05.22.18 Council Minutes – Special

STATE OF UTAH
COUNTY OF SEVIER
CITY OF RICHFIELD

At the City Council
In and For Said City
May 22, 2018

Minutes of the Richfield City Council special meeting held on Tuesday, May 22, 2018 at 5:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers of the Richfield City office building located at 75 East Center, Richfield, Utah. Mayor David C. Ogden presiding.

1. ROLL CALL
2. PROPOSED BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2018-2019 DISCUSSED
3. MEETING ADJOURNED

1. ROLL CALL. Present: Mayor David Ogden, Kevin Arrington, Bryan Burrows, Richard Barnett, Kathy Christensen, Matt Creamer, Mike Langston, Michele Jolley. Excused: Connie Nielson.

Others present:

2. PROPOSED BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2018-2019 DISCUSSED. Chief Lloyd stated that since he has been the Chief, he has only had a full staff for one day. Mike Thomas retired, Larry Ashurst retired, and Bob Crose went to work at the coal mine. Chief Lloyd has been able to replace all but one officer. He just hired Mike Anderson who worked at the Sevier County Jail. Mr. Anderson took a pay cut to come to the City with the hope that we can do something with compensation. He wanted the in lieu of insurance payment to go into his 401K. Jason Haywood was also hired as a detective. He was going to go back to work for the Highway Patrol, but we were able to offer him some additional compensation and still stay within the step and grade system. Last time he tried to hire, he had 3 people show up. When he was hired by the City, he had tried to get hired on 4 times because there were so many trying to get on because we were competitive, but we are not any more. The Sheriff’s office just gave their office a $2 an hour raise to try and keep them. The Highway Patrol, Salt Lake City, and the prison are hiring a lot of officers. They are looking for the same thing that we are; someone that is already certified. That his created a vacuum in the State and the City cannot compete with the wages being offered by these other entities.

Councilmember Christensen asked if it would be possible to eliminate one officer and use that money to put into wages. Chief Lloyd stated that we probably could do that, but in the end it is not going to save the City that much money. Never in the history of the City, since he has been here, have we kept up with the Sheriff’s office in calls, but we are there now. Richfield has grown to a point where our call volume was up 14%. So you have the Sheriff’s office that is taking the same amount of calls that we are and they 6 detectives and we have 1. They also have 4 extra patrol guys that we do not have to do the same work.

Mr. Creamer pointed out that eliminating one officer would cause additional overtime, etc. Chief Lloyd has also been working with the School District for an additional $20,000 for their participation with the School Resource Officers. He does not think what we are asking for is unreasonable.

The increase is dispatch costs were also discussed. Chief Lloyd stated that this has increased an average of 11.3% per year and he does not see an end in sight. He has tried to come up with a solution, but there is not much we can do because of the law passed by the State Legislature. Councilmember Burrows noted that we have a contract with the County for fire protection that splits the cost 50/50 with the City. He thought that we could say that half of the dispatch costs are for fire and the County would have to pick up half of that cost. They actually have four fire departments they contract with and the cities are picking up the cost of dispatch for that. If we could convince the County to take over the dispatch, it would clean it up. Chief Lloyd stated that the County does not pay for Salina’s fire department or Richfield’s fire department.

Chief Lloyd was able to reduce the City’s dispatch costs by $10,000 by using self-dispatch. They also over projected the bill. All this is going to do is shift to the Sheriff’s department. Mr. Creamer asked about the drug task force. Chief Lloyd stated that the Task Force was officially given a letter from the City and the County withdrawing from the program. About 2 or 3 months ago the Sheriff started his own task force with his detectives.

Mr. Creamer asked about the vehicle for the police department and what they had decided to do about the leased vehicles. Chief Lloyd stated that they are doing okay as far as the vehicles go. He will hold off on purchasing 2 vehicles until the end of the year so that we can get out of the lease. If we lease trucks like the County does, then it is cheaper, but they require that we change then out every year. That actually costs us more because we have to move the equipment from one vehicle to the other. From a business standpoint, he believed the best bet was to buy Ford Explorers and in 5 or 6 years, sell them.

The Building department was discussed. Councilmember Barnett wondered if it had been beneficial cost wise to not have someone in house, or has it cost us more. Mr. Creamer stated that the past 6 months it has been beneficial, however, he is not sure if it will be after the summer. We have been in the slower time of the year. We approved a budget of $101, 000 and we are estimating that the total budget is going to come in at $94,000. Councilmember Burrows asked what our revenue has been. Mr. Creamer stated that we have taken in just about what we had budgeted. He noted that this has been pretty much an average year.

Mr. Creamer asked if there was anything that the Council wanted to change or if they were okay adopting a tentative budget as presented. Councilmember Barnett still wants something in the budget about money for a swimming pool even though he realized that it was contingent upon the PAR tax passing.

 

3. MEETING ADJOURNED. At 6:48 p.m., Motion: Adjourn, Action: Adjourned, Moved by Kathy Christensen, Seconded by Kevin Arrington.

PASSED and APPROVED this 26 day of June, 2018.