City Council 16-Aug 2016: Fling, NUERA Landfill purchase, Selling City Water Shares

 

About 30 residents attended the council meeting.

Council Meeting AGENDA / MINUTES

Public Comment

• Residents asked the dead trees which pose a safety hazard be removed. This is was a long-standing request. Note, staff already has quotes to have the trees removed. The council later encouraged staff to act as soon as reasonable and to take advantage of the offer to help with the project by the residents.

Presentations

• Highland Fling Volunteer Recognition – Jessie Schoenfeld, Fling Chairman & Kaity Lavaja, Events Coordinator. Several residents were recognized for their contributions to the Fling (Charles Greenlund, Shauna Larsen, DeeAnne Carlile, Curt Ostler, and Brandon Balkman).
  
  Brandon Balkman mentioned the Frisbee Golf tournament put the community developed course located in Beacon Hills in the black. Well done! What a great example of residents organizing and improving the community.
  
  Jessie also shared Fling revenue and expense information. The bottom line is that the net cost to the city for the Fling was about $12,600 ($1,200 less than last year although we spent ~$2,100 more). See summary below. To view the details in a Google spreadsheet click here.
  
  

  Event	Revenue	Expense	Total
  Fireside	$0.00	$8.27	-$8.27
  5K Run	$1,330.00	$1,260.47	$69.53
  1 Mile Fun Run	$495.00	$0.00	$495.00
  Signs	0.00	$740.22	-$740.22
  Sponsorship / Magazines	$18,640.00	$8,002.42	$10,637.58
  Family Adventure Race	$225.00	$154.90	$70.10
  Baby Contest	$225.00	$704.12	-$449.17
  BMX Show	$0.00	$2,800.00	-$2,800.00
  Fireworks	$0.00	$12,000.00	-$12,000.00
  Kids’ Night	$94.00	$89.55	$4.45
  Disc Golf	$2,710.00	$2,394.54	$315.46
  Movie Night	$0.00	$609.96	-$609.96
  Mass Gathering Requirements	$0.00	$2,186.16	-$2,190.66
  Parade	$1,225.00	$1,802.31	-$577.31
  Entertainment	$0.00	$8,634.95	-$7,634.95
  Highland Games	$1,365.00	$1,156.00	$209.00
  Youth Night in the Park	$0.00	$500.00	-$500.00
  Vendors	$2,398.05	$160.00	$2,238.05
  Food Vendors	$950.00	$0.00	$950.00
  Miscellaneous	$188.95	$1,028.34	-$839.39
  Play Day Rodeo	$921.00	$227.88	$725.00
  2016 Fling	$30,797.00	$44,460.09	-$12,635.71
  2015 Fling	$28,714.12	$43,874.09	-$14,859.87
  Delta	$2,082.88	$586.00	$1,196.78

 

CONSENT ITEMS

1. MOTION: Approval of Meeting Minutes for the City Council Regular Session – June 28, 2016. Approved unanimously. Click here to view the minutes.

2. MOTION: Approval of Meeting Minutes for the City Council Regular Session – July 19, 2016. Approved unanimously. Click here to view the minutes.

ACTION ITEMS

3. RESOLUTION: Approval of a Pro-Tem Judge for the Justice Court – Honorable Scott Mickelsen and Honorable Sherlynn Fenstermaker. Approved unanimously. Our current judge was appointed to a district court. Until we can find a permanent replacement we approved using the two judges indicated with Scott Mickelsen being the primary replacement. Click here for more details.
   
4. MOTION: North Pointe Solid Waste Special Service District and North Utah Environmental Resource Agency (NUERA) – Becoming partners with Bay View Landfill. Brian Braithwaite had the most to say about this issue. Suffice it to say he was unequivocally opposed to the purchase of the Bay View Landfill by NUERA. He likened the proposal to the failed UTOPIA project that cities which joined now wants to exit. He felt the financial projections were too optimistic, that the concept was flawed (the free market should be allowed to operate), and that in the end our costs (because we have a multi-year agreement that we cannot exit until 2019) with North Pointe would rise. Brian also asked our city attorney to look into how we could break our contract with North Pointe should the purchase be consummated. The council voted unanimously to recommend that our representative on the North Pointe and NUERA boards oppose the acquisition.  Click here for more details.
   
5. MOTION: Contract for a Job Classification and Compensation Study – Personnel Systems and Services. Approved unanimously. The Personnel Systems and Services’ proposal includes: updating job descriptions, creating job classifications, conducting a salary and benefit analysis and comparison, and the creation of a compensation policy including salary grades and ranges. Part of the deliverables include wage model that can be updated in the future by City staff with recent data. Data is collected annually by Personnel Systems and Services and is available to the City throughout the year for a $250 annual fee. Click here for more details.  
   
6. MOTION: Contract to accept Cash in-lieu of Water Dedication – For property within Highland. Approved unanimously. This will allow the city to sell water shares it owns to developers of property in Highland. Click here for more details.

MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL & STAFF COMMUNICATION ITEMS

• Ed Dennis asked if we needed to do anything to resolve the tree issue raised by a resident during the open comment portion of the meeting. Staff is working on the issue. The council felt we should do this sooner rather than later and the mayor recommended that take advantage of the offer of neighboring residents to help with the project.
• In response to a question from Dennis LeBaron staff let us know that the road study report would be completed in a few weeks.
• I asked that we add the Public Safety District Sustainability Plan be added to the action item list so that we can be informed regarding its progress. I raised the issue that the PSD consumes and ever growing percentage of our General Fund budget earlier in the year at a PSD board meeting and that this is not sustainable for Highland. A committee was formed to address this issue and I want to be sure that we get progress reports. I also asked for an update on looking at hiring a full-time engineer rather than using consultants for everything. When we discussed this during the budget process it looked like we could save over $80K per year if we hired our own engineer.
  

STAFF AND COUNCIL ACTION ITEM LIST

Description	Requested by / Owner	Due Date	Status
Road Capital Improvement Plan for FY 15-16. Prioritize and Communicate to Residents	City Council	Sep 2016	Study underway
Election Policy	City Council/ Jody Bates	Jan 2017	In progress
Council Policy and Procedures	City Council Jody	?	In progress
Determine Park Use for Recreation	City Council Parks Staff	2016	In progress
HW Bldg. – PW Storage Status	City Council Mayor/PW	Ongoing	In progress
Options for Fire & Police	Mayor	?	?
Employee Pay Rate and Benefit Comparison	Mayor & City Council	Jan 2017	Council action in Aug.

LINKS:

• Council agenda with my rough notes.

• Staff presentation. Presentation used by staff to go through agenda items.
• Description of Beacon Hill Park Disc Golf course.
• Is public garbage service shutting out competition? North Pointe majority says no.
• Op-ed: Something smells in Utah’s special service districts.