THE STATE OF UTAH
COUNTY OF SEVIER
CITY OF RICHFIELD
COUNTY OF SEVIER
CITY OF RICHFIELD
At the City Council
In and For Said City
June 25, 2019
In and For Said City
June 25, 2019
Minutes of the Richfield City Council meeting held on Tuesday, June 25, 2019
at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers of the Richfield City office building located at 75 East Center, Richfield, Utah. Mayor David C. Ogden presiding.
at 7:00 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. OPENING REMARKS
2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
3. ROLL CALL
4. MINUTES APPROVED
5. MISS RICHFIELD JOSIE THALMAN
6. SEVIER COUNTY COMMUNITY THEATER LIABILITY INSURANCE APPROVED
7. WORKER’S COMPENSATION INSURANCE PROPOSAL ACCEPTED
8. UPDATE TO POLICE POLICIES APPROVED
9. SWIMMING POOL UPDATE
10. RESOLUTION 2019-3 ACCEPTING THE CERTIFIED TAX RATE ADOPTED
11. BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2018-2019 OPENED AND AMENDED AND BUDGET RESOLUTION 2019-2 ACCEPTING BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2019-2020 ADOPTED
12. RECESS
13. RECONVENE
14. ANNEXATION DENIAL LETTER FOR COBY CHRISTENSEN DENIED
15. OTHER BUSINESS
16. EXECUTIVE SESSION
17. RECONVENE & ADJOURN
2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
3. ROLL CALL
4. MINUTES APPROVED
5. MISS RICHFIELD JOSIE THALMAN
6. SEVIER COUNTY COMMUNITY THEATER LIABILITY INSURANCE APPROVED
7. WORKER’S COMPENSATION INSURANCE PROPOSAL ACCEPTED
8. UPDATE TO POLICE POLICIES APPROVED
9. SWIMMING POOL UPDATE
10. RESOLUTION 2019-3 ACCEPTING THE CERTIFIED TAX RATE ADOPTED
11. BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2018-2019 OPENED AND AMENDED AND BUDGET RESOLUTION 2019-2 ACCEPTING BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2019-2020 ADOPTED
12. RECESS
13. RECONVENE
14. ANNEXATION DENIAL LETTER FOR COBY CHRISTENSEN DENIED
15. OTHER BUSINESS
16. EXECUTIVE SESSION
17. RECONVENE & ADJOURN
1. OPENING REMARKS were offered by Councilmember Burrows.
2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE was led by Councilmember Christensen.
3. ROLL CALL. Present: Mayor David Ogden, Kevin Arrington, Bryan Burrows, Richard Barnett, Kathy Christensen, Connie Nielson, Mike Langston, Michele Jolley. Matt Creamer excused.
4. MINUTES APPROVED. The Council reviewed the minutes of the special meeting held May 28, 2019. Motion: Approve the minutes of the special meeting held May 28, 2019, Action: Approved, Moved by Connie Nielson, Seconded by Kathy Christensen. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 5). Yea: Kevin Arrington, Bryan Burrows, Richard Barnett, Kathy Christensen, Connie Nielson.
5. MISS RICHFIELD JOSIE THALMAN. Councilmember Nielson introduced the reigning Miss Richfield. She has been a good example and has been very exceptional in the way she has represented the City. Josie Thalman said that she has grown so much over the last year. Her platform was called “Save You Save Me.” She went around to various groups and taught about stroke and heart attacks. She wrote an article for the paper and talked to women about the signs and symptoms she loved being part of the Fourth of July last year. Throughout this year she has become a more confident woman. This pageant has helped her become more confident.
6. SEVIER COUNTY COMMUNITY THEATER LIABILITY INSURANCE APPROVED. Melinda Costa and Janie Pearson were present to discuss funding for the liability insurance for the Sevier County Community Theater. This has caused some financial stress for them. She appreciates the use of the turkey sheds for the storage of their sets and they appreciate the funding that the City has helped them with. Mrs. Costa did some research on some different liability insurance issues.
Councilmember Arrington stated that the Sevier Valley Center, as most facilities, requires liability insurance. When he was working from the County, the County used to allow organizations to be on their insurance. The County’s insurance company told the County that they could not cover any events unless they sponsored the event.
The City has also been covering events and when Mr. Creamer looked into this he was told that the City could not cover events unless they were sponsored by the City. The Sevier Valley Community Theater is a separate organization and Councilmember Arrington found that an insurance policy for this event would cost about $800. Their funds are tight and the City is giving them $2,000 every other year.
Councilmember Christensen would like to help with the liability insurance and wondered if the County might be willing to pay for half of cost of that insurance. Councilmember Burrows said that he felt that the City should increase the donation to $3,000 every other year. Is there some way they could incorporate their organization with the county or the city.
Motion: Cover the cost of the insurance for the Sevier County Community Theater this year, Action: Approved, Moved by Bryan Burrows noting he felt that it is that important, Seconded by Kathy Christensen. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 5). Yea: Kevin Arrington, Bryan Burrows, Richard Barnett, Kathy Christensen, Connie Nielson.
7. WORKER’S COMPENSATION INSURANCE PROPOSAL ACCEPTED. Utah Local Governments Trust and Sorenson Leavitt were present. Both Companies bid on the City’s worker’s compensation insurance. The bid from ULGT was $35,122 and Sorenson Leavitt’s bid was $40,653.
Mayor Ogden felt that we have generally been happy with the Trust and noted that they take care of a lot of cities and towns, but it is not particularly a level playing field. He understood that last year we paid more for worker’s compensation. His point was that by Cory Sorensen bidding on the worker’s comp insurance this year, has made the Trust sharpen their pencil knowing that we had this open bid. Mayor Ogden stated that it does not mean that we should accept a higher bid, but he did feel that this process was important.
Cory Sorenson stated that he looked at the past history of the City for insurance rates. He said when he gave Mr. Creamer the bid; Mr. Creamer stated that this was a good quote and lower than last year. Mr. Sorenson was also told that the City had not received the other bid yet. He stated that past history with his company has no bearing on today. They have been given a lot of bad press.
Josh McKel from the Trust stated that they were aware of the bid process and when they went to revisit the underwriting, they were told that there would be no revisiting because the City has an open claim right now that is over $200,000. It is typically common courtesy that most groups do not bid the insurance when there is an open claim, but he respects the City’s decision to bid this regardless of the open claim.
Councilmember Barnett stated that since none of the Council has been involved in this bidding process and a proposal has been brought to the Council to vote on what is before us; he sees no reason not to accept the low bid from a company that we have been happy with and a company that has been servicing us. He realizes that they are not “local,” but he also does not understand all of the nuances’ and details that apparently are involved in this.
Councilmember Nielson stated that the City tries hard to stay local when we can, but she also does not feel like we should punish someone by leaving when they have helped us as much as they have and especially this last year with some of the claims that we have had.
Councilmember Burrows stated that this may not have a lot to do with the worker’s comp, but the Trust does bring down a lot of our training that we need for our employees and he thought that this has been a value. In fact, it could be some of the reason why our rates have gone down.
Councilmember Arrington is a little concerned about the open claim. In his opinion, we ought to stick with the group that the claim is with until it is finalized.
Councilmember Christensen is always for keeping things local, but when you are representing the tax payers, you just have to take the lowest bid.
Motion: Accept the worker’s compensation bid from the Utah Local Governments proposal for $35,122, Action: Approved, Moved by Richard Barnett, Seconded by Kevin Arrington. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 5). Yea: Kevin Arrington, Bryan Burrows, Richard Barnett, Kathy Christensen, Connie Nielson.
8. UPDATE TO POLICE POLICIES APPROVED. Chief Trent Lloyd discussed House Bill 163 that was recently passed dealing with the use of City property. The way the law is written, if a pen owned by the City is used to write a personal check; it would be considered a felony. They did leave a loop hole in that we can write policy to get through this. He has been working with the County Attorney this last month trying to craft a policy that would cover everything. Trying to catch all the unforeseen things has been very difficult. He has tried to write the City’s policy in conjunction with the County, so ours almost exactly mirrors what the County did. They also looked at Salt Lake City’s policies, as well as several others and tried to pick out the good parts from them.
With the help of Detective Haywood, they have been able to compile almost the entire policy and procedure manual for the police department. This particular policy has to be implemented before July 1 in order to protect the employees and the City.
Chief Lloyd also discussed the vehicle pursuit policy which he has already implemented. They had a pursuit about 4 or 5 months ago that got a little out of hand. When we had that problem, he addressed it with his department and they sat down and decided that they would create a policy and train on that policy.
Councilmember Burrows was concerned about how enforcement of policies has been handled in the past. The former Chief came to the Council about struggling to get qualified officers, so we changed the policy to allow officers to live outside of the City, but they did not want City vehicles all over the County. Then he came back and got it changed a little bit more and then we had a policy of a certain amount of miles. Then Councilmember Burrows was told that the Chief talked to the Mayor and Mr. Creamer and they decided it was okay.
Councilmember Burrows stated that in the past the Council has spend a lot of time on policies in the past and it seems like all we do is read it. We redid policies about a year ago and when he asked about the comp time, he found that apparently the changes did not get approved. If policies are going to be implemented we need to enforce them because it has not happened in the past on some things.
Councilmember Barnett felt that we needed to get a hold of the County’s new policy and look at it at for the whole City.
Motion: Approve the updated policies for the police department, Action: Approved, Moved by Kevin Arrington, Seconded by Kathy Christensen. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 5). Yea: Kevin Arrington, Bryan Burrows, Richard Barnett, Kathy Christensen, Connie Nielson.
Chief Lloyd talked to the Council about some proposed changes to the animal control ordinance. He has been working with the Sheriff to figure out the dog licensing problem and how to get people who use those services to pay for those services. They have come up with a solution that Chief Lloyd felt was beneficial. The dog is taken to the County shelter and they will charge the impound fee, but they are going to start charging for the dog licenses and vaccinations. In the past, if you had to pick up your dog from the animal shelter and it did not have a license, they would have to get the dog vaccinated before it they could get a City license. So they had to get the dog out to get the vaccination and then get the license and it was all on your honor system.
Under the proposed system, you would have to be the owner to get the dog. You would pay for the license and the vaccination up front and you would get a voucher. That makes it cost about $100 to get a dog out.
9. SWIMMING POOL UPDATE. Mayor Ogden presented a brief slide presentation the proposal for a new community development center which would include a swimming pool. One of the problems is that the County is not sure that the Council is all on the same page and that we are all supportive. The proposal would include a leisure pool, equipment room, gymnasium, competition pool, leisure lounge; family change area, weight and cardio, running track, child watch area and we have left out other things that we would like to put in it. The lower level would include the leisure pool, the locker room, the competition pool and the gymnasium. One of the drawings shows a racquet ball court, but we are not planning to do racquet ball courts. Mayor Ogden would rather have classroom spaces that we could use, that Snow College could use, or could be used for economic development purposes.
The plan is to build the facility on the Snow College campus and they are going to lease the property to us. Mayor Ogden is confident that this facility could be built without raising taxes. Some of the funding sources would include a bond transfer by the County which would require a bond election. Mayor Ogden felt that the bond would pass if the Commissioners say that they are for this project. The nature of politics is such that if you know that your neighbor is against something, very seldom would you say you are in favor. As politicians we ask what people think about it and we need to be positive about this as a Council and a staff.
Mayor Ogden stated that the estimate is approximately $24 million dollars to build this facility. Divided up into 4 areas of responsibility, the City would accept $6 million dollars and the County would accept $6 million dollars we go to CIB, Mayor Ogden is confident that the City could get half of it in a grant and half of it in a loan. The legislature would be the third leg and Mayor Ogden felt that they would be able to get another $6 million dollars. Then we would need to get some money from philanthropic sources that would include Millers, who are waiting to see what happens. They come in and help complete a project.
The operation and maintenance is the hardest part. We know that the cost would be about $1 million dollars a year according to what the Springville facility cost. We anticipate that through sales and family passes we could approximately cover about half of that. That leaves a $500,000 shortfall and that shortfall will be paid for in this way. If the City accepts half of that responsibility, that would be $250,000. If the County will accept a quarter of the responsibility, that would be $125,000. Pat Wilson stated that our estimated shows that our O and M would be $800,000 because it will cost less than what it does on the Wasatch front.
Councilmember Nielson has some great concerns about this. One concern is the population because she felt that we are over estimating what we might actually get. She does not see a way that we could ever build anything that size without raising taxes because we have no funding source. She noted that one-third of our community is at poverty level, so $50 a month is food and gas money. We need to take this into account. She wants to build a pool that is beautiful, functional, and something the community could have without making it a burden on them.
Councilmember Nielson asked Commissioner Ogden to come tonight and had asked him to explain a couple of things because she thought that as a Council we are overestimating what we could actually finance.
Councilmember Burrows stated that we do need to do something because what we have it not going to last. He has heard from quite a few people and they are kind of the opinion that this is getting shoved down there throat and that it is a done deal. He has some of the Commissioners tell him that they are not on board with this. There are so many ifs on how we are going to move forward and pay for it. Councilmember Burrows does not think that a county-wide bond will pass.
Councilmember Nielson was happy to hear that Salina was able to get money from CIB so that takes that pressure off from them. The other thing that bothers her is that there are classrooms in the design of the facility. She is not in favor of asking Richfield citizens to pay for classrooms for Snow College. Last year when the legislature gave money to Snow College, it all went to Ephraim. It did not come to Richfield and we cannot guaranty that if the legislature sends money to Snow College that we are going to have any percentage of that.
Mayor Ogden stated that if the legislature makes an appropriation for this facility it will go to that facility. Councilmember Arrington stated that he does not think there would be a problem getting the money for building the facility, but there might be a problem with running O and M through the college. Mr. Wilson stated that there is an exchange for the College’s part of O and M because it will be paid by them giving activity cards to all of their students so they can access the facility.
One of Commissioner Ogden’s questions was if the College would have say in how the facility would be built because it is on their property. Mr. Wilson stated that they have submitted that question to a couple of people to get an exact answer, but we have not yet. Mayor Ogden had talked with Senator Okerlund tonight and he is going to find out for us within a day or so. Senator Okerlund thought that was a way to do build this on their property without the State standards applying, but he was going to find out for sure.
Malcolm Nash stated that the County and the City really need to get together and have a candid discussion.
Councilmember Burrows wondered what the life expectancy was for this. He does not want to put an albatross around the citizen’s years for the next 75 years that we cannot afford.
Councilmember Nielson stated that we all want a pool and we all want a nice facility, but we want to make sure that we can afford it.
Councilmember Christensen felt that if all of the entities proposed help, then this project would be doable, but if it is just Richfield City we cannot afford to do this. Roosevelt’s facility was $14 million dollars and the City itself could not afford that.
The Council set a meeting with the County Commissioners for Monday, July 15 at 9:00 a.m. in the County building.
10. RESOLUTION 2019-3 ACCEPTING THE CERTIFIED TAX RATE ADOPTED. The Council reviewed the certified tax rate provided by the Sevier County Auditor for fiscal year 2019-2020. Motion: Adopt Resolution 2019-3 accepting the certified tax rate for 2019-2020, Action: Adopted, Moved by Richard Barnett, Seconded by Bryan Burrows. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 5). Yea: Kevin Arrington, Bryan Burrows, Richard Barnett, Kathy Christensen, Connie Nielson.
11. BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2018-2019 OPENED AND AMENDED AND BUDGET RESOLUTION 2019-2 ACCEPTING BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2019-2020 ADOPTED. Councilmember Burrows asked about the additional employee requested at the golf course and if staff was going to study this and come back to the Council before anything is done. Mr. Langston indicated that the staff will do that in the next few weeks. Mr. Langston stated that changes to the current fiscal year included an increase to the 4th of July budget to include the purchase of new canopies and a trailer to store them in. Other changes have to do with the salary changes that the Council discussed during the budget study session. Motion: Open and amend the budget for fiscal year 2018-2019 with increases and decreases and adopt budget Resolution 2019-2 accepting the budget for all departments for fiscal year 2019-2020, Action: Approved, Moved by Kathy Christensen, Seconded by Richard Barnett. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 5). Yea: Kevin Arrington, Bryan Burrows, Richard Barnett, Kathy Christensen, Connie Nielson.
12. RECESS to convene a Municipal Building Authority Meeting. Motion: Recess to convene a Municipal Building Authority meeting, Action: Approved, Moved by Kevin Arrington, Seconded by Kathy Christensen. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 5). Yea: Kevin Arrington, Bryan Burrows, Richard Barnett, Kathy Christensen, Connie Nielson.
13. RECONVENE. At 9:05 p.m., regular session of the City Council reconvened.
14. ANNEXATION DENIAL LETTER FOR COBY CHRISTENSEN DENIED. The Council discussed the property in question and the location of it to the City limits. If someone is going to build on property in the County and the property lies within the City’s annexation boundary, the County requires them to get a letter of denial from the City stating that the City would not or could not annex the property. The particular property is contiguous to the City on two sides. The owners do not want to annex because they do not need the City’s services. The Council discussed the possibility of creating a County island if they granted a letter of denial. Motion: Deny the request for an annexation denial letter for property owned by Colby Christensen, Action: Approved, Moved by Richard Barnett, Seconded by Bryan Burrows. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 5). Yea: Kevin Arrington, Bryan Burrows, Richard Barnett, Kathy Christensen, Connie Nielson.
15. OTHER BUSINESS. Councilmember Barnett stated that the Governor’s Task Force on tax reform will hold an open house on Friday at 5 p.m. at the Fairgrounds with an open mic from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Councilmember Nielson noted that the Miss Richfield pageant will be held this Saturday night at 7:00 p.m.
Councilmember Arrington also noted that the Patriotic program is this Sunday and the Field of Stars is also coming up.
16. EXECUTIVE SESSION. At 9:26 p.m., Motion: Convene an executive session to discuss the character, professional competence, or physical or mental health of individuals to serve on the Library board, Action: Approved, Moved by Kathy Christensen, Seconded by Connie Nielson. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 5). Yea: Kevin Arrington, Bryan Burrows, Richard Barnett, Kathy Christensen, Connie Nielson.
17. MEETING ADJOURNED. At 9:41 p.m., Motion: Reconvene and adjourn, Action: Approved, Moved by Connie Nielson, Seconded by Kathy Christensen. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 5). Yea: Kevin Arrington, Bryan Burrows, Richard Barnett, Kathy Christensen, Connie Nielson.
PASSED and APPROVED this 13 day of August, 2019.