All present included Mayor Hart, Council Member Elwell, Council Member McDonald, Council Member Mendenhall, Council Member Roberts, and Council Member Densley.
STAFF: City Manager/Attorney Dale Coulam, Public Works Director Dave Glenn, City Engineer Chuck Gillette, Building and Zoning Administrator Kevin Rudd, and City Recorder Kari D. Jimenez.
EXCUSED: None.Audience: Claudette Larsen, Jenny Johnson, Becky & Chuck Warren and others who did not sign in.
A. Acknowledgement of Quorum Mayor Hart acknowledged there was a quorum present.
B. Flag Salute Council Member McDonald led the Flag Salute
C. Invocation Council Member McDonald gave the Invocation
D. Disclosures There were no disclosures or conflicts of interest with items on this meeting's agenda.
A. Department Reports: Public Works, Engineering, Building Department and Finance Public Works Summary of Operations Engineering ReportDave Glenn provided written reports to the Mayor and City Council. A copy of the reports are available by request through Ivins City Hall. He reported that ridership on Suntran has declined over the last few weeks due to school being out. The average daily ridership is 49 since the service began earlier this year. Washington City recently entered into an agreement with St. George to start Suntran bus service next year and the storm drain box at 400 South has been installed. Mayor Hart noted this was Dave Glenn's last report and indicated the City has been extremely grateful for his service.Chuck Gillette provided an electronic written report to the Mayor and City Council. A copy of the report is available by request through Ivins City Hall. He reported that the 2015 Street Improvements project is nearly complete. The pump station at Taviawk is operational in manual mode but they are working out issues with the automatic controls. Regarding the Ivins Reservoir, the City will be placing the beach sand prior to the Water Conservancy installing a 6-inch fill line. Removal of the majority of existing fences on 200 East where the block wall will be installed started this week and curb and gutter across the street will be going in by the end of next week and then the sidewalk shortly after that.Kevin Rudd reported that growth is continuing with the issuance of single family building permits being similar to what was issued last year. The City could see an increase in building permits with the recent approval of a few subdivisions and resort projects. The Family Dollar project is coming along and plywood is currently being placed over the metal building. He was asked to research how Park City, Utah and Scottsdale, Arizona have handled short term rentals. He reported that Park City allows short term rentals in 14 of their zones, which is approximately 80% of the City. They do have restrictions where they are inspected, a yearly business license is required and similar. Scottsdale only allows short term rentals in specific areas and they're controlled.Dale Coulam indicated that Wally Ritchie was excused but he previously emailed the Finance report and Budget report to the City Council. Copies of these reports are available by request through Ivins City Hall. Mayor Hart stated the reports were very clear, well done and he appreciated Wally's work.
B. Planning Commission Report Chairperson Loris reported that the Planning Commission held a Public Hearing on proposed amendments to the Ivins City General Plan to create a Short-Term Rental Overlay and Recreation Vehicle Park Overlay. They took public comment for over an hour. The public expressed concerns about lighting, traffic and similar regarding short term rentals and there were no positive comments about the Recreation Vehicle Park. With the information provided by Kevin Rudd regarding restrictions for short-term rentals, the Planning Commission recommended to approve the proposed amendments but not to include a recommendation for Recreation Vehicle Park rentals at this time and forwarded the amended General Plan and Land Use Plan onto the City Council for a Public Hearing. Council Member McDonald stated that he listened to the meeting and indicated the gavel should have been used because of the way the public acted with clapping and the like and indicated that behavior wouldn't be tolerated at the City Council. Chairperson Loris stated that was relayed to the audience by the City Manager/Attorney.
| 3) | CITIZEN COMMENT & REQUEST FOR FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS |
None
ApplicationMayor Hart opened the Public Hearing. There being no comments, Mayor Hart closed the Public Hearing. Dale Coulam clarified that there was no action to be taken, only noted in the Minutes. The Community Impact Board hearing has been scheduled for September 3, 2015 in Salt Lake City. Mayor Hart stated he likes the scope of the application.
B. Public Hearing to discuss proposed salaries for elected officials and salary ranges for statutory officers and department heads Dale Coulam indicated state law requires cities to hold a Public Hearing to either set a salary for elected officials and statutory officers or establish a salary range. Elected officials are paid the same no matter their tenure so a range doesn't make sense. The information he provided sets forth what the Mayor and City Council currently make, as well as a proposed cost of living adjustment as set by the Social Security Administration. Regarding the other positions, there has been discussion of a step-grade system, although he is not aware of any City that uses that. He proposed using the lower of the current market rate or a Social Security COLA (cost of living adjustment), to determine the salary range for statutory officers and department heads. During the recession, some cities laid off employees and when they began to hire again, they hired at lower wages. Employees in management positions in most cities were not laid off but there were some early retirements. Mayor Hart opened the Public Hearing. Claudette Larsen stated that she has been very impressed with the work being done by those who report at the City Council meetings and by the City Council members and it's good to know that the City is led by people who care and who take the time to do the things they should to better the city and she thanked them for that. There being no other comments, Mayor Hart closed the Public Hearing.
C. Discuss and consider approval of Ordinance No. 2015-09, an Ordinance of Ivins City, Utah, approving salaries of elected officials and salary ranges for statutory officers and department heads Ord 2015-09 Salaries of Elected Officials - salary ranges for statutory officers & dept heads Proposed SalariesMayor Hart appreciated the research because it was an interesting way to understand where Ivins is relative to other cities. He felt that for Ivins to retain good employees, the City has to pay them commensurate of what they could earn elsewhere. Dale Coulam indicated that a prior Mayor and City Council set parameters that did not include comparing wages with the City of St. George. He felt that St. George should be included because they would be a contender to take employees from Ivins. The parameters that are set are for cities with a population of less than 30,000. Mayor Hart inquired if there's much of a wage difference between cities with a population of less than 10,000 and those that are less than 30,000. Dale Coulam stated no and indicated that sometimes the cities with a smaller population pay more. Ivins looks at what St. George is doing because they're a competitor but they are not included in the parameters. He would stack Ivins staff professionally along with the quality of work and the amount of work that they do, against any staff in the State. Mayor Hart agreed and indicated that's the huge point to make. In large measure, the success of Ivins City, which is in an enviable position the way that management has made opportunity for training, advancement and so forth, Ivins is a very well run machine and last thing Ivins wants to do is to train people to go to work for other cities, particularly when they fit in very well at Ivins and provide a really valuable service for Ivins residents. Council Member Roberts referred to the proposed increase for the City Council and indicated that he would rather see that increase go to the Heritage Days Committee and he wouldn't be opposed to the Mayor's salary increased because there is a lot of time spent to represent the City in many capacities. He also commented that transparency is a good thing and likes how that has been done. Dale Coulam clarified that any increase for the Mayor, City Council, Department Heads, City Manager and any management positions would not occur until January of next year so that the City can review revenues at the end of the year. The increases for the other positions would be effective in August of this year. Council Member Roberts stated that Ivins needs to be competitive with Ivins good employees. Council Member Densley inquired how Ivins benefit package compares to other cities like St. George. Dale Coulam clarified that what they're reviewing tonight is compensation only and does not include benefits. However, Ivins does provide good health benefits for employees that they appreciate. Council Member Densley stated that he liked Council Member Roberts idea about the City Council increase going to the Heritage Days Committee. The Mayor and other City Council Members agreed. Mayor Hart referred to the compensation of the Planning Commission and indicated that in the future he would like to see them better compensated. The commissioners on the Planning Commission are professional and the City Council has deferred a lot of work to them. They have very capably handled that work for the City and their thoughts and recommendations have been very well thought out.
MOTION: Council Member Densley moved to approve Ordinance No. 2015-09, an Ordinance of Ivins City, Utah, approving salaries of elected officials and salary ranges for statutory officers and department heads
SECOND: Council Member McDonald
VOTE: The motion carried unanimously.
Council Member Elwell AYE Council Member McDonald AYE Council Member Mendenhall AYE Council Member Roberts AYE Council Member Densley AYE
Council Member Roberts suggested that the motion be amended to include the recommendation he made regarding the City Council's compensation and the increase going to the Heritage Days Committee instead.
MOTION: Council Member Densley moved to amend the above motion for the City Council to take the City Council's increase and put it towards the Heritage Days Committee
SECOND: Council Member McDonald
VOTE: The motion carried unanimously.
Council Member Elwell AYE Council Member McDonald AYE Council Member Mendenhall AYE Council Member Roberts AYE Council Member Densley AYE
Roll call vote. All Council Members voted in favor.
A. Discuss and consider approval of Resolution No. 2015-13R, a Resolution of Ivins City, Utah, approving the Certified Property Tax Rate for Calendar Year 2015 2015-13R Certified Property Tax Rate for 2015Dale Coulam clarified that this is a formality. Ivins City is not increasing property taxes so this is the Certified Property Tax rate provided by the County that needs to be adopted prior to July.
MOTION: Council Member McDonald moved to approve Resolution No. 2015-13R, a Resolution of Ivins City, Utah, approving the Certified Property Tax Rate for Calendar Year 2015
SECOND: Council Member Elwell
VOTE: The motion carried unanimously.
Council Member Elwell AYE Council Member McDonald AYE Council Member Mendenhall AYE Council Member Roberts AYE Council Member Densley AYE
Roll call vote. All Council Members voted in favor.
B. Discuss and consider approval of Resolution No. 2015-14R, a Resolution of Ivins City, Utah, appointing Wally Ritchie as Acting City Manager and Kevin Rudd as Alternate Acting City Manager 2015-14R Appointing Acting and Alternate Acting City ManagersDale Coulam indicated that Dave Glenn and Wally Ritchie have informally been acting as City Managers when he is out of the office but with Dave retiring, Acting and Alternate Acting City Managers need to be appointed. Wally Ritchie was a City Manager for Santa Clara and the most senior Department Head is Kevin Rudd. Council Member Densley referred to the emergency management training and inquired if Wally has had that training. Dale Coulam clarified that he has.
MOTION: Council Member Mendenhall moved to approve Resolution No. 2015-14R, a Resolution of Ivins City, Utah, appointing Wally Ritchie as Acting City Manager and Kevin Rudd as Alternate Acting City Manager
SECOND: Council Member Roberts
VOTE: The motion carried unanimously.
Council Member Elwell AYE Council Member McDonald AYE Council Member Mendenhall AYE Council Member Roberts AYE Council Member Densley AYE
Roll call vote. All Council Members voted in favor.
C. Discuss and consider approval of Ordinance No. 2015-10, an Ordinance of Ivins City, Utah, Establishing Regulations for Issuing Conduit Financing Obligations Ord No. 2015-10 Conduit Financing ObligationsDale Coulam stated that the proposed ordinance is patterned after what Salt Lake County, Weber County and Draper City have done. Zions Bank was the advisor to the two counties in preparing a similar ordinance. He forsees the possibility of Ivins City being approached to act as the issuer for conduit financing, which means that qualified business entities, including 501(C)3's, would be able to access to the government bond market in a pure conduit financing situation. The issuance of the conduit financing does not obligation the City for payment of any portion of the debt obligation. It is on the recipient of those funds to be responsible to pay that back and any default by the recipient would not adversely affect the City's bond or credit rating. There is also a possibility that the City and other governmental entities could each pledge a dollar amount as an investment to pay for conduit financing, particularly with 501(c)3 entities. Therefore, in paragraph (3)(a) he suggested adding language that the City could be liable for the specific amount it expressly pledged by written agreement. Council Member Densley has seen this type of financing used for low income housing where the developer and City worked together. He thinks it's good to have something in place to provide opportunities. Mayor Hart indicated he would like to see paragraph 3 remain in the ordinance and have the option to pledge a certain amount for entities like Tuacahn, the Kayenta Arts Foundation and similar because there would be value to the City in doing that. Dale Coulam inquired if the Mayor and City Council would like to modify the ordinance to include the ability to pledge money a written agreement and they indicated they yes. He referred to the section regarding default and the Mayor and City Council determined they would like to think about a little more. Mayor Hart stated that it would be interesting to see how Iron County bonded or is paying for the Shakespearean Festival building. Council Member Roberts inquired if it was possible for a 501(C)3 to build a recreation center using this type of financing. Mayor Hart indicated yes and clarified that this type of financing would be open to profit and non-profit entities but that funding for profit entities are capped. The Mayor and City Council would like this ordinance to come forward on a future agenda when the Director of Finance would also be present to answer any questions.
MOTION: Council Member Mendenhall moved to table Ordinance No. 2015-10, an Ordinance of Ivins City, Utah, Establishing Regulations for Issuing Conduit Financing Obligations
SECOND: Council Member McDonald
VOTE: The motion carried unanimously.
Council Member Elwell AYE Council Member McDonald AYE Council Member Mendenhall AYE Council Member Roberts AYE Council Member Densley AYE
Mayor Hart referred to the Red Rock Park Drainage Modification and inquired if that was based on the Engineer's recommendation. Dale Coulam indicated it was. There are park amenities that will go in after the basin is filled in. Filling the basin in is the Public Works side of the project and the parks amenities are in next years budget.
A. Approve expenditure in the amount of $6,775.00 for extrication equipment for the Fire Department Extrication equipment
B. Approve expenditure for Red Rock Park Drainage Modification Red Rock Park Drainage Modification
C. Approval of City Council Meeting Minutes for June 4, 2015
MOTION: Council Member McDonald moved to approve the Consent Agenda
SECOND: Council Member Elwell
VOTE: The motion carried unanimously.
Council Member Elwell AYE Council Member McDonald AYE Council Member Mendenhall AYE Council Member Roberts AYE Council Member Densley AYE
| 7) | CONSENT AGENDA ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION |
| 8) | REPORTS |
A. Council Council Member Densley reported there will be a Joint Management meeting regarding Snow Canyon State Park on Friday, July 10, 2015 at 10:00 a.m. at the County office. He inquired if there has been a meeting regarding Ivins position on participating in repairing and/or replacing the roof for the Sand Hollow Aquatic Center. Dale Coulam stated he is not aware of any meeting being called. Mayor Hart clarified that The City of St. George hasn't decided what is going to occur with the roof at this point.
Council Member Roberts - no report
Council Member Mendenhall reported that the first meeting of the Arts Master Plan Committee was held last night. They discussed big picture questions and opinions and feedback. They decided to proceed with an ambitious schedule and plan to be finished by September 1, 2015. Mike Scott is the Chairman and Judith Kapuscinski is the Vice Chair. Their next meeting is Wednesday, July 1, 2015.
Council Member McDonald reported on the Solid Waste Board regarding the recycling program. He indicated that the board is willing to exclude Ivins from the program if Ivins so chooses and stick with the binnies. He was hoping to see the program tabled all together due to the price of commodities being so low. The board awarded the contract to Dixie Waste, which Council Member McDonald does not believe was the correct choice because of the difficulty it's been to work with them and they are a smaller entity. Dixie Waste is concerned about their growing pains and they are tired of Council Member McDonald telling them that he doesn't believe their growing pains are Ivins' problem. Ivins City can still go mandatory and he was able to negotiate the price down by .20 cents from $3.82 to $3.62. The advantage to that is there won't be an administration cost to it. If Ivins chooses the opt out option, there will be administrative fees to maintain that and the actual cost will be $6.00 or more. He doesn't think the other entities understand the cost associated with that. Mayor Hart requested an explanation. Dale Coulam explained that's exactly why Ivins charges everyone for the service whether they're snowbirds or not because it would be a nightmare to track who is here, who isn't and make adjustments to the bills accordingly. Mayor Hart indicated that Council Member McDonald's point is a good one and he is surprised the other cities don't seem to grasp this. Somebody is going to have to devote the time to track who is in and who is out of the program and there are dollars associated with staff time to administer this. Council Member McDonald indicated that he has stated that to the board but the board is controlled by the City of St. George. St. George has six (6) members on the board and every other City has one (1) member. For the City of St. George to do the opt out program they would have to hire a full time person just to deal with the administration of it. Council Member Densley inquired if Republic Services was way off on the bids and was the reason they were not awarded the contract. Council Member McDonald indicated they were off by .05 cents but they were willing to put money back into the program, apply money towards advertising and the like. They blew Dixie Waste out of the water when it came to a county wide mandatory program. The Executive Board asked that Republic Services be awarded the contract. The other slap to the face to Republic Services was they were implementing the program as a favor to see how it was going to work. Common sense tells you Republic Services should have been awarded the contract. He believes 100% that Republic Services would have worked with every entity on an individual basis. Council Member McDonald has fought Dixie Waste just to get 20 cents. Mayor Hart stated that he'd be curious to see what Republic Services would do with a mandatory program with Ivins and Santa Clara City. The Council Members agreed. Mayor Hart suggested that Ivins should look at the Interlocal Agreement to make sure there's no violation of that agreement. Council Member McDonald stated that St. George City's Mayor said that if Ivins isn't going to do this, St. George will do it on their own.
Mayor Hart indicated that Ivins has been very well represented on the board and the position that Ivins has taken has been the right one. Ivins City Council wisely saw the advantage of a universal program and having a universal program rather than not, the cost would have to make up more than the cost of opting out. The City could pay for those who opt out cheaper than Ivins could administer an opt out program. Dale Coulam clarified that with the work load that Ivins City has on its current employees, Ivins would likely have to hire a new employee also to administer an opt out program. The Mayor and City Council Members would like more information regarding the program through Republic Services and determined that Dale Coulam will make that contact if that is a possibility under the Interlocal Agreement.
Council Member Elwell - no report
B. Mayor Mayor Hart reported that he Chairs the Transportation Executive Committee and at a recent meeting the regional transportation plan that is projected for the years 2015 through 2040 was discussed. There are significant construction projects planned that have been based on funding that the Utah State Legislature recently passed relating to transportation funding. He reported that he met with artist Ed Hlavka regarding the Snow Canyon Drive/Center Street monument. There has been an issue with parts and the foundry, making it impossible to meet the July 24th unveiling. That has been re-scheduled to occur as part of Heritage Days in September.
C. City Manager/Attorney Dale Coulam Dale Coulam referred to the property north of Lightfoots that Ivins City owns and that the adjacent property owner has agreed to do all of the 200 East improvements abutting that property, including curb, gutter, sidewalk and street paving. Disposing of that property requires a Public Hearing and approval by the City Council. He reported that there is an issue with three (3) encroachments in one of the City's sidewalks. The first is Rocky Mountain Power's light pole. He has spoken with Rocky Mountain Power and established if their pole is in the middle of the sidewalk, they will remove it. The second encroachment is a tree. It has been trimmed but there is another branch that needs to be cut off that is clearly trespassing on Ivins property. The City has also documented by photographs that the tree is dying. A portion of the trees roots encroach on City property and will need to be cut to avoid damaging the sidewalk. He will be sending the owner a legal letter regarding the situation. The third encroachment is the Chevron sign at Lightfoot's gas station. That has not been moved and rebuilt yet but is in the process. He reported that in preparation of the wall being installed on 200 East, all but one owner has requested that the City remove their existing fencing.
D. Items to be placed on future agendas
| 9) | CLOSED MEETING |
| 10) | ADJOURNMENT |
MOTION: Council Member McDonald moved to adjourn
SECOND: Council Member Elwell
VOTE: The motion carried unanimously.
Council Member Elwell AYE Council Member McDonald AYE Council Member Mendenhall AYE Council Member Roberts AYE Council Member Densley AYE
The meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m.
Respectfully,
Kari D. Jimenez, MMC
Ivins City Recorder