City Council Minutes 6-2-20

TREMONTON CITY CORPORATION
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
JUNE 2, 2020

Members Present:
Connie Archibald
Lyle Holmgren
Bret Rohde
Rick Seamons
Lyle Vance
Roger Fridal, Mayor
Shawn Warnke, City Manager
Linsey Nessen, City Recorder

CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP

Mayor Fridal called the June 2, 2020 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 Fridal, Councilmembers Archibald, Holmgren, Rohde, Seamons, and Vance, City Manager Warnke, and City Recorder Nessen. The following Department Heads were also present: Community Services Director Marc Christensen, Police Chief Kurt Fertig, and Treasurer Sharri Oyler (arrived at 6:02 p.m.). Also in attendance were: Animal Control Officer Greg Horspool, as well as firefighters Nate Christensen, Chris Scothern, and Adam Tisher (left at 6:40 p.m., came back at 7:37 p.m.).

1. Review of items listed on the 7:00 p.m. agenda

The Council discussed an ordinance that would consider the approval of business licensing fees. Manager Warnke said we contracted with Zion’s Finance to do an analysis that looks at the disproportionate fees associated with the cost to regulate businesses that have more regulations. There is a disproportionate cost for providing public safety and our current fee does not break it out into those categories. The Council reviewed a spreadsheet to see how this could affect businesses. Manager Warnke said the administration fee is the cost to regulate the business. We receive an application, process it and then provide them with a business license. The disproportion cost is associated with any elevated public safety. The analysis looked at the average call volume for police and fire services to a single-family home and that became the base amount. They then looked at businesses and their call demand for a two-year period. There were three high categories. For hotels and motels the proposed rate was $2,000 for their impact on public safety. The hospital was $23,000 and for convenience stores it was $6,000. However, some of those businesses generate revenue to the City. It is being proposed we take the highest fees and excluding those because some of those businesses have a higher sales tax impact associated with them and are bringing people in town. Per our population, we should have sales far less than the 237% we are at. There would be a $16,000 increase in revenue with these fees being adopted. We already get $20,000 so if this were to be implemented as it is drafted, we would anticipate having $36,000 in revenue associated with that, which essentially covers our costs. Some business licenses would go down and some would go up. If enacted, the ordinance would not be effective until the first part of December.

When we issue a business license, the fee is going to be $35.95 and when they renew, it will be $17.60. That is all based upon the cost to process the paperwork and regulations associated with it. There is a $13.50 late fee for renewals and if they lose the business license and want a new one it is $6.60. The State legislation does not want us charging for home businesses. Beer licenses cost $284 to regulate those. For disproportionate costs, there are additional fees associated with the cost to regulate and are usually in the form of inspections. This essentially has each business paying the correct costs associated with elevated call responses for fire and police protection.

The Council considered deleting a line in the Personnel Policies and Procedures Manual that talks about part-time employees receiving Utah Retirement System (URS) as part of their employment. Manager Warnke said, in the past, one part-timer was receiving URS, which is a retirement benefit. We have previously formalized what had already been done in the employee manual by recognizing this was a limited case. That employee was receiving URS, but that person is now retired. It is proposed we remove this from our personnel manual. If you adopt the resolution you are authorizing the recorders office to go through and delete those references in the manual. No part-time employees are currently receiving the benefit.

Manager Warnke told the Council about a land acquisition agreement between the City and Bar M Land & Livestock LLC. The City closed on property for the future expansion of 1650 West on the south side of Main Street. The existing portion of 1650 West needs to be expanded to accommodate this upgraded intersection. There is some additional land I need to talk to Buttars Tractors about for the north portion. Randy Molding is the landowner and has been great to work with. We bought it for $4.25 a square foot, which is $800 above the market value for a total of $2,776. The County is paying for everything minus the 800 we are paying. There was good reason to get this acquired now rather than revisiting it at a future date. If approved, we can move forward on closing. The City will be responsible for moving the existing curb and gutter back to the new location. There was a fire hydrant on that corner, but it was removed when we did the expansion of the storm water project on Main Street. We will replace that. Mr. Molding is responsible for all the frontage improvements on Main Street.

2. Discussion of the draft Budget FY 2021, the possibilities of property tax increases, and Fire/EMS staffing plan

Manager Warnke said let us take a moment to go through the issues as it relates to the agreements we have for mutual aid, automatic aid, and providing services for fire. For mutual and automatic aid, we have entered into agreements with Brigham City and Box Elder County, the Fire Special Service District, and Garland. The mutual aid agreement is that we will provide assistance when dispatched by the County. The responsible agency shows up and if additional resources are needed they ask that their partners be dispatched. Automatic aid is when the call for help comes in automatically. They page not only the responsible agency, but also their partners. There are benefits to these agreements. They help lower our ISO rating and commit our resources equally. Here are the agreements we have entered into. All have expired, but we have continued to honor those original agreements. That is something we should update. Brigham City is different because it is not only firefighting but also ambulance. When they have multiple calls, we stage an ambulance at their station to respond to the next call. We also contract for fire protection services with Box Elder County. We respond to all fire and hazmat calls in Elwood and the unincorporated areas, which is limited to a geographical area. Elwood City has contracted us to provide fire protection for a portion of their city. In exchange for us being their primary fire response, we charge a hard cost—a cost to have a fire department staged, fully equipped, trained and ready to respond. That cost to Box Elder County is $21,000 a year and $15,000 to Elwood. Tremonton City’s amount would be $181,000, which we have never paid from the General Fund, it has always been part of the operations for revenue generated from EMS. Those numbers are calculated based upon dwelling units ($58.15 per unit). Soft costs are the costs associate with responding to a specific incident (the personnel, fuel, time, and equipment). The total billing of the department for the 2019 fiscal year was $1.4 million. A significant amount of that was attributed to transfers ($939,000). There are write-offs because of Medicare and Medicaid, as well as issues with bad debt and bankruptcy.

Manager Warnke said I would like to continue to dig into this issue and figure out if we are disproportionately going outside our service boundaries to a point we should be readjusting those or do something different. We can see where we are going, how we are providing services, and if everyone is participating a fair amount. That brings us to this ongoing discussion of increasing fire staffing and public safety. What is being contemplated is one additional officer for $87,000, which includes their total compensation for wages and benefits. A fire chief and a three-person crew working a 48/96 schedule, which means we would have around the clock coverage. We would need to hire nine individuals to do that, which equals $880,000. During our next meeting, June 16, we will need to make some formal decisions about this upcoming year’s budget and the certified tax rate. To adopt a certified tax rate we have to provide notice that we are going through Truth in Taxation and hold the necessary public hearings. We would then adopt a resolution that proposes the amount of revenue needed and give notice to the Box Elder County Auditor of what that is and adopt a tentative budget. We would hold the public hearings and the Council would make a decision at that point.

Mayor Fridal asked how urgently things need to happen. Firefighter Nate Christensen said, without doing anything at all, it is pretty urgent. There are things that could prolong it years, but it would require work and involvement of the entire department. Firefighter Chris Scothern said there are two things that need to happen for us to continue to do what we are doing now, at least for a couple more years. First, we have to motivate those who are less motivated and we need to figure out a better recruiting process. Otherwise we are going to have to start talking about a big increase in funding to go full-time. Councilmember Rohde asked if we had a full-time staff, what happens to the volunteers. Mr. Scothern said their call volume would decrease. I think you are going to see some motivation decrease with that as well. Mr. Christensen said if we go to a staff with four people that will be two ambulances working and the chances of us part-time guys doing anything goes down. Councilmember Vance asked if we have done everything we can do with recruiting or are there different ideas. Mr. Christensen said, in my opinion, we have done very little to recruit. Councilmember Holmgren suggested incentives to encourage more people to volunteer. Mr. Scothern said we could put together a recruitment plan and work with Recorder Nessen to see what could be done. There are ways to target the right folks with the right methodology. Mr. Christensen said the Touch-a-Truck event would be a good opportunity to have a booth and give hands on experience. Councilmember Rohde also suggested the County fair and going to schools. The Council asked them to come back with some plans for their review.

3. CLOSED SESSIONS: No closed session was 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 7:02 p.m. by consensus of the Council.

CITY COUNCIL MEETING

Mayor Fridal called the June 2, 2020 City Council Meeting to order at 7:08 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 Archibald Holmgren, Rohde, Seamons, and Vance, City Manager Warnke, and City Recorder Nessen. The following Department Heads were also present: Community Services Director Marc Christensen, Police Chief Kurt Fertig, and Treasurer Sharri Oyler (left at 8 p.m.). Also in attendance were: Animal Control Officer Greg Horspool, as well as firefighters Nate Christensen, Chris Scothern, and Adam Tisher.

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 Holmgren and the Pledge of Allegiance was led by Recorder Nessen.

2. Introduction of guests:

Mayor Fridal welcomed those in attendance.

3. Declaration of Conflict of Interest: none

4. Approval of Agenda:

Motion by Councilmember Archibald to approve the agenda of June 2, 2020. Motion seconded by Councilmembers Rohde and Vance. Vote: Councilmember Archibald – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Seamons – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.

5. Approval of minutes – May 19, 2020

Motion by Councilmember Holmgren to approve the minutes of May 19, 2020. Motion seconded by Councilmember Seamons. Vote: Councilmember Archibald – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Seamons – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.

6. Public comments: Comments limited to three minutes.

Resident Brady Fereday asked about the entry-level police officer position and why the total would be $87,000 a year. Why is that so high? He was told to discuss that with Chief Fertig.

Resident Ben Greener said I also want to talk about the property taxes you are thinking about raising. I have a property in Washington City and for a $180,000 tax value home there I pay $205 in city taxes. In Tremonton for a $108,240 home, almost $70,000 less, I pay $260.32. I want you to consider that when you think about raising property taxes. Something to consider would be a city sales tax. We are one of the few that do not have that. I think you would collect more revenue from people outside our town that use our city services. Please consider other revenues before you consider raising property taxes. There are a lot of fixed income people and I think you will have a lot of rejection on this.

Resident Rebecca Anderson said my concern is also with the property tax increase. We 100% support our police and emergency services in town—they are phenomenal, especially for just being voluntary, but with so many outlying communities using our services it seems like they should have a tax increase as well. There are at least seven other communities who use our services and it seems crazy in a town where we are already having problems with the secondary water system, as well as people losing their jobs with the pandemic, to even consider raising property taxes, especially up to 64%, is insane.

Resident Tyler Anderson said how come this was not put out and given more notification about the meeting. He also suggested they go to a baseball game to promote and recruit people for the volunteer department. It is packed. You could bring in the fire truck, which could help with recruitment.

7. City Council Business

a. Discussion and consideration of adopting Ordinance No. 20-07 approving business licensing fees including licensing fees on businesses that causes disproportionate costs on municipal services provided by Tremonton City

Motion by Councilmember Holmgren to adopt the ordinance. Motion seconded by Councilmember Archibald. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Archibald – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Seamons – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.

b. Discussion and consideration of adopting Resolution No. 20-19 deleting from the Tremonton City Personnel Policies and Procedures Manual the phrase “Part-time employees receiving Utah Retirement System (URS) as part of their employment…”

Motion by Councilmember Rohde to adopt the resolution. Motion seconded by Councilmember Holmgren. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Archibald – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Seamons – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.

c. Discussion and consideration of adopting Resolution No. 20-20 approving a land acquisition agreement between Tremonton City and Bar M Land & Livestock LLC for Tremonton City’s purchase of land for the future expansion of 1650 West Collector Road

Motion by Councilmember Vance to adopt the resolution. Motion seconded by Councilmember Archibald. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Archibald – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Seamons – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.

8. Calendar Items and Previous Assignment

a. Review of calendar:

Customer Service training provided by the Trust will be held on July 9 at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

b. Review of past assignment: none.

9. Reports & Comments:

a. City Manager Reports and Comments

1. Update on the infrastructure needed to service land within Tremonton City’s declared annexation boundary
2. Update on the Neighborhood Improvement Program Grant facilitated by Neighborhood Housing Solutions and the possibility of committing additional funds for a future phase of the project
3. Tremonton City’s submission to the Bureau of Emergency Medical Services a Personnel Grant Application for FY 2021

The Council then discussed items that were not finalized in the work session. Manager Warnke said the ambulance write off column from 2014-2019 hovered around 30% of the revenue. Bad debt it is about 11%, which equates to $147,000 that we write off annually due to bankruptcies and debt.

Manager Warnke clarified that they are not considering raising property tax in this meeting, there is a process. We have been discussing it the last several months. There will be a formal process and everyone will be notified the best we can. It is a state prescribed process, but the Council needs to make a decision if they want to go through Truth in Taxation. The Council needs to tell me if you want to entertain a property tax increase or if you want me to prepare a final budget that is reflective of the revenues we have on hand without it. Otherwise it is a tentative budget with this proposed property tax increase. You would be creating the parameters to consider it into the future. This would give you the option to raise taxes and include public input. You would then weigh those with the need for providing services and how to provide that. The public hearing would have to occur before September 1. I need direction so I can prepare a budget that is appropriate for the Council to take action.

Manager Warnke said there was a change in the state legislature for the public safety retirement system. Years ago they split the Utah Retirement System and created two tiers. Tier 1 is for employees who are already enrolled before the change. They created Tier 2 and anyone hired after this law becomes a Tier 2 employee, which would have a lesser benefit. The State decided it was not competitive enough to entice people to select public safety as their career so they adjusted the retirement system upward. The State enacted a 2.2% increase in their employees’ contribution. In doing that the law allows cities to either pay that 2.2% or have the employee do so. Currently we have four police officers who are Tier 2 as it relates to retirement. It would be $4,500 for them that you would commit. Under the current staffing plan there would be nine firefighters ($8,000). That is representative for one year and would change as Tier 1 employees retire and employees in the future are hired. There would be cost savings associated with Tier 1 employees dropping off in favor of the Tier 2, but if you would like to consider this, we need to prepare a resolution for the next City Council meeting.

Mayor Fridal asked if to be competitive with the state we need to do that. Manager Warnke said we would become less competitive as an employer. If you do not make a decision now then those employees would just pay their portion and you could do something in the future. Councilmember Rohde asked if we do not do this are police officers going to be quitting and harder to recruit. Manager Warnke said there are a lot of factors and Chief Fertig could give us more insight. It is one factor people would consider when looking at the job opportunity. Councilmember Rohde said it is great we are considering paying it for them, but the more we do these kinds of things the less we can hire fire chiefs and do other things within the City. At some point we have got to stop spending money on all these nice little extras.

Councilmember Vance said in this meeting we have talked about another $18,000 in business fees and another $13,000 in expenses, when in reality it is the $888,000 that is making us all choke every time a number comes up on the board. We really have to take a look at this. I think we need to pull back even further. What is our full budget in Tremonton City on an annual basis? Manager Warnke said $12-$13 million, which fluctuates depending on if we do a capital project or not. Councilmember Vance said if all the departments in the City took a look at the budget and cut back 5%, we would come up with the $888,000. When I was at Zion’s Bank they gave employees incentives for saving money. They gave a percentage back to the person. When it comes to a budget, 5% is nothing. How much fat is hanging out there that we do not even think about it. We as the City Councilmembers sit between the public and City and our responsibility is to protect both. Councilmember Rohde suggested they increase revenues by talking to some of the other cities about their soft costs and getting them to contribute. Cutting expenses and increasing revenues could really help take a huge chunk, if not all of it, out of what we are asking. Councilmember Vance said the timing is poor. We have our backs against the wall and you have to be able to put the numbers together to even get ready for Truth in Taxation. I bet people will be standing in line to get in the building on the night we make those decisions. As a City Council we need to say we have done all we can to cut our expenses before we ask citizens to pay more taxes.

Manager Warnke said the General Fund is about $5.5 million. When I said $13 million, that includes all the City’s funds and those are restrictive. You can hold a public hearing and transfer those enterprise revenues back to the General Fund, but for this exercise, you should contemplate what we have in the City’s General Fund. We are pretty conservative in our revenue as far as budgeting. We try to under estimate our revenue because there are variable sources that are unpredictable and tied to the economy. The General Fund is really focused on current operating time frames. One time a year they allow you to set money aside to offset the balance and build up a little bit of a savings for the unexpected. Right now we have about $700,000 revenue for this fiscal year for our Capital Projects Fund to help build that up. We put this money into savings accounts so we have funds to take care of long-term issues. I think there is money we can save, but the departments have done a great job. We could look at cutting things out of the budget, but you would probably have to cut employee related expenses and cut back employees who provide the services, which starts another issue. The other place you can start cutting is quality of life. It is a judgment call on what is important to the City and those are difficult decisions. Councilmember Rohde said the last thing we are going to do is go after employees and their benefits. We are trying to find the waste and fat in other areas.

Manager Warnke reminded the Council that the City has not asked for a property tax increase since they started keeping records. I am not disagreeing and we will do whatever you instruct us to do. We can go back and look at the budget to see where we can cut, I am just not sure we can cut $800,000. I could be less conservative in the way we budget and anticipate higher revenues and cut back on expenses, but then we are ignoring long-term replacement of assets in the General Fund. I know there are no easy solutions. Do not mistake this with me not wanting to do what the Council wants or not being respectful, this is your decision to make. I am just trying to provide perspective. If you want us to go back through the budget we can.

Councilmember Rohde said I am not going to raise taxes this year. I think we need to hire a fire chief and let them figure out how to make this system work for another year. Let us see if they can come up with some solutions with volunteers and get some recruits. I think they will be able to come up with what they need. Manager Warnke said that is good direction. If you are not inclined to increase taxes then there is no sense going through that process and I will prepare the budget. Councilmember Seamons said I side with Councilmember Rohde. We need to do our part first and figure out what we have and if we can cut things. We need to take a better look at where the budget is. Mayor Fridal said the City needs to be conservative, but practical. He reminded the Council that improvements would have to continue and that citizens of Tremonton do enjoy a good quality of life. Are we willing to cut down on those things? It is a choice and the public has to pay a price for the life they live here. We have a great community and to keep it going we cannot turn backwards. I want some common sense ideas on where we can save a lot of money, not a little bit. Councilmember Vance suggested that the City could offer incentives to employees who help save money. I cannot sit in front of the people we represent and tell them sorry we are so efficient we have no way of saving any money, you just have to pay if you want to live here. We have to show our effort before we ask citizens to increase their taxes.

Manager Warnke said I have submitted a grant and included that in the packet. It does a good job of summarizing what the issues are. In the last five years we have interviewed 30 people, hired 17 and of those we have nine who are still employed. The three highest employees working in the fire department are beyond the age of 60. The survey showed that 80% of the fire department felt there was a current problem with staffing and meeting demands. 80% said they were giving more than they could, all they could, or would like to give more and cannot. We just do not have a great record of recruiting. I would like to think we can recruit our way out of it and we can certainly try, but that is the current state of where the fire department is.

Councilmember Rohde asked Manager Warnke to build into the budget a police officer and fire chief for this year. That is the direction I would like to take it. We need to do something and this is a start. Manager Warnke said people enjoy working at Tremonton City for a combination of reasons and that falls back to the City Council and the way you conduct yourself and treat the staff with respect. Councilmember Vance said eventually Tremonton is going to have to hire some people permanently to take care of our safety. This is a good place to start. Manager Warnke said we did submit a grant for EMS employees and we should know by the end of June if we will receive that. I do think we have a good story to tell. I requested $158,000 for three consecutive years, which would pay for two EMS employees. If we are fortunate enough to get it, we could amend the budget.

Councilmember Rohde said I looked at those tax figures and we are the third highest tax entity in Box Elder County and if we went to the 64% hike we would be the highest. I am uncomfortable with that. The Council agreed to go forward with Councilmember Rohde’s idea. Manager Warnke said we will not consider anything for property tax this year. Councilmember Rohde said let us see what solutions we can come up with in the department to make it work. I would hate to lose that volunteer system.

Manager Warnke said I have talked to Developer Gary Madsen about pushing infrastructure out beyond our current City limits to encourage growth. I told him there was not a lot of traction relative to doing a lift station at this point. We want to grow and consider extending infrastructure, but it is just not the right time. He asked about the City selling water outside our incorporated limits, which we can do, but I did not think we want to at this point. I would love to annex it and see the City have additional area to provide services to, but I think he is a little ahead of where we are at in our resources. The hard part about Tremonton is we have relatively small property owners. Other cities have thousands of acres owned by one individual. They are master developers and figure out all the financing and creation of infrastructure to a large degree. That is what the City needs to do. We need to figure out how we can develop some of these areas, what infrastructure we need to service them, as well as financing, which is what I am hoping to do with this Annexation Policy Plan. Mr. Madsen’s timeframe is much quicker than anything we can do even relative to annexing his property in, but he did not feel he could wait. It is more complicated to annex when multiple property owners are involved because they can protest. We told him we are supportive of it, just his plans and timeframe is not syncing up with where we are at and what we can do. There are a lot of issues to consider.

Councilmember Seamons said what would happen if we did septic systems for now. Manager Warnke said you could change the policy, but it could affect other areas of town. I would not recommend it. It is short sighted to allow septic systems and we would have to retro fit them one day. Councilmember Rohde asked what the reasons would be for not selling him water. Manager Warnke said with the secondary water system situation, I am not sure what the public would think about us selling our water. Then we would give individuals outside the City leverage and input in the water rate setting process. Councilmember Vance said if we want to grow that gives you more ability to tell them what our parameters are as a City—if you drop a line out there and sell to him. We could make him build his lots so there is at least 150 linear feet on the front end so no flag lots can be made. It seems like it gives us more control by being more adaptive and trying to figure out how to do these things. I think some real nice homes could be brought to Tremonton and developed. Manager Warnke said I would love to see more rural type development so we have more diversity in our housing. The market has been more supportive of smaller lots. Councilmember Holmgren said the larger lots are going to be more difficult under our current secondary water guidelines. You are going to see horse properties existing in the County and other areas. Manager Warnke said these are all policy decisions and issues you could revisit. Having a good baseline of what infrastructure we need at what costs is a good starting point. Councilmember Rohde said I would like to look at that. We do not have the more expensive homes in Tremonton and that will start to drive our economy. Manager Warnke agreed. We lack a lot of housing diversity. I am encouraged with some of the diversity we are starting to see from these patio homes and apartment complexes. They are more dense neighborhoods, but to expand our inventory and offer something more rural would be tremendous.

Manager Warnke said we are having great success with our neighborhood improvement program. Neighborhood Housing Solutions in Logan submitted a grant and we are using RDA funds that are restricted to housing to match that. With those funds we are helping low to moderate-income homeowners undertake projects on their homes and improve the entire neighborhood. The available spots we had are being filled and there is more demand so Neighborhood Solutions is contemplating going forward with another round of applications. That is a good use of the funds, but this is an RDA decision.

b. Development Review Committee Report and Comments

Will be discussed at a later meeting.

c. City Department Head Reports and Comments:

Coordinator Christensen said we are still working on determining what City Days will look like as we get more information on what we can do. The last time I reported we said June 1 was the deadline. We are still in the yellow and not sure when we are going to green so it will be a limited City Days. We will not do the baby contest, community dinner or council breakfast. It would just be on Saturday and will have fireworks. We will have a schedule of events by June 16.

d. Council Reports and Comments

Councilmember Archibald said Cathy Newman at the pantry does a great job. Not one time did we announce that our pantry was suffering, but all five stakes in the area have done a lot of good. Citizens have received their stimulus checks and donated those to the food pantry. Many 4H groups have donated about 300,000 pounds of food. For now the pantry is thriving. Manager Warnke said year to date we have about $80,000 in private donations from individuals and corporations. On any given year it is about $30,000, which is still significant. The donations we receive fund the operational expenses of that department. We have a very giving community that makes that service feasible. We get a sales tax rebate from the State on a percentage of the pounds of food that are donated to the pantry.

Councilmember Holmgren said it looks really good over there right now, but the concern is as the summer wears on those resources and supplies will be diminished at the pantry. We need to be working with the public and doing more of these drives to help that out.

Councilmember Rohde said I appreciate how we can have these kinds of debates and still walk away friends and be civil with each other. I appreciate the public coming and sharing their opinions—we do not get enough of that. I hope no one from Tremonton City, any employee feels that any of this discussion had anything to do with their jobs, performance or anything, it does not. It is just becoming lean and making sure we are doing things efficiently.

Councilmember Seamons said I would like to thank the police and fire departments. They have had such a bad rap the last few weeks. My hat goes off to you. Thank you for what you do. I cannot comprehend how we lose an officer Friday afternoon and then they are burning things down in Salt Lake City on Saturday because they do not like the police. Thank you very much for what you do. We appreciate it.

Mayor Fridal said we have a great City Council. These are painful topics, but we will come up with what we think is best for Tremonton. He witnessed the tribute to the fallen police offer in Ogden and said it is amazing the support they have for one another and frankly most of the public supports them too.

The Council thanked Manager Warnke for all his efforts. Councilmember Seamons said we appreciate you, Recorder Nessen, and all City administration for what you do.

10. CLOSED SESSIONS: No closed session held at this time.

11. Adjournment.

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

The meeting adjourned at 8:36 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 16th day of June, 2020.

Linsey Nessen, City Recorder

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