great way to stay engaged.

13:31Next slide. Our planning team is working hard on a number of things that are in need of community feedback. The 45-day public input started in April for the avenues community plan update. The first public hearing with the planning commission was held in May, but there is another public hearing that will be held in July and a community engagement event is being held in memory grow from 5.30 to 7.

13:55You can head to SHAPE SLC for details and to follow that project. The city's expanding housing options effort initiated by the city council, following the review of the R1 zoning study will be presented to the planning commission to recap the identified issues on June 10th with the hopes of getting some direction from the planning commission and suggest some options to address the issues that were identified.

14:17The initial public engagement phase of updating the central community plan will begin with presenting the existing conditions report to the community and getting initial feedback on how they view their community in light of the existing conditions. This project is also of course on SHAPE SLC if you'd like to follow. Next slide.

14:37Public lands has a lot of things moving on their projects. So here are a few updates on some of those beloved public spaces that folks might be curious about. Jefferson Park's preferred concept was identified through public engagement and public lands as now working through more specific schematic design. Over at Miller Park, the CIP funded repairs to the historic double stone staircase, hillside stabilization and some minor infrastructure repair funded by public lands dollars begin in mid May and should be completed by the middle of this month.

15:06The CIP project for trail maintenance and historic wall protection is currently out for bid with construction planned for later this summer. The Glendale Regional Park team has some exciting news. They received a $1 million grant from Utah Outdoor Recreation that will go toward this skate park and pump tracks. Meanwhile, phase two design continues meaningfully on track for gold certification, which continues to show the team is implementing some of the best environmental practices in its design.

15:34At Fairmont Park, the contract for design work is signed and will begin early this month. Donor Trail Park Construction is slated to begin this month as well. The Fleet Block Project team is working through the engagement results from phase two and refining the concept and they will very soon be able to make some final versions available to the public.

15:52And finally, the long awaited Liberty Park playground is making some great progress. The splash pad concrete is nearly all installed. Several amenities and site furnishings have been installed including shade structures, benches and tables. The playground equipment is being installed as it arrives. And while some of the equipment arrives from overseas, the contractor is doing what they can to prep the site.

16:12Some of the irrigation and plantings have been installed as well, so hopefully that will be done soon. And that's it for me.

16:23Council members, any? Council member Beattrell? I'd love to know more about the bridge at Cottonwood Dog Park when available. I was at another meeting last night and issues from ADA accessibility to public safety were raised because of the continued closure of that. Thank you. Okay.

16:44Thank you. Next slide please. Andrew?

16:50You can see at the top for our homeless resource center utilization, put functionally full for me. The reason is because the number is a little funky in the transition from winter to summer in that they run at about 133% capacity, which you can imagine is kind of strange to watch. But what it is is that as we transition from all the winter beds to the summer beds, there is a small amount of ramp down, although I think majority of the beds are being maintained through the summertime, so we shouldn't see a massive decrease in capacity at this point.

17:23Some of that is going to be moving towards housing in the next year, we believe. I'm a lot more details for you as it comes forward. Next piece is that we talked before that the EIM work and rapid response teams are caught up enough where they can actually respond day of too many things or the day after. And so we don't necessarily have to plan out a full week in advance anymore.

17:45So as residents or others have issues or requests for service, we encourage everyone to put them into the app and we're trying to get to the app as soon as we can, even that day sometimes to do some cleanup. So if you have things to bring up, put them in the app immediately, we can get there very quickly that week. Next slide.

18:06We had a resource fair on May 8th at Library Square. If you were around, it looks sort of like a mini version of a festival, it's that large at this point. You can see that we had a number of metrics from there co-hosted by Odyssey House this time. 16 housing applications were completed for 16 individuals. 48 people had 154 cases heard by our Justice Court there and then we had seven dental evaluations and 26 tooth extractions.

18:33These are things that probably wouldn't be happening without the resource fair, so we want to give credit to heart for other efforts to put that forward and to grow it. Really good resource for the community. The second piece is the next fair will be June 12th, co-hosted by the Haven, which is a residential treatment program provider here in the city at Library Square again.

18:53And the other thing is Community Corner has restarted again. We did a pilot last fall. It went well by the community input and the providers and the clients. And so heart is again facilitating that at 2nd South and 7th West, Mondays and Tuesdays from 9 to 1, both of those days. And there's a revolving group of providers coming in on different days.

19:15And we can share that information for you every week so you'll know who's going and when. The last piece is that Justice Court will be doing mobile court at the Workforce Services this June 5th, this Friday at 9 a.m. I think that's all I have. Chair. Council members, it says Community Corner is a Monday and Tuesdays only.

19:41So Monday and Tuesdays 9 to 1. Okay, correct.

19:43How will you summarize how is it going? Is it having a positive impact? You know, the people showing up? Is it doing some good? Sure. So this, we just started, I think last week, last fall. When we looked at the numbers for the summer, parks reported a decrease in the number of providers going into public parks to offer those services partially because they're coming to Community Corner.

20:09And that was part of the issue. And the goal was to get services consolidated into a place that's not necessarily in public parks and dispersed at random times. That's been very successful from the parks department perspective. Hardest track in the metrics of a number of clients served. It's not as big as a resource fair.

20:24It's more frequent, obviously, and it's not meant to be that large. But it's been very positive to get other providers, specifically smaller ones who don't come out to large events very often. A place to be that's safe, it's cleaned up every day, and it's repetitive for the clients. They know where to come consistently.

20:40So it's been very successful that way. The last metric was the any impact on the neighbors. And from our perspective and interacting with them last fall, nobody, a lot of them didn't know it was there period number one, which is a good sign for a negative impact. And then everyone else who knew was there had no negative feedback about it.

20:57When we have had issues, UTA's been a good partner across the street to work with them on these things. So that's been very positive overall. Council Member Duhlen, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And you could you give us an update on the micro-shine shelters and the construction, because I think they either representative Clancy or Nick had an update on funding, but I can't remember where we stand on the construction.

21:22Yeah, so Tyler Clancy, who's the new coordinator of homelessness for the state. He went before the executive appropriations committee two weeks ago on the say now. Maybe we can have a go. And they asked for a release of $30 million towards a variety of programs, one of which was second phase of the micro shelter community.

21:42From my understanding, they got that full on that they need. And I believe they're moving forward to complete the second phase, which would be an additional 50 units on the same site. Seems like I appreciate the update. Thank you so much. Thank you. Number two in the agenda is an ordinance for the landscaping and buffer chapter text amendments update.

22:08We're going to welcome table Brian former Consul Polacian and I'm Michaela Bell, Deputy Planning Director. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is a proposed tax amendment related to landscaping and landscape buffers. A major element of the proposal would expand where artificial turf would be allowed. You may recall in fall of 2025, the Council asked the administration to review artificial turf use and propose some changes to it.

22:37Other changes would modify parking lot landscaping requirements, would bring the ordinance into compliance with state code and allow some changes to landscaping requirements. It's worth noting that planning staff recommended the Planning Commission forward a positive recommendation to the Council, but the Commission forwarded a unanimous negative recommendation on the proposed changes.

23:03So now I'll turn it over to Michaela. Hello. I'm back to talk about landscaping. This will be a short presentation. Thank you, Brian, so much. Next slide, please. We're just making a couple to update. I'm just gonna hit it off with the artificial turf topic right now, so the proposal right now would be permitting artificial turf.

23:30Now artificial turf right now is allowed and we're inside yards. Before we did not allow it in front and corner side yards. The 33% required vegetation in those yards still is intact. We will have vegetation and we're continuing to prohibit artificial turf and park strips because of stormwater runoff and water loss. And we are adding standards for artificial turf, the best that we could do in our research.

24:04A, to protect tree root systems and vegetation and for other aesthetic reasons, permeability, because that's a key issue when it comes to artificial turf and just the quality of that entire product. Next slide, please. Okay, this is just a quick and dirty right here. The green is where we were prohibiting artificial turf.

24:32Those are those required front and corner side yards, those landscape yards. Now we would be allowing artificial turf in those yards.

24:45With 33% vegetation. And just to recall, the vegetation can be shrubs, it can be flowers or it could be tree canopy. Next slide. This slide and it's in your transmittal as well and was discussed at the planning commission really gets to the pros and the cons of artificial turf.

25:13Yes, there are some advantages when it comes to artificial turf, right? With water consumption,

25:20reduced chemicals, mowing, all of that. However, there are disadvantages as well, which are on the slide as well. When it comes to urban heat island, upfront cost, maintenance, those sorts of things. And yes, right there for you. Next slide. The other proposed changes really are quite minor, but we did identify that like public infrastructure projects.

25:53We didn't really speak to those in that chapter rewrite. So we made sure to do that this time that they are going to endeavor to follow the landscaping requirements. Of course they can work with engineering or the zoning administrator if there's some sort of monetary reason or topographical kind of situation that they have going on to bury that.

26:17It clarifies that the zoning administrator is able to modify those.

26:23And it eliminates parking lot landscaping requirements, abutting buildings. Now, that's basically in the last rewrite, we had this like five foot landscaping buffer outside of the store. Like think of where you would generally see, like at a Smith, you would see flowers. We were requiring like a five foot landscaping area right there.

26:47Landscaping area, we have removed that because some lots are smaller and that would perhaps reduce the area for a small business, but also they would have to landscape it, but they may want to have outside display as well over landscaping. So we did get rid of that after some comments. And another proposed change was that there are no landscape plans required for single family and two family dwellings.

27:17Or for a building permit and that is state code. So we did align this with some new code that was passed last legislative session. Next slide. President Wiyam, sorry. It's not a proof. It's just when you're finished. This is just a quick graphic to show you right in front of a primary structure where now it's not cross-hatch that five foot strip that I was speaking to that we got rid of in this proposal.

27:52Next slide. What's that? I thought I got. I do have one other thing, but please, I had a couple, actually about 15 minutes before this briefing, I found two other very super minor changes for clarification. And I printed them off in haste and brought those down here too, but it's entertaining. Thank you. This is so quick, but we don't want to come back to fix that.

28:36Okay, so in this table right here, it's under 21A, 4807O, parking lot landscaping, C, that's for the record. I found this little provision right here where it talked about basically within parking lot landscaping, you'll have like a shrub and then you'll have, it was saying that you had to have mulch or some other ground covering.

29:06And I added our artificial turf to that as an option, since that would be allowed. So that that didn't conflict with what else we had in the proposal. And if you turn the sheet around, just one minor change is to delete that regulation, which probably shouldn't be there anyway, and the definition of turf, which basically says artificial turf is prohibited in requiring landscape yards.

29:38So if you would please consider these as well. Yeah, and we probably want to make sure that this is noticed fully, this piece of document as part of the record, as it was sent until a few minutes ago. Yeah. But thank you for the clarification. Councillor MURYAN. Thanks. Okay, can we go to the advantages and disadvantages slide?

30:06It's possible to bring it back. Would you like me to list them all? No, I mean, I think it's easier to see it. So, yes. Has the sustainability department given input to this? They have. Okay. I guess I will just reflect some surprise, because some of these are different than what was brought to us as a council as part of the conversation when we originally decided to eliminate turf from front yards.

30:40So I'm just trying to figure out where that change in information came from. Like, is that scientifically based? Is like, help me understand where those shifts are? Because like the first one stands out as different, which was when we were asked to ban turf, was that water consumption on turf is actually greater than potentially in a seeded yard.

31:09And that was actually one of the big factors for me in voting for that. And so I'm trying to figure out the discrepancy. I think the discrepancy is this, it's how it's used, right? If it's there and it's not dirty, it can really reduce water consumption in the sense that you're not buttering live vegetation, other than that 33%.

31:34But there can be other times too, where dogs may do their thing on artificial turf or artificial turf gets dirty, and where folks may throw detergent and use a lot of water to spray and clean artificial turf. Okay, so we're saying both could be true. Interesting. I guess the other thing that I'm struggling with, like in this conversation is we do have quite,

32:07quite a lot of feedback about turf that has been installed in Salt Lake City School District right now, and damages that it is causing to the neighboring properties, both visibly as well as potential chemical runoff, which they don't have tested yet, but whatever could exist when they're in that space.

32:29I'm trying to bring those pieces together in the fact that we would be moving back towards allowing more turf when we're seeing negative implications on large-scale turf implementations that's already outside of the city jurisdiction. Do you have any thoughts or feedback on that? I mean, our standards,

32:55if you do allow artificial turf, do speak to aesthetics and maintenance if the turf is ripped. I don't know all of the issues that the school district has had. It's mainly heat, and so we're seeing a lot of damage to the surrounding properties that don't have artificial turf just from the residual heat coming off of these properties, especially during summer months.

33:20And that may happen. That's really a better answer for that.

33:27If I may, I could add some context to the discussions that the administration had when we were looking at the revisions to this ordinance. One of the challenges is that it's difficult from a community awareness point of view for residents to know that artificial turf is not allowed through zoning codes. So there were quite a few enforcement cases that were being brought to the city's attention.

33:56And so we really looked at the policy and balancing the multiple interests. This isn't really just driven by CAN. It was a city-wide discussion with sustainability and also public utilities.

34:10And in speaking with Director Brieffer about this, the preference would be no artificial turf, but homeowners and residents and property owners are interested in artificial turf. So we tried to take a balance approach allowing a portion of the yard to be artificial turf, but not in the park strip because there are runoff issues with artificial turf in the park strip.

34:36There are potentially like Director Brieffer brought up to me like PFAS and other chemicals that could get into the groundwater system, but it really is trying to take a balanced approach with what community the community wants and the sustainability and water utilization aspects of landscaping. It's important to note that we can really only regulate what is seen from the public realm, so front yards, so people can have artificial turf in their backyards regardless of our ordinance.

35:09And so we took an balanced approach to allow a limited amount in front yards as well

35:16through this proposal. Yeah, and I appreciate the background. I will say personally it is so frustrating to see this.

35:26I just like I was, I remember the conversations about we have existing turf that is in the front yard and are there opportunities to grandfather it in? And the answer was not really like from an administrative burden kind of standpoint. So it was like this is what makes the best sense from an environmental perspective about what makes sense for the city and what we can control.

35:48And so to shift back to say, well now we're reconsidering that, especially when there are outstanding cases, at least in district seven, where we're seeing a large implementation of artificial turf negatively impacting other property owners within the neighborhood, I just, I am really trying to wrap my head around this in terms of understanding why we're changing and appreciate that that was not you or you, you know, independently within that space.

36:21But I'm, yeah, I'm at a loss. So pass it apart. If I could also add, we did look at the cases, the enforcement cases that the city processed and the vast majority of the cases that we did process still would not be compliant with the current ordinance because they were typically the full entire front yard or the park strip.

36:43So we did do some analysis and some review of this before bringing this proposal forward. That's one we're doing. Thank you. And I'm gonna piggyback on Councilman Young's comments. You know, if I had it, my, of course, there would be no artificial turf in the front yard or the backyard. And I have the same concerns and I'm at the same concerns that the commission brought up partly because I see this also being difficult to enforce on a 33%.

37:15It can be in this area, it has to be four feet from a tree, it has to be this many feet from a shrub because that itself is a difficult thing to enforce. And I also look at the idea that, you know, the runoff of the chemicals from the rain or from your sprinkler systems on top of that goes on top of the artificial turf as you're trying to sprinkle everything else or even drip it as an impact.

37:39And the tree root systems don't just, they're not within four yards of a tree. I mean, they talk about the roots go as far out as the canopy of the tree and that could cover a lot part, a major portion of that yard and now those chemicals are throughout. And I was more looking forward to seeing that it was, it would be kind of firm on the artificial turf in the front because it has so detrimental.

38:07Yes, I understand the aesthetics out of the house on some people, but just like non usable turf,

38:16what's that call, not usable turf, but turf that you're not playing on,

38:22is, you know, we need to reduce that too because of the water use. I'm looking at this as saying, we're not really reducing our water use for increasing our heat island effect and probably even damaging our water getting into our ground. So I'm really torn on this portion of the proposed changes,

38:43the rest of them I'm okay with. This is the one I'm very torn with in the night and yeah. Can I provide a little more context on the chemical question because we did talk that through with Director Brieffer and it is concerning that chemicals do leach into the groundwater, but in looking at artificial turf, there's landscape fabric, there's synthetic pavers, there's all sorts of things that people can put in yards that are products that are sold at hard, where stores that do the same thing.

39:17So we were, I mean, it's an unfortunate reality, but we're trying to balance the use because it really was hard to get the word out to everyday residents that artificial turf is not legal in the city. And I think it's just gonna be just as hard to get this out as if it was for the other portion of it too. And I understand, yes, underneath the artificial turf, underneath the rocks, there's plastic gaping so you don't have weeds, I all understand that.

39:43I just, my concern here is a lot across the board, we're making some changes that we're, I feel like we're backtracking compared to what we were, we're looking for in the prior discussion.

39:58It's true. Gossamom Gubitro. Can I ask, I appreciate this list of advantages and disadvantages, but I think it's a step ahead of where we are because it assumes that that artificial turf is necessary, which I feel like we all talked ourselves out of in the last policy discussion. So can I ask, what's the motivation for us even considering allowing this?

40:22Is it aesthetic? Because I see heat island isn't mitigated, I see dogs cannot urinate there from what I heard. So what's our motivation for including this? Is it purely aesthetic? From my perspective, it's not that the city is advocating for people to install artificial turf, it's balancing private property owners interest in what they can install in their yards while still protecting the public good in certain aspects.

41:00Like that's why we're not proposing to allow artificial turf in the park strips, where there's runoff issues and groundwater issues with the street. So it's not really the city promoting it or supporting the aesthetic integrity of artificial turf, it's really just providing that ability for those who want to install it.

41:24And that's right, that's right. To do that in a limited way. that's what I'm asking. Thank you for that clarification, The people who are requesting this out of a code, they're requesting on the basis of an aesthetic. I don't want to speak for everyone, but I think it's probably more of a maintenance and ease of maintenance of the yard, possibly.

41:44So I just don't maintain my yard and I just look like I have hay in my front yard. So I mean, I know that you cannot maintain grass and be just fine. I'm a little worried because if there was a functional use for this that was enhancing to the experience, then I would go fine. But what it feels like is we're conceding, this is a high intensity, high cost thing, especially if we do it the right way like you were talking about with the barriers.

42:12So it feels like we're pandering to a particular demographic for a particular aesthetic when the potential risks don't match any universal payouts for it. So I am trending with my co-counselers here to say that this is an unnecessary thing concession that we're making. I mean, I would like to put tents in my front yard for people to be able to live in.

42:39We agree that that's not something I do in my yard.

42:43There are people who wanted to put in mutual aid, refrigerators in their front yards. And I was accused of political violence and I told them that didn't comport with our coat. When you live in a city and you share space and you share watershed and you share, there are just by virtue of sharing that space, sometimes that we say theoretically that is a freedom, but practically it's not an implementation that we need.

43:09And I think that this might be one of those moments where unless there's a bigger hammer coming down on us from another level of government that would force us into something like this, I don't find this compelling. And it may be that my constituents are not the ones calling for it, I can see. Oh, sorry. Just a follow up to that.

43:33We can get you the exact numbers, but a high percentage of the enforcement cases that came to the city were actually on the west side.

43:42Yeah, and I will illustrate that point that there's a lot of neighbors that have the perception to use artificial turf in a way of saving water.

43:55And we have received, certainly I have, and I know that some of the comments came to the general comment email over the last year when we passed the ordinance. Certainly some adamant neighbors about why we're doing this when we want to save water at the same time. And the explanation from the administration last year was quite strong about that it didn't fit,

44:25and it wasn't the right tool. So I appreciate the update here. I think that we have two more comments, and then we might have some more questions, but Rachel, you join us at the table, so I'm sure that you have something to say to us. Thank you. Thank you very much, sorry. Thank you, this is very complex, and I know we all experienced a lot of conversations around this when we amended the ordinance a couple of years ago.

44:55Almost as soon as you passed the ordinance, we obviously received a lot of feedback. The council received a lot of feedback. We also received a couple of ADA-related complaints regarding the need for artificial turf. So between the ADA complaints about the need for certain residents with ADA, with mobility issues and their desire to be able to put some artificial turf in their yards to be able to resolve some of their maintenance concerns.

45:21Between that and a lot of feedback we were getting regarding enforcement, regarding some of the issues that Tammy and Michaela brought up with, this is impervious surfaces versus impervious surfaces. It's really difficult to decide this impervious surfaces fine for the environment and this impervious surfaces less fine for the environment.

45:44I thought we had your support to re-look at some of these things, almost as soon as we passed the ordinance, unfortunately. So that's why we went back and looked at all of these different considerations, trying to reach this balanced approach. But again, I mean, I think all of the points you guys are bringing up are very valid.

46:01We're still trying to find the right balance. So definitely want your feedback as we continue to try to refine this. Thank you, Rachel, for that.

46:12Carlson is online for the next comment and then Wharton.

46:20I'm new to this conversation. I wasn't here when this was passed. Sounds like last year. I just want to share my concerns with the implementation, possible allowing of artificial turf in front yards. Those concerns are rooted in, yes, I understand there are some advantages related to water consumption and the disadvantages that exist not only to human life, but to all of the animals and critters and bugs that we share our ecosystem with are also very real.

46:58And I feel a sense of responsibility to those as well, because they enrich our well-being. I also know that there are other ways to care for your yard that are natural, ground covers, that reduce maintenance, reduce water consumption, but are a natural origin, and don't produce greenhouse gases to the same effect or have runoff chemicals to the same effect.

47:28Relatedly, you know, when you tell somebody well, you need to have 33% live vegetation, I think the average person who probably is not tuning in to right, watch this right now, would say, what does that mean? And I don't think that that helps to solve the enforcement problem or even communication problem about what might be solved.

47:48So being newer to this conversation, I think the disadvantages related to putting in artificial turf are not just disadvantages for us, but also disadvantages for the broader ecosystem. And I'm holding that very heavily in my mind. That's my word. Yeah, thank you. I also got concerned about, I feel like it's already difficult enough to explain, and for residents to understand how do we communicate, since we can't regulate the businesses that are putting in the artificial turf, which I feel like is a huge piece of this problem that we just will never be able to have control over.

48:46And I say this knowing that my constituents are some of the constituents who have reached out and have cared very much and have very compelling stories on an individual basis about why we should change this. But I guess my concern is that it does, it seems like we're sending a lot of mixed messaging. I know that a lot of residents that I talked with were really annoyed and felt like that the city was sending mixed messages because we said that we can't really regulate it in the back or the sides of your yard, and that if it was really as if artificial turf was as bad for all the reasons that are listed in the disadvantaged column as it as we were purporting, then that should be enough to regulate it on the sides in the back

49:49and not understanding that it's just a fundamentally different situation. So, yeah, it's difficult because I have gone to some residents' homes and that for one reason or another have tried these other alternatives, they don't, I can see why they wouldn't work for their particular situation, but it is really difficult to find a way to, it's like spot zoning, but for on a hyper, hyper local level, and I think that it would be impractical for us to have some kind of a waiver program where if you have like an ADA issue or some other individually compelling reason because how do we make sure that that doesn't pass to the next owner and just administratively, that seems like it would, it could snowball really quickly.

50:52So, yeah, I guess all that is to say that I was open to having the conversation to talk about these changes again even though I'm kind of regretting it right now in this moment because it is just a difficult issue. I think what I'm trying to say is that from a policy standpoint, I think it is easiest for us to have a brighter line and that the best chance that we have of ensuring compliance is to make the rules as easy to understand as possible.

51:35And in this sense, I worry that in trying to do the right thing and to be accommodating that we're going to really tip the scale because people are going to think it's now legal. Like I feel like the message of this whole discussion is going to be, and this is what happened last time, was that companies actually went to people and advertised like hurry and get your artificial turf in now before the city bans it when it was always banned.

52:03Now I feel like the message is going to be, artificial turf is legal now. Let us come do your whole yard. And we're going to get more of those stories again. And the problem that I actually want to solve for are some of the residents that do have a really compelling personal reason, or like for one reason or another because of the way that there are law is and all these other factors, it's like, okay, that wouldn't seem to be a problem and this, all of these things we're trying to prevent.

52:39So I still really feel conflicted about this. I am open to having more discussions and I hope that those residents that have reached out to me on this are listening to this so that they can hear the multiple things that we're trying to assess to get this right. So that's where I am right now. Thank you for the discussion.

53:08I share some of the concerns. I understand the position of the city in trying to balance the feedback from the community. And I do, I feel like last time we discussed this, we asked these questions and what was convinced by the administration and by the experts. I know I'm trying to be unconvinced about allowing it and I am really struggling with what that changes.

53:42So I think there may be some opportunity to refine it or discuss it more. So I feel like maybe we should delay the hearing date so we don't have a set. So we have a little more time to work on it. If that's okay, I think that will allow for the feedback. I'm trying to see if there is a method to allow for specific instances.

54:07But without the potential of use or the misuse of this thing, artificial turf. Thank you so much for the update. Thank you. Can I ask another question? Sorry. Is there a brief one? Yeah. Sure. I think there are other cities in Utah or the Mountain West and like what are there? Can we get, did you look at that? And if so, is there a way to just like cut and paste some of that into a document for me?

54:43Because I'm just curious to know what. I think that we have research. I'm covering for NOAA, Elmore right now. I'll see what research he had and we'll get you, absolutely get you that information. Yeah. I'm just interested in like a couple examples of what other cities that have done. Thanks. And two other quick points of information.

55:03We, community and neighborhoods made an attempt to create awareness. We sent a mailer to all landscaping companies and unfortunately the landscaping companies were still installing artificial turf within Salt Lake City. And the other point is we had a feeling that this could be controversial. So community and neighborhoods we've updated at an FAQ with information that we can send to council on this proposed ordinance.

55:31Thank you. Thank you everyone. We're going to move on with the agenda. Still number three, this is an ordinance for an alley vacation at approximately 567 East Warnock Avenue. I'm going to welcome all the table Brian Fomor who's already at the table. And I'm going to move on with the council policy analyst and then Aaron Barlow, senior planner and other people who join us too.

56:01So Brian. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is a proposal to vacate or give up city ownership of an alley at approximately 567 East between Warnock Avenue and the interstate 80 right of way. And I'm not currently serve its original purpose. If adopted the property would be divided in half and given to the two abutting property owners, the alley is only 80 feet long and there are just two properties that are next to it.

56:33The applicant is with us and would appreciate an opportunity to address the council after Aaron gives his presentation. And I will keep this brief for the second time. Next slide please. Oh yeah, like Brian said, this is the commission agreed with staff's recommendation to recommend approval to this body. Next slide please.

57:03So that's for the second time to kind of put go through those photos pretty quick. This is just the site in question. You'll notice that there is a power line going through this alley here. The applicant has indicated that they have already worked out easements with both UDOT and Rocky Mountain Power at this location.

57:24There's also alternative ways to access the retaining wall for the freeway from 600 East. This property was originally owned by UDOT as part of the, you know, where they looked kept machinery during I-80 updates. Keep moving through these slides just one move quickly through those. Just for some context. And as far as standards, this meets two of the policy considerations.

57:55We did receive comments from engineering who raised concerns about those easements which have been addressed by the applicant. Keep going. There's that excess from 600 East there. And this meets both the lack of use and urban design. Let's keep going. So yeah, keep going through there. The driver function is a driveway I-80 cut through this neighborhood and limited any functionality of this alley.

58:28There's only a single property from the original subdivision and it functioned as a driveway for the property in question. The fact that it's 567 East Warnock. Keep moving. And so planning commission has recommended approval for this request. And I'll pass the time over to the applicant. Council members, is there any questions about this?

58:52Okay. Do you want to take time? Do you want to hear the applicant first? Let's do it. You help? Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen, the council. I'm Phil Winston with Altus Development Group. We purchased a piece of property from U.D.A.T. because we are constructing the townhomes located at this site as an additional townhome site.

59:11We were contacted by council staff before we started the project. If we wanted to reevaluate our project and add more units to it because housing stock was an issue at the time. We passed because our design was complete, but then this piece of property came available from U.D.A.T. We contacted U.D.A.T. and went through a two-year process to purchase the piece of property and have purchased it.

59:33The alleyway that splits in between our house and the house of Daniel Fleming, who is the only house on the block other than us. She has signed away, her, or given us the right to sign away her right, she is willing to give the alleyway to us because we did the application. We would like to construct another four townhomes there.

59:54These townhomes are larger than most townhomes. We are the lowest price per square foot. We did this in conjunction with the city when we met last time to get it from 18 to 28 units. Then we stopped at the 28. This will take us to 32. The starting prices on these are as low as 609 and they are 2,200 square feet with two car garages and a beautiful site.

1:00:19It is a gated community, so it will be gated and it will be something that the city could be proud of. Councillor MURPHY. Thank you so much. I just had a quick question. Originally, when I was reviewing the paperwork, I think that there was a piece in there about this being for a community gathering space. Since then, there has been an application to rezone to be able to allow for the additional townhomes.

1:00:49I wanted to make sure I was clear on the intended use and if that had been communicated as well to your neighbor. That is not the case. When we did the original paperwork, we have the space on the end of building 5, which is the last building that is there right now, which is 44 feet. That is the community area that will remain the community area.

1:01:11This piece was purchased after all of this was done. So it will be on the other side? Yes, the building will be on the very end of that in the alleyway per se, you know, within the setback requirement and then the piece in the middle between the two units will be the community gathering area. Perfect. I appreciate the clarification.

1:01:29I was just having trouble following and so wanted the opportunity to clarify. I'd have more than you mad at me if I took it away. Thank you. That was my only question. Thank you. I think that we're good. It seems like the hearing date is set for June 9. So yes, that's happening soon. So thank you. Thank you. That was easy.

1:01:50Moving on on the agenda. I think that we're going to shift the agenda item so we allow the electoral officials district attorney that are here so they can present. So moving on to item number six, which is the fiscal year 2026, 2027, the budget for the city attorney's office. Michael Sanders, Council policy analyst, is going to give us a brief introduction.

1:02:23Mark Trell from city attorneys is going to join on the table. Alison Parks, deputy city attorney and Cindy Lutrichman, deputy director of operations and administration. I'm going to join us at the table. So Michael, it's your time. Okay. Thank you, Council. So the attorney's office receives funding from three funds, the general fund, the governmental immunity fund and insurance and risk fund.

1:02:48The purpose of this briefing right now is to go over the general fund portion of their budget only. The FY27 proposed budget increases the general fund portion of the office of the city attorney by 1.62% or by about $211,000. This budget proposal includes general fund funding for 74.5 FTEs and this includes continued funding for four FTEs from FY26, budget amendment number four and proposes an additional two FTEs.

1:03:22The proposed funding for the new FTEs will cover 10 months of expenses for two legal assistance in the prosecutor's office and will cost $127,000. The new positions are proposed to be paid for through the proposed property tax increase. And with that, I'll hand it over to Mark. Thank you, Michael. Good afternoon. I want to give thanks to the Council for your time today and working with us.

1:03:48Also want to thank the mayor's office and the finance team for really working with us and to the numbers as we develop the proposed budget. And a special thanks to our deputy of operations, Cindy Lutrichman, who did roll up the sleeves and really dove into the numbers and what I think is one of the trickier budgets given all the funds that fund the attorney's office.

1:04:12So because of her specific knowledge, I may be turning to her at various points to address any slides or any specific questions that you may have as we go through this. Here today, thanks for shifting our time up. I just want to acknowledge those in our division leadership who are in attendance. We have our district attorney, Sim Gill, who is our city prosecutor.

1:04:33Thank you, Sim, for being here. And his team, Scott Fisher, Paige Williamson, Paul Fuller. We also want to recognize that our legislature fairs director, Angela Price, is not here today. She wishes she could be here. She's automatically, but she is represented by Michelle, who the deputy director. We have a recorder back in the corner there, Keith.

1:04:55Everyone knows Keith. Our risk division, Lori Roberts, is here, a risk manager. And finally, the civil attorney's office, Allison Parks and Sim Gill, so we can go to the next slide. The attorney's office, we serve both branches of the city. We see ourselves as advocates, problem solvers, guardians, historians, and navigators in helping to accomplish the city's goals.

1:05:24Next slide. Our goal is to continue to serve in those roles while finding ways to be leaner to help the city achieve its budget goals this year. Highlight in our list of accomplishments includes the implementation of two software systems to improve reporting, legal support for the city's compliance with the Governmental Data Privacy Act.

1:05:50And in fact, one of our attorneys, Betsy Haaz, is now being recognized as an expert at the state level, serving on state panels, advising about various aspects of data privacy and legal compliance. And also, we see ourselves recovering funds through affirmative litigation, defending the city, and through subrogation. Next slide.

1:06:17Our general fund budget listed in this table reinforces the point made in Michael's staff report, funding for our office is based primarily on our personnel. Although technically listed as an increase, the necessary vacancy savings will impact the operations budget for each division. So the increase in the operating and maintenance line is offset by the reduction in charges and services and illustrates the need for appropriate categorization, which is an ongoing project for the department.

1:06:46And it's one that Cindy Liu has really worked. So your wizardry in finding. Overall, the department is tightening up, removing the use of funds to reach the necessary vacancy savings posted in the recommended budget. This includes aspects of professional development, meaning memberships, travel, education, cell phone allowance, basic office expenses like stationery supplies, copier costs, and other in office offerings, and the public noticing budget, fewer required and newspaper ads due to state code adjustments.

1:07:19So just being leaner and nimbler in our operations. Next slide. This information is a comprehensive view of the city attorney department budget, and it includes the risk class and government immunity funds, the various funds that fund the city attorney department. Next slide. These are just some highlights to note. Two positions in the prosecutor's office are proposed with a proposed property tax increase.

1:07:50Those positions align with the needs of a sixth Justice Court judge. If we don't obtain those positions, it's likely to create workflow disruptions and assignment overlap. And I think we noted here operational expenses of being reduced as mentioned earlier and through found efficiencies in software. And next slide, that might be it actually.

1:08:12Thank you. So those are some a big, broad overview. I don't know if council has questions. We certainly have representation from the various divisions who are here who can help answer some of those questions as well. Council members? Yeah, thank you, Mark. Because the increased one more judge, we're adding two more attorneys.

1:08:35Is that necessary? Sorry, we added three attorneys in budget amendment number four with one parat legal. That was during fiscal year 26. This proposal is for two legal assistants that would help support the courtroom and the attorneys. Okay. Is that the right balance? The three attorneys, the two legal assistants for the one judge?

1:08:55We don't need any more than that to fill the necessary time for the judge. I can certainly point to the prosecutor's office here. I think that's sort of what we landed on. And just as an all-sones-an-F-Y on the other side of the coin, there'll be additional funding for LDA as well. Right. So, all the balances of the one judge, all this flowing out, were well-balanced for that one judge to fill their time and to make sure we're still reducing the load on all the attorneys on both sides.

1:09:28We're still not where we need to be, but we've reduced it to a point that's more manageable, I guess, is a nice way to say it. On a per-attorney basis, I believe it should make caseloads more manageable is this the idea. Okay. And those who are here, the specifics if you have it. Right. And during the budget amendment, it was presented to us that, well, you know, the ideal probably is a higher amount.

1:09:53This is, it seems like sufficient. I think I wish we could do more, but it seems like our understanding that this will improve this as a system, you know, from the judge, the prosecuting side and the defense side, the indigent defense side. So, are there other questions, Council members? There's two things that are on the report that I'm curious to know a little more about.

1:10:19And this is like our Council staff report. One highlights a number two, prosecution retention. And then number five talks about victim advocate grant funding and the shifting or the potential shift of grants, you know, grants. And if they are, you know, safeguards or plans in case some of that goes away, we'll love to know a little more about those.

1:10:47But I think that, you know, that got false into our estimate, you know, the district attorney here, Illinois, if there is a chance for you to address those questions. If you want to, you can also, you know, have to. Thank you, Sam, for joining us today. Thank you. Thank you for, you know, it's an opportunity to turn out, sorry.

1:11:17So as to question number two, I think that is an always an ongoing challenge. But my understanding is that the HR is working on creating a career ladder support to help increase that retention. So that's my understanding is a work in progress in terms of new classifications that can actually help with maybe longer term retention.

1:11:41One thing to keep in mind that the city often is a first job for many of the attorneys who are coming in. So you will have a natural attrition in terms of movement towards as they get more experience. But my understanding is with the, they would be looked by HR towards a career ladder components that should help with the longer term retention concerns that you may have.

1:12:08And I heard that your office has, you know, done, you know, a huge improvement on that. You know, working very hard to like attract and retain, including with wage updates. Yeah. You know, you know, I think that was last year or so to try to retain more attorneys. So I appreciate the effort on that. And also I think there's good symmetry in terms of the increase in wages, as well as is attractive for the training that we provide for beginning as well as the continuation of their growth.

1:12:41So we make no differentiation in terms of the access to training and resources within the district attorney's office and the staff. So that I think helps bring people and the other thing to keep in mind that we have been very fortunate is that as the district attorney, we've been able to create a very comprehensive clerkship program with 1L, 2L, 3L, post-graduation and even also keeping them as clerks while they're studying for the bar.

1:13:10And often 100% of those individuals are the ones who will go to the city first before they come to the district attorney's office. So even though we may have a three to four year relation with them, that relationship really is towards their hiring at the city prosecutor's office. And so that's really helped us with a lot of clerks who look at as a means to start their careers starting at the city.

1:13:33Thank you. The second question related to the victim advocate grant funding. Yes, that's a great question. And as you know that we've been very lucky to have federal support for victim advocates. And those victim advocates are crucial. They've been essential, especially in the context of domestic violence cases specifically.

1:13:55And they have supplemented and supported an eased work for prosecutors by being able to make that contact to have that updates that are there. So the question, if that grant funding goes away, that will have a cascading impact in terms of the work that would be picked up by most likely by the attorneys. So they are a critical part in that space because they develop that rapport with victims.

1:14:23They have continuity of contact with them. They will follow up and keep them informed and engaged. But if that is not happening, then attorneys have to fill up. Just before today, I was talking with Mr. Fisher who indicated, for example, we had a call a reach in from a person for a UVSA application. They were victims.

1:14:44And under the federal guidelines, they were entitled to change their immigration status as a victim. And they had reached out. But that information had not been updated. So then it was the ability of the victim advocate to be able to go in and gather that information, know that it's been set for trial, and all of that other work would have been done by an attorney if that victim advocate was not there.

1:15:08So one of the policy decisions that you will eventually have to make is if we find ourselves in a situation where that money is going away, whether we want to have the continuity of that service, and if that continuity of service is disrupted, it will have an impact on the overall functioning of the attorneys themselves.

1:15:26I think that's something we can discuss when it's more right. But that's a great question. Thank you. Okay. Thanks, members. Okay. I appreciate you, Sam, for coming in here and taking time from the Vueces Kerzio. I appreciate the Chris Warden. Thanks for making a shout out to the 3L program. That's where I first wasn't my first legal job.

1:15:50It was the first one I liked in the city prosecutor's office. Thanks for doing that program. And I think it is a great way for people to get involved and to hopefully have a long cross first career with the city and more county. Thanks. You're not going to tell us which the previous jobs were? It was just it was a different level of government.

1:16:15And leave it at that. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Any other questions regarding the city attorneys budget overall? Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes. I'm wondering if you want to deviate from the schedule and handle the other item, the risk immunity item next? Okay. Great. Thanks.

1:16:47I'll just give a little introduction to this one real quick. Do we have everyone? All right. So it looks like everyone's here. So I'll just give a quick introduction and then they're going to do musical chair style for their presentation. Okay. So the insurance and the risk management fund accounts for cost associated with employee health, dental, disability and life insurance, unemployment compensation as well as property insurance workers comp and a variety of other liabilities and coverages.

1:17:37The FY27 proposed budget increases the insurance and risk fund by 2.87% or approximately $2 million. There are three departments that receive funds from the insurance and risk management fund, namely human resources, the attorney's office and finance. And with that, I'll pass it to the administration for their presentation.

1:17:55On one second. So the customer was going now in item number seven, which is the insurance and risk management, and we're going to go back eventually after this one to item number five. So yeah, and the opportunity is on one too. So we have a few to go back to, but just to clarify in those just those little jump. Yes, you're too.

1:18:20Thank you. So Michael took my thunder, but I just kind of wanted to explain the risk fund as it is several departments. So we have decided to do this as one budget presentation and each department. Finance won't be presenting because there's not much for us to present. Basically, we have a partial FTE in there and we do the administrative fees from the general fund.

1:18:45That's all finances over, but the rest of this covers health insurance, all employee benefits inside the risk fund, and then all of the insurances from the attorney's office. So HR is first and the attorney's office will be second. I'm Laura Gaeton, I'm the benefit manager. I recognize a lot of you from open enrollment recently.

1:19:18So we can get started. Next slide. All right. So these were the key accomplishments we made. A lot of them were by request. We launched a comprehensive wellness program with WebMD in January. So a lot of employees are participating in that now. We just started yesterday a walking program, an incentive that pays $50 in the gift card to employees for joining.

1:19:46And so far, I'm not winning. So that's not helpful. But yeah, it's been really helpful. It's been a great program. It coincides with our EAP program. So it's been a really successful plan. The enhancements we made this year were mostly to the life insurance. We changed from PHP for our optional life insurance. We kept our basic life there.

1:20:11And we went to Hartford, which also manages our SDI and our LTD plans. And they were able to give us a guaranteed issue for our life insurance this year that we haven't had availability for many years, up to 300,000 without an employee having to do a medical exam. And so we had a huge success with that enrollment. And also adding their spouse up to 100,000 again without an EOI process.

1:20:36And child life went to 15,000 and huge success. So that was a really good change from the PHP benefit to the Hartford. The other thing that we did this year, and this was a task that we were given, was to work with retirees, potential retirees. What does that look like? What are our succession planning? And what do our retirees know about what it looks like to retire from the city?

1:21:02We hosted a retirement insights. We invited those that were eligible to retire within the next three years. We had about 300 that showed up. There's about 600 city employees that are eligible currently. And it was very useful. We think that they got a lot of information that will help them to make decisions in the future.

1:21:20So next slide, please. So my found efficiencies are really just my team. We administer and manage 28 benefit programs within my department. I have five full time and one part time employee. And the biggest thing we were finding was getting experts in those divisions and making sure everybody, there was somebody that knew everything about that benefit could train their fellow employees when they take leave.

1:21:49They're able to enjoy their leave time, have a good work-life balance, come back without a load of work while somebody was covering for them in the end, but still maintain that person we can go to with the needs. And so we called it our clusters. We did retirement. We did life and other voluntary benefits that affect employees' health and benefits outside of our insurance plans, retirement of course, your health and your finance and then our leave and disability.

1:22:19And then we just cross-trained. So we have experts in those fields. We have found it to be really helpful for employees to feel comfortable not coming back to work overloaded. So that was our efficiency. And go to the next one. So this is the only change we had. And of course there's always this change. I bring this every year and that's our PEHP health plan.

1:22:42So these were the changes that we made this year. Go to the next one. We'll explain a little bit more in detail what we came with. So we started at a 14.3% rate increase this year, which was huge for the city. And so the benefit community got together. We asked PEHP for a lot of help. And where do we go from here? We can keep the one plan that we offer and in that plan it would mean that we'd have to make some big changes to get where we needed to get.

1:23:12We could offer maybe a second plan for those employees who maybe have different needs in their family. And we presented two packages to the Budget Committee and the Mayor and we settled on the package too. And that was where the city paid straight across the board for both plans the same amount of money. So if you stayed in the STAR plan, which is the current plan, you the only change that you saw this year was the 10% change to 20% in your co-insurance.

1:23:40The reason we felt comfortable making that change is if you look at the deductible, the 48.1, that is how many employees met deductible last year. So about half of our employees meet deductible. And then if you look at the maximum out of pocket or the out of pocket total, it's about almost 10%. That is how many people meet their maximum out of pocket.

1:24:02In years past, that's been around six and seven. So what we're finding is some years you just have a bad year. We've all had them, we've had surgery, we've had a baby, and we've met our deductibles. But about 6% of our employees are meeting their maximum out of pocket every single year. And they need to make sure that they can afford their healthcare.

1:24:22And so that's where we came up with those numbers. By not changing anything in the plan, not changing anything that was covered, we kept it the same straight across the board. And we just changed the co-insurance. So just quick how that works. When you meet your deductible, you go into co-insurance. In the past, you've met it at 10% up until your maximum.

1:24:42Or now you're going to meet it at 20%. So some employees might meet it a little bit faster than they have in the past. The other benefit that we offer is the second plan. And that's the star two plan. And that has higher out of pocket cost, but much lower premiums. So if you look over on the column where the impact to employee, you'll see in the star one plan the premium rates that went up slightly for the employees that stayed in the current plan.

1:25:07And then you have the star two plan where the premiums actually went below the premiums that you're paying today. So those were choices that employees made during open enrollment. And we thought it was really well received. Employees I think felt great about being able to choose where their health coverage was. Any questions on the health?

1:25:23Councillor Rian. Do you have a sense of the percentages? Like how many are in each? I'm just curious. Yeah. So I had it in my other notes. But we had, do you have it? Yep. It was about 25% chose the star two and 75% chose star one. So it was pretty good. I think we saw a move. Yeah. And what that reflects is really people took a look at it and decided where they needed to be.

1:25:51And so we were happy to see that. The next slide please. Other changes that impact employees is URS. So URS if you're a tier two hybrid employee, you've been paying into your pension for a few years now. Those rates went up a little bit. Same with public safety and public firefighters. Also the city picks up 4.03% of the firefighters and the public safety's contribution.

1:26:19The dental changes for 2027 went up slightly. It wasn't a huge increase. But again, there was some increase to employees that they're paying for out of pocket. And that is all I have. That's Mover's. Yeah. I just want to add one plug for Lori's team. This year saw more changes to our health care that we've seen in a number of years with the new plans and a lot of differences.

1:26:48And their team went out and did I think over 40 in person open enrollment meetings with employees, which we saw in the numbers where we saw a lot of people making good choices and what they wanted to do with their health care this year. I think we only saw 6% of people just do nothing. But consider that that's probably employees who could be on their parents' insurance and don't really need to do anything and those type of people.

1:27:12So overall, this was a really successful open enrollment period, especially with the changes that happened in our benefits. And so I think a real congratulations to Lori's team and the hard work that they did. I'll just chime in from the council office experience perspective. HR was super helpful with our employees and met with our team and offered their expertise and information.

1:27:36And I got lots of great feedback from our staff about it. So thank you very much for that kind of individualized attention. I know it's sometimes intimidating for people to feel like they can reach out for questions. But it was really helpful. Thank you. A quick question. This year we saw some potential legislation at the state level that would have probably removed individuals from coverage that I believe that the legislation didn't pass.

1:28:10But what are obligations? I think it was aimed towards the public, you know, a PHP, right? Like that, preventing PHP from offering service to some individuals. And I think that it was sort of an attack to some of our employees, transgender employees and whatnot. So what are our obligations about staying within PHP? If something like that would have to really happen.

1:28:46And, you know, we are in a pickle where we are locked in into something like that and we can find other services that are. No, sure. Every year we kind of research that. We go out to bid, we're in the process of getting a benefit broker, which will also help us with that process to kind of tell us what the market looks like out there.

1:29:07And we do better than PEHP. What would the rates look like? We own our plan. We're self-funded. So the one benefit that PEHP does have is they're not for profit. So that does keep our rates quite low with them. But I think what you might be speaking to is some of the benefits that they were looking to take away. We still can choose to have those benefits included in our plan because we own our plan.

1:29:32Oh, okay. That's an interesting question. Unless it's a federal law that says we can't offer it. So what are these allows, you know, our discretion and the potential we have to, you know, additional funds, okay. Okay. And maybe this is more just information sharing. It's been several years since I participated on the selection committee when the city went out to bid for insurance programs.

1:29:55I was legitimately shocked at the price differential between some of the other plans that responded to the city's request for proposals. And I think that that's a good gut check for the city to be able to go out to bid to make sure PEHP is still the best value for the taxpayers. But, I mean, it was on the order of like double the price.

1:30:17So it was a good kind of gut check several years ago. And it's good to know that we're doing that again. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Thank you. One more thing. No? Oh, because when we're young, sorry, I didn't see you. No, no, raise. Yeah. I appreciate this. I appreciate you finding options, you know, to be able to balance the costs.

1:30:39I think the one thing that I'll just articulate because I think it's good for everyone to remember, especially like members of the public who are watching and considering the budget piece. When we talk about any increase to those insurance components normally, and in previous years, we've been able to have it in relationship to a conversation about also doing a standard increase related to like, you know, across the board salary piece.

1:31:08Because that is not on the table financially this year, those costs are things that employees are taking on in addition to all of the other existing economic uncertainty. So I'm very grateful for the additional effort to be able to find solutions in that space. And just want to note that when we're considering, like I said, the larger budgetary issues, you know, our employees are certainly trying to contribute to a balanced budget here in the city.

1:31:38And the one year solution won't be able to be an ongoing solution because I'm assuming like everything we expect, crisis like to continue on an upward trend in the future. So we have to have solutions around being able to make sure the people who work for Salt Lake City aren't necessarily shouldering the burden in a way that we're not seeing, you know, necessarily in all of the other private industries.

1:32:04Some of the things that we reminded employees at Open Enrollment for sure this year was we have a clinic. We own our own clinic and we have some great providers. They own, they do some great services over there. It does cost us less to use the clinic and just consumerism. Being better about our, you know, making decisions.

1:32:21But I think the first step of offering a plan with a higher out of pocket might help employees to kind of maybe become more better consumers. Yeah. And we're going to look at this year to see how it plays out because 75% of people still chose to pay more this year, which we're kind of surprised at. It's interesting. We're going to see how that plays out with the amount of people that actually hit their deductible this year so that we can continue to customize our communication and help people make choices that are in their best interest.

1:32:49But I think it was a good year. We'll keep that in mind. And the one thing I didn't mention is the city is going to fund the HSA again this year, the same as they have in years past, so that 2000, 1000 July 1st will be funded. So that helps a lot. Okay. Thank you, everyone. I appreciate the presentation. Thank you. Thank you.

1:33:11Moving on to moving back to, oh, yes, you're right. There is one more, yes, yes, yes, yes. And this is one of those funds that has many tentacles. We had the HR tentacle and now we will have the attorney's office. The attorney's office is a tentacle. It's an interesting picture in my head. Exactly. So there are a few slides on the presentations, but if you want to bring that back up, it's the same presentation.

1:33:56And I'm going to lead out on this one. It's pretty succinct. We're not going to spend too much time beyond the questions that we want to offer you the opportunity to ask of us. First I just wanted to share that these slides are combined, doesn't Mary Beth mentioned, and if you could go to the next slide, thank you, Scott.

1:34:15These are some of the accomplishments. I'm not going to read through each of them, but I do think they all speak to the championship that Larry has run with the city in champion. She has been the champion for safety. Working to improve a culture of safety around the city, including the Safe Driving Training Program. There is an ongoing training right now for safety for the month of safety this year.

1:34:38An incident review board with the police department to help us facilitate trainings and analysis on how we can improve things. And then also annual trainings on workers' compensation procedures. Risk also continues to mitigate claims and submit for suppregation opportunities. Go ahead to the next slide. And, seriously, I just want to highlight, last year the efforts that quarter million dollar recovery I think was pretty important and the subrogation demands are, I mean, while we're not getting everything we're demanding, we are getting some money back.

1:35:11Thank you, Mark. We do like to be proactive in the opportunity to get funds back to the city. This is just the breakdown of the attorney department risk class funds. There's no FTE change in our proposal. The most significant change you'll see here is actually more, it was discussed in budget amendment number five with relation to the 1.7 million adjustment for the workers' compensation premium.

1:35:38Next slide. That's it. I'm pretty quick. Any questions? Questions? Oh, how are we? Thank you. Thank you. Maybe just by way of sharing information for council members, especially New York council member. Several years ago the city shifted how it funds a lot of our governmental immunity risk settlement claims in its own property tax land.

1:36:12So it's a quirk and state law that they allow us to charge a separate property tax to fund that. So it used to be fully general funded. Thank you. We're going to go back to item number four, which is in ordinance regarding the mobile business text amendment, Nick Tarrbitt, Council Deputy Director, owner of multiple hats, Seth Rios, Principal Planner.

1:36:44We're going to join us to the table. Okay. Thank you. As you mentioned, this is a discussion about amendments to the city's mobile business ordinances. These proposed updates are required for legislative changes to state law from the legislature. I do need to note that a mistake was made accidentally sent an old staff report.

1:37:09So there was bad information in the packet for the weekend that has been updated. The good news is that nothing was missing. There was just extra information that is no longer valid. So I'm trying to like paint a rosy picture there. But with that, I'll turn the time order plan and step to run through the changes. Yes.

1:37:28I'm here to talk about proposed changes to mobile business ordinances. Mobile business refers to anything like a food truck, food trailer, vending cart, anything like that. Next slide, please. So the reason we're proposing changes to this ordinance is because state code was updated in 2017 and 2023. And so since then our code has kind of been out of date and it hasn't complied with state code.

1:37:53I do want to clarify the changes that I'm talking about today. They will affect the zoning ordinance, which means that they will affect regulations on private property. It doesn't have to do with mobile businesses in the private right of way. So anything, I'm sorry, in the public right of way. So anything like in the sidewalk or on the street that's regulated by business licensing and real estate services, they will update their ordinance in the future.

1:38:15But for today, we're just focusing on mobile businesses operating in private property. Next slide, please. So here I just want to talk about some of the biggest changes that happen with those state code updates. With this update, we now have to allow mobile businesses in zones where restaurants are allowed. We used to prohibit mobile businesses within 100 feet of a restaurant or another mobile business.

1:38:41We're no longer allowed to do that by state code. And then mobile businesses are allowed to only have one license now. So those are the biggest changes. And this proposal will just update our code to comply with that. Next slide, please. So under our current code, we have different definitions for all of these different uses.

1:39:04But under state code, they now fall under one definition. So we're updating our ordinance to basically consolidate these all into one mobile business definition. They're all still going to be regulated the same. They also have to meet all the design requirements, things like that. But it'll just be under one mobile business definition now.

1:39:22Next slide. So a mobile food court refers to when multiple mobile businesses operate on the same property. Our current code requires a conditional use permit, a minimum lot size, and a site plan in order to do this. A state code does not allow this language, so we're proposing to remove this chapter. And we're adding provisions that allows multiple mobile businesses to operate on one private property as long as it meets all of the applicable regulations, and it's in the right zone.

1:39:55Next slide, please. So I just wanted to go over some of the things that are not changing with this proposal. People will still need a business license to operate. They'll still have to comply with our mobile business regulations. Our code already regulates where they can put their mobile business. You can't block pedestrian and vehicle traffic.

1:40:16You can't be within a certain distance of a fire hydrant and site distance triangle and all safety things. So that's not changing. They're still going to have to meet those requirements. And they'll still have to get county health department approval, which has its own long list of things that they have to meet, such as a fire safety inspection, a commissary agreement, a restroom agreement, a food safety inspection.

1:40:36So that's also required. This is mainly just an update to kind of clean up the code, update the definitions, and make sure that we comply with state code. So next slide. That's all I have. If you all have any questions, I'm happy to answer. Tense members? That's what I'm going to be talking about. Is this exclusively for food businesses or are like mobile dog groomers and those sorts of mobile businesses?

1:40:59It's any mobile business. State code updated these regulations and that definition encompasses all of all mobile businesses, not just food businesses. Yeah, because it makes sense to me to combine the mobile food business, mobile food court, mobile food trailer, mobile food truck. But a vending cart could be the thing that's selling those little wands to our kids when we go to the events.

1:41:23Yeah, so that to me seemed like a material departure. So if they're like parked in one spot and operating on private property, then these rules will apply. If they're walking in the street and selling things, that's going to be part of business license and update in the future. But these rules don't apply to those just because there's a separation between private and public regulations.

1:41:46I'd be interested just in us tracking if it feels a little bit like this is another example of the state intending well, but probably using a hammer where it might not have, and maybe it doesn't matter, but it feels like they meant to talk specifically about food and they may have been off more than they can choose. But I'd love to track if we have any concerns over the years we implement this just with those other styles.

1:42:14Oh, consumer, yeah. So just a quick question. Do you have any like off the top examples of this used to not be allowed, but now it will be allowed? Like locations where local businesses. Sure. Like locations or like, hey, we used to not see this, but now that could be possible. That's not really changing as part of this update.

1:42:42There's still going to be allowed in the mixed use zones, downtown zones. I think that's already where you see them. It's not going to allow them in residential zones or anything like that. They'll still have to meet all the same regulations. So I can't really give anything off the top of my head. Okay. We have the council has received comments from brick and mortar businesses in the past, especially brick and mortar restaurants in the past when mobile vendors set up regularly kind of nearby.

1:43:08So I wouldn't be surprised if maybe we see an uptick in comments from those businesses. I think obviously with state lobbying, what it is, we don't have a huge tool to address that, but I could foresee us receiving comments from brick and mortar restaurants. And in that case under this update, it's that that property owner said that was fine.

1:43:34You can operate here. And then so it's really more so a discussion between property owner and local business, more so than through the city. Yes, maybe. I think the property owner would need to allow them to operate on their site. I mean, this does remove those distance regulations that were in place before though. So there's potential to have them in more locations.

1:43:58Thank you. Yeah. And I can also anticipate a lot of brick and mortar businesses reaching out to the city to find out why it is changing. And my question relates to what are we doing to contact the businesses proactively, just make sure that they know that this is not too much a true state law, to ensure that they all understand that.

1:44:24So I wonder. So we met with the business advisory board as part of this whole proposal. That was a big concern that they had. We did pass along that information that it's coming directly from state code. So we don't have much room with what we can do, but they talked about the possibility of creating flyers and passing out flyers to people when they register for these mobile businesses just so they're aware of the rules and changes.

1:44:49That hasn't been implemented yet. That's what we've talked about for the future. So because we're trying to update our code to bring it and be consistent with state law, mobile businesses have been operating under state law for several years now already. And so we're not really just eliminating that conflict. We've had to follow state code anyway.

1:45:10So these are just outdated provisions in our zoning code. And then we have similar outdated provisions in the mobile businesses on public spaces, which also needs to be updated. But we're following what the state code says already. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for the update. We're going to move on to number five. This is an informational item regarding opportunity zones, programs, update.

1:45:40We're going to welcome at the table or heap at the table, Nick Norris, planning director. Donnie Walts, I don't think so. Colvin Gibbs, business development director. And our, okay. Good afternoon. Hello. We are here to brief you on opportunity zones. We have been working with the administration, community and neighborhoods and the community reinvestment agency.

1:46:15And we really thank them for their work and time and my team members, Colin Gibbs and Liz Ward for their work on this as well. As you may all know, opportunities zones are part of the 2017 tax cuts and job acts to encourage investment in low income neighborhoods by giving tax breaks to investors. Investor could defer capital gains, tax by rolling gains into a qualified opportunity fund benefits, basically holding the investment for five to seven or ten years plus.

1:46:53And the funds had to keep 90% of assets in zone property and meat tests like the system shall improvement. Because there has been some criticism in terms of the rules and administration in the federal government, opportunities zone two now has narrow and tight in those rules to focus in low income tracks, reward long term investment in real businesses require local hiring and anti displacement measures sets and to abuse checks and improve public reporting.

1:47:29The administration in conjunction with the departments that I just mentioned, we have ranked tracks for nomination to the governor's office of economic development. Now we come before you to provide information regarding the ranking. The deadline to submit the nomination to the governor's office of economic development is June 10.

1:47:51And now Colin Gipps will describe the process that we follow to basically provide the ranking in terms of the opportunity zone. Thank you. We are in a representative director of economic development. Sorry, I didn't introduce you. Thank you. We all know you. But I just jumped in. I am so sorry. I was so excited to talk about this topic.

1:48:11No, no. Okay. Who are you? Why are you here? Thank you so much. Thank you. Yeah, it's a fun topic. So economic development has been tasked with submitting these nominations by June 10. As Lorena mentioned, we are allowed to nominate one tracked per area for a total of seven nominations. Ultimately, Governor Cox will make the decision taking our nominations into account during the process.

1:48:50And he will make the official opportunity zone recommendations from July to September of 2026. New zones will take effect January 1st, 2027, and last through December 31st of 2036. As part of our decision making process, we have used the state criteria of the opportunity for incentive stacking among targeted industries such as tech, aerospace, and defense, been tech, life sciences, energy, and minerals.

1:49:31Also we are looking for opportunity for long term commitment from developers in the areas. Alignment with the 2034 Olympics and industries in proximity to venues. Also transit corridors and hospitality hubs. And additionally, community and neighborhoods also apply the city's future land use goals, current zoning, and development potential for priority industries.

1:50:00In addition to working with the different departments, we also reach out to the Wasatch Front Regional Council and Salt Lake County to discuss the different tracks and get their input. We also put together a survey for developers which we have been sending out and receiving information from them. The census tracks are available on page three of the transmittal.

1:50:29Our recommendations are ranked by priority, beginning with ballpark, popular Grove North, including the Power District, the Northwest Quadrant, Glendale, Fair Park, Rose Park, and Central City Northwest. Today we also have Nick Norris who can help field some particular questions with regard to the different tracks. Oh, and Denny Waus is here as well, excuse me.

1:51:03Any questions? Nick is far away from the table. He doesn't want to help us in any way. I understand this. Any questions? Consummee Dugan. Just a basic question. There was a size limit, size limit on the zones themselves because they seem to be there different sizes in the zones. Was it acreage, density? How do you do the matrix of the...

1:51:31I'm not questioning that you seem like... The individual potential opportunity zones are all individual census tracks. So they're going to vary on size because they're created based on population. So that's why the Northwest Quadrant looks absolutely massive. Because it's a census track. Census tracks. Some of those downtown only have six blocks.

1:51:54Okay. Okay. Consummee Dugan. A couple questions. First, can you remind me where the opportunity zones were in 2017, the areas of the city? Sorry if I missed this in the transmittal. There were actually seven of them. And I actually have them listed here. So Lake City Magna, Glendale area, Fair Park, Pupilogrove, Granary and downtown.

1:52:24And we've seen the development that has happened there, the depot in downtown. And so Lake City and West Valley, south of the airport. Thank you. Knew you would have them ready. Thank you. I read your mind. And second, I just have to say, in the district I reside in the ballpark part of the district and all of the reasons that are outlined here is part of why it's a prime space for greater economic development and investment is why I chose it to be my neighborhood years ago.

1:52:58And so I'm excited to see if this moves forward a greater economic development and investment into that part of the city. Thank you. Thank you. It's mostly most of the west side. Certainly most of my district. So I appreciate the administration bringing it up to us and updating us on this. So that means a lot to us. So that's a good one.

1:53:24Be true. I actually just thought. How does this interact with the authority? Because I noticed that we put the Fair Park and the North Temple Power District area. Since we're preempted from everything there, is it just additional tax benefit that's going to bypass us? So it's the developers will get a essentially an income tax benefit.

1:53:46So it's an additional tax benefit that doesn't necessarily impact our local taxes because it's income based. So there's no additional preemption. Is this a gift that we're giving to them to offer this to them? Or are we receiving pressure to consider that? I apologize. I couldn't hear you. So if you could repeat it, I would appreciate it.

1:54:12Are we being requested to consider that that area is already really the power district and the Fair Park due to the nature of the authority is already really really dense in tax incentive for development? So while Council Member Puig very rightfully noted that the west side is highly targeted with these and super thankful for that.

1:54:37I'm just wondering if this is our best use of this when we could allow the existing state taxation structure to handle the benefits to those developers and maybe we pay attention to other areas that we would like to see things that will return the benefit directly to our city. No, that's a really excellent question. And as part of the process, and I felt to thank Rachel Otto who led this process and helped us and guide us, I would say you have an excellent point in thinking.

1:55:15We've thought about that as well. And yet I have to say that one of the things that we looked at is within the next 10 years, where can we really maximize the development and benefit the communities? And that's why we kind of did the stakeholder process and we talked to neighborhood works and we talked to Swasso Center trying to figure out the best way.

1:55:41And I think I'm going to defer my time to Rachel. Thanks, Lorena. You got to actually what I was about to say, which is, you know, we were encouraged by Goeo to make this kind of an interactive process with our state and county partners and local developers. So there's obviously a lot of energy in making sure that these areas receive development potential.

1:56:06And yeah, so that factored into our analysis and our ranking. But great question. Yeah. Thank you for the update. I appreciate it. There's on the non-recommended list of tracks that is a portion of Glendale. So I was wondering what made one and the other portion, you know, how do you pick one over the other one and the reasoning?

1:56:34You know, I'm not challenging the thought. I'm just curious. Some of the things that we talked about and we did spend time in terms of Glendale. I would say, you know, that's probably one of the last places in our city where there's will be opportunity for development. Having said that, we need more community input in terms of, you know, how fast they want to grow.

1:57:02Do they really want this? And there were other areas from an economic development perspective that they were ready for development. So we took that into the analysis. I would say maybe an X round, those things can be considered. But I think that getting the feedback from the community is essential. Thank you. Thank you for the update.

1:57:27I appreciate the information. Thank you. Thanks, members. We are in the break portion of the almost to the minute. So we're going to take a little break. We're going to be back at 425 to 420 for item number nine. Okay. We are back online now to discuss on the agenda item number nine, which is the fiscal year 2026, 2027 budget for the sustainability department and the refuse fund.

2:29:39We're going to welcome the table Kate where it's council policy analyst, the alliance sustainability director Sophia Nicholas, sustainability deputy director and Kate is your time. Great. Thank you. The sustainability department has two divisions, the waste and recycling division and the environmental and energy division or E and E.

2:30:03Overall, the proposed sustainability budget is $24.2 million this year. That includes a 17.2% decrease over fiscal year 26. As part an additional item in this budget is that as part of a multi year strategy, they are proposing a nine percent increase to the waste collection fee and a 2.4% increase to the voluntary glass recycling service fee.

2:30:35After this year, they plan on going to keeping up with inflation with that increase for waste. A few policy considerations for you. Over the past few years, the council has been considering title two updates for all departments. However, it was taking significant time and collaboration between council and administration staff and it stalled.

2:31:00For the sustainability department, the proposed update included updating the purpose and role of sustainability. It would be helpful if council could provide direction regarding sustainability. Sustainability is titled two updates. Also another policy consideration. The council may also wish to request an informational update on the pros and cons of treating the E&E fund as an enterprise fund given the long term revenue planning and the general fund subsidy.

2:31:30There are models of having the primary fund department in the general fund and managing the enterprise fund as its own division. With that, I'll turn it over to sustainability. Thank you. And thanks for this opportunity to present our fiscal year budget. I want to thank everyone who contributed to this especially Mary Beth and her team.

2:31:52I know that they helped us a lot this year and the mayor's office for their support and so the equity. Also helped put this budget together. And I want to recognize my amazing department employees. I'm extremely proud of them and collectively I think we expect a lot of them and we try and set the bar high and our employees are always meeting and exceeding expectations on a daily basis.

2:32:18As you know our department is diverse. We pick up the garbage. We get rid of the old couch. We show up at community events and answer questions. And it also feels like we're moving mountains when it comes to shifting our entire electrical grid to clean energy and couldn't do it without the amazing employees and support that we have.

2:32:38We get a lot of thanks and support from the community for programs like the yard equipment exchange and the micro food grants. Those are programs that have direct impact on residents lives and their own budgets. And I want to thank you the council members for your continued support for our department. One of the most rewarding things I tell people is that I get to work for the city that I live in and I get to work on things that make a difference every day for my community, my family and future generations.

2:33:09So I feel very fortunate that I'm able to do what I do. So next slide. First of all I'll highlight just a few accomplishments from last year. We launched and update the city's climate plan. Climate Forward SLC and we just transmitted the existing conditions report for that. We successfully worked with partners to submit the Utah Renewable Communities Application to the Public Service Commission and received approval for that.

2:33:39And thank you again to council member Dugan for your leadership and the city council for adopting that ordinance a few weeks ago. And now we're busy at work working on the program implementation. We ran two landscaping equipment exchanges and it resulted in nearly 5,000 pounds of pollution reduction annually. We distributed community food micro grants to 110 individuals and 10 organizations and we installed four new public EV chargers on city property and eight new chargers for our light duty waste recycling vehicles.

2:34:13Next slide. So our department is one enterprise fund which means it's not part of the general fund and we budget for both the revenue and the expenses. So overall we're proposing an expense budget of just over 24 million for the department which is an 18% reduction from fiscal year 26. That includes one time reductions as well as ongoing reductions.

2:34:34The revenue budget proposed is also reduced by 10% compared to fiscal year 26. And I'll get into the details of the specific reasons for both reductions of the revenue budget and the expense budget in a few slides. We operate with a total of 65 full time staff and several part time staff and we're not proposing any changes to our services or new positions.

2:34:59Next slide. So we have two divisions in the sustainability department. First I'm going into more detail about the waste and recycling division and then I'll talk about the environment and energy division. The waste and recycling division is responsible for operating waste and recycling services for about 42,000 households in Salt Lake City.

2:35:20On the expense side the waste and recycling division makes up about 90% of the department expense budget. So about 21.7 million. And you can see there's an overall reduction of 19% in that expense budget and a lower decrease in the expected revenue of 10%. We're expecting a minor net loss of 377,000 which will be covered by cash balance.

2:35:45And you can see that after several years of rate increases including one proposed this year we're projecting to have a healthy cash balance. There are a few reasons for this healthy cash balance. First we've delayed some capital projects that we expect that we'll have to start funding next year. And second we have an abnormal year where we're not needing to replace as many of our garbage and recycling trucks.

2:36:07We've caught up with our replacements. And finally the rate increases that we've had over the past couple of years have finally allowed us to make up for drawing significantly on cash balance to cover inflationary costs where we went through a period of six years where we did not raise fees at all. Next slide please. This is our revenue outlook in more detail.

2:36:35We're proposing a fee increase for our services that will result in an additional $1.4 million. And we have an additional 18,000 increase from vehicle sales because we're replacing a few light duty vehicles. Significant reduction in revenue comes from the financing proceeds that we use to purchase heavy equipment we usually finance those.

2:36:58And so we're not doing that next year and that's what you see the decrease. We typically replace our garbage trucks on a six year replacement schedule. And there's only one kind of large vehicle that we're replacing next year for the call to haul program. So that has resulted in an overall reduction of nearly $4 million in financing proceeds that are usually booked as revenue.

2:37:19Next slide. This slide just provides that detail of what I just talked about but it's included in the deck for your reference. Next slide. So this is the table of the proposed fees. Generally a 9% increase for most services except perbside glass. Perbside glass is a voluntary program provided through a third party contract and this is a pass through from the provider.

2:37:46They've requested an inflationary increase of 2.4% in accordance with what their contract allows. And for our city services residents can subscribe for the size of garbage container that they need and that fee also pays to access weekly recycling and composting and then annually the call to haul program extra leaf bins in the fall for no additional charge and curbside collection of holiday trees.

2:38:14And residents can mitigate the impact of the fee increase by subscribing to a smaller garbage container if they don't always already subscribe to that smallest can. There are about a thousand customers that we provide curbside just curbside recycling to some small multifamily that are not on garbage service a few small businesses and that fee is proposed to go up by 9% as well.

2:38:40I'm really really Mr. Chair. Sorry. This is something I think we should be sure to highlight for any members of the public that are tuning in. I think we discussed it briefly during the review of the public utilities bill last week. This is one way that residents could choose to reduce their monthly monthly outlay of expenditures.

2:39:00I think people often don't think about the size of garbage can. They have it's just sort of like what they've always had. But Salt Lake City does offer several options for smaller garbage cans with a lower cost. And this. I just thanks for explaining that because I always kind of wondered why we offered the smaller one.

2:39:20I'm just like you don't have to fill it up. But okay thank you. Thanks for flagging it to Jen. Yeah and when residents call us or get in touch with us and ask about the fees we always point out that they can get a smaller can. Would you highlight for me just for a point of reference which one is the one that is the most commonly used?

2:39:41Is it a 60 gallon? That's the regular one. Most people actually still use the 90 gallon. The 90 gallon. Yeah. So the one that most houses have. Yeah. Okay 90 gallon. So there is a 61 on a 40. Yeah. You have a 40. Wow. You don't make any garbage. It's the 41 like the size of my glass recycling one. Is that the glass is a little bit smaller.

2:40:05Okay. It's about that size. It's about that size. Wow. You also don't make a lower garbage. I think it's one of those things that and I don't know if you guys are like this. Maybe there's a little anxiety as a household thinking you know how much garbage am I going to make especially if you have children exactly and you know you don't want to run out of space and I've definitely had to kind of you know keep you know garbage sacks for the next week or whatever but it is and especially as like household sizes change.

2:40:34I've noticed people on my block whose kids have you know grown up and moved out of the house and it's now that they're you know a family of two instead of four people or five people living in a house. It really is an option for a lot of people to consider especially if they're on fixed incomes. Yeah and in addition people can subscribe to additional recycling bins and yard waste bins for no additional charge so if they have extra boxes or other recyclables they can get those extra cans.

2:41:00I have an extra yard waste can for them. You do too. Okay that is interesting. I also was looking at my bill recently and I was like I'm not getting charged for the second one and I was confused about why but that makes sense. Forty gallons like that is incredible. I'm still in shock. The exact measurement is actually forty eight gallons so it's a little bit larger.

2:41:26Okay Chris what I mean which one do you have? I've been regular ones. So apparently we're doing it wrong. I guess all this time. So I you know maybe a challenge for us is to go into a smaller garbage can. I guess yeah. See if I can make it make it. Sorry for this. Alright. Next. Side note. This is just the overview of the expenses for waste from recycling.

2:41:54I'll get into the details in another slide. So next slide. Quick question. Sorry you're going back. Since this the waste and recycling we are allowed to charge you know fees for service. These are not taxes that are like you know trying to cancel the cost. Why wouldn't the city charge some level of cost you know going back to my example for additional garbage buckets for recycling or for your waste?

2:42:27That is something that we could do and that would be if you're interested in that that's something we can do. To me I'm curious about how many of those success and how much revenue we could make out of that. My question goes back to potentially minimizing the impact on the garbage which everybody's really doing it. I mean most of it you know there's little options if you don't have the main garbage but to try to upset some of this cost instead of necessarily increasing the one but like at the same time maybe the other argument is charging for something that we actually do in which is the whole purpose of this fees you know.

2:43:16Yeah charging extra fees for recycling or the yard waste then introduces the ability potentially the ability to not subscribe to those and then that would reduce our diversion rates. I think that was the policy choice that was made when the council first voted to kind of dramatically expand the recycling program so even before the yard waste program I think the council was just really hopeful that people would do it at all.

2:43:43So I think they were trying to make it as low barrier entry as possible. Obviously society and the culture has shifted a little bit where maybe that's worth it to reevaluate. I will personally be interested in finding what those numbers could be. It seems like a lot hanging through right there and it's widely used and I think they be love serviced from our city so I appreciate the work that we do with you know to how they never fails.

2:44:13Right it's actually incredible. Can I stand that simply to appreciate why we're there. I was going to wait till the end but I thought at this is the right time. You know on the larger apartment buildings and stuff we have dumpsters and my question here is that you know we're also wanting people to use recycling so we don't put it in the landfill and I know we're not using the recycling as a revenue because it's so volatile and it really doesn't you can use on it so we don't we don't even look at the recycling as a revenue source because it's too unreliable I would say.

2:44:50But on the larger dumpster size are we incentivizing them enough to that their recycling is full and their dumpster is being just for waste and not actually stuff that could be recycled. So there's an incentive for them to separate their waste. Is that how do we look at that and how do we price set size on the larger dumpster size garbage.

2:45:21So our services don't include we do not service those dumpsters. Okay. Those are all privately operated. And I've seen I see. Thank you I didn't realize that we were. And I've seen a lot of I mean former consumer mano you know was the victim of this you know service being gone from there is one of his buildings where like they took away recycling.

2:45:49They you know he couldn't you know recycle anymore. So to me it seems like I wonder if there is a way to regulate the work that we have a lot more of these dense places in our city. I wonder if there is a way to your point to require some level recycling to some of these units. So actually have a city ordinance that requires certain size of multi family to offer recycling.

2:46:18And we have one staff member that is in charge of enforcing that and does site visits spot visits and it's it's complaint based so if somebody calls in and says my apartment complex does not recycle then he'll he'll make it. So this is a require thing for that. But we are you know my know it may not be followed by a lot of people by a lot of the piece may be needed on enforcement.

2:46:44Was it maybe three or four years ago that the council was a longer than that. It was during the code revision project. Okay. 2015 2016. Okay. Sorry. I'm a classical. I didn't know how long ago. Yeah. Good revisions. Yeah. So we yes it's complaint based and we have one person that's able to go out and help work with property owners and that's what they do all day is go out to those properties.

2:47:09And to me you know the idea of you know we have so many good neighbors across the city you know doing it and then you have some of this you know multifamily places for people want to but they're not. They don't know. Consume important. Around that same time didn't the city also require businesses to provide recycling too.

2:47:30Yes. Same like intrepid sustainability employee that's in charge of that. He's also in charge of that. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And but it's like per building or something or is it. It's based on the size of the dumpster they have in the back. So if they have a four year dumpster or larger than it's you know that volume of trash they are supposed to have a recycling bin as well.

2:47:56We also at the same time introduced another ordinance that in new buildings they're required to have space for recycling because that's a barrier with existing buildings is sometimes they don't have space even for a garbage can. Yeah. So in new buildings we require space for a boat. Okay. Well just because I know some businesses that have recycling bins and then they should own way.

2:48:21They don't what? They just put them in the dumpster with the garbage. So yeah. I know I've got I've got some reporting to do. Well maybe maybe there's a way of creating revenue source from the you know those some of the other things that we are you know not charging potentially to like helping on the enforcement side.

2:48:48So it seems like there might be some opportunity for better enforcement there. The garbage police you know different kind. So thank you. Sorry. Do you have more presentation? Yes I do. Okay next slide please. So that is probably way too small to say I'm sorry. So the first line in on this slide is the reduction in personal services and that's just based on the mayor's budget for all departments and the rest of the items listed on that slide are increases.

2:49:27So we see some increases in lease payments. Those are based on the payment schedules that we have in place for large equipment and that fluctuates year to year based on one of those agreements where they are in their agreement schedule. IMS fees are projected to increase by 25,000. The glass recycling contract is expected to increase related to inflation.

2:49:49There's a miscellaneous operational expenses projected to increase by 73,000. That's mostly inflationary for things like safety supplies and mailers and other things. Perhaps the most important thing to know is that we're asking for $250,000 for a capital improvement project so that we can construct a building at the Dalong Street Yard to protect our employees from the weather as they build and repair collection containers.

2:50:19So right now they're just doing it out in the open and that can be challenging especially when it's raining or when it's hot so we just want a basic shelter to cover their heads. That will cost $250,000. There's no electrical, no plumbing. We have port-of-potties on site just like a shed with doors. The port-of-potties are right across the street from our offices, the waste and recycling offices but they go over there and they put the wheels on the containers and they attach the lids.

2:51:00Next slide. So this slide covers most of the decreases in the budget so capital equipment, there's generally a decrease from last year because we're not replacing those large, a lot of heavy equipment. That's what we're doing, sorry. On that line there, so next year are we going to hit, do we need two? We need one. I mean that's a big drop of $4 million and we have to purchase one next year.

2:51:42We're on a pretty regular schedule. So next year I don't think we're not going to see four. We're not going to see four, maybe one or two. I don't know exactly what's coming up but it's not like next year now we have to do eight years because we're not delaying any. Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. But this year we are budgeting to purchase with cash one rear load truck for call to haul program and then four light-duty vehicles for our education team.

2:52:17There is a reduction in one-time funding. We funded a waste characterization study and that has been finalized now. With the pub's billing system, they are upgrading their existing billing system and we share in that cost. Last year we had about two years worth of funding budgeted because there was a delay in the project.

2:52:37So now we're reducing that back to the last year of that project. And then also in addition we pay public utilities, we reimburse them for just our routine billing for them collecting our fees for us and they have adjusted that downward based on our portion of the cost to maintain all of their billing. Tipping fees are related to the garbage that we tip at the landfill.

2:53:05The cost per ton we expect to be stable. The tons we expect to be stable. What we looked at was what our assumptions on tonnage were and they were a little bit over what we think is reality. So we fine-tune those tonnage estimates. And with fuel kind of the same story, fuel expenses are going up and we expect them to go up.

2:53:28We looked closer at our actual fuel usage over the past few years and fine-tune that number so we feel like we were able to reduce that budget at line item for fuel. And then fleet maintenance is going down a bit because we've caught up on our fleet replacements. We have good operating trucks and we're doing well with preventant maintenance and so our maintenance costs have gone down slightly for that.

2:53:54That is it for waste and recycling and I will shift to the environment and energy division if you don't have any more questions about that. I have one question I'm wasting recycling. It talks about glass and I would like to know how widely used the you know that is offered. You know how widely used it is. I worried while I love recycling.

2:54:21I worried about them. The only one in my area that has it because I know because they come once a month and you know and I wanted to balance how environmental that is you know in my mind you know that I'm sending a gigantic truck to like pick up my own thing. So I wonder if there is a way to you know get some information and maybe potentially more education to like get people to use it.

2:54:52So there are more data points there that will be awesome. Yeah. We have about a little over 5,000 residents that subscribe to that curbside service. In addition that contractor also services the drop off recycling centers and they can oftentimes use the same truck to service the drop offs as the residential. Yeah. Councillor McCarson.

2:55:20I will just say that that contractor is also very effective with Instagram ads and I just got pulled into the food waste program that they offer because of their Instagram ads. So they are advertising their services. Well now that you said it I'm sure I'm next. They're listening. They're listening. They're listening. They're listening.

2:55:43Thank you. Next slide please. So the Environment and Energy Division is part of the Enterprise Fund. We account for it separately and we account for the revenue and expenses separately. In years past we've been talking about the eventual transition of the E&E fund into the general fund and due to the challenges of the budget this year we've not proposed that transition when we feel like we know another year.

2:56:10But revenues have been adjusted slightly based on interest and we're requesting a reduction of 9% reduction in our expense budget from nearly 2.7 million in fiscal year 26 to 2.5 million in fiscal year 27. Next slide. This is the detail of the revenue side. We continue to expect to get revenue as a joint owner of the landfill and we're requesting a transfer from the general fund at the same level as years past to nearly $1.2 million.

2:56:48So same request and we've adjusted the miscellaneous revenue slightly. That's just related to some interest. Next slide. This is the overview of the expenses proposed for the E&E division. One thing I'll note here is that there's a slight reduction in personal services and that's related to the Mayors overall proposed budget citywide and we're not proposing any services or programs or employees in that division either.

2:57:22Next slide. And this is the detail of all the changes proposed in the E&E division. So IMS fees are going up by $38,000. The biggest change is the admin fee. Last year we carried over the same budget number as the year before and the general fund actually adjusted their fees downward in fiscal year 26. So this is just bringing up in line with what we expect them to be in fiscal year 27.

2:57:49And then there are some miscellaneous contractual and other operational line items that we looked into to find reductions resulting in a net decrease of over $8,000. So as Mary Beth likes to say we shook the couch cushions and we've been line by line to see what we could take out. So next slide. So in summary our department budget is proposed for fiscal year 27 is an 18% reduction compared to fiscal year 26.

2:58:17We're not proposing any changes to service levels or programs and not requesting any changes in staffing. We are requesting the fee increase for waste and recycling services and we're recommending a delay of one more year before we fully transition the E&E division into the general fund. But look forward to having conversations with you about whether that is a good policy decision, whether you want to do that or how.

2:58:42But for this year we're asking for the same general fund transfer. Yes, go ahead. Just one note that I've been making with most departments that are relating to the property tax increase proposal, $500,000 of the property tax increase proposal is proposed to go to the E&E fund. So just so that council members are aware.

2:59:09Any questions, council members? I would like to dig into the more about the, you know, the, the, and learn a little more about the programs that we are offering. Just try to balance the impact. You know, I don't think, I agree with all the amazing things that we're doing and I wish we could do more and bigger. You know, we're just like potentially many of us are like talking about like, is this the year for all of these amazing things to keep on going, what we are, you know, making an argument to our neighbors about a tax increase.

2:59:50And I felt like it would be appropriate for all of us to say maybe there is a pause on some of these things just because of how challenging the cost of living is and with an additional potential tax increase presented. So I am generally asking in most of these presentations about specific things and so I would love to dig in a little more about some of those specific programs.

3:00:21Any other questions? Sort of related, I'll just add that we are doing the climate plan and that's where we're really digging into some of that policy discussion about title two and what we're doing as a city to address climate change. So I think there's a lot of opportunity to have more conversation around what the city's role is and the priorities of you all and the administration on what we ought to be doing.

3:00:52And I would love to learn more about how you approach that. Certainly this is not about, you know, not believing in climate change or not supporting climate change. I just need to really be able to look at my neighbors in the face and say, you know, for those that are in fixed incomes and say, you know, but we're doing this all this amazing thing but you need to pay more for that, right?

3:01:13And I'm not sure I can fully verbalize all those things yet. So I feel like it's on me and all of us to really also shake all the, you know, couch cushions and say we did our best to squeeze this budget to make it a fair for all. So I appreciate the work that your department does. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. I think we're done with unless there's any other.

3:01:40Okay. Thank you. Appreciate the presentation. All right. Thank you. Oh, number 10. This is an ordinance for fiscal year 2026, 2027 for the budget. And this is the public utilities update and the consolidated fee schedule. We're going to welcome Austin Kimmel, Council policy analyst Laura briefer, drugstore, public utilities, and Lisa, Terry, fairly finance administrator for public utilities to the table.

3:02:12Austin. Thanks, council members. Public utilities is here for a follow up briefing for on its proposed FY 27 budget. Today's discussion will focus on the proposed changes in the consolidated fee schedule or CFS in related title 17 ordinance amendments. The changes are necessary to implement the FY 27 rate changes, which public utilities overviewed during its May 5th briefing.

3:02:40Other changes are intended to clarify fees or language written in the ordinance. Public utilities has a brief presentation highlighting a few key CFS changes that they'll go over today. Page one of the staff report also details some of those changes. We've reserved some time at the end for any questions and with that I will turn it over to Laura.

3:03:01Great. Thank you. We also have our financial analyst Jacob Jorgensen here who might be able to answer some really, really detailed cost of service questions if any come up. So yes, so this agenda item has to do with proposed changes to just a few different sections of Salt Lake City's ordinance under title 17 that basically governs water and wastewater and stormwater utilities.

3:03:33And so I'll go through the key changes in the ordinance and then the key changes that correspond in the consolidated fee schedule. So next slide please. So just a refresher each year, the city updates and adopts a consolidated fee schedule by ordinance and the major driver of the CFS is to establish fees charged to offset regulatory and service costs.

3:04:02Our fees and rates are included in the CFS for all four of the enterprise utilities that we are charged with managing. And the authority for the fees and rates is found in our ordinance which is why when we make changes to the CFS sometimes we have to make changes to the ordinance. And then just a subsection here is that we do have fees that are required under state and federal laws.

3:04:30Those aren't necessarily required to be in the CFS but they are included in the CFS and some of the changes that we have today include some of those fees and we thought it was best to have those in the CFS so that they're completely transparent. Next slide please. So as far as the ordinance changes they fall under four major categories.

3:04:55One is to clarify ordinance language for monthly sewer rates for new single family residential accounts. The second is to clarify definitions contained in the ordinance of what a single family residence is, a duplex, a triplex, multifamily residential and non-residential uses. We received feedback from constituents that the language in those definitions was somewhat confusing because it was focused on buildings whereas many duplex, triplexes and multifamily residential customers served by a single connection are more than the buildings themselves.

3:05:39And then there's ordinance language changes to implement the new fixed sewer rate for the multifamily class. And then we just have as we were going through there there were some minor ordinance clean ups to remove some outdated language and the ordinance that these ordinances have been in place for a long time so when we find outdated language we like to clean those up as well.

3:06:03Next slide please. And so then the correlated changes in the consolidated fees schedule. First of all you'll see changes in the CFS not related to the ordinances but those are really just the monthly rate increases for each of the utilities that we're proposing for this budget year. There's a change in the structure of the sewer rates for multifamily uses that's that fixed fee purge dwelling unit.

3:06:37The CFS re-establishes a minimum monthly sewer charge that is primarily charged to single family residence. Correct. Yeah. And then we update fees that have been in place for things like development plan reviews inspections non-compliance violations. Those are more of those state and federal requirements in all of the water related utilities.

3:07:05In development plan reviews and inspections those have always been in the CFS but we broke them out even further by service based on a cost of service study. Then this one we heard a lot about last year the monthly fire line charge. We changed the CFS to clarify that it's based on the size of connection. So rather than say per inch of connection which was a little bit confusing and had always been in the ordinance and I'm not sure why.

3:07:37We just changed it to the actual size of the connection on the system. And then you'll notice in the consolidated fee schedule when we went through our legal review we found areas where we needed to update where in the ordinance the authority lives for the different charges in the consolidated fee schedule. And I think that's my final slide.

3:08:00Let's see maybe the next slide just in case. Yep. Council members. Hopefully I'll be sure. How are you? So you know this is a hot topic in district one. And so last night we had a meeting with some of the neighbors and kind of told them you know this is an enterprise fund. We have to generate enough money to do what needs to be done.

3:08:32You know we've made the case so my neighbors have switched to asking for making sure that when they pay increased fees they're seeing outcomes and return on investment essentially. And one of the things they were asking is they're really tired of feeling like they're doing everything they can to control their water usage their sewer usage to try to maximize everything and then watching institutional users like stores in the area or churches or businesses have like those geysers always running they're tired of people watering during the day and doing all of the negative things.

3:09:14I couldn't answer any questions for them about enforcement or options. Can you maybe clarify for us a little bit and maybe if this drought declaration from both the state and the city changes anything about if and how we enforce. Yeah. Yeah. We receive a lot of those calls from constituents too and it's wonderful that we have so many people in our community that are really watching out for our water use.

3:09:43I'm really glad to hear that the people are really focusing on saving water and watching their water use. When we receive calls around institutional and commercial customers who appear to be watering inappropriately we follow up on those. And in fact I'm one of those people that make the calls to our water conservation manager when I see that happening as well.

3:10:13And when we can make contact it's very educational for the people that we call and for us sometimes we learn that they were watering that one day because they were testing their sprinkler system or we get a lot of calls for like park properties our own and other park properties within our service area. It turns out that their cycle of watering takes more than 24 hours and they're trying to water their trees.

3:10:43So sometimes there's an explanation and sometimes it's clear that you know there's a lot more education and outreach and engagement to do. In terms of enforcement our city ordinance does authorize us to enforce when we have drought conditions and like if we were to go into stage three of our water shortage contingency plan that's where the requirement would be for mandatory reductions for the for both residential and non-residential customers.

3:11:21Right now government entities are mandatory enforcement. So I think you know there is there is the option for us to do that. I think we want to be really thoughtful about about how that's done and you know we have the ability to do fines we have all of that ability it will take a lot more work to get there as well. Sure.

3:11:50I wanted to highlight on that you know on that train of thought about like how I feel like many of our neighbors are doing you know so so good or you know trying to make a difference on how they're using water. Then we have multifamily you know I would say I don't know what the threshold is but like probably about 20 units you know those larger places where the grass is lush and green and you know it's almost like a turns blue how green it is right and and it's frustrating to see how you know and I understand that many of those places need some green space because they share some green space with you know but there is obviously a you know a completely different view of what green space is from some of them and I would love to explore some

3:12:49either carrots or sticks to match the effort that the other residents are doing and I would love to have more tools to to look at them specifically and even so that even if it creates additional if it's it costs us more but maybe it may actually allows us to create more revenue sources to curve that use I would love to explore that with you.

3:13:26And we agree and we have started that exploration one of the outcomes of our rate changes last year was that we were connected to some of the advocacy groups related to multifamily housing like the rental housing association for instance. We've been having very good conversations with them around water rates and sewer rates and conservation. I've also talked to the central Utah water conservancy district and there are incentive programs that can be specific to multifamily so we're trying to connect those dots as well. So definitely some some incentives and this year when we are embark on an update to our rate study we actually have representatives from the multi housing sector now participating

3:14:18in the again from the rental housing association. So I think we'll get a lot more opportunity for both feedback for our rates but also an opportunity to talk about what are the barriers to conservation and water management and see if we can actually come up with some really great solutions. I will definitely love to you know really focus on this and even if it takes as it was mentioning in our conversations maybe it takes to educate some of the neighbors that live in those places to ask their landlord to make a difference because it really feels like they they're living under different rules and in a different world water we have no issue here with water and I would love for them to actually make a difference as well.

3:15:10Thank you so much. That's great. Any thoughts, questions? Okay. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Thank you. I appreciate it. We're going now to item 11 which is a fiscal year 2026, 2027 budget discussion related to unprosolved issues follow up. Jennifer Bruno, Council Executive Director. Thanks so much Mr. Chair. We have a bunch of information that has just come in via email in the last 48 hours even. I've bumped up several of those emails for you guys in your inbox.

3:15:48Staff is going through a lot of those responses. Thank you to the departments who've been so quick to respond to a lot of those follow up questions. So I think staff may have follow up questions to those answers and if you do please share them and we'll kind of keep sharing information by email just so that we can keep that flowing and then we'll plan on covering it to the extent that we need to follow up on Tuesday.

3:16:10Lehu, I just let you guys know the Thursday meeting for this week. We've shifted all those items to Tuesday's meeting. So Tuesday is when we'll talk about unresolved issues next. The main information in the email is follow up information on fleet, on sustainability, on public lands and on the police department. If you want to talk about any of those items now, we can or we can just kind of leave it at that.

3:16:37And staff hasn't had an opportunity to really absorb and read all the things. And so we can learn together but let us know if you have any questions. Also I wanted to raise several council members have reached out about a scenario for the council office budget to be evaluated in terms of contributing to the sort of overall operational cuts that other departments are seeing.

3:17:01So I'm working with Lehu and Nick to come up with some scenarios for leadership to consider for you guys to consider. Obviously our priority will be maintaining service to the constituents. And so that is kind of the, at least the starting point that I'm using. Let me know if that's not the right starting point. So we're looking at kind of the other things that maybe would not affect constituent services.

3:17:26Since I think it sounds like that, you know, that has been a core value of your guys' so, okay. We'll probably come back with more information and email on that later this week. So just be on the lookout for that. One other piece of information, several conversations have asked about, well, if we reduce the property tax impact to proposal, reduce the property tax increase proposal by a million dollars, you know, what does it actually amount to for an average resident or an average commercial property.

3:17:58And so I'm going to send this information out an email as well. So the mayor, just by way of a reminder, the mayor's recommendation of the $13.5 million property tax increase would increase an average residential property, which this is kind of bananas that this is the average, is $624,000 in Salt Lake City, is $118.38 per year, which is $9.87 per month.

3:18:25An average commercial for a million dollar commercial property is $344 per year or $28.74 per month. If you reduce that $13.5 million by $1 million, I just kind of picked a million just because it's easy now, that reduces that increase by $8.77 per year for a residential or $25.55 per year for a commercial property. So you don't need to remember those numbers.

3:18:57I'll send them out an email and we'll include them in the next on-result issue staff report. But as you're kind of thinking through adjustments, you might want to make to the mayor's proposal. I think it's helpful to know like what those impacts you're talking about mean to, you know, an average resident, things like that.

3:19:19$1 million, about $9.00. About $9.00 a year. Yeah, a council member, Pietro. Can we get, and I probably should do this myself, I feel a little guilty asking, can we get a tracking of proposed increases that our constituents will see across this? I'd like to know, I know there's public utilities. I know there's this, we just talked about the sustainability.

3:19:45I would love to have one concise place where all proposed increases are tracked. I think we actually received that information from finance as part of like the giant fire hose of information we got from them that first week in the budget. So I will find it and make sure we bubble it up for you guys. So yes, thanks to finance for that.

3:20:06It, Mary Beth, correct me if I'm wrong, it does not include like the school district necessarily or like the county's proposal. Obviously constituents will see those as well. Yeah, understandable. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much for that update. Now we're going to item number 12, which is board appointments. So we're going to have several board appointments discussions.

3:20:34So the first one will be the Metropolitan Water District Board, Christopher shop, who is supposed to be online. We can skip to, I believe, Daryl McCall is here for, hi there. Maybe we can skip to that item and then go back to the others. We are running a little ahead of time. Okay, great, great. Let's move to item number 14, the board appointment for racial equity in policing commission.

3:21:11Daryl McCall is here. So come join us here at the table. That is a microphone. I push the button so it's green and tell us briefly why do you want to join and volunteer to the racial equity in policing commission, Daryl. Thank you. Microphone. Since I'm a little nervous, do you mind if I read a statement? Thank you. Thank you.

3:22:01Thank you. I'm a proud veteran of the United States Army, where among many duties I served as an intelligence officer. I'm the father of two daughters and the grandfather of three granddaughters. Five years ago I relocated to Utah and during this time I lived in American Fort, Provo and for the last three years here in Salt Lake City.

3:22:40I'm a member of the fraternal order of Eagles, chapter 67, and a past master of Hymarine Masonic lives number 12 here in Salt Lake City. Under the jurisdiction of the most worshipful Prince Hall of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, while I also have the privilege of serving as a grand lodge officer. Professionally, I currently serve as a technical services manager with Metropolitan Telecommunications Metell here in Salt Lake City area.

3:23:06Throughout my life I've been guided by the fundamental principles of brutally loved, true from belief. I've consistently sought opportunities to serve others and contribute to my community. It is my sincere hope that serving on this commission will allow me to continue that commitment to serve and further contribute to the betterment of those around me.

3:23:25Thank you for your consideration. I just wanted to say thank you for being here and being willing to share your time, experience, and expertise. I love that you have such a diverse history of experiences, but that it starts with your high school. I personally come from K-12 education and so it just really resonated with me, aside from being a huge fan of that movie and the administrative tactics it is.

3:23:59Anyway, thank you so much. Just appreciate your willingness to share that experience and expertise with us here in Salt Lake City. Thank you. I will just highlight the same and thank you for your willingness to volunteer your time and expertise and points of views to make our city better. All of them in the city have these many awards and they impact key pieces of legislation in our city.

3:24:29We are excited to have you. Just to tell you the process, we are going to put you on the consent agenda for tonight's meeting at 7pm. You don't have to attend for it to happen. It's a brief moment where we generally approve unless something changes, we generally approve the consent agenda. After that, the administration will reach out to you and onboard you on to the commission.

3:25:02Thank you. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you. Yes. Oh. Okay. We are going to jump back to item number 12, board appointment for the Metropolitan Water District Board, Christopher shop. Are you here online? Yes, I am. Oh, great. So tell us a little bit about, you know, you volunteering for the Metropolitan Water District Board.

3:25:38Well, first, I very much appreciate the council taking the time to better understand my background and my interests. My background is that I have three degrees in hydrologic engineering. So I'm really water focused. I've worked with the USGS and I currently work with the Department of Environmental Quality. I serve as the Salt Lake City Public Utilities Advisory Council Chair.

3:26:13So I think it's similar to the Metropolitan Water District of Salt Lake and Sandy Board. And I'm very interested in the board itself. Partly because I'm passionate about how water moves in the Salt Lake City region, ensuring enough and efficient flow as well as high quality water. I'm particularly interested in the Metropolitan Water District because of the focus on the little cottonwood treatment plant and the point and point of mountain treatment plant as well as the Salt Lake aqueduct.

3:27:00The Jordan narrows facilities are important for the whole Jordan River. And so better understanding the maintenance and schedule involved around that. And then finally, I'm very interested in the effect that the board has on funding sources as well as great Salt Lake distributions through water leases. So I'm happy to be in front of you.

3:27:28If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer. Council members. No qualifier at all. Just to... I, you know, I, Council Member Dugan and mostly Council Member Dugan and myself, you know, went through the process of reviewing the applicants. And we had amazing applicants. And it was great to see, you know, you volunteering and bringing all of that knowledge and expertise to our city.

3:28:01Okay. Thank you for your service. You probably heard what the process is. You know, we're going to put you on the consent agenda and for the meeting tonight. And the administration, well, the Metropolitan Water District will reach out to you once this process is done today. That's great. Thank you very much. And again, I want to apologize for sending my very long resume.

3:28:27Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We're moving to number 13, the Board of Poements for the Human Rights Commission. Emmanuel Ashitoy, Jr., is here in person. And we can join us at the table. There's one chair right there waiting for you. And the microphone, if you put it close to you and push the button so the light turns green, tell us briefly why do you want to join the Human Rights Commission.

3:29:03Is there light on? First up. Yeah. All right. First up, I'm Emmanuel Ashitoy, Jr., the little bit about myself. I was, I'm an Army officer, retired Lieutenant Colonel from the Army. And I also was a U.S. diplomat in Morocco. And basically during that time, it really helped me with human rights. You know, as far as going in, winning hearts and minds, making sure that people were taken care of.

3:29:40We did things such as at the embassy, we did things such as going in, vaccinating animals, vaccinating people to try to help stem some of the problems with food and making sure that they were taken care of and winning hearts and minds. That's pretty much what I also would like to do and see in Salt Lake as far as people being taken care of, making sure that we're looking at both aspects.

3:30:17And I also have a law background as far as police officer law enforcement. We did that for, I did that for quite a number of years, many deployments. I think I did six deployments. Anyway, that's pretty much it. Thank you. Also, you know, very small experience you bring to the table and being facetious. Obviously, an amount of experience.

3:30:45We're very excited to have you. I love that we have two retired army gentlemen here. I grew up at DOD, civilian's daughter, stationed in Heidelberg and Lou Arno. So thanks for literally watching over my childhood and for now continuing to serve and be an example for all of us. So this is really exciting to see all of you standing up.

3:31:06Thank you. Don't bring that Navy stuff over here right now. It's the Army's turn. It's the Army's turn. Don't. I'm the son of an army officer. But you know, I chose the other pass, the Navy. So I don't hold it against you guys. But no. Until the football game. Until the football game. But I appreciate your service. And I also appreciate your background through the military and in Morocco and seeing different cultures and different perspectives and bringing it to Salt Lake City and allowing us to also see that and grow.

3:31:49And I appreciate you stepping up to the plate. So thank you for doing that. That's very, very, I'm very grateful for that. So thank you. Also, just to lay now, I did do 10 years Air Force than I did 21 years army. So we don't have to worry about the Air Force side. Just stick with the Army. We're good. Okay. So we can all agree on that one.

3:32:09So thank you for your service. You've heard. We're going to put you all concerned. Just briefly, because you're applying to be on the Human Rights Commission, which is a commission board that I served on before joining the council, I really hope that you will. That commission is like very broad in terms of what they're charged with doing.

3:32:30So I hope that you will come with ideas about where to take that group. Because it really, I think has the potential to go into a lot of different areas and give us more advice and give more education to the public. And so I think you're, yes, very qualified for this position. And I hope that you won't hold back and coming up with ideas about how we can expand the activity on that group.

3:33:06Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. We are going to put you on the consent agenda for tonight. And there's, you don't need to be there. And we, oftentimes we approve the consent agenda. So once that is done, we, the administration will reach out to you to onboard you into the commission. Thank you for your service. Thanks. Thanks.

3:33:28Item number 15 is another board appointment for the Racial Equity and Policing Commission. I'm going to believe this person is online. Atia, Apleen is here. Are you here? Yes, I am. Yes, please tell us briefly. Why do you want to join the commission? Yes, I'll be very brief. My name is Atia Apleen and I just recently celebrated my one year here in Salt Lake City, Utah.

3:33:58I am deeply passionate about bridging the gap between community members and the institutions that serve them. My journey is very unique. I have my bachelor's in social work where I worked as a social worker for a couple of years. Then I went into corporate and worked with HR systems working with financial institutions to bridge the gap between employees and people.

3:34:20I just feel like we as residents should be very engaged and I make sure to do that in my day to day work and my volunteer work as well. Since we're talking about military, I'm a proud military child. I was actually better in the Air Force. My mom served 21 years in the Air Force. My dad served 10 years before he passed away.

3:34:41Very passionate about making sure that we are very engaged with our communities. Thank you. I'm so excited. Councillor McCarlson. Just want to, I'm sure echo what my fellow council members will say or just hold in their hearts. I feel such a deep sense of appreciation to you and to others we saw in the audience who came forth today and said, yes, give me more work.

3:35:08Yes, help me. Yes, I want to tackle these big challenges in our city. Yes, I want to be of service. Thank you so much. Even being here a year, I am just so inspired by your commitment to improving Salt Lake City and I will put a special shout out. I love that you're a resident of District 5. Now you're making a competition here.

3:35:32The previous one was from District 2. No, this is actually impressive. All of you, certainly you two and I am excited to join you into the racial equity and policing commission. So thank you for your willingness to serve. You're going to be placed on the consent agenda for tonight and you don't have to join the meeting to be approved and the administration will reach out to you with onboarding later on.

3:36:06Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. I am, you know, a council member, I think that, you know, getting so many incredible applicants to join our boards and commissions. It was, I wish we could have a bash so we can all like, eek out and learn about them and get into know them and maybe that's something that we should do it one day.

3:36:25But it's impressive how many people volunteer their time and sacrifice for the city. So it's humbling to see them. And on to item 16, which is, it's a written briefing. This is fiscal year 2026, 2027 budget, budget about governmental immunity. Please look into the packet for that information. And item 17 is posted on the agenda as required per state law.

3:36:57Fiscal year 2026, 2027 budget discussion regarding the property tax impact schedule, which is posted for everybody to access. There is no reports from me and there's no reports from the vice chair and other reports from the executive director. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have an update on the August 11th meeting, which is our truth and taxation hearing night that we picked several months ago.

3:37:28We've had some recent clarification from the state tax commission and county auditor that we cannot have any other city business on that day. So no work session, no other formal meeting. So we were wondering if you would be willing to set aside another day in August. We've already reserved the truth and taxation night so we can't change that date.

3:37:50But we can have another council meeting to handle kind of the other normal city business. Obviously, August, we try and make it a somewhat light month anyway. But the big issue is getting through CIP, making sure we have enough time to get through CIP allocations. That's really the big one there. So I'm not sure that we would need a full five hour meeting time set aside on one of those additional dates.

3:38:19But we've listed some options. One of them is August 4th, which may conflict with any night out against crime events that may be occurring in the community. And the chair also raised the option of meeting on a Thursday in August or Tuesday, August 25th. We do have Tuesday, August 18th as a tentative council work session and formal meeting.

3:38:43It seems like a council member Young has a favorite one, which is Thursday. I would like to propose the Tuesday, August 25th chair. Tuesday, obviously. No, I'm really used to that. She said Tuesday. She said Tuesday. Tuesday, August 25th. Does that work for other council members? Can I additionally take the 20th off of any future consideration as I have an absolutely immovable work obligation?

3:39:10Great. 25th. Okay. Second to 25th. Sounds like we've got some momentum there. It seems like we have four for the 25th. Okay. We'll plan on that. We'll send out an updated calendar appointment. Question. Yeah. So this advice that it has to be a standalone thing, is that, did they change the statute? The statute was changed in several ways this year.

3:39:40The advice from the tax commission has been that the statute needs to be followed to the letter of the law. If you recall, we, as a city, kind of complied with the law by having a special limited formal meeting and a work session earlier that day. I specifically asked the tax commission representative that was at this meeting if that would be an acceptable plan, and that's the plan that we had followed for several years, and they said that now the answer is no, that that is not an acceptable plan.

3:40:11I think they're being very strict in their interpretations. I have flagged for our attorney team and our lobbying group that that is maybe a high priority to get changed since stopping the business of the city is highly frustrating. I think that the intention is so that residents aren't confused. What he shared with me was that he didn't want people to show up at the work session, thinking that they were showing up to the truth and taxation hearing.

3:40:42I share that we have not experienced that, that our communications group is excellent at communicating the appropriate times and places to show up to residents, but the information we got was that it needs to be followed more strictly this year. It's a genius change. Yeah, I mean, it's, yeah, in addition to stopping potentially the work of government, sometimes these truth and taxation hearings are not attended by anyone.

3:41:14And so it would be a lot of effort of taxpayer money to have a meeting that no one comes to and then not be able to do any business with that meeting. I raised a very similar point. And so I think that's one, that is another experience that we will share as we attempt to help the law become better next year. I think there are some entities that don't have the same experience with truth and taxation hearings that we do and the truth and taxation hearings are very highly attended.

3:41:51So it did not land the way I have experienced our truth and taxation hearings over the last 20, whatever years. But we'll work on it. Thank you for your understanding. Yes. Those are great, great things that happen at the legislature. So there's nothing else on the agenda for the work session today. We have the formal meeting at 7 p.m.

3:42:18But we do have a closed meeting and I need a motion to close the meeting for strategy sessions to discuss collective bargaining and attorney client matters. Mr. Chairman, that we go into a closed meeting for the purpose of discussing collective bargaining and to receive advice at council. Second. I have a motion by council member Warden and second by council member Dugan.

3:42:43I'm going to roll call that. Council member Dugan. Aye. Council member Carlson. Aye. Council member Warden. Aye. Council member Pietro. Yeah. Aye. Well, Council member Young. Aye.

3:42:59Carries unanimously. Now we are in a closed meeting. And just to clarify for the public and for the recorder, we will be adjourned at the conclusion of the closed meeting. Yes, we're definitely going to be adjourned after that. Thank you.