Okay, we are ready to start the meeting.
We are ready. We'll give a couple of minutes
to quiet down. Can you hear me okay, Lacey? Yes, I can hear you. Okay, perfect. We'll go
ahead and get started before we call the meeting to order a best Brett, right, Councilman
right of seat to offer a prayer. So, when it's quiet there, Brett, will lead us out.
Our Heavenly Father, we're grateful this evening to be able to bow our heads in prayer
express gratitude for the opportunity to gather as fellow fellow citizens. We're grateful to live
in this great city in this great state and in the United States of America and to be able to
enjoy the freedoms and opportunity to pursue life in the way that we choose. We express gratitude
for the many blessings that we have, for the safety that we enjoy, for one another's comradery
and companionship.
We pray, Father, as we are about to embark in several hours of discussion and opportunity
to listen, we pray that God blesses with listening ears and listening hearts, blesses with those
of us who will speak, those of us who have come with an opportunity to express comment
and thoughts and with a desire to help the City Council hear the concerns that they
You may want to raise, bless those that will speak with the ability to articulate their
words, to be able to do so in the allotted time, blesses with civility, one to another,
blesses to be appropriate in our actions, to maintain at all times that a quorum that
is expected in this public setting.
Express gratitude for our employees, for our first responders, for those who are
serving in the military. We pray that we'll be mindful of them and their families.
Bless us to be aware of those who are less fortunate than us, those who are in
need. Help us to continue to be the great neighbors of Eagle Mountain as known
before. And these things we humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Okay,
thank
you Brett. Appreciate it. It is 6.02 and we'll officially call this meeting to order.
And ask that everybody stand and join. Craig is going to lead us in
Councilman White and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
If you could join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Okay, thanks, Councilman White.
Just to start off, a couple of housekeeping items.
First of all, I appreciate everybody accommodating me being remote.
I can see a full house there and I appreciate everybody showing up.
We love it when people participate and come to the meetings to help us make these difficult decisions for our city.
I love technology and the fact that we're able to still join.
I see there's quite a few participants online as well.
Mayor, we're having our time hearing you.
If you could speak right into the mic, it would be greatly appreciated.
Okay. Is that better?
Yes, thank you.
Okay.
Yes, we appreciate you guys be there.
And I'm sad that I'm not there in person due to a previous obligation,
but I appreciate the fact that we can still join remote
have the same conversation. So with that we'll start I saw look like Natalie was
passing out some packets. There are packets in the back of the room with the
following documents available just for public knowledge. It is the property tax
impact schedule form from Eagle Mountain City. Also a physical copy of the Utah
County notice of proposed tax increase is available for review. The agenda
is in that pack as well and the Treating Taxation Overview or BASICS and also for more information
you can visit en.gov or egomountain.gov for additional information on our website.
I know our communications team has kept that up and it's been very good.
So any other information that you're looking for, hopefully those are the areas you can find it
and if you need a packet, it's at the back of the room.
We're going to start with the agenda item 3a which is the public hearing for proposed
property tax increase.
There will be some rules just like as our other meetings and decorum as was mentioned before.
We expect everybody to be respectful and to follow the rules and make sure we handle
this with respect.
This public hearing is for the proposed property tax increase.
Please keep your comments related to this topic only the council listen to all
comments will not engage in a discussion until the public hearing has been
closed. Each person will have three minutes to address the council.
We ask
that everyone remain respectful throughout the hearing. Disruptive
behavior, personal attacks, cheering, booing, clapping are not permitted.
If this
submitted a public comment form online. Lacey will read your name to see if you're in attendance to
give your comments. After all comments are submitted the meeting the in the meeting have been
addressed we will invite those attending in person to speak first followed by those participating
online. So Lacey will help us manage that. Everyone will have a chance to speak if you so
And we'll go in the order that she sets forth with people in person that won't submit it online and then those online for those attending virtually, including email, by the way, for those attending virtually when the time comes.
Lacey will call your name and will electronically ask you to unmute your microphone.
your three-minute speaking time will begin once you start speaking. You're
welcome to remain in the meeting to observe, but you will not be able to
provide additional comment. Everybody gets one chance. If you prefer, you may
continue to watch the meeting through the city's online streaming portal. Please
make sure to speak clearly into the microphone. After all speakers have had
the opportunity to comment, the Recorder's Office will conduct one
final check, we'll check to make sure everybody's had a chance. If you still feel like you haven't
had a chance to speak, we'll allow one last chance and then we'll close the public hearing.
So I've read those things. Again, in order of advance, we're going to start with public comment
prior to the meeting, then the participants in attendance, then the virtual ones, then email.
Lacey, have you heard those instructions and do you feel like there's any clarification needed?
I think you had everything perfectly. We will go with that as we go.
We're good. Okay, perfectly. It is 507 on the 6th of August. Correct. Hang on, Mayor. Hang
on, Mayor. You're in a different time zone. It's 607. Sorry. I look at my clock and that's
what told me. So, 607 on August 6th and we will now open this public hearing. So, Lacey,
I'll turn it to you to call up in order.
Sounds great. We will go ahead and start with John Breeding.
So I went online earlier today and I looked up that since 2020 we've had about a 78% increase in revenues.
We've had a population growth of about 60%.
Inflations run about 29% since then.
and
an 11% increase in taxes would give an inflation adjusted equivalent of what we had
for revenue in 2020. I'm kind of cynical. I believe that a 220% increase is kind of a
head fake that I don't think anybody here actually believes that that's what is going
to happen, but when you could eventually come up with about a 40% increase in taxes, which
is also outrageous, people will be less up in arms about it.
And I don't understand why as government, as our population grows and as the government
grows, that you don't become more efficient with artificial intelligence and computers and
things like that. It seems like government is the only thing that doesn't become more
efficient with scale. Anyway, that's my comment.
Chas Roberts.
I do not see Chas Roberts in attendance. We will encode it into the record.
Melissa Bradley.
I'm disappointed. I'm frustrated. It's not the residents job to prevent a tax increase.
Mayor, Council, you're supposed to be able to prioritize needs over wants. I'm
against the 220% property tax increase
because it's not for public safety,
it's for non-essential projects that the city can't afford.
Let me be clear, I support funding our sheriff's office.
I support paying employees, competitive wages.
I support needing roads, water, and sewer improvements
and you already have the money in place
to do all of that.
This increase is a burden on the average taxpayer.
25.2 million Americans under 35
live with their parents last year.
That's not normal.
And raising our property taxes is not the solution.
You're adding to this crisis.
Craig, Rich, Brett, you are a real estate agent.
You should understand this.
Jared, you were the real estate agent.
You should know the consequences.
Zach, as an investor, you should get this.
Melissa, as a mom with adults living in your home,
I assume you understand.
Property tax increases don't stop with homeowners.
Landlords will pass those costs to their renters.
and our children and your residents will pay higher rent.
Families will have less money to help their kids with rent, gasoline, or groceries.
As housing costs rise, which they are unaffordable right now,
young adults will stay home longer and that delays their independence.
Families already caring for adults, children, grandchildren, or aging parents
have even less room in their budgets when you increase fixed housing costs.
By increasing our property taxes each one of you is choosing to negatively impact 26 families in my neighborhood.
In one week that will be 27 because my kids are moving in, my adult kids, two of them.
When you're proposing what you're proposing is wrong, it's dishonest.
When you claim it's for public safety, it isn't.
It's for completely optional structures like a new city hall and rec center.
And the fact that you had the city manager admit that on Tuesday instead of standing up and saying it for yourself is crap
I hope you choose to lead with honesty moving forward when you took your oath of office
You all promise to be faithful stewards of the taxpayer dollar the people of Eagle Mountain work hard for each dollar
They earn and they're making difficult financial decisions every day. We want you to do the same
meeting. We have contracts in place and they will benefit our community soon. Be patient.
Focus on public safety, sewer, water and roads and stop looking to the taxpayers to solve
your pretend budget crisis. We don't believe you. Go attract businesses to expand the
tax business and you and then you better leave residents sales tax alone. I caught
that in Tuesday's meeting it is our right to decide when and how.
How do we want to spend our money? Stay out of our pockets. Our community wants freedom
from taxes, not slavery to it. Do not raise property taxes and no new taxes.
I'm just going to remind you that the mayor gave us clear instructions that we're not going
to entertain that.
Gladly it was not part of those instructions.
Yes it was. So we're going to ask you to refrain from that type of act outburst because
it's going to delay the opportunity for those who want to come and speak to us. So
So please refrain from that.
Or according to his instructions, we're going to ask you to leave.
I do have Adam Brady for the next one.
It does say my wife Melissa will read the statement.
I'm not sure if he's here.
Adam Brady.
Sorry, I have to hear from you again.
Good evening, Mayor and Council.
My name is Adam Bradley and I'm here to strongly oppose this proposed 220% property
tax increase.
In fact, I believe you should be lowering taxes and not raising them.
A 220% increase is an enormous ask.
saying it's justified simply because property taxes haven't been raised in 15 years as an insult to basic math.
This represents real money for families already struggling with inflation, rising home values, and higher taxes across the board.
Eagle Mountain's explosive growth has already expanded the city's revenue through impact fees, building permits, and commercial development.
So why isn't that growing pain for these needs?
I've seen no convincing evidence that existing revenue can't fund competitive wages for our
employees, and I've seen no categorical proof that we need more sheriff deputies.
Comparing Eagle Mountain to other cities doesn't work.
There's no other city like Eagle Mountain.
Show me the 911 calls that aren't being answered.
Show me domestic violence calls going unanswered.
Show me crimes not being solved.
I haven't seen that evidence.
until a few days ago, residents were told every dollar of this tax increase would go to public safety.
Then people started doing the math. The sheriff's contract increases by roughly 1.5 million,
while this tax hike brings in about 6.7 million.
Only after residents started asking questions did you admit the rest is for other projects,
including a new city hall. This was never just about public safety.
I've also heard almost no discussion of alternatives.
Where's the debate?
Where are the compromises?
One council member even told my wife to do the research and come back with ideas.
With respect, that's the job that you were elected to do.
When I served on this council, I said no all the time because protecting taxpayers
came first.
Growth should be allowing us to reduce the tax burden, not asking families to pay
more.
I'll leave you with this.
Have you forgotten the proper role of city government?
This council and the last have continued to grow government and spending what happened
to Eagle Mountain being a place that valued limited government and respected tax players.
Please no more.
Please don't know on this increase and start looking for ways to lower our property tax
instead.
And on a personal note, I would like to add.
I love Adam.
He was a great council member and he worked hard.
You're reading his statement, not your own.
You don't have to go twice.
Ben Bracknell.
I don't see Ben Bracknell.
It says opposition to propose tax increase.
I do want to remind those of you online for the Zoom link.
This is for participating virtually.
If you want to watch the meeting and not participate,
you can go to our portal to watch it.
I do have Alex Washburn for the public comment, but I do see you're online, so we will call
you when the virtual time comes.
Ashley Lauer, the lower,
it only says property tax increase.
I do not see her, but we will add it to the record.
Duncan Searcy.
Sorry, I didn't hear the Mayor say no clapping.
He was quiet.
But I also don't think our First Amendment rights care much about his decorum.
So the title of this meeting is Truth in Taxation Public Hearing.
I want to quote the city. This is what they said.
Eagle Mountain City is proposing a property tax increase with every dollar going straight to public safety period.
So that's a lie. And we all know that now.
And so that's not a great way to start this meeting off.
I was a lot nicer on Tuesday when I spoke, but some of the responses I got from you actually is what made me upset.
And I'm not going to be quite as nice tonight.
You'll see some of the pensioners I mentioned on Tuesday
are here. That's great.
Every single one of you, when I brought this up,
expressed remorse.
Like, we don't want to be doing this, you know?
This is so hard on our community.
This is just a necessary evil that we have to do.
And Brett, you said something that struck me.
You said we have been called upon to make this decision.
Brett, who is calling upon you to raise the property taxes
if we elect you and you work for us.
I would like to know, after all this is done,
if you would address that specifically,
who's calling upon you to make any kind of decision?
And then Melissa, it bothered you so much,
just the thought of raising taxes on our poor families
brought you to tears.
Sweetheart, you don't need to be upset, just vote no.
You don't have to raise the taxes.
This is your choice.
You get to vote yes or no.
Okay?
So I think we just need to realize everybody is struggling in this economy, every single
person.
Okay?
If we as citizens are tightening our belts and we're deciding what we have to cut out
of our lives, so must the city.
Okay?
There's money coming down the pipeline.
Mayor Gray preaches about it all the time.
So let's tighten up our belt as a city instead of pushing those tax burdens onto
to the regular person, okay?
And Melissa, I'm sorry, I'm gonna call you out a little bit.
I'm tired of the performative testimony
meaning style emotion.
It's manipulative, okay?
And you have the chance tonight to vote no and prove
that I'm wrong and that you really do care
about the poor families, but when you sit up there
and get emotional, it really bothers those of us
that have discernment, okay?
A big reason why we're here tonight
is because you gave Metta a $1.5 trillion company
me a 20 year tax break. Okay. Had you not done that, I don't think we'd be in this financial
situation that we're at. And you keep touting this infrastructure that Facebook has brought
to the city. I have never once driven out to the Facebook building. Probably never
will. They have not improved anything in the city that we the citizens use on a daily
basis. So stop trying to gaslight us into like, oh, Facebook has been such a good deal.
this is such a good deal. We're tired of it. Start working for us or next election we are
going to speak even more. Your time is up. Thank you.
Ryan Parker also
does not say just as property tax increase. I do not see him here so we'll
add it to the record. Charles Peterson.
Good evening. As a former federal government
program analyst I have more questions than answers so in reviewing all this material
I'll give you some questions.
We've moved here while we've been here for 10 years now and so on.
So I've got a number of questions that bother me.
A couple of these things have already been mentioned.
Of the 6.9 million and with a million and a half for the added police officers,
years, I would be curious what the analysis was done. Sorry, it's an analyst. To say how
do we need that many more, and it's already been addressed a little bit, is our public
safety been reduced without these? I don't know. That's a question that I have.
Second, looking
at the information that was available, by going and proving this, we will
become the most, I think, the second most property taxed city in, I'm sorry, in Utah County.
we are now second best and I was reading a piece of talking about being so
wonderful about how our taxes are low. Now if this is approved we're going to go
right up to the top. The other thing that bothers me as an analyst is the
Another, what is it, 5.4 million goes into public safety.
Now, is there a fund called public safety?
What happens to that?
Is there an outline of all the things that you're going to do with this 5.4 million dollars?
I haven't seen anything.
So what we would expect as an analyst is to say, okay,
and I've had a lot of dealings with budget analysts,
what are we actually talking about?
What are the line items?
And what are those results going to be?
I think that's critical.
And if you can't show that,
then we ought not to be voting for it, frankly.
Thank you very much.
I do want to clarify that I we do have Ryan Parker online, so we'll go back to his comment, but he's virtual
Dave
Russian a hand
Thank you.
Mr. Mayor and City Council. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak
I'm grateful for each one of you, and I know how tough your job is. I really do I
Wouldn't want to be in your position
The people that you represent the people of Eagle Mountain
which has a median age of 23 and
Approximately 44% of our population are under 18
Which helps us to see this is a community filled with a lot of young families
Then there's people over 65 like me
We only make up about 3% of Eagle Mountain
Young families are just getting started building careers and do not have a significant income
with the median individual income of 48,105 per person.
The average retired couple have a combined income of 79,315.
We are all strapped for cash.
The cost of living is making it harder and harder for the average family to get by.
The added proposed tax adds to that burden and makes life more difficult than it already is for the vast majority of all these young families.
I got my numbers from Google, by the way.
Eagle Mountain charges an impact fee on new residential and commercial development.
That fee is intended to fund the expansion of services because of the impact of that development.
A portion of that impact fee is intended for public safety.
I know about impact fees because I was a member of the legislature when we voted that into state law.
I go back a ways.
Families, young and old, have a specific income that must be budgeted to take care of all the expenses for their family.
As the cost of living goes up, families must find ways to cut corners and tighten the budget,
which means shopping sales, using coupons, using Facebook Marketplace, and they do without a lot of times in order to make it all work.
I would suggest that the city has the mechanism to pay for additional services that come with
the growth of the city through impact fees.
I know developers hate those fees, but it's a part of the cost of doing business.
And they are making millions in Eagle Mountain.
Those impact fees won't affect their millions.
Hopefully, the city can find ways to become more efficient in the services that the
City provides. I ask the City Council to... Your time is up. Thank you.
Brian Free.
Great
to be here today. I want to thank you all for not kicking the can down the road. It seems
like the trend since I've lived here for 20 years, the can kicked down the road so we
can keep our taxes low or whatever. And the needs of our city continue to grow. We're
a growing city. There's needs and they have to be taken care of. So thank you for
that. I think that goes in... I also want to say that a lot of us probably had a
knee-jerk reaction to a 220% increase, which is that
It's actually lower if you add in your fire and your sheriffs and put that all together
like another city would have in their city tax. We're probably right in the middle and
then we're probably at the top when we add 220%. So that's more of an apples to apples
comparison, which is good to do. I think one of the issues is there wasn't a lot of transparency,
right? So we're not seeing what you guys are seeing and that may not necessarily
be right on you, but on those who were tasked with putting out information for us.
We like to know that it's not 100% for one portion, but it's for a bunch of things that
are all needs within our city, and seeing those line items is really helpful so we can
see exactly what it's paid for.
There would be a lot of us that would say, I don't like it, but those are all needs.
I don't know how we don't take care of them, and if we saw what each of those things
are, right, and maybe we'd have some different type of discussion, we would all come
more informed without having to dig deep to try to find those answers on our own
and do that work that could easily be provided for us
because you guys already have it.
That's some of that information.
So that would be very helpful for us
to see what those line items are.
I will say that in addition, one of the things
that we want to make sure we're doing
is that we're taking advantage of looking
at the things that, let's say, my basement's flooding.
I've got to get that water shut off,
get that water out of there, and clean everything up
or I'm going to lose my home, right?
Those are the kind of things we need to take care of.
And I know we have some of those kinds of issues
in our city that need to be addressed
that maybe you don't always see day-to-day as residence, that's important. But 220 percent
or the lower number if we include everything together, whatever that percent is, it's still
an increase, it still attacks without everything else like has been mentioned that we're seeing
increase in our lives and we want to make sure that that's being, we're looking at
zero, let's say we can't do anything zero without going into major debt to do it
and then add to that, well what can we do? And then what can we do in two, three
years when that some of that data center money starts coming off like we've
when they first we're talking about data centers we're told whatever the size
is when data centers like four or five Costco's or Walmart's worth of revenue
that's a lot of revenue if that starts coming on board in a couple years we've
got a lot of revenue coming already right so we'll be able to we should be able
to then reduce taxes 30 seconds remaining but what one thing I'll leave
with just because it's a but a buzz term let's not California our Utah 220
20% increase is a California in Utah and that's something I don't think any of you want
to do or any of you are in favor of, most of you would consider yourself conservative,
fiscally conservative and I would hope that you'll really take that into consideration.
Thank you.
Matt Oakman.
I don't see him online and I don't see him in person, I'll add him to the record.
Matthew Endicott.
My name is Matt Endicott and I've lived in Eagle Mountain for about six years.
I've listened to the presentation given by Chief Deputy Knitzen in April as well
as the comments I've received from the City Council in response to my email this week.
Thank you for your responses. But I seem to have missed some important discussion in Tuesday's
meeting. I'll have to go back and review that.
After reviewing of the budget that was released earlier this week, this issue has been made
clear. The messaging from the Mayor was confusing and may have led to the level
of negative responses being voiced. But after review, I have a couple of questions.
Based on my review, the proposed public safety budget is about $10 million, which
which is based off of other things,
which is about two million higher than last year.
This revenue from property taxes last year
covered about 50% of the previous costs,
with the other 50% coming from the general fund,
so sales tax or other things,
if I understand that correctly.
So I have a couple of questions.
Why is it necessary for the entire amount
of the sheriff's contract to be covered
by revenue from property taxes?
Was revenue from the other sources
projected to fall below the needed amount
to cover the contract amount?
Or are there other budget areas
is that need a roughly $4 million increase and this tax hike is being done under the
guise of public safety because that is an easier sell than other programs.
With this switch from using the general fund, along with property taxes, to only using
property taxes for the sheriff, will the general fund be reduced a proportionate amount
to reflect the change, or is the total city budget raising the $6 million?
With the increase in sheriff deputies, is there any changes to the contract to
make sure we are being protected and that the increased presence won't be used for
generating revenue through tickets or over-policing as seeing the neighborhood cities such as
Saratoga Springs and American Fork. I understand but have my disagreements with the comments
made by the Sheriff's Office and the City Council that Eagle Mountain could use a larger
police force. I also understand there has not been a property tax hike in Eagle Mountain
for a number of years. These two things being understood, why did the City Council
feel the need to swap 100 percent of the costs, including the $2 million increase
increase in one year. Could it not be possible to continue using alternative
revenue sources for the sheriff's office with a modest increase to property taxes to cover
the $2 million increase? Why was there the need to switch the entire $10 million over
to property taxes? This just seems to me and I imagine a number of folks here a dramatic
increase to the size and scope of the city under the guise of public safety to avoid
having to have discussion or try and sell a less popular budget item.
Thank you.
Andrew Burke.
My name is Andrew Burke. I've been here a couple times, a couple years back,
like five years ago, and then recently moved here after we built our home last year.
I'm going to make this short. I do agree that the police office, the Sheriff's Department
has to be supported, and I do believe that, you know, we do need to, based on the research
that I've done, we do need to increase it. Point four or five over a thousand residents
versus the average of about point eight. I mean, some of the stuff that Chief
said wasn't accurate like Saratoga's at 1.56 per thousand, but I'm not going to go into
the semantics. I do agree with the previous speaker that I don't think that the property
taxes should be the thing that's covering all the increases. And I think my biggest
issue, and I think most people would agree, is that the transparency is just not there.
Why can't you give us, if you've allotted a certain amount for improvements under the
guise of public safety, why can't you give us an item on the report before you say, yeah,
we're voting on this, let us know what you're increasing.
So I mean it's frustrating because everybody is struggling, it's harder.
Like I heard a comment about AI, a lot of us don't know if we're going to have
jobs in two years because AI is taking away the workforce.
And, you know, now they sit there and say, hey, 220% right now.
We haven't done it in 15 years.
Right now, without gradually rolling it out, it's almost criminal.
Like, why would you do that to us?
We voted for you, and this is how you repay us?
Now, I'm not against increasing the budget for our sheriffs.
That is public safety.
But $6.7, almost $8 million increased with no itemized budget, that's not acceptable.
So my question is, if you are going to do this, can we get an itemized line-for-line on how
every dollar is going to be spent?
Because if you're not going to do that, then don't pass the bill.
That's my time.
Kelly Horton.
I don't see Kelly.
You can fill out a paper.
I'm right here.
Oh, you're there.
Oh, I'm sorry.
No worries.
It's all right.
You can take your own time.
My name's Kelly Horton.
I've been here since 2016.
You know, I first want to begin by saying that, you know, we really do support our public
safety here.
We love our law enforcement out here.
I don't think anybody's going to disagree with that.
Our firefighters, first responders, everything they do every day, it's not about whether
they deserve support.
They absolutely do.
I said, this is about whether asking residents to shoulder such as substantial tax increases
only or the best solution.
Many of us are already struggling.
The cost of groceries, utilities, insurance, and housing has increased dramatically.
Families are making difficult choices every month just to stay afloat.
For people living on fixed incomes, seniors and residents with disabilities, even a few
hundred dollars a year can make the difference between paying bills and falling behind.
Before asking taxpayers to pay more, I respectfully ask, what specific spending reductions were
made before deciding to raise taxes?
What programs or projects were delayed or eliminated to demonstrate that every other
option has been exhausted?
Why is this increase being proposed all at once instead of being phased in over several
years?
What guarantees can you provide that this won't become the new normal with additional
large increases in the future? How will the city measure whether these additional tax
dollars actually improve public safety and will those results be reported publicly?
Transparency matters. Residents deserve to know exactly where every additional dollar
will go, how success will be measured, and what accountability exists if the expected
results are not achieved. You know, Eagle Mountain has grown rapidly. That growth
has brought challenges, but it's also brought additional homes, businesses, and a broader
tax base. I ask that the council to please explain what that growth alone, why that growth
alone is not enough to help meet these needs. And most importantly, please remember that
behind every tax bill is a family. You know, for some, this may seem like a budget decision,
but for residents, it's groceries, it's medicine, it's gas, it's schools, clothes,
rules. It's childcare or keeping a roof over our heads. I respectfully ask the council to
reconsider the size and time of this increase. If additional funding is truly necessary, consider
a phased approach. Continue identifying spending efficiencies and ensure residents are fully
informed before placing a greater financial burden on them. Thank you for your time.
Anthony Wood?
My name is Anthony.
So true representation means reflecting the will of your constituents.
When you must convince us of your narrative, then that's manipulation.
The tax increase is being advertised as a need for increase in law enforcement.
The supporting stats that are being used are how many officers there are per 1,000 citizens.
I don't like that number. What I do think we should be looking at is the crime rates.
So if we're using some of the comparative cities you guys were using in the how many
officers per capita, Sandy is 32 in 1,000. You have a chance of being a victim 32 times
out of 1,000. For Lehigh it's 22 per 1,000. Do you guys have any idea what Eagle Mountain
is. It is 1 to 1.2 per 1,000. Our crime rate is very low. We see our officers multiple vehicles
per stop. That's what we get to see as citizens. For three squad cars, four squad cars per stop,
per incident, we see them at the gas stations. It doesn't look like they're crazy busy.
They may need some support, but this is the wrong way to go about it. You're asking
the wrong people to pay for this. What I mean is that there are a lot of corporations
like we were talking about with the data centers that are getting those tax breaks. They do
a lot of damage to our infrastructure, our water, our roads, and they're not contributing
to that. I was looking at the repairs to Pony Express, and it took us the end of
24 and 25 to finish Pony Express, and I went on there the very next day and I
wrote it. I write a motorcycle. I wrote it. It's garbage. I don't know how much you guys
spent on that, but it's trash. It needs to be done again. Who signed off and saying that
that was okay?
Another example about the spending, and I would like to focus on budgeting
what we have first before we ask for more. And another example that I have concerns
with, with how we spend our money, is that in 2022 in August, we spent, we sent
a hundred one point one three million dollars to a scammer just money gone
like we need a budget what we have before we ask for more I agree we may need
more but I need to focus on the budget before we get there I mean I don't lend
money to family members and friends that are irresponsible with money and I
don't want to do the same thing I don't want to give you more money I
don't trust you guys with it I mean sending money to a scammer I have to
teach my grandma not to do that I don't want to have to teach you guys not to do
that that's all I have
Bruno Hunsaker I
don't know about following all these guys
that's been up here some great comments I'm just gonna represent the old guys or
the old women we're the seniors so most is most people on social security the
average like Brett's mom's probably 13 or $1,400 a month because she's been
on it. I'm about 1,800, so I'm a little more fortunate. So I give you 300 extra dollars.
And we're on a fixed income. I'm lucky I still work part-time, so it's not going to
affect me as much. But these young families that they've all been talking about, so we
get $300 there. And those of you that don't know what's going to happen next year when
this mighty new school district comes in that you're all buffaloed in devoting for,
They're going to start out $200 million in the hole.
So if you think the city council is going to charge you $300 more on a $500,000 home,
you wait until next year's tax and truth-tation when the district is going to raise that up
probably $300 to $400 plus a bond the next year.
They need 17 schools in the next 15.
So, I'm just telling you, I hope you all show up next year in total force when that school
board meets to increase your taxes. And also, I agree on some of those roads because I ride
a bike, too, and it's supposed to be a soft tail, but it really is a hard tail on that
road. So anyway, I support law enforcement. I don't know what the crime rate is. I'm thinking
per capita it might be as bad as West Valley City because all I ever hear is domestic this
and domestic that. They're doing their job and I know they need an increase, but like
everybody else said, how many building permits? We had the most building permits
in the state of Utah on Eagle Mountain last year and then I see them build two homes over
by Black Ridge and they brought gravel in, compacted a little bit, and put these two
new homes in just to get a building permit. I'm starting to wonder if people will sell
somebody in their family for a building permit. Just that much, those building permits
and those impact fees should be paying for what you're asking for. I know your
Your minds are made up. I don't think you're going to budge. I think it's going to go through.
And I know you feel our pain. So anyway, I appreciate the job you guys are doing. And
I know it's a hard job, but I'm just telling people you're going to be paying a lot of
money the next three years between this and the new school district. And the mayor tells
me while he was a city councilman, the water treatment plant needs to be updated next
four years, there is another $50 a month on top of that. Thank you.
Nathan Thornberg?
I'm Nathan Thornberg. I can understand the way state tax regulations and codes don't
help increase revenue as property values increase. However, like everybody else, I have questions.
reasons, why wasn't, why was the campaign initially, that was initially released, that this is
going to 100% be to increase our public safety? The end. Period. And we were all, I think
the way that the messaging was presented was we were all supposed to go,
and it was only
money after members of our community actually pressed that there was more of an explanation
given. This is going to free up money so that we can better improve things. I think we all
would have loved to hear that initially if money was, if there was a plan to increase
revenue to improve the quality of life here in Eagle Mountain, you wouldn't be getting
slammed right now. Probably still would be, because 220%, as was stated earlier, is almost
criminal.
Do you see how the changing of the narrative, only after being pressed to Rhodes
Trust, now we don't know what to believe. You were either dishonest then, or you're
dishonest now. Anything you say to smooth it over can at best only be taken with
the grain of salt, but most likely is just not going to be believed at all unless you
start putting the actual money where your mouth is. I think it's safe to say that after
tonight you have an assignment. What's the plan? Is there a proposed budget or schedule
of these capital projects that the city intends to complete? And the only way to regain
trust in this community is to follow through with what we need and if there is no publicly
released budget for us to have access to so that we can, you know, maybe see, begin to
see some of your intentions, if that isn't released to us, what are we left to believe?
believe? Are we supposed to just trust you? We don't trust you. If there is no line item
given to us,
what are we left with?
Your time is up. Thank you. Matt Everett.
Good
evening, Council. Good evening, Mayor, wherever you are. I stand to stand firmly in the
minority opinion of the people that are in this room tonight, I encourage you to pass
this tax increase. Now, having said that, 220 percent is a big number. I wish it wasn't
that big. I, knowing you and the interactions that I've had, I would assume that you probably
have a similar feeling to that. In my opinion, 220 percent is a direct reflection of poor
management and leadership that the city has had in the past 15 plus years.
My family and I have lived in the city for about 17, a little over 17 years.
I've raised my family here.
I'm continuing to raise my family here.
There are a lot of things that need to be improved in the city.
Talked about roads.
We've talked about infrastructure.
We've talked about a lot of different things.
All of those things cost money.
And there's limited ways that the city is able to take care of those needs and
and the requirements that they have.
Moving the property taxes and using this increase
to fund public safety makes it a stable fund
that the city will be able to use those known dollars
every year to fund the needs of the public safety.
So this is a difficult night.
This is gonna be a difficult thing
for a lot of residents.
I understand that,
But I encourage you to continue on the path of leadership that you have and to make the
hard decisions regardless of what the outcomes of those will be.
Thank you.
Mark McConkey.
Others have talked about their frustration that these funds aren't actually being used
for public safety.
And I feel that pain, especially as the funds we use for public safety now get
sent out to the county rather than being used to establish our own public safety
through a city police department, accountable to the mayor and this council. Eagle Mountains,
the largest city in Utah, without its own dedicated city police department. And looking
at the state's border in Utah where the second largest city without a police department,
only Centennial in Colorado is bigger. In fact, if we were to take a deeper dive on
this and take a look at the size of the largest cities in each of the state without
a police department, here's what we'd see. Eagle Mountain is twice the size of
Kuna, Idaho, their largest city. We're three times larger than Fernley, Nevada,
They're the largest city without a police department.
We're 4.6 times larger than Castle Pines, Colorado,
which is their second after Centennial.
We're 3.1 times larger than Fountain Hills, Arizona,
and we're a whopping 37.8 times larger than Pinedale, Wyoming,
which is their largest city without a city police department.
We've outgrown the point where we should rely on
county support rather than owning that ourselves.
Every dollar that we send to the county for policing
is the dollar that we give to be controlled by the county
and every decision about how our streets are patrolled
is made by people who don't answer to this council or to the residents of Eagle Mountain.
Right now, as we contract with the county sheriff, that means we have no direct say
over hiring standards, use of force policy, response priorities or community policing style.
Those decisions are made for the whole county and are not tailored to us.
If we ever disagree with those decisions, we don't have the ability to push for those
changes outside of election season.
Even during election season, Eagle Mountain only accounts for 10% of the voter population
in Utah County, and there may well be some elections where the sheriff runs unopposed
as he is this year, which limits our options even more. A city police chief would answer
to the mayor and to this council and its residents getting a clear line of accountability.
I know the first objection is going to be cost, especially start-up cost, but the
city already owns the building. The sheriff's department operates out of right here in
Eagle Mountain. If we convert that city to a police department, there's no new
facility, building, or lease that overhead already exists. Because our contract with
If the County Sheriff's Department accounts for about one-third of their budget, we'd
likely be able to transition many of their officers to city officer positions as well,
reducing costs of hiring and training.
We're not building departments from scratch.
We're being able to convert what's already here.
Beyond that, the start-up and transition costs will only be higher in the future as our
population grows.
When it comes to our policing options, I see three options.
Start a police department now.
Start a police department sometime in the future, but for a higher cost as our population
grows or never start a police department and be okay with not having control over our police force.
So my ask tonight is to conduct a study of the cost for standing up a municipal police department.
As we airmark these funds for public safety, let's use these funds in a way that we can control.
Thank you.
Betty Peralta.
Good evening.
My name is Betty Peralta and I'm here to oppose the increase and these are comments I have.
The proposed increase I feel is outrageous, the justification is not clear enough.
The homeowner property rates increase, and as our income remains the same.
The property values, especially in my community, which is Sweetwater, continue to fall.
Eagle Mountain City Center and communities look more rundown every day.
property. My property value alone has decreased $7,000 in two months. So yes, I agree with
the previous speakers that this is criminal to impose a tax rate increase of this kind.
The traffic has increased here significantly. The roads are horrible. And the majority
of homeowners I'm asking to oppose this increase. And my other question is, because it has not
been outright and truthful what these funds are being used for, are we using any of these funds
for City Council staff pay increases? I'm all in for safety and first responders. I'm a retired
38-year first responder, so I know that those are essential and necessary needs for Eagle Mountain,
but I cannot justify the increase, thank you.
Joseph Pell, I don't know how to say it.
That's not close.
Thank you.
It's French.
Not even close.
First of all, I just want to say I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, hold on Joseph.
Will you say it for the record?
Oh, Joseph Pellot.
All right, so first I want to say
I don't want to be in your seats tonight.
It's probably not a fun meeting.
But I do want to thank you for your service
and the commitments because you wouldn't have run
for this position if you didn't want it.
I think what I want to say is just urging caution.
So I work in higher education in the state and I've worked there for about 10 years.
And over those times we've seen again and again when the state legislature has proposed
big budget increases and big budget pushes and there'll be community blow up and hard
feelings and often gets redacted.
I think we can learn a lesson from that.
I don't think anyone here doesn't want to help our officers.
We do.
We want them to be the best officers in the county, we want them to have resources
they need.
But I think we also can all agree that 220% is a lot at once,
especially since the law officer are nervous about the new school district,
about water facilities, road infrastructure.
More infrastructure as the city grows.
We're one of the fastest growing cities in Utah.
So my hope would be just to urge caution,
because we don't know what it's going to be like in three years.
We don't know if the new school district is going to ask for a 300% increase
because they don't have administrative buildings.
They don't have a bus depot. They don't have mechanics.
We don't know that.
We don't know what the water will be, we don't know what the infrastructure will be.
And we do know we are getting more stores, we're getting lows, we're getting smiths
and we will see that income increase as the hospital comes out here and other plans happen.
But we just don't know what that is right now.
But we do know 220% is a lot to ask, especially since transparency has been an issue for a lot of residents.
So my only advice is just caution, because maybe this is where we do need to be.
And maybe you have very important reasons.
I believe you're all amazing people who aren't increasing this for no reason.
But we can all agree that this is a bit of a shock in the community.
And you probably don't have this typical turnout at events like this because we're
shocked at the number.
And we're shocked at the fact that we don't know exactly what the general fund that's
going to be increasing by about $5 million, what's that meant for?
So my only advice is just to urge caution, maybe do a smaller increase.
Let us see what the new revenues will be when we get more infrastructure.
Let's see what the new property value revenues will be let us see what the store of news will be and then let us know
What we need to do because I think no one here is opposed to bettering our city and bettering our police force
I think what we are opposed for is making a jump in the dark. So, thank you
Josh Shad
My name is Josh Shad. I've been a resident here for about 12 years
Really came to me as a shock to you guys are going to increase the taxes by 220 percent
So I just have some comments
I wrote down with the increased tax revenue that will be added to the general fund and
used for capital projects, it's little deceitful to present this as 100% funding towards public
safety as the previously allocated funds are now set into the general fund and used
for capital projects.
As we build out housing in Eagle Mountain, property taxes should increase and why
Why haven't those funds been put in place?
Properly allocated in the budget. And just to clarify, I don't have any issue with increasing
policing police presence within the city limits of Eagle Mountain. The issue I have is the
communication of this city council to its member, to the residents of Eagle Mountain, and being
clear with your guys' intention of what you intend to do with our tax dollars. This is
something that I have brought up before is communication from this city hall. The city
Hall is terrible at messaging. You guys are terrible at communicating meetings. You guys
are terrible at reaching out to the citizens. The only reason I saw this is because I happen
to go on Facebook. I've signed up for all your newsletters, all your text messages.
I go on the website every once in a while. But I have a life outside of the city.
So you guys need to be better at messaging. Previous city councils have also failed
to be good stewards of our taxpayer dollars, convince us that this tax increase for the
taxpayers is going to not be wasted and misallocated and spent on things that are not in the budget
or hidden or moved to the side.
On another note, I do believe we have had a utility rate increase that's supposed
to happen over the next couple years. And that is in addition to this. So you guys are
going to be putting undue stress on the normal families of Eagle Mountain. And I think that's
pretty much it I got. Thank you guys for your time.
Mark Espinoza.
Council. Thank you for having this meeting. It's a big turnout here. I hear a lot of
people concerned. My big concern is, guys, I had a business, made a payroll and stuff.
All the things that you need to do to run a business, you got to make. Guys, 220% increase.
I did that to my customers, I'll be out of business. So we're going to do something.
Everybody's so fed up that 220% if it's 3% you would have had a half a crowd in
here but you go to you hit it big 220% maybe go back I don't know if we have
time or if you're gonna vote on this if you're gonna vote on this tonight we're
pretty much pretty much done you got to go back and look how can we bring up
revenue I hope the mayor is doing something I wish he was here instead of
thinking that he's looking at a video in Zoom, I wish he was in front of us looking at all
these people here. But if he's making a great deal for Eagle Mountain, fantastic. He's got
my approval. But I don't think so. It's important. You've got a lot of people here, a lot of
things, especially I hear on the communication with you guys. Go on your website, put a
link on there, and then the flying item, the flying item will show everybody what's going
on. But again, bringing out to 220. Come on, guys. You know better. I heard some people
here in businesses. Shoot, you didn't do that to your customers and see how long you're
business. Again, where I heard fixed incomes and stuff, I came from California. A lot worse.
They don't even listen. It got so bad, I didn't move. I'm glad I moved to Eagle Mountain.
I love the place. Family oriented, love it. But do not. Do not go down in my world.
There's a reason why people move out of California.
It's not the poor people.
People with money.
And they come in to spend the money.
Keep them in Eagle Mountain.
That's one way to get the revenue.
Other ways, get some bigger people in businesses.
That's how you generate money into the coffers.
Again, I thank you guys.
30 seconds remaining.
I thank you guys for listening to us.
But I hope and really hope you hear everybody what they had to say
I'm retired. I can come up here. I was ticked off
Working 30 years buying a business ticked off. I couldn't go to these meetings shoots 13 14 hours a day
Well now I'm retired. I could do some more
Thank you again, and thanks for everybody coming out be sure to vote
Be sure to vote
Thank you. Your time is up. Thank you. Jeff Ruth.
Hey, Council. Jared. I'm going to be
the add-on out, aside from Matt, I think. But I'm a little frustrated because this is
going to impact me. But I can't tell you how many times I've called for an officer and
they don't show up. Yeah, I was kind of minor on the list of things that were probably
going on, but they didn't show up. Once in a while I get a call and say, hey, we're sorry,
you know, we didn't make it. But we had this going on. Okay, that's fine. I've called for
other things. Hey, we only got two officers on duty this morning. We can't come out
right now. All right, fine. I've asked, why don't the officers out here do preventative?
we can only do reactive. We don't have enough officers to do
preventative calls. I can't
tell you all the vandalism I've seen over at Corey Ride. I mean, it's ridiculous. Every
once in a while an officer should be sitting out there and catch some of these teens out
there busting things up, busting up the bathrooms and everything else. And I understand
again, you're going to shift the money for the officers into their kind of their own separate
account. And that's going to free up all their money. How many times have I been up here and
asked you guys to mow along the roads, to fix this, to fix that? Well, it's my understanding
that if you move the money, then you'll have the money to do this other stuff.
I
mean, it's like with the voles at the park. Max, I think, got hurt because his leg
went into one of those holes. I've asked it to be addressed. Never. Never done.
So I mean,
I love our officers. I met many of them. I've dealt with them and they're good. I think
we need this. Like I said, it's going to impact me a lot. I'm on Social Security. It's going
to be tough. Me and Melissa Tark, I think it was at the convention about this. And
And I understand, it's just, but it gets me, people say, well, bring in more businesses.
Every time a big business wants to come in here, what do you get?
You can't bring that in here.
How is it going to use too much water, too much electricity, this and that?
It just drives me crazy.
Thirty seconds remaining.
So like I said, how many people here would vote for a rec center even if it was 300%?
So I hope you pass this get us some officers out there to help us out. Thank you
Denver Doral.
I didn't come up here prepared
Life liberty and pursuit of happiness the American dream
That's what I've always wanted
Eagle Mountain was the first place. I was able to actually achieve that
And I'm gonna tell you right now. I'm I'm stressed out panic
because that American dream is about to turn into a nightmare.
I'm in a single income household.
Yeah, I make good money, but, you know, I got everything else going on.
I don't think anybody here would argue setting money aside for the Sheriff's Department first responders
because, you know, my family alone has benefited so much from them.
You know, with my four-year-old daughter who has more flight hours in a life flight than
the pilot himself.
My son, who was shot in his neck, you know, right before Christmas, one of the sheriff's
deputies stuck her finger in my son's neck to keep him from bleeding out.
We ain't got no problem with setting money aside for the sheriff's department or first
responders.
You know, coming at us, you know, hey, we're going to increase taxes 5, 10, 15 percent.
You know, we can understand that.
But 220 percent, I'm living off of credit cards.
I'm sure there's a lot of other families that are doing the same.
Fixed incomes, single income household.
This is going to break me.
I won't be able to afford it.
And we ended up getting kicked out of America Homes for Rent because of the incident with
my son, even though we had no idea, you know, we couldn't prevent that.
That was an incident that came from a whole other town.
Yeah, we got kicked out and by the grace of God, he gave us our own home to move
into.
But now that's about to be taken away, and I ain't got nowhere else to go.
So I hope that y'all don't have your minds already set up on approving this because it's
going to put not only me and my family, but I'm sure a lot of other families out 30 seconds
remaining. Thank you all for listening.
Mark Cookston Cookston.
Good evening and thank
you city council and everybody that works for the city. This is I wouldn't want to
be in your chair. It's going to be very, very difficult for you as it is for all of us.
In 2018, I was in the hospital for five weeks and I fly to the University of Utah. I lost
my pancreas and automatically became diabetic and automatically became tied to Utah. I
was life-flighted down from Idaho and because of that we have to we have to
live down here in or I should say we get to live down here in Utah. We chose Eagle
Mountain because my wife and I grew up in small towns in Idaho and like the
small town values. And we saw that in Eagle Mountain. We moved in, you know, five years
ago this coming Thanksgiving. And we had just passed 40,000 people here. Now we're closing
in on 80,000 people. We liked the vibe of the community. I will say that never in
my lifetime did I ever think that I would ever be purchasing a home for half a million
dollars, but coming from Idaho and coming to Utah was an eye-opening experience.
We chose Ego Mountain because it was affordable.
We were told by the previous mayor and then Councilman Gray that, oh, no, we won't have
to raise taxes because we've got large companies that are going to be paying a large, or
or footing a large part of the taxes down the road.
Little did I know that down the road is 20 years
long after I'll be dead.
So that really, that argument was kind of a moot point for us.
I'm on Social Security.
Last year I got a raise of $27 a month.
My God, I thought the rainbow had fallen upon my house.
Then,
the county of Utah raised my taxes $250 last year, and that was all gone.
This year we've got this one that is proposed.
It's going to be wiped out.
Whatever increase that I get is going to be wiped out.
What am I supposed to do?
Where am I supposed to go?
This was the most affordable place for us to live.
I'm here health reasons guys. Where am I supposed to go? What am I supposed to
tighten my belt I was told. Your time is up. Thank you.
Tracy Peretta.
Alrighty.
This isn't my first meeting. You all know we've come to these
meetings and there's been literally nobody here. It's an absolute ghost town.
Okay. You guys all fit in this city hall perfectly. You don't need this one
time you go to race taxes and we get people in here for a meeting. You are fine in the
building you're in. You don't need to build
It's the new, what do you call it? It's the new base camp. On the city page you did back
in March of 25, you put up all these plans of everything you guys want to build and spend
money on. I don't know where you're getting this money, but it shouldn't be from taxes
because I came here and I sat right over there in a meeting and I opposed the new
Melissa personally and Jared both told me afterward oh this is such a great
thing the reason we're passing this is because our taxes are going to go down
they're going to be so low with all the revenue we're going to get from the data
centers coming in that your taxes are going to go to almost zero explain that
to me personally Melissa because I will spend the rest of my time getting
you out of office because you lied to me same for Jared if our taxes don't
go down to almost zero. Why are you raising them so high? We don't need a rec center.
The last thing you need to do is when money is tight, is say, oh, I need to add on to
my house because I get a big group of people at Christmas. It's not logical. You've got
to spend your money wisely. When everybody here is tightening their budgets, you guys
are building new Eagle Mountain City signs, because the rocks were deteriorating. You know,
I left one weekend, came back and I noticed you put up new street signs. What was that
price? Your new street signs that you put up were a total of, I mean, the Eagle Mountain
City sign out there at Cory B. Ride, that was probably a $200,000 project or more.
more. You put in a new set of signs that were on the page. It says that they were way-finding
sign project to have Eagle Mountain and make it more cohesive with their signage, and that
was $50,000. If you tighten your budget everywhere like
every single other family has to, you could make up the money you need for the police
in the fire department.
30 seconds remaining.
You don't need to take our taxes and raise them for something that is just frivolous.
We don't need a rec center.
We don't need a new town, city hall, tighten your budget and figure it out because I was
told that taxes are going to go down with all the new data centers.
And that's not what you're doing.
Thank you.
Steve Peritta.
Hi.
Thanks for hearing me.
My wife just got us speaking about the data centers, I'm going to speak about them too.
We spoke about them about a year ago.
We took the math of what the tax revenue was going to be.
We divided it by the number of households in Eagle Mountain and we came up with about
50 bucks a month towards each household throughout the city of Eagle Mountain.
So 50 bucks a month is 600 bucks a year.
Now you're proposing a 220% increase that, by your own documentation, says around $314
a year increase.
So we have a $900-plus differentiation in what your word was a year ago because, well,
oh, we need to allow the data centers.
The data centers are good because they're going to bring all this tax revenue in, and
it's going to reduce your taxes.
A year later, we're $900 the other direction.
I'd love to see somebody's math on that as to how that math got screwed up.
So unless you guys fix this, I mean this was prior to the Mayoral race, all of these people are,
the vast majority of these people, I won't say all, are pretty unhappy.
So when unhappy people go to the voting booths, all of you get to go find new jobs, okay?
If
my home budget was short, the first thing I do as a conservative is I figure out how to reduce my spending.
I don't just go figure out where I can get more money.
There's also been talk of no transparency.
You guys are not giving us all of the information.
Nope, just trust us, but then your stories are changing, so how can we trust you?
That doesn't work.
Inconsistent statements.
We need the itemized budget.
We need to quit spending money like drunken sailors on a port call, okay?
Running out and, you know, buying signs.
Oh, let's get a rec center.
Let's build a new city hall.
What's wrong with this one?
Instead
of looking at the entire budget and making educated informed decisions, you guys
are taking the easy way out.
That's the bottom line.
Where's the easy money we can get?
All we have to do is increase our property taxes by 220 percent, and we can cover all these
other expenses we want to do.
You're elected to make hard decisions.
Make those hard decisions.
Thank you.
Charlotte Ducos?
Charlotte Ducos. I'm going to join Jeff and Matt in making some comments
that are maybe a little bit different. I've lived here for 26 years. I've been involved
in the city for the majority of that time, if not all of it. And over, for the last
over a year, I've attended almost all City Council meetings, missed a couple, for other
things.
And in attending those meetings, there's a lot of the questions that are being presented
here tonight that have been answered, and I want to acknowledge that.
The budget is online, line item in a 200-page document, and so that is available.
All of these projects, everything that we're talking about tonight has been talked
about in city meetings and so I want to thank you for actually having those
discussions in public meetings for those that were there.
Eagle Mountain has
run lean since its beginning. We have employees doing the job of two to three
people probably more in some cases. We have offices renting space all over the
city because they don't fit in this one. We have projects that we have funded
but don't have personnel to complete and so they stay undone. We have
complaints all over the city of things that are not maintained, things that have been
promised but have not been done, and we don't have the personnel to complete it because we
don't have the money to pay them. And we have waited too long to address these shortfalls.
They should have been addressed years ago in a graduated manner a little bit at a time,
But that did not happen and we can't keep kicking the can down the road at some point
Something has to be done and I applaud you for taking the time to do that now
That having been said and I do think the communication could probably have improved
I think most of you agree with that now as well
and I do think that a more
Moderate approach would be good. It's not too late to do that
And I think a smaller percentage might be good. I don't think it's going to be a percentage that most people like
I still think it needs to be a significant one, but maybe not 220 we would go from being
one of the
lowest tax rates
In the area to the third highest and I think that maybe something a little more moderate would be a good way to start
And maybe decrease that amount a little bit
I also would encourage you to put a policy in place that I do not believe is existing
right now where we review this yearly or every other year and do graduated increases as they
are needed.
We need to stop being afraid to balance our budget on a yearly basis so that these big
jumps don't have to happen and that is the conclusion of my comments.
Thank you so much for your service.
Michael Valentini Hello.
So my name is Michael Valentini and I moved out here almost two years ago to the date.
We moved out here because it gave us an opportunity that we didn't have in Lehigh for our children.
One thing that I'd like to say is that the data centers, my question for you is what
tax breaks did the data centers get?
So I've been a union member of local 140 plumbers and pipe fitters here in Utah for
29 years.
years. I work at the data centers. I've worked at Facebook and QTS since 2000. Okay. That's
my question. QTS has three buildings going on now. A fourth is being built now. The fifth
is coming from what I understand there will be six additional buildings at QTS. Facebook
has five buildings now, the three ECO, or the three original buildings, two additional
buildings that went in just previously and they are building two more buildings out there now.
So what tax breaks do they get? As more people come in building these, that brings revenue into
the economy. Am I wrong to say that there's 6,000, four to 6,000 construction workers between
Facebook and QTS building those facilities? They bring money into this community every day
at the gas stations, the grocery stores, everything.
So that generates money for this community, okay?
We do need to have police force out here,
the first responders.
Those are very important,
but we also need to be able to live.
There are a lot of communities that are being built in here
that have, what do they call them,
the ADUs, apartments in the basements.
So that shows that people that are buying these houses
is their supplementing income by having renters in their basements, okay?
What's the average income of Eagle Mountain, $78,000?
What's the average cost of a house?
What's the average cost of that house?
And then you want to increase our taxes by 220%.
So if we haven't had a tax increase on our property tax in 10 or 15 years,
Why wasn't this budgeted in at 5% 2% a year over the last 15 years?
That's kind of piss-poor planning
It really is sorry to say it
So I seconds remaining you got it
I work 60 70 hours a week not because I like to but because I try to provide for my family
So that we can have the house we live in the vehicles that we drive and take vacations put food on our table
When these property taxes go up and they're going to go up on residents and commercials commercials going to raise their tab
Their cost of living their prices at the grocery stores at the convenience stores everywhere
And it's going to affect everybody in this in this room not just 220%
Your time is up. Thank you
Elba Maria Perez
my name is Elba Maria Perez and
Pretty much everything that I was going to say is being said
So I don't want to repeat it.
The only thing that I have not heard is that I don't hope, but I pray that you guys really
listen to what is being said.
Each one of you really listen because people are suffering and you're chalking us by these
big increases in taxes.
I really pray that you will listen to what has been said this evening.
That's all.
Walter Peterson.
Good evening. I'm Walter Peterson. I've lived here for about three years.
And we just were able to buy a home here in Eagle Mountain,
which we're really excited about.
I'm a little less excited with the 200% increase.
And a lot of my thoughts have been said.
A more moderate view of this or increase would be appreciated here.
I'm also extraordinarily wary about the school district coming in next year as a teacher.
That isn't anything that worries me with that, where I probably won't have a pay increase
for those few years where they're trying to get going.
And so having maybe a 100%, 130, I don't know, a smaller number increase would be
greatly appreciated if you do have time to make that change. I think that you've heard
that from the other people that have spoken this evening, but we appreciate what you do
and we hope that you listen tonight. Thank you.
Jacob Moore.
Thank you to the City Council and Mayor Graham. My name is Jacob Moore. I was not intending
to make a comment tonight and I initially strongly oppose this increase. However,
However, I recently received more clear information to the city's purpose and why the drastic
two hundred and twenty-one percent increase.
The state is planning on passing a law this next legislative session, limiting any city
to a five percent increase.
So Eagle Mountain City has to do it now or will be restricted by state policies.
Because Utah is revenue, not rate driven, the massive growth has not increased the
city's tax revenue because the rate is lowered to account for the growth, which
which keeps the revenue roughly the same. That's something that I've frequently heard
that
We've had so much growth, we should have more money. But that's apparently not the way it works here in Utah.
It's important to understand that the 221% increase applies only to the city's portion of your property tax bill, not your total property taxes.
For the average homeowner that translates, it's roughly a 12% increase in the overall property tax, not 221%.
The city wants the property tax increase, so our full sheriff's contract is paid for
by the property tax has been said multiple times tonight, not having to pull those millions
from the city's general fund.
I've been told that the funds freed up in the general fund would be used for infrastructure
and other public safety improvements.
If that's true, then the messaging from the city has not been as misleading or
dishonest as a lot of people are saying.
I believe it would go a long way if the City Council and Mayor would explain as much as
possible exactly what the freed up general fund money would be used for, as others have
requested.
I do believe it's unfortunate that the city's hand is being forced by the state legislature,
which wants to step into city policies and tell cities what they are and are not
allowed to do with their tax rates.
I'm not opposed anymore, but I believe a smaller increase, as many others have
said, is a better solution than the proposed increase.
and I did want to add that I encourage Eagle Mountain citizens to ask the state
legislature to change the property tax to a rate-driven system so as the
population increases our revenue does as well. Instead of the current system it
is forcing the city council's hand to increase our taxes to increase the
revenue and then I do also believe that it's there's been unintentional confusion
30 seconds remaining and it's not the same as distant dishonesty as many are
claiming tonight I feel like a lot of emotions are clouding judgment want to
thank you for all you do I can't imagine being in your shoes and I'm glad
I'm not have a great night we
do have a form filled out by Garrett Hotter who
does not want to make a verbal comment but did note down I want to echo what
Charlotte Dukow said. And then our next one is Jason Rasmussen.
Good afternoon
Jason Rasmussen. I've been a resident here for three years. First of all I want
to thank all of you for the efforts that you make and I want to thank our
public first responders for all the things that they do to keep our city
safe. I think a lot of the frustration that we're hearing is essentially what you did
is you held up a marble that said public safety and you put it under a cup and then you had
three other cups. You flipped them around, you pulled up the cups and what you revealed
was a card that said 210% tax increase. And so we're a little bit confused how this
Public safety marble is replaced with a 210% or 220% tax increase.
And I know that a lot of people have already expressed that we just need more transparency
about like how the monies would be spent.
We need more transparency about how money could be reclaimed.
We need more transparency about how money could be saved, how you can retrench in
ways.
So it's essentially just what can you do to kind of let us know how the money is going to be spent?
Are there other sources of revenue and how can you retrench in places that you can retrench?
And I would add just one additional item.
I know that a lot of the data centers that have been built in Eagle Mountain have been built with, you know,
tax breaks of up to $77 million, $150 million.
And that's a large percentage more than the $6 million revenue that you're trying to get.
And it seems in some ways like you gave a break to artificial intelligence at the expense
of all the human intelligences in this room and in our community.
So thank you.
Joy Rasmussen.
So in 2018, Facebook got tax breaks on their property taxes that was pretty hefty and some
of you were involved in that.
It was $150 million in property tax incentives that they are not paying for, what, 40 years.
So that's money the city could have been using all this time that you took away
from us.
And then 2021, more data centers were given 77 million in property tax incentives, again
for Metta. QTS is currently building more data centers that are for Metta and Google.
And they have also been given tax breaks on sales tax. So the city has made a choice.
Do we tax data centers to build AI to take our jobs and take our children's jobs and
and then tax the residents? Or do we not do that? And you have made those choices. Now
to say that you're paying the price for previous politicians, most of you have been here in
city politics for many years. You have voted last year's budget. You did not increase property
taxes but you added public safety officers and you bragged about it on your website.
I took the screenshot tonight. Somehow you managed to do it before but now you're
saying you can't anymore. I have done some research and guess what? When you add
data centers to your city, public infrastructure costs go up.
So somebody in this town, Alex Washburn,
has done a grammar request and asked
you guys for information about why you're doing this
and where you're spending the money and what capital projects
this is going to go towards, because that's what it's for.
And his request was denied, and you're
going to charge him a huge fee he can't afford.
And then you met with him and somehow got him
to think it was necessary.
But here's the thing, we have a lot more houses
in Eagle Mountain than we did before.
So even if the amount that you can charge per house has not increased the number of houses has increased
So you still have more revenue with the increase in citizens. This is absolutely to fund the data centers
There's an electrician in Eagle Mountain that has messaged me. He works at the data centers
He said that QTS wants to put 27 data centers in Eagle Mountain
there's already about seven approved and
That's he said if he lived here, he would be upset
He said he's not gonna stay because the energy cost and the water cost are gonna skyrocket
He doesn't understand why the residents are not upset the city has been trying to put nuclear reactors in the city for the data centers
All of you in this room need to know this and wake up
We need to fight this like Boxelder County because we are already paying the price these data centers are getting the break and we're getting
Dorked over 30 seconds remaining
People can't afford it. There's a lady. I know who messaged me
She is elderly her husband has dementia and Parkinson's they are on fixed incomes
And she said our house is paid for but we cannot afford this property tax increase
My husband is going to have to go into a care center for $5,000 a month.
This is going to bankrupt us. You need to think about those people and not do this.
This is totally inappropriate. There needs to be more time and more public disclosure about where this money is really going
and what infrastructure you're putting it towards, what capital projects, and listen to the people.
Your time is up. Thank you.
Michael Kerry.
Michael Kerry. I'm going to read this.
Mayor and members of the City Council, thank you for your service and for the opportunity
to speak tonight.
I want to begin by saying that I support public safety.
I believe our deputies and first responders deserve the resources they need to protect
our growing community.
As Eagle Mountain continues to grow, it is reasonable to expect that the cost of providing
those services will grow as well.
My concern is not whether we should invest in public safety.
My concern is the size of the proposed increase and whether residents have been given
on the complete financial picture.
The city's public information states that every dollar
of the proposed increase will go toward funding
the sheriff's contract and expanding public safety.
At the same time, the city's published materials
also discuss other financial pressures
facing Eagle Mountain, including rapid population growth,
inflation, increased road maintenance, parks,
infrastructure, and other essential city services.
If public safety is the immediate use
of these new tax dollars, I understand that.
But if broader budget pressures
measures are also contributing to the need for this increase, I believe residents deserve
a transparent discussion about those challenges as well. An informed public is better able
to support difficult decisions. I would also encourage the City Council to consider a phased
approach instead of implementing the full increase in a single year. A three to five
year graduated plan would still provide additional funding for public safety while
giving families time to adjust to higher property taxes during a period when many
Many are already experiencing rising costs in housing, insurance, groceries and utilities.
A three to five, sorry, a phased approach would also allow the city to measure results
along the way.
Before each phase, the City Council could publicly report measurable outcomes such
as improvements in emergency response times, changes in deputy workload and staffing ratios,
growth in calls for service, progress toward clearly defined public safety goals,
whether growth-related revenues or operational efficiencies have reduced the need for future
tax increases.
I would also respectfully ask the Council to explain why seven additional deputies represent
the appropriate staffing level and what objective analysis supports that recommendation.
Understanding the data behind the proposal will help public confidence.
Finally, I encourage the Council to continue exploring every available option to reduce
the burden on taxpayers, including efficiencies within city operations, careful prioritization
of spending, and identifying growth-related revenue sources before asking residents to
absorb significant increases in property taxes.
I believe Eagle Mountain residents are willing to invest in their community when they understand
the need and have confidence in the plan.
Transparent, measurable, and great gradual approach can strengthen that trust while
still meeting city's responsibilities, keep our community safe.
Thank you for your time and service and for your consideration
Camille Gardner.
I don't see Camille. I'll add her paper to the
record
Please remember you represent those who elected you. We don't need additional police nor all the other projects
Do you think we do we want economy at the city like Stuart Adams?
We will vote you out if you vote for this increase. Additionally, we don't need ranches Parkway
Why didn't we need a right hand turn lane?
from KB Bergensen?
Good evening, KB Bergensen.
I've lived here about three years.
Before that, I lived in California in Washington,
and I moved here to get away from those places,
so I was glad to be here.
But I am a seven-year Army veteran,
and I also retired from law enforcement.
I worked for a sheriff's office.
So I have deep respect,
and I'm grateful for the services they do provide us.
And I'm grateful, you know, for their service and what they, you know, do for us.
I'm 75 years old and I live with my daughter and her family.
And I came here to join with them so we could be on a budget and survive the economy.
I'm on a fixed budget. I'm retired.
With that in mind, I don't think that we need a 220% increase in property tax
to support law enforcement and what they're doing.
I emailed all of you, you know, asking you about this,
and I did receive one response from Craig,
and I appreciate that.
I thought it was very insightful.
I quote, he said,
also I don't think we need,
we need that we'll end up needing a 220% increase.
In the past few weeks, we've been diving into the numbers,
and I think the city can get by with a smaller
than a number than 220%. I'm not sure what number. It will still be a large increase,
but not 220%. A few comments I'll give you since I've been on the council for three and a half
years. We anticipate, next year we anticipate revenue, that revenue, that data center revenues
will take a jump. We needed an increase to help with additional needs. He said the next year
doesn't bring enough data center revenue. I'm sure three and four years we'll see that
money coming in further. We should have Smith's development online by then as well, and I think
there's a realistic possibility to visit that increase.
I think if that's a case, if that's in mind, we should take a measured approach to any
increase right now. There's other things that can be done for law enforcement too.
I know that there's other places I've been, they've had a citizens patrol where they
have seniors volunteer to take a workload off of deputies that can be done and
maybe that can be looked into. And there's a lot of other things that can be done
looked into to help with law enforcement without, you know, budgeting huge amounts of money.
I'm on a fixed balance budget and I think that the city should also be on a fixed balance
budget. You need to take the funds that you make and use them wisely and determine what
takes priority and spend that money according to those priorities and other things should
not be done until the money comes in and it can be spent accordingly. Thank you
very much.
I'm going to make this really simple. I think we've been here long enough and everyone has
said a lot, but I have a question. The other day I just happened to hear that the Federal
Government Office of Management and Budget provides grants to cities. A grant is free
money I mean it's not free it's our
Tax dollars to the federal government. They will provide grants to cities to upgrade public
safety, police departments, this type of thing. I wasn't aware of this. I don't know if you
folks are aware or not. If you're not, it bears looking into. If you have, great. I don't
know the process for applying for a grant. I do know the available. My daughter gets
them all the time from the federal government for disadvantaged children in the school systems.
So just point of interest. Anyway, good to see you. Good to see you all. Thank you, Bertman.
Shedrick de Chermont.
Feel free to correct me if I'm not close. Yeah,
for the record,
Shedrick de Chermont. I was going to write this with the help of AI, but the Wi-Fi
wouldn't connect, and I thought maybe it's a little too ironic to not just speak from
my heart. So my wife and I moved to Eagle Mountain a little over three years ago due
to the prospect of affordable living, safety, well-planned growth strategy, and to raise
our own family. I've worked and lived all across this country. This is the first home
I've ever bought, and I'm proud of it. As a young family, our budget is tight and
our options are weighed when we spend our hard earned money. We want to start a family
money, and often deliberate how. I won't explain what it is you're doing in economic
principles. Plenty of us have already done that already, and frankly, you should already
know. Taxes and costs often go up and rarely go down. I worry that you already know that
too. The proposed tax increase, or upon its original inception, does not even begin
to address concerns regarding the following. Future impacts due to the new school district,
and my wife is a teacher.
Current shortfalls in infrastructure
and future growth of infrastructure needs.
The irony in the truth in transparency
is that as taxpayers we are seeing a limited view
into the current stewardship of the use
of our current tax revenue.
If you are a poor steward now,
you will be a worse steward with more.
But as a general populace,
we cannot contend with what we do not know
and what you are failing to accurately disclose.
We as citizens can't keep up
with all of the wavering of priorities and promises being potentially broken,
we can nonetheless see that you are ostensibly lying.
Are all of the developers, outside contractors, and multi-billion dollar
industries that operate and profit off of our city paying their fair share?
We all know the answer. You want to hold our feet to the fire but won't stand against them?
Can you account for the impact of this proposed tax increase in terms of
hungry mouths, missed payments, and ultimately families no longer being able to call Eagle Mountain their home.
I don't think you can.
You can't share the budget you have, and you can't show the forecast for the projects you want.
A lot of people blame young kids for the hood rat behavior and damage we see growing around here.
I blame parenting.
Can we account for the lack of parental guidance as a result of them having to work harder to pay for this fund?
Are we operating in a banana republic?
I and others helped elect you in those chairs on the principles of family values, economic
frugality, and fiscal conservatism.
Is this tyranny?
We have enough of that going on in our country and in our world.
This city council should reject those sins.
I would request that you consider a motion to defer this vote until you can better communicate
your past decisions, future intents, and your clearly stated budget objectives to
the community that deserves to hear a transparent truth of the situation.
Thank you.
Isaac Gardner.
He did provide a written comment in opposition to the tax increase. We will
add it to the record. Daniel Lamb. Lob.
Phil Fee to correct me if I'm incorrect.
For some reason, it's always Lamb. It's Lob. Anyway, thank you for having this opportunity
for us to speak. I'm here not because I want to be like a lot of other people. We
We have a lot of other things we want to be doing,
but we're so against this increase,
that's why we're here.
We don't feel that we can afford this.
Transparency has been discussed.
Like, I just agree with all the other comments
have been made.
Like, that's probably the best way to sum it up.
Yeah, right now, we're not buying it.
We're just, we don't buy what you guys are proposing.
We don't agree to it.
That's why I'm here, is to make my voice heard.
Don't agree to it.
But it's not the best thing, and I hate to say this, like I'm not trying to be offensive,
but the citizens, like for myself, I will try to make sure you're not reelected again.
I will.
If this passes, just know it may be your last term.
So anyway, we appreciate everything else you're doing that's positive and not try
to be negative here, but we really don't want this increase.
and if it goes through and you pass it, it's a death knell.
Pretty sure about that.
Shona Clark,
is that right?
I wasn't going to get up today because I'm not very eloquent
and there's been a lot of people that have talked very well.
But the more I sat there, the more I just wanted to make sure
that I'm just not a person sitting in the audience
observing that you know that how I feel.
In September of 1998, my family moved out here.
So next month will be 28 years that I've been out here.
We moved out here because we couldn't afford to live anywhere else.
I raised my kids out here.
I became single out here through divorce.
And I've been able to stay here.
My youngest daughter and her four kids range in age from three to nine live with me as well.
She stays home to take care of the kids.
And I make $16 an hour.
I've
heard it said about the impact fees,
the homes being built, more money that way.
I just feel like with the tax breaks that other big businesses get and then being scammed
out of the money, I feel like me as a $16 an hour person and being asked to pay that.
It is not my fault, not that it's your fault, not all of it, but I feel like this
This is a huge ask of you guys, not ask, you're not asking us, you're just going to do it.
I've had to refinance my house a few times to get my ex-husband off, to get money out
because I couldn't afford things, and the last time was to lower my interest rate.
So even though I've been out here for almost 28 years, I still owe 25 years on my house.
I just not like I can save many other places.
And so I really wish you would think about
how this affects the small people.
Dax Steadily,
all right, I do not see him present.
Also in opposition to the tax increase,
we'll add his comment to the record.
Colton Hart,
I do not see him.
In opposition to the tax increase,
we'll add his comment to the record.
Sadie Hart,
also opposition to the tax increase.
We'll get that one added as well.
Melissa Gordette.
She states, please don't raise our taxes.
I do not see her in person.
We'll add her comment to the record.
Kristen Meyer.
Good evening, Mayor and City Council members.
My name is Kristen Meyer,
and I'm a resident in Beagle Mountain.
I'm here tonight to urge you to vote no
on the proposed tax increase.
Let me state why.
Roughly 1.5 million is allocated
to the Utah County Sheriff's Contract.
act. I don't have an issue with that. My issue is with the remaining amount. It hasn't been
allocated clearly enough. We want to know exactly how it will be spent.
These are public
funds and we need transparency, not vague line items. Second, how did we get here?
The podcast indicated that a failed bill from the previous legislative session may
may have kept, it might have kept future tax increases,
fair enough, but your response along with other cities
seems to be that we should raise taxes now
before the state can cap us in the future,
and the bill failed, and what is the response?
As a city, you knew we were growing,
you approved the development, you approved the growth,
and instead of having the common sense
to plan for the roads and the infrastructure
in all the needs that we require, you failed to act.
Third,
we are in an affordability crisis.
It's a crisis fueled in part by greedy corporations and the politicians who too often put the powerful
interests ahead of the hardworking Americans.
I propose you lower the tax to cover only the sheriff's contract.
And before these words fall on deaf ears, think about the people you represent.
Think about the senior living on a fixed income.
them. Think about the mother, wondering how she's going to make it to the next paycheck.
Think about the people who have experienced the embarrassment of having their credit card
declined. Although we do not have the power to decide how you vote, we do have the power
to decide who votes in these seats tomorrow.
And I ask that you earn our trust. Vote no
on this proposal as it stands, and we ask for greater transparency. Thank you.
Cheryl Carr.
Good evening. My name is Cheryl Carr.
We bought our land in 1998. We built
our home in 2004, been here for 22 years. I'm 71 years old. My husband is 76.
Our property
property has more than doubled since we've been here. Our income has not. That value
is not realized unless we sell our home. I want to read President Donald Trump. He may
be federal, but this is his view. He has proposed eliminating local property taxes
for homeowners aged 65 and older who have fully paid off their mortgages.
He characterized property taxes as a form of perpetual rent that prevents seniors
on fixed incomes from truly owning their own homes.
Relief for fixed incomes, supporters state the plan protects older Americans
from raising housing, insurance and valuation costs.
Aging in place. Advocates argue it helps retirees keep their lifelong homes instead of being forced to move.
I will tell you if this passes we will have to sell and we will have to move.
I know there needs to be more money
and the people who are coming to Eagle Mountain create
more traffic on the roads.
we've all seen that. So what is the answer?
It's a tough one, but I think that the impact
fees need to be raised. I don't know what they are, but I do know that this problem
is a result of more people moving here. And they need to pay for that impact. And
And so that would be my request that you look at those impact fees and see where things can
be shifted.
30 seconds remaining.
I do thank you for your service and for your time.
Thank you.
Roger Laird.
Sorry, I'm not exactly just as nice as everybody, but my day started at 2.30 this morning
And I didn't get off until 4.30 today, and I rushed down to be here for this.
Two hundred and twenty percent is rather asinine.
I probably more than anybody in here support police officers in EMS because I spent the
entirety of my young adulthood in EMS.
I've been shot at, I've been stabbed, I've been shoulder to shoulder with police
fighting and it's not fun. Well, it was, but probably none of you guys have been shot
at or stabbed or been in those situations or watched people die or drug a wounded police
officer that was shot because some gangbanger wanted some clout while we were on the side
of a road at a call. I worked very hard for my money. We moved here because it
It was affordable. It was a nice community.
It's a little bit of ways from it all.
You can't tell me. You can't convince me 220% is reasonable.
Some of you are real estate agents. That is a negative asset that you're trying to sell
people. And if you're the kind of real estate agent that sells negative assets to people,
I would probably say you're not exactly an ethical real estate agent. I did real estate.
One of the many things I've done besides EMS, paramedic, crane operator, real estate,
and mortgage loan officer.
The fact that you guys can't articulate where all that's going other than you're selling
it under the guise of helping the police officers, which is a good thing.
I don't think anybody's opposed to giving them help and the EMS, any help.
But those data centers, which I've worked on, I've been on a crane in there for 16 hours
one day.
The tax breaks you give them could be paying for all of this. And the bull crap
part is that you guys know it, but you give them all these tax breaks. And then all these
builders that want to come in, and we're getting more revenue from taxes on that. Again,
You know it. I'm not saying you guys that things weren't mismanaged in the past
But you can fix it by simply cutting costs and stop giving all these tax breaks. There's seven more buildings going in there
I know that because I work there
Please do better
budget
Like we all do
Thank you
Zeke Magdaleno.
Hi, my name is Zeke Magdaleno. I've been here about seven years. I'm kind of neutral
gentlemen right here between the data centers and a resident because I build
them and I know what they cost I know what they bring in I have to be careful
when I say so I have a job tomorrow so but I I'm finding myself not
understanding because I feel it's a duty just even though I could lose my
job if I'm not careful I have to say something for all these people here
including myself, that might not be able to afford a home.
I was able to as a single dad afford a house on a single income,
raise my children, and I'll be perfectly honest.
I hated it in the middle of the desert. I couldn't stand it.
But we've come a long way in six years.
So I want to bring some transparency for the people behind me
data centers. And by the time QTS is done, I can say QTS, we all know, it's signed out
there. They're predicted that Eagle Mountain will be the biggest data center campuses for
them in the world, not United States, the world. Let that sink in.
So if we're allowing
these data centers to be built, and we are getting them tax breaks, which I understand.
We want them to come here and build these data centers, but isn't that supposed to help
these people, us, out in the long run?
That's what I thought.
That's what they're supposed to do, and I know how many they're planning on building.
Honestly, we shouldn't have to pay taxes for our lifetime.
These guys have so much money, I know what they bring in when they rent these data
data centers and it's insane. It's insane how much money that these people have that
are building these data centers. So I'm confused on why 220% why are we paying anything? I got
here late so I'm sorry if this was talked about earlier. But being that I'm building
building them and I'm kind of neutral. I just don't see, and I, you know, obviously I'm
a community member paying my mortgage. That's insane. I think that comes out to like $300
more, I think a month, something like that. That's crazy. But anyways, just to stick up
for the data centers a little bit, the ones we're building are closed systems. They
don't use water like the other ones just letting, you know, they do in the beginning,
but they're closed. They're not evaporative. That's Facebook. I worked on that one, too.
That's all I got to say.
Megan Streeter.
Does it start when I speak? Hi. I'm a delegate and
precinct chair in Eagle Mountain and have interacted with several of my city council members.
Nice to see you, Brett. Nice to see you, Melissa. I know you too and find you to be
reasonable logical humans. And with that said, I do feel like we're missing a mark here.
I do feel that way, especially with the sheriffs.
I do not dislike the sheriffs, appreciate you.
But I do think in the current state we're in,
I mean, I think it's a good idea to invest with them
in the current state we're in,
but I do feel that we need our own department.
And with that said,
renting is worse than owning.
I do feel like we are making a bad decision
by renting the sheriffs.
I don't think it's an investment for our city.
Aside from that, I do believe we are missing the opportunity to negotiate with data centers and he pretty much set me up for success when he was speaking.
I have a unique perspective as I have rented land from many of the farmers out there by the data centers.
I have watched as these farmers have been cornered, I have watched as they have been bullied, I have watched even their own cows be poisoned.
There are so many stories you guys don't know about and you haven't been out there talking to the farmers and if you've ignored them then you would know what's been going on.
One of those guys out there, he leased his land for $100,000 a month.
And then when he's done leasing, he will be bought out.
And then just one QTS manager gets $500,000 for 10 months.
We need to stop acting like we need the data centers to start acting like they need us
as they do.
We have the land and the water to provide space for them.
Data centers are being banned all over the nation and in the world.
And we know this.
It's it's a hot topic right now
They need us period and they have the money to give us the full $7 million you need for the 220 increase
I guarantee that you can negotiate this. I have faith in you
I absolutely believe that you guys could do this because they need us Eagle Mountain Special were unique
And aside from that I love this city and I hope we can manage these situations in a way that allows us
to move forward in a small town ideal
since a lot of these people moved here for that
and I did as well.
And I absolutely hate your job.
I'm sure it's horrible,
but I really think that we're missing the mark
and I really hope we can do something better.
I really do.
Tony Castillo.
Well,
Tony Castillo.
Everybody knows who we are.
We own our roofing company.
COVID hit us hard.
I saw prices go up every month.
My material cost every month.
10% here, 10% there.
I'd go to my wife.
We've got to face the prices.
And this is after my suppliers were chewing me out
because they were hearing from competitors
how I was undercutting them.
And I said,
is it affecting your bottom line?
I'm still buying from you guys.
The only difference is I'm not getting rich
like those guys are.
This year, I'm out of COVID,
we had about a 60% price increase.
60%.
just in one year and I got smart, didn't change suppliers, just negotiated.
This year we had
about a 30% price increase because of the war.
I watched my, I wanted it to be a front
guys, my per bundle price to operate my company for one brand is $150 a bundle. That was after
of the price increase that I got. And I went back and I said, I can't operate like this.
And you know, a lot of you guys are my customers. I had Charlotte ask me, her daughter ask me,
how the heck are you $5,000 less than these other companies? But you're doing more. I want
your business. I know my numbers. I'll go back to my suppliers and renegotiate.
You
Can I support the tax increase?
220%, I mean, I'll be honest with you, it's very shocking.
Can you imagine if I raised my prices, 220%?
I mean, Craig, you had a customer beat me up
over the court I gave him, even a repair.
I had to walk away from it.
Had I done it, it would have opened me
into a multimillion dollar community.
But my values are a lot more worth more than that.
Elections are coming up again.
At the end of the day, guys, do what's right.
30 seconds remaining.
A lot of us can't afford to eat.
And I was like, I'm wondering if I can afford to buy a cow this year if the rate goes up.
Because that's the first thing I'm going to be cutting.
So thanks, guys.
Appreciate you all.
I have Melanie Castillo who chooses not to make a verbal comment and while she states
while I support an increase and see its need she's interested to hear from each member
of the council the top three capital projects and she's seen the list and wants to know
what's important to the council members and then we do have we did have a public comment
from Matthew Joseph who has that he would like to discuss the budget and we just
want to remind you that this is for the proposed tax rate only, that the budget public hearing
will be on August 18th. So Matthew Joseph wanted to clarify that. And I don't see him
here, so we will add it to the record.
Joanna Brown.
Hi, Joanna Brown. I'm sorry that I'm dressed this way. I would never approach in any
other circumstance, but I heard a comment that was made, and I had to stop in before
before I go to my vlog while it came.
The comment that was made was made that somebody said
that they support the tax increase,
but maybe to less than 220%.
And then the comment was made,
maybe it's something that most people
probably still won't be happy with.
And that got me off of watching on my phone
in here in front of you because
that's not the way government works,
government's for the people.
So the majority of the people
voted you guys into where you are, the majority of the people are represented by you, so the
majority of the people should be happy with the decisions that are made.
So I guess I just wanted to reiterate that, that a democracy is a government for the people
by the people, and we are in a democratic republic where we vote for representatives
who represent the majority.
So that comment of maybe the majority will be upset, but that's fine, do what you
want to do.
You know, remember that the majority of the people are why we have this government and
why you're all sitting where you are, because the majority of us voted for you.
And I guess my other really quick comment before I head out the door was just thinking, Mr.
Rasmussen, for clarifying that, again, it's been put out, which I felt like I was
a little bit confusing that under that truth and taxation that, yes, the amount per household
stays the same but because there's more households there is more money so I hope
that most people don't come from a house where dinner was mom coming home with a
can of beans and saying that's all she could afford and that that can of beans
now cost her $37 instead of $2 because now she was getting an overdraft fee for
it, but I hope that the city isn't going into direction because we need whatever these capital
projects are to put its citizens in that kind of a position because I'm grateful I'm not
in that position anymore, but I have been and it sounds like a lot of our citizens
also know what that feels like. So I'll just ask you to remember that you represent
the majority. Remember, like, try to make the majority happy, I guess. Thank you for your time.
These public comments are from participants who showed up today, but they do not want to make
a verbal comment. So I'll just read the names. They're all in opposition to the tax increase,
to be clear, Trenton Webb, Derek Rappel-Eye, M. Patrick Mayo, Brianna Nelson, Alex Nelson,
Jessica Demers, David Gordette, and Vienna Portella.
These are the public comments that
came in through our via email and I'm unsure if they are in attendance so I'll call your
name and if you're here come on up. Brittany Mitchell,
she's in opposition to the tax increase
so we'll get that in the record. Lily Anna Elliott,
also in opposition. Cammie Wa...
Watterson.
Also not here. She states I'm all for keeping the city running safe, but why
is it 220% so she doesn't say for or against. Jill Jones.
I do not see her here. She wishes
to pause the increase of the property taxes. Susanna Norris.
She's writing to voice the
a strong opposition to the 220% increase.
Carly King,
also not here, opposition to the increase
as well.
Brenda Martinez, hold on.
Oh, we do have Carly King online, let me double check that.
Okay, we do have Carly King online,
so we will come back to her.
Brenda Martinez,
I do see Brenda online,
so that could be her.
and she, her statement is, the point is lack of transparency, so we'll get that
added in. Zachary Vance,
he doesn't say for or against either. And then Martin in
Dreboe, I do not see that and he does not also say for or against. Okay, so now
we're going to move to the virtual comment period. And as a reminder, I
I will unmute your mic if you are online
and it will tell you to unmute it on your side.
I will start the timer once you start speaking
and then once you are finished,
you're welcome to stay online to watch the meeting
but not required to as you only be able to speak once.
Am I missing anything else?
Okay, we're just gonna go ahead and start at the beginning.
I see AJ online.
I do not see last names on some of them
so please state your first and last name
when you jump on as well.
Okay, we're going to move over to that
AJ. You should be able to unmute your mic.
Looks
like he's still muted. So we might have to come back to him.
Okay, we're going to go
past AJ and we're going to go over to Alex Washburn. Let's see if we can get this one
to work out. Here we go.
Good evening, Mayor, Council, members and fellow residents. My
name is Alex Washburn. Over the past week I've spent dozens of hours reading
the city's budgets, attending meetings, filing grandma requests, and trying to understand why
Eagle Mountain is proposing what amounts to a 220% property tax increase. Yesterday,
I had the opportunity to spend about an hour meeting with Mayor Jared Gray, the city manager,
council member Clark, and members of the finance team. I sincerely appreciate each of
them taking the time to answer my questions because that meeting genuinely changed my
understanding of several things. I now have a much better understanding of how Utah's truth
in tax law has affected Eagle Mountain over the last 15 years. As property taxes values increase,
the certified property tax rate decreased, while the cost of providing services, especially law
enforcement, continued to rise. I now understand why the city has gradually had to use more and
more of the general fund to cover the increasing costs of the sheriff's contract,
contract, leaving less capacity for roads, infrastructure, parts, and other priorities.
I believe that's a real problem, and I believe it needs to be addressed.
However, I still have two significant concerns.
The first is the policy objective itself.
During yesterday's meeting, it was explained that this recommendation was built around
fully funding the sheriff's contract through property taxes.
But when I reviewed the 2010 budget, the last 100 tax increase, I found that property
tax revenue was approximately $974,000, while police expenditures were approximately $2
million.
So unless I'm misunderstanding those numbers, property taxes did not fully fund law enforcement
even then.
That tells me that fully funding the sheriff's contract through property taxes isn't simply
restoring the way things have always been, it's a policy decision.
And I think taxpayers deserve to understand why that policy was chosen.
Why is it better to have property taxes fully fund the sheriff's contract instead of continuing
to fund it through a combination of property taxes and other general fund revenues as the
city has historically done?
My second concern is how the amount of this increase was determined.
During yesterday's meeting, I asked what I thought was a simple question.
If this proposed tax increase were reduced or didn't pass at all, what projects or
priorities would actually be delayed or eliminated?
The answer was that those decisions haven't been made yet.
I appreciate the city genuinely wants public input before making those decisions, but
I respectfully believe that the analysis should have come first.
I wish the city had come to the public with several funding scenarios.
If we approve the full increase, if we reduce it by 10% or reduce by 20%, what projects
would have to wait?
That would allow taxpayers to have an informed discussion about priorities instead
of simply reacting. Based on everything I support raising at the 1.5 million to fund the 2027
fresh shares contract but I oppose the increase beyond that unless the city can clearly explain
exactly what the remaining dollars will find and what funds are for priorities.
The next one we have online is Amy Larcher. I'm going to go ahead and allow you to talk
and unmute you Mike.
It looks like she left. Ashley Garcide?
Lacey, I see Ashley's on there twice. Is there a chance that the other Mike that she could be using?
Maybe I'll unmute both of them?
You unmuted me on accident.
Do I need to click it again?
We will move on to Ben Crabtree one moment.
Alright Ben.
Thanks. Sorry. I'm just driving back. I really appreciate each member of the City Council
and the Mayor for hearing our comments. And I think most of what I would have said has
already been stated in regards to those who are on fixed incomes who don't have room in
the budget for this level of increase. It's just way too much. And I also appreciate
I don't remember her name, but she mentioned that there have been communications that have
been sent out from the city about some of the projects that need to be done or are going
to be done. I would love to see those as well. I think a lot of us are feeling that
same way. I would also follow up on some of the other comments that were made about
the data centers. I really, I can't imagine how companies like Metta and Google can come
out here and I know they're going to, they can, they have enough money to fund wherever
they want to build and so why would we, I don't know the nature of the negotiations
but I also run my own business and so I also have six kids. I'm trying to support six
So, here in this increase is just wild and why are we passing it on to the taxpayers
when we could get some of these companies who are building infrastructure that's going
to increase our cost of electricity and increase the cost of water to put some of these bills.
It just seems like that would be a better approach.
And again, just think of the number of people in our community.
I hope to be more involved in future city council meetings and look up some of the data
behind our community and looking at how many people are really struggling and from a financial
standpoint and what people are doing to try and already make ends meet, what can we do
in other ways besides raising taxes like this, especially at such a high rate to help lower
their burdens.
That's what I have to say.
Thank you.
Okay we're gonna try Amy Larcher again.
Let's go down to Brenda. I don't know your
last name Brenda.
Okay, we'll move on to Brett.
We'll move on to Bruce.
Bruce can you hear us?
Cam
you represent the people who voted you in. I think that the majority has a consensus that transparency
hasn't met for an ass to this big. I think a lot of families
open their wallet and they don't see much. And I think that you as a council
need to look in your wallets and simply ask yourself who do you represent you
know I came
from a big family and I saw my parents struggle I put food on the table and you know it hurts
I think every person who grew up seeing their parents struggled to put just a meal on the
to feed their kids. And for a city as big as Eagle Mountain, I'll be honest with you.
It's not just not right. It's deceptive. And it's kind of evil to think that you as a
council are going to ask each citizen to open their pockets, their wallets that might
and say, you know what, we haven't
been transparent with you, but we're
going to ask a huge, huge favor.
Give me money that you don't have.
That's all I have to say.
Thanks, Kim.
We're going to move on to Carly King.
Hey, I think I'm unmuted.
Yep, we can hear you.
My name's Carly King.
I have looked at people for about 11 years.
And initially, I wasn't going to share very much
about myself.
I don't like speaking, but hearing that the council members have pretty much
already made up their minds stating that their hands were being forced. I feel like
it's important for you guys to all understand the weight that you are
putting on the shoulders of your citizens. So just a little bit about my
family. I'm a mom of a two year old. My husband and I both work full-time. I
I have to manage working full-time while also being home with my daughter and trying to
be a present parent to her while keeping my job.
This is my reality because I can't afford to lose one of our incomes.
We already struggle as it is.
We have medical debt, bills, groceries, gas, diapers, as does everyone else, and sometimes
we have to choose between any one of those items, which one are we going to pay this month.
So I am against this 221% taxing degree. This is going to def date many families in
April mountains. Single families will become non-existent.
And this is going to force
many mothers that are able to currently stay home with their kids back into the workforce.
of course. Moms deserve better and so do those kids. Voting for this is a vote.
The city is going to make a decision without being transferred, and the suggestion of a
two hundred and twenty percent increase is pretty egregious. We haven't been presented with data.
We've just been told it's going to public safety, and like many other people have
that vote, nobody's against public safety, but you are being truthful.
Everyone's
is for people to take time away from their families, to work more hours, and to cut up
back on the cities, just to be able to afford this tax increase. You should all be ashamed.
Whoever votes for this, you are the ones that have to go home and live with us all.
You're still in front of the pockets of the citizens of the city. Eagle Mountains
to manage our top tax funds better.
You need to hold the city employees to a higher standard.
Hold them accountable for fraud, waste, and abuse.
In addition, stop giving data centers astronomical tax breaks.
Thank you.
Next one we have is Chris.
I don't have a last name on this.
We will ask to unmute.
Okay, moving on.
The next one we have is just citizen.
I'm not sure if you would like to make a public comment.
Okay, the next one we have is Courtney.
The next one we have, the title is Elder and Sister Squire.
Your mic, if you'd like to give a public comment at this time, okay.
The next one we have is Embret.
We have a couple more, so why don't we do this.
If you would like to give a public comment and you're currently on our Zoom portal,
will you please raise your hand?
There we go.
We're going to start with Steve Muggleson.
Can you hear me?
Yes, there you go.
Yep.
Okay.
Like everyone here, I want my community to be safe.
I support our deputies and I support giving law enforcement the resources that they need
to protect the citizens.
This isn't about public safety.
This isn't whether or not public safety is important because of this.
But placing this tax burden solely on the residents is egregious.
Evil Mountain residents are already carrying heavier financial burdens than they were just
a few years ago.
A Forbes survey finds that 78% of Americans consider themselves living paycheck to paycheck.
check. Mortgage payments have increased. Property insurance has gone up. Groceries
cost more. Utilities cost more. Nearly every household expense has risen. People must make
difficult choices every month, and now the city is asking them to shoulder one of the
largest property tax increases in its history. At the same time, Eagle Mountain has welcomed
some of the largest and wealthiest companies in the world to build multi-million dollar
data centers in our community to attract these projects, the city approved redevelopment agreements
that reimburse a substantial portion of the new property tax revenue those developments
generate. Homeowners should not become the default solution every time the city needs
more revenue, while generous incentive agreements remain in place for billion-dollar companies.
How much tax revenue has been reimbursed to these major data center developments?
This money is going straight to the pockets of those who don't even know Eagle Mountain
exists and do not support the community that they use.
This isn't about opposing growth or law enforcement.
This is about fairness, accountability, and transparency.
Thank you.
Thanks, Steve.
We'll move on to Joel Anderson online.
Yeah.
Yeah, thanks.
Thanks for taking your time to listen to us.
A lot of what I was going to say has already been said, so let me just maybe
pitch one possible alternative to the 220% increase. Doing a little bit of research, looking
back at 2016, we were paying about $67.53 per capita for public safety. In 2026, estimated
made it to be about $63.16 per capita, adjusted to $216.
So we're spending roughly 6.9% less than what we should be
if we were to be on par with 2016.
So if we were to do something like maybe add
three new shareups rather than seven that would get us actually a little bit
over that being on par with 2016 and then if we were to take that five point
three million dollars that is currently being pulled from other budgets to
help pay for the you know current share of contract if we were to cut that in
half and leave half of it to pay for
sheriffs and public safety and then put the other roughly 2.7 million back
toward the original I guess back toward other projects that would leave the
new property tax let's see excuse me anyway that would that would result in
about an 8% property tax increase would be required to get us into that range.
Anyway, maybe something like that might be an alternative that it would reduce the tax
change from 220% to 8%.
It would put $2.7 million back into other projects and it would increase the sheriff's
capacity by three sheriffs and so anyway just just to thought something along
those lines possibly could be a more tempered approach to to what's needed
here 30 seconds remaining let's see I did yeah also well yeah that's all I have
to say I think everything else has been said I don't want to be the dead horse
thank you thanks Joel the next one we have is Joe I do not have a last name
So please ensure that you give us your last name for the record.
Yes, my name is Joe Richmond. Thank you for the time.
So it's interesting going towards the end of this common time.
There have been a lot of common themes that have come up, lack of transparency,
not knowing where the money is going.
We're asking to pay more money, more in taxes to cover things.
And maybe, you know, the city council, being in leadership is not easy.
I understand that I've been in leadership my entire career.
And I understand that you see things and have context that the citizens probably don't have.
And that's why you're elected.
But part of your job as being elected is to communicate well, to be transparent,
to simplify and make it easy for citizens, how many people have come up who have sacrificed to be here
to voice their comment, their opposition to this, as I am.
And we don't have time in our daily lives to research this and to become experts.
And so if this many people are coming to the table and are opposed to this because we don't understand it
and it's not clear where the money's going,
then you have failed at your job at leadership.
It is your job to help us understand it.
It's your job, we may not like it,
but if we can understand it,
I think we have a better chance of supporting something.
We have to do that all the time as adults, as leaders.
So that is what I ask and expect from leadership.
And I think everybody that's present in the room,
that's online, that's listening, and those that haven't been able to join, to voice their
opinion, I've talked to so many people who can't even join because they're busy running
businesses, they're busy with life, and they can't vote their, voice their opinion here.
So my, I want to voice my opposition to this, not because it's a big increase, maybe it's
needed, but you've not done your job to let us, to simplify, to help us to understand
what's happening. I mean, and especially with the data centers, help us to
understand how there is such a, how we're giving such tax breaks to these
these large corporations with deep pockets and yet families and households
that don't have deep pockets, we can't just raise funds for 220% for to
to buy a new car or whatever it is remaining so I'm asking that please take
a step back pause and do a better job of communicating and helping us understand
what it is you're trying to accomplish trust your citizens to understand that
what you're seeing and explain it to us in a simple way so that we can maybe
get behind maybe we don't need the 220% maybe we need 150% or whatever it is
but help us understand it.
Thank you for your time.
The last one we have online is Zachary Vance.
Hello, I feel like Joe led right into my points.
Basically, as a democracy, as an experiment in self-governance,
a lot of this comes down to adequate representation.
And I don't even know where the citizenry lands
on how many support it, how many reject it.
I get the feeling after tonight
that if you took this
to some kind of ballot initiative somehow,
we would likely be rejecting this.
And honestly, the bottom line is nobody cares what you think as the city council.
As the city council, you were elected to represent us.
So I just want to have more transparency on how you're adequately representing the will
of the people.
That's what you were elected to do.
You need to represent the will of the people, and if the people are against you and you
see a better reason, like Joja said, explain yourself.
With clear communication, we could be on board.
We might support you, but I don't even know if you're listening.
I don't know if you've done anything to listen to your constituents and adequately represent them.
That's the point of this democracy. That's the point of your job.
You need to represent your people. It does not matter what you think.
It is about the people you represent, and that is my only point.
Thank you, Zachary.
I want to reiterate, anybody online who would like to participate, will you please raise your hand at this time?
Okay, we're going to go ahead and move over to the email submission.
Oh, we have Joe already spoke,
Joe Richmond already spoke.
So we will move over to the email portion.
We got a couple emails through our, to the recorder.
We have one from David Salazar.
Thank you, Mayor, Council members for working so hard
to ensure the city can continue providing
strong public safety services
and funding the critical projects for our community needs.
My father taught me that true character is revealed
when we are faced with adversity.
I appreciate each of you being willing to stand
in the face of criticism and confrontation
and still make the decisions you believe are right,
not for yourselves, but for political gain,
but for the long term, betterment of our city.
So he says, thank you for your service, courage,
and your commitment to the future of Eagle Mountain City.
The other public comment that we got through email
is from Gary Fuchs.
He did email it to the council on August 3rd.
It's only at the email,
so we'll make sure it's part of the record,
but he says he's unable to attend.
He doesn't want to pay higher taxes,
but understands that 22% increase
gets people attention and continues to say my hope is that the investment is
followed by regular incremental planning so Eagle Mountain never again faces the
need for an increase of this magnitude. And then the last email we got was from
Steve Prophet. It was also sent to the Council. Looks like on August 6th this
morning. Thank you for your dedication to the future of the city. I
understand that proposing a tax increase is a difficult decision and he
He talks about how the proposal will directly affect his family.
He asks that you vote no to the proposed increase and revise the budget with outcomes based
plan that lessens the financial impact on the residents.
Mayor, that is all of the public comments that I have received at this time.
I will move it to you at this time.
Lacey, I will.
I'm going to forward you one that just came in at 8.03 to the council.
Can you send it to Recorder at Eagle Mountain, please?
Stephanie will get that printed.
Okay.
Why he's doing that?
Can you hear me okay?
Yes, we can hear you, Mayor.
I just wanted to...
Mayor, Mayor, hold on.
It's the poor, poor Tella, poor Ella, yeah.
Yeah, remind me of her name, please.
All
right, we received it. It was a packet of opposition to the tax increase, and it's read,
no other city in Utah has ever passed a 22% tax increase. 220% tax increase.
Okay, we'll
get that one printed.
Okay, so this is the email that was just received to our office
from Ethan Neal, who is a husband and father of two on a resident of Eagle Mountain. If
the city council chooses to approve the proposal, which would increase my property taxes by
approximately 220% and place an even greater burden on my families already struggling in
my community. I will make it my mission to ensure residents are aware of how each council
member voted. I urge you to consider the financial impact of this proposal that we'll
have on the families that you were elected to represent. So we'll make sure to get that
printed for the packet as well.
Now I think we have them all, Mayor.
Okay, I just wanted to give one last chance. Is there anyone in person that did not get a chance to speak that would like to please make it now?
Anybody?
I see nobody.
Thank you.
Hold on. Hold on, Mayor. We have one raise hand. Hold please.
Okay. Please state your name for the record. And fill out a sheet if you would. You can return it to the recorder afterwards.
Of course we'll do.
So my name is Chris Baldwin, and I didn't want to talk, but I kept thinking all night
what would Rich would do, and he would make his voice known.
So I want to applaud you for your example of fearless being able to speak and say what
you want.
I listened to the Pitch Book podcast and I was appalled at a comment that was made
about we're doing this tax increase because the state is gonna could
potentially cap the city's ability to increase it and to me the fact that
that's admitted kind of shocked me. It made me think of Tiffany Walden in the
comments she's made about malfeasance. I just don't think that's ethical to increase
at such a high rate because the state might stop our ability to do it. It completely exemplifies
why the state would have to have that bill even on the table. So that was it.
Okay, one more time. Is there anyone else in person that would like to make a comment at this time?
There's one in the back I can see.
The same instructions that you'll get a paper to lacy when you're done. State name for the record.
My name is Eric Nelson. I as well didn't want to speak, but 220% is above egregious.
It's only the Iron Horse or the Trojan Horse. It's just the start.
what 220 is this year. What's it going to bring to us in the future? There's
claims for a new city hall, a rec center. I agree that if this goes through, you
guys aren't going to be elected and you won't be using that city hall. The
financial burdens that are being put on the families for this kind of increase
that can barely afford groceries, their bills just surviving, barely keeping
their heads above water and you want to provide them with a community center that they can't afford
to even use. It's just so far out there. I moved to Eagle Mountain a year ago,
moved to Eagle Mountain a year ago because this is the only place I could afford
and now these kinds of increases are happening. It's going to very quickly make this a place
that's not affordable to live. I left Salt Lake County to live somewhere that I could afford.
this is going to turn into Salt Lake County if you approve this. There will be even more
problems in this community with a 220 percent increase. Support our law enforcement 100 percent,
but 220 percent doesn't need to support our law enforcement. A much smaller number
can support our law enforcement. That's all I got.
Okay, I'm going to say in person, is there anyone else that feels like they're not
an opportunity to address the council.
I don't see anyone. Lacey, have we received any last
minute email?
We got one more.
Okay.
Hello. My name is Elisa Harless and I've come to City Councils a little bit and I'm
new to Eagle Mountain. I work in a local dental office here and I know that when I'm presenting
Planning treatment plans to families, a lot of them struggle to provide proper dental care
for their children, for their families because they can't afford it.
I know that we came and met with the City of Commerce and I know that you guys try
and help small businesses, but your choice of doing this is going to be detrimental
to those small companies that are trying to thrive.
The move to Eagle Mountain for a purpose because they can't afford Salt Lake County.
They can't afford the east side.
They move out here.
Their family is that both parents work
and they live on low incomes
and they already can't afford their medical bills
and their dental bills and, you know,
they ask to make payments on things
and they're really struggling and it's real out there
and I don't know if you guys can even relate to that.
I don't know your personal situations.
But what's going on, I feel like
and I feel like a lot of people feel like this too,
that there's been a lot of mismanagement of money and I don't know if you guys know history
but it sounds like a lot of the French Revolutionary where King Louis was overspending and keeping
it secret and not being transparent with his people until they realized what was going
on and look what happened to them. It's getting to the point where you guys are responsible
for our money and using it wisely. It's not your money to spend, it's our money
and you need to treat it and respect it and have integrity and have a voice and
know how to say no and stand up to these big corporate companies but to me and I
feel like a lot of people like that too is there's been really a lot of poor
decisions made in the past government of the city and we know we know it we
know it and we we recognize it and we've had enough of it and we're
saying no. So think about history, think how, you know, government has changed because of
poor decisions with spending money and being bankrupt and not telling the people and it's
going to come out. So for me, I feel like that's why you have to increase taxes so
much is because we could be bankrupt. We don't even know. And you have to keep increasing
taxes to make up for poor excuses and poor decisions that you guys made in the past.
And I know that some of you are new to it, but there's people that have been on the board
for a long time that were part of those poor decisions.
And it's unfortunate that they still get loaded in, I don't know why, but something
has to change.
Okay.
Thank you.
Lacey, I did see a couple online.
I know there's a Joe and also, I just lost the other one, can we go to those two
real quick?
Yep.
Tim Blair?
Yes.
Yes, I am calling remotely now, but I just couldn't make this pass without getting my
two cents in.
I've lived in the Eagle Mountain now about four years.
Last year, my taxes went up about $800 a year.
That's about $70 a month for evaluation and one thing and another, and, you know, that
didn't sound like a lot.
but it is to me a lot and I've lived all over the United States pretty much and the recent the
poorest places I've lived in were the ones that had the highest taxes and you know out here in
this community we've got a lot of things going for us and I just I don't know that I could afford
to keep, you know, getting that kind of tax increase every year. So, you know, I'm totally
set against this 220-something percent increase and just wanted to say that I think it's
a losing proposition, so, for a lot of us. So, that's all I've got. Thank you.
Okay, I think this is a different Joe. We get to hear from one Joe. So would you check
and see if Joe has spoke, maybe state the last name?
Yep, he's the same one that had spoke already. Looks like I recognize the picture.
Okay.
Was there, before I go on, I just wanted to double check. I've run into two devices
here. Sorry, I'm a little slow. Was there anyone else online who did not get the
opportunity to speak if they would raise their hand please actually
I'm trying
to run the two devices and I believe on Joe's device his wife wanted to speak
Roxanne is that correct we asked a proxies analyst
Gotcha okay yeah we'll get them unmuted yeah my name is Roxanne Richmond go
ahead Roxanne we'll get you going okay thank you for thank you for listening
to me. My family and I have lived in Eagle Mountain for seven years and we really love
the community here. I really believe that the city council members and the mayor are
good people. Jared called me personally the other day to help me understand why the city
needs more revenues and that makes some sense. However, I took the time to compare this proposed
tax rate of .00171 to other cities in Utah County and what I found is that that
rate is extremely high, even in comparison to cities like Gorham, Linden, Highland, Alpine,
and Saratoga Springs. I wanted to figure out if this pretose tax rate was sensible in comparison
to other cities, which have happened to have far more services, although some of them
aren't going through as much rapid development as Eagle Mountain. But what I've concluded
that it is an extremely high rate and that the citizens should not be asked to
foot this bill. I support improved law enforcement but I would ask the city
council to go back to the drawing board and reevaluate what's needed prioritize
and renegotiate with the data centers and try to bring in revenues elsewhere
because this burden would be far too much and asking far too much of tax
Thank you.
Okay, if there was anyone else online, please raise your hand if you have not spoke.
One final chance there. Also, I wanted to ask Lacey, have there been, maybe I think Stephanie's tracking, is there anyone that has emailed in in the last few minutes so we did not get to.
We will double check.
No, no more emails.
Okay. And I don't see any hands raised on the computer. Last call for those in-person.
We have not had a chance to speak. Is there anyone there that feels like they would like to speak?
I don't see anyone standing.
Last call for anyone online, emails.
I want to make sure everybody feels like they've been heard and had a chance.
Are we good, Lacey?
We have Tyler do close online that just raises hand.
Okay.
We'll get him unmuted.
I've lived in Eagle Mountain for over seven years and I lived in Lehigh where Eagle Mountain was a part of it.
My whole family lives out here and for a property tax increase of 220%, I'm opposed of it.
I'm all for supporting our Sheriff's Department and Public Safety,
but I'm like most that I've heard tonight think that we got to go back and find it elsewhere.
Taxes are killing us already.
You know, I can barely afford groceries, medical supplies.
I'm a type one diabetic and I'm having to go without.
You know, and talking with family, friends, neighbors, you know, majority of my circle are all for
supporting our Sheriff's Department, public safety.
But if you look at what the city's done, look at our parks,
look at our walking paths, even behind my house,
which is a new build for the most part.
It's all beyond the crap.
It looks unpresentable, ugly on the eye,
And
I don't think that a 220% increase is going to help with that, because the problems more
within of like looking at what we need to do to improve.
There's countless times I see Eagle Mountain City trucks just parked not doing anything
with employees just sitting there.
And I don't think that's right. If you have employees
that are overworked, I understand. But for someone to be overworked but yet sitting
in a parking lot not doing anything that's not being overworked that's being lazy and they got
to be held accountable but I just wanted to add my two cents to this and I don't think that this
is going to help us things going to hurt us as a community where we grow further apart thank you
okay I don't see any other hands raised I don't see anyone in person and no emails
Is that correct?
Correct.
Wait, we have one more in person.
Right?
Yes? No?
Oh, yes.
Friends, colleagues, good to see you guys.
Yeah, I just quickly will say,
it's hard to squeeze money from people who have no money,
but we do have companies of global wealth income,
like Facebook and Google so it's better to try to get some strategy plans to see
what they could do because they could easily cover whatever you guys need
versus squeezing these people out so that's just a good strategy you could
talk about how to get a plan to see all these new companies company all these
new companies coming in how to structure that deal better contact the
citizens in Alaska from the golden oil the citizens actually get money
back. And so I do believe in the natural growth to kind of let that natural income come as
you know people are moving in every week into this town. So just strategies like that. So
you guys are doing great. We'll talk. Thanks. Can you state your name for the record please?
Yeah, for the record. James Russen. Thank you.
Okay. I don't see anyone else still.
Again, I know we want to make sure everybody's had a chance to speak, so is that everyone?
We did receive one email.
I don't recognize the name Lee Kim that they want to make known that I'm against the increase.
No transparency is being had.
Okay.
All of the emails, I don't see any hands raised or anyone coming forward at this time.
Last chance.
Okay.
I don't see anybody.
So at 9 o'clock pm, August 6th, we'll close this public hearing at this time.
I'd like to read our proposed property tax impact schedule.
This is just the proposed schedule.
It's what's been in front of people I've read it in almost every single meeting for quite some time now.
So just for some understanding, the proposed property tax impact schedule is Eagle Mountain City will consider
and increase this property tax rate to generate an additional $6,742,938.
The following information is intended to provide the decision makers and the public with an
explanation of how the city operations would be affected if the proposed property tax
increase is adopted.
it. Property tax rate with no increase is 0.000530. Property tax revenue with no increase
$3,055,201. Proposed revenue with tax change $9,798,139. Increase revenue to Eagle Mountain City
$6,742,938, Eagle Mountain City's 2026 proposed property tax rate, 0.001700, estimated increase
to Eagle Mountain City's property tax revenue, 220.88%, estimated increase to the average
First primary resident market value $488,000, estimated tax increase $314.03, total city
tax $456.28, estimated increase to average businesses, market value $2,554,303, estimated
tax increase $2,987.84 total city tax $4,341.62 the affected budget share of
contract the proposed budget is 9,798,139 the budget with no tax change is
is $8,290,000 and the budget change would be $1,507,939.
If a new property tax increase is approved,
the revenue will be used to fund
essential public safety operations
that allow approved by the city council.
These funds will help support core functions
of the Utah County Sheriff's Office,
Eagle Mountain Division,
including the addition of deaf youth
to meet the growth of the city.
city. That is the proposed property tax impact schedule. Thank you for listening to that.
I appreciate everybody that's made their comments. I think as is our custom, I want to bring
this back to the council and allow each of you to address maybe some of the notes you
made before we start our deliberation. I would, however, ask him and maybe council
with my fellow council members in the same respect of the public that they had, only
three minutes to speak that at this time you each limit your comments to maybe three minutes
and try to address some of the questions or or any of the the ideas that you have and then
we will have also additional time to deliberate on on the item in front of us but I just
want to give everybody a chance to to seek concerning the public hearing and any council
questions or concerns so I think I'm going to start on my right
I would like a timer, please. I've got more than three minutes, but I'll keep this to this part to three minutes first
I want to say I'm sorry that that you're here. I am grateful that you all showed up for those that have come the gentleman that
was up at 2.30 this morning and got off work at 4.30 to be here. I'm sorry that you're
here. Quite frankly, I don't want to be here. I don't want to be in this chair. I threw
my hat in the ring for Mayor Gray's city council seat because we have had compounded
serial missteps in our city for several years. I've lived here over 20 years and quite
Right, frankly, we need to step it up as leaders in the city.
I'm hearing four themes.
One is affordability, which maybe I'll address a little bit later, transparency.
We failed you.
We absolutely failed you.
I took it into my own hands to do a podcast.
It's hard to communicate effectively to a city of 80,000 people.
The Citizens Page, I just didn't feel like was a good way to communicate in sound
bites.
There's been a lot of miscommunication, it's been told that this was passed unanimously,
it was not passed unanimously, even though that's out on the citizens page, so I tried
to put a podcast out at my own expense to try to build context, I've put my phone number
out there, I've had five or six residents reach out to me personally, I've had ten
to fifteen emails, and I'm just grateful that we are here tonight, even though none
of us wanted to be here, I'm grateful that we are here.
This process allows everyone to share their thoughts, their feelings, and it's scary to
come up to the pulpit in front of the diocese.
I've stood there myself.
The second thing is the policy, which we're going to come back to.
I want to spend more time there.
And then third, the data centers.
That has been one of those compounding things.
The state has floated, or policy makers at the state have floated the idea of socializing
the MET tax that we've all talked about, that we've all been counting on and told that we're
going to have this tax, there is a policy that was not passed, was defeated, that would
essentially take the municipal energy tax and socialize it to other cities.
In my mind, that's wrong.
We've been waiting.
We've been promised that that tax would come back to our city.
So there are very active, real threats around revenue to our city, and we're trying
to manage that as best we can along with the with the caps. I don't know that this is the
right rate. I didn't vote for this. 30 seconds remaining. And I'm hoping to have a lively
discussion with everyone tonight. Thank you for being here.
Go ahead. Start my time.
Thank you for speaking. I think everybody here that knows me or that has listened
to me knows that we're not afraid to hear your words. We want to hear everything
that you feel. And sometimes we get stuff wrong. I mean, that's just the reality. I'm
going to tell you the number one highlighted thing. I share your frustration. I think we
did a horrible job of communication. I think that's been highlighted by every person here.
And so for that, I want to apologize. And I don't remember who the gentleman was that
said it was our responsibility to communicate that. I think he was one of the people
online. I will own that. I should have communicated to Zach's point it is
difficult to find a method that we can reach to people and get truthful
information out. There is so much disinformation that is out there. It's in
the media, the social media outlet, go to the Eagle Mountain Citizens
page. There's very little truth in anything that's being said in there.
And I debated how do I get the information to people?
How do I tell them why I'm interested in voting for a tax increase of any size?
We're going to have a chance to talk about that, and I want to address that at that point.
But I agree that there are the four things that we need to talk about.
What is real with data center money?
What are the challenges that we're facing from the state in their efforts
to try to raise additional funds at our expense?
what are some of the laws that have been floated that were defeated that we
know are coming back and then I think I definitely want to talk about the way
that we communicate with you. I've been very frustrated with that long before I
was ever on this council and I don't think it's improved all that much
frankly. I think that the information that you expected I would expect if I
was in your seat and we didn't provide that information to you and I will
address that in that latter part. Thank you for taking the time it's a
great sacrifice for you to be here. That's not lost on me. I appreciate you being here
so we can actually have a dialogue and explain to you some of the things that we're thinking
about and where I'm going to end is not predetermined. I will tell you I'm not sure where I'm going
to be at the end of this. We did have to make a decision to be able to have this discussion
and so we started with what are our actual needs and I like an opportunity to be able
to explain that to you.
Thank you, Councillor Wighting.
Thank you so much for being here.
We really, really appreciate you.
We appreciate all the comments.
We appreciate you that you've stayed here already for over three hours and we hope you can stay
for the duration of the commentary here.
There's been a lot of questions asked.
There's a lot of information that's going to come back to your direction.
Skepticism of government is a highly healthy thing and I encourage it, I applaud
And I hope the Eagle Mountain City, the citizens here, will ever remain skeptical of government,
whether it's local or state or federal.
We need to do that.
We've had so much experience in the past where there has been fraud and abuse at the levels
of government.
We've experienced that even recently in the last couple of weeks for those paying
attention to hearings in Washington, D.C.
policy, we have learned that the federal government was deceitful on numerous levels and numerous
occasions with how it handled the COVID situation.
We are learning that Dr. Fauci in his private diary was saying one thing and publicly saying
something completely different.
That affected public policy in a significant way.
The social distancing was a lie.
There is no science behind it, Dr. Fauci admits that.
That's what shut down our businesses.
That's what shut down our schools.
That's what shut down our churches.
And that is what led to massive inflation.
That's what led to significant costs we are now experiencing.
But I only bring that up because skepticism is healthy.
You need to come before us and say, you guys need to document this, that, and the other.
You have the right to know.
You need to make sure that we're not doing the same thing that other government leaders have done.
So I applaud that you're here.
The only thing that's sad about it is we only have a few of you here.
There are so many online that will get their information from social media where there are
only half truths.
Or people think they have the truth and lead a whole garrison of people in the wrong direction.
So I hope they'll stay so we can have a dialogue that can be healthy where we can transmit
information as to why would we consider an increase?
Why would we do something that would be unpopular?
Why would we want to do that?
It would be easy for any of us to be the single champion and have a whole people
people will rally behind us. Why would we consider the tax increase? So I hope
they'll stay as we can have additional discussion and I really appreciate
again that you're here.
Okay, thank you, Council Member Wright. Go ahead. Thank you,
Mayor. It's been good to hear from you.
Somebody said that we're gonna take
the easy way out. I can assure you this is not the
The easy way out is really ignoring the needs that the city is experiencing, the growth that
we're dealing with, the loss of employees because we can't keep them even in a median
area as far as payroll goes.
There's a lot that we need to discuss, but I do want to thank you for
coming. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts. I really hope you'll listen to the discussion
that's going to ensue because I don't get the feeling, I haven't had the feeling that this
is settled in an exact place.
But we're going to have some dialogue and some discussion
about it.
But I am absolutely considering a tax increase
for all of the right reasons.
And some of you are going to shake your heads and say,
well, what are the right reasons?
We're going to have that discussion.
It's not the easy way out.
In fact, it's the most difficult path
that we have to take forward.
The easy way is to say, we're not going to do anything.
And what we're going to do is just continue to reduce services and we're not going to
take care of those things that we own and that we should be taken care of.
And that's what we've done for a number of years.
It's always tighten your belt, figure out a way forward without dealing with the hard
problems of the fact that we don't have the resources that we need to take care
of those things that we have.
It really is a resourcing problem.
And I can assure you this, this city council and those of the very short past have been anxiously engaged in creating economic development that is going to bear fruit.
I'm confident of that.
And you shake your heads, no, and you can disbelieve that, but the day will come when Eagle Mountain will be known as one of the most, I want to use the right word, prosperous cities.
in Utah County, certainly and within the state of Utah, those days are on our horizon, but
they are not today. They are coming. And I know Mayor Gray has gotten in trouble for saying
that and I'm going to do you a favor. I've started into my second term, this is my
fifth year. I'm not going to rerun. I'm here to do it for the right reasons and
to make the right decisions and to make the changes and we have said no. We have
said no in multiple occasions in multiple ways and made very hard decisions.
We've adjusted the way development happens in Eagle Mountain, the way the water is
allocated. We have made some tremendous strides in holding the development
community accountable when they were not being held accountable prior to my
arrival here. I'm sure we'll talk a little bit more about that. My time's
about out, but thank you for being here.
Okay, I go ahead and milk. Council Member Clark.
Thank you all for being here tonight. I totally get why people are angry and it
makes sense that you're mistrustful and it even makes sense why maybe you're a
little bit afraid that your quality of life and your ability to take care of
your family and provide for their needs could change and the fact is is I feel
all of those same things before I ran for city council I was pissed that the
city was spending money on a park that I didn't think we had money for and I
would rant and rave on Facebook and I would take all my elected officials and
ask them to be accountable for all of that and as I've got into office I
started to realize that there's way more than I ever could have
comprehensive and frankly serving the city is
an honor but it's also super
hard because there were a lot of decisions made in the early years of the
city that set us up for trajectory that makes it so that we don't have as much
control now.
I want you to know too that this isn't settled. I spent a lot of
time going through budgets, I spent a lot of time going through what our cities doing,
what other cities are doing and trying to find ways that we could save money so that we don't
have to raise taxes. But like my colleagues up here have said, it would be easy for us
just to say no and not look at the real needs that we have as a city. I think the biggest
thing that we have to figure out tonight while we're meeting with you guys is what do we cut?
What are the priorities that matter the most to the people of our community?
Because there's more needs than we have money. We do need to do a better job of communicating.
Mayor Gray and this council have tried to come to your neighborhoods and do a listening tour.
We've tried to go to farmers markets, but it's still not enough. It's still not enough and
We need to do better I
Want to thank you all for being here. I hope that we get an opportunity to talk about
Some of the history some of the changes some of the reasons for the things that we 30 seconds remaining
And I hope that you guys get a chance to stay and be a part of that conversation.
So thank you.
Okay.
Now, something a little different.
Council kind of knew that they were going to get a chance and as they always do.
But this part maybe they didn't know.
I'm just going to ask you can say no.
Our city manager, Ben Reeves, has been a great addition to our city and has a wealth of knowledge.
I'm just going to ask if there are any comments that you'd like to make.
and if there's any maybe clarifying things or anything that you could help the public
or the council. And you can say no. And following that, I do know that Sheriff Smith is also
in the audience and give him a chance to represent the Sheriff's Department if he wishes.
I don't mean to put you on the spot, but I just wanted to relay that out there.
Thank you, Mayor. And I echo the comments of the council and I echo the fact that
But it is a great honor to serve this community.
I've been here just a short time, but I've seen Eagle Mountain City from afar since its
inception back in 1996, when 250 residents came together to collectively work to build
towards a brighter future.
And today here we are inheriting a city of 80,000, and yet the services and the
work and the infrastructure and everything that is needed is so essential in order to
enhance and protect and preserve the quality of life that you've enjoyed for these last 30 years.
Coming in new, I just look and applaud at our first responders, both with the Sheriff's
Department and with the UFA and our city staff and all that they do. And it's what's hard for
me is that I truly feel like for many, many years that they have been working with
basically an arm tied behind their back, we haven't invested in them, and I think there
is a strong desire for the mentality of use it up, wear it out, make it do or do it out.
And that's great, but there's also a certain expectation that our property values go down
if we don't take care of our open spaces, if we don't take care of our parks, people
go to other areas.
I know it was talked a lot about the data centers.
I wasn't here when the first data center was approved, but I can tell you that the incentives
given to the first data center brought the next, and then that brought the next.
And with each subsequent data center to today, there's been less incentive, less incentive.
There's no incentives today.
And they're going the other direction and bringing money to the table up front.
And so if it wasn't for some of the decisions of the past, we wouldn't have inherited
the bright future as well.
And so it's hard to stand in judgment for those who have been here before
But I can tell you today that our city staff is about a third of the size of city
Staff of equivalent population and they are working their hearts out and they care and they
They love the city that they work for they love the council that they work for and they love serving the people that they work for
And yet it's hard to hear after day after day that you know
We suck. We're not keeping up. We're not keeping the parks up. We're not keeping the trails up
Well, we can only do what we can do with the staff that we have and we can only
provide that level of service
That we can afford to 30 seconds remaining
And so ultimately this is a policy decision and I will support the council and whatever they do
And I'm absolutely confident our staff will support the council and whatever they decide and they will do the very best with whatever
for resources that you entrust with them.
But at the same time, please recognize
that we're in it together.
We are one team, we're one family,
we're one Eagle Mountain City.
We all live here.
We all wanna see our kids and grandkids
live here in the future as well.
Thank you.
I can't see Sheriff Smith off the screen,
but you see, there he is.
Thank you, Mayor.
Super excited to speak at something like this.
So, hey, you know, honestly, I get PTSD with these type of meetings, I hate them.
I feel for everybody that spoke tonight, my heart goes out to you.
It's a horrible thing.
I feel for the council.
It's a tough decision.
It's easy to arm share a quarterback this and criticize, but I can tell you as somebody
who sits in the seat also, it's a whole different story when you're sitting in the
and you have to make the decision.
So I respect that.
I respect you for what you're doing.
And what I will say is the sheriff
is we are extremely proud to be your law enforcement out
in Eagle Mountain.
We are Eagle Mountain out here.
The deputies that we send out here
are the finest deputies that we have in the sheriff's office.
office. You are getting high quality people. We're able to, through the Sheriff's Office,
we're able to recruit top officers. A lot of times, you know, I get Chiefs that are
mad at me. We're taking them from other cities because they want to come work for the Sheriff's
Office. And so the Eagle Mountain benefits from that. And what I will tell you is
it's a tough decision to come to Eagle Mountain Council and say, hey, we need this.
But as we look at crime, as we look at the growth of this city, I'll tell you, as far
as the truth and taxation and what it costs to do it, again, that's a really tough decision.
But that's not what I look at.
I look at how do we keep Eagle Mountain safe?
How do we keep Eagle Mountain a community that people want to move to, that people
feel comfortable living in, that people feel like their public safety is doing their jobs?
I come out and I campaign I go to meetings and I'll tell you what I hear not in a truth and taxation meeting
But what I hear overwhelmingly from people is is they're upset. They're upset because they called on, you know
Maybe something
Lower level on the food chain of law enforcement and they didn't get the response they needed
Why aren't you guys responding and I can tell you the reason why is is because the the deputies are
basically going from call to call to call and I heard a few comments tonight
about what we saw him getting a drink at 7-Eleven or wherever they were and I've
told them and I challenge them like if you have downtime I would rather have
you 30 seconds remaining instead of coming to the office and hanging out I
would rather have you going somewhere like that to take a break and talk to
the community be out there with the community so we we want to be your
please force them. What I will guarantee you as your sheriff is, we're not asking for
anything that's not needed out here. It is definitely needed, actually more is needed.
I've heard a few comments about doing your own police. That's on the table if they
want, but I think the Council knows in a feasibility study that is no where it's
not cheap, it's not even close to what you're getting for what we do. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. And I will add a couple of comments I forgot to do earlier, but some
of the things like that were brought up in the meeting impact fees and grants, those are
all one-time monies. These deputies that we hired will be ongoing expenses year over
year with their salaries, just as thoughts for some of the questions that were brought
up. Also, I work extensively with our data center partners. I've been in office
now 213 days. And I've got to know those guys very, very well. And in the course of
the week, I wanted to know some of the actual numbers for the community to understand. And
QTS actually provided some talking points just to, you guys can take these numbers
back and look at what it is that we've been telling you is coming. They're under construction
and so these haven't been fully realized yet. But the property tax impact from
QTS. They're committed to building within our city. In the new buildings, there's three
buildings running construction right now. They're looking to break down on two more
buildings just to the north. The impact will generate over $19 million a year for our local
jurisdictions.
And Evan obviously knows these numbers and we're going through these numbers
every day. Just for Eagle Mountain City alone, at our current tax rate, the Eagle
amount of city that would be $2.7 million a year. The Utah County would get $1.7 million.
Here's the big one. I heard of this a lot during this, you know, the concerns about
the school district. Lake Mountain School District, on the current five buildings,
we get $10.4 million a year. That's an additional $10.4 million for the budget. Every three
years that builds an elementary school. So when I mentioned earlier on that this
money is coming these are the actual numbers unified fire district under the
current tax system we get 3.2 million we're looking by next year to bring that
taxing authority back in house add that to the city amount and you would see a
little over five million dollars to the city rather than 2.7 so those are the
kind of numbers Utah Central Water District
We'll get almost a million, and then the other districts just shy of a half a million.
Another thing is QTS was granted some tax incentives when they started those first three buildings.
They came back on these next two. We didn't even ask this and said, hey, by the way, you
guys have been so great to us. We don't want any incentives on these next bills. Just
we're going to be full taxpayer starting day one.
So I want that to soak in a little bit that we are negotiating and we are working
with these people and they are going to contribute right around the corner. These dollars are
going to be realized right away. We haven't even talked about the MET that also generates.
So at another point, we were trying to figure out how to widen pony express here a couple
of weeks ago. QTS, I made one phone call to them and said, Hey, maybe we could do
a reimbursement agreement like how to work this out. That was some ideas to talk about
in the city hall. I called them and said, you know what, I don't feel like this is a burden
the residents should bear. Some of that traffic on Pony Express is because of their workers.
I said it's about a $5 million bill with two stop lights and two of those stop lights are
areas that are turned towards their development. It's about $5 million asked and I asked them
to consider helping us with that at least half or most the people that are charged
with making those decisions, said give me just a minute.
I hung the phone up and called me right back and said,
you know what, not only will we help,
we'll pay for that entire $5 million bill,
that road will be built.
So now our internal staff, our engineers are working hard
to make sure that we can get that as soon as possible.
I think we'll see some of it this year
and some in the future.
So I just want you to know that these data centers
are invested in our community
and not just at their site,
but in areas where we direct that we need some help.
So some of those numbers are now out there, and are you welcome to get further information?
I would say those are estimated a little bit, but we've done a lot of math over the last week
just so that we could provide that with some fairly good confidence that that's the direction
that we're headed on just that one site. That does not include some of the other data centers.
So I just wanted to get that out there as we move forward in this discussion.
I think it's time, I just want to reach out to Marcus, Lacey, I know Kimberly's there
procedurally.
If we missed anything that we need to address this time before I go on to item number four,
or the council.
It looks like we are okay.
Marcus, Kimberly and I, we have everything we need.
Thank you.
I think we're good.
Okay.
If the council has any questions as we move forward, you're welcome to let me know.
But I think it's time to move on to item number four on our agenda, which is a resolution of
Eagle Mount City approving a property tax increase above the certified tax rate for physical
year 2627.
I think we've talked about this a lot through our budget process and whatnot.
So at this time, I'd just like to turn it over to the council if you have any questions
or comments.
I know there were a few of you that said that you wanted to get into a little more
detail at this point.
So, I'm open to raise your hand, let me know if you'd like to speak, and we'll try to use
as orderly as possible.
Again, I appreciate you guys allowing me to do this remotely, but whoever wants to speak,
let me know.
Mayor, really quick, I think you guys have asked a question about transparency, and you're
like, we want a line-by-line explanation of the budget and what the money's being
spent on.
and I want you guys to know that that document exists and not only does that
document exist right now for this year's budget but it exists for all of the
previous year's budgets and they are all on our city website there's an
interactive budget so you can kind of see what the goals are for every single
department what their projects are that they're working on so if it's
parks, what parks they're upgrading, if it's the attorney's office, what contracts and
different things they're working on.
And it's important to us that you guys know today when you go home that that exists,
and we are 100% transparent and accountable to you guys.
We want you to know that it's out there.
We've done a crappy job of helping you know where it is, but it exists.
And I think it's really important for you guys to know that it's there.
Yeah, I think to your point, a lot of people have used the word transparency instead of communication.
Transparency, everything that we've done has been in an open and public meeting and it's very transparent.
What it isn't is easy to get it out to the public in a form maybe easy to understand or whatnot.
So the communication side, we've done our best, and we try and we improve every day.
But transparency is definitely everything we've done has been in the open.
So next, is that Council Member Hewish?
You go ahead.
Yeah, I just want to go deeper into the transparency piece.
When the, this is my understanding, and Ben, you can correct me if I'm misstep anywhere.
Okay, I'm going to be careful.
But when the application was submitted for the policy to cover 100% of the sheriff's contract,
100% with property taxes, that was the application.
And in the state of Utah, to vary from that application would completely disrupt this entire process.
So you have the communication that was put out to communicate the policy,
but it's obvious that you take 6.7 million minus roughly 1.5 million and
there's a gap there it's like well what happens with that money right and that's
not part of the initial application that's a separate discussion so I want
to if it's okay to talk about all right I just want to be clear this is
something that I also struggled with in understanding and trying to
communicate so some of some of the things as a council that we've talked
about. There are several projects going on within the city. There's also several staffing
shortfalls. Number one, we've talked about getting our staff to 90 percent. I believe it's 90 percent
of the median, is that correct, Ben? We're not there. Our staff is underpaid. My neighbor used
to work in the city of Eagle Mountain. He now drives to Harriman. They just pay more. He makes
more money there. He is excellent with concrete work and we train people up. We hire them
here, we train them, and then we lose them to other cities. And the cost of training is
expensive. For those of you that are business owners, it's expensive to train people. And
it's painful when you lose them because of salary. So part of the contemplation with
the freed up funds is to increase based on merit and getting people up to that level
to where they're not even above average, but at the 90% of the median of the middle, okay,
so not even there. That cost is about $525,000 to do that. So there's that. There's also
Also the contemplation, these are positions that would impact the general fund.
There's about 18 part-time and full-time positions, 13 of those in my estimation have to do with
our parks.
And I'm just going to, I won't go through each specific salary, but I would like to
mention the different jobs.
So, we've contemplated hiring three open space employees for, so when you're on Eagle Mountain
Citizens Page and you see someone complaining about, my trail needs to be cleaned, we've
got trails all over.
We've got, I don't know, hundreds of miles of trail.
I have them behind my house and they get overgrown.
And we've got a staff where that's what they're out doing.
We've contemplated having three parks technicians.
The other day I was at Corey Ride, and I'm sorry if I'm going.
Is it okay?
Okay.
I just have a lot to say.
I've been thinking about this a lot.
I was at Corey Ride at the dunk tank actually yesterday with the youth council,
and I was walking around the park and I was like,
the grass actually looks good.
The last time I was at Corey Ride it looked terrible,
and I thought we sold our utility for this park,
park and we just let it go. And I happened to run into one of the parks text that was
there. I said, this park looks good. I don't know what you're doing, but it does not look
like the park by my house. The park by my house is dying. It weeds everywhere and you
can drive around Eagle Mountain and see those conditions. And he said, you know, we took
this park back in house, meaning our employees are taking care of this park. We have
a lot of contract work that happens throughout the city in our parks and they don't look great.
So we've contemplated hiring more parks crews so that we can actually control the quality
and service level. We've considered recreation. We have brought soccer back in-house. So
our ball fields, our soccer fields are not in great condition. Some of the kids
that are playing or skin in their knees, maybe that's okay.
For me, I think we can do better there.
We've also contemplated a streets operator sealing the cracks.
Now it's true when you build a development and you charge impact to these to a developer,
that developer is not on the hook for the maintenance in perpetuity.
There's just not a fund that exists to maintain those streets and there are real costs.
We've contemplated hiring there.
There's also five positions considered around engineering and just day-to-day operations.
We have a lot of, well, Ben can probably speak to this to turn over within the city regarding
HR.
Our purchasing agent is overwhelmed.
Last year asked for to hire somebody.
We did not hire that person.
She's working a lot of overtime and, you know, it's emotionally exhausting.
So these are some of the things that freed up funds that were contemplating.
This was in the May 26 meeting. I talked about this specifically.
And you can go listen to those. I know nobody wants to go listen to six hours of budget meetings of City Council.
That's not your job. That's our job.
But these are things that weren't communicated.
I think out of a fear of crossing the line with the application that was filled.
So, I just want to clarify that, and if there's anything that I communicated in the podcast
that I put out there was not intended to mislead anybody or to confuse anyone, it was meant
to bring more context that I didn't feel like was being put out there in the Eagle Mountain
Citizens Page.
So, I'll just pause there on transparency, and I have more around policy that I'd love
to discuss.
Yeah, and I think the key to that, Zach, what you're talking about is more about
the budget and the budget process than so much this tax but just all of the
different things that are budget that we are dealing with right so appreciate the
context I think Councilmember Wood you had some other comments or
Councilmember Whiting go ahead yep thank you mayor so we were asked earlier
to answer the question what are the you know three capital projects you
would spend the money on and I'm going to jump on what Councilmember
or Hewish already indicated that our parks and open space
is very apparent.
You just drive around and you can see their condition.
So before I answer that question,
let me back up and support something.
So when we say that 100% of the property tax increase
goes to public safety, that is the correct answer.
What we need to do is help you understand,
and this means we didn't communicate this well enough,
how public safety has been paid.
So right now it's being paid for through property tax, and we're essentially robbing
from sales tax to help subsidize our police and our public safety.
So this communication that 100% of the tax increase goes to public safety is true.
It now puts property tax as the pillar upon which public safety now stands.
And this is what we need to communicate better.
What that now does is it takes the sales tax dollars that we were essentially robbing from
sales tax to go support public safety, and now it takes that sales tax dollars to do
other things.
And that's what Council Member Hughes was referring to, several different hires within
the city, wage increases for the employees.
And so that's, and perhaps that's what some of you were wondering, like, okay,
what is now, what can now be paid for, property tax is now taking care of public
safety.
safety, what can we now do with sales tax dollars that were being used for public safety,
what can we now do with them? And we're stating some of it. And if you go back and look at
our budgets, we said in the budget what we would do with that money, including several
understaffed departments. The city manager commented we're about a third the staffing
level as other cities of our size. But with that being said, so these dollars
that are available now through sales tax.
My number one thing is public safety on our streets.
We have a massive need right now for safer streets,
especially in our school zones.
And we need speed tables and other mechanisms
to keep the kids safe.
It may shock you, but a speed table costs about $70,000
to $80,000.
And we don't need to need one.
We don't need to need two.
We need a ton of them.
that cost a lot of money. If this tax, this doesn't go through what now happens.
Well, the sales tax will have to go back to support our public safety, and it gets diverted
from being able to put speed tables and other things like that in our school zones and other
streets. There was a comment that I know, you know, there's some of you that I know
well that have come up and made public comment.
I know that you live on
The streets that are not safe, your streets are being studied right now. We commission a
study that is being done on sensitive streets in the city so that we can get the best data
available on how to bring those cities to a safer level so we can slow down traffic so
kids can cross safely. And that, again, goes back to transparency. I think that's a message
we didn't clearly communicate well enough to the city, because had that been part of
the discussion, I think people would be like, oh wait a second, I can get behind freeing
up some sales tax dollars to go toward making sure our streets are safer. We just didn't
communicate that, which is why I'm happy you're here. This is part of the discussion
we can now have to help educate and get the information out there as to what we're
we're doing and why this increase is so important.
I'll leave it at that for the time being.
I've got comments on, well, maybe let me just say this
so I can wrap up.
I just had one additional comment on the data center thing.
We're hearing people saying,
we're not seeing it from the data centers.
I'm gonna tell you something.
You are wrong.
And I'll tell you why.
Everyone in this city who is 100%,
120% area median income or lower
can qualify for a down payment to buy a house.
That money is coming from data centers
so that you can, that down payment money just doesn't magically appear.
It is Facebook, and I believe Tyson, that's putting money
into an RDA from which we have created
the most successful down payment mortgage, down payment assistance program in the state.
It gives you more money and is more easily qualified for
than any other city and maybe that again comes down to communication. That is
available. There's millions of dollars that's already been given to two
citizens of Eagle Mountain to buy homes. Down payment is not something that
anybody needs to buy a home in the city. You don't need that if you know I don't
have a down payment. The down payment is available through the RDAs that was
set up that our data centers are funding into and it's only going to
bigger. We just approved, and this is another conversation, and I'll probably talk about
this later in the meeting.
Part of the reason why we arrived to this situation circumstance that we have arrived to is we
have built the city upon residential housing. And the challenge that owner-occupied residential
housing, which I support, but owner-occupied housing gets a 45 percent decrease on their
taxes. And so the growth issue is one reason why I ran. I've been on the city council for
a few months now, by the way. And so that, not that it's relevant or irrelevant, but
I've been on here just a few months. I got involved because of growth that was unsustainable.
And so what happens is when prior city councils, I'm not going to accuse them of their decisions,
but they made decisions where they granted developers the ability to build thousands of homes
at the fastest pace they want to build. There's 25,000 vested units that still exist
that we can't get rid of, and those can be built whenever those developers want to build it.
And so once you give the blank check to the developers to be able to build as fast as
they want to build, how can we then manage the growth?
Because they can build as fast as they want.
And when they build, yeah, we're collecting impact fees.
But, and that came up a lot to you tonight.
Impact fees, we are charging them.
And guess what?
We're charging as much as we're allowed to charge.
I would love for impact fees to pay for all of this stuff.
The state of Utah has laws about how impact fees
can be charged.
We're charging the maximum we can charge.
I'm just letting you all know that.
But those impact fees, the state has come in for whatever reasons it's come in and curbed how much we can charge.
So we charge as much as we can. But is it enough? It's not enough. But we are charging as much as we can.
So when citizens come up and say, what about impact fees? It's true that we should ask that question.
We're charging what we can charge. But the impact is clearly not being paid for correctly, right?
I mean, they're creating more impact than we can collect.
But anyway, I bring this up because you need to know that this city council, this year,
I want you to guess how many new housing units has this city council approved?
We have approved 33 total.
Is growth being managed?
It's being managed.
How many developers have just twice equal loan?
when I had two developers reach out to me privately,
not to my fellow city council members.
Craig, I want to do this high density development here.
I want to do this development here,
and I said, it's not the time,
and it's not going to happen.
We're not going to support it.
It's not going to happen, and they left.
You don't see the gates that we are defending,
that we are defending this castle right now
in a way that I can't say
hasn't ever been defended before,
but since I've been involved here,
and the city council has been unified in this,
we are managing residential growth
exceptionally well, because it's the additional residents that are coming in paying 20-10 taxes
that we cannot sustain. That math does not add up. When we're charging those new residents,
those new households 20-10 taxes, and we're trying to support them through 20-26 expenses,
every new resident that comes in, we cannot sustain it. There's not enough being collected
from the new households. The growth, you're saying, well, we have a larger tax base. Revenues
have increased because we have a larger tax base. But expenses have increased much faster.
So when people say the growth should pay for it, the growth is the issue because we are
growing under a 2010 tax break. Even the data centers say, well, get the data centers
to pay more money. I would love if we could tax the data centers separately. The
state of Utah doesn't allow it. I would love to do it. We cannot do that.
It's
Senate representative here would have also been standing at the very pulp that you stood
at and would have said we oppose the tax increase. They would have all done that. They are laughing
all the way to the bank right now that they are only paying 20-10 taxes. And the only
way we can make them pay more is to increase the tax rate. And that tax rate has to be
increased on that same tax rate that we could vote on today. That applies ubiquitously
across the city. That's the only way to get them to pay more. I wish we could get them
to pay more otherwise we just cannot. And so it's important for us to know that growth
unsustained that has caused us to be in a situation we're at today where we suddenly
have to make a decision that's difficult. Anyway, I will pass the microphone down.
Mayor, are you okay if I talk?
Yeah, go ahead. I just want to remind the council to item number four. I mean
free to speak. I'm not limiting debate necessarily. I'd just like to keep it to maybe your position
on the tax increase and supporting your position. And I understand everything we've heard is
in that manner, but just to keep it a bit higher.
With all due respect, I think that both of them have kept on topic with why people
are looking for answers as to what is motivating these decisions. And I think we need to
probably error on the side of allowing the council to give an explanation of why we're
going to tax people.
That's exactly what I'm asking, what I said.
First of all, thank you to both of the council members who have expressed a lot of the things
that I think have been part of the decision making process for me.
All of them will corroborate what I'm about to say.
When we had this discussion, I was actually remote, it was a discussion that began and
probably ended with our retreat in St. George, but one of the things that I said and I still
stand by this, the only thing anybody's ever going to remember is 220%.
Then no matter what else we say, the only thing they're going to hear is 220%.
So, we have to be concise and clear about how we express to them why that even makes
any sense to anybody.
The reason that I voted for us to put that certified tax rate at the level that it was
is because I believe a fiscal responsibility to fund our police force, our public safety,
with a stable revenue.
That is not sales tax.
tax. And I appreciate the head shakes. I do because let me explain that to you because
I want you to understand where I'm coming from. What happened when the pandemic happened
and sales tax wasn't providing anything for anybody? Did we just stop having police force?
What happened when the market crashed and everybody started losing their houses? Did
we suddenly not have a need for police force? In fact, we had a greater need for police
force. There isn't a single person who lives in this city that does not pay a property tax
of some sort that goes directly to the police force under this particular proposal. Perhaps
the rate's wrong, but I think in principle a stable revenue source to pay for public
safety should be a principle that we stand on. We have been woefully arrogant and
that we have been
loose with our lack of financial plans in this city. We haven't had one. When
I got here, I said, where's our five-year plan? Where's our ten-year plan? Do we have
a 20-year plan? The answer's no to all of those things. So when you're asking how
come you can't provide that information, I'm asking the same thing. Where is the
information that we're making these decisions on and how are we preparing for the future?
I think it's interesting when you have past council members come in and say things like how dare you did that.
We were able to live on the income that we had there.
And I think we're here because of your responsibility.
You left this big pile for us.
You didn't raise fees for water.
You didn't raise fees for sewer, almost to the point where we're in the red.
You didn't raise property taxes because of some crazy conservative fiscal federal mentality
of I'm not going to raise taxes because somehow money appears out of nowhere.
And it left us in a position where we hear you when you say our parks are in poor repair.
Our parkways are not being taken care of.
I can't ride my motorcycle down the road because all we can afford to do is crack
seal.
We can't raise the level of how we're taking care of the city because we don't have the
funds to do so because people in the past thought that being cheap was a good way of
public policy.
So I find myself in this situation now of how do we course correct this?
Some of you have said, how can we do it incrementally?
If you want to continue to kick the can down the road, we can do that.
you will find that we cannot keep on pace exactly what Craig was saying.
We are adding 1,800 building permits a year.
That is not sustainable for our roads, for our public safety,
for fire services. We're 50 square miles.
There is no other city that is experiencing the problems that we have
with basically two separate cities that existed forever
with nothing in between, and we had to service both with water, sewer,
were public safety, fire services. So we're left in this place with, well, what's the
decision to be made then? Everybody's going to hate the decision. If I came in and said
in the very beginning, we're going to raise the taxes by five percent, would anybody
raise their hand and say, yeah, I'm in favor of you raising taxes? The answer's going
to be no. We're raising taxes. I'm against it. I don't want to pay it. It affects
me. We are one income family as well, by the way, and it affects our ability
to be able to make our bills as well. I also pushed very, very hard to have a quarter that
goes behind my house that ruins the site and sound of my area. I live in Silver Lake that's
quiet and it will not be that anymore. I also voted to make sure that we built a road from
Brookhaven up to the upper part of Silver Lake out to Pony Express so there was a
safe walking route for the kids and guess whose house that goes by? Mine. I took
all the traffic. It's not good for me. It's bad for my family. My kids can't go out on
the street, but it created an opportunity for them to walk to school. Craig brought
up the speed tables. I think you need to know how passionate we are about making sure
that number one, every one of the elementary schools has sufficient, safe ways to stop
traffic so that they can cross. The crossing guards shouldn't have to feel like they're
going to get hit. And then we have a speed study that is going to address every
every other road that has the same problem. We had a community come in two meetings ago
talking about the speed in their community, and they've been told multiple times, you
know, we'll find a solution, then nothing's happened.
The one thing I want you to walk away from this today, regardless of what our decision
is, there isn't anybody up here that is looking for an easy way out. I hope that
there isn't anybody that's trying to make the decisions for a political reason, because
I think that's a coward's way out. We should be doing what's right regardless of the outcome.
And for me, that's how I will vote. I'll vote for what is best for 80,000 people. I'm not
going to do what's best for a few.
Mayor, is it okay if I go?
Yes, sir, please.
I would just echo everything that's been said. I think something that hasn't been
hit on is transportation. The biggest issue that we face in Eagle Mountain is transportation
transportation corridors. We sit in traffic far too often and far too long. We have intersections
that are missing traffic control signals because we can't afford to put them in. Where does
that money come from? If we continue to pull sales tax dollars which could fund those infrastructure
improvements and we continue to allocate it to our sheriff's contract or to our public
services. Those are the things that we really face.
Every time that we decide we need a road to be a little bit bigger, we've got to up-size some sewer,
we've got to do some sort of improvement. That comes out of the taxpayer's dollars.
It comes out of the general fund, and we have to decide, are we going to set some money aside to take care of those improvements,
or are we going to continue to fund as it grows? Because I'm going to tell you this,
should we choose to approve this at 220% this year?
next year, that is not going to cover 100% of the sheriff's contract, news flash,
because their fuel is going to go up, they're going to get raises, and they're
going to be back in here next year saying, you guys added another 6,000
people, we need a couple more officers. So it's not something that's going away.
It's just something that we are being asked to what do we do to adjust this
policy so that we can get to a better place today or today and work for a
better future tomorrow.
We've had a lot of hard conversations, one-on-one. We've had
a lot of dialogue, as we said in that retreat. We've had a lot of dialogue, as we've had
those opportunities in public meetings to have the discussion during the budget sessions.
And I'm just going to say this. I'm proud to serve with the council members who are
to my left and to my right. They are not cowards.
It's not easy to face you.
And it's not easy to tell you the truth.
But that's what we've chosen to do.
Yeah, I want to at least answer Melanie's question.
Everything that's been set up here
is exactly how I think all of us feel.
And we hope that it's kind of a glimpse
into some of the thought process
that we've put into this, the things
that we've wrestled with, the questions
that we've been asking ourselves.
But Melanie asked, like, what are the capital projects, top three?
And for me, obviously roads, safety, getting kids to school safely.
Those are things where there's no special fees coming from someplace else.
There's no additional dollars coming from anywhere.
And we have a family of seven in our house, and I was a teacher for ten years.
So it's important for me, for both kids and adults,
to be able to get where they need to go safely.
Every minute that you spend in your car
is time that you're not with your family.
It's time that you can't be at your kid's games
or spending time with your wife or husband
or your aged parents.
So like, roads are crazy important to me
and they will always be crazy important to me.
But the next two things for me
We are ones that aren't sexy and they're not ones that a lot of people think about but
I want when each of you flush your toilet for the stuff that you flush to leave your
house and not ever come back and we need a sewer treatment plant to be expanded so
that it can handle what we as a city have.
We're at capacity for a load and we need to do something about it now and it takes
three plus years to get a sewer treatment plant built and expanded, and it costs a crap
ton of money. So that's a huge capital project that's important to me.
Crap ton of money.
Oh my gosh. You guys are so quick. I didn't even think of that. And then the last of
the top three, but there's like about 40 that are important to me, are water sources.
The reality of it is, is we have a ton of water and a really nice aquifer that's under the ground.
But we have woefully inadequate infrastructure to get that water that we have up out of the ground,
and we don't have enough tanks to store it in.
And just to, it was the 4th of July week when we put out the request to all of our commercial businesses,
houses, all of our schools, all of our HOAs, all of our churches, and we said, please don't
water. We said to our residents, please don't water. And we as a city had already not been
watering our parks. So why is that important? Why do we need the whole water infrastructure?
If we don't have enough water in our tanks replenished at night, then we can't put
fires out. And we live in like a super wildfire prone area. And I don't want any of the people
in our community to lose their house because we couldn't put their fire out because we
didn't have enough infrastructure to get the water out of the ground. And we're working
like crazy. Our staff is working like crazy. A couple months ago, there was a water
line that just burst in the middle of behind scenic mountain up there. And there were dudes
from our team working late into the night, frankly, early into the morning, and it was
muddy and gross. And my husband and I went and brought them drinks and a couple candy
bars because I felt bad that they were working so late. And it was treacherous for me to
walk to bring them stuff. I can't imagine what it was like for them to work in those
conditions. And that's what the people of our city staff do over and over again. And
I just, you guys elect us because we're the ones that go and study things out and then
we bring you back information and we make decisions on your behalf. This is some of
the information that we have and the priorities that we have based off of the things that
you guys have told us. So thank you for being here.
Move
to like a policy discussion now. Okay, something that's been on my mind is
How do we prevent this kind of volatility from happening in the future?
We've benefited I've benefited personally for the last
I've lived here 20 years and my property tax rate has decreased as my home values gone up
I've paid the same nominal dollar amount if you don't believe me go look at your property tax rate
Not the rate, excuse me, the dollar amount for the city has been the same.
Just look at the city.
I didn't believe it.
When I served on City Council, I'm like, there is no way.
I was told that.
I went home, pulled out all my tax records, went back to 2016, pulled out my property
tax rate.
It's like 200 bucks.
What I pay last year is like 210.
The way that property taxes work is a flat nominal dollar amount.
But that rate, as your property value is going up, you're paying the same dollar amount.
So our rate has actually been going down.
And you can shake your head no, ASD has been raising, UFA has been raising, but the city
has not been raising.
So everyone listening, go home, pull out your property taxes, look at the city dollar
amount that you've paid, it's about the same.
It's not changed.
But the cost of the sheriff protecting your house, that cost has increased.
So where we have failed residents, and this isn't your fault, it's prior decisions that
were made that maybe they felt like, yeah, it's okay, data centers will come one day
and then all of our problems will be solved.
The mayor just talked about, I've heard him say that before, whenever that day comes
it's not today, we're not there.
So, a couple things that I thought about and I would be curious, this isn't specifically
to the rate, but I would propose that we have a code and maybe that's something that we
can work on that requires future city councils each, whatever that proportion is, whether
it's 100% or 50% or 60% or 10%, whatever we're looking to kind of set that rate
at to cover the sheriff's contract, I would propose that we have a code that requires
future city councils to come back every single year, review where the council is at.
If QTS comes online and some of these data centers are property taxes exceed the sheriff's
contract, I would like to see our rate go down, and I would like to pull that pressure
away from the residents.
But that will only happen if we have a code in place, a policy, strategically, long-term
that requires councils to come back and review that on an annual basis.
And I would just be curious if the other council, we don't need to vote on that tonight, but
I'd be curious if you would support moving forward in that direction.
Marcus, if that is something from a legal standpoint that we can put into our city
code.
Yeah, I mean, you can put in the code that as part of the budget process, you're going
to review this and the future city councils will either keep that code and follow it or
they may change the code at a future date, but then they would go through the public
process to do that.
I know for me I would have been grateful if that existed because we would have had
gradual increases year to year.
So that's one comment I have on the policy.
I'd also be – and this is more of a legal question for Marcus – the ability for us
to segregate these funds.
We're proposing collecting property taxes.
That goes into a general fund.
Can those be segregated by the city into a fund account that just pays specifically
for a sheriff's office?
Oh, can I see where they want to speak?
Both of you can answer that question.
I don't want to speak, but I can speak to that matter.
The property taxes will have to be received into the general fund.
At that point, you can still create a separate fund for public safety, but you would do an operating transfer to send the revenue over.
Would we need a code to require that?
It would be a resolution that we would bring.
So for 2027 there were, we created a new special revenue fund for public art and several of those.
So we could do that for specifically for the sheriff's contract. Okay. Thank you
Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. That's actually one of the and I talked about
being willing to reduce the property tax as the sales tax and the
MET money starts to come in
Commeserate so that that burden doesn't stay. I'm definitely in favor of
Finding a solution to that. I also feel pretty strongly about making sure that we if we're saying that we're going to put it
the public safety that there should be something that demonstrates to the citizens that that's
exactly where that's going. So I'm glad that you said that. I can't believe that was one
of my questions as well. I think that that needs to be clear.
I think that we need to do our budgets differently, and maybe that's something we need to have
a discussion about at a later date. One of the things that I feel like that we could
have done with this, where we're posing a tax increase, I believe we should have
had our current tax rate budget and a separate budget that is based on what the increase
would be so that we could actually have the very conversation that you guys are asking
about, where would we spend the additional funds that are being moved from the sales
tax? I'll give you my list of things that I think are important. I'm glad the person
asked the three top capital projects. In our meeting Tuesday, we talked about our
master transportation plan. That would be pretty sobering for you if you guys
we're able to see what that cost actually is. What's even more sobering is when we sat
in a regional meeting to listen to UDOT and the Mountain Land Association of Governments
tell us that we're not going to get some of these routes for 10 or 20 years.
Council Member Wood, $419 million by 2035.
That's Eagle Mountain's portion.
That's ours.
The only way that that can be paid for is by bonding or leveraging
We don't have that kind of money.
We have that kind of need.
We're still growing.
That's not going to change.
We still have that many cars that are being added every single year.
We're being ignored largely by the state, frankly, about what our needs are.
We're absolutely being ignored by the other side of the county,
as they prioritize rapid bus that are empty
that we all paid for, by the way, with our UTA funds.
funds, when they're building gondolas in Salt Lake County that should have been funds that
should have come out here and had 2100 North done four years ago.
I want you to know that
the fight is happening with who you have right here, and whether you decide to vote
us in honestly is really a material to me. If I can't gain your trust by telling
you the truth when the truth sucks, then you need to go on to somebody else. But
I'm going to tell you the one thing you can trust is that I will always tell
you what the truth is, whether you like it or not. And I think I've been pretty consistent
since I started on the planning commission with that. I think every developer will tell
you that. I'm about what is best for Eagle Mountain as a whole and I fought for that.
When we take a look at policies, policies should be things that outlast us. If we don't
do things that are going to benefit the people in the future and I do something
that is just going to take care of right now, then I failed. If we don't put
a financial plan in place that you guys can rely on, that's a five and a ten and a twenty
year plan, that every council should have to come back and review based on what the current
needs on it at the time, then we failed. And I don't like to fail, frankly. I feel like
that, you know, I had some pretty specific things I wanted to accomplish being on the
council. I've hit a lot of them. There's a couple of them I'm pretty pissed. I still
haven't hit them. One of them is for sure making sure that we're financially sound.
And our economic growth has not happened at the rate that I would like it to.
And I'm tired of being told by people that that's the rate of government.
I just don't believe that crap.
I think that there's ways that we can do better.
So when we vote on this today, my vote's going to be based on that.
What is best for you in the future?
I'm sorry that it's going to have the same crappy effect on you that it's having on me and my family.
My wife is not in favor of it, just so you know.
and it's going to have an impact on me and my kids whether or not they're able to play certain sports, etc.
But I'm going to tell you the decision that we're going to make is going to give us the
ability to start moving traffic. It's going to give us the ability to take care of our
assets. If we let every one of our parks die, guys, it's going to be three times the amount
to fix them. So that's kind of where I stand with that. The last thing I want to talk
about, capital projects, I'm not affirmed that all of us should go to capital projects.
I really do think that we are undermanned, our labor force is woefully too small.
And I'm not talking about people that are sitting at desks.
I'm talking about the crews that fix our streets, our water, our parks.
I mean, if you guys knew how many employees we had at the parks, it would probably make
you mad.
I think it's like 10, isn't it?
Full-time employees?
For 68 parks.
I mean, that's not going to come from nowhere.
And so when I look at this, I'm like, if I'm going to vote for this,
it damn sure is not going to be for people getting raises at the top end.
We're going to start adding bodies so that we can tell people,
we did our very best to improve the quality of life and
quality of services that you should expect no matter where you live.
I support both of those policies you're talking about, by the way.
I wanted to add just a few other things.
So the city council has been fighting very hard to find additional money
outside the city for the city.
I spent a week of my year this year in March with the mayor back in Washington, D.C., and
we worked very diligently to try to secure federal dollars to come back to support projects
that we have here in Eagle Mountain.
To my understanding, it's the first time our city has ever sent a delegation to Washington,
D.C.
It's not going to be the last because we're going to keep beating that drum.
That's a week away from my family, it's a week away from my own job, but it is worth
it to me to try to figure out other methods to pay for the needs that are here.
I know that Mayor Gray, he was the one that identified some potential significant savings
by restructuring our relationship with unified fire.
That's something we're going to experience next year that was completely on him to
identify that, that could be millions of savings for the city, and I'm grateful
for his leadership in that regard.
We've other things we're trying to do.
We have a volunteer police force that also helps
with alleviate pressure on our sheriff's department.
They have no funding.
And Cedar Fort has a fire department that's volunteer
and they don't have enough funding.
So Alex Carter, who's a council member there in Cedar Fort
and I have put our heads together,
we're putting on a half marathon here
in Cedar Valley. October 10th, with money that will be raised to help our volunteer
police and the volunteer fire. We're trying to come up with ways to get money from other
sources. Even small ways where we're going to be working with the Best Friends Animal
Society where they can provide some free services to help with some animal control
stuff. We're adding those things in that we're trying to be active, proactive,
and we're trying to approach this from the front, not the back. Yet we are actively
engaged with our state legislature. There was a real potential for the state to pass
a cap on property tax increase. Had that passed, we would have been a very difficult scenario,
very, very difficult scenario. And I'm glad it didn't. Can we phase this next tax increase?
Part of the issue is what's the state legislature going to do? And we have to consider that
and play from the front instead of the back.
Also, the state legislature has been mentioned
that they want to socialize our M&T funds,
our municipal energy tax from data centers.
That's not fair.
So you need a city council that's going to be lobbying very much
for you at the state and with the feds
to make sure we get the best results for you.
It was also stated that perhaps the tax increase was
to give the city council staff pay increases.
The city council has no staff.
Other cities have city councils with staff. We don't have a staff. It's us. That's it.
It's been said that we're raising taxes to build a city hall, and that's false.
This has nothing to do with the city hall. Does the city need a city hall?
Yes, a lot of, there was a comment. You don't need a city hall. You have sufficient here.
That's an uninformed decision or uninformed comment.
And I would welcome a private discussion with any of you that feel that this building is sufficient.
So I just wanted to clear up some of those things. I think a rec center. This has absolutely nothing to do with a rec center.
And hopefully sheds light on why we can't do a rec center yet. We have so much going on. Let me see.
I'm just trying to see. The other thing I was going to mention is I'm going to tell you the tale of two HOAs.
because it's been brought up, well Craig you're in real estate, so you should know that this
is not healthy. Let me, it is my real estate background, that it will cause me to vote yes
on some form of tax increase right now and I will tell you why. When I was young in my
real estate career, actually I wasn't even in real estate yet at this moment, I was
on a board of an HOA because I was filling in for a period of time for someone who
could not be on that board.
And that individual said, he instructed me,
he said, Craig, make sure the HOA dues go up.
I'm like, why do you want the HOA dues to go up?
This is a business guy.
I'm like, why do you want the HOA dues to go up?
That's the thing that will hurt you.
You're not going to get money back from that.
He said, Craig, I'm planning.
I'm not planning on what's gonna happen
to the HOA this next year.
I'm planning at a minimum for five years,
but Craig, I'm actually planning for 10 to 20.
And so they increase the HOA dues without a need
to increase the HOA dues.
But what affected that happen?
That HOA has never had a special assessment ever.
When roofs came due, they had the money for it.
When they had to redo parking lots,
they had the money for it.
And when properties go on the market at that HOA,
it they sell in like a day because of how well that each way is maintained it's
because they put they budgeted money early on what's interesting is there is a
subdivision immediately next door to them that did not do that it is currently a
shuttered facility that will be knocked down that is what will happen
we are at a crossroads and I know people have said well if you you were
not listening to the people, Craig, if you vote for a tax increase is that people don't
want it.
But let me give a brief, just a 60-second historical moment.
The Battle of Gettysburg, there was a group that was assigned to protect the flank on
Little Round Top.
And when the Confederate Army was coming up the hill, that group came in such numbers
of force that they ran out of ammunition.
The troops said, let us, we got it back out.
But we don't have any more ammunition.
And their leader said, if we back out now, our flank came in, and they will come in behind
us, and we lose the war.
And so he told his troops that were with him that were torn and tired, put on your bayonets.
And they did, and they charged down the hill.
That changed the outcome of the Battle of Gettysburg.
work. Sometimes leadership requires leading people to a place they do not want to go because
we see a vision that we know we must obtain. And that's what we bring forward to you today.
That I ask you humbly, please at least acknowledge to a degree.
One question that came up when we were in our retreat and different discussions through
this is can we create a tax change and just create it for like a year or two and
then roll it back. And the fact is state law doesn't allow you to do that. But it was something
that we as a council were like, yeah, we could get behind that. And it's kind of unfortunate
that state law doesn't allow you to do that because there will be additional income coming
into our community soon. But right now we have to find money to make sure we get
everything accomplished. So I wanted to let you guys know if anybody was wondering
And why can't you just do it for two years or a year?
It's just not allowed in the state law.
So I just want to point out maybe one additional benchmarking
tool if it's helpful.
We currently, as a city, we are the ninth fastest growing
city in America, not in Utah, but in the United States,
Saratoga Springs.
I don't know how they beat us.
It doesn't feel like they did.
Not that it's a competition.
I don't want to be the fastest, but if we are our rate today, we are the second lowest
in all of Utah County behind Cedar Fort.
So our current rate is .00534.
I'll say sister city, Saratoga Springs.
Maybe they've done a better job of managing that rate, but they're at .00976.
They are also proposing a 100% increase to their rate.
And I thought about that and I thought Saratoga Springs has a much, much larger producing commercial
base than we do.
They have Costco, Home Depot, I mean a lot of our residents shop there.
We're actually helping them with their revenue.
Every time you shop at Costco, you're helping Saratoga Springs.
tax. When we shop here, that helps us from a sales tax point. If this proposed rate,
and I will just say I am not in support of this rate as proposed, I think it needs to
be lower. It needs to be certainly somewhere in the middle. If we increase, if we change
our rate from .0005, and there's some other numbers after that, but that'll suffice for
my point I'm going to make. If we just doubled our rate to .0011%, that would – new revenue
generated would be 3.4 million. So to be fair to our conversation, all of those dollars
would go to the sheriff's office. That would free up about roughly just under $2 million
of sales tax revenue that's currently supporting that contract. I think at a bare minimum given
all the road infrastructure we have, the staffing, getting our employees just to 90% of the
median. That would be the lowest that I would consider. But after this increase, Saratoga
Springs, and again, I'm just kind of benchmarking because they are close to us, but I do think
they have a better commercial base than we do. Although we're working on it as hard
as we can. We have an economic director that is traveling all over the country, knocking
on every, knocking on every door, beating every bush. I get emails from her every, it
feels like every other day of who she's meeting with, who she's talking to, to try to build
out our commercial base. But with the proposing Cree, Saratoga Springs would land at about
.0015. And the next city down from there at .0014 is Benzold Employer, Saniquin City.
So I would just encourage the council to consider backing off that number of point zero zero one
seven and I would love to hear an argument you know we can go high we've we've heard several
residents that have come here tonight and I'm mindful that we have two district one
elementaries in our city. Those families, it's tight. I'm sorry, what did I say? What
did I say? District one? That would be college football, I think. Title one, excuse me.
It's getting late. But we have two Title I elementaries. And that just means that
the families, we do have families that will be sensitive to the stacks increase. And
And so in my mind, I'm trying to balance that along with we have needs within the city.
We have not kept up.
And again, that's not the resident's fault.
That is, I think, a failure of policy within our city for the last decade.
But that's kind of where I'm landing, is to come somewhere closer to maybe where Saratoga
Springs is that has a similar population rate, although they do have a better commercial
base.
Hey, just a point of clarification, if that's okay, I don't think Saratoga's rates 100%
is closer to 50.
53%.
So they're at today,
their rate today, excuse me, is .00976, and after their increase, they'll
be at .0015, so they'll go up six points.
Let's talk.
they don't want to sit here and listen to us collaborate well sorry what do we
want to do look I'm gonna tell you that I've I've kind of looked at this and I've
I've talked to a couple of council members individually and there's such a
tremendous need but I feel like that probably a better balance is to bring
it right down a little bit and I could get behind where council member
Hewish is that he and I have actually talked about this for me I think the
however many zeros in the 1,500, I don't know what that percentage is, but for me, that's
perhaps a more appropriate number.
Also recognizing that-
You
And I hate to even tell the citizens this, because next year we're going to be right back
here again as we go through the UFSA. And frankly, it'll give us a year to evaluate where things
go and to take a look at any, perhaps, increases in revenues that we see and allow us to make
an adjustment then. So that's what I'm thinking.
Can I? Oh.
I was just going to say, I will say, councilmember Hewish brought up, we're just going to
call it the one one that's the median of what's going on in our county and that
really is the bare minimum of what we could do it still gives us a revenue
shortfall of three point three million dollars so I I think we should look at
that but I also am sensitive to the fact that because we haven't changed
anything for so so long. We are so far off the mark of other cities our size like Saratoga
and they're at the one five. And right now the one you guys got as a tax statement all
said one seven. So it is a significant step down from that.
And it's probably in the
75 to 70th percentile of what's going on in the county as far as tax rates.
So one of the gentlemen that spoke earlier read a private email that I had exchanged with
him.
I didn't realize it would be read and I'm fine that he read it but that email openly
stated that I was already considering a reduction from 1.7.
So I'm definitely definitely open to considering it a number that's different than the one seven number
What number do you suggest?
I've been around one five
This one is though is what I've been looking at. I
want to manage expectations because honestly where we land on the numbers
We're going to be looking at this again. I think that you need to be aware of that
We need to be able to evaluate every year
Where we actually land
Going the other direction with this that means that we're going to have to say no to things
and I think if you're okay with that as citizens and you're like we understand
there's not money for us to do all the trails there's not money for us to keep
our parks where they need to be we don't have enough people to even take care of
those things and you'll you'll rally around us and help us come up with
some options to be able to deal with some of these things then it's
probably something that we can get behind because then we're dealing with
this as a community, but if we continue on the path that was laid for us, everything
is going to be in disrepair that's going to cost two and three times the amount to bring
it back to a level that's acceptable. So I,
though I am not excited about going to
the 0.15 because I feel like that is, if we felt like that's what it was, we should
have started with that, frankly.
I heard what you said, too, and I felt what each one of
you said about how it's impacting your homes.
So maybe that's the direction we need to go
for this year. We all hope and pray that when QTS starts this next month, that those funds
bring the revenue that we've all been waiting for, that we've all been promised, and
that as these other buildings are built for Facebook and QTS that we realize those funds.
I hope this isn't the last time you're here. We're better when you come in here, pissed
off and ready to fight frankly. It makes us better at making the decisions that we
have to make but we also need you to stand side by side with us when we make the decision
and help us to meet the shortfalls. So that's where I'm at.
Hey, just for the benefit of the residents, I know we've talked about this a lot in other meetings,
but using numbers like 1517 as it can get confusing, maybe you can refer to a dollar amount
if it's possible or just help us understand where that's going.
So, just to clarify, Mayor, what we're discussing is reducing the proposed tax increase rate
to .0015, that would be from .0017.
Yeah, and I don't want to get anybody there besides us to understand the $1 amount that
means.
So that's what I'm trying to tell you.
So here it's somewhere in the middle in terms of like a tax rate so an annual sorry an average
home annual increase over the certified rate it would land somewhere between $245 to $268
because we're sort of proposing something in between two numbers I'm looking at so
So, call it like 255 or something, divide that by 12, or sorry, divide that by 365.
So it's like a 69 cent per day increase, something like that.
Kimberly, can you give us a number?
Can you do the math?
I've got the exact math.
Yeah, it ends up being, I can get you the exact number.
No, not the tax rate, because the breakdowns we have go by 5% each.
And so, the actual number, it would be a 183.02% increase is what I'm, so what I'm seeing is this.
The annual revenue, sorry, the net revenue above the certified rate would be 5,591,594,
which represents a 183.02% increase instead of a 220.
But I was just saying the net effect of the residence is closer to like a 70 cents per day on the average.
That's what I was talking about is the net revenue, Craig.
So thank you, that's,
I think that helps everybody understand what it means.
We're talking about $5.5 million, $250 a year,
things like that around that 0.1 or 0.0015.
Is there any other comments on rate or dollar amounts?
I've heard a few opinions.
I kind of lost track.
I think I heard that council member Whiting say around the five and a half million dollars
It's not appropriate. The public hearing time has passed.
If there's no further discussion. I will entertain a motion
I haven't seen anybody raise their hand. So
Mayor I'll make a motion
Okay, and then hopefully we're listening to this so make sure I do this right
but I move that the city council here by approves and adopts a property tax rate of
of .001500. For fiscal year 2026 to 2027, this rate exceeds the certified tax rate of .00530,
and we'll result in an increase in the city's ad valorem property tax budgeted revenue of
approximately 5,591,594,
183.02% above the city's property tax budgeted revenue for the
prior year exclusive of new growth. Second.
Okay, we do have a motion by Council Member
White and second by Council Member Wright, either Marcus or Lacey. You feel you understand
on the motion and is it clear?
I want to clarify the tax, the 0.0015.
Yep.
Is there any other questions on the motion?
Just one question for Marcus.
If we have a desire to put a policy in place for this,
is this something that we do at this time as a condition
or do we bring that back?
I think that's going to bring back later.
If you're talking about adopting an ordinance
requirements say to look at it every year, which was suggested earlier, or adopting a
resolution on a later date that after it comes into the general fund that it be segregated
into a separate fund, then that will come out in another meeting.
Thank you.
I think that we need to definitely address that in our next City Council meeting, so
no other questions.
Okay.
Not seeing any other questions.
We'll go ahead and start a vote.
we'll start with councilmember Wood yes councilmember Whiting yes councilmember
right yes councilmember Clark yes and councilmember Hewish yes okay that
passes five is zero and carries that is the last item on our agenda other than
one other item motion to adjourn second okay was that council member Wooden
council member Wright and all in favor of the motion we say aye
any opposed see none we will adjourn the meeting at 1038 thank you