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!

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