City Council and Budget Work Session 3-Jun-2014

Here is the meeting agenda with my notes in line (in italics)

APPEARANCES

1. Public Comment: Just a few people were in attendance (15). Scott Smith made a few comments about the budget and city employees.

City Council 20-May-2014: Budget Public Hearing

Here is the meeting agenda with my notes in line

APPEARANCES

1. Public Comment

• An award was presented by the mayor to Karre Nevarez, a teacher a Westfield Elementary who worked with students that won several awards in local and state LEGO competitions. Student teams design, build, test and program robots using LEGO MINDSTORMS technology.
  
  

A Hidden Lesson in the Sermon on the Mount

I recently learned a new lesson when reading the sermon on the mount Matthew 5-7. As I was reading I was struck by the number of times Christ referred to the Father. When I reviewed the chapters I found that there were 3 references to Him in chapter 5, 12 references in chapter 6, and 2 references in chapter 7. Here is how they break down:

City Council Meeting 6-May-2014

Here is the agenda and my brief comments on each item:

APPEARANCES

1. Public Comments
   Two residents from the Dry Creek development (southeast of Highland Blvd & 11800 N) expressed concern that the developer had not completed a fence along the S. side of 11800 N. A representative from Ivory was at the council meeting and agree to research the issue and report back to the council. Below is the summary page from his report. Click here to see the full report.

City Council Budget Work Session 29-Apr-2014

The finance director (Gary LeChaminant) gave a high level review of the budget and the council asked questions as they arose. We had received a copy of the preliminary budget prior to the meeting, which I’ve uploaded to Google and made accessible to everyone. The spreadsheet I’ve shared has questions that I inserted as comments (cells with black triangle in the top right corner). Note, if you put your cursor over a cell with comments they will be displayed in a pop-up box. Gary reviewed my questions in advance of the meeting and added his responses to the relevant rows in the last column. I’ve highlight categories where the requested increase as a percentage exceeded the projected revenue growth.

Here are some quick bits of information:

City Council Meeting15-Apr-2014: Library Funding Discussion

This was a very good council meeting (aside from the fact that we ended earlier than normal).  What I especially liked is that we were able to have a vigorous discussion and share differing points of view without being disagreeable.

Agenda:

1. Public Comment: Most of the comments (7 out of 9) were about the library. I will summarize at the end of the post. One of the other commenters wanted more info about the trail system and shared a trail safety item; the trail sign near Caddy Lane is too close to the bike trail and riders risk hitting it as they turn onto the trail.

2. Highland Fling 2014: Ron Jewett discussed the upcoming fling. He pointed out that they expect to raise significantly more funds this year than last. They are already well ahead of last year in terms of ads for the Fling Booklet (Good job Emily!). One issue is that because the Fling budget only reflects net costs (expenses less anticipated revenues) when they try to spend more than the budgeted amount difficulties arise even though there are offsetting revenues from sponsors. Our finance director will look into how this can be resolved.. Evidently public accounting practices make this less than straightforward. Here is a video from last year’s Fling that was put together by one of the sponsors.

City Council Meeting 1-Apr-2014

The most interesting part of the council meeting was the Road Maintenance Presentation and Discussion, which I will discuss at the end of the post. Here is a brief summary of the votes which were taken:

#	Description	Pass/Fail
1.	Motion: Ratify the Mayors Appointment of Kristi Vick to the Open Space Committee	P
2.	Motion: Ratify the Mayors Appointment of Scott Smith to the Library Board	P
3.	Ordinance: Amend Municipal Code 15.04.010, Adopting State Construction Code.	P
4.	Motion: Final Plat Approval for Pinnock Estates	P
5.	Ordinance: Amend Chapters 12.30 & 13.31, Removal of Neighborhood Trails	P

Issues and Information Meeting 2014-Q1

Mike Kennedy, our local state representative, joined me for my first Issues and Information meeting as a councilman. Thanks Mike! When Mike arrived at 6:50 PM we were the only two people in the meeting room. A few minutes later we were joined by one person and by the time people stopped coming (about 8:20 PM) over twenty people had attended the meeting.

The meeting was very interactive and since I was involved in the meeting I was not able to take notes. Lesson learned: ask someone to be the note taker for future meetings. Here is my brief summary which includes a link to the slides I used for my presentation.

City Council Meeting Mar 18, 2014

Below is the agenda with my comments in italics. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions (mannrw@gmail.com).

PRESENTATIONS

• Randy Paul – Economic Development
  Randy presented his views on what he sees as the most likely and best paths of growth for the city. In very short terms he does not see Highland seeing a lot growth in terms of businesses and he doesn’t think we should plan for that to be a significant source of revenue for the city. He does think that maintaining standards and services which make the city attractive to residents is one of the most important things the council can do. Subsequent to the meeting Randy sent an email to the council summarizing his points.
• Kent Loosle – IASIS Healthcare, Mountain Point Medical Center
  IASIS is building a new hospital and medical office complex on the west side of I15 near the Thanksgiving Point Exit. Kent wanted to review the services that will be provided and share the desire of the IASIS to serve N. County residents.

Road Maintenance and Your Dollars

Last year as part of my campaign for city council I researched the issue of roads and wrote a post on the subject for my campaign website that I believe has continuing relevance so I am reposting on my regular blog. Here it is:

City Council Meeting and Work Session 4-Mar-2014

There were two items that were discussed at length in council meeting. The first was the minutes from the previous work session. Brian Braithwaite made the commend that the minutes should more accurately reflect the conversation so that someone in the future did not read them and incorrectly interpret the discussion. He offered a couple of points to clarify portions of the discussion. I agreed and did the rest of the council with his comments.

City Council Work Session 11-Feb-2014

The purpose of the work session was set goals for the city. The agenda for the meeting was as follows:

CALL TO ORDER – Mayor Mark Thompson
Goal Setting Work Session
ADJOURNMENT

Essentially the meeting had no agenda so each council member prepared based on their expectation of what the meeting would be like. Here is the text of an email I sent to council members prior to the meeting:

City Council Meeting Feb 18, 2014

I had expected this council meeting to be somewhat exciting (translated contentious). Although there were lots of questions regarding the several zoning changes and strong interest from several residents and a developer the meeting was very cordial and the council was united in its decision. I want to thank those that participated (Gary Wright, Tori Gagon, Cori and Ryan Ollerton, Rebekah Kaylor, and Greg Nield) in the discussion for the professional manner in which they conducted themselves.

Below is the meeting agenda with my comments in italicized text.

City Council Meeting Feb 4, 2014

This week’s agenda had only three motions, a presentation by Republic Garbage, and one staff report. Prior to the start of the meeting Kasey Wright gave a short presentation on Open Meetings, ethics and disclosures. He did a good job making it informative and fun.

Prior to the meeting Gary LeCheminant, city finance director, sent the council answers to questions that were raised last council meeting about the audit.

During the time allotted for council members to make comments there was an extended discussion on the changes to the minutes and agendas I requested last council meeting. We unanimously agreed that we wanted to include action items in =-the minutes as part of a summary section and to include unfinished action items in the agenda section. I volunteered to send a sample of what this would look like to the city recorder.

City Council Meeting Jan 21, 2013

During the council member comment time I asked that future minutes include a summary section that lists actions taken by the council and identifies requests of city staff. The requests should show up in the agenda’s of the following meetings until they are resolved. This request is not reflected in the agenda of the upcoming meeting. I will ask to have the council vote to support the concept at tomorrow’s council meeting but will do so with some reluctance because I don’t want city staff to feel like they don’t own their work product.

City Council Meeting Jan 7, 2014

I attended this meeting via telephone as I was out of town on business, Prior to the formal council meeting a 30 minute work session was held to listen to a sales pitch by representatives of Dubli, an online shopping portal that offers discounts to shoppers on purchases made at linked stores.

Workshop (Dubli) Summary

Anyone can sign up for a free Dubli account and receive discounts at stores (from what I saw the discounts ranged from 1% to 26% depending on the merchant and product) and travel sites linked through Dubli’s portal. Increased discounts are available for those who sign up for one of two levels of premium membership (Premium ~$60/yr, or VIP $99/yr).

Why I Ran For Highland City Council

I ran for city council in large part because I did not feel the city communicated well with residents. My strategy for running was quite simple. (1) Articulate a sincere positive message in person (door-to-door and in person meetings) and (2) support this with a flyer and online presence (web site and Facebook page). A number of friends helped me by handing out flyers and setting up home meetings. Most importantly, I had the support of many friends who simply told others about me. I sincerely believe that they were the key to my primary and and general election victories. There are too many to name individually but thank you.

Here is the message I put on my flyers and web site.

Did You Hear The Bells this Christmas?

My wife and I were the speakers in last Sunday’s Christmas program that included choral and congregational songs plus a little narration. We were asked to prepare seven minute talks on the subject of Christmas. Although we prepared our remarks independently they complemented each other as if we had collaborated on them. Each of our talks referenced hymns that “coincidentally” were sung before we spoke (we had no prior knowledge of rest of the program). Suzanne’s hymn was “God Loved Us, So He Sent His Son” and mine was “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” The program opened with a short introductory narration which surprisingly included quotes from the scriptures that my wife included in her talk. Someone attending would have thought that each part of the program was orchestrated in advance, and I suppose it was, but not by the bishop or the music director.

The following is the text of my remarks (or at least a close approximation):

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Over 2,000 years ago the first Christmas arrived and the heavens rejoiced. A new star appeared in the sky. Wise men took note and began their journey to find the king of the Jews and bring him gifts. Angelic choirs sang the words “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will towards man.”

Today during the Christmas season beautiful lights appear throughout our neighborhoods, people begin their quests to find gifts for loved ones and choirs sing carols celebrating the birth of our Savior. One of my favorite carols is “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” I love it because it speaks not only of the joy of the season but also of the trials of life.

The lyrics were written by the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Christmas day 1863. He had recently been informed that his son was gravely wounded in a civil war battle and still grieved over the death of his wife two years previous. She died as the result of burns she received when her dress caught fire at home. Longfellow had rushed to aid her and put out the fire but her burns were too severe and she died the following day.

Ed Hermann shares story surrounding Longfellow’s poem, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” with the Mormon Tabernacle in the background. If you have not seen this before it is quite moving and well worth your time.

Favorite Life Quotes

Below you’ll find some of my favorite “life” quotes. I have another post that contains my favorite political quotes.

 “If you want to go fast, go alone, If you want to go far, go together” —African Proverb

City Council Meeting Dec 3, 2013

At the council meeting a number of items were discussed and approved or continued:

Approved:

1. An ordinance mandating a process for planning an executing road projects. City staff must provide council with a road plan for the next fiscal year by April 1st of each year, a 5 year plan is required which is to be updated each year and posted online no later than 45 days after the beginning of each fiscal year. There are changes the will need to be made to the ordinance (as pointed out by Tom Butler and which I don't think anyone disagrees with) because it is too proscriptive. But, it is a great start. Thanks Brian for getting the ball rolling. Vote was 3 to 2.
2. A new 6 year contract with the Transfer Station (trash). Although it appears to be in our best interest but I'm surprised it was approved (3 to 2) without legal review or the clause "approved subject to legal review". I would have voted to continue the item to next council to provide adequate time for council to review the contract and for legal review. Note, the council received a copy of the contract the day previous. Vote was 3 to 2
3. It was agreed that the city would participate in the Cedar Hills recreational program. Cedar Hills does not charge non-residents extra fees to participate in their programs but would like utilize Highland fields to allow the program to expand and support Highland and Alpine residents. Cedar Hills will manage the programs and Highland will get funding to help mitigate the increased wear and tear on fields. The proposed payment will be $2.00 for every Highland resident who participates in any program where Highland fields are used. This may be revised by city managers. Highland staff will also need to develop a field use policy. Currently no policy exists – it is simply first come first serve. Vote was 5 to 0.

Continued Items: