[0:17] All

[0:22] right. So tonight, I want to take a little bit of time to kind of educate the process on the Truth and Taxation, where it originated from. Truth and Taxation, it was passed in 1985. Utah ranked to protect effectively and informed taxpayers while providing state and

[0:40] local localities with sufficient revenues.

[0:44] Utah brought these elements together when it implemented its Truth and Taxation legislature.

[0:48] The Truth and Taxation has three main elements, calculations of certified rates,

[0:54] transparency with notice to taxpayers, and accountability through public hearing and voting by taxing authority.

[1:02] When Truth and Taxation was passed, Utah ranked 24th in the nation and

[1:07] In property taxes per $1,000 of personal income, Utah now ranks 36th.

[1:13] Even though there were the past three decades property revenues, property tax revenues in the state of Utah have grown faster.

[1:20] Seeking solutions state legislatures had implemented a variety of policies.

[1:24] The truth in taxation policy pioneered and improved by Utah is the most effective way to address inflation and assessment driven property tax increases.

[1:34] The high degree of transparency and involvement of taxpayers leads to fewer tax increases and less upper over tax rates when they do rise.

[1:44] Okay. Thank you, Council Member.

[1:47] Council, we have minutes to approve from the July 14th work session and the July 28th policy session.

[1:54] You have the chance to review the minutes. Are there any additions or corrections?

[2:00] Yes, ma'am.

[2:00] and

[2:12] then um I think it was July 28th minutes it had Lamont Woods. I think it was

[2:20] supposed to be Hampton. Yeah it is. Yeah okay. I believe it was July 28th that

[2:27] policy needed.

[2:34] We just need to change the name there from Lamont Woods to Lamont

[2:37] Hampton. Yeah. Okay well I would entertain a motion with those changes. Some moved.

[2:49] We have two public hearings tonight, first of those public hearings is to receive public comment on the fiscal year 2027 budget enterprise fund transfers to the general fund.

[2:58] Turn the time over to Rich.

[3:09] Okay mayor and council, the state code requires us to hold a public hearing before adopting a budget that includes transfers from the enterprise funds to the general fund.

[3:20] So the enterprise funds are utility funds that are fee-based, and our general fund is where most of our tax-supported revenues and expenses take place.

[3:32] So this is moving monies from the enterprise funds to the general fund to support administrative costs such as finance, human resources, legal, IT management, and other shared services.

[3:46] So these are the transfers from those funds to the general fund.

[3:53] The other transfer is a non-cash transfer.

[3:56] It's an accounting to recognize water that our governmental services are using like parks and open space and our facilities that we are not charging ourselves for through utility billing.

[4:12] But it's just recognizing that cost and also required by the law we will then provide

[4:21] a notice of third of a page in next month's utility bill showing these transfers.

[4:28] Are there any questions on this?

[4:32] Thank you.

[4:34] Okay.

[4:35] Go ahead and open the public hearing.

[4:37] Is there anyone here to speak in regards to the intergovernmental transfers?

[4:42] Okay,

[4:45] seeing none, I'd entertain a motion to close the public hearing.

[4:48] I'll move to close the public hearing.

[4:50] Second, motion to the second, all in favor?

[4:53] Aye.

[4:54] Opposed?

[4:54] Okay.

[4:55] The other public hearings, they receive public comment on the zoning text amendment, 2026-0704,

[5:02] a city initiated zoning text amendment to the downtown form-based code, removing multi-family

[5:07] residential as a permitted type, permitted type on secondary streets in the urban core

[5:13] or commerce. Urban core commerce, you see his own.

[5:18] Tyson, we'll turn it over to you. Maybe you can say that easier than I can.

[5:23] I'll do my best. Thank you, Marin Council members. To provide some background on this request,

[5:29] there was a work session discussion with the City Council discussing an upcoming civic

[5:34] and town center plan where the city is hiring a consultant to do some planning work for this

[5:41] area around City Hall, the civic center and town center area. Also discussed was a potential

[5:49] temporary land use regulation regarding development in the UC zone. Through that discussion, it was also

[5:57] raised to do a potential amendment to remove the multifamily building type as a permitted building type

[6:07] on secondary streets in the UC zone.

[6:10] The intent of the amendment is to preserve opportunities for commercial and mixed use

[6:17] redevelopment in the surrounding area of city hall in the UC zone, pending completion

[6:25] of the civic and town center planning process.

[6:30] So the form-based code is the code that's being amended.

[6:34] there are various sections that are being amended, 2.8, which provides the UC zone description,

[6:42] and then also 3.4, which provides development standards for various development types.

[6:50] And then there are also a couple of tables within the form-based code, where the tables will need to

[6:57] be amended reflective of the removal of the multi-family building type as a permitted building type

[7:03] in the UC zone tying it to the objectives of the general plan. One of the

[7:12] objectives in the Clearfield City General Plan is to continue efforts to

[7:19] transform downtown Clearfield into a vibrant center of activity and gathering

[7:26] spaces. So this proposed amendment is a policy choice in that direction regarding

[7:33] the desired balance of residential and non-residential development in downtown

[7:39] Clearfield specifically the UC zone. So evaluating the amendment multi-family

[7:48] as a building type it can contribute to downtown activity by increasing

[7:53] residents and supporting nearby businesses. Dis amendment prioritizes mixed use

[7:58] buildings that may more directly contribute to active storefronts and gathering spaces

[8:07] in a pedestrian-oriented or creating amenities or commercial places where residents could

[8:15] go to as a destination. To clarify residential apartments would still be permitted in the UC

[8:22] zone, it would just be on upper stories of a mixed-use building that had commercial uses

[8:27] is on the ground floor. The multi-family building type will still be permitted on secondary

[8:34] streets in the UR zone, so it is still permitted in another zone in the downtown Clearfield

[8:40] area, and this is where you can see the zone in question. So the zone that has the pinkish

[8:50] color outlined in white, that's the UC zone, so that's the area that we're talking about

[8:56] specifically for this amendment and it's the area just south of Clearfield City Hall and

[9:04] down even further south to the Lakeside Square Development is pretty much the area.

[9:13] Again in the amendment request it's removing multi-family building types from secondary streets

[9:21] in the UC zone, so this is an image from the form-based code which shows the

[9:28] street hierarchy. So the the streets are divided into different street types. We've

[9:34] got two main designations, primary streets and secondary streets. The secondary

[9:40] streets you can see indicated with the green color and the gray color.

[9:50] So as far as

[9:52] The public comment goes there is one resident who commented in the Planning Commission public hearing that same resident also submitted written public comment prior to this public hearing so our city recorder has directed me to read the public comment into the record so and it's from Michael Christians and clear field city resident.

[10:21] City leaders, I come to you regarding amendment 2026-0704 to be discussed at the 11 August

[10:30] 2026 city council meeting. The amendments premise of prioritizing ground floor retail

[10:37] by prohibiting purely residential construction has merit but misses a key point.

[10:43] Current mixed-use buildings on the west side of state street show businesses that are surviving

[10:48] but far short of thriving. Ground floor retail succeeds only after the surrounding area reaches a

[10:56] critical mass of permanent residents within roughly half a mile. No part of Clearfield has reached

[11:03] that critical mass. There are simply not enough residences inside any walkable radius that can be drawn

[11:10] on our city map. Ground floor mixed use retail works in places like New York, Chicago, or even Salt Lake

[11:18] city because many hundreds and occasionally thousands of potential customers live in

[11:22] an elevator ride plus a short walk away. That level is generally not achievable with

[11:29] the three or four-story construction of most mixed-use corridors in Clearfield.

[11:35] Mixed-use development can be vertical, ground floor retail under residences, horizontal, tall

[11:42] Concentrated around shopping or offices or a combination.

[11:48] Clearfields existing structures are neither tall enough,

[11:51] tightly spaced enough nor sufficiently varied.

[11:55] One practical test of critical masses,

[11:57] whether building owners must discount their retail square footage

[12:01] compared to a nearby strip mall to fill vacancies.

[12:06] If commercial rents,

[12:10] In the mixed use building remain comparable to a strip mall, and business owners still

[12:16] prefer the mixed use location instead of procuring space in a nearby strip mall.

[12:21] The market is likely telling us that critical mass has been achieved or exceeded.

[12:26] The amendment before you is an obstruction to reaching the critical mass necessary to sustain

[12:32] our current business operators, not a catalyst for driving mixed use success.

[12:37] Yes, existing mixed-use buildings across the street need far more local customers and residential

[12:44] buildings are built faster and cheaper because they are far less complex than mixed-use construction.

[12:51] If the council adopts the amendment blocking purely residential uses in the UC zone, take

[12:58] the logical steps simultaneously by also requiring that all new non-municipal buildings in the zone

[13:05] be at least five stories tall with hopes that many will propose seven story buildings to maximize

[13:11] land utility while avoiding the owner's IBC regulations of eight plus story residential buildings.

[13:20] Force developers bringing in ground floor retail to bring massive, not trivial, numbers of customers

[13:26] alongside that retail. I encourage the council to either one, reject the amendment entirely

[13:34] So, more residents can be added more quickly or to modify it to require all non-municipal redevelopment in the area to be at least five stories minimum, Michael Christiansen.

[13:50] With the Planning Commission after hearing public comment, the Planning Commission voted to forward a recommendation of approval of the amendment request to the City Council.

[14:03] So the City Council alternatives for action this evening would be to approve, deny or potentially table the request.

[14:11] Okay.

[14:12] Thank you, Tyson.

[14:13] I'll go ahead and open the public hearing.

[14:15] Is there anyone here to speak in regards to the zoning text amendment?

[14:29] My questions and I'll be brief because my email wasn't.

[14:33] I do a lot of technical presentations so I don't write like I speak.

[14:38] I'll keep that in mind next time and use many fewer words for that.

[14:42] But the only thing I would add to that is an option three.

[14:45] The idea about requiring a minimum elevation for mixed use buildings was not something I

[14:50] projected presented to the planning commission.

[14:52] I didn't, that idea didn't come to me until after the meeting.

[14:54] So it might be something on an option three, you might table this back to the planning commission

[14:59] to consider.

[15:00] Whether a minimum elevation should be applied to the ordinance before considering passage of it, as they didn't have that in their mind when they voted on this as it's coming to you. Thank you.

[15:14] Any other comments?

[15:18] Okay. Seeing none, I'd entertain a motion to close the public hearing. Move to close the public hearing. Second. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Well, that brings us to our open comment period. This is, we do have budget discussions tonight and others.

[15:34] There's this would be if you're here for those, this would be the only time to speak to those, we don't, the others are not public hearings.

[15:41] But I do have two forms tonight, public comment, Christie Zabroski, and we'll

[15:55] go ahead and invite you up here.

[16:01] Thanks. As I'm looking around, I've had several council members at my home over the last

[16:08] many years. I've been living here for almost 45 years. I have a problem with code enforcement.

[16:15] They, I realize that they're busy and can't come to the house every two weeks to make sure

[16:23] somebody's following along with the code, but what else do us residents do when they're

[16:28] not following the code years ago.

[16:33] There was a gentleman on the code enforcement named Doug Carve and he was at my house and

[16:39] same issue, same neighbors and he was a little upset about having to keep dealing with it.

[16:48] So when he backed out of my driveway, he almost hit my neighbors because he didn't see the kids.

[16:54] Clearfield City, where I live, it's not a culvacac, well, it depends.

[16:59] Sometimes it's a culvacac and sometimes it's a through-street, depending on what whether we have.

[17:08] If it's, we got a lot of snow, I am a culvacac.

[17:13] So my car can be where the curb is, the tires, and all the way, we got a big long truck.

[17:20] But I'm still where they just shoveled me in.

[17:26] I've had code enforcement come out.

[17:28] We have etchings on our fence that shows exactly what the neighbors are having to do.

[17:34] Again, they won't do anything until Clairefield City comes out.

[17:37] And I believe code enforcement is a little bit tired of dealing with the same issue as I've had you out.

[17:44] You out, I've talked to you on the phone about the same issue.

[17:49] They're served, they're told they have to do something and then just wait a couple of weeks.

[17:58] Unfortunately, where they have some trees within two weeks, they're already above where

[18:03] they're supposed to be.

[18:06] Code enforcement Ben and Lon have both come out to the house and measured it and we've marked

[18:12] it on the fence where they have to trim back.

[18:16] I don't want to be responsible for the death of a child because we can't see.

[18:21] We back into our driveway to do that.

[18:25] This is only going to get worse with the construction you guys are doing.

[18:29] Our streets are all going to be torn up with all of this stuff.

[18:33] I know they finally made the guy move his truck into his driveway.

[18:39] He'll be gone in his driveway's empty.

[18:41] And the guy across the street is a really good man.

[18:44] He's very involved with his children.

[18:46] But he can go out and play basketball with him

[18:48] because the guy always parked his truck there.

[18:50] I do know that you guys finally took care of that, thanks.

[18:52] And there's a bunch of equipment in front of his house

[18:55] so he can't park there anyway.

[18:57] But where it is a safe walking route for South Clairefield students,

[19:04] there's only a sidewalk on that one side.

[19:06] So it comes it comes in and then it goes like that. Well, if he parks his truck there or has anything when he trims as Councilman Thompson seen little trim and then they leave it all there.

[19:24] They never plowed that sidewalk, so at some point you guys are going to have to address

[19:33] these neighbors are going to have to take care of some of this stuff.

[19:37] Right now schools are going to be starting, so code enforcement or somebody from the city

[19:42] needs to be on those sidewalks going to the school that are covered in puncture weeds.

[19:48] Again, it's a safe walking route that goes by my house, but what do we do?

[19:54] If you park there, the kids go in the street and you can't see them.

[19:58] I don't want to be responsible for the death of a kid.

[20:01] And how to code enforcement comes out, serve them.

[20:06] This is a good one.

[20:08] Clearfield has served them several times for putting their vehicles and stuff on the grass.

[20:13] Okay, well, code enforcement and the city closes down at 5 o'clock, and you don't come on the weekends.

[20:22] So he can park there every weekend, because you're not going to do anything about it then.

[20:27] So I just appreciated it.

[20:29] Clearfield City would start helping with this code enforcement.

[20:32] Be a little stronger.

[20:33] You've got a house over there with all the fires we've got right now.

[20:36] You've got a house above the Credit Union, a couple of streets over.

[20:40] I would say it's definitely two and a half feet tall, it's all dead, one kid does

[20:46] something, one stupid, somebody throws a cigarette butt out, it's going to go up.

[20:52] Thank you for your time.

[20:53] Thank you, Christy.

[20:56] I understand you are working with staff on that now, so I'll let staff continue to drive

[21:02] that with you.

[21:26] Thank you.

[21:26] And then our other comment is Michael Gershenson.

[21:35] I'll be brief again.

[21:36] You know me as the housing guy.

[21:38] But when I was 11 years old, I got my mother involved in water

[21:42] and sewer.

[21:43] And she's still going at it on board in Sandy, 35 years later.

[21:46] So I have a spot for liquids as well.

[21:49] So in the pre-meeting, we were talking about the Mayby pod

[21:51] filling that up with the well being replaced

[21:53] or repaired on 200 South.

[21:56] I was reminded of an experience I had with the teenage child

[21:59] some years ago after taking 35-minute showers for about four weeks in a row.

[22:04] I confronted him and said, you know, water is expensive.

[22:09] He looked at me and said, water is cheap.

[22:11] And in a moment of inspiration, I looked at him and said, no, no, no, no, no, cold water is cheap.

[22:15] Hot water is expensive.

[22:17] Frozen water is expensive because water doesn't like to change temperature.

[22:19] But that same principle applies to the maybe pond well that was just spoken of in the room.

[22:24] Why are we digging a well to take precious fresh water in a desert and pour it on the ground?

[22:29] When there is an alternative to take at least some of that pressure off with water from the

[22:34] Weber Davis and your secondary water to fill that.

[22:37] So I encourage the council to consider not just the cheap solution of pouring precious expensive

[22:43] water on the ground because it's easier to get at, but put some consideration and thought

[22:49] and tell you only buying one pump and putting pressure on yourselves to get something set

[22:54] up with Davis Webers to bring in some of that secondary water.

[22:59] Fresh water, culinary water from the ground is far too precious in this desert to pick

[23:03] it up and pour it on the ground.

[23:05] Thank you very much.

[23:07] Is there any other public comments that they did not have forms for tonight?

[23:13] Okay, and we'll go ahead and move forward.

[23:15] The next item on the agenda is item number four, presentation and discussion of the proposed

[23:20] property tax impact schedule.

[23:21] Turn it time over to the J.J. Allen, or, oh, we're going to have Rich take that one.

[23:31] I would like to present the, I don't know if they're the next three items, but the three

[23:37] items that are mine starting with the budget and then because I think it all builds to

[23:44] the proper tax schedule, if that's okay. So, all right.

[23:56] Let's see here. Why can't I see

[23:59] Okay, just a second.

[24:09] Okay, this is it.

[24:10] It is the last meeting on the fiscal 27 budget.

[24:15] I'm pleased to present this.

[24:17] It's our comprehensive financial plan that reflects our commitment to fiscal responsibility,

[24:22] transparency and delivering exceptional municipal services.

[24:28] But before we take action and adopt this 27 budget, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the process that got us here.

[24:34] There has been 11 meetings, public meetings, including tonight.

[24:41] Green here are work sessions, purple, public hearings, blue, council meetings.

[24:48] It's probably best to lump these in three phases.

[24:53] The first is building the foundation where we established priorities, looked at our needs.

[24:59] We went through staffing, compensation, capital revenues, operations, utility, fund sustainability in our rates and our debt, and then by April, we were starting to make the hard decisions narrowing it down because we have limited resources and all of our departments have a lot of requests, capital requests, operational requests, and we can't do it all.

[25:24] So, we did reduce or defer projects in about 1.8 million and even before the Council even

[25:33] signed anything, there were many things that didn't even make it into the draft budget.

[25:39] And then after the third phase was just publicly vetting this budget, adopting the tenant

[25:47] to budget, establishing our property tax impact schedule, announcing our proposed property

[25:53] tax rates, and adopting the interim budget, and now tonight the final budget.

[26:00] So the budget before you was not new, it's been reviewed, debated, reduced, and heard in

[26:05] public for over half a year.

[26:08] So just wanted to show that to you, is there any questions or comments regarding that?

[26:15] Okay.

[26:15] Okay,

[26:17] as an overview for the budget to give scale and just how many dollars are talking

[26:23] about our governmental funds, which are tax-supported funds, so not our utility funds, 33 million

[26:32] in revenues or transfers, and 40 million in expenditures of 11 and a half of which is capital

[26:41] projects.

[26:42] You can see we are reducing cash, but that is intentional.

[26:47] We're using bunnies built up from prior years to pay for these one-time expenses.

[26:53] So one-time sources are paying for one-time expenses.

[26:58] And the operational budget is balanced, and we will all show that in a little bit.

[27:03] And then looking at utility funds, 18 million revenues,

[27:10] 17 and a half in capital expenditures, and again spending now cash, but that is intentional for projects, one time projects.

[27:21] If you add those together, the total revenue is 50 million in revenues, if you add the total expenses together a $70 million budget.

[27:34] So, where does the money go?

[27:36] So, this is the most common question that this is the general fund, so the general fund

[27:43] is supported by our main sources of revenue for these expenses, the sales tax, energy

[27:48] tax, our aquatic and fitness center fees and property tax.

[27:54] Sales and energy being much higher than those other two.

[27:58] So what this, the two important takeaways from this slide is that first, it's a service

[28:05] budget. Most, the blue is operational, expenses, and most of it is operations and people

[28:12] providing daily services. And then also shows our priorities. Public safety is prioritized

[28:20] at the top with over 8.7 million in expenditures.

[28:28] And we could go into all the services provided

[28:32] about each of these functions.

[28:33] This is how the accounting language is.

[28:36] It's not the language we use necessarily,

[28:38] but this is how accounting splits these services up.

[28:43] Streets, that's half maintenance,

[28:45] which includes street treatment,

[28:47] and then the green is full reconstruction of streets.

[28:58] Okay, so major changes since 26 sales and energy tax

[29:02] has been tapering off.

[29:03] Interjects have actually gone down.

[29:04] So the net effect, 350,000, the increase in property tax, which we will talk about in the tax rate tonight, and the property tax impacts schedule.

[29:22] There is an increase in the utility rates starting in January of 27 in water, sewer and storm, about 255 per month on average.

[29:31] and then greenways the cost per camp per month will just went up this July 85 cents per month.

[29:40] Other changes from 27 to 26.

[29:43] We have a new assistant aquatic senate fitness center that was offset with reductions in other staffing and operations.

[29:50] Two new public works dedicated to pipe cleaning that was offset by not contracting that out.

[29:56] we reduce the display

[30:00] We've got a batch contract with Layton, which helped a lot, and emergency planning was moved to the North Davis Fire District.

[30:08] The projects, in water sewer storm, we've added 4.3 million in new allocations, the monies to the left, or what is the total for prior years, so the bull that's just new allocations. Notable in parks was the bicentennial park renovation, the jazz basketball court. And again, we've talked about deferring

[30:31] limiting 1.8 million of capital requests that just didn't make the budget.

[30:37] So the budget is, it supports the end goal of security with 63 days of operating expense

[30:46] and because the general fund's ongoing revenues exceed its ongoing expenses considered financially

[30:52] stable.

[30:54] So these are all the slides, this gives it overview of the budget, a very large overview.

[30:59] We have the more detailed budget on our website if

[31:06] we're anyone that wants to see that and again, I will say that

[31:11] the departments

[31:13] other staff may or counsel put a lot of time a lot of meetings as you see a lot of things happening beside it behind the scenes of figuring out how to do this

[31:22] So there's a lot of work the revenues expenses for scrutinized fees and rates were reviewed for sustainability and every step happened in public meetings

[31:31] So, staff recommends the adoption of this budget that reflects all of that work.

[31:39] I do want to go into the rate and the Propitex Impact Schedules.

[31:45] Any questions on the budget?

[31:49] Other than huge thank you, because your timeline on there shows how long this has taken

[31:54] and the amount of work that goes into planning a budget and it's not easy, you know, especially

[31:58] when you're having to trim out, you know, we trimmed $1.8 million, could it?

[32:05] Yeah, that's a lot of things we can't do and that we'd love to do right was

[32:22] anything else. I mean, sorry, I don't know if I know it's all you. OK, so we presented this in a public hearing last Tuesday, our proposed rate above the certified tax rate.

[32:34] So the county's rate came in, the property values came in a 1% higher than the certified tax rate.

[32:42] So the higher, so the certified tax rate adjusts downward to give the cities the same revenue as last year.

[32:50] So that doesn't help us with any inflation or other demands on services.

[32:57] It's built to just give the same revenue as the prior excluding growth.

[33:02] So the city is proposing a tax rate of 0.001253, it is expected to generate 6.59% more

[33:11] property tax revenue than the certified tax rate. So you can see last year's 1-2818, the

[33:17] certified tax rate went down to 1-176 and were proposing to move it to 1-253. The impact

[33:25] to the city for new growth is 148,000 and then for the increased rate from the certified

[33:32] rate is 233,133,106 and the impact to the average resident valued at 510,000, their portion

[33:42] of the property tax bills approximately $21.60 per year, bringing the total cost for

[33:51] service is from the property tax of $351.47.

[33:58] Make sure, so yes, this rate provides funding for key needs identified during the budget process, and are evolving service demands.

[34:11] During that process, we identified five budget priorities, totaling the amount of the increase and

[34:16] communicated these items would be eliminated if the proposed property tax rate increase

[34:21] was not approved.

[34:23] And that is summarized in the property tax impact schedule which we have now, I can't

[34:31] remember if this will be the fourth time or the fifth time we have showed this in a public

[34:33] meeting.

[34:34] These are available at this meeting as well in the back here and online.

[34:43] We I'm not sure if we, I'm going to, I'm going to give this to

[34:48] Yeah,

[34:51] this is where we've usually passed the baton so that I can just review these different

[34:58] items that we've placed on the property tax impact schedule with a lot of input from

[35:03] the City Council.

[35:04] This is really your property tax impact schedule as you've given guidance as far as what

[35:10] But what you've indicated, the additional property attacks should go to ward.

[35:17] So with that $233,306, this is what essentially we're saying to the public.

[35:25] If we don't increase the property tax as proposed, then these are the things that we will not do.

[35:33] None of them are for new things or service level increases or expansions.

[35:38] If we don't increase the property tax, then these are the items that would be reductions in level of service.

[35:46] So to summarize, $25,000 from the facilities budget in community services that would be for

[35:52] contracted services for very routine things, and that are needed for our various facilities.

[36:00] In the police department, $10,000 in patrol and

[36:04] investigations for equipment acquisition and replacement.

[36:08] In the streets budget in public works, $60,000 for various maintenance activities like striping,

[36:14] street light maintenance, pothole repair, and so on.

[36:18] In the parks budget in community services, 121,606, 75,000 of that is a slope mower,

[36:26] much more safe and efficient and practical in terms of what our needs are.

[36:31] And the remainder of that is grounds maintenance, supplies, materials, and supplies for grounds maintenance.

[36:39] And lastly, 16,500 from the communications budget in administration that would be to renew

[36:46] the texting service that we are launching now, that is a way to engage with the community

[36:52] and receive their feedback and take their work orders and things like that.

[36:59] So that's the summary of what we said we needed and how the justification for the property tax increase in according to statute would call property tax impact schedule.

[37:13] Are there any questions about property tax impact schedule or about the tax rate or the budget at all?

[37:21] Just for sake of clarity, could you go into kind of how we went through this process last year and how that impacts what we're going through this year as a result in the rate and the total value.

[37:34] Thank you, Councilmember. And that is touched on here in the paragraph up above the table that you see on the screen here.

[37:43] So a year ago, the city council did go through the process to increase the property tax and

[37:51] that increase a year ago would have been on the average $19 per home for the average home in Clearfield.

[38:00] That was to generate about $190,000 of new property tax and we didn't know until it was too late that the law had slightly changed.

[38:11] just removing any discretion for the tax commission, the Utah State Tax Commission.

[38:17] So where in previous years they were able to look at some at a taxing entity with some

[38:24] discretion as to well, did they meet the law in terms of going through the correct process

[38:31] to raise the property tax.

[38:33] In this case, it was to the letter very strict with no leeway whatsoever.

[38:38] However, and unfortunately, the tax increase that was approved by the City Council was rejected

[38:44] by the State Tax Commission.

[38:45] So it was not implemented.

[38:48] And this time around, the increase of 233, so that's just about $43,000-ish more than

[38:58] the 190 year ago, and on the average household, instead of about $19 for the year, this time

[39:07] around is 2160. So just a couple dollars more annually per the average household and

[39:14] clear field. So we're recovering. Most of what this council would be doing tonight

[39:18] in adopting this tax increase would be to recover what was intended to be done a year ago.

[39:25] And I'd note that one of those things that had to be done last year that we missed which

[39:35] which many cities missed last year was having a slide up during our public hearing, showing every taxing entity within the county and what they were doing with their taxes, which really has no bearing on what we're doing with ours, but it had to be up there and it wasn't provided by the county.

[39:51] So the county's failure to provide us with a slide, ultimately cost us that.

[39:57] And we should note that that's not cuts that we had to do last year.

[40:00] We'd already approved a budget based on that income coming in.

[40:04] So that dips into reserves and this isn't backfilling the reserves.

[40:09] It means after last year, our reserves are $180,000 short of what they should have been.

[40:15] So we cut everything that we could to make up for that but it still put us in a hole.

[40:19] also. Yeah, I appreciate that context because just to carry the thought train forward, just

[40:25] thank you to staff for the six month pro long, you know, really deliberate process of

[40:30] us looking at what we need to do to get this in a presentable state and that we're making

[40:35] form decisions that are, you know, in good interest of the public and where we're filling

[40:41] our fiduciary duty, but also like we have to as a city show up and provide these necessary

[40:48] service is like snow has to get plowed when it exists,

[40:51] potholes have to get paved.

[40:53] Public safety has to be able to perform their duties.

[40:56] And in order for us to do that,

[41:00] we are making really prescriptive decisions on,

[41:04] okay, what can we delay to the next year

[41:07] and trying to work within our means.

[41:09] And unfortunately, because of that context,

[41:11] this year requires that we go through this process.

[41:13] And I just am really appreciative because we cannot

[41:16] not do this on our own and we definitely can't show up for our residents without a balanced and consistent budget process.

[41:27] And I hope and pray that we have to plow time and time and time again this year.

[41:32] No, they really don't.

[41:33] I hope that it snows in the mountains because I don't have to shovel rain and I'm okay with the rain, so.

[41:40] Okay, well council with that presentation, I would entertain a motion to approve resolution 2026 R-20 sudden the city's property 2026 property tax rate of 0.001253.

[41:53] Your honor, I move to approve resolution 2026 R-20 setting the city's 2026 property tax rate at 0.001253 and authorize your signature to any necessary documents.

[42:05] and I'll second that motion.

[42:07] We have a motion and a second.

[42:08] Councilmember Worth, aye.

[42:10] Councilmember Ratchford, aye.

[42:11] Councilmember King, aye.

[42:13] Councilmember Thompson, aye.

[42:15] As unanimous.

[42:16] That moves us on, item number six.

[42:20] Yes, which is to consider approval of ordinance 2026-11 adopting

[42:25] the fiscal year 2027 final budget.

[42:29] Council, any further questions on the budget?

[42:31] Okay,

[42:35] seeing none, I would entertain a motion to approve the budget.

[42:38] I'll move to approve Ornette's 2026-11, adopting the fiscal year budget, 2027 final budget,

[42:45] and authorize your signature on any necessary documents.

[42:49] Yes.

[42:50] Second.

[42:51] We have a motion in a second.

[42:53] Council Member Reshford.

[42:54] Aye.

[42:54] Council Member Thompson.

[42:55] Aye.

[42:55] Council Member King.

[42:56] Aye.

[42:57] Council Member Worth.

[42:57] Aye.

[42:58] That is unanimous.

[42:59] I failed to excuse Council Member Peterson tonight.

[43:01] I keep looking down my list.

[43:03] So, excuse Council Member Peterson,

[43:04] she wasn't able to be with us this evening.

[43:06] I don't remember seven,

[43:07] so consider approval of ordinance 2026-12

[43:10] amending the downtown form-based code

[43:12] to remove multifamily residential

[43:14] as permitted building type on secondary streets

[43:18] within the urban cork, commerce zone.

[43:21] Couple of comments are rents downtown,

[43:24] are equal to our strip malls.

[43:25] So, and they're constant and actually the business is why you said it weren't thriving.

[43:31] They're actually doing very well with the exception of one on the corner who has tried and tried

[43:38] and tried to, he's had every setback in the world in his life and hopefully eventually he'll come out

[43:45] of that, but the others are doing well. So, we do have a minimum in our form-based code. It's four

[43:55] four stories, residential four stories.

[43:59] We don't allow three stories anymore.

[44:00] So residential is a minimum of four.

[44:02] I can tell you the building design.

[44:04] Everyone has built the four for financial reasons.

[44:10] Because four stories of sticks are easy,

[44:14] and the cost is, you know, stays where it is.

[44:18] You start going over four stories.

[44:20] There's a delta there that a lot don't want to overcome.

[44:23] You start hitting six stories and it really now you start having to go and steal and that's a challenge.

[44:31] I will tell you that the proposed and approved lakeside development is five over concrete.

[44:40] So it's five over podium.

[44:41] That entire bottom floor is 26,000 square feet of commercial and then five stories above it.

[44:47] So we're we're heading in the right direction and they're confident on their end or they wouldn't be able to get their financing as far as keeping that retail space full and we've already worked on we have a couple of them already.

[45:00] In the works to be there, to anchor those two ends of the building. So we're doing well. At least we're moving in the right direction. That should hopefully create a vibrant downtown. Our biggest concern is that as we redevelop, these secondary streets are challenging. As you go through Clifford Town Center, or Town Square, next door. There's a street. I mean, this is a retail center that needs some redevelopment. It has been, it's being purchased by a new group.

[45:31] who would then read, at some point, down the future redevelop the site and there's a

[45:35] street that goes right down the middle of it. Right now you can see it as the entrance

[45:39] to the development. Long term on our plan, that is the street that goes down and connects

[45:44] to 200 South.

[45:47] Concern is building solid residential on those sides and not putting commercial as

[45:53] it should be and to take a commercial development and replace it with just housing would be

[45:59] a lot. So that's the impetus in this change, just to make sure that we have a balanced

[46:05] development as we do this, as we move forward.

[46:09] Yeah, and Michael, I appreciate your email last night. I found it very thoughtful.

[46:14] For me, just clarifying that we are not excluding residential in the UC zone. I think it's important

[46:20] and that Lakeside Square has 296 units currently entitled. So there's going to be some residential

[46:28] potential going in there as soon as they break ground on that, but I mean for me in that particular zone if redevelopment were to occur preserving that commercial tax base and that commercial opportunity, I think is a valuable consideration that I think we really want to maintain.

[46:43] But at the end of the day, we're not in the business of setting the market or constructing any of these projects, only creating the tools to enable it.

[46:51] I think that in creating place and again, I don't want to tear down I don't last thing I ever want to see happen in this city is a tear down

[46:59] a clear field town square or a

[47:02] lakeside square

[47:04] and replace it entirely with housing and not bring back that commercial component that's always been there would instead

[47:10] I want to see is a walkable

[47:14] district that creates that that

[47:17] call it vibe down down and

[47:19] and creates that walkable area, which they've designed around the pond and we'll work

[47:26] on the other end and getting the water to the pond from a different source, so that

[47:31] there's always water in the pond.

[47:34] We do appreciate that, so Council, I would entertain a motion to approve the ordinance 2026-12,

[47:45] I move to approve ordinance 2026-12 amending the downtown form base code to remove multi-family residential as permitted building type on secondary streets within the urban quirk commercial zone and authorize the mere signature to any necessary documents.

[48:02] Second.

[48:03] You have a motion on the second, Council Member King.

[48:06] Aye.

[48:07] Council Member Worth.

[48:08] Aye.

[48:08] Council Member Thompson.

[48:10] Before I see my vote, I'll just say that I do have concerns like on just some of these secondary streets allowed just to mix shoes because I'm

[48:31] to see more, especially on secondary seats,

[48:33] more pure commercial opportunities.

[48:35] It's just, my brain still looks at the hardest city center

[48:37] and how I have nightmares.

[48:40] So, I would have liked to see more commercial,

[48:42] so that's why my vote's gonna be nay,

[48:44] mainly because of the fact that I think that there just needs

[48:47] to be more of that pure consideration, but that's all.

[48:50] But I'm not saying that some of this discussion

[48:52] isn't a good idea or a real idea.

[48:54] It's just, I guess I'm just being a little picky

[48:56] on what I'd like to see.

[48:57] Okay, Council Member Retrie.

[48:59] Hi.

[48:59] Okay, that vastes in a 3-1 brings us to item number 8 which is consider approval of Resolution 2026 R21, approving amendments to the City Council rules of order.

[49:13] Council, we reviewed these a couple of weeks ago, went over just most of them are minor changes to our rules of order.

[49:21] Are there any questions or concerns as they were sent out?

[49:26] Okay, seeing none, I'd entertain a motion to approve those.

[49:28] I move to approve Resolution 2026R-21, approving amendments to the City Council rule of order,

[49:36] and procedures and authorizing the mayor's signature to any necessary documents.

[49:41] Second.

[49:42] Motion in a second.

[49:43] Council Member Rashford.

[49:44] Hi.

[49:44] Council Member Thompson.

[49:45] Council Member Worth.

[49:47] Hi.

[49:47] Council Member King.

[49:48] Hi.

[49:49] Okay.

[49:49] And then number nine is to consider approval of Resolution 2026R-22, approving the amendments

[49:55] to the Planning Commission Mylaws.

[49:56] Any concerns on those? Just again clean up really from which we need to do

[50:04] everyone's in a while. Okay then retain a motion. Here on our I would move to

[50:08] approve resolution 2026R-22 approving amendments to the planning commission

[50:13] bylaws and authorize your signature to any necessary documents.

[50:16] I'll second that motion. We have a motion and a second and councilmember

[50:20] Worth. Aye. Councilmember Ratchford. Aye. Councilmember King. Aye.

[50:23] Councilmember Thompson.

[50:24] All right.

[50:25] That is unanimous.

[50:26] That moves us on to our communication items.

[50:29] Thanks for allowing me to be out of town last week working on housing in DC.

[50:34] We really focused on what's next with the 21st century road to housing act having passed.

[50:40] We now turn our focus to getting cities prepared to implement everything that's in that bill,

[50:48] which is about 52 different individual bills that were basically combined into one massive bill.

[50:57] A lot coming through it and a lot that we need to be prepared for and that we will certainly be addressing over the next, the next while.

[51:05] Second, had a really cool opportunity this past Sunday to jump into a UTA truck that rides the rails and ride the rail with the UTA's operations

[51:19] operations managers from here to Ogden, and to look at the difference, it's really

[51:29] amazing to sit in the middle of the tracks and look at UTA's side and what they do to

[51:34] maintain theirs and to look at the other side of union specifics and what they do not do to

[51:40] maintain theirs.

[51:42] It is illegal for a resident to climb onto Union Pacific's property to mow down their

[51:51] own the weeds in there.

[51:54] That is problematic because unfortunately Union Pacific does not do that.

[51:58] We looked at the different types of trains and potential for fire, and while UTA does a great

[52:06] job, they've actually got a truck that drives down that, that drops an arm down, and goes

[52:11] out 20 feet from center of their tracks and mose everything down and clears that down and again nothing on

[52:19] the other side but all of UTA's trains run on disc brakes so they don't spark they're run just like

[52:26] your car that is a significant difference from the other side of the tracks and you can see if you

[52:36] ever set out at night in a union Pacific train passes, sparks as they make turns and it's

[52:42] not unusual. And it's very evident when you look at the fires that took place over the

[52:46] last month, the difference in how they started and where they started and how you can see

[52:53] where they jumped sides. And there's been a lot of, as you read media and you read public

[53:02] comments on social media, comments about UTA and their involvement in this. In fact,

[53:10] somebody blamed UTA for the fire in Washington, terrorists. I wanted to say stuff we were

[53:16] but Washington, terrorists, well UTA's trained doesn't even go there, but they got blamed

[53:20] somehow for that fire as well.

[53:24] UTA is doing an amazing job of keeping their stuff taken

[53:28] care of and ensuring that these things don't happen. So I wanted to give them a shout out.

[53:32] For one, inviting us out, I never got to ride on the train. I mean, I've ridden the train,

[53:37] but I never ridden on a truck in the middle of the rails. That was pretty cool.

[53:43] And they've got a truck that actually costs about a million dollars. It's an F250 that drives the

[53:49] track and measures everything. It knows exactly what's right or wrong on every inch of their track

[53:56] by driving on it and so they're able to prevent things before they happen.

[54:01] So kudos to UTA for inviting us myself and a couple of other mayors out to see those potential issues and they're still hard.

[54:10] If you live along the tracks, be aware they're still potential issues.

[54:15] I'd be dragging a hose over my backyard on a regular basis and watering down the brush that's on that side.

[54:24] It's, there's some stuff back there.

[54:26] Back to school is coming up here quickly.

[54:29] So those of you who volunteered to be over to South Clearfield Elementary.

[54:32] Thank you.

[54:33] They're not South Clearfield.

[54:35] And a local elementary.

[54:37] Go visit South Clearfield too.

[54:38] And every other elementary school, welcome the kids back.

[54:41] But thank you for doing that.

[54:43] We have a ribbon cutting Thursday at five o'clock.

[54:46] It clearfield high for the new CTC building.

[54:49] Hallelujah.

[54:50] It's absolutely gorgeous.

[54:51] I'm excited to be able to be there to cut the ribbon and get that thing open.

[54:58] It feels like just yesterday I was at the ground break and that's interesting.

[55:00] I know it, right?

[55:01] And I appreciate that.

[55:02] I wasn't able to be there for the ground breaking but I will be there for the ribbon getting.

[55:07] And then thanks to staff and our Steve Hyatt when we talk about him being worth what we have to pay him was a lobbyist.

[55:16] We've had to tap into him to work on the Opportunity Zone piece.

[55:20] And Opportunity Zone 2.0, we have two of them in Clearfield Opportunity Zones.

[55:29] With the new, with the one big, beautiful bill that required a reduction in Opportunity Zones, about 25% and

[55:38] 30% have to go rural now, that puts ours at our two at risk, which could hamper development.

[55:45] both at Clearfield Station and at Lakeside and just about everywhere in between those two.

[55:51] And so we're putting up a pretty good fight with Governor's Office to make that happen and

[55:56] Steve Hyatt has worked his tail off to make sure the Governor's office and go ahead are informed

[56:03] and understand what we're looking for. He produced us a report today for them that was a piece of art

[56:10] compared to what I would have written.

[56:12] So, yeah, we coosed to him and we appreciate his work.

[56:17] So, thank you.

[56:19] Turn the seat, Council Member.

[56:21] What's going on?

[56:22] I might read my notes.

[56:24] Council Member Wurf, do you need anything else?

[56:28] I don't have any updates.

[56:29] I just want to remind everybody the bubble party on the bridge

[56:31] is this Saturday at noon.

[56:34] I hope to see you all there.

[56:36] That's all I've got.

[56:37] Bring your bubbles.

[56:38] You know it.

[56:39] The North Davis Fire District approved their budget the last month and with no increases, they stayed with the rate.

[56:49] The other thing is the salute picnic at the base, we had, gosh how many people, 1500?

[56:56] More than that.

[56:57] About 2500.

[56:59] It was so much.

[57:01] It was well received.

[57:02] There's five new commanders, I believe, so this is one of the bigger.

[57:06] here in terms that happen and they are excited to get with the community to see what you

[57:13] guys need and where they can help. They are very motivated to make sure that we bridge

[57:19] that connection point. So I look forward to bringing you tons more where we can do things

[57:24] together. That's all I have. That was a great event. I'm always this, but this was a good

[57:33] I just wanted to mention, I got to work with North Davis communities that care and blue star families to put together a service member picnic, which included food distribution.

[57:47] I want to thank JJ and our staff for collecting food at City Hall and also the aquatic center at the picnic they had community.

[57:57] All the kids got books, service members were able to get food and groceries and do yard

[58:05] games and have a dinner with Blue Star and communities that care research shows that

[58:12] 30% of military families cannot afford to eat a balanced meal and 33% of Utah

[58:18] military families are concerned about their youth and well being due to lack of

[58:23] the social and community connections.

[58:26] So I think that was really important.

[58:28] I was so happy to be a part of that.

[58:30] And thank you for staff for being a part of that as well.

[58:35] Thank you, Councilmember Thompson.

[58:37] My last report is that there has been,

[58:39] and even though she's not here tonight,

[58:40] I have to thank Jasmine Reyes.

[58:42] She's done a lot of incredible work at Clearfield Job Corps.

[58:45] She has started something called Food and Fellowship,

[58:48] something that I kind of like helped her name.

[58:50] But in the Food and Fellowship,

[58:51] So we're taking child court students who normally have had issues actually,

[58:56] and I'll be baby stepping out for part of the retreat on Friday and going to MTC,

[59:00] where they've had issues kind of getting their religious rights recognized,

[59:03] that you've considered to go to church and things of that nature.

[59:06] And so in that work, we've gotten 12 students so far in this supposed growing,

[59:12] where they go to nations for cars here actually in Clearfield.

[59:16] And outside of that, they'll get food,

[59:18] who distribute things at nature and we just make sure to see that their well-being is well-taking care of that they understand their transitional opportunities and then on top of all that that any difficulties that they're having on center that because they're going to church that they that they know they have a community around them from a broader sense though regardless of religion I want to make sure that all students are able to to thoughtfully be able to go to their mosque or church or or synagogue whatever their religion is.

[59:48] is to be able to have a good experience

[59:52] while here at Clifffield Job Corps.

[59:54] So I said it's one that they judge the race for that work,

[59:57] and students' lives are being changed,

[59:58] and that's all I have to report.

[59:59] Okay, thanks.

[1:00:00] Thank you. Staff report, so I'm going to manage your agenda. Yeah, I wanted to add my, my thank yous for rich and Lee and everybody involved in the budget process this year in particular with the changes in the law. Nancy was a lot more involved in tracking, make sure we had everything done. And you're all familiar because you got to see it how involved that whole process is. And I think the same comment could go towards so many of the different things that we do.

[1:00:26] If it's zero tolerance, traffic enforcement, or

[1:00:35] Shandra launching a new application, texting app, you know, all these things.

[1:00:40] They just require a lot of effort.

[1:00:42] And so that's really what we're acknowledging.

[1:00:46] Not necessarily the culmination.

[1:00:48] That's great.

[1:00:48] But all the work that goes into it, we really appreciate.

[1:00:51] and to show our appreciation I guess my next item was the employee appreciation

[1:00:57] Carnival. I sent out an email to you to RSVP hopefully you can attend that. If

[1:01:03] you have an RSVP it already please do so. That is planned for September 19th.

[1:01:09] We have our retreat with the City Council this coming Friday so please take

[1:01:15] note of the homework I gave you and come prepared with your thoughts. That'll

[1:01:21] make that exercise so much more productive if we all come prepared with items to share.

[1:01:27] And I was going to mention the bubble party Dakota beat me to that and I don't know if

[1:01:31] Shonda wants to add anything else she can as she wants but you know we've also got the

[1:01:36] national night out so maybe Chief Bennett will want to talk about that that's all I had.

[1:01:40] Okay thank you Nancy.

[1:01:46] It's working now.

[1:01:48] Just our schedule we do not have a city council meeting next Tuesday but we will be back

[1:01:53] the following week for sure in work session, we're still looking to see what

[1:01:58] builds for the policy session. So, then we are scheduled on September 8th for work and policy.

[1:02:07] Okay. Any other staff reports? Chief.

[1:02:14] Mayor and council just reminded our national line out of August 27th at

[1:02:18] Steve Park from six to eight o'clock and we'd love to see all there we've got a lot of our resources

[1:02:24] of course has come out, Dave's behavioral health, safe harbor, Dave's kind of health department,

[1:02:30] a variety of resources for our community, and it's a great chance for us to interact with them,

[1:02:35] and everybody can come and have a free hot dog.

[1:02:38] And this year too, we are doing our field of cruiser again for back to school supplies for all of these schools in Clearfield City.

[1:02:46] The cruiser will be at the big back to school event that's next week.

[1:02:50] They have the back to school event for all of the schools in Clearfield City at one location.

[1:02:54] in Fisher Park that is next week so the car will be there and I will be at the night out against crime two and

[1:03:00] We'll give all the supplies to the schools here in critical city. So look forward to those events

[1:03:06] Fantastic, Sean, did you need to say anything or we got it?

[1:03:11] Okay, any other staff reports?

[1:03:14] Okay, seeing none and entertain the motion to adjourn so move second standard adjourn

Aug 11, 2026 City Council Policy Meeting

Transcript