All present included Mayor Hart,
Council Member Elwell,
Council Member Jolley,
Council Member McDonald,
Council Member Roberts,
Council Member Rusick,
and
City Recorder Kari D. Jimenez.
STAFF:
City Manager Judy Gubler,
City Attorney Dale Coulam,
Director of Finance Alan Rae,
Parks and Recreation Director Benny Sorensen,
and
Director of Public Safety Bob Flowers.
EXCUSED: None.
| A. |
Acknowledgement of Quorum |
Council Member Jolley led the Flag Salute
Council Member Jolley gave the Invocation
There were no disclosures or conflicts of interest with items on this meeting's agenda.
Alan Rae referred to the CAFR (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report). A copy of the report is available by request through Ivins City Hall. Auditor Lee Esplin stated this audit was one of the more enjoyable audits he has performed. Ivins City’s records are in fine shape. He commended the City and indicated the records being in good shape reflect the tone of Ivins organization. He indicated that the only management point the auditors found was that there were two (2) departments slightly over their budget. He recommended the City keep doing what the City is doing.
Mayor Hart thanked and recognized Ivins Director of Finance Alan Rae for his remarkable work.
Benny Sorensen reported that flag football is over and basketball registration has started. The Run Run Reindeer event will be held on December 3, 2011 and a frisbee golf tournament will be held on November 19, 2011. There was one burial in October and Heritage Days went well. On the Day of Service, all 100 trees were planted. He met with representatives from Snow Canyon State Park and the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve about some of the tortoise fencing they have placed. They have fenced their boundary due to a number of tortoises escaping. The City had a concern about the trail used to climb the red mountain. The representatives thought the trail was more to the west than where it is actually located. The representatives are going to work with the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) to see where the trails appear on the maps and they will then meet with Ivins.
Bob Flowers reported all of the officers in the EMTI (Intermediate) class are finished training and all passed the difficult exam. The Wagon Train went well and he heard a lot of wonderful comments about it. Regarding the citizen request for animals to be sheltered, he spoke with Dr. Brenchly at the Utah State University Extension office. Dr. Brenchly indicated the two (2) most important items for animals are water and feed. Shade is nice but it isn’t necessary or required to maintain a healthy animal. You have to look at the overall environmental conditions and in order to make a real evaluation you have to send out an animal professional to evaluate the situation.
Council Member Rusick referred to an article in the newspaper about being able to drop off out of date drugs at drop off locations and inquired if Ivins residents can take their out of date drugs to the Ivins police station. Bob Flowers stated yes, residents can bring them in and the police department will dispose of the medication appropriately.
Mike Scott reported that the Planning Commission is working on the design guidelines for commercial properties. The next Planning Commission meeting will be an extended meeting to focus on the design guidelines for commercial properties. The Planning Commission also heard a presentation given by Chuck Gillette on behalf of the Sensitive Lands Committee about difficulties in applying the Sensitive Lands Ordinance as written. The Planning Commission has asked the Sensitive Lands Committee to recommend changes to the Planning Commission for consideration and then that amended ordinance will be forwarded to the City Council for consideration. At one of the meetings in December the Planning Commission will be evaluating their performance and setting goals.
Dale Coulam indicated this is the amended version of the ordinance discussed previously. The amendments included a preference for boring under streets rather than using street cuts and clarified if the franchisee is requested to relocate facilities because of a change in the grade or location of any street or public way, that would be done at their expense. If it’s at the request of a private development then the private development pays for that relocation. Council Member Rusick stated the word "and" should be added after the first whereas.
MOTION: Council Member Rusick moved to approve Ordinance No. 2011-09, an Ordinance of Ivins City, Utah regarding Cable Franchises as presented
SECOND: Council Member Jolley
VOTE: The motion carried unanimously.
| Council Member Elwell |
AYE |
| Council Member Jolley |
AYE |
| Council Member McDonald |
AYE |
| Council Member Roberts |
AYE |
| Council Member Rusick |
AYE |
Roll call vote. All Council Members voted in favor.
Judy Gubler indicated this is to formalize the agreement with Washington County.
MOTION: Council Member Jolley moved to approve Resolution No. 2011-21R, a Resolution of Ivins City, Utah approving and authorizing execution of an Interlocal Cooperation Agreement between Ivins City and Washington County, et al, regarding the cost and use of Spillman Software and Hardware
SECOND: Council Member Elwell
VOTE: The motion carried unanimously.
| Council Member Elwell |
AYE |
| Council Member Jolley |
AYE |
| Council Member McDonald |
AYE |
| Council Member Roberts |
AYE |
| Council Member Rusick |
AYE |
Roll call vote. All Council Members voted in favor.
Judy Gubler stated the Resolution is amending and replacing the Consolidated Fee Schedule to make reference to the fees that the City are allowed to charge per the State of Utah. Council Member Rusick referred to the Special Provisions/Waiting Time information from the State of Utah and inquired if that can be charged. Judy Gubler indicated it depends on what they’re waiting for. Council Member Rusick referred to people abusing the EMS system and inquired if an ambulance was called but didn’t transport, can the City charge for that? Dale Coulam stated the City might be able to charge for that if the City were to do an assessment or provide supplies or medication. In some cases the City has been advised to transport on certain cases that the City may have not otherwise because there may be a psychological assessment that’s required.
MOTION: Council Member Rusick moved to approve Resolution No. 2011-22R, a Resolution of Ivins City, Utah amending the Consolidated Fee Schedule to include EMS fees
SECOND: Council Member Roberts
VOTE: The motion carried unanimously.
| Council Member Elwell |
AYE |
| Council Member Jolley |
AYE |
| Council Member McDonald |
AYE |
| Council Member Roberts |
AYE |
| Council Member Rusick |
AYE |
Roll call vote. All Council Members voted in favor.
Judy Gubler indicated this item is on the agenda at Council Member Elwell’s request. She referred to Abby Gail Park on the Ivins Parks and Trails Master plan. Regarding the status with the State and the HCAC, the City has an informal approval to proceed and Chuck Gillette is going to work with the Utah State Parks and work out the details of the trail, including how the washes would be handled and identify the costs. Discussion is that the City’s property that was intended to be used as the detention basin be exchanged for a paved trail that would connect Tuacahn and Snow Canyon Drive. There is still a question of the connection and the City is hoping to address that. Once the trail becomes paved and approved, one direct access would be easier to deal with. Council Member Elwell had some concerns relative to access even if the State and the HCAC agree to the hard surface trail. He inquired if the hard surface would be an aggregate trail or paved trail. Judy Gubler stated it would be a paved trail. Council Member Elwell indicated a paved trail would be viable because of handicap access. His concern is with the step over that is in place currently. If a step over is maintained, there really isn’t handicap access. When he was a member of the Ivins Area Trail System/Red Cliffs Desert Reserve Public Use Purposes Committee they discussed the step over and the HCAC wasn’t willing to give up the step over, thinking that the tortoises would go out of the area without the step over. There was a discussion of there being gates for the tortoises that would work and still allow handicap access. He would like the City to have access other than a step over if there is going to be a paved trail. If the City isn’t going to have an access that would accommodate handicap access, he wouldn’t see a problem with where and how the particular trail continued on. As part of the agreement with The Springs development, The Springs put in the paved portion according to how the City wanted that done with the idea that the City would continue the paved portion to that point, expecting that the City would eventually have a circular trail for people to be able to use that area. Keeping in mind handicap access, the City has to minimize elevation gain and loss of super elevations of the trail. His concern when he walked out to the trail to take a look relative to the complaint from an individual who lives right by the trail and doesn’t want people walking in her backyard, he saw that the City is creating a super elevation from the higher portion down to the rip rap. The opening from the Eagle Rock development was one of the arguments when the City was trying to get the HCAC to agree to the Ivins trail. The foot trail didn’t materialize until The Springs put in the paved portion of the trail. When the committee was discussing the trail, the HOA (Home Owners Association) for Eagle Rock was in favor of the connecting trail and there weren’t concerns as to how close the trail was to backyards. His concern is not accommodating one individual but rather accommodating people trying to use the trail coming out of Eagle Rock. The other Council Members agreed.
Mayor Hart has researched this issue in the past and stated that when the concept of incorporating solar in the community and potentially on a large scale to the benefit of Ivins residents, one of the obstacles to that happening was and is the fact that that Ivins is not a municipal power city and is serviced by Rocky Mountain Power which has been given Ivins City as a part of their service district. Mayor Hart explored what those options might be. A power company, whether it be municipal or Rocky Mountain Power or whomever, has to have a service infrastructure and a means of generation or purchasing power from a generating entity. For example, the City of St. George and Santa Clara City generate some of their own power and they buy the majority of it through
UAMPS which is a generating business that has plants, primarily coal fired plants that generate power and they sell them in blocks to the City of St. George and Santa Clara City. The problem that Ivins City has is that if Ivins were to decide to pursue becoming a municipal power company to have the maximum flexibility in what the City could do within the City, Ivins would have to negotiate a contract with UAMPS or another power generating entity to purchase power and the second thing the City would have to do is to either purchase or lease the infrastructure which are the transformers, the transmission lines, meters and so forth. Everything that brings the power to the meters presently belongs to Rocky Mountain Power. In approximately the early 90’s Santa Clara and the City of St. George negotiated the purchase of that infrastructure from then Utah Power and Light and at that point in time Utah Power and Light was agreeable to those cities acquiring that and based on the price those cities had to pay, they made a very good buy. It has been made abundantly clear to the Mayor that if Ivins were to pursue this, Ivins would be dealing with a company that would not be a willing seller. There would either be a process of regulating or litigating Ivins way into a deal to acquire that and then contract to purchase power. In the case of UAMPS the City would buy into the generating facility and then shoulder the burden of purchasing generating capacity long term. The disadvantage the Mayor sees in pursing this is that there would be significant expense associated with it that may require Ivins to bond for all of the infrastructure in the approximate amount of $20 million dollars. There’s an engineering firm based in Salt Lake City that specializes in taking cities through this process. Another possibility is the City could invite another company like Dixie Escalante to come into the City and take over the job of Rocky Mountain Power has been doing. The difficulty there is that Dixie Escalante doesn’t own the infrastructure so Dixie Escalante would have to establish a rate structure that allowed them either to purchase that infrastructure or to lease it from Rocky Mountain Power. The Mayor has spoken with officials of Dixie Escalante in the past and there is some interest to do that but at some point in time this all translates into dollars. The concern the Mayor had after exploring that avenue was that it appeared to him that by the time the City got that kind of a lease in place, that the power rates wouldn’t be impacted very much and wouldn’t be looking at much if any of a reduction in the cost of power because of all of the infrastructure cost. Rocky Mountain Power has made it abundantly clear that they want to retain Ivins City as their service area but that doesn’t mean Ivins can’t explore other options in more detail. In an informal discussion with Santa Clara City, there is some interest on Santa Clara’s part that if Ivins were to become a municipal power entity, they already have under utilized equipment and personnel that could be used to provide that service to Ivins City under some type of contract. When you look at power rates of Dixie Escalante they are currently lower due to very favorable contracts; but those contracts terminate over the next couple of years and their cost of power is expected to increase, resulting in their rates increasing as well. Mayor Hart suggested if Ivins is serious about looking at the most economical option to explore, meet with Dixie Escalante and have them assess what the costs would be. To Rocky Mountain Power’s credit, they stepped forward on behalf of Ivins and helped Ivins develop the net metering and solar power concept. The City Council determined it is worth looking into. Mayor Hart will make contact with the professionals, provide specifics and request proposals.
Council Member McDonald - no report
Council Member Elwell - no report
Council Member Jolley - no report
Council Member Roberts - no report
Council Member Rusick - no report
Mayor Hart reported he attended a DTEC (Dixie Transportation Executive Council) meeting where the discussion centered on the progress on the northern corridor and other significant regional transportation projects and the Council has likely read the rumor that there’s a possibility that the gorge through the Arizona strip becoming a toll road. There’s some thought that may be posturing because very few of Arizona’s residents use that road. It’s an extremely expensive road to build and maintain and requires a lot of repair at this point in time with ailing bridges and so on. They are likely trying to obtain Federal Funds to repair that roadway. DTEC is moving forward with the environmental study part of the northern corridor which will likely be named the Washington Parkway. That is the road that will come from the north end of Washington across and over The Reserve. The Washington County Water Conservancy District is beginning the comment period on the Lake Powell Pipeline. There is a very lengthy process they will be going through. It’s an extremely complex thing and he has been attending the meetings for more than two (2) years and has listened carefully to comments by Citizens for Dixie Future and others who aren’t as enthusiastic about the pipeline. It is going to be a big deal over the next few years, particularly the funding aspects of it and Ivins will want to monitory that carefully.
Judy Gubler reported the City met with the MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization) regarding Ivins preferred options at intersections for roundabouts. The MPO is working on a study on the Western Corridor to look and see if roundabouts are the best option. The City is continuing to work on the access the City is required to provide to Pond Park and have had some preliminary meetings with the Cameo Park HOA (Home Owners Association). Two (2) members of their board are unavailable until December. Regarding the audit, there was one audit finding that frustrated the Director of Finance Alan Rae. That audit finding was there were two areas where Public Safety has three (3) subcomponents in the budget. There is Police and Fire, EMS and Animal Control. Approximately three (3) years ago those were combined and are all one department but for tracking purposes those were categorized. The auditors considered those categories as a department because they were broken out in the budget. Alan does an excellent job. Judy Gubler provided follow-up notes from the last City Council meeting. A copy of the notes are available by request through Ivins City Hall.
No report
| E. |
Items to be placed on future agendas |