City Council Minutes 2-6-18

TREMONTON CITY CORPORATION
CITY COUNCIL MEETING

FEBRUARY 6, 2018

Members Present:
Diana Doutre
Lyle Holmgren
Jeff Reese
Bret Rohde
Lyle Vance
Roger Fridal, Mayor
Shawn Warnke, City Manager
Linsey Nessen, City Recorder

CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP

Mayor Fridal called the February 6, 2018 City Council Workshop to order at 5:32 p.m. The meeting was held in the City Council Meeting Room at 102 South Tremont Street, Tremonton, Utah. Those in attendance were Mayor Fridal, Councilmembers Doutre, Holmgren, Reese, Rohde, and Vance, City Manager Warnke, and City Recorder Nessen. The following Department Heads were also present: Parks and Recreation Director Marc Christensen and Recreation Coordinator Zach LeFevre (both arrived at 6:10 p.m.), Police Chief David Nance, and Treasurer Sharri Oyler (arrived at 6:13 p.m.). Also in attendance were: City Engineer Chris Breinholt (left after the workshop), Finance Director Curtis Roberts, and Senior Center Director Marion Layne (arrived at 6:44 p.m.).

Items were discussed out of order.

1. Update and coordination on Box Elder Water Conservancy District – District Representatives Voneene Jorgenson, General Manager, Bill Bigelow, Consulting Engineer

Mayor Fridal, who sits on the Water Conservancy Board, asked Ms. Jorgenson and Mr. Bigelow if they would discuss options for water with the Council and how the Conservancy District can help Tremonton City with water. Ms. Jorgenson said the Master Plan shows that Tremonton is in need of water now and in the future. Mr. Bigelow said there are several projects that could provide additional water to Tremonton. The first one would be to construct a booster station in the Bothwell water system that would simply allow the district to provide more water to Tremonton on the west side. The main line from Bothwell to Tremonton is limited, but adding a booster station would increase the flow to almost double without any pressure loss. That project could be implemented within a year. The Master Plan also discusses putting a second pipeline in. In the future, the District would need to add a larger pipeline (12-inch) parallel to the existing 10-inch line. That is also a year project, but is more expensive. The third option in the Master Plan shows a couple of well zone projects in Deweyville. The District obtained those water rights in the 90s and is now moving forward to develop that water. If successful, that could bring water to the east side of Tremonton, but will take about two more years. Councilmember Doutre asked where a booster would be added on the west side. Mr. Bigelow said the booster could be located anywhere along the pipeline, but we were thinking of putting it up high in the Bothwell pocket where the District’s wells are. The pipeline would not be limited to gravity flow because we push the water through with controls to provide more hydraulic pressure.

Engineer Breinholt asked how many gallons per minute is anticipated would be provided to the City. Mr. Bigelow said currently the City’s flows max at the 700-800 gallon range. We think we could take it up to a 1,000 with the additional bonus of maintaining full pressure. Engineer Breinholt asked, in relation to installing a second line, what the maximum is right now that the Conservancy District could supply. Mr. Bigelow said right now the District leases a lot of water to farms, but there is a balance between irrigation and culinary. It would be about 1,600 acre-feet per year. Ms. Jorgensen said there was always an understanding that if there is a need for water for municipals, then the irrigation would be taken away from the land. Engineer Breinholt asked what their pumps are capable of. Mr. Bigelow said one pumps about 3,000 gallons per minute while the other pumps 2,400. Ms. Jorgenson said the drawback is the TDS, which is high and the water quality is not as good as on the east side, but they could add a treatment plant to help. Mr. Bigelow said the Master Plan discusses a treatment plant, which would remove TDS, the heavy minerals in the water, making it similar to the water quality on the east side. It is very expensive to do a treatment plant of that size and kind, but we visualize the day when that could be justified.

Councilmember Holmgren confirmed the City could see an additional 200 to 300 gallons per minute. Mr. Bigelow said that would be the result of the booster pump option, but if we lay the second pipeline, it would be much greater than that. Both are about a one-year implementation, but the second pipeline would cost about 10 times as much. Councilmember Holmgren asked about timeframe. Mr. Bigelow said the District schedules projects when they are needed and can be paid for. Although the Master Plan showed that project in 10 to 20 years, that is up for discussion and change. Engineer Breinholt asked how much of the District’s water is available right now for municipal use. Ms. Jorgenson said we have about 350 acre-feet more that we can designate in the pocket if we have a delivery method. Councilmember Vance asked about the cost to install the booster and about the City’s participation. Mr. Bigelow said it would cost about $300,000. Ms. Jorgensen said the District would pay for that and own the booster station. They would sell the City the water it needs, which would be paid back by usage.

Mr. Bigelow provided another option saying Tremonton could do a project to increase their peak demand in the summertime. The City has a lot of overflow from the springs in the winter, which flows to the river. It may be possible to do an ASR project (Aqua Storage and Recovery) by drilling a well. The water from the winter months that is not being used for City purposes would be injected in the well for summer use during peak demand. Brigham City does this to great advantage with three wells that temporarily store that water. Councilmember Reese said that is a neat idea. Councilmember Vance asked if that water moves down. Mr. Bigelow said yes it does, but it is very slow. A bank of water is built up and can recover pretty much 100%. Ms. Jorgensen clarified it is underground storage. The District would help with the technical side and in conducting a study to see if it would be successful. Councilmember Doutre said she likes that idea and is glad to be learning more about our options. Mr. Bigelow said lastly, the Master Plan identified an option where the District would build a small water treatment plant and take water directly from the Bear River, making it available to all the District users in the northern Bear River Valley. This option could be implemented before a dam is built. It is out in the future quite a ways, but is an option for additional water.

Councilmember Rohde asked how times of drought or no snow affects aquifers. Mr. Bigelow said generally when we have dry years, those who rely on springs feel the pinch. Wells are a little more forgiving because the aquifer is pretty big and balances out the wet and dry years. Wells are usually more resilient to drought than springs. Tremonton is heavily dependent on springs and if they slow down dramatically, that really hits us hard and we need to know what we would do in those situations. Councilmember Rohde asked how Brigham City’s wells support their area during droughts. Mr. Bigelow said Brigham City’s situation is very favorable. They have sufficient water in the wintertime to fill their wells. Ms. Jorgenson said one of their other wells used for irrigating the cemetery was high in iron and coloring the head stones. This option allowed them to use water they had recovered and improve the water for irrigation. Engineer Breinholt said it should be noted that our wells are pumping to their maximum capacity. Recovering more water out of there would require another well for expansion of the existing ones at the mountain bottoms. Councilmember Holmgren asked about the reservoir. Mr. Bigelow said it is underground, but we would have to determine a suitable aquifer and drill a well in it. Councilmember Holmgren said we have wells already and asked if we could pump into those. Mr. Bigelow said perhaps, but we have not done a study, it is just a concept. Councilmember Holmgren said this is a good idea and asked about timeframe. Mr. Bigelow said the regulations are pretty heavy for ASR projects and takes about five years just for that portion. Mayor Fridal asked about water levels, which are stable. Ms. Jorgenson said those resources need to be protected and they need to make sure nothing comes in that would hurt or contaminate those recharge areas. She then thanked the Mayor and Council for their time and working relationship.

2. Discussion and review of tasks, policies, strategies, and issues surrounding the implementation of a pressurized secondary water system within Tremonton City’s incorporated limits

Engineer Breinholt said the Conservancy District’s ideas and options are all good options and will be needed at some point whether we do secondary or not, but culinary water development costs money. He then summarized the information for the Council. The Wastewater Treatment Plant puts about 903 gallons per minute or close to 2 CFS into the river right now. A water share is 1.3 million gallons per year, but they also have a definition of 2.1 CFS for one hour per week. According to Engineer Breinholt’s calculation, if they allowed us to put that into the central canal in direct relationship to shares that would equal about 160 shares. Councilmember Holmgren said the Canal Board is nervous about this and asked if there has been any discussion with them. Engineer Breinholt said no, we figure there will be some resistance, but we can work through that. Councilmember Vance said it is worth going to bat for it. Councilmember Holmgren said when we start looking at pathogens, it can be measured and we can tell the Canal Company how many parts per million. The canal has all kinds of issues too—it is not pure water. Perception is a lot of this. Our water and their water can be measured, which may help in the discussion. Manager Warnke said Director Fulgham did a lab test on Tremonton’s water coming out of the plant and it is cleaner than irrigation water. He noted, this is not shares per say. We do not necessarily have an absolute right to pull the water in and out, this is just an arrangement we would work out with the Canal Company, which would be equivalent to if we have 160 shares. Councilmember Reese asked why we could not just pump it into our secondary system. Engineer Breinholt said we could, but again it is perception. It would be more beneficial to use it throughout the canal system rather than trying to supply it to all the individual pump stations. It can be done, but would probably cost more money. Councilmember Vance asked if someone could start working on that negotiation with the Canal Company. Councilmember Holmgren said he would get it on the agenda. Councilmember Vance said we need to jump on that one. That is half of the water shares we need. That is $560,000 in savings to the City at a cost of $3,500 a share. Engineer Breinholt clarified that it would be, as long as they allowed a direct trade off with no compensation. It does not impact them a whole lot other than we use the canal system to convey water.

Engineer Breinholt said Director Fulgham wanted to address the reason we spread the pump stations out the way we did. Through discussion, we decided not to localize the withdrawal rate at any one location and limit them at 5 CFS. That is the way those are arranged and why we have the ones on the east canal spaced up along there. It reduced the impact to that one location. The last bullet talks about putting back 2 CFS into the canal system. We had a meeting with the DNR and found the aquifer has not been impacted significantly at this point, but it is highly influenced by surface water. They are allowing up to 10,000 acre-feet of water withdrawals. Engineer Breinholt said he intends to have a water right filed on the Cedar Ridge well. However, there are areas of concern that they had—one being over the Cedar Ridge well. It has not produced what test pumping showed it could so we will reduce that and file it under the new information. They studied those groundwater levels and have not noticed a significant drop in over 40 years. Surface water dominates the groundwater system, there is a lot of irrigation return flows that recharge it. The withdrawals from the groundwater system will impact the Malad River in the spring and that is why we have areas of concern along the bench.

Engineer Breinholt said in 2013 the Capital Facilities Plan showed about $30.5 million worth of culinary projects would be needed for a 50-year use. The ASR and some of the other systems would be part of that cost. Right now, water rights are not a problem, it is water supply, which is all construction. Our estimate for the secondary system is about $17 million with water shares and we would save some of that money on some of this return flow potentially (total build out for 50 years). We are not going to save $13.5 million dollars by building secondary and not expanding culinary because even with the secondary, culinary expansion will still have to happen. Some of these options that the District has are good to think about for those long term uses. Even with the secondary system in place they will be needed.

Manager Warnke said we have talked numbers, but wanted to make sure we have the same set of numbers. The bottom line is that 364 shares are needed as of today to build out the entire system for existing development. Councilmember Vance had concern over the lease pool numbers and said he feels really anxious if we are relying upon the lease pool, we need to own them. Engineer Breinholt clarified that the lease pool number shown are the shares the City currently has in the lease pool. The Canal Company is using them, but the City owns them and can take them back when needed. Councilmember Holmgren said the service areas after five would take care of themselves. We really need to focus on getting though service areas 1 through 5 for now and then the rest of them we just pick up as we go. Engineer Breinholt said areas 1 through 5 are the bulk of the developed area and we made modifications to pick up some of those areas around the fringes.

Engineer Breinholt said Director Fulgham expanded his research on culinary water use in the rates and what people were paying. He took in 1,905 single-family homes and came up with an average monthly cost of $29.91 per month. The average use of 4,000 gallons on top of the base rate ($8) was about $5 a month, so the average home uses $13 a month for indoor use. That is where they are arriving at the $16.91 of overages that they are paying per month. Not too much different than the smaller study previously discussed.

Councilmember Reese said what concerns him with secondary is that $16.91 is based on whether the person wants to use a lot of water on their yard or not. If we go secondary, we are forcing them into a monthly payment and he struggles with that and does not feel good about saying no matter what, if you use this water or not, you are going to pay this fee. Councilmember Doutre said especially on a tiny lot—that is the only thing that bothers her. Engineer Breinholt said there are different ways we can hammer that out and the Council can decide how we want to charge people based on lot size or a lot of different things. This is what makes it tough. Councilmember Holmgren said nobody disagrees with Councilmember Reese and this is a hard decision to make, but we have to look at the water resource itself. How long can we go and still be able to grow or for when that next company comes.

Engineer Breinholt said if we look at the growth estimates, which are not extravagant, out to 2070, right now our production, based on State standards, is in the hole 452 gallons per minute (peak day supply). We make that up because of excess in the standards, but we know the system is right up against the use. If we buy more water from the Conservancy District, the booster pump would almost catch us up to not being in the hole, but we would still be in the hole. Over the next 50 years, we need to produce 10,829 more gallons per minute than we produce right now. Right now, without any secondary water use in the culinary system, we are on the upside 1,639 gallons per minute. Look at the 50-year mark 3,618 gallons per minute needed, which seems manageable. Engineer Breinholt said he does not know how we get to that 10,000 mark of more water without doing some of those expensive projects. The savings would be greater than this because we know the State standards are excess on indoor use and efficient on outdoor use. When they are used together, they tend to balance out. The savings, the deficit without secondary in the system would be less than what this shows—we would be in a better position than that. Councilmember Vance said if we do not do something with secondary water and try to develop it, then the cost to every person is going to go up anyway. It is going to be cheaper to develop secondary water than it is culinary water. Councilmember Holmgren said if we intend to continue to grow, something needs to be done. Engineer Breinholt said growth is contingent upon something being done and he does not see us being able to supply that much culinary water to a City in 50 years and at some point the Conservancy District will be a source we will have to use. They are a good partner, but they will not be able to supply all that water.

Engineer Breinholt then pointed out some rates from around the State. He said most are cheaper, the difference being their base rate for their culinary is much higher and their secondary is fairly low—it is just the way they have balanced it out.

Motion by Councilmember Holmgren to move into closed session. Motion seconded by Councilmember Reese. Vote: Councilmember Doutre – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Reese – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.

The Council moved into a closed session at 5:32 p.m.

3. CLOSED SESSIONS:

a. Strategy session to discuss the purchase of real property when public discussion of the transaction would disclose the appraisal or estimated value of the property under consideration or prevent the public body from completing the transaction on the best possible terms; and/or
b. Strategy session to discuss the character, professional competence or physical or mental health of an individual; and/or
c. Strategy sessions to discuss pending or reasonably imminent litigation; and/or
d. Discussions regarding security personnel, devices or systems

Motion by Councilmember Vance to return to open session. Motion seconded by Councilmember Rohde. Vote: Councilmember Doutre – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Reese – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.

The Council returned to open session at 6:10 p.m.

The meeting adjourned at 7:01 p.m. by consensus of the Council.

CITY COUNCIL MEETING

Mayor Fridal called the February 6, 2018 City Council Meeting to order at 7:09 p.m. The meeting was held in the Tremonton City Council Meeting Room at 102 South Tremont Street, Tremonton, Utah. Those in attendance were Mayor Fridal, Councilmembers Doutre, Holmgren, Reese, Rohde, and Vance, City Manager Warnke, and City Recorder Nessen. The following Department Heads were also present: Parks and Recreation Director Marc Christensen and Recreation Coordinator Zach LeFevre (both arrived at 6:10 p.m.), Police Chief David Nance, and Treasurer Sharri Oyler (left at 8:27 p.m.). Also in attendance were: Finance Director Roberts, Senior Center Director Marion Layne (arrived at 6:44 p.m.) and Mary Ann Anderson (arrived at 7:05 p.m., both left at 7:17 p.m.).

1. Opening Ceremony:

Mayor Fridal informed the audience that he had received no written or oral request to participate in the Opening Ceremony. He asked anyone who may be offended by listening to a prayer to step out into the lobby for this portion of the meeting. The prayer was offered by Councilmember Reese and the Pledge of Allegiance was led by Mayor Fridal.

2. Introduction of guests:

Mayor Fridal welcomed those in attendance.

3. Approval of Agenda:

Motion by Councilmember Reese to approve the agenda of February 6, 2018. Motion seconded by Councilmember Holmgren. Vote: Councilmember Doutre – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Reese – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.

4. Approval of minutes – January 2, 2018

Motion by Councilmember Vance to approve the minutes of January 2, 2018. Motion seconded by Councilmember Rohde. Vote: Councilmember Doutre – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Reese – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.

5. Public comments: Comments limited to three minutes.

Stan Smith, of Harmony Heights Subdivision, said Jeff Madsen wants to run cattle on top of the hill and in the 17 to 18 years we have owned property, they have never allowed any type of livestock up there. I talked to Administrator Bench who told me if it is not listed in the zoning ordinance, then it is not allowed. A few years ago, John White was denied a conditional use permit to put a few horses up there and he moved out because of that. Someone who lived next to me got a conditional use permit because we were willing to sign off, but he was told he could not sell it as horse property when he left and had to turn away some offers. Now we are faced with having cattle up there to be fed and used for birthing. He has also leased area below that hill which is 90 acres. We see no reason to have cattle there. In my case, it is 70 feet from the back of my house and there are several homes that are closer. It does not seem reasonable because there are other facilities they can use. Mr. Madsen told me he plans on getting water for the cattle from the house that used to belong to John White, it is the last house in the subdivision. I do not think it is a good idea to have cattle so close to people’s homes. If we allow it to happen, it sets a precedence that someone else would be able to come in and run livestock.

6. Employee Years of Service

a. Roger Fridal, Mayor – 10 years
b. Mary Ann Andersen, Senior Center Lunch Driver Substitute – 5 years
c. Zach LeFevre, Recreation Program Coordinator – 5 years

These individuals were thanked for their years of service.

The following items were discussed out of order.

7. Presentations & Discussions

a. Tremonton City Financial Statements ending June 30, 2017 – Curtis Roberts, Tremonton City Finance Director

Director Roberts turned the time over to Mike Kidman from Jones Simkins, who performed the financial statement audit that is required by State law. Jones Simkins took all the records of the City and performed various tests. Mr. Kidman said our year was good—our funds are strong and we were able to transfer money to our capital projects funds. Our budgets were good and a lot of good things happened in this year. The primary report tells us we have audited the financial statements in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards and we have followed government standards in auditing these financial statements. We have applied standard procedures and, in the government world, we also had to look at internal controls and compliance. We have looked at all of the funds of the City and we have divided those up into units—our tests are very detailed. Our opinion is that the financial statements are correct as they have been presented. If it is supplementary information, we have audited that. If it is required supplementary information, we have looked it over and have not found anything misleading. There is nothing inconsistent being presented elsewhere. The City has a good control structure and good people. There were no specific things to bring to your attention nor did we find any compliance issues.

Mr. Kidman said there is one more report we issue that is required by the Utah State Auditor’s Office and they put out a fairly robust document listing all kinds of things they want auditors to look into, related to State laws. It is not uncommon to have minor comments and we did not have any issues. We did not have anything big or new in the financial statements this year. We also talked about estimates and disclosures. We look at all those things and make sure we see the whole story and feel good about the financial statements. We also talk about difficulties we faced during the audit even if they are resolved to my satisfaction and we did not have any of those. I have had discussions with Director Roberts who communicates those things well. We do make people we work with give us a representation letter that tells us they have shown us all the records and answered all our questions truthfully. There were no big internal control findings. We had one little matter came up during the audit, but the City handled it. We found there is some debt due to the issue of getting ambulance equipment. We made a small comment there to have Manager Warnke or Director Roberts look at the documents when they are dealing with a tricky transaction to make sure it is clear what we have signed up for. The City was on top of that without our help, but there was still some discussion.

Councilmember Rohde asked about a loss in revenue this year for grants. He said in 2016 the City had a total revenue of $9.1 million and in 2017 it was down $1.1 million. It looks that the capital grants and contributions drove most of that difference. He also brought up a million dollar grant from UDOT. Director Roberts said they donated the road. When we get participation grants with UDOT, they like to say it is the City’s grant, but they basically do everything and we put out our 6% to participate. We have to recognize that we took over a road and are now responsible for maintaining it. They generated all the funds to build it so we recognize it as a contribution. Councilmember Rohde said even though revenues are down, the net position is up—we managed it well. Director Roberts said Government accounting is different than forward profit accounting. If we have write offs, we net that against the revenue. In our fund statement, we do it that same way as a contra-revenue so you can see the gross billings and then we net it down. In the government accounting world, we could not budget for how much insurance write offs we are going to have. So our revenues are presented as a net number. In reality, the ambulance billed over a million dollars and we are collecting in the neighborhood of 65%. We spent over a half a million dollars to generate those revenues so it looks like that fund lost money ($140,000), but that is because we had to account for all the capital outlay upfront for the ambulance purchased. That fund is healthy, but it does need to be monitored. A fund can go through cash fast so we want to monitor how we are doing there and if it needs assistance from the General Fund. One of our goals on the finance side is to generate some capital project ideas and a schedule so we can give the Council more information going forward. Overall the funds are all healthy.
Director Roberts said the question that comes up all the time is, what is happening with our Enterprise Funds and asked the Council to look on page 19 and 20 at the operating income line. We want to see that as a positive and we like to see a good return on assets. For the Water Fund, we adjusted rates midstream and you can see that one struggled a bit. The Treatment Plant Fund is healthy and we are building up good reserves ($3.4 million) for the upcoming improvements and will be able to cash flow a lot of those. We have $7 million in projects that are out there. It is a large number that has been discussed and that is why our Capital Projects Plan is going to be so critical. We have $800,000 for the solid waste upgrade and we will be able to cash flow that one. It is good planning on our part with what we have done on the rate in the past that has built up these reserves. Councilmember Holmgren asked if the Secondary Water Fund is with the Water Fund. Director Roberts said we talked about breaking it out, but pulled back from that idea. We figured we would have to use some of the Water Fund’s stability to get a more favorable rate if we decided to move on a secondary water project. An interesting part is that this year the Storm Drain has became a major fund when previously it was a non-major fund. We are investing so many amenities in storm water and you can see the need to manage it. We are managing the water pretty well, but water is an issue for Tremonton. That is the one thing that has the potential to really impact the City’s finances, but we will keep trying to simplify and make it easier.

Councilmember Rohde asked why property taxes were down and they looked at page 54. Director Roberts said that is RDA 3 redevelopment agencies, which are tricky. If we do not ask for all the property tax that is available, the county keeps it, so our ‘ask’ is always significantly higher than the property tax it will generate. We do that so in case someone sneaks in an addition or the County makes an adjustment, the RDA can capture all the taxes possible. Councilmember Vance asked Director Roberts to walk the Council through page 48 and explain the RDA tax increment collected. Director Roberts said it is a summary of what happens with the different RDAs that the City has. He explained the different RDAs and said it is the incremental tax on that growth that happened when the RDA was created. Councilmember Vance asked which one the Tremont Center falls under. Director Roberts said that incremental tax collection agreement was structured under the RDA 2, as does Main Street. Only $31,000 tax increment has come in as of June 30, which only includes Shopko. Director Roberts said property tax values are valued as of January 1 and are not collected until November. He said that would show up in the City’s fiscal year 2018. It takes a long time to come into the City based off when the County assesses the value. Councilmember Vance said it will be interesting to see that number. Manager Warnke said they are estimating $90,000. They hope to increase the value with more buildings in that area.

Manager Warnke asked Director Roberts to touch on the General Fund. Director Roberts said page 53 is the most condensed view that highlights important parts. This shows the original budget that was adopted at the start of the year, the final budget after all the amendments, the actual amount, and the variance compared to the final. We actually collected $4 million in property and sales tax. Overall the city took in $5.5 million worth of revenue between intergovernmental activities. Some of the charges for services are going to be impact fees and then large expenses like public safety, which the Police Department takes a big part of. We spent $4.3 million to run the City, which includes all the capital outlay we did in the General Fund. Sales tax went up dramatically and there are good things happening overall. Sales tax collected was $1.6 million, franchise tax (phones, electricity, and gas) brought in about a million and property tax brought in about $1.3 million. Those are the big components of the taxes. Councilmember Rohde asked how much of the sales tax the City actually sees. Director Roberts said 1%. The transient room tax, which is applied to any hotel stay, brought in about $32,000. Councilmember Rohde said it is encouraging to hear people are staying and shopping here. Director Roberts said with all these favorable variances, we can see the City had budgeted $4.8 million, but we did not spend all of that—we are trying to live within our means. We have about half a million dollars worth of savings there. The Council authorized transfers to Capital Project Funds as part of the resolution that was adopted the end of June. With that we transferred $1 million, which was distributed between RDA 2 and Capital Projects per the transportation corridor and overall capital projects. We set ourselves in a position where we can cash flow a number of projects going forward. We have invested in the RDA to try and generate more sales tax and businesses coming in to keep the economy expanding. Councilmember Reese said he feels well about the road projects, from a City standpoint, we did the right thing. Mr. Kidman said cities that have reserves are doing a lot of things right. Director Roberts said the Council is wisely managing City funds and planning for the future and that is a huge credit to the Council. We have fantastic people—a whole host of people who really work together as a team. Manager Warnke is a great leader and the Department Heads come together and are very conscientious in their jobs and care about the community. The results are showing themselves and that is one thing we can express back to the community—they are entrusting us with a lot of money, $5.5 million, but we are trying to be wise stewards of it. The results speak for themselves.

8. New Council Business:

a. Discussion and consideration of adopting the audited Tremonton City Financial Statements ending June 30, 2017

Motion by Councilmember Holmgren to accept the Tremonton City Financial Statements. Motion seconded by Councilmember Doutre. Vote: Councilmember Doutre – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Reese – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.

b. Discussion and consideration of approving the November Warrant Register

Motion by Councilmember Doutre to approve the November Warrant Register. Motion seconded by Councilmember Reese. Vote: Councilmember Doutre – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Reese – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.

c. Discussion and consideration of approving the December Financial Statements

Motion by Councilmember Reese to approve the December Financial Statements. Motion seconded by Councilmember Holmgren. Vote: Councilmember Doutre – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Reese – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.

d. Discussion and consideration of approving the December Warrant Register

Motion by Councilmember Holmgren to approve the December Warrant Register. Motion seconded by Councilmember Vance. Vote: Councilmember Doutre – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Reese – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.

e. Discussion and consideration of approving the January Warrant Register

Motion by Councilmember Vance to approve the January Warrant Register. Motion seconded by Councilmember Doutre. Vote: Councilmember Doutre – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Reese – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.

f. Discussion and consideration of approving Ordinance No. 18-03 establishing the Tremonton City Arts Council, a public body that serves as an advisory board to the City Council for arts related matters

Recreation Coordinator Zach LeFevre addressed the Council. He said he has been involved in a leadership program, the Change Leaders, put on by the Utah Department of Arts and Museums. The City has been involved in things already like the Christmas lights, murals, the SDAT has helped discussed different things for Main Street and City assets, such as the museum, Main Street Playhouse and lots of artists in the community. It is a great place to live. He and Councilmember Holmgren recently attended a meeting and talked about place making. That is what we need to build here and strengthen the connections between people and the places they share. This capitalizes on community assets, inspirations and potential, with the innovation of creating public spaces that promote people’s health, happiness and wellbeing. That is the whole purpose in trying to create an Arts Council. The main purpose of an Arts Council is creating a social atmosphere where people gather and feel comfortable. He also addressed open spaces, saying we have Midland Square that does not get used a whole lot. The creation of an Arts Council could increase attendance, as well as the activities that happen on Main Street. Manager Warnke has been working a lot with trails and making it easier to walk around town, the comfort and the image of the place we live. We could also upgrade the image of the whole community and unify residents.

Coordinator LeFevre said the Change Leader program gave us a task to have a project in mind. He wanted to take this opportunity to promote an Arts Council that can help create these things within the City and enhance other things as we get organized. Coordinator LeFevre, Councilmember Holmgren, Manager Warnke, and Director Christensen participated in drafting this ordinance. The Arts Council would be a public body and would go through the same noticing and open meeting requirements that any public body of the City does. Councilmember Holmgren said we are already really involved in public art, but this gives folks around here opportunities to provide educational type activities. This is a great thing to improve the aesthetics of the City. Coordinator LeFevre said the City is also two years running the Best of State for Public Art. We will be able to sustain that and keep things moving forward. We have not had a mural created in a year or two and instead of becoming stagnate, this will help push that along with the greater arts rather than just murals. Councilmember Holmgren said he would like to approve the ordinance and establish the Tremonton City Arts Council, a public body and advisory board for art related matter with one change. We need to take into consideration removing the conflict of interest section since we are a small community. It said members of the Arts Council and members of their family are ineligible to apply for and receive Arts Council grants and funds but he does not think anyone is going to take advantage of any situation here. Manager Warnke said the State does have a Municipal Officer’s Ethics Act that would apply here. This ordinance is more restrictive than State Code and for that reason, he would consider deleting this section of the conflict of interest and fall back to the State Code requirements. All of our public bodies fall under the specific requirements of the State Code so this would be elevated above any other public body we have and would be more restrictive than the State Code. To simplify and keep every public body following the State Code of Ethics, he suggested deleting this section. Councilmember Rohde said he would be glad to help with the Arts Council. Councilmember Doutre suggested including the museum. Coordinator LeFevre said we want to work with them and possibly as a place to meet, as well as with the Utah Department of Arts and Museums.

Motion by Councilmember Holmgren to approve the ordinance and establish the Arts Council for art related matters, but strike the conflict of interest section. Motion seconded by Councilmember Rohde. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Doutre – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Reese – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.

g. Discussion and consideration of approving appointments of individuals to serve on the Tremonton City Arts Council

Councilmember Holmgren suggested appointing Dave Lasley to be the chair of that committee with Jason Nessen, Tamara Zollinger, and Leisl Sorensen, along with Councilmember Rohde, who just volunteered. Councilmember Doutre asked how long they would serve. Councilmember Holmgren said a term of office is four years with the option to re-run if they want to. They will have some four-year terms and two-year terms so they are staggered.

Councilmember Doutre wonder if they needed to have more people on the Arts Council. Councilmember Holmgren said if people came forward with an interest, then the City Council could approve them. There has to be at least five members, but it does not say it has to be five. It can also be someone like Jason Nessen, who does not live in Tremonton, although the majority will have to be Tremonton residents. Coordinator LeFevre said the ordinance states there are five to seven members for the Council. It is important to keep that number so there are not too many cooks in the kitchen. If we can keep to a smaller number, they will be able to accomplish more things. The Council agreed to have five volunteer members, a staff member and a Councilmember.

Motion by Councilmember Holmgren to approve the appointment of the stated individuals for the committee. Motion seconded by Councilmember Rohde. Vote: Councilmember Doutre – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Reese – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.

h. Discussion and consideration of approving Resolution No. 18-05 approving a Local Arts Agency Designation Agreement between the Utah Division of Arts & Museums and Tremonton City

Councilmember Holmgren said this gives a designation so we can apply for funds.

Motion by Councilmember Holmgren to approve the ordinance. Motion seconded by Councilmember Reese. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Doutre – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Reese – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.

i. Discussion and consideration of approving Resolution No. 18-06 approving the filing of an eminent domain action, pursuant to Utah Code 78B-6-504, to acquire necessary land for a public utility easement

Motion by Councilmember Reese to approve the resolution. Motion seconded by Councilmember Doutre. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Doutre – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Reese – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.

9. Calendar Items and Previous Assignment

a. Review of calendar

The Council was reminded of some calendar items, including the Library’s activity for boys (music, science and super heroes), which will be held at the Senior Center. They also discussed the annual Daddy Daughter Dance, which was well attended (400 people).

Manager Warnke said EDCU (Economic Development Corporation of Utah) is having an orientation meeting in Salt Lake City on February 16, at 9 a.m. March 9, is the Youth City Council dinner. Councilmember Holmgren is over the Youth City Council. Others can attend, but should coordinate with him. There is also a Utah League Conference in April. Councilmembers need to RSVP to Recorder Nessen.

b. Review of past assignment

Councilmember Rohde said he and Manager Warnke decided to create a sub-committee with members of the community to help create a mission statement for the City. That committee will come up with suggestions for the Council, which will help move things forward. Manager Warnke will get that organized.

10. Reports & Comments:

a. City Manager Reports and Comments

1. Utah Division of Occupational Safety and Health (UOSH) Inspection of Police Department and Fire Department

Manager Warnke said the City received an inspection from UOSH for the Fire and Police Departments. On occasion, they will inspect local government with the idea of improving safety. We passed with flying colors—they had nothing but good things to say. There is another opportunity to be audited with all the other Departments and functions of the City. We learned that we are prepared, but through this process were able to learn things that will help us prepare for general operations and safety. Councilmember Doutre asked if they were given any ideas on how the City could improve. Manager Warnke said one issue they brought up was relative to the Fire Department and physicals with wearing self-contained breathing apparatus. This puts a physical strain on individuals who wear that type of equipment and they wanted something more specific there. We do extensive physicals when we hire, but they wanted that requirement called out. Otherwise, with the police there was nothing. We had good policies that we are a part of and that ties back to Lexipol, a subscription policy manual we use.

2. Review and discussion of the recruitment process for the Police Chief

Manager Warnke brought up Police Chief Nance’s retirement in June and said we are happy for him, but we need to work on finding a replacement. Part of the duty of the City manger is to provide appointments for the Council’s consideration. Manager Warnke said he would like to create a working group that involves the Council in this decision in evaluating candidates. Participating in that panel would be Chief Nance, another law enforcement representative, City Attorney Dustin Ericson, who asked to be involved since he interacts with the Chief and would have some good insights, as well as Mayor Fridal, Manager Warnke and a Council representative. Councilmember Reese expressed his desire to be a part of that and asked if there would be an opportunity to hire from within. Manager Warnke said we would encourage internal candidates to apply based on qualifications, but there are only a couple who meet those requirements. He will put together a job description and announcement. They will need to discuss the appropriate pay. They plan to post an average range and base it on candidates’ qualifications. He said it is money well spent to make sure we have a good Chief to lead the Department. Councilmember Reese said he was here when Nance came on as Chief. The change he made to the community was phenomenal and the things he has done as Police Chief is second to none, so thank you.

b. City Department Head Reports and Comments

There were no department head reports or comments.

c. Council Reports and Comments

Councilmember Vance likes that they have added calendar items and previous assignments to the agenda. He said he would like to see them follow-up with negotiations with the Canal Company for wastewater. Councilmember Holmgren said he would. Councilmember Vance suggested taking he and Director Fulgham also. He said he has talked to Rupp’s about installing the pipes for secondary water. The Council had discussed ripping up two feet of tar next to the curb and gutter, however, excavator Blaine Rupp said that will be closer to six feet with the machine used to do that. Councilmember Vance said we need to make sure we know what we are talking about and how much road will need to be repaired when we put secondary in. Two feet versus six feet will increase the cost substantially.

Councilmember Holmgren thanked Chief Nance for his years of service and also thanked Director Christensen and Coordinator LeFevre for their efforts in putting together the Arts Council.

Mayor Fridal said they need to review and talk about Council assignments to make sure they are comfortable with those.

Motion by Councilmember Vance to move into closed session. Motion seconded by Councilmember Doutre. Vote: Councilmember Doutre – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Reese – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.

The Council moved into a closed session at 8:30 p.m.

11. CLOSED SESSIONS:

Motion by Councilmember Reese to return to open session. Motion seconded by Councilmember Rohde. Vote: Councilmember Doutre – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Reese – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.

The Council returned to open session at 9:12 p.m.

12. Adjournment

Motion by Councilmember Holmgren to adjourn the meeting. Motion seconded by Councilmember Rohde. Vote: Councilmember Doutre – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Reese – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.

The meeting adjourned at 9:12 p.m.

The undersigned duly acting and appointed Recorder for Tremonton City Corporation hereby certifies that the foregoing is a true and correct copy of the minutes for the City Council Meeting held on the above referenced date. Minutes were prepared by Jessica Tanner.

Dated this 20th day of February, 2018.

Linsey Nessen, City Recorder

Follow-up items for the Council and City Staff

Councilmember Holmgren will start working on negotiations with the Canal Company to exchange wastewater for canal shares.

Councilmembers need to RSVP to Recorder Nessen about the Utah League Conference in April. She will get rooms reserved.

Manager Warnke will work on organizing a sub-committee with members of the community to help create a mission statement for the City. He will also put together a job description and announcement for a new Police Chief.

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