THE STATE OF UTAH
COUNTY OF SEVIER
CITY OF RICHFIELD
At the City Council
In and For Said City
April 27, 2021
Minutes of the Richfield City Council special meeting held on Tuesday, April 27, 2021at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers of the Richfield City office building located at 75 East Center, Richfield, Utah. Mayor David C. Ogden presiding.
- ROLL CALL
- 2021/22 BUDGET DISCUSSED
- MEETING ADJOURNED
- ROLL CALL. Present: Mayor Ogden, Bryan Burrows, Kathy Christensen, Todd Gleave, Kip Hansen, Connie Nielson, Michele Jolley, Tyson Hansen.
- 2021/22 BUDGET DISCUSSED. Mayor Ogden stated that it has been a miracle that we made it through COVID and it did not affect our tax revenue anymore than it did. The Council viewed a short film presentation discussing the purpose of truth in taxation. During the discussion, Chief Lloyd explained how we are hurting ourselves if we never adjust our property tax rate because we are not keeping up with inflation to reinvest back into the business.
This has forced us as a City to rely on sales tax revenue which puts us into a position of trying to outguess what will happen with sales tax in any given year.
Chief Lloyd discussed the step and grade scale for officers and the changes he is wanting to make to it. Councilmember Hansen would like to see the pay scale for the County. Chief Lloyd indicated that he will see if he can get that, but he tried to hire one of their jailers today who has 9 years of experience and he turned him down because it would be a $5,000 cut in pay for him to come to work for the City. He noted that he has lost 3 guys this year because they can make more money retired than they can by working for the City.
Chief Lloyd has two officers that are retiring. One is a school resource officer. Councilmember Gleave asked what effect the things going on in the world have on this and if the school resource officer retiring is because of some of the rules at the school. Chief Lloyd stated that the bottom line is the money and if they do not get a 5% increase once they hit a certain point, then they would make more money retired because of the 4% COLA they can get on retirement.
These individuals retiring does free up some money because they are on the high end of the scale. The second scale Chief Lloyd gave the Council showed that with three new officers and one additional officer, the difference needed to fund his department is $73,000 more than what he had budgeted this year. Councilmember Burrows does not think that what Chief Lloyd is asking for is unreasonable. Chief Lloyd would like to have a work session and go over the budget in more depth. The Council determined to set a work session on Thursday, April 27 at 6:00 p.m.
- MEETING ADJOURNED. At 6:49 p.m., Motion: Adjourn the special meeting, Action: Adjourned, Moved by Kathy Christensen, Seconded by Kip Hansen. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yes = 5). Yes: Bryan Burrows, Connie Nielson, Kathy Christensen, Kip Hansen, Todd Gleave.
PASSED and APPROVED this 22nd day of June 2021.