City Council Minutes 4-7-26

TREMONTON CITY CORPORATION
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
APRIL 7, 2026

Members Present:
Kristie Bowcutt
Brent Jex
Beau Lewis
Sharri Oyler
Blair Westergard
Bret Rohde, Mayor
Linsey Nessen, City Manager
Cynthia Nelson, City Recorder—excused

CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP

Mayor Rohde called the April 7, 2026 City Council Workshop to order at 6:00 p.m. The meeting was held in the City Council Meeting Room at 102 South Tremont Street, Tremonton, Utah. Those in attendance were Mayor Rohde, Councilmembers Bowcutt, Jex, Lewis, Oyler, and Westergard, and City Manager Nessen. City Recorder Nelson was excused.

1. Call to Order and Declaration of Conflict of Interest

2. Council Reports and Updates

Councilmember Bowcutt said our new zoning administrator is finding a lot of stuff, which will be good. We have hired our planning director, who will start later this month. He has worked out of Morgan County and gained knowledge there. We will do interviews for Planning Commission members. A merchant who has a problem with dumpsters in the City’s alleyway reached out. This was brought up in a DRC in January. Another storefront owner has given her permission to park her delivery truck in his lot. He is going to repave the parking and the dumpsters will have to be moved out of that alleyway. Thanks for the tour of the treatment plant. It was educational. Public Works is doing well but are down two leads. They have really good employees who will be able to pass certification and move into those roles. The plant is slowly failing, and Director Mackley will report on that. They are putting in the bridge portion today for Rocket Road. Secondary water is expanding and there is also the equalization basin. Culinary water replacement is moving along on 100 West. A bid came in for the new section of the cemetery ($57,200) and was awarded to Rupp’s Trucking.

Councilmember Jex said the police department has been really busy. We had a good meeting with Manager Nessen about coming in as close to target on budget for the remainder of the year. Our speed trailer is requested all over the City. Two areas where we have the biggest concern is on 1000 North and Iowa String. I want to look into the feasibility of doing a couple permanent solar powered speed signs. They cost between $1,700 and $3,500 apiece. Can we find this in the budget? Two or three of those signs would be great coming into the City. According to the data, some of those speeds get pretty high. I will have neck surgery before our next meeting and will participate by Zoom. We need to be asking questions as we go through the budget and throughout the year. That is not an attack, it is educational. We have to ask those hard questions to gain perspective, so we are not just rubber-stamping stuff we do not understand.

Councilmember Lewis said we are going to apply for the Main Street America program. We are asking Kelly Wood to be the Main Street director and will involve anybody who wants to be a part of that. RDA funds are going to be available and we want to make sure we are on top of that. With Main Street America we would be in tier one if we get accepted. This is a model that has been proven. They know Main Streets, which sets us up for long-term success. After the attorney reviews it, we can bring it to our next meeting as a resolution. We are meeting with a real estate group next week that is going to bring in a lot of jobs. We will meet to make sure we are aligned for business and commercial development. There are real estate conversations that need to be had. We will talk about that in our Closed Meeting. With our billboards I do have a business that wants it. I can get terms over to them. Tremonton could be on there, too. Mayor Rohde said Manager Nessen can help you get the contract and everything in place.

Councilmember Westergard said all of our residents who dump grass are pissed that the resource was taken away at the treatment plant. After some discussion, Director Mackley said it is a change for people and we understand that. That is part of trying to keep the level of services we have. It was unmonitored. We did not have gates and it was not controlled. People came from all over to dump. The reason we do not charge now is because we need the green waste to turn it into compost. It is more economical to compost our solids than to landfill them. The other area is a bit further south, but still available for free.

Councilmember Oyler said the food pantry brought in a lot with the last drive. Numbers are up on the families they serve, but they are still good. The Senior Center held their health fair, and Director Christensen learned new things at her conference to be implementing.

Mayor Rohde said thanks for the reports. I think it is awesome the way you are all involved with various departments. He then read a letter that will be sent to Congressman Moore’s office. The letter spoke of support in renaming the Tremonton City post office to the Sorenson Estrada Post Office to honor those fallen officers. Part of the letter stated, it creates a permanent, dignified memorial for the ultimate sacrifice they made, and serves as a daily reminder to every officer putting on the uniform that their community has their back. The city of Tremonton stands completely united behind this proposal.

3. Presentations:

a. Title: Water Rate Study & Analysis of Impact Fees

Public Works Director Carl Mackley said we budgeted for this fiscal year $70,000 to be equally distributed between secondary and culinary to do a rate study and impact fee analysis. We are waiting for Jones and Associates to do our Capital Facilities Plan. That is the nuts-and-bolts sides of the impact that water has, both culinary and secondary. Then this water rate study and analysis of the impact fees is just a financial side of that. That builds off of the Capital Facilities Plan and Impact Fee Plan that is put forth. That will be in July sometime. It will be great to have that done to determine what the true cost of water is. We will communicate that openly with recommendations that the Council can discuss and make decisions on.

b. Title: RES 26-19 Awarding bid for Secondary Water SA9 Expansion

Director Mackley said there are three projects we are shuffling around. For the Holmgren Estates East subdivision, we have 15 bids, which is fantastic. We budgeted $800,000. I am recommending the Council award this contract to Great Basin Development for $343,601.80. They were the second lowest bid. Our lowest bidder did not qualify. We got good references and it is less than we thought.

c. Title: WWTP Upgrades

Director Mackley said this is the Reader’s Digest version of what was sent. Our engineer over wastewater treatment gives me direction on the recommendations we do, how much it might cost and when to do it. Director Mackley then reviewed a graph showing a three-year average of the amount of water coming in, along with the 1.9 million gallons per day limit. Our plant was designed for two million gallons a day. We are flirting pretty heavily with that red line right now. Our plant is old and aging. It is slowly failing, particularly the aeration basin. There are three bundles of projects that need to be done. A lot of them do not give additional capacity unless we do all of them. If this were an automobile, we would have sold it a long time ago. It is in poor shape. I have lots of concerns on infrastructure needs with our roads and water, but my biggest concern is the state of the treatment plant. It is old and has been neglected for a while. The Council has approved and set aside money for Phase 1. This memorandum discusses three separate phases. The first is aeration basins and secondary clarifiers. That will bring new life into our plant. That is $7.2 million that we have already been working on and are going to spend over the next year. The next group of projects needed, is the digester and solids handling rehabilitation (about $3 million). The engineer recommends we start design on that this summer so we can build next year. My job is to find that money and after that find somewhere between $4.5 million to $9 million, depending on how we design and what needs to happen. Head works is the third phase and will add capacity. If we do all three of those, we can have additional capacity, buying us 10 to 20 years at the plant. After which, it is time to plan another plant with six million gallons per day, peak hour flow. I determined that one home contributes 360 gallons per day. The Council has been asking for those types of numbers. This graph shows the additional thousand homes and I would say, we are somewhere between those two lines with what we have already approved, but not built. We are spending millions right now and proposing to spend millions more. I can backtrack what developments have been approved, but not built and put a line on this graph saying this is going to be the impact. That could help us as decision makers to determine if and when the City can handle more developments depending on capacity.

d. Title: Emergency Management Presentation—Nate Christensen

Mr. Christensen said there is training available for elected officials and I want to schedule that for the Council. This would teach you your role and responsibilities in an emergency. You will be backing us up with policies and more. The County Emergency Manager would do that for us. It would take two to four hours depending on questions. A date would be determined for this training to be scheduled.

e. Title: Discussion on Budget

This item would be addressed during Strategic Business of the Council Meeting.

4. CLOSED MEETING: No Closed Meeting held at this time.

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

The meeting adjourned at 6:55 p.m. by consensus of the Council.

CITY COUNCIL MEETING

Mayor Rohde called the April 7, 2026 City Council Meeting to order at 7:00 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 Rohde, Councilmembers Bowcutt, Jex, Lewis, Oyler, and Westergard, and City Manager Nessen. City Recorder Nelson was excused.

1. Call to Order

2. Invocation by: Councilmember Jex
Pledge by: Rick Jeppsen

3. Roll Call

4. Approval of Agenda:

Mayor Rohde suggested moving the budget discussion from the Work Session onto their Council Meeting agenda before Item 12. Councilmember Bowcutt also suggested moving the Financial Statements to Strategic Business for more discussion.

Motion by Councilmember Lewis to approve the agenda of April 7, 2026 with the changes state above. Motion seconded by Councilmember Jex. Vote: Councilmember Bowcutt – yes, Councilmember Jex – yes, Councilmember Lewis – yes, Councilmember Oyler – yes, Councilmember Westergard – yes. Motion approved.

5. Presentation

a. Tremonton City Citizenship Award to Elementary & Intermediate Students

Mayor Rohde said this is the best part of the evening when we get to present these wonderful students with their citizenship awards. We appreciate all they do. Councilmember Bowcutt then announced the students and presented their awards. They took a picture.

6. Declaration of Conflict of Interest: None.

7. Presentations

a. American Legion Photo Presentation – John McClellan and David Winkler

The Council was presented with a picture of Mayor Rohde and Garland’s Mayor, along with the American Legion National Commander during a recent event. Mr. Winkler said we are working on plans for the USA 250 celebration and Tremonton is helping by sponsoring it. On May 23, we are doing a Gold Star Walk in honor of the families who have lost loved ones in any war. We will walk from Midland Square to the cemetery and back, which is two miles. If we get 125 people signed up, then that would be 250 miles to celebrate 250 years. Everyone is invited. Mr. McClellan said we will officially unveil the battle cross monument at Midland Square that has recently been added and Mayor Rohde will speak. This is a fundraiser for the Veterans and Childs Foundation—a national foundation. Registration for the walk is $5 and we start at 9 a.m.

8. Years of Service Awards

a. Teagan Stocks, Fire Department – 5 years of service

Fire Chief Jeff Jarrow read his bio and presented his award. The Council thanked him for his service.

9. Proclamation

a. Arbor Day – April 24, 2026

Councilman Oyler read the proclamation for the observation of Arbor Day and Mayor Rohde proclaimed it.

b. Child Abuse Awareness & Presentation—Mary Sue Swift, Wendy Guldewall, Olivia Holland, and Casey Merrell

Ms. Swift said we are with Prevent Child Abuse Utah. We all need to work together to help prevent child abuse. Ms. Holland said I am a resident of Tremonton and am honored to be here. Unfortunately, abuse is part of our community. I am happy to discuss our other events being hold in the future with this proclamation and to be a representative of prevention abuse with our city. Ms. Swift said there are blue pinwheels throughout town that are a representative of a happy childhood. On April 21, at 4 p.m., the library we will hold a family event and pass out resources to help with child abuse prevention and creating kindness rocks. She then read the proclamation proclaiming April as Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness Month. Mayor Rohde signed it and they took pictures.

10. Citizen Engagement

Bill Roosma said I am grateful for the opportunity to attend Citizens Academy with the police department. It was a lot of fun and I hope it continues. I know money is tight and you have a tough road when it comes to the budget. We used to have gun safety in school, but do not have that anymore. It would be nice to have hunter’s education in the schools, too. How many of us carry firearms? Not everybody goes into the military or becomes an officer. Education is a good thing. I would like to see a State sponsored class, where your city has lawful use of deadly force training. A two-week course people could pay for. I think training like that should be mandatory for anybody who carries a gun.

Bryan Bollingbroke said I handed out some reports to share with the City. This involves eight different cities. After reviewing the City’s fee and payload summaries, it is clear that Tremonton does not have a revenue problem, we have a structural one. The fee report shows we can generate $2.6 million annually simply by ensuring services pay for themselves. Currently property taxes are subsidizing roughly $1 million in those services. That should be funded by users and developers benefiting from them. That is not a revenue gap, that is a policy gap. You need to apply the same level of scrutiny to payroll. Everything I found is on transparentutah.gov website for governmental organizations. From a candidacy, our payroll has grown 80% over the last five years, doubling the rate of our population growth. In some departments, costs have exploded by over 500% without a clear public record of authorization. When costs increase at that pace without clear discussion, it raises important questions about processes, priorities, transparency, and long-term sustainability. This is not about questioning the value of City employees, it is about ensuring the growth and staffing and that compensation is deliberate, justified, and aligned with what the community can support. We are asking residents to pay more through fees and taxes. We also have the responsibility to demonstrate the internal growth is being carefully managed and transparently reviewed. The issue is not that we need more money from residents. It is that we need to ensure growth pays for growth and that revenue, collections, and spending are handled with that same discipline and accountability. I ask that you look at these two reports. The revenue is there, we just need to collect it properly and manage it responsibly to avoid further burdens on our taxpayers.

11. Consent Agenda – Any Councilmember may request an item be removed for separate discussion

a. Approval of minutes – March 3, 2026
b. Adoption of December 2025, January 2026, & February 2026 Financial Statements & Warrant Registers

This item was move to Strategic Business and will be done this way permanently.

c. Approval of Resolution No. 26-19 awarding bid for Secondary Water SA9 Expansion

Motion by Councilmember Jex to approve the Consent Agenda. Motion seconded by Councilmember Bowcutt. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Bowcutt – yes, Councilmember Jex – yes, Councilmember Lewis – yes, Councilmember Oyler – yes, Councilmember Westergard – yes. Motion approved.

At this point in time, the Council went over their budget discussion from the Work Session. Mayor Rohde said this is a new tool I am developing, called the Tremonton Connect Data Standard. This will help us get objective data to what is being presented. I wanted you to look at this and tell me what we could do to improve it and make it easier for decisions in the future. We have two departments needing more money than what is standard—fire and police—based on the national benchmark. This is a spreadsheet I put together. This takes all the information that has been given to us from other departments and has their year-to-date actions and budget. This is not going to tell the whole picture, but I think the important thing to look at is what they budgeted for 2026 and what they are asking for in 2027. You can see what percentage of the General Fund is being requested. Most of the other funds have their own budgets. We do transfer in about 14% of our General Fund to making them whole. The Police Department is fully funded through the General Fund. I think we have some ideas to move the police to their own. Last year, it was hard for us to make decisions because everything was thrown at us. I am trying to find an easier way to do this. Coming up with percentages should help. The police are asking for 45.9% of the General Fund and the fire department is asking for 14.1%. They are the two that are over. Our job as a Council and legislative branch is to take care of the financial future of the City. We need to make sure we are building a future. The decisions we make this year will affect the future. We need to start setting goals and working toward getting ourselves whole.

Councilmember Jex said we have to take into account that costs go up for everything. We need to consider other comparisons. I would like to take an honest look at everything. We have had conversations before about being proactive instead of reactive. We will pay hand over fist 10 years down the road with a reactive response. It is going to cost significantly more to let a problem get out of hand. We have to appropriately staff for the rapidly growing population. The reality of the ask is to trim down, but we asked Chief Dustin Cordova for a perfect world scenario and if we had everything to meet that, what would that look like? Now we know where that benchmark is for that ultimate thing and can peel back on it. If we are going to plan for 10 years in the future, we have to include data from more than the ICMA. It has to factor in crime rate and drugs and much more. All these budgets can be trimmed back, but we have to ask ourselves what are we willing to do without. That is part of the calculation, too, not just finance. Yes, we do have financial obligations to residents, but we also have obligations to protect them and make sure they can flush their toilets. Right now, the Police Department does not have the capacity to keep up on the call volume. I believe wholeheartedly in transparency, but I also believe in painting that picture. We had a great experience touring the sewer plant and have a good understanding of what will happen if that plant fails. I 100% trust our department heads to make the decisions they see fit. I just want to make sure we are looking beyond percentages and getting a big glimpse to ensure we are operating efficiently. I believe efficiencies are the thing we should be focusing on as part of the equation. Councilmember Bowcutt said thanks for your insight. I look at things from a different angle. We are all being asked to do more with less in our homes. Nobody is living on the same income they had a few years ago. Times are tough. There are ways we can and should make cuts. Spending going to outside sources has become the norm. I want to see that cut a third because I know we have smart enough people within our own departments. For our building inspections I know we did not pay the former building inspector what we are paying now. I strongly believe we can get someone in house and cut that budget drastically, along with other ways. The reality is we need to tighten our belt. A lot has been pushed down the road. I have sat in these meetings since 2019 and a lot of stuff was not done the way it should have been done. As a city we can do better. We have to work for it and save. Councilmember Westergard said I would love to give these guys the stuff they need, but there is not enough money. We have to have money in our savings, too.

The Council spent time discussing economic opportunities that could be coming their way that would help bring more business and sales tax. Councilmember Lewis said there are things we should definitely be looking at. As departments there are probably savings. I would propose that in the next meeting we get this report pulled up and say, let us go through the exercise of finding $500,000 and see if you can do it right. The Council discussed ways to bring in more money through business licenses and opportunities that are not being taken by the City. Councilmember Bowcutt said a business license is not meant to be a revenue generating source, but we have services that could use a little bit of a kick. Those getting an income through a business or rentals, we could charge a license for those things. I know a study is being done and am excited to see what they come up with. Mayor Rohde said for a week I went through our finances and came up with a list of 16 different items that I consider waste. They account for almost a million dollars of revenue gain. This is going to make the whole budget cycle so much easier every year for our departments. I am trying to simplify this process. What I am asking for tonight is what direction can you give these managers so they can go back and start to bring this in line? What number do you want to save this year? Councilmember Lewis said about 20% in savings. We should be putting away a million dollars. Mayor Rohde said we are not doing a good job of having grants and there are other things we can do now to start to grow other pieces of the pie and get more revenue. I think we can do this together. Our employees are important and we want to do the right things, but how are we going to do that? Councilmember Westergard said impact fees ought to be what we can legally charge. Councilmember Lewis said with an impact fee, you have to do a study and those are not cheap. As a council, there are too many nuances for us to make these decisions. We need to give the guidance that we cannot spend more than we have, and we have to save for future infrastructure. We also have to consider economics. Our City costs are going up with inflation every year. We do not grow in property tax revenue. The only way we grow is in sales tax revenue. We have clear strategic objectives we are working toward to increase that. The reality is, if we are not adjusting our property tax through Truth and Taxation we will get behind. There are revenues we could obtain and be super aggressive about this year to try to close the gap, but long-term, if our costs are going up and we are not adjusting at the same rate we are punting it to another Council. I am trying to find ways to decrease it. We could become an economic center that is so successful that we actually get rid of property tax, but we are not. Our costs are going up and until that happens, we have to adjust. We can look at our costs this year and find what we need, but then we have to start thinking about next year and adjusting with inflation on a yearly basis. I would rather be a good steward annually. Mayor Rohde asked Manager Nessen to work with department heads to see if they can each find 15% on that bottom line. They will continue this discussion at their next meeting.

12. Strategic Business (Ordinances & Policies)

The Council discussed the financial statements and listened to public input. Mr. Roosma asked what the sales tax is in Tremonton. Councilmember Lewis said it is around 6.6%. Mr. Roosma said the sales tax in Yuma, Arizona, where I lived for many years was 9%. The way inflation is going it is scary how much more things cost now than they did. I put money down on my house in November of 2020. I got in before the interest rates went stupid and I feel for young people. Mayor Rohde said we do have a rap tax that can be added to the sales tax for recreation. It is very minimal, but those tools are available to us. There is also a tax on entertainment and hotels. Councilmember Lewis said we do want to be careful with which of those levers we pull. People will actually come from out of town to buy vehicles because the sales tax is lower, and they save a bunch on what they pay elsewhere. That does bring a lot of revenue to the City. Mr. Roosma said when I was in Yuma, I was a member of the gun club. We had all kinds of events and I ran a raffle. Maybe we could raise money for the police department through a raffle of some sort.

Mr. Bollingbroke said this shows averages and pretty much on all of them (impact fees, building permits, business licenses, etc.) Tremonton sits in the bottom out of nine cities. As far as what I could tell, we are justified to raise them. We do need to get that studied because I think we have not collected any of the money we should have for years. We have not adjusted impact fees at all. We have been building over 100 homes in Tremonton every year for the last three to five years. We are also way down on building fees. We have not looked at these fees forever. Same with business licenses. We are not collecting what we could. That is all easy money and low-hanging fruit. Just looking at the numbers I can tell you what is going on. Most of this money is restricted funds, which could be for your roads, sewer, and water. It would definitely help the sewer department. There is flexibility in these other and you still have roughly $2.6 million.

Motion by Councilmember Bowcutt to approve the Financial Statements. Motion seconded by Councilmember Lewis. Vote: Councilmember Bowcutt – yes, Councilmember Jex – yes, Councilmember Lewis – yes, Councilmember Oyler – yes, Councilmember Westergard – yes. Motion approved.

13. Reports and Calendar

a. City Manager Report
b. Upcoming Calendar Items

Mayor Rohde said literacy night is on April 20 and the Slothathon will be at Jeanie Stevens on April 30, at 7:30 p.m. Spring cleanup will be May 6-8. Stamp out Hunger Food Drive is May 9 and the library’s Summer Reading Kickoff Party is May 29. We also have the ULCT training April 22. We will not have City Council that week. Manager Nessen said the first meeting in May is when the tentative budget discussion will happen.

The Council then moved into a closed meeting to discussion real property and the character of an individual.

Motion by Councilmember Lewis to move into Closed Meeting. Motion seconded by Councilmember Oyler. Vote: Councilmember Bowcutt – yes, Councilmember Jex – yes, Councilmember Lewis – yes, Councilmember Oyler – yes, Councilmember Westergard – yes. Motion approved.

The Council moved into a closed meeting at 8:43 p.m.

14. CLOSED MEETING:

Motion by Councilmember Westergard to return to open meeting. Motion seconded by Councilmember Oyler. Vote: Councilmember Bowcutt – yes, Councilmember Jex – yes, Councilmember Lewis – yes, Councilmember Oyler – yes, Councilmember Westergard – yes. Motion approved.

The Council returned to open session at 9:13 p.m.

15. Adjournment.

Motion by Councilmember Oyler to adjourn the meeting. Motion seconded by Councilmember Westergard. Vote: Councilmember Bowcutt – yes, Councilmember Jex – yes, Councilmember Lewis – yes, Councilmember Oyler – yes, Councilmember Westergard – yes. Motion approved.

The meeting adjourned at 9:13 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 5th day of May, 2026.

Cynthia Nelson, City Recorder

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