Recap! City Council 4.28.2020

Man oh man do I wish this was our last zoom meeting.  I guess we just still don't know!  This one was a little bit of fun though.  We did a zoom background contest to spice things up a little bit, and the results were pretty hilarious in my opinion.  Take a gander and see who you think won!

Below is the agenda.  

 

You can watch the live streaming to Youtube below, or by clicking here.  

Alright, let's dive in:

•Covid-19 updates:  Mayor Jo related that Governor Herbert will likely be moving our state from a red zone to an orange zone starting May 1st.  More details will be forthcoming.  She also related that there has only been 1 confirmed Covid case from South Weber.  There was at one time 2, though the second turned out to be a false positive.  

•General Plan Timeline:  As discussed in early April, the general plan open houses were postponed due to Covid-19.  The council decided to plan for open houses to resume starting in late May.  While we won't know what measures will need to be in place at that time, it will be determined that some sort of adjustments will likely take place to maintain social distancing.  The council also received all the feedback from the survey participants and found their perspectives very helpful and changes are likely to be further made to the survey based off their suggestions.  

•Dog Park:  The retention basin for Harvest Park (near the Posse grounds) will be utilized as a dog park.  The 4 acre basin will be fully fenced and have a walking trail along the outside of it.  The council reviewed the rules and parking.  The Parks and Rec committee will continue to work on adjustments or changes as needed.  The park is planned to be opened sometime in late July or early August.

•No on-street parking on 2700 East: This discussion came before the council after being reviewed by the public safety committee - which was reviewing concerns of on street parking after a 'park-n-protest' was held in early September of 2019.  The committee decided to redstripe both sides of 2700 E from South Weber Drive to Deer Run as soon as possible.  The committee also determined there were other streets that needed to be looked into, specifically South Weber Drive in front of Highmark, Cottonwood Drive, and Canyon Meadows among others.  The council decided some changes in the city code will regarding parking to be changed, no longer allowing trailers/dumpsters and other large vehicles to be parked on the side of the street for longer than 24 hours (down from the original 48 hours).  The committee will be meeting shortly to further discuss the increase of parking on Cottonwood Drive due to the trailhead nearby.

•Davis County Sheriff's Office:  The contract that was signed with DCSO had the ability to renew for 2 more years at the same contracted rate as the previous year and original contract amount.  The council approved this renewal.  

New Business:

•Fellow resident Diana Hyer would like to add some cheer to the residents at Peterson Farms Assisted Living.   Diana is organizing a drive by wave to help ease the loneliness due to isolation measure resulting from Covid-19.  Come and wave hello and give encouragement.  Meet at Canyon Meadows Park at 1 pm.  Decorate the passenger side of your door and prepare to share some cheer!

Council Reports:

Mayor Jo:  She has recently met with Curtis and Dave regarding the Rec Center and plans that will be in place once they are given more direction.  More details will be forthcoming.

Councilwoman Alberts:  The Country Fair Days committee met.  The organizers are moving forward with what they can but have decided that they need clarification on whether large event gatherings will take place by June 1st.  They felt any time after that date would not give them enough time to get everything prepared and vendors and money raised.   In the event that we will not able to do large gatherings, fireworks will likely proceed with proper distancing measures in place.  However, anything else would likely be cancelled though they will continue to look into what they can.

Councilman Winsor: The Municipality Committee will be meeting soon to review the contract with Job Corp on the pipeline replacement.   He will be reporting details of that contract to the council when he has them. 

And that's a wrap my peeps!  Just a reminder the council will not meet again until May 12th at which time we may or may not be able to meet at City Hall.  Regardless of where we meet, live streaming will continue.  

Recap! City Council Meeting 4.14.2020

This meeting was once again done remotely through zoom and live streamed to YouTube.  Click here to go to the city's YouTube channel or see below.  

Alright friends - here we go!

•Procurement Policy: The newly revised Procurement Policy was approved by the council.  The procurement policy sets limits and other definitions/restrictions on spending amounts for department heads and the city manager.   To read the full report, you can find it in the packet. 

•SCADA bid:  The city has been working on implementing a cloud based SCADA system to monitor  our water systems.  5 bids were received.  The committee came back to the council with 2 bids with a recommendation for one company over the other.   The recommended bid was 50% higher than the other bid.  The council deliberated at length between the two bids/companies, seeking to understand why staff chose the higher bid.  A motion was made to choose the bid recommended by staff and passed 3-2.  

•Kennywood & Old Maple Farms Final Acceptance:  Staff presented the final inspections and work completed on these subdivisions and released the escrow money set aside for each of these. 

•Public Works New Truck Purchase:  Money for this year's budget was allocated for a new truck for the public works team.  This will allow everyone to have their own vehicle, currently 2 people are sharing one.  It was questioned why making a brand new purchase is better than a used one.  It was explained the state contracts are only applicable to new vehicles only.  State contracts are significant discounts and and come with warranties.  It also allows you to sell the vehicle for roughly what you pay for it.  It was also asked why only 1 bid was sought out.   The item was tabled until either more bids were sought or more information about the bids arose.  It will appear on next week's agenda. 

•Budget Workshop:  Staff has been working to prepare for the upcoming decrease in sales tax due to Covid-19 measures.  An overall budget summary was presented for next year's budget.  Staff reported that we as a city are actually doing quite well and should be able to get through what may come fairly well (other municipalities are having to let people go).   The council discussed future expenditures and capital projects.

•TUF Discussion:  Recently there was some confusion at the state level if a Transportation Utility Fee (TUF) implemented by cities was considered a tax or a fee.  Since South Weber has a TUF (the $15/month on your utility bill) we have been following this closely.  It has been determined the TUF *is* considered a fee and therefore requires no changes for us.  The TUF will continue on as planned.  

New Business

•Mayor Jo relayed that she had gotten a call from a resident about all NHS graduates.  In light of the Governor's expansion of keeping a soft closures on schools and the elimination of graduations.  It was discussed about the possibility of offering these seniors an ability for a drive-by parade of sorts.  Details will need to be worked out but the city was open to the idea and I am hoping we are able to do something amazing like that for them!

•Councilwoman Petty recently had a meeting with the Parks and Rec Committee to go over a contract with UDOT pertaining to the culvert that they will be placing underneath 89 to connect Bonneville Shorleline Trail to the Weber Weber Pathway trail.  While UDOT is going to pay for the culvert, it will fall on the city for numerous other costs including the wing walls on both sides, electricity, a parking lot as well as taking on all liability and future inspections.  This will come at a great cost to the city and she was seeking further direction.  It was decided that all entities who have a desire to connect these trails needs to come to the table and help participate in costs as well. 

•The Public Relations Committee met and had a few ideas we are hoping to implement and needed council's thoughts:

1. Allowing for citizens to join the zoom calls to speak public comment rather than email only: It was decided to wait until the end of April to see how much longer we will have to do this for.  If we must continue for the long run this option can be looked into.  

2. Town Hall Style Meetings: These meetings would tentatively happen quarterly and would include two council members and the mayor, most likely on the first Tuesday of the month.  More details will be forthcoming but it will allow for a question and answer format with the citizens.

3.  Councilman Corner in the newsletter:  Council Members will now offer a little bit about what they are working on in their individual committees in the newsletter about every other month. 

Reports

•Mayor Jo:  The landfill is back open to the public.

•Councilman Halverson:  He attended the latest PC meeting which only had one agenda item and that was a presentation from the developers for the property on the corner of 475 E and Old Fort Road  (the same developers that came before the council a few weeks ago).  The PC is needed more direction from the Council on Mixed Use. 

•Councilwoman Alberts:  The PR committee is hoping to get live streaming going so that when we return to city hall we can transition from the current live streaming to council chambers streaming.

•Councilman Winsor:  Covid or not, the misquitos are still out and about.  The misquoto abatement is out working to help diminish them.

Alrighty folks! That's a rap!  I hope you find these helpful and keeps you informed.  Please know the your elected officials are working hard to do their part to make South Weber a wonderful place to be. I am so hopeful we can start meeting in public again soon!

Recap! City Council Meeting 3.31.2020

Here is the agenda for this meeting:

Once again, this meeting was held remotely for each council member through Zoom and live streamed to Youtube.  You can watch the whole meeting by clicking here, or watch it below.  

Because of the quarantine, all public comments were received via email prior to the meeting.  I want to thank you all for your involvement.  We received by my count over 30 emails from concerned citizens.  I appreciate every one of you for taking the time to do so!

Highlights:

•Ambulance and Power Gurney Purchase for Fire Department: Chief Tolman reported that the ambulance we have is 20 years old and it shows.  There have been times that the ambulance was in the shop being repaired and they had to have someone else cover their calls during that time.  Quotes for replacement ambulances came in at about $110,000-$180,000.  However, they were able to find a used one that is 5 years old for $15,000 from Roy City.  The city has a vehicle replacement program with a capital projects plan where money is set aside each year for these purchases.  The council felt the price was good and approved this purchase.  The power gurney and its benefits and costs were discussed.  The council felt that at this time it is best to hold off on this purchase.

•General Plan Timeline: Due to the Coronavirus and the quarantine in place, a discussion took place about how to move forward with feedback for the general plan.  Initially, April was discussed to be a time for citizens to review the second draft.  This included open houses and a survey.  However, due to restrictions on gathering, things needed to be reworked.  The council had a lengthy discussion about moving forward and how.  In the end it was decided to essential put a pause button on the general plan.  We will spend the month of April working on the survey which includes a selection of randomized citizens reviewing the ease, user ability and general understanding of the survey.  This is to take place for 2 weeks in April.  The council will review the results of the feedback of the survey the last week of April at which time we are hopeful we will have further direction of the quarantine and how to move forward.

•Budget Workshop for Fiscal Year 2020-2021: We are currently underway on all our budget for next fiscal year.  A discussion that took place in the Admin and Finance committee about the future revenue of property tax.  There are essentially three different options.  The council chose to make no changes to the current property tax for this fiscal budget.  The discussion will take place again at a later date when the public can convene and weigh in.  If you are interested in learning more about these tax options, I did a video on it you can view here.  

•Procurement Policy: The Admin and Finance committee has been working on a procurement policy for our city for over a year and it was finally ready for council's review.  You can read more about this, and the policy itself in the packet.  The council made an adjustments to the authorizations amount for the department heads and city manager.  This will go back to the committee for revision and come before the council at a later date for final approval.

New Business:

•A discussion about the latest ruling on the TUF fee and the wording that was change to include that a transportation utility fee is a fee and not a tax will be coming back to the council at the next meeting.

•We had discussion about conducting nonessential business during the quarantine.  Deciding what is essential and nonessential can be hard to define.  It was decided that the mayor will set the agenda and if the council found that some items needed to be discussed at a later date, as what had happened in tonight's meeting, was a good balance.

•Preparation for future impacts on sales tax revenue.  In light of all that is going on with the economy due to Coronavirus, staff is looking at preparing for a decrease in sales tax revenue.  More information will be coming forth on the 14th.

•A question on the discussion of Fiber was brought up.  The municipality committee has not made any further steps at this time.  A extensive discussion needs to be had.  There are many choices that will need to be made that will have potential impact on every resident.  It will also come up at a later date when the public can be more involved.

Reports:

•The Public Safety Committee will be meeting with the Fire Department to discuss emergency preparation for Covid-19 and other emergencies.

•There are plans underway to have updates to the bathrooms at Cherry Farms.

•The Davis County Landfill will be closing to residents this Friday.  Regular curbside pickup will continue.  As of now, the Spring Cleanup is still underway but could change.

•Our grant submission application for placing sidewalks on South Weber Drive was approved and the city should be expecting a $300,000 reimbursement from the state coming soon.


And that's a wrap my friends!  If you have any questions please don't hesitate to reach out!

#getinvolved #stayinvolved