Hello everyone, welcome. It is 7 o'clock p.m. Today is August 24th, 2026. We are here for the
general meeting for the Mil Creek City Council. President or council members, Weepy, Catten,
Desiree, and Handy, and I'm Sherry Jackson, the mayor. Those of you who are able, will
you please rise and join me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance?
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for
for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
Thank you. We will now turn the time over to our Mill Creek Police Precinct Chief Christine Petty-Brown
for our Officer of the Month.
Good evening, Mayor and Council. Our Officer of the Month is Officer Jacob Mecham,
and he's on duty. I'm not sure if he's on a call right now.
He said he would be here, but he may be on a call.
So if he walks in, then we'll recognize him.
But Officer Jacob Mecham is the officer of the month for July 2026.
Since January 1st, 2026, Officer Mecham has conducted 37 DUI arrests,
removing potentially dangerous and impaired drivers from the streets of Mill Creek.
Of the 37 arrests, more than 80% were proactive patrol DUIs.
His proactive enforcement efforts have directly contributed to keeping our community safer
and preventing impaired drivers from causing potentially serious or fatal
accidents and this this is a large amount especially proactive because a
lot of times we get called out on accidents and end up finding out it's a DUI
but these this this is amazing this is a great stat for him. Officer Meekam's
positive attitude and strong work ethic contributed greatly to the success
of the team and overall morale. Whether assisting on investigations or
helping our newer officers officer Meekam can always be relied upon to
provides support without hesitation.
We want to recognize his commitment to teamwork,
professionalism, and consistent willingness to assist others.
Officer Mecham is a dependable team player
who routinely steps up to support fellow officers,
supervisors, and community members.
He has shown initiative and commitment to service
which reflects positively on UPD.
His dedication to teamwork and willingness
to go above and beyond makes him worthy
of this recognition.
Is he here?
He's coming.
Oh,
he's on his way.
Should we wait a minute, Mike, or move on to our next agenda item and then come back to him?
Sergeant said he's on his way.
Does he not like to be in the spotlight?
Well, they're busy out there. He was on a call.
There's a lot going on.
Here he is.
Sorry about that, to come in.
It sounds like everybody decided to call the police today at the same time.
Well, thank you for doing your job and for doing it so well.
We appreciate your hard work in Mill Creek.
And I don't know if you want to say anything, Chief, since you missed the wonderful recognition.
We're recognizing you for your great job at doing DUIs and your support of your shift
and your team and everybody around you.
So we appreciate the positive attitude and the hard work you do.
And thank you for proactively catching DUIs and preventing accidents and injuries on
our street. That's a good work and we appreciate that. Thank you very much. We've got to do
a photo. If you have time for a photo, you've got to get back.
Thank you and thank him for running in to allow us to recognize him while he's in the
middle of a busy shift above and beyond. Next item, we are so grateful to have Kelsey
Kelsey Jones here, Kelsey is a student at Olympus High School and she recognized an
opportunity to beautify our neighborhood.
And so Kelsey, do you want to come forward and kind of tell us about the project and
what you did and how it all went?
Yes.
Thank you for having me.
I loved, loved, loved doing this project.
It was a highlight of my summer.
And I just want to tell you about my process and like why I wanted to do this.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
finished it two weeks ago so this is just me like reflecting back on it okay so
the reason why I want to do this project is I've always loved looking outside and
seeing murals I think they just brightened the city they make it more
welcoming and I've always wanted to be part of that so I was born in Canada
and one of the freeways that I remember driving past is in Calgary
And there's these fish swimming by, and I loved looking at it and just feeling like I was part of the fish.
And then also in Calgary, there's this really cool part of town, and it's very arts-focused.
And they have, along all the streets, they have these concrete barriers that are just filled with art of, like, 50 different artists.
And on every street corner, there's a mural, and it just makes the city feel so alive and so welcoming.
And then in Mill Creek here, I used to take music lessons along this road.
And I remember going out of my way just to see these flowers on the concrete barrier because they were just so beautiful.
And so when I wanted to do this project, I didn't know what to do.
So I just was emailing, like, anyone I could, to try and see if I could do this.
And so I got in contact with John Miller.
and we got on a zoom call and we picked this location because the other
locations they were either private property or they just weren't in the
city boundaries and so we picked this and I really liked it so I went by and
took some pictures and it's a really awkward shape it's not like like
rectangle it's like triangle and then like a small block and so I had to do
a bunch of mock-ups and see what I liked and see what fit.
And so I ended up submitting the bottom photo into the city for approval.
And that was just kind of a general concept.
And then there's some color swatches of like colors I thought would look good together
and that was kind of my process.
And so the blue chart is the original timeline that I sent to the city.
I estimated about nine days, but it actually took me 16 days and a total of 33 hours.
Wow.
So a little more than I expected.
So the cost, this included the cost of the mural preparation, the paints, the brushes
and the post, the protection material.
and it totaled out to be 412 dollars and 25 cents and about half of that was the
post what you do to protect the mural so that costs a lot. So I want to give a more
detailed like explanation of what I did. So on day one that was probably my
longest day and that's when I cleaned off the barriers and washed them and trimmed
they're already trimmed but I wanted to trim a little bit above so I could
paint the top of it and and that's when I filled all the big holes and with some
caulk and then cleaned it and then on days two through four that's when I
primed it with white and painted it the background blue and then on days four
through eight that's when I made my handmade stencil and it was a kind of
bit of a learning experience because the stencil it's a the berries on a
So I had to stick the stencil and make sure it fit and take a step back and trace it and see if it looked good.
And so that probably took the longest was figuring out the placement just because it's a weird size and it was a little bit awkward.
And then on days 8 through 12, that's when I got to fill in the colors of the fish, which was really fun to see it come together.
And then on days 12 through 14, I wanted to add what looked like a current so the fish could swim with these swirls.
And I free handed it with some chalk
and then filled it in with a lighter blue.
And then on days 15 and 16, that's
when I sprayed on the protective mural shield
and then rolled on the anti-graffiti coating.
And the anti-graffiti, it's a sacrificial coating.
So if anyone tags it, you just wash it off
and then reapply.
And then the main focus of this artwork is this gold fish.
And as you're driving along, you're
swimming with the fish, but there's one fish that's swimming the other way.
And I wanted to kind of represent what it means to me.
It could mean it's up for interpretation of how you take it.
But for me, I kind of wanted to represent being brave, and I connected with that
of finding your own way and it's okay to be brave and swim the other way.
So what I learned is I loved talking to people.
As I was doing this project, I talked with the walkers that walked across it every single
day and it was cool to hear like their perspective of it.
And I talked to the Wasatch Charter School, the music teacher, and he just thought the
kids would love it.
And he talked to me and I talked to these girls that were on their way to Holiday
Lions for a swim class and they just loved the artwork so much.
And it was cool to see how much the people loved the art.
And I also talked to the neighbors through the bush.
It was cool because we never met but they just they knew I was like the fish girl
Like oh, she's back. So it's really cool
And I learned that I love doing this kind of art and putting art out in the city
I loved I loved doing it so much and
I just want to thank my family and friends so much because they helped me so much and I also want to thank everyone in
The City Council for letting me do this
This is so such a cool experience and the mayor obviously and John Miller who helped me so much and
Yeah any questions? No but today I drove by it and I happened to be driving right
when Wasatch was getting out and I don't know if you know this but their
parking lot is very challenged because they have a lot of kids that go and so
parents can't go all the parents can't fit through the when they pick their
kids up so a lot of the parents actually park right along where the
crosswalk is and like right where it is so today when I drove by all the
kids that were passing it were like touching it and like it's I think it
just adds a lot to like that spot specifically so I'm good job it looks
beautiful I was like oh she did it so I drove past a couple days ago and it
was it was fun it just adds so much like
Yes. That part of the street. I think it's really fun. Yeah, and it is pretty brave of you to step up and do something so that what it signifies to you could possibly mean a lot to the younger kids, too. So thank you. Thank you.
And we wanted to give this to you because this was a really brave thing to do, to not only
come up with an idea, but to approach the city, to ask for permission to do this.
I know John was a little nervous about having you along a sidewalk and a busy street, because
there could be some safety issues, but I just, we just wanted to commend you for
seeing an opportunity to beautify your city, for putting yourself out there.
This is a lot of work that your classmates and friends weren't doing.
This was a sacrifice on your part and it was hot, it was so hot.
It was very hot.
Yes.
So I hope that you remember this summer and this project with a lot of pride and just
know that you contributed a lot to our city to help make it a more beautiful place, to
help bring art to those who may not have the opportunity to experience it in this
way and we thank you and appreciate your efforts.
And we hope that this is something that you continue to look for in your life, ways
that you can continue to serve and give back to the community and make it more beautiful.
So thank you so much. Thank you.
Yes.
Stand by.
Yeah bring your mom. She had to help. Oh yes.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you.
Okay, we will now turn the time over for public comment.
If there is anyone present in council chambers that would like to address the city council,
please come forward to the microphone. Kathy, you can state your name, but we know it. That's
not a bad thing. It's going to say it's clear that the mayor knows who I am, but I will identify
myself. Kathy Blake, 1481 Woodland Avenue. I learned something today. I learned that there
there was a mural being painted so that's wonderful that Kelsey has done it.
So I saw the KUTV news report about flock cameras that you de-installed one from the
city property and the statement in that news report that you would investigate it and
you would evaluate if there were other cameras installed on city property.
Thank you for doing that.
I saw the article in the Mill Creek newsletter where the city reported what you had found
out about that camera that you had taken down and that there were no other cameras installed
on city property that the remaining ALPR cameras in Mill Creek were installed on private
property.
These thoughts what I understood from that article.
So thank you for following up with that explanation.
I was watching for it.
But how many of those ALPR cameras on private property are aimed at the street instead
of inward at the property owner?
The D-Flock website shows that almost all of the cameras in Mill Creek are aimed at the street.
The only reason to aim an ALPR camera at the street is to collect license plate data.
These private property owners are creating an electronic dragnet in Mill Creek
on behalf of a private company that none of us control.
And that dragnet snares you and me repeatedly, daily,
as if we're suspects just because we've driven by.
I believe that flock cameras, ALPRs, violate our Fourth Amendment protection against a warrantless
search by the government.
Let me make it clear, I'm not a conspiracy theorist.
I don't think the government or law enforcement are following me or that they're out to get
me.
I have nothing to hide.
But I am concerned about any government, federal or local, Republican or Democrat
violating our constitutional rights, abusing the boundaries of the law and abusing their
power over us. I'm concerned about any private company that enlists private property owners
to quietly collect our license plate numbers and store them in a database where they can
create a map of where we've been and how often we pass by and then sell that information
to law enforcement. We can't access the data they collect, but authorized personnel
We've seen news reports of authorized law enforcement that have abused their access to stock people.
We've seen the Trump administration cast a very wide net to aggressively and inhumanely meet a deportation quota.
It's been reported that the data collected by just 10 flock cameras in Ogden City has been accessed more than 5 million times in four years.
Do you think Ogden City had reason to search their own data 5 million times?
That averages to 3,045 queries per day.
It seems like a lot.
From that same reporting, we know that most of the Ogden database searches came from outside of Utah.
It's reasonable to assume that the data being collected in Mill Creek has a similar access rate and patterned by authorized personnel
who can access it from out of state.
That's authorized personnel who can track our movement using our license plate numbers,
the make and model of our cars, and any other unique identifier like a bumper sticker or
a window sticker.
Cases about ALPRs are working their way through the court system, which is currently divided
about whether warrantless searches of data collected by those cameras are an illegal
Fourth Amendment search.
But just as importantly, there is no final fully-appealed judgment that says it's
OK for law enforcement to track your movement
in an ALPR-fed database without a warrant.
When I'm driving down the road, I'm
not doing anything criminal except maybe speeding.
But I'm not on my way to committing a crime.
But I'm treated like a criminal.
My license plate and details about my car and your car
are logged in a database as if we're suspects.
Do you like that it's being logged in a database as if you were a suspect?
Gather data first, decide later what crimes might fit that data?
So why am I speaking up? I don't want to just complain.
If the city council is going to represent my interests, I would like you to pass legislation
that FLOT cameras and other ALPRs from companies like AXON and Motorola are banned in Mill Creek.
Many cities and towns across the country are doing this. If you can't do that,
create legislation to restrict the use of ALPR cameras and mandate they have
to be pointed inward towards the property owner or business, for example,
ported at the parking lot, instead of outward towards public roads capturing
passing cars, you and me, that aren't visiting their property or business. If
a camera installed on private property is pointed out of the street and it's
capturing our movements and that property owner
opts to share that data with law enforcement,
their acting is an agent of the government
and they're violating our Fourth Amendment rights.
Approaching the five minute mark.
Thank you.
I think Mill Creek should say private property owners
and business owners cannot point their camera at the street
to create an electronic dragnet on behalf
of a private company who can sell our data
to authorized personnel that violate our rights.
Do something about this, please.
Thank you for your time and thank you for the work
that you do on behalf of the city.
Thanks, Kathy.
Is there anyone else who would like to make comment?
Hello, doctor.
Good evening, Andre Tarasov,
McCreak resident and business owner in McCreak.
I come to these meetings to bring issues
about small business and stuff like that,
but always something more important comes up.
So today, I will actually support the previous speaker.
And I agree, flock cameras are being an issue.
They're being abused.
Citizens being searched or followed by police officers
that like their access and stuff like that,
it's going all over the country.
And in Utah, Governor Cox is concerned about that, but I think right now it's in your power to either ban or significantly limit flock cameras.
Last year, legislatures proposed the bill that regulates them, but it didn't have time to go through the legislation session.
And I think if we're going to wait on the state government, we'll be probably having as much action as we're having for water preservation, like we've been praying for rain for five years.
I don't think we're doing anything else. So please be proactive and then vlog cameras. Thanks.
Thank you. Is there anyone else present who would like to address the council?
Is there anyone online?
Okay. We will now close public hearing or public comment and turn to item number 2.1.
This is a public hearing to consider a monetary contribution of up to $20,000 for the Mill Creek City Emergency Response Fund.
So this is money that has been donated to our PROMIS program to allow PROMIS to act as a resource in the event of an emergency.
We've had situations like this periodically throughout the last few years.
One example is the Holiday Heels Apartments on Highland Drive that were government subsidized
low income housing and those residents were told with very short notice that they had
to move that the owners of the property were renovating and going to lease them at
market rate and it created a hardship for families who were not preparing to move
who didn't have money to pay for a deposit, different things like that.
And so, funding like this was used to help those residents so that they could find a place to live and move without ending up homeless.
So this is money that's come from a donor to Mill Creek. They have very specific criteria for how this money can be used and who it goes to.
and we recognize and will follow that criteria.
It's a good resource to have,
and we appreciate that it's come from a donation,
so it's not coming from our taxpayers or city funds,
but yet it will be used to help military presidents.
So given that explanation,
do you have any other questions
before we open a public hearing?
No questions. I just think that, you know,
the will of one fire was in my district,
a couple of years ago, last year actually, the city spent quite a lot of resources just
in our own staff time to go assist with that. I think that it's really great that we were
able to get this money donated and I'm very excited about it.
Anybody else? I have a motion to open public hearing.
Seconded.
A motion by Bev, seconded by Tom. All in favor?
Aye.
Okay, public hearing is now open. Is there anyone present in the community forum who'd like to address the council on this matter?
Is there anyone online or any online comments submitted?
Okay, I moved to close the public hearing that get motion by Tom seconded by Bev all in favor. Hi. Hi. Okay
Any other discussion about ordinance 2662?
I'll move to approve ordinance 26
662, approving a monetary contribution of up to $20,000 for the Mill Creek City
Emergency Response Fund.
Second that.
A motion by Tom, second by Sylvia.
Another thing just to note on this, is this money, if it's not all spent this
year, it can be rolled over for next year.
Some things are expensive like deposits and may, you know, take up the whole
entire fund and other times we might not.
so it's nice that we have that option as well. Any other discussion? Okay, Alan, we have a motion by
Tom, seconded by Sylvia. Roll call vote, Elise. Cast member Desiree. Aye. Cast member Catten.
Aye. Mayor Jackson. Aye. Cast member Handy. Aye. Cast member Weepie. Aye. Hey, motion carries. We
will now turn on to reports. I reported last week or last council meeting about the county
Rec Bond and the projects that are on that bond that will benefit Mill Creek, the Cottonwood
Regional Park, has some Tanner Park, which is not in Mill Creek, but is right next door,
right across the street, has also some improvements.
And since that time, the county council decided to raise the amount of the bond
and to add two more projects, a rec center in West Jordan and then a park, a library
square down in downtown Salt Lake City. So I think it's, you know, a good opportunity
for residents to kind of learn about those projects and it will be on the ballot come
November for the public to vote on. That's all I have. Do you have any other council
report. I just one, I attended our Central Wasatch Commission retreat last Monday. And
we had Ben McAdams, who is running for Congress there, former Mayor Karun, and other cities
represented, and there is...
There is an appetite and a push to look at bringing back some of the accord in some type of legislation
that also preserves some of the transportation and ski resorts. So this is more applicable
to ski resorts than it is us, but we would be part of that transportation by bypass. So
I'll keep you all posted on that. Thanks, Beth.
I wanted to share with the council. I've been chatting a little bit with the mayor and Mike
about the idea of doing something for veterans in Mill Creek, especially around the 250th this
year. And so I know they put out a call. I think let's at least start with finding the veterans
within our community. So if there are any that are listening or if people know, have their
neighbors, I think they just said email me. But I think there was a discussion of whether
Wasatch lawn did something I think they do a co-drive but they don't typically do some things and so
I think looking at what other
cities have done which I found is actually
quite simple and kind of nice and we're not expecting this to be anything to elaborate or a lot of staff time
But just an opportunity to recognize anything you're doing this on Veterans Day. I think so so we'll I'll kind of as those details
Kind of come together. I know
But if you're interested or have some ideas, please
share them
Thank you.
I'll just talk a little bit about, in September, coming up
is Get to the River Festival, which
is run largely by the Jordan River Commission.
And it gets bigger every year.
And there's a lot of events.
Some weeks, there's something happening every day.
But there's like bike rides and paddles and cleanups
and parties and all sorts of things.
But we'll likely talk about it in our upcoming news
letters but and I think Mayor you're taking part in our media event to kick
it off right? Yes and that's looking at the specific dates it's on the 27th. On the
27th before. And it's the Love Your Watershed kickoff and we actually is
milk creek I don't know if people have paid attention in our city newsletter
you can adopt a storm drain. Yes. Which has been it's it actually fits very
nicely with this Love Your Watershed campaign because anything that goes in the storm drain
eventually goes into our rivers.
So our goal with the Adopt Just Storm Drain program is for people to take care of those
storm drains, to clean out the debris, to help keep them free from yard waste, pet
waste, chemicals, things like that that would cause problems if it got into our
waterways.
So that's one aspect that Milk Creek will be working on that supports that campaign,
but it will be on the 27th yep and that's all I have thank you treasure
report but you have anything okay you want to do the treasures report yeah okay
so
is as of today we have one million two hundred eighty nine thousand three
hundred nineteen dollars in our operating count thirty five million three
$337,440 in our PTIF account for total of shared cash of $36,626,759.
Our current property taxes received has been $34,415.
general sales tax, which is two months, $2,797,447, Building Permits is $174,051,
this is my computer.
And then general fund disbursements, we had 209 checks, the last two cycles with 34 EFT
to your bank drafts, two payroll periods,
and all of those disbursements total $5,840,823.
That's it.
Thank you, Sylvia.
Mr. City Manager, do we have staff reports?
Not today.
Okay, then we will turn the time over
to our Mill Creek Police Chief, Christine Petty Brown.
Good evening again.
I'm very excited to introduce to you
Lieutenant Melody Cutler.
She's our new executive officer here at Mill Creek Precinct.
She comes from our professional standards division, which she was over our training
and our IA and our field training officer program.
So prior to that, you may recognize her for when she was PIO.
But change is sometimes good, so we're very excited for her to come in with her ideas
and new perspectives, so I'd just like to welcome her here.
Welcome.
Anything you want to say?
Yeah, thank you for letting me be here. I'm super excited. I'm grateful for Chief
Petty Brown for giving me this opportunity and I can't wait to meet all of you and
get to know you and serve the City of Mill Creek. I'm excited. Thank you. We're so glad
to have you. Congratulations.
Okay, the report for July of 2026. Our response
You can see priority 1, down to 5 minutes, priority 2, 6, and priority 3, 12 minutes.
Our case trend, it's still trending up, a few more cases from June, up quite a bit from
last year, almost 150 cases from last year, so we're still trending up this year on cases.
services, calls for service, going up, we had over 2800 and new police reports over 900
for July.
Transient mental health calls, 55 transient, 59 mental health calls.
Our Bill Creek and Holiday Precinct Detectives partnered with Salt Lake County Health regarding
transient camp and cleanup and approximately 10 individuals were assisted in the cleanup,
740 pounds of discarded property were disposed of and one individual went to the VOA Detox
Center. We also were able to get some monies from DNR, some overtime money for our officers
to clean up just along the Jordan River. So just on our section there, we'll be able
to offer overtime for the officers to go down in there and help out. I think it was
around close to $10,000 for the year for overtime from DNR.
Our traffic stats for July 350 citations issued, 9 DUI arrests, 59 accident reports, and 22
hit and runs.
Our DUI unit, 6 operational cases, 22 arrests, 9 search warrants served, and 4 recovered
stolen vehicles.
We did a search warrant on Angelina Avenue.
We were informed drug use in a nuisance property.
The owner of residence had been found in possession of meth and heroin while in his vehicle.
Our detectives followed up on the report and located additional meth, heroin, and other
drug paraphernalia.
Evidence was obtained for a search warrant at the residence and with the assistance
of other precinct detectives, drones, forensics, or traffic units, the warrant was successfully
served at the residence.
Methamphetamine was found in the residence and the health department closed the house
to occupancy.
For our investigations for the month, you can see the numbers there, 41 assaults, 31 frauds,
8 burglaries, 8 sex offenses, 24 drug offenses, 75 larceny, 15 stolen vehicles, 68 domestic
violence and 3 robberies.
And during the month of July, our mill precinct detectives submitted 64 cases and 12 of those
were charged at the Holiday Justice Court.
Any questions for me tonight?
Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks, gee
Hey, let's turn to our consented consent agenda
Motion motion to approve item 4.1 and 4.2. I'll second that motion by Bev seconded by Sylvia all in favor. Hi, hi
Okay, um any new items for subsequent consideration
The housing conversation that we had in our work meeting is that to be continued
It didn't Francis get what he needed do it. I think so. Yes, he got the guidance on the three things that we said
We should absolutely do and then the other items will be bringing back to you in the weeks ahead as part of the consultant
procurement process
Yeah, yes, thank you
We have the Historic Preservation Commission meeting on the 10th of September and our next City Council meeting will be on September 14th
And we have no need for a closed session
Motion to adjourn second motion by devs seconded by Nicole all in favor