[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:00] Councilmember Austin. Yes. Councilmember Aston. Yes. Councilmember Wilding. Yes. Councilmember Smith. Yes. Councilmember Lord. Yes. All in attendance.
[0:08] Wonderful. All right. Do we have anyone here tonight that would be willing to offer invocation and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?
[0:18] And all are welcome and encouraged.
[0:25] And do you want to do the invocation too?
[0:28] Chief,
[0:32] how about we have our two chiefs come up and one pray and one lead us in the pledge?
[0:39] I think this is a beautiful relationship.
[0:43] Just don't trip, Chief.
[0:44] Yeah, okay.
[0:45] No,
[0:50] prepare first and then you can leave then.
[0:51] Yeah.
[0:52] Okay.
[0:56] This is not a normal.
[0:58] Our Father in Heaven, we are grateful to have the opportunity to be here and meet
[1:02] as a city council and in a public office.
[1:06] and please help us tonight to make decisions that are good for the city, that will help
[1:12] the city and help us unite our city because we have a good city and we just want to unite
[1:20] our city and have everybody come together. We're thankful for the opportunity, like
[1:26] I said, to be here. Please bless our servicemen and our first responders and that they'll
[1:33] be safe, and we say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Amen.
[1:41] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
[2:01] Thank you so much. All right. Our item number two on the agenda is our minute
[2:07] and agenda approval. If there are not any changes, I will take a motion. I move
[2:14] that we approve the minutes from our last meeting and the agenda for this
[2:17] meeting. Second. Okay. This move by Council Member Aston.
[2:23] Austin.
[2:25] Seconded by Council Member Aston, all in favor.
[2:30] Aye.
[2:35] All right, we are ready for Ms. Bluffdell's presentation
[2:39] for her 2025-2026 report.
[2:43] And congratulations, your year is almost up.
[2:46] And will you just also remind us when the pageant is?
[2:50] Yes, so our upcoming pageant will be April 18th
[2:53] at 6 p.m. at Inbelly Middle School.
[2:56] My name is Adelie Brown. I'm your Miss Bluffdell 2025 and I just want to first
[3:00] thank you guys for allowing us to be here today and to present our final
[3:04] little statement for the rest of the year. This year we've been able to
[3:07] attend a ton of events both my attendance and I unfortunately my second
[3:11] attendant will not be here today but we've attended over 50 amazing events
[3:16] that this city has put on. Ifty's a lot throughout the year but it's been
[3:20] incredible. We've had some amazing opportunities to be able to serve the
[3:23] community as well as raise money for charity. My favorite event that we got
[3:28] to do this year was the adaptive arena, the active arena, sorry, softball game
[3:34] that most of you got to participate in as well, and it was so much fun. We got
[3:38] to raise over $15,000 for their organization, which was incredible. We
[3:45] got to participate in over 12 parades for other cities to be able to maintain
[3:49] that connection as well with those other cities and to have those relationships and I will leave
[3:55] the time for my first stand as well. Hi I'm Mercedes I'm Miss Bluffdale's first attendant for 2025.
[4:03] Today I wanted to start off by sharing one of my favorite memories from all the events we've
[4:07] gotten to go to. From the day we got crowned to the day we give up our crowns here we have
[4:15] 9,408 hours to make an impact on our community and I'm proud to report that I have spent
[4:20] a thousand of those hours in our city making a difference in an impact.
[4:25] One of those things that I was able to do because of this program was MC the Miss Amazing
[4:31] Pageant which means I got to present 67 young girls with disabilities in our community
[4:37] to compete for their own title up to seven.
[4:39] It was really exciting and it reminded me why I chose to run for Miss Bluffdale.
[4:48] Another event that I really enjoyed was around Christmas time, I know ASL, and I helped two
[4:55] little girls tell Santa Claus what they wanted for Christmas, and they wanted Pokemon cards
[4:59] and unicorns and rainbows.
[5:02] And without me being there and having this opportunity, I wouldn't have been able
[5:06] to give that to them. And that's very special.
[5:12] Thank you. And when you're reviewing the budget
[5:14] tonight, just remember how much we truly made an impact on this community this year. Thank
[5:22] you.
[5:24] Well, we actually want to give you a round of applause.
[5:29] And we would love to do a photo
[5:32] with you if that's okay. Yes. Okay. Surprise. Let's do a photo. Let's go down and do
[5:37] a photo.
[5:37] I
[5:49] have the box of tissues. Would you like it?
[5:51] Yes, please.
[5:53] I said I wasn't gonna cry, but I'm a crier.
[6:01] It's always, we always help each other.
[6:09] Good job.
[6:14] Thank
[6:22] you both so much.
[6:43] Thank you for being advocates, ladies, for volunteerism, we're so grateful.
[6:49] All right, we're to our public comment portion of the meeting.
[6:53] So just as a note, if you're here for comment on the tentative budget, that is a public
[7:00] hearing item and that is a separate item.
[7:03] So hold off on speaking until we get to the tentative budget if that's what you're
[7:08] here for.
[7:08] if you're here for another reason we'd love to hear from you. So come on up.
[7:25] Okay I'm not
[7:28] seeing anyone wanting to come up so we will go ahead and close public comment
[7:33] and we'll move to the consent agenda. If I have can get a motion on the consent
[7:40] agenda. I'll move that we approve the consent agenda. Second. Okay it was moved
[7:47] by Council Member Aston, seconded by Council Member Smith.
[7:52] All in favor?
[7:53] Aye.
[7:54] Aye.
[7:54] All right.
[7:55] So moved.
[7:56] Okay.
[7:57] We are now to Resolution 2026-21 and it is the short-term financing for the bridge and
[8:05] Bruce and Matt are both going to team present.
[8:19] I apologize.
[8:20] I'm having a hard time pulling the packet up.
[8:24] It's kind of slow.
[8:26] Okay.
[8:26] here we are.
[8:29] I'm actually not sure whether, come on up Matt, you can go to the main thing.
[8:34] To just kind of give an overview, I mean we can show the document on screen, but it really
[8:39] is a lengthy document and doesn't tell anything. There's no graphics or anything. So if you
[8:44] want me to broadcast it we can. But the real key here is that the city is in the
[8:50] middle of this big project where we're building an underpass under the railway that's
[8:57] got a really unique methodology of construction. We're in the process of it. We're just wrapping
[9:04] up all of the approvals from the Union Pacific and the contractors are going full bore getting
[9:11] prepped for starting to push the boxes. And we have some state funding that's going
[9:16] to be that's already allocated according to state law, but we're not going to receive
[9:21] it quite yet. And we'd like to keep the project going. And so we're requesting
[9:26] the council to approve this $30 million bond, which is going to be a temporary financing
[9:32] to keep the construction going in the near term. We're anticipating that the money will
[9:39] be available to pay it back within about two years, but we are giving us a little bit
[9:44] more time in the parameters resolution because it's hard to predict the future and you
[9:49] don't know what you don't know. And so we are putting the parameters resolution,
[9:55] gives us the information that kind of puts in all the guardrails of we won't do more than this,
[10:01] we won't do more than this, we won't go beyond this, the rate won't be higher than this.
[10:05] And by putting those guardrails in place, the council then, by approving it, allows administration
[10:13] to go in and negotiate and get the bids and make it happen.
[10:17] And if anything falls outside of the parameters resolution parameters, it doesn't happen.
[10:23] when we come back to the drawing board.
[10:26] And so the goal is to get the money,
[10:28] keep the project going full bore.
[10:31] We're excited about the project
[10:32] and the necessity of doing it.
[10:36] And with that, Matt Dugdale is our finance guru
[10:40] and helps us out with all of the different bonds
[10:42] that we have going on.
[10:44] And I'll turn the time over to him for the details.
[10:47] Thank you, Bruce.
[10:49] I don't have much to add
[10:50] rather than I did bring my bluff to a rodeo hat today
[10:53] because I told Bruce and Stephanie on the Zoom earlier today
[10:55] I would bring it.
[10:57] But I'm happy to answer any questions.
[10:59] I think Bruce did a stellar job
[11:01] summarizing the resolution itself.
[11:03] I like how he talked about guard rails.
[11:05] It's called a parameters resolution.
[11:07] I wish we called it a perimeter resolution
[11:09] because as a council you're approving it
[11:11] as long as the final terms fall within that perimeter
[11:14] you delegate to the mayor and city manager
[11:16] your ability to lock in the final terms of that bond.
[11:20] And the reason we do that is just for flexibility
[11:22] because we're dealing with investors and banks
[11:24] and it just allows us to lock in
[11:27] when the timing is most optimal for the city.
[11:32] The indenture and supplemental documents to the resolution,
[11:35] I'm happy to walk through those if it's helpful,
[11:37] but essentially if the council were to approve this tonight
[11:41] we would move forward and get it bid out
[11:44] to the financial institutions and lock in an investor and close tentatively by the end of
[11:52] May. So again, happy to, if you have any questions on the details, happy to walk you through
[11:56] and bore you to death on.
[11:58] There is one item I didn't mention that I think is a critical item here as well is
[12:03] that the nature of this bond is that we are committing the payments are going to
[12:09] becoming out of our sales tax revenue.
[12:12] So that is a commitment that we're making
[12:15] so that we couldn't then take out additional a debt
[12:18] and commit additional sales tax revenue,
[12:22] revenue except for to the extent
[12:24] that we can meet all the coverage requirements
[12:26] that they'll have with respect to that revenue.
[12:28] Right now we don't have any notes
[12:30] that are bound by the sales tax revenue.
[12:33] We have in the past, we don't at the moment.
[12:35] So it's one that's a good one for us to use
[12:38] to support this.
[12:41] And we have done this format before, back in 2011 when the city was creating the waterline
[12:48] for the NSA center, the city entered into a note as well and that structure worked great
[12:55] because we got the money from the federal government and paid that off in short order.
[12:59] So very similar circumstances to that.
[13:01] Council Member Lord.
[13:03] Yeah, I know Bruce, you explained a lot of it to us. The hope is that we won't have to
[13:12] use any of those funds because then that pulls away from the rest of the budget, isn't that
[13:19] kind of, but it's guaranteeing that we would if needed. Am I misunderstanding or
[13:25] understanding it correctly?
[13:27] Well, to the extent that the intent right now, and according to the bonds, is it will
[13:33] be an interest only.
[13:35] And so right now we would pull the funds probably from capital projects because that's what
[13:41] it relates to.
[13:44] But in order to get the financial institutions that might be investing in it to want to
[13:50] do so, we need to give them a cash flow that shows that we can actually do this.
[13:55] Okay. Yeah, that's what I thought. I just wanted to make sure I was clear on that.
[13:59] But we'll actually pay it out of capital projects.
[14:04] Council Member Smith.
[14:05] Yes. Thanks for being here. My question, it's just regarding interest rates.
[14:10] I recognize that us voting today to approve gives you that flexibility to really maximize
[14:14] when the rates could be most favorable. Just for our own benefit, how are you noticed,
[14:19] how volatile is our interest rates right now, given macro trends and everything
[14:25] going on internationally? Like is that affecting rates at all or is it just sound?
[14:30] Council Member, you did hit the nail on the head. Interest rates are very volatile and
[14:34] I do have a write-up on the market if you'd like. I'm happy to leave this with you.
[14:39] So our market in the taxis and bond space moves somewhat in tandem with treasury notes and
[14:49] treasury bonds and those have been very volatile since the beginning of March.
[14:53] Just today, our benchmark actually decreased 10 basis points or a tenth of a percent.
[15:00] And that's a large jump for our market. And so we will continue to monitor the market,
[15:06] given the circumstances, internationally. And no one can time the market perfectly, but
[15:12] we'll certainly do our best. It will be bid out to institutions, and so the city will
[15:16] be getting several bits back. I anticipate we'd award it to the best bid. But yes, interest
[15:22] rates. I'm glad we're not in the market this week, and I'm glad we weren't in the
[15:26] market last week, but yes we'll continue to monitor that. Okay, Councilmember
[15:33] Austin. I know we don't have a crystal ball for this.
[15:40] Obviously we're going to be
[15:40] spending more because we're going to be paying interest on this $30 million.
[15:46] Has that been brought up with the state leaders and have they indicated
[15:52] that because they are pushing back the time that we're going to be able to
[15:57] get this the the money from the state that is going to incur more cost on the
[16:01] city are they going to add the additional amount that we're going to be
[16:06] paying for interest to the amount they give us we we have requested from the
[16:10] state some additional funding for this particular project and to the extent
[16:14] that they provide the additional funding that will free up other dollars
[16:18] that we're spending on it right now to be able to cover the debt the debt
[16:22] payment the interest payments for a couple of years so I think we'll be
[16:26] fine in the end. We've received a very,
[16:34] let's say, confident but certainly
[16:36] encouraging reports back from our state leaders that are a part of the city and
[16:44] they indicate that they think that they'll be able to get the additional
[16:48] funding through the the additional vehicles that are now available that
[16:54] that weren't available 12 months ago.
[16:56] So we're very hopeful that that'll happen.
[16:59] We're also hopeful that we can talk the state
[17:02] into accelerating the payment for this amount
[17:04] and that we won't have the debt for as long.
[17:07] I don't know if that can happen or not.
[17:09] This is our fallback position,
[17:11] so I'm comfortable with the fallback position.
[17:14] Don't love it, but I'm comfortable that we can handle it
[17:17] and then see if we find financially.
[17:19] And then one additional question, does this bond put us at risk for a future bond that
[17:26] we may need?
[17:27] Well, we've already talked about a bond for next year for the water department.
[17:32] That's one of the interesting things about having the different funds that we have and
[17:38] fund accounting in a municipality is that the money and the fund that's paying this
[17:44] debt is not connected per se with the other bond and the water bond that we'll be asking
[17:52] for will be supported by the water rates in that particular fund.
[17:57] And the last we talked, and I haven't had Matt do it recently, but the last we talked
[18:02] we had a lot of bonding capacity in both the water department and the general fund
[18:08] to be able to cover both of these okay.
[18:10] Now, when you say will it affect us, yes, it will affect us.
[18:14] Your overall debt load always affects you.
[18:16] But I don't think that it's going to be detrimental enough that we wouldn't be able to move forward.
[18:22] And if it is, quite candidly, we would simply not pull the next bonds until these are off
[18:27] the books and then we would move forward with that.
[18:30] Thank you.
[18:34] Council Member.
[18:36] So are we going to pull all full 30 million or is it possible we can pull fractions of it at a time or?
[18:45] I am so glad that you asked that because we've had this conversation of how to structure it
[18:50] and there are a variety of ways of structuring it.
[18:53] If we get the flexibility of pulling it down like a line of credit, so to speak,
[18:58] what we would end up doing is paying a higher interest rate.
[19:02] If we pull it all at the same time, then you're able to get a lower interest rate,
[19:07] and any excess funds will then deposit into the PTF, or more likely this other type of fund
[19:15] that is specifically designed to make sure we don't get in trouble with what's called rate arbitrage,
[19:20] which is something that municipalities can do because we are borrowing money tax-free,
[19:25] and then we're investing it in potentially taxable situations.
[19:29] they don't encourage you to try to make a lot of money by doing that, which municipalities could.
[19:36] And so the delta between those two is not great enough to cause me to want to go one way or the other.
[19:47] And so as we're talking with the institutions, we'll see what they propose and what works out the best for us.
[19:53] Our intent right now would be probably to take it all down at the same time and get the lower rate.
[20:01] I know this is not ideal or what we had planned.
[20:07] If we don't pull this bond, our only other option is to stop the project now, right?
[20:12] Correct.
[20:13] Which I think is not a great idea because it's extremely painful for our citizens already.
[20:26] Do we have any indication if the two-year mark of pay from the state is that what they think
[20:38] is that overestimated, is it underestimated?
[20:41] How?
[20:42] No, it's an expected estimation.
[20:47] We know how much the fund that it's coming from is collecting right now.
[20:54] Now, it's coming from a specific pot of money that was created by the state and the county
[20:58] through some specific laws in the fifth of the fifth.
[21:02] So there's this pot of money that's collecting money all the time, and it has certain projects
[21:07] that have been designated to benefit from that pot of money.
[21:11] Ours is not the top of the list right now.
[21:14] It's down the list of ways.
[21:16] And so what we've been able to do is calculate based upon how much that fund is accumulating,
[21:21] how many projects are ahead of us.
[21:23] We anticipate that we will be collecting in about two years. Okay. Thank you
[21:33] Councilmember Wilding and then councilmember Smith
[21:36] Just a couple of comments for some of the citizens that might be listening tonight. I
[21:42] hope that everyone knows that we don't take
[21:45] Getting a $30 million bond lightly and many of us have been working our guts out up at the
[21:51] Including the mayor the council members and many of our C staff working up at the Capitol with our lobbyist to try to
[21:57] avoid that and try to expedite this funding that could come, we've done everything that
[22:02] we can and certainly don't take this lightly and however it would be a mistake with as
[22:10] well as the project is going and our good city engineer working so hard to keep this
[22:13] contractor moving it would be a mistake to slow them up or to heaven's forbid to
[22:18] stop them.
[22:20] And so it is an appropriate method to deal with that problem and I appreciate your
[22:24] time and consideration, Bruce, that you put into this and to the rest of everybody listening.
[22:29] All of us have been putting in time, concern and questions and effort to help solve the
[22:34] problem, too.
[22:35] But, you know, I also think this is probably an appropriate decision.
[22:39] Thank you.
[22:40] I want to preface that I also support the decision in keeping the project moving
[22:45] along.
[22:46] This is almost like a game theory-esque question.
[22:49] if the legislature sees that we're doing the bond,
[22:55] do we create any sort of perverse incentive for them
[22:57] to say, oh, well, you're already bonding for this,
[22:59] so you're not as much of a priority for us anymore?
[23:02] And is there any way that we can mitigate that risk?
[23:05] Is that just us being good at our job
[23:07] of going to the Hill more frequently,
[23:09] or just any thoughts on that?
[23:12] There's always that possibility.
[23:18] And it's a risk that certainly I'm willing to take because it is really critical that
[23:25] we keep this project moving.
[23:26] We have it to the point that is we're going to be needing to push the boxes very soon,
[23:32] you know, within the next few months.
[23:34] And so to keep it going to that point, we need to get all of the infrastructure underneath
[23:40] the railroads now and then if any delays were to happen then it wouldn't be that critical
[23:47] but we really need to move forward. We've worked all of the details out with the engineers
[23:51] from Union Pacific. We've got great designs. We've got the people in place. We've got
[23:57] all of the deployment of equipment and manpower is here. We need to just keep going and
[24:03] And so if that happens, I would be disappointed,
[24:09] but it's not the end of the world.
[24:11] Awesome.
[24:12] And if I can just take a point of personal privilege
[24:15] real quick, just as the one member of the council
[24:18] who wasn't on the council last year
[24:21] when this decision was made,
[24:22] I really do feel like this group
[24:26] has made the right decisions leading up to this moment.
[24:28] Like there's no way to anticipate
[24:30] how the legislature is going to change things.
[24:32] And so I just wanted to say as the one maybe impartial one who wasn't part of the decisions that have led us to this point
[24:37] I think moving the project along to get us to where we are has been the right call by my fellow committee member council members
[24:43] So I just want to say I'm I'm in this with you all and I appreciate being to work on this and that we can move it forward
[24:51] All right. Any other question? Thank you for coming tonight. We're really grateful
[24:55] Thank you for working so closely with us and we really appreciate our relationship. So thank you
[25:02] Thank you so much. Really lefto team is the best team. You know it and thanks for bringing the hat. There's another one
[25:08] Hey, we have three of them this year
[25:11] Rodeos, so you gotta count
[25:13] Thanks so much. All right. I do I have a motion I move that we approve resolution
[25:19] 2026 dash 21 second. Okay. It was moved by council member Austin seconded by council member wilding roll call vote, please
[25:28] Council Member Smith. Yes. Council Member Lord. Yes. Council Member Austin. Yes. Council Member
[25:33] Aston. Yes. Council Member Wilding. Yes. Motion passed. Okay, great. Thank you everyone for your
[25:38] work on that. Moving on, we are to our tentative budget and we do not pass our final budget until
[25:46] June, but I believe that Stephanie is going to go through our budget process so that everyone can
[25:53] get psyched about it. Yes thank you Mayor Council good evening. Before I get
[25:58] started I'm going to invite Meryl Terry up. He's our finance manager and he's been
[26:04] instrumental in helping us pull together the data that's in the budget
[26:07] tonight as well as with Bruce and all the department heads has been a
[26:13] collaborative effort. So I'll be going over the slides here to give you a
[26:20] Fraud kind of overview and a little bit of the detail and then if you want even more detail
[26:25] We can have Merrill pull up the
[26:28] Documenting your packet if you so choose and we can really get down to
[26:31] Every little line item if you want to
[26:33] Great councilmember Lord has a question. Oh, yes
[26:38] This goes to what councilmember Wilding said about the previous thing so the people that are watching or learning
[26:47] this by no means is a final budget and we don't want people to think that as we
[26:54] go through everything. I know last year from the time we started to the time we
[26:59] ended there were a lot of changes and so I just encourage people to be patient
[27:03] tonight is just the initial review and then a lot of work goes on and they've
[27:08] done a ton of work and we compliment that we're excited to work with them
[27:12] So, I just don't want people to get nervous and think, oh no, we're passing something
[27:16] tonight.
[27:17] Well, no, this is just the preliminary.
[27:19] So.
[27:20] Thank you.
[27:21] I would like to add another brief interruption here as well.
[27:24] I apologize.
[27:26] This has been a very collaborative.
[27:28] I promise I'll talk about it, not me.
[27:30] This has been a very collaborative, and normally we would probably have Merrill
[27:34] doing a lot of the presentation.
[27:37] He's recently had a new baby, and so he's kind of been out of pocket for a bit.
[27:41] and we appreciate him taking time away from that fun activity to come and be
[27:46] with us this evening. All right okay we'll get on with the show here. Okay so
[27:58] yes as mentioned it's the tentative budget for fiscal year 2027 and it's
[28:03] I'm going to be presented here for consideration and vote.
[28:10] So again, we'll be working on this through June, and this is just kind of the starting
[28:16] point with the information in front of us today.
[28:21] So to give an overview, so we operate with a budget year that goes from July to June,
[28:29] And we try to manage the the growth that's happening in our in our city that we're seeing.
[28:36] It creates challenges in the budget as we increase key services that residents want and need
[28:44] and the priorities that are set forth by City Council.
[28:48] The expenditures they're called appropriations and it's the maximum that we are allowed to spend by state law.
[28:58] Revenues, we estimate these conservatively to reduce risk.
[29:05] And then we match revenue types and cost types, and I'll go into that a little bit more detail
[29:11] here shortly.
[29:13] And then by state law, the budget must balance.
[29:18] So a little bit about understanding the budget, what it means to balance a city
[29:25] budget.
[29:25] It's balanced if the projected fund is positive and also it must include an
[29:37] unappropriate fund balance between 5 and 35% and at the end of the year part of a
[29:42] balanced budget includes having those reserves available.
[29:48] So budgeting for
[29:49] cities serves a little bit different purpose than a lot different than
[29:54] businesses do. So the goal of a business budget is primarily
[30:00] We're focused on maximizing profits and could be aggressive in that goal and they may or may
[30:09] not achieve it. In government, we're more focused on providing services without a profit. And
[30:17] so we're allocating kind of limited resources among competing needs of the community. With
[30:26] With that spending is controlled through our budget and our procurement policy and the
[30:33] proper reviews and approvals that happen with that.
[30:37] And just to point out too, at the end of the year if we end up spending less than what
[30:42] we budgeted, it's because we've really done our work at keeping costs down, following
[30:49] the procurement policies.
[30:51] and some of it too is it's not so the timing of when we hire people and that
[30:58] sort of thing can cause excess in in what we spend so we always want to make
[31:03] sure we're putting the full amount that could be spent for a position or a
[31:09] given program even if it may start mid-year so when you're looking at that
[31:16] that excess keep that in mind.
[31:20] Let's see. So with prioritizing in the budget, it's getting
[31:27] our vision to align with limited resources. So if you picture this piece of farmland here
[31:33] and the limited amount of resources on that, and then all the farmers there with their
[31:39] animals needing that same resource. If everyone used it all up at once, then there wouldn't
[31:45] be anything left if we didn't replenish it. So for local government it's similar. Our resources
[31:53] are the financial resources and those can be limited and there's a lot of need across the
[32:00] different departments. So you have your police and streets and some of that rely on each
[32:08] other. If you don't keep your streets maintained the police don't have a good road to drive
[32:13] on to get where they're needing to go so
[32:20] yeah if we if this just kind of
[32:22] illustrates that if we're not prioritizing that we're not funding the
[32:29] things that we need to fund so
[32:34] priorities staff does try to come forth
[32:40] with their needs of course the City Council reviews ultimately the budget
[32:46] request and would direct to any level of importance and not all costs are
[32:53] created equally. Essential services are prioritized and cost cuts occur by
[33:00] reducing or eliminating the least crucial one compared to others.
[33:07] For revenue
[33:08] stability, property taxes are the city's most stable source of revenue. Then
[33:16] And the service fees, like the garbage collection fees, storm water and street lighting, those
[33:24] should cover just the basic expenses for those services.
[33:29] And then the less stable that vary based on economy, franchise taxes that are related
[33:35] to energy costs such as gas and electricity, they're a little bit more volatile and also
[33:45] So slightly more volatile would be sales taxes based on consumers spending habits and that
[33:54] sort of thing, if the economy were to change like it did back in 2008 to 2010 and people
[34:02] really stopped their spending back then.
[34:06] So we try to be real careful there as we're estimating our sales tax revenues.
[34:13] revenues. And then the least stable would be those more related to development and as
[34:23] development slows and space becomes more limited within the city. We're going to naturally
[34:30] see those become less. And then another revenue to mention is the interest revenue that
[34:40] it's used on whichever fund it's earned in,
[34:43] but it's not really a source that we can always count on.
[34:49] So then we have these different expenditure types.
[34:53] And as we go through the budget,
[34:56] we try to identify and match these up.
[34:58] So there's primary services such as street cleaning
[35:03] and maintaining the parks.
[35:06] Some services are discretionary,
[35:08] meaning that they may or may not happen as funds allow.
[35:12] Then each of those can be recurring or non-recurring in nature.
[35:16] Some primary services that are recurring, for example, are park restrooms must be cleaned
[35:22] regularly and garbage cans must be emptied weekly.
[35:26] Some primary services that occur less frequently or one time could be, you know, prairie farms
[35:35] is had flooding at times and so the kind of unplanned one time where we have to go
[35:40] and repair something.
[35:45] So matching types of expenditures becomes very important and
[35:49] it's something we pay careful attention to. I try to think of this and
[35:55] illustrate it as matching apples to apples, matching ongoing revenues
[36:00] with ongoing expenditures to ensure long-term stability and that apples to
[36:07] oranges don't match. So the oranges being the one time.
[36:14] So having a structurally
[36:15] balanced budget means matching these recurring revenues to recurring
[36:20] expenditures and not only should recurring expenditures be funded with
[36:24] recurring revenues, the most critical should be funded with the most stable.
[36:35] So carrying on with the apples-to-apples analogy here in this
[36:41] scenario, some of the recurring revenues, the property taxes, the ongoing tax base,
[36:47] sales tax base, franchise taxes, we look at those to pay for our recurring costs such
[36:54] as the personnel, salaries and benefits, routine services, maintenance and repairs, our police
[37:00] fire and protection and that sort of thing.
[37:07] The apples to oranges illusion is when we try to take those one-time revenues and pay for the ongoing recurring costs.
[37:20] So it's really better to match up one-time revenues such as grants and the building permits, development fees,
[37:26] any surplus transfers to one-time costs, such as we see in capital projects, any
[37:33] major equipment purchases, and the development costs in any startup
[37:37] programs, such as we had recreation startup one year. And now they have
[37:44] ongoing revenue to support their their program.
[37:49] And that using oranges to pay
[37:51] for Apples creates future gaps.
[37:57] So looking at the different funds, and I know that's a little bit challenging to see, but
[38:04] we do have these different funds for different purposes.
[38:10] And as we're going through the various requests or needs of the city for the upcoming budget
[38:17] year, we look at these independently.
[38:21] For the general fund, that's where mostly the operations of the city comes out of except
[38:31] for the fire and police and the water.
[38:33] Those are in separate, their own separate restricted funds.
[38:40] And then let's see, you have our capital projects funds.
[38:45] A lot of those revenues are, like I said, are grants.
[38:48] We have the Class C road fund, that's for major street maintenance and repair projects,
[38:56] and the revenue on that comes in from fuel taxes and the portion of the sales taxes that
[39:04] gets allocated to our city.
[39:08] It cannot be used for any salaries or wages that is not related to that specific road
[39:15] maintenance.
[39:16] And also just to point out that the revenues remain in those funds and they can't be used elsewhere.
[39:30] And so taking that fund structure and just kind of showing it in our basket, fruit basket here.
[39:38] Governments, we use separate funds like the different fruit baskets and we don't mix the contents when comparing.
[39:45] And you want to keep them in their matching basket or fund type.
[39:49] And
[39:52] then restricted funds such as these here, the Capital Projects, road maintenance, water, fire police, they cannot be used to pay for general fund operating expenses.
[40:09] So I went to a conference last week, it's the Government Finance Officers Association. A lot of the cities or counties, schools are part of that.
[40:20] they teach a lot of best practices and we tend to follow their recommendation
[40:26] and best practices and what we apply as well. So when it comes to the fund
[40:31] balance, regardless of the size, the unrestricted budgetary fund balance in
[40:37] the general fund should be no less than two months of regular
[40:41] general fund operating revenues, roughly 17%. You've seen us target that
[40:46] around 18 to 20 percent is what we've tried to do. And by doing that, it mitigates
[40:53] risks in the revenue volatility or if there were a disaster and helps
[41:00] maintain the bond ratings. And they also recommend if funds are to be used it
[41:06] should be ideally replenished in one to three years to replenish the fund
[41:11] balance.
[41:15] So here we are with the budget timeline. This process started back in, at least January.
[41:26] We, Merrill and I do a lot of prep probably even before that, leading up to that, getting
[41:31] it ready, but January we really start to dive into the numbers. Our sales tax, the
[41:38] way we receive that it's a two month delay and so we can't get started too
[41:44] soon with our projections where we don't have all the all the information at
[41:47] that time but we do start working on on the expenditure side and with this
[41:54] budget timeline here we are tonight with the with the tentative budget and the
[42:00] budget review committee will be meeting tomorrow to review their role is
[42:05] is to certainly ask questions of what's in the budget
[42:10] to help us connect and explain with residents on it.
[42:14] But really it's about helping the understanding
[42:17] of what's in there.
[42:19] So they've helped us build the budget book.
[42:21] They've recommended some improvements
[42:23] of how things are communicated and illustrated
[42:26] so that it's easier to be understood.
[42:30] We do have an opportunity to have more budget discussions
[42:33] and in May there's two council meetings that we could if we needed to we will
[42:39] certainly be working as staff up through the June meeting with that there
[42:46] will be another public hearing on the final budget so tonight's the public
[42:50] hearing and another one in June so the public does have an opportunity to come
[42:53] and and give their input on what's in the budget and then our fiscal year
[42:58] begins July 1. We do have some key deadlines that we have to meet so before
[43:08] the first meeting of May is when we have to adopt the the tentative budget we
[43:13] typically have done it earlier allows more time to get out to the public and
[43:19] for everyone to start looking at it so we do try to not wait that long till we
[43:26] until we review the tentative budget. And then for the property tax rate, it gets
[43:35] ca- that's something that's ca- and I'll go in a little bit more detail in that too,
[43:40] but it's something that gives is given to us by and calculated by the county
[43:44] auditor. They typically should give that to us right before that June 10th
[43:51] meetings. Sometimes we're dropping it in the day of so nonetheless but we do have
[43:58] to certify it back to them by or report back by June 22nd and so if by chance we
[44:06] don't get that certified tax rate by June 10th there could be a chance of a
[44:11] special meeting if we had to because of the timing of that second meeting and
[44:16] June would be passed the deadline for that. And I just want to point out that we are not
[44:26] proposing it right now in the tentative budget any property tax increase.
[44:33] If we were we would
[44:35] need to be following the truth and taxation process and there's a pretty detailed process
[44:41] to have to go through to do that. And then City Council would adopt the final
[44:48] budget before June 30th because of when the certified tax rate is due that's why
[44:54] we kind of bumped that up earlier. Okay.
[45:00] So, for our budget process, we look at our prior year as a starting point. We adjust for
[45:11] any current year trends that we're seeing based on the economy. This year, Merrill helped
[45:20] really go back and review historical spending, kind of line by line, and recommended some
[45:27] changes there we go in and we change make input that changes by department
[45:33] and fund we look at any current projects that may have a carryover into the next
[45:39] fiscal year such as the large 146 south railroad underpass project we estimate
[45:48] revenues and we'll continue to keep looking at those as we get more data
[45:52] to help us fine-tune those estimates. When expenses come in higher than revenues, that's
[45:59] when we need to prioritize and counsel is certainly, you know, a help with that too.
[46:08] And then kind of mention these other things already.
[46:14] So our general fund revenues, as
[46:19] As we're looking at the trends here, and I just want to point out that as we go into
[46:26] some of these projections and into next year, I just want to remind everyone that there
[46:31] are estimates and we don't necessarily have control over the amounts and they can be unpredictable
[46:36] with the economy, consumer spending and that sort of thing.
[46:40] Our underlying approach has been to be a conservative and in order to reduce risk.
[46:48] So for property taxes they are remaining level plus growth but it and I it's this
[46:58] blue line right here on the chart you can see where in 24 it took a dip there
[47:06] that's that was when the referendum happened and there was an overpayment
[47:10] so it was adjusted and the money got taken back in the next fiscal year.
[47:18] and then why you're seeing a slight increase now is not because we're
[47:23] proposing to raise property taxes. It has to do with our Eastern Bluff Dell
[47:28] economic development area expiring and we'll now see those property taxes shift
[47:37] out of that fund and it'll show up in ultimately our Fire and Police
[47:42] Protection Fund because that's where property taxes go but what that does is
[47:48] it also there's an offset in the management fee we're not going to be
[47:52] getting that revenue anymore so it looks like an increase overall but it's not
[47:58] really. Cells taxes are fairly, we're seeing a fairly consistent incline with
[48:07] with online shopping continuing to be probably the bigger driver there.
[48:13] And then, so modest growth, we all know we have a new grocery store and there's some
[48:18] other dining areas that are opening and that sort of thing, but keeping in mind that they
[48:25] can be erratic and then also just to point out that we do have this two month delay
[48:30] and the data that we're looking at is from January right now.
[48:37] So development, housing is slowing with project, so let's see what one is this one, licenses
[48:46] and permits right here.
[48:48] So it's slowing.
[48:49] The projects that we're aware of right now, they would either be completed in this fiscal
[48:56] year or next.
[48:57] So we kind of spread the revenue that we're expecting between those two fiscal years
[49:02] but it would not happen in both. So as we get closer to the June we'll be able
[49:08] to probably adjust our estimate there and show that a little bit more closely.
[49:13] And then the fee increases those are tied to cost recovery such as the
[49:19] garbage collection and that sort of thing.
[49:24] Okay so this is we do get a lot
[49:27] of questions and here's some misunderstandings regarding property
[49:32] taxes. So I just wanted to dive in just a little bit and show this is what a current or what
[49:40] a current resident would receive for their last year's property tax notice. And I'm again
[49:49] just going to state there's no property tax increase currently being proposed. So just
[49:54] want to walk through the details with you. Things to point out on this when you
[49:59] get this statement is the change in the market value. There is a 45% resident exemption reduction.
[50:11] When we look and talk about the Bluffdell City portion, I've – it's hard to read
[50:17] up there, but this is the part we – that comes to our city and that we're talking
[50:21] and about when it comes to property taxes.
[50:25] If any entity were to be doing a property tax increase, they're going to tell you that
[50:32] change as well as when their public hearing for that is as they do have to go through
[50:37] the truth and taxation process.
[50:43] And so just to kind of show you a little bit bigger picture here, the portion that
[50:48] we're talking about of your total property tax statement is just under 10% of Bluffdell's
[50:59] share of that. And as time has gone on and other entities have raised their tax rates
[51:07] and we have not, that portion continues to go down.
[51:17] So with the certified tax rate
[51:21] In order to be fair to the taxpayer, truth and taxation prohibits units of local government
[51:28] from obtaining windfall revenues as a result of revaluation or equalization projects as
[51:34] required by Utah state law.
[51:38] So what that means is as Utah state property, sorry, as property values rise, the property
[51:48] tax rate must fall and that adjusted rate is what's called the certified tax rate
[51:54] and that is calculated by the county auditor not by us and with that also it
[52:05] does not account for any type of inflation that might be occurring and
[52:11] so as time goes on the city's purchasing power could decline as well so
[52:20] So when the city does need to collect more revenue than the previous year, they must increase
[52:24] the rate and in order to do that, they would need to go through a truth and taxation process,
[52:30] which is a whole lot of checklist items and public hearing and noticing.
[52:38] And again, this is not planned for 2026.
[52:40] I just like to take the opportunity to explain that as it comes up.
[52:45] It's one of those more complex things to understand.
[52:50] And also, as even if the city doesn't raise their rate, your personal property tax bill
[52:59] might still go up because of those highlighted things that were on that property tax statement.
[53:06] If your specific property value increased much more than the average, resulting in
[53:11] a higher share of the overall tax burden, or if there was a special specific voter
[53:17] approved bond that was passed for a new school or that sort of thing, or if another entity
[53:23] raised their rate, such as the water district or any of other entities on that property notice.
[53:33] So here's how our certified tax rate shows historically, and you can see over the last
[53:42] five years it's been declining, maybe even longer than that.
[53:48] The big jumps are when we had actual truth in taxation for a rate increase in 2017, which
[53:58] I believe was for public safety costs, and 2019 is when we added the second fire station.
[54:06] And then prior to that, only a couple other times has the city had a property tax increase.
[54:13] And then we are expecting to receive our rate from the state auditor, like I said, in June.
[54:24] Because we overlap in two counties, so ours tends to come last because they have to equalize
[54:35] our rate across the two counties.
[54:41] So we look to see how we're doing to our neighbors.
[54:45] The line going across just shows where Bluffdell is.
[54:54] Some of the ones below the line, they have a lot more retail and that sells tax to help offset their needs.
[55:06] And there's ones that are part of UFA or sorry Unified Fire or some other special police district.
[55:18] I also, we went through and made note of ones that did have increases last year and also
[55:27] there was one because of new state legislature for whatever reason didn't get theirs.
[55:35] there's came back rejected because they didn't meet all the requirements even
[55:39] though they went through the process and and all of that so yeah we really need
[55:45] to make sure if we were to do that that we're following all those things and
[55:49] then also with that I did include the the fee and equivalent rate to show
[55:57] that on ours.
[56:01] Okay so now we'll kind of get into the budget itself and so at a
[56:09] glance our general fund revenue is about 17 million dollars. By the time we put
[56:18] some more changes and dropped it in the packet on Friday the use of fund
[56:23] balance was $556,000.
[56:31] Right now showing a 13% general fund cash balance. Now with that,
[56:41] we do, we're still waiting for this year to finish and so that, depending on how this
[56:46] year finishes, that actually could go up and we're still going to target that 18%.
[56:54] And then just thoughtful planning to balance service levels, infrastructure needs and long-term
[56:59] fiscal sustainability is our goal there.
[57:06] So some of the strategic drivers here to retain our employees as we are a service organization
[57:14] that is our biggest asset and also our biggest cost.
[57:23] Maintain current service
[57:24] levels in all departments. Limit our discretionary spending. There is a need
[57:31] for additional police officers as part of the contract. Responsibly manage
[57:37] growth and plan for the future. Maintain and invest in infrastructure,
[57:41] structure, transparent funding sources, and sustainable financial future.
[57:49] So some of the components here that are driving some of the increases.
[57:57] We have an inflation rate just under 3% with fuel kind of going up and down.
[58:06] We're going to have to keep an eye on that.
[58:07] So, have 3% there, cost of living, 3% with that.
[58:15] We did compare it as some other surrounding cities and this is a cost of living increase
[58:21] only.
[58:21] Some others are also doing a merit, but this is what we're proposing in this budget.
[58:29] And then our benefit premiums right now coming back with our medical increasing 15%
[58:37] and dental increasing 2%. We are going to be meeting with our benefit broker to
[58:43] explore other options and try to analyze that the best we can with the impact to
[58:51] the financial impact as well as to our employees of what that would do. And then
[58:58] Then water rates from Jordan Valley water is increasing 4.5 percent and then the garbage
[59:07] and green waste for a CPI increase from waste management of increasing 4.8 percent.
[59:17] And then overall the contribution to the Fire Police Protection Fund overall will
[59:25] remain flat but you'll see kind of it shift between the property tax as I
[59:33] mentioned that with the EDA ending will go up a bit. Bruce wants to say something.
[59:39] Yeah, pardon me for just a minute. We talked about different CPIs where we've
[59:43] got the COLA up there and inflation rate of 3%. The garbage and green waste is
[59:49] based upon a very specific CPI that relates to that particular industry and
[59:54] our contract ties to that.
[59:57] Historically, that has been less.
[1:00:00] Then the general CPI. This year, last year, it's been a little bit higher, but it is reflective
[1:00:08] specifically of that industry's costs and what's happening to them.
[1:00:20] Okay.
[1:00:23] So to support our growing city, we have these, even though the population and growth
[1:00:32] might be slowing slightly. We are still growing in our service needs, which is influencing
[1:00:39] our staffing and the demands for service, particularly in the public safety area, as
[1:00:50] well as also communications with our residents that they're wanting more commu-, more information
[1:00:59] more quickly so with this adding three police officers at mid-year and making
[1:01:12] our part-time communication into a full-time and we
[1:01:21] also looked at ways we
[1:01:23] could reduce so some of these positions where they haven't been filled yet not
[1:01:29] filling so removing two seasonal parks positions which would still leave them
[1:01:36] with three and removing one street seasonal position which would leave them
[1:01:42] with with one and then in water I believe removing two would leave them with no
[1:01:50] additional seasonal workers for this budget year and then if you recall back
[1:01:58] in November there was a budget adjustment for to add a part-time firefighter
[1:02:05] position to help with the the major road project being that underpass project
[1:02:13] and having staffing at both stations and having the response time needed and
[1:02:19] so at that time we did not add any revenue to cover that position. Next year
[1:02:25] we will see the full year of that and so and then also with certain vacant
[1:02:31] positions not being filled where appropriate so if we need to fill the
[1:02:37] position we will but if it's in an area that it's appropriate to not we
[1:02:43] looked at doing that.
[1:02:52] So with with our general fund revenue breakdown so
[1:02:58] So sales tax remains our largest revenue, but it is volatile.
[1:03:04] Property taxes being the most stable, again, going to Fire Police Protection Fund.
[1:03:13] And then the charges for services such as garbage, street lights, storm water, and
[1:03:19] then some of those others you see up there.
[1:03:21] Notable mentions that we took a conservative budgeting approach.
[1:03:25] development related revenues are expected to be down and then again the
[1:03:30] Eastern Bluff Dell EDA contract period ending. So the top spending areas in the
[1:03:37] general fund, that contribution to the Fire and Police Protection Fund, parks
[1:03:45] and recs, administration, sanitation, facilities and streets. And then notable
[1:03:52] mentioned here, we did have citywide reductions in the training travel,
[1:04:00] equipment supplies, and shop charges, as well as not filling some vacancies. And you'll see that
[1:04:09] in the packet, we went through and highlighted the lines that were decreased to see that we
[1:04:17] We really did try to go across the board and reduce some discretionary spending.
[1:04:25] Facilities is increasing for the general fund portion of the debt payment on the new public
[1:04:32] works complex that's starting next fiscal year.
[1:04:38] This one we were able to use fund balance.
[1:04:41] So now going forward, we're going to be pulling from it's split with water.
[1:04:46] So half comes from water and the other half comes from the general fund.
[1:04:50] And then also seeing contract price increases, which Bruce mentioned for the sanitation.
[1:04:58] And then we also have our animal control services that is contracted with the county.
[1:05:07] Community events.
[1:05:09] So the arena renovation is completed.
[1:05:12] and just a reminder most of that was done with a $2.7 million grant. This
[1:05:19] upcoming year we're going to be having a three-day rodeo with fireworks to
[1:05:26] celebrate America 250. There is increased seating capacity and added ADA
[1:05:34] standards with the bleachers now and then we've seen expanded events like
[1:05:40] Like this last year we had the bull riding round page and we'll be having a monster truck
[1:05:47] show which I believe just got advertised for the tickets.
[1:05:54] Revenues typically come from sponsors, donations, a lot from ticket sales and some grants.
[1:06:01] And then there's Old West days, sorry, the community events that receive some city
[1:06:12] contributions and Ms. Bluff Dell does as well as I believe the arts.
[1:06:22] And then so
[1:06:25] total community event budget between all of those is 396,000.
[1:06:35] So the
[1:06:36] The Class C road funds are allocated based on state distributions that they calculate.
[1:06:43] They look at the city's road miles and considering paved and unpaved as well as population and
[1:06:51] distribute that.
[1:06:53] We're looking to see about 1.8 million.
[1:07:00] most of that being spent on a road maintenance schedule to keep our roads
[1:07:08] maintained and then some equipment that can be paid for from Class C roads as
[1:07:15] they're related to it is a bucket truck. Our current one only holds one person
[1:07:21] and for safety they have requested to get one that can hold two and then
[1:07:27] and also an emergency light tower, an emergency message board that helps with notifications
[1:07:33] on the roads.
[1:07:41] So the economic development area or redevelopment area, these are separate funds.
[1:07:55] So the Eastern Bluff Dell has it ended, and we received our last payment this fiscal year.
[1:08:02] The gateway, so the revenue left in there is is just interest. The gateway RDA will
[1:08:12] expire in fiscal year 20, sorry 27 next year. And then the Jordan Narrows EDA has
[1:08:24] reached its contract terms and capped out. So it's a, they are locally
[1:08:31] designated areas aim to improve public infrastructure, create jobs, attract commercial and residential
[1:08:39] development and stimulate economic growth and there is a restriction for a restricted
[1:08:45] fund use for affordable housing and so we want to make sure we keep that in mind as
[1:08:52] well.
[1:08:54] So as a note that $400,000 in the Jordan Narrows is just the interest expense.
[1:08:59] Yes.
[1:08:59] Excuse me.
[1:09:00] interesting there is no other revenue source there
[1:09:07] okay and for impact fees so
[1:09:11] these fluctuate based on development activity and again this this as projects
[1:09:20] kind of span both this year and next we we try to estimate our best guests on
[1:09:29] that but they will not occur in both and again we'll be able to know a
[1:09:33] bit more about that by the time we get to that June meeting.
[1:09:37] And there is a current impact fee study underway that would probably be coming for review in
[1:09:46] the near future for how these funds can be used against which facilities.
[1:09:54] In capital projects, obviously this is kind of the bigger one with the big
[1:10:04] project, major project that we've mentioned and with that bond
[1:10:10] anticipation note and state funding coming for that. There's also a
[1:10:19] cinchway bridge, pedestrian bridge that is tied to a grant and then also a
[1:10:24] potential fire station 93 if a grant is awarded for that as well.
[1:10:33] So because most of our resources are going towards the railroad crossing project, anything
[1:10:43] left is really going to be either a shared project currently already underway or a grant
[1:10:50] related.
[1:10:53] So the bulk of it, here's a more detailed list, so funded with capital, fund balance
[1:10:59] and transfers, they're on the left of about just under $2 million.
[1:11:05] And then the big portions of those that are funded with grants, other governmental reimbursements
[1:11:11] are shared, is that larger $66 plus million, bringing the total to about $68 million
[1:11:19] in that capital projects.
[1:11:22] Now, we do have some items that were removed, some requests that were removed or reduced.
[1:11:31] So such as a forklift is needed.
[1:11:35] These are things kind of – eventually, we'll need to address these or circle back
[1:11:41] around to see what the needs are.
[1:11:44] A Rose Creek Trail connector, the miscellaneous traffic calming measures was reduced and
[1:11:50] And then others based on grant funding and then future needs, because we do tend to look
[1:11:55] out five years when we're looking just to put this on the radar, there will be a need
[1:12:03] for a new fire engine, ambulance, vector, stormwater service truck, and ongoing road
[1:12:11] maintenance projects and maintenance.
[1:12:13] So the capital projects, that's just a little bit, so it can be a lengthy list
[1:12:19] and there's always a need to have an end-of-year transfer to help fund some of these where we
[1:12:28] can.
[1:12:34] So in our water fund, there's some major investments continue in infrastructure and water delivery
[1:12:43] and a new tank and pump station for zone 2 West and the effluent water reuse as well
[1:12:53] as rate adjustments anticipated, as was mentioned, and it's about $21 million there.
[1:13:02] And then the portion of impact fees for the water tank,
[1:13:11] okay.
[1:13:12] Fire Police Protection Fund.
[1:13:16] So, police with an increase by additional FTEs and with that contract growth.
[1:13:28] And then the fire department, again, that full year of that part-time position, so funding
[1:13:34] that for the full year, and then also just continuing to maintain staffing for both stations,
[1:13:40] stations, as well as like sometimes we, they're getting overtime for the callbacks. It's nice
[1:13:48] to have our full-time captains and lieutenants now that they're able to come back. However,
[1:13:58] they are higher paid and so it does bring up the overtime a little bit. And so, but
[1:14:04] But ultimately the achievement of keeping the stations open and staffed has been a remarkable
[1:14:10] change since adding those full-time fire positions.
[1:14:18] And just to show the history of property tax revenue to public safety costs, and I did
[1:14:28] drop in to include also the public safety fee.
[1:14:32] So, the red is the costs and then the blue is the property tax revenue.
[1:14:41] And so, the Fire Police Protection Fund was created and 100% of property taxes goes towards
[1:14:49] public safety.
[1:14:51] Well, this I've said, sorry about that.
[1:14:55] and then committing the most stable revenue.
[1:15:01] Yeah. We are anticipating, let's see, we've, we've, we started the public safety fee in September of 2024.
[1:15:12] And with this and looking at the revenues here, we are proposing a public safety fee increase with the, with the ongoing revenue to cover the ongoing costs there.
[1:15:26] And
[1:15:31] I didn't meant so we're looking at right now that fee to be around six
[1:15:36] and a half to seven dollars increase. Again we'll look at that as it gets
[1:15:41] closer and hopefully be able to determine what that will be by June and we
[1:15:50] would bring back a consolidated fee schedule where that would actually be
[1:15:54] adopted.
[1:15:57] The local building authority so this is a special fund to
[1:16:01] facilitate construction and financing of city buildings such as the City Hall
[1:16:06] Building and the Public Works Complex. The Public Works is done and they've
[1:16:13] moved in and have been working out of that and it's a pretty neat building to
[1:16:18] go tour. So what's left in there is now the the debt payments that that we
[1:16:26] see in there.
[1:16:31] So getting towards the end here, just to summarize the budget results, mentioned
[1:16:42] a lot of this, but also with those police officers adding three vehicles, I don't think I mentioned
[1:16:48] that. And that's pretty much the summary there. And then looking ahead, let's
[1:16:59] see. Yeah, just
[1:17:02] looking ahead to the future, reduce book continuing growth, continue to higher than average inflation,
[1:17:09] strategic investment in infrastructure, and community engagement and transparency is always
[1:17:15] goal for us as well and just future decisions on the public safety fee and
[1:17:22] property tax rates. And just as the as the saying goes you know it's we're looking
[1:17:31] ahead and hindsight's always 2020 so with that it is the tentative budget and
[1:17:38] and it will change by June,
[1:17:42] but this is what we have before you tonight.
[1:17:45] Happy to pull up the document in your packet.
[1:17:49] Merrill, I think, is ready to do that if we need
[1:17:51] and if you had specific questions that we could jump to
[1:17:54] or open it for discussion in the public hearing
[1:17:57] and setting the time and place
[1:17:59] for the final budget in June.
[1:18:04] Okay, we will actually open the public hearing first
[1:18:07] first and then bring it back to the council. So if there is anyone here tonight that would
[1:18:13] like to make public comment regarding the tentative budget, we'd love to hear from you.
[1:18:22] And just tell us your name and what city you live in.
[1:18:29] You might need to keep those tissues on hand, Mayor. Good evening, Mayor Hall and council
[1:18:35] members. Sorry I'm nervous. My name is Helen Smith and I'm a resident of Bluffdale. Thank you
[1:18:43] for the opportunity to speak tonight.
[1:18:52] I'm here to share my experience navigating the victim support
[1:18:55] system in our community. In November of 2024 the police came to my residence on a call of domestic
[1:19:02] violence. After I filed the police report the officer gave me the phone number for my victim
[1:19:08] advocate. At such a scary time, I needed the resources, support and legal
[1:19:14] guidance that only a victim advocate could provide me. I proceeded to call
[1:19:19] four separate times throughout November and December, each time no one
[1:19:24] answered. I'd leave a message and I would receive no callback. Over the
[1:19:30] following year, I would sporadically try again, but I always got the same
[1:19:37] results.
[1:19:39] As I tried to reach out to other places for information, I was always
[1:19:43] redirected to contact my local victim advocate for the best resources. Defeated,
[1:19:49] I proceeded through the judicial system and rebuilding my life without the
[1:19:53] necessary support.
[1:20:01] In March of this year, I decided to try calling again. When I
[1:20:05] received the same results, I called the front desk of the Saratoga Springs
[1:20:09] Police Department and the officer helped connect me to the victim
[1:20:12] advocate. At last I thought I can finally receive some help. Unfortunately
[1:20:20] because our services are contracted through Sarah Tuka Springs, her resources
[1:20:25] and professional connections were only for Utah County. She sent me a few
[1:20:30] resources but many of them do not offer services to Salt Lake County. After a
[1:20:36] follow-up phone call she sent me a list from a previous employee. That list
[1:20:42] was years old. I called the Riverton victim advocate but she said she can only do so much
[1:20:49] since my case is not assigned to her police department. All of this is to express Mayor
[1:20:54] Holland Council members that there is currently no assistance or services available to victims
[1:21:00] of crime in Bluffdale. Our city needs its own dedicated victim advocate with roots
[1:21:06] in the community, connections throughout Salt Lake County, and access to resources for the
[1:21:12] community they are serving. Thank you. And will you make sure to leave your contact information
[1:21:19] for me? Yeah. With Tami. I can, yes. Okay. Thank you so much for coming tonight, Helen.
[1:21:26] The budget for the police department is really important and that was helpful for us
[1:21:31] and we'll keep in touch.
[1:21:33] Is there anyone else here tonight
[1:21:35] to make comment on the tenet of budget?
[1:21:39] All right, we will go ahead and close the public hearing
[1:21:43] for the tenet of budget and bring it back
[1:21:45] to the council for questions for our finance department.
[1:21:52] Council Member Smith.
[1:21:53] Mayor, just a parliamentary question.
[1:21:56] Am I allowed to reference the public comment
[1:21:58] that was made at all or?
[1:22:01] Well, for funding you mean?
[1:22:03] Yes, let's say.
[1:22:04] Well, we'll just discuss it after the meeting.
[1:22:06] Okay.
[1:22:08] Okay.
[1:22:08] Because it's part of the contract that we need to discuss.
[1:22:11] I just, if it's okay to say I'd like to reach out as well.
[1:22:14] Based on the work I do, it's not a domestic violence coalition.
[1:22:17] And just want to say thank you for being so vulnerable to talk about that in a public place.
[1:22:21] That's all.
[1:22:22] Thank you.
[1:22:22] Anything else on the questions for our accounting team?
[1:22:26] I just want to make note.
[1:22:27] I want to say thank you first of all this it did not happen overnight this was a
[1:22:34] lot of work and it was a lot of redo and redo and redo and I would like to thank
[1:22:40] staff for all of the work but I also would like to say thank you to our
[1:22:44] council all of our council members took time and they all came in and met
[1:22:51] individually with our finance department and it really it really shows your
[1:22:58] dedication to our city all of you for taking the time to come and go through
[1:23:03] line by line and and go through the budget it's a huge sacrifice and I
[1:23:07] want to thank the council for doing that ahead of time and because we have
[1:23:12] each taken so much time combing through this and working with with our
[1:23:17] staff and your presentation was just so thorough
[1:23:21] on the process of budgeting.
[1:23:24] Hopefully we've been able to educate the public a little bit
[1:23:27] about our process and how things have to be paid for.
[1:23:31] But also, thank you again to the council
[1:23:34] for going through and giving feedback
[1:23:36] before tonight's meeting, because that feedback was really
[1:23:40] essential to what we see tonight.
[1:23:44] So having said that, any other questions for our staff?
[1:23:52] Okay. And that's why
[1:23:55] there are no questions because everyone worked so it makes me a little
[1:23:58] emotional because everybody has worked so hard and spent so many hours here
[1:24:02] going through this budget. So I just, wow, thank you. Well then I think we are
[1:24:11] ready. Now I just want to make, I didn't make note of this, but the
[1:24:14] public hearing was for the RDA and it was for the LBA as well because we're
[1:24:21] gonna have to go into those meetings because the tentative budget is for those
[1:24:25] boards as well they're separate boards and so we will actually have those
[1:24:30] meetings tonight as well but we did have the public hearing for the entire
[1:24:34] tentative budget for those other boards. All right do I have a motion?
[1:24:43] I
[1:24:43] Second.
[1:24:44] Right.
[1:24:45] Thank you.
[1:24:46] As moved by Council Member Austin, it was seconded by Council Member Wilding.
[1:24:51] And we do need a roll call vote, please.
[1:24:54] Council Member Lord.
[1:24:56] Yes.
[1:24:56] Council Member Austin.
[1:24:58] Yes.
[1:24:58] Council Member Austin.
[1:24:59] Yes.
[1:25:00] Council Member Wilding.
[1:25:01] Yes.
[1:25:01] Council Member Smith.
[1:25:03] Yes.
[1:25:04] Motion passed.
[1:25:05] Okay.
[1:25:06] Thank you.
[1:25:06] We will be moving into our next board meeting.
[1:25:08] We are in the local building authority.
[1:25:11] Everybody, everyone is in attendance.
[1:25:14] We have had our public hearing
[1:25:16] and we do need to adopt the tentative budget for the LBA.
[1:25:20] Just for the public's purpose, the LBA board is the council,
[1:25:27] but this board is for financing our buildings,
[1:25:31] our fire department, our public works department
[1:25:33] and our city hall.
[1:25:34] Do I have a motion?
[1:25:36] I'll move we approve Resolution 202618 LBA. Second. All right. It was moved by
[1:25:43] Councilmember Astin. It was seconded by Councilmember Austin. Roll call. Vote
[1:25:48] please. Trustee Austin. Yes. Trustee Astin. Yes. Trustee Wilding. Yes. Chair
[1:25:54] Hall. Yes. Trustee Smith. Yes. Trustee Lord. Yes. Motion passed. Wonderful.
[1:26:00] All right. Not seeing any other discussion for the LBA will adjourn
[1:26:04] and then I'm going to turn it over for the next meeting
[1:26:06] to Chair Lord.
[1:26:12] Welcome to our Bluffdale redevelopment agency board
[1:26:16] meeting.
[1:26:17] Quick roll call.
[1:26:21] Do we need to do that?
[1:26:22] Formal, we're all here.
[1:26:27] Do I have any discussion or do I have a motion?
[1:26:31] We approve resolution 2026-19 RDA.
[1:26:36] Second.
[1:26:38] Okay.
[1:26:39] We've got Council Member Aston with,
[1:26:46] we don't do this often, with the motion and Council
[1:26:51] Member Austin second.
[1:26:54] Do a roll call vote, please.
[1:26:57] Board Member Aston.
[1:26:59] Yes.
[1:26:59] Board Member Wilding.
[1:27:01] Yes.
[1:27:01] Board Member Hall.
[1:27:02] Yes.
[1:27:02] Yes.
[1:27:02] Board Member Smith.
[1:27:04] Chair Lord.
[1:27:05] Yes.
[1:27:05] Board Member Austin.
[1:27:07] Yes.
[1:27:07] Motion passed.
[1:27:09] Okay.
[1:27:09] With that, do I have a motion to end the meeting?
[1:27:16] I move we adjourn.
[1:27:18] Hang on.
[1:27:19] All in favor.
[1:27:19] Aye.
[1:27:20] Aye.
[1:27:21] We are officially adjourned from the RDA Board.
[1:27:24] Excellent job.
[1:27:27] Chair Lord.
[1:27:28] Awesome.
[1:27:29] Okay.
[1:27:29] Okay, we do have staff reports and additional council discussion.
[1:27:35] I do have an item for the council.
[1:27:38] Will you please make sure to put in your T-shirt order?
[1:27:41] That's the T-shirt for the year.
[1:27:44] Also, the Chamber has an award, and I don't know that it's been announced publicly,
[1:27:49] but hopefully you received the email for one of our small businesses.
[1:27:53] Will you, after the meeting, just let me know if you can attend that on April 29th?
[1:27:58] And don't forget to oh I'll forget so don't you forget to tell me and
[1:28:05] Were there any other items of
[1:28:08] Course our calendar is all on the city website. So any events or activities miss Bluffdell is coming up
[1:28:14] But yes, yeah, I saw the email for the police
[1:28:20] recognition luncheon next that's right and it would be helpful if you can
[1:28:26] reply to that email and let them know if you can go that way they can kind of
[1:28:31] plan seating so yeah great thank you I have a discussion yep I got a couple of
[1:28:39] calls this week about possibly putting a porta potty in the rodeo arena because
[1:28:45] they no longer have access to the bathrooms in the parks building just
[1:28:50] until our bathrooms that we're building are complete is that a
[1:28:54] possibility. Yes. Thank you.
[1:29:00] That's where? The rodeo arena. Just if someone's out walking
[1:29:05] and they have a bathroom emergency. Well they're using, the rodeo arena is getting used now,
[1:29:11] the warmer, the weather is warmer. I mean this is for active use right now. Yes, and
[1:29:17] there's no air. I don't believe the bathrooms even in the park are open yet. Well, correct.
[1:29:23] They've been able to use the bathroom that's attached to our current building, but we've
[1:29:28] restricted that area as this construction is going on for the administrative portion of
[1:29:33] that building.
[1:29:34] That's why it's being requested.
[1:29:36] I get it.
[1:29:36] We'll have one delivered.
[1:29:38] Thank you.
[1:29:39] Sure.
[1:29:42] Thanks.
[1:29:42] Thank you.
[1:29:44] Staff reports.
[1:29:47] Didn't want to cover a lot of this stuff that's on the calendar at this time.
[1:29:50] did want to report that the bathrooms are under way, the slabs have been poured,
[1:29:55] we're expecting that they will be fully functional by the time we have our first
[1:30:00] Big event in the rodeo arena. Apparently, they're not quite ready for these smaller events where people are just riding around, so
[1:30:06] we'll make sure that we have a port-a-potty available from that standpoint.
[1:30:11] And since Shane's here, I'll just ask him to make sure that that happens.
[1:30:18] There we go.
[1:30:22] We're excited to have the meetings coming up for the council.
[1:30:27] look forward to those that are going to be coming down to the the league's spring
[1:30:32] meeting this in a in a couple of weeks now that same week earlier in the week
[1:30:38] I'll be down to st. George as well to the city managers meeting so if you need
[1:30:43] me call me on myself certainly be available did want to report that the
[1:30:48] project is moving forward on the trestle not excuse me I've been told
[1:30:53] not to use the trestle because it's not. The railroad underpass project is moving forward.
[1:31:00] We're seeing a lot of great progress there and we're excited to keep that moving.
[1:31:05] Thank you so very much for passing the bonding so that we can continue that work.
[1:31:11] Yes. Is that on schedule? It depends upon whose schedule you're using.
[1:31:20] Michael is very effective at pushing, pushing, pushing, and the contractors aren't always
[1:31:29] as effective at making it happen according to his schedule, but between the two, we are
[1:31:35] moving forward and getting it done, and we appreciate that very, very much.
[1:31:40] I guess I only ask that, you know, because occasionally citizens ask us and want to know
[1:31:46] You know, the end dates, we put that out there, but it's just nice to know if we can report.
[1:31:52] Well, some of the challenges that come with respect to that as an example is working with Union Pacific,
[1:32:00] you really can't set a deadline because they are going to do things on their timeline.
[1:32:06] And so as we're coordinating different things with their approvals and moving forward,
[1:32:11] there are some challenges there that we just simply can't overcome.
[1:32:14] And then logistically, sometimes things will come up that were unexpected that delay it a bit.
[1:32:21] We're not a long ways off. I would say we're still within a month or two of when we originally projected.
[1:32:29] With Michael, he would say that we're right on track because he's going to continue to push that.
[1:32:35] I think that the contractors are saying that they would like a couple more months.
[1:32:39] and my vote's with Michael on this one. He's a force to be reckoned with. I would like
[1:32:46] to say with respect to that and sometimes we don't have a great glimpse into other people's
[1:32:52] lives and what they do on a day-to-day basis until we've walked in their shoes. I've
[1:32:58] had the opportunity over the last few weeks to see some of the things that Michael goes
[1:33:02] through in working with the contractors to look at line item details to make sure
[1:33:07] that we are getting the value that we're paying for, and not paying for things that
[1:33:13] are unnecessary, unneeded, or have no value to the project. And the amount of time he's
[1:33:20] putting in on that and the stress and sleepless nights that he goes through, I'd just like
[1:33:26] to say publicly thank you.
[1:33:30] Mayor Hall?
[1:33:31] Yes.
[1:33:32] Can I just ask a question on that?
[1:33:33] Yes, please.
[1:33:34] Bruce, so I've forwarded you some information from residents about the traffic issues with
[1:33:39] the detour.
[1:33:40] Maybe just for everybody else's sake, do you want to give an update on those changes and
[1:33:45] on how they've been resolved?
[1:33:47] Yeah, the initial detour clearly did not work well, and part of it was because it wasn't
[1:33:53] following the plan that the detour is supposed to take.
[1:33:57] We've got that resolved now.
[1:33:58] Now there are still a number of issues that have coming up just because traffic is taking
[1:34:04] different routes now and that's a natural thing.
[1:34:06] People find the easiest route for them, not necessarily the route that we do detour them
[1:34:11] through.
[1:34:12] That being said, we've received a number of emails as well besides the ones that you've
[1:34:18] received that people were worried about speeding too much traffic in certain areas.
[1:34:23] Because I've requested that the trailers be deployed so that we can see what's actually
[1:34:28] happening and help to slow that down, we'll be deploying some tubes as well to make sure
[1:34:35] that the speeding really is speeding, that we're seeing how bad it is, and also doing
[1:34:41] traffic counts so that we can identify what level of patrols we need to order in those
[1:34:46] different places.
[1:34:47] So we are reacting.
[1:34:48] We don't have a million police officers, so we can't have everybody on every street that the detourer people are taking.
[1:34:58] But we are trying to curb it and making sure that we're keeping our citizens safe, our residents safe.
[1:35:06] And thank you for addressing those things. And quickly, fairly quickly, I appreciate that.
[1:35:11] Once again, sometimes doing it immediately is challenging, but we really have tried to
[1:35:17] be responsive and get it to happen, and I appreciate the police department for how quickly they've
[1:35:23] reacted to various things, including going out there and directing people when it was
[1:35:28] really a mess.
[1:35:31] Along those lines, the council just received an email regarding some traffic issues,
[1:35:37] and sometimes it's hard when we all receive the same email and who's
[1:35:42] responding to what and how are we responding on that particular email. Could
[1:35:48] our city manager answer that in CCS so that it's just it's that way we're not
[1:35:54] calling you and saying different things and we want to be able to be let's
[1:35:58] let's is that okay with everyone on that email that we just received? I
[1:36:02] believe Bruce was also included. He was. I was on that. He was but
[1:36:05] But usually when he sees the council on it, he doesn't automatically respond.
[1:36:10] He wants to know how the council wants to handle it, so we'll just work on a response
[1:36:15] and make sure the council is involved.
[1:36:18] Okay, that would be great.
[1:36:19] Since we are talking about the police for just a minute, I would like to say that
[1:36:23] I talked to the young lady that talked in the public hearing regarding the meeting
[1:36:29] earlier before this meeting.
[1:36:31] She had responded to us in an email, I think it was.
[1:36:35] and I called her back and talked to her for a little while.
[1:36:38] No, actually she called in and talked to Amanda.
[1:36:41] That's how I got the information, I think.
[1:36:43] Anyway, I called her and talked with her,
[1:36:45] learned the back story of kind of what was happening
[1:36:48] and what her frustrations were.
[1:36:50] I reached out to the police department
[1:36:51] and we went back and forth and discussed
[1:36:54] what had been provided, how it was working,
[1:36:57] how it wasn't working.
[1:36:59] And they recognized that it is part of the contract
[1:37:01] and have committed to make sure that they are
[1:37:03] are stepping up and providing those resources
[1:37:06] for our residents, just like they are for Saratoga
[1:37:09] and doing that dual coverage for this county as well.
[1:37:12] So they have made that commitment
[1:37:14] and I appreciate them stepping up and taking care of that.
[1:37:17] Thank you, I really appreciate that.
[1:37:20] All right, any other council discussion?
[1:37:23] All right, do I have a motion to adjourn?
[1:37:27] Move for you adjourned.
[1:37:29] Second.
[1:37:30] All right, it was moved by council member Austin,
[1:37:32] seconded by council member Aston. All in favor? All right. We're adjourned at 7.36.
[1:37:42] Wait, Amanda's going to...