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» To the May 19th, 2026 city council work
session meeting. Um, our meetings are
public and you're welcome to join us in
person or by watching from the council
agenda page, Zoom, uh, or YouTube. Um we
hope that you will continue to join us
in whichever manner you feel the most
comfortable. Uh this is a work session
meeting
during which there is no public comment.
Uh you can join us on May 19th during
our 7 p.m. formal meeting to share your
comments. Uh we of course welcome your
feedback anytime by mail at PO Box
145476
Utah 84114.
Um, you can also email us at
council.commentsslc.gov.
Uh, or uh you can also leave us a
message at at our 24 uh phone uh a
24-hour phone comment line 8015357654.
Comments we received on agenda topics
are shared with council members and
posted on our website slc.gov/counsel.
gov/consel.
Our first agenda item is item one, which
is a fiscal year 2026 2027 budget
council staff overview. And we're going
to turn the time to Jennifer Bruno, our
council executive director.
» Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. I will
just um share my screen.
Here we go.
Why is it not?
There we go.
Um, so this is just a a perspective from
the legislative branch looking at the
overview of the budget as it's been
presented by the mayor. Obviously, um,
Mary Beth and the finance team did a
great job going over, um, how the budget
is put together from a, you know,
dollars and cents perspective,
percentages, changes in different
departments. This is a a little bit of a
um higher level kind of conceptual
overview of the budget. Um I don't know
why it did that.
Uh the role of the council. So this is
one thing that we just to remind the
council the reason why uh the council
looks at the budget um in the depth that
they do.
Let's see why is it not okay having
technical issues on myself. [laughter]
The reason why the council looks at the
budget is is really to address what does
the community need in real time. Every
year that changes and um the reason why
you all are elected is to um hear from
your residents what are the needs? They
change every year. What are what are the
ways that those needs can be addressed?
Usually it relates to money. And so
that's um I think the main purpose of
the budget. Um but the other kind of uh
values that we hold um in terms of
looking at the budget and the the role
that the council has in the budget is
how any decision you make this year
might affect budgets in future years,
right? Because um you can't necessarily
bind councils, but I mean even this year
we've gotten questions about how did we
end up in this property tax increase
situation and you know how how did our
decisions in the past bring us here. So
that's something that will will be a
theme throughout several of the
department um budget discussions. Um
that kind of also relates to that next
bullet point of how any decisions you
guys make this year might create
unintended consequences both from a
budget personnel
um citizen experience perspective,
right? Any decisions you guys make might
have the ability to for example see less
watering in parks or less mowing in
parks, things like that. Um, so we want
to be sure to just disclose all of the
potential consequences that might come
from any budget decisions you make. And
then I'm really proud of how our city
um, ensures a transparent um, process
for the budget so that we are very open
with the public about how we're using
tax dollars. Um, uh, just as a reminder,
our budget hub is link.slc.govfy20.
gov/fy27
um for any budget information uh for
anyone who's looking. Um and then you
know of course all of that is rooted in
the policy goals and priorities of the
council. The policy goal of equity, the
policy goal of transparency, um the
policy goal of taking care of our um
community, our assets, things like that.
So that's another reason why um just
some highle takeaways from the mayor's
proposed budget. Um from the legislative
perspective, this is the first
substantial property tax increase in
several years. Um and I think the mayor
mentioned um in her speech that it
wasn't a decision taken lightly um and
uh that it it was uh arrived at with
serious u evaluation. I think the next
bullet point gets to what that
evaluation was was which is that it cuts
almost an equivalent amount from the
overall budget as the amount of the
property tax increase. Um, one council
member asked me how we would explain to
citizens that they're paying more
um and potentially getting less. And I
guess um it was um this sort of a light
bulb moment when I went to the grocery
store recently and you know you are
spending more and there is less in your
grocery cart and it's just it that is
the that that is the reality that we're
living. [clears throat] Um I think that
it's important for this council to know
though that a lot of those cuts are um
potentially one time in nature. I think
that the administration challenged
departments to come up with efficiencies
and I they did an admira admirable job
coming up with those efficiencies.
It's always interesting to see how those
efficiencies can last over time, right?
And if those are efficiencies that can
last into the future and especially as
it relates to operations.
um it does use less money, less sorry,
less one-time money than in previous
years, which um you know, Mary Beth and
I talk about have talked about for 20
years now. [laughter] So, I think it's
one of those goals that we're always
trying to achieve is aligning one-time
money with one-time expenses and ongoing
money with ongoing expenses. Um,
something that you'll probably hear
about from residents who might be
employees of the city is that there's no
across the board cost of living increase
for employees. And um, this is the first
year in a long time that that will be
the case for city employees. And so
because those employees are also
experiencing inflation, that's, you
know, something that's uh, difficult.
But I think if you ask any city
employee, they're grateful for a job and
not to be laid off. So um, there is an
increased investment in affordable
housing. uh but it is in different
formats. So last year the investment in
affordable housing was about $8 million.
This year it's about $10 million.
That said, funding our future uh the
transfer the typical transfer for
funding our future that goes to the RDA
for the NOA is being paused for one
year. I think there was a recognition
that the westside community initiative,
so the money that the city gets from the
tax increment from the inland port has
grown pretty significantly since
previous years. And so it enables the
RDA to continue investment in affordable
housing without that NOA or sorry
without the funding our future dollars.
Um but I think I'm just flagging that as
a a thing to consider in the long term.
those funding our future dollars for
affordable housing are really flexible.
Um whereas the westside community
initiative dollars are um by our own
policy um guided to be west of I-15.
Um that said that there there's still
significant investments in affordable
housing from RDA programs and project
areas. So there will still continue to
be sorry CRA I'll remember that at some
point. Um there will continue to be um
investments in affordable housing in the
different CRA project areas. Um and
you'll hear more about the CRA budget on
Tuesday. So we'll get into that more. Um
it does also add 40 FTEES in critical
service areas. So I think we talk about
like how to balance the budget while
recognizing that it's not that the needs
have decreased in our city. So the
efficiencies that departments have
realized um have enabled the and and
then the proposed property tax uh
increase have enabled um the budget to
add FTEES in critical service areas. And
I left um the fire department off here,
but fire justice court legal system CIP
are kind of the main highlights. And
I'll there's a chart in a little bit
later that I'll go through that. Um,
this is something we talk about a lot in
that each kind of decision you guys
make, each um, big topic in the budget
has balancing tests, right? It's not
that there's a right answer or a wrong
answer. It just means that you're
balancing different outcomes of
decisions. So, um I I'm not going to
read all of these, but as an example,
the property tax increase, it does add
to the burden on residents and
businesses in the city, but on the flip
side, it also helps reduce the
structural deficit in the future because
it it aligns ongoing money with ongoing
needs. Um it also reduces the city's
reliance on sales tax, which is a
volatile source of revenue. Um that is
something that I think a lot of cities
rely heavily on. Um, we've seen our city
grow in our reliance on sales tax and
that's something that I think the budget
nerds of the city have appreciated to,
you know, as uh as a good thing, meaning
we have a robust sales tax revenue
source, but it is a volatile source of
revenue and if the economy turns and our
budget is balanced on sales tax, that is
a difficult thing to adjust. Whereas
property tax is a reliable source of
revenue. So, [snorts]
um I'll just leave the rest of those um
for you guys to read at another time. Um
this is the general fund revenue trends.
The only reason I'm sharing this is that
and the reason that there's a red that
it went down in this proposed budget.
The main reason is because, and I think
Mary Beth talked about this on Tuesday,
the um finance department is proposing
to separate the CRA property tax revenue
and the library property tax revenue
into an entirely different account from
the general fund. So, I just wanted to
flag that because we do these like
longitudinal, you know, charts of what's
happening with revenues and whenever you
make like a policy shift, I think it's
important to kind of call that out.
Um, we've gone through this, I think, at
the retreat. The only things that you
guys can control that the city can
control are property taxes, use of fund
balance, and then other revenue, which
is essentially fees. You cannot control
sales tax. Um,
you you can if the state lets you, if
the state authorizes you guys to enact
sales tax, you can. Um, this uh I think
we've also been through. This is just
kind of showing um the property tax
distribution um for a typical kind of
Salt Lake City household. Just to
highlight that Salt Lake City's portion
of the property tax bill is about 25%.
Um I've also separated out some of the
bonds that are um being discussed in
both the city, the county, and the
school district. Um, I think especially
the school district in Salt Lake City,
voters approving the school district's
bond this last I can't remember if it
was last calendar year or the year
before. Um, but it's a very very very
significant bond. And so that will be
something that I think it will be
important for taxpayers to look for and
know about um in future years. What most
people don't realize is that the bill
for bonds does not show up until the
entity, whether it's the school district
or the county or whoever, actually
issues the bond. And so that could be 2
years after you vote. That could be 5
years after you vote. There's a 10-year
um time frame for tax exempt bonds to
issue those bonds, but um I think that's
important for people to know. Um
so truth in taxation. So, this has come
up uh a lot in the last um couple of
weeks. Do your property taxes go up when
the value of your home goes up? This is
not supposed to be like a pop quiz, but
» No, you guys passed. Good job.
[laughter]
So, um Utah is unique. It has a truth
and taxation process that the core value
of that truth and taxation process is to
hold the government's budget the same.
So if you consider that baseline
property tax budget that green line as
what the state wants us to operate with.
So if your the value of your home goes
up the rate of property taxes that
0.0000 0000 whatever figure
automatically goes down. And that
automatic thing happens at the state tax
commission level because we tell the
state tax commission what is the dollar
amount that we need that green line to
be. Do we need that dollar amount to be
$50 million? Do we need it to be $80
million? What we're assume what they're
assuming is that we have the same dollar
amount yeartoear. So if your value goes
up, the rate goes down. In theory,
you're paying the same amount of money.
Likewise, if your value goes down, and
this actually happened in 2009 when
property values really tanked um in the
area, the rate actually floats up to
hold the government harmless to values
going down. So, um you could think about
this in a case like Detroit, right? That
might have been helpful for their
government to have that system. They
don't have that system there. So um
there are there are pros and cons to the
truth and taxation system but this is
the system we have in Utah. The only
exception is new growth which is you
know like you have a blank piece of
property and then next year you have an
apartment building on that blank piece
of property and so now that property is
considered new growth and the city is
allowed to collect more money because of
that property. Um or if you say like
we're saying this year that green line,
that baseline property tax budget is not
enough to pay for our bills. We need to
increase that green line by $13 million.
And so we're going to ask residents what
they think about that and go through a
tooth and taxation process and we're
going to raise that money. Um this is
just a kind of hypothetical of what
happens with new growth. So um again
that baseline property tax budget is
where we operate on a normal basis. If
new development occurs in the city that
raises our new
baseline essentially. So um
hypothetically so for example in this
budget the um uh mayor's finance team
projects that we'll get approximately
$2.5 million from new growth this year.
Um they actually they do a great job
kind of projecting that based on
building permits and certificates of
occupancy which are kind of which are
really good indicators of is this thing
an actual new thing or is this just you
know a building that was remodeled. Um
it doesn't always pan out and we don't
find out the actual new growth figure
until uh June 12th now um by state law.
So then we can collect um additional
money from that new development.
[sighs] This is um intended to just be
uh an overview of what your tax notice
will look like in July. This is what
most residents will get in July. I've
blocked out I just picked a random
resident. I've blocked them out to
protect the innocent. Um but I just
wanted to highlight in that gold um kind
of bar on the left there. Those are the
only lines related to Salt Lake City. Um
it's really important and um our
communications group is working on ways
to make it more accessible for to
educate folks how to read through their
property tax statement because that
tells you which government should I call
if I have concerns about the total bill
that's at the bottom of that number. The
other thing I wanted to highlight here
that I think is not always um uh obvious
is in Utah um when you have a primary
residence you receive a 45%
value reduction. So for example, this
home is assessed at in 2024, so this was
from 2024 is assessed at 787,500,
but the taxes are assessed on 433,125.
So it's a benefit to homeowners in Utah
and um which is great for homeowners. It
does cause it does cause the uh
situation where when governments decide
to increase taxes whether it's the city
or the county or whoever um it it's kind
of a disproport disproportionate version
or u burden on commercial properties.
Commercial properties do not receive
that same exemption and so they are
taxed at the full value of their
property.
Next, this is um the these are the
amounts that are in the proposal for the
fiscal year 2027 property tax increase.
Um the state law was changed this last
year to require a property tax impact
statement, which I think is helpful from
a transparency perspective, frankly, to
let residents see exactly what their
additional money is paying for. So you
can see 1.7 million of the property tax
increase is going to fire. 98,000 is
going to public lands, 432,000 to
justice court, 172,000 to the attorney's
office, 800,000 to CAN. Um it might be
helpful here to say youth and family
programming. Um
the city has recognized that federal
grants for youth and family programming
have been eliminated or reduced and um
this is the city stepping into that
space to make sure those programs don't
end. The uh almost half of the property
tax increase is going to CIP. The next
slide will talk about exactly which
projects in CIP are proposed to be
funded with the property tax increase.
And then several items that you can see
in non-departmental.
Um you can see that uh 961,000 is
related to legal defenders. So I think
we talked about that on Tuesday in the
justice court briefing that you know the
justice court is kind of a holistic
system that requires if you're going to
in if you are increasing in one area you
need like judges for example you also
need to increase in prosecutors and
legal defenders because it's a a whole
system. So that adds up to the total $13
million increase. These are the um
proposed CIP projects that will be
funded with the property tax increase.
Um I think I mean from from my takeaway
it seems that most of these items fit in
the category of maintaining or fixing
what we already have. I think maybe the
one exception is the vision zero safety
improvements citywide which I know has
been a a huge um goal of the councils.
This also notes that if for some of
these items, the [clears throat]
property tax increase isn't the only
funding source for some of those items.
Some of those items are combined with
the general fund or um county funds or
class C funds in order to make that
total higher. So, for example, street
reconstruction, total investment in
street reconstruction for the fiscal
year 27 budget is 8.3 million of which
the property tax is paying 627.
Um, this is a chart just kind of showing
where the FTEES are changing. Um, and
again, I don't want to read through all
of this text. Sorry for all the text on
the [laughter] slides, but this is to
show uh the in red is where um
departments are proposing to eliminate
FTEES and in blue um is showing where
some FTEES are contingent upon the
property tax proposal. Um there are also
several additional FTEES that are being
proposed that are not part of the
property tax proposal. You guys are
fully um empowered to decide which FTEES
are funded with the property taxes and
which FTEES should just be in the base
budget. So this is what is proposed but
it doesn't mean that you guys have to
stick with it.
Um so some other consideration for
residents as they think about um bills
both property taxes and other bills is
the decisions of other governmental
entities right like school district's
decision for on raises county's decision
on properties to buy things like that um
and especially bonds I've noticed that
um especially school districts are
relying very heavily on bonds um and
there are usually several years that
separate when voters go to the polls,
decide that they want new buildings for
their kids, and then when the bill
actually comes due, there's usually
several years separating that. So, just
as a good reminder of that, um again,
the geo geo bond thing. And then, um
utility fee increases um city and Rocky
Mountain Power and um the administration
has put together a handy, um calculator
for people to figure out their rates.
That's another thing that our
communication staff has been working on
with um the administration's
communication staff about how to make
sure um that's all um transparently
communicated to residents. And then this
this slide was actually left over from
the retreat, but I decided to keep it in
because I just can't help myself.
[laughter]
This is diverted revenue. So, I think
that our city um is in a unique position
because we're the capital city. We get a
lot of attention and we have a lot of
very important projects that want to
locate here, which is great. I think the
flip side of that coin is that sometimes
those projects, the funding for those
projects can come with diversion of
revenue that would otherwise come to the
general fund. And so I think we have to
keep that in mind as we talk about
property tax increases and talk about
how to balance the budget is that the
reason we're sometimes in this
especially tight situation is because
several million dollars of ours has
already been spoken for or has already
been diverted. So that's that.
Sorry for all the talking.
Um do you guys have any questions? And I
see we have council member Wharton
that's joined us on online as well. So
we have council member Wharton and Petro
online.
» Council member Dugan.
» Thanks Jennifer. I appreciate that very
much. And back to the truth and
taxation.
» So that those rules apply to all the
line items in your property tax.
» Yes.
» Bill.
» So there's 12 line items I think we have
in our bill. So each line item has that
same requirement of the baseline new
growth increases it but otherwise it has
to be the same there.
» And so when residents see a property tax
increase it could be from the county the
school board mosquito abatement
» Metro water
» Natural water
» Central Utah water project
» Others. Yes. So uh but ours Salt Lake
City is those three there that you
highlighted in the middle.
» Yes. I think the maybe the one asterisk
I would say is on each entity the bond
line item is the one exception where
an entity does not need to go through
truth and taxation to increase the
amount. What we and what we have to do
is send the tax commission our exact
bill for all of the bonds we have to
pay. Um and then the tax commission
allows us to set that rate on the bill
[clears throat] to pay those uh geo
bonds. Not our sales tax bonds. Our
sales tax bonds are built into our
general fund, but our geo bonds. Um, so
for example, uh, the second trunch of
the parks bond will likely, um, and
maybe Mary Beth can correct me here.
Will it appear on this calendar year's
tax notices or next calendar year? It'll
be this calendar year. Okay. So, that's
something that Salt Lake City residents
will see is the second trunch of the
parks bond, which they approved um, you
know, several years ago voting for. So,
» And one more question on the uh uh pay
raise side of the house.
That's for the un uh
» Non-represented.
» Sorry. Thank you for that.
» Employees.
» Yeah.
» And that is I don't know what the
percentage of employees that is, but
it's non-representative. It's not
police. It's not the fire. It's not uh
ask me.
» Yes.
» It's a non-representative employees on
that side.
» That is accurate. And I I probably
should have clarified, there is a line
item in each department that uh
department directors can work within a
line item, a certain amount of money. Um
and it's based on how many employees are
in each department to give um market
adjustments or pay increases to specific
employees on a case- by case basis. So
it's not necessarily like to hold
employees stagnant in their careers.
It's just um recognizing the tight
budget,
» Right? It was it was to bring those who
are below well below the market rate up
to closer to or at least to the market
rate.
» Yes.
» Correct. Okay.
» Thank you.
» Any other questions online? No,
» You don't see any hands up. Oh, looks
like council member Wharton has a
question.
» Thank you. Um thanks Jen for that
overview and um explaining the um truth
in taxation.
Um
can you talk [clears throat] a little
bit about um how
given the um 13.5 million
um
what would
um so a lot of residents have said just
you know cut cut make cuts
» [clears throat]
» Um cut back um you know cut cut back on
the extras is what I've heard a lot of
um can Can you talk about how um
just what that would would look like in
a situation like this when we're where
we have something [clears throat]
um as high as 13.5 million.
» Yeah, I think and I would welcome um you
know if Mary Beth or if anyone from the
mayor's team wanted to speak more to it.
I think what I observe is that there w
there is a lot of cutting back in this
budget. Um and in fact it's just about
the same amount as the property tax
increase. So each department um was
asked to find 5% of their uh department
budget in cuts. Um not all of it ended
up you know it was evaluated obviously
with the needs of the city. And so, um,
it doesn't necessarily mean that each
department was cut by 5%, but you'll
see, um, in the, uh, key changes that
each department has, um, has made pretty
significant cuts. I think I flagged um
for you guys in the beginning of this
though, one concern um I could see is
how sustainable are those cuts and are
we going to find that um what a
department thought that they could do
without or push off for a couple years
is really needed. Um I I I observed that
in the aftermath of the 2009 budget
crunch where there were a lot of cuts
made out of necessity. Um and then we
realized that a lot of those cuts were
really to essential functions of the
city. Um so yes, so we there are a lot
of cuts in that and I think we can focus
on that as each department comes to
brief you guys. I think that would be
helpful.
» Yeah. I mean one that comes to my mind
that was impacted
you know even when I came on to the
council and we did funding our future in
2018.
Um and that was that we, you know, uh
before the recession, we had two road
crews, um that that just worked around
the clock, um all, you know, repairing
and um one of them was cut. Um and we
didn't
bring that back until after the road
study. Um and um as part of funding our
future and um found that be you know the
re by cutting that and having it gone
for essentially 10 years um this date
the overall quality of our roads was
going down every year and we were it was
kind of compounding instead of us um e
keeping up with the problem or reducing
the problem. like the roads were
crumbling faster than we could repair
them because we only had one crew. Um,
are there other examples that uh you can
think of that you um you said that you
had some thoughts come to mind from back
then?
Um I think that the other um area that
was cut pretty significantly in ' 09 was
seasonal and maintenance dollars from
public lands which at that point was um
in
I can't remember the name of the
department now. It was in a big it was
in a different department. It wasn't its
own department but it was cut
» Public services I think.
» Yeah. Yeah. And I think um it took
several you know years maybe a decade
for us to kind of bring that back and I
think that um to some extent I think
what we hear from residents to some
extent is still maybe lingering effects
of that. Um I don't see that level of
cut coming in this budget. I think the
benefit of having this budget, the cuts
in this budget being part of the mayor's
deliberative process and not be if um
those of you who are around in09
remember we had to make a lot of those
cuts in the middle of the fiscal year.
So it was kind of mi midstream cuts.
[laughter]
So the options are a lot more limited
when you're cutting in the middle of a
budget year than when you're looking
forward into the next budget year and
can be a little bit more strategic. And
so um just my general observation for
this budget is that those cuts are a
little bit they're a little bit more
strategic. I think it doesn't
necessarily completely erase the the
need to be vigilant about when we
realize that cuts are not sustainable.
So,
» Thank you.
» Um, thank you, Jen. Always love hearing
you talk about the budget and how
animated you get and how clear you
explain it to to all of us and to folks
joining us online. So, I want to follow
up on what you were talking about in
regards to some of the cost savings
found this year, particularly um want to
zero in on vacancies.
Um, I understand, you know, we are
saving money this year by holding a
position vacant and we've seen a number
of vacancies across departments.
What happens next year or the following
fiscal year 28? Um, and how does the
city plan for or anticipate that, decide
to never fill the position, close it
down versus say, "Hey, we realize we
actually are having some real service
impacts by not having these um these
positions filled." So that's my first
question about vacancies and I have a
couple others.
» Great. I think I mean that's a great
question. Um and we
I I want to say most budget years there
are vacancy savings in several of the
larger departments especially um just
based on turnover and retention. And I
think it's actually kind of a
responsible way to do budgeting. Meaning
it doesn't leave money on the table that
you know is not going to be needed,
right? Like you know at a certain point
there's going to be enough turnover
where you're going to have a month or
two of a position of salary savings. Um
I think and I'll you know look to Mary
Beth if you want to add anything but I
think what they'll probably need to do
what each department will need to do is
for fiscal year 28 evaluate if one if
the vacancy savings is sustainable. So
if the let's hold on for this tight year
is something that is a longer term
thing. I know that's what we'll be doing
in our department is evaluating if these
vacant positions are truly not needed.
Um, and I think that that's where you're
seeing some of the reduction in FTEES
that some departments have decided to
make, which is them kind of forecasting.
It's not just about vacancy savings.
It's about where did they actually need
positions. So, but that's a uh that is
definitely top of mind for
um concerns for the fiscical year 28
budget.
» Thank you. Um, and as you can see, I'm
thinking about this budget about
decisions made in the past that bring us
to this present moment and recognizing
that decisions we make this year affect
future years. And so, I'm really taking
kind of that whole timeline perspective.
Um, we've got, you know, we've got a
reliance that we've had to use on on our
fund balance and that's happened in
previous years and we're using it again
this year. Next year may not be an
option for us. So, I'm curious as we
both find these efficiencies, but
there's also a property tax increase,
how can I understand what's going to
happen with our structural deficit in
the next year or two?
» I think that um that's where I think we
will lean heavily on um the finance
department to look into some of the
revenue tools that um we talked about a
little bit on Tuesday. the um
transportation utility fee and the venue
event tax um parking taxes. Um I think
there are still some revenue streams
that um that we can look at. I also
think that just to be perfectly candid,
I think that some of these vacancy
savings will probably cause departments
to reevaluate, you know, how services
are deployed. um which may cause entire
shifts. So that what would have been a
structural deficit because maybe you
have you know 10 positions to do a job
that maybe only takes three is not a
structural deficit because the
department has decided we can do this
job with three positions instead of 10.
Um I think that to a certain extent
there's a structural deficit every year,
right? because you have health insurance
costs, uh, inflation with contractual
agreements that departments have with
people. Um, to some extent the pension
system, Utah retirement systems tells us
every year it's sort of like a surprise.
Here's your here's your bill. Um, this
year it was better. Uh, but in other
years it hasn't been. So, um, to some
extent there's not a there's there's no
way to completely avoid a structural
deficit. Um, but it's just about how do
you uh how do you manage the size of it?
So,
» Okay,
» Victoria,
» Victoria, it's your turn.
» Thank you. Um, and yeah, Jen, thanks.
This is really helpful to have a
succinct kind of centralized review like
this. Um, I know that some of the things
that we need to do carry some political
challenges. um fees. I know that, you
know, uh developers who go to
municipalities that are newer than us
pay more in certain fees there than they
do here just because we haven't adjusted
our rates or been without the political
pressure to adjust them uh since like
the '9s literally. And so if you
incorporated after like 1992 and you
have a higher rate than us and so we're
developing a modern city on an
antiquated rate scale. Can you maybe
help un with understanding this probably
isn't a right now thing but maybe like a
um a future-looking information. I'd
love to know what some of the barriers
are on some of those future revenue
things just to prepare. I'm happy to get
into whatever political trench I need to
to make sure that the city is in solid
financial shape and that we're not going
back to our um our residents, especially
those who are on um restricted incomes
to ask for more property tax increase.
But I'd love to know just to prepare
myself psychologically, mentally,
politically, socially, you know, for the
for those because it it seems really
important that we don't just keep
relying on property owners for our
revenue increases.
» That's a that's a really great point and
I think um the fees that come to mind
that um we maybe are not recouping as
much as we could are impact fees. Um, I
know that the administration is working
on updating the impact fee study to come
up with a, you know, more uh, updated
true cost of those impact fees. Um,
public utilities as well charges impact
fees and they haven't um, updated in
several years. And so I think the goal
was to bring all of the city's impact
fees back to the council for approval. I
can say the last time that the impact
fees were reviewed, there was a
substantial
um uh political conversation about the
balance of well, we we can't just give
these people a bill, you know, based on
I mean, we do a study to say it costs,
you know, X dollars, let's say $2,000.
cost $2,000 per unit that's built in
order to fund the needs that are going
to happen as a result of that additional
unit. Um there's a calculation that
happens after the sort of objective
calculation which is does that mean that
we're stalling development in our city?
And if we charge $2,000, are we going to
kill development in our city? And
sometimes the answer is no. Or sometimes
the answer is we might kill development.
And so instead of charging 2,000, the
council could decide to say we're going
to charge 1,500. Um, and so that was
that was kind of the conversation the
last time the impact fee study um was
brought to the council. And I wouldn't
be surprised if it's a similar
calculation. Now, there's a lot of
competition with even neighboring
cities, right, to say, do we want
housing built in our city or in
neighboring city where maybe impact fees
are cheaper. Um, so there's that. The
other um I think tricky one to be
perfectly honest in our city is going to
be the transportation utility fee
because um two of our major nonprofit
um partners in the city, the university
and the LDS church will probably see a
pretty significant change in how they're
interacting with the city in terms of
dollars. And so that's probably a
conversation that will have to happen on
a political level as well in order to um
realize that money. But I think that
will be happening over the next year. So
that's a in a couple months problem.
» Okay.
Thank you for the questions everyone. Um
thank you so much Jennifer for for the
overview uh and and uh for helping us
understand this these budgets uh for
this year and how we're going to
approach the discussion. Um, moving on
to uh item number two, which is fiscal
year 2026 2027
budget discussion for the police
department. We're going to welcome at
the table Michael Sanders, council
policy analyst, chief Brian Reid, SLC
police chief, uh, and Shelley Dietrich,
uh, financial manager.
» Great. Thank you, chair. Um, so the FY27
Police Department budget is proposed to
be approximately $142 million, which is
an increase of a little over $7 million
or 5.24% from last year. This budget
continues funding for 13 FTEEs, which
would be funded by the Utah Inland Port
Authority proposed under budget
amendment number five, which is actually
currently under consideration.
Additionally, it proposes adding four
other FTEEs with this budget proposal.
None of the proposals from the police
department budget will rely on the
property tax increase, which we
discussed. Um, assuming all FTEEs are
approved, the police department would
have staff of 797 positions, 63 623
would be sworn officers, and there'd be
154 civilian staff. Notable items from
the budget include funding for the real
time crime center and drone as a first
responder programs
» And additionally
» And additionally the social worker
program and mental health responders
have been moved from the non-EP
department the non-EP departmental
budget and into the police department
based budget. With that, I'll yield the
floor to Chief Red.
» Let me give that. Sorry. First of all, I
want to thank uh Michael for all of his
support and help uh through this
process. So, thank you. I want to thank
the council executive director Bruno and
not just for this, but just I've called
her quite often and then Mayor Menhal
for the the support in this budget as
well. Um I we I just want to start off
by saying that our our police department
feels very supported by the council over
this past year and uh we have some
indicators that are showing our morale
is is is up in the in the police
department and we want to keep that
momentum going. Uh we really emphasize
being a learning organization. So when
mistakes are made, we sit down as a
team. We don't point fingers. We learn
and we improve. And so that's a posture
that we want to take in the police
department. And and the value in that is
that uh people are making decisions and
learning and and we're becoming a
stronger organization.
Um
uh next slide.
Uh next slide.
Uh just a couple accomplishments that I
want to highlight. This year uh you we
we started a or we put together a new
mission vision values. This is was an
exercise that we did with our police
officers and professional staff. Uh this
this exercise and our new mission,
vision, values has really aligned our
organization and kind of put us all on
the same page. And as I mentioned, being
able to push decision-m down to lower
levels because we're all aligned has
been very valuable. We are currently
fully staffed. Now, all of those
officers are not going to be deployed
until uh November, December time frame,
but we are currently fully staffed and
excited about that. and we're starting
to see the impacts of those those
officers as they come out onto the to
the street and and uh if I go to the
next accomplishment uh we we we saw an
overall decrease in crime last calendar
year to date this year we're down it's
actually 21% I checked with our data
people today year to date compared to
the same time period last year uh this
includes violent crime going down um so
we're we're having some some great
successes there our officers are out
working very hard. Uh I will also in and
I don't have it in here, but our call
response times are are are also dropping
over the past year and we're seeing
improvements there as well. So ju
generally the the goal of this of this
budget and these budget requests are to
help us continue to bring crime down um
improve call response times um which
will then allow us over time to reinvest
our officers time into community
engagement, traffic safety, which is a
problem in the city. we're having too
many uh fatalities around traffic safety
and then also investing more in our
youth to get in on the front end so we
have less issues uh down the road with
these these youth. Uh next slide.
When we talk about efficiencies, we're
still kind of in the process of writing
our strategic plan and and getting some
key metrics in place so we can see
efficiencies uh improving. Uh one of the
big ones is we're working on 12-hour
[clears throat] shifts. Uh we think
that's going to improve staffing ac
across the city and put officers in out
on the streets in the time at the times
we need them the most. Uh we're working
closely with the union and the city on
this uh to make sure we we're we're
thoughtful in in some of these u changes
around shift shift shift allocation. Um
we're also working on a number of
efficiencies. Uh we'll talk about
overtime later, but we have brought
overtime costs down this past fiscal
year and we anticipate and our requests
will reflect a a continued decrease in
overtime as we get more fully staffed
and become more efficient. Um and then
we're we're going to talk a lot about in
our budget today the our real-time crime
center and expanding our drone first
responder program. This is an alternate
response and we're finding that we don't
have to send officers to a number of
calls when we send the drones. Uh or we
give officers better information and
improved response. Uh maybe a case where
we don't have to send an officer at all,
but it may be a social worker. And so
we're finding some efficiencies there.
Uh which is great. And then the last
thing that I'll mention is we've worked
really hard with our partners uh across
the social services and criminal justice
system. And for instance, in the real
time crime center, we're we're
partnering with the University of Utah
and the Utah Transit Authority. They're
providing resources so that we don't
have to come to you and ask for that. Uh
we're working closely with DPS and DNR
uh Department of Natural Resources on
the Jordan River and they're putting a
lot of resources into our city and
helping out there. And then uh of course
you mentioned the Inland Port Authority
who's putting a significant investment
into our police department all saving
the Salt Lake City taxpayer. Next slide.
Uh Michael mentioned our overall budget.
You can see a breakdown and you can see
the mayor's recommended budget request
of of 7 million with the 17 FTEES. 13 of
those being the Inland Port. If you want
to go to the next slide and you can see
most of our budget is made up of
personnel. [snorts] Um, so, uh, we're
really really excited that the Inland
Port Authority invested, uh, into the
police department and we'll have 12
additional officers and an evidence
technician which will help us in the
northwest quadrant with some of the
challenges that we're having out there
and in our on the west side of Salt Lake
City. So, we're we're excited for that.
I wanted to just to briefly mention
fleet. Uh, last year the council, the
mayor's office supported a number of an
in a pretty good investment into our
fleet. We still have a long way to go
with our fleet and we in certain cases
we have several cars that are past
service life that need to be re re uh
replaced and in certain cases we're
actually investing more in maintenance
and repairs than the car is worth. So
we're just asking for continued support
and investing in our mainten
with uh the situation that we're in. It
is a public safety risk, but also it's a
recruiting retention tool. I mean, when
officers do care about the cars that
they're driving and so uh that's their
office and and so when we we compete for
the best officers in the state, our
officers are constantly looking at
salary, equipment, training, development
opportunities, support from elected
officials. So, it's important. Next
slide.
Uh these are the key changes in the
budget which is in the budget book.
We'll go over these one uh one at a time
and feel free to ask questions along the
way. Uh we if you want to go to the next
slide, we can just get right into it.
The school district approached us last
year and requested two additional uh
school resource officers for the
district. Uh this is uh that request. Uh
the the thing to note here is half of
the funding will come from the school
district. So even though it shows this
amount, half of that will be in
reimbursed back to the police department
for those two FTEEs. We're working with
the school district on ensuring that our
school resource officers and they're
doing an amazing job by the way, but
they're investing in individuals,
particularly kids who are at risk. And
so, a lot of what we're doing, we're
kind of retooling how we use our school
resource officers, working closely with
the district, and we're we're seeing
some amazing outcomes. And you'll see
here in the coming weeks an amazing
story from one one of our school
resource officers and how they invested
in some youth, and we're excited for
that to come out soon. Any questions on
that one or should we just keep going
and you'll interrupt if
» Chief? Oh yeah, go ahead. Go ahead.
» Uh so so I on the school resource
officer's request from the school
district.
My understanding was that they we split
them with the school district. We split
the cost with them. So is this the half
the cost of for two?
» This is the full cost. Half of that will
be reimbursed back to our budget mention
at the end that
» We just have to get approval from you to
get the to get the full amount and then
it'll it will be reimbured. So that will
be cut in half.
» Okay. And what happens? So in the budget
with this
you know
$25,000 is that going goes back to to
the general fund or it stays within
» The personnel
» Revenue the general fund.
» Okay. Okay. Thank you. Do you have
» Yeah. cuz we're doing
» And chief I wasn't quite sure would was
the uh because we had the the SRO
discussion at the state level and then
we had at the schoolboard level. Uh was
this a state mandate that we increase
the SRO or this just come from the
school districts or was it like a highly
recommended from the state level or do
you remember? So, so the this the the
the legislature passed a bill that
requires schools uh to to have a
guardian, private security or a school
resource officer. So, the schools can
determine how that breakdown is. So, I
think part of this is affected by that.
Um it's the school district's request
and they and they they they in in
talking to uh the superintendent, they
prefer school resource officers to
private security or guardians. So
» Yeah, that that decision I'm totally
supportive. I just My question really
was more is like it was a a these are
the three ways you can do this but we're
not going to give you any funding either
for it. It was mandated but not funded.
I shouldn't say if it was mandated
that's right.
» Yeah. I think I I think that the
requirement was put in place and I don't
know what type of funding was provided
» But they didn't provide any funding for
that.
» I I I would think I think school
districts would say not enough but okay.
I don't know for sure what funding was
provided to school districts.
» Okay, thank you.
» Okay, sorry. Next slide.
» Uh the next the next request is one FTE
for a drone pilot. This is an officer
position. Uh you know, we're going to
talk more about the the drone our our
real-time crime center as we go through
this presentation today. Um, I think the
main point that I would just make on
this drone pilot, um, we're doing
everything we can to find internal
resources. So, we've we've reallocated
internally to add positions to our
real-time crime center. As I mentioned,
the University of Utah and UTA are
committing some resources. Uh, but this
will be a drone pilot that will help us
uh get get off of the ground. um these
drones are arriving at to calls in 1 to
two minutes where officers are taking
depending on the call anywhere from six
and a half up to 15 minutes. And so a
lot of cases are being cleared by these
drones. So we just think this alternate
response is a is a real investment in in
getting call response times down,
getting better information to our
officers. Um I would also add that that
we we deploy for the fire department. So
that's another efficiency that we're
finding that that we we deploy on fire
calls uh fires in the hills or in in
buildings and and to give them that
overview. So um this that's what this
request is. Uh next slide.
This next uh request is related to our
real-time crime center. This individual
will be an analyst uh who will uh work
within the real-time crime center. One
of the main focuses of this an analyst
will be threat management. Uh you know
in this day and age there's a lot of
threats coming in to the police
department. We have to assess those
threats. We have to research and do do
background work on those. This uh this
analyst will do all of that provide for
event research. Uh you know we have a
lot of events in the community and so
that this analyst will pro will support
all of those efforts.
Next slide.
Uh
coming back to the overtime just to give
some background. So we're projecting
overtime costs for FY27 at $6.5 million.
This would represent almost a 10%
decrease from FY26.
And if you go back to FY25, we were at
8.2 million. So this fiscal year, we've
been able to reduce overtime by almost
13% and we're projecting to get that
down another 10%. Uh so this request of
1.7 million represents that 10%
decrease. Uh we will always have
overtime in the department. We're
requesting this one time because we want
to see what we're going to be able to do
this year with alternate response with
becoming more fully staffed and we think
maybe hopefully we can even get it down
more. But we're requesting one time just
to make sure we have the overtime as we
get our officers trained and and put out
into the field.
» Go ahead. kind of like along the lines
of the uh overtime side of the house.
You know, we get a lot of we you get a
lot of uh requests and and uh
from the University of Utah for all the
events that they have at the at the
stadium and other places and are is it a
uh are we being fully paid for all our
services that we provide the at the
university level? And is that a separate
contract or how does that work? because
it seems like we we have to deploy a lot
of officers for a lot of those things
and it and it's got to be mostly
overtime because it's uh
» Yes,
» They're not uh so all of the University
of Utah sporting events are reimbursed
by the University of Utah. Uh Greek Row,
they reimburse for our officers to work
overtime shifts on Greek Row as I
mentioned with the Realtime Crime
Center. They're they're putting uh
personnel and and and helping us invest
in in that as well. And then uh our
public order unit, they're they're going
to be putting officers on our public
order unit. So I I feel like we have a
really strong partnership with the
University of Utah and and I'm I'm sure
if there's any concerns, we could go to
them and and but I I feel like it's a
pretty fair relationship that we have
going. Most most of the overtime is
reimbured.
» Council Petro,
» Thank you. When we say overtime, is this
the overtime that covers the basic
functionality of the city? Are officers
still will have the opportunity to do
overtime
um when community entities are asking
and paying for that? Is that accurate or
are we discontinuing that as well?
» Oh boy. Could you I'm sorry, council
member, can you maybe just ask that
question one more time? It's a little
hard to understand. Oh, [clears throat]
» You sorry. Um, so the when you say
overtime and what we're paying for here,
that's the overtime that covers
functionality within the city. That is
when we've been understaffed, people
taking extra shifts to make sure that
the city doesn't lag behind. But the
overtime where entities in the community
pay for our officers to do either
special events or some ongoing security,
those sorts of things, that sort of
overtime still stays. Is that correct?
» Yeah. So, we have like the Delta Center
who reimburses us, City Creek who
reimburses us. So, we have a lot of
contractual overtime that's reimbursed.
I think this amount, and Shelley can
correct me if I'm wrong, represents the
overtime that we expend for mitigation
shifts, for overtime for demonstrations
for instance. Those are very expensive
for us. Um, and just regular overtime
for callouts for our investigations
division, our our special operations
division for just normal operations.
» It does include special events, but
those are reimbursed as part of the
special event process.
» Thank you so much for the clarification.
Thank you. Other
questions on this request?
Okay, we'll go to the next
slide. Okay, so this is actually a
reduction, a onetime reduction. We're
currently holding open eight vacancies.
These are these are these vacancies are
within our professional staff, our
civilian staff, which goes across
basically all of those divisions. Um, I
just want to say our personal our
professional staff do an amazing job in
the department sometimes in the
background. We don't we don't see their
work as much, but our police department
could not operate without them. So, this
is quite a sacrifice on on our
professional staff to to hold these
vacancies open, but we're committed to
doing that. And and as as you mentioned
earlier, executive director Bruno will
evaluate through the year to see what we
can do on the on the long term here. Um,
but it is it is definitely a sacrifice
for our professional staff to do this.
We appreciate them
and and the positions may vary through
the year, but we'll we're committed to
holding open funding for at least that
amount. And if we can do more, you know,
we would do more. We'll have to evaluate
as the year goes on. Next slide.
Uh this next request is uh nearly
$400,000
uh for our real-time crime center
technology. This is uh for cameras,
drones, uh our LPRs, replacements. Um
what we're trying to accomplish here is
to get kind of on a 5-year rotation. So
some of this the funding will will go to
new tech, new cameras. You know, we pull
trailer cameras and we get requests
constantly to put put a trailer camera
here or a trailer camera there or a pole
camera in the city. So, this is allowing
us to increase the number of cameras um
but also replace equipment as it ages.
So, that's what this request is.
» Yeah. Councilman Eric Carson,
» Do you have a sense of the breakdown of
what is a replacement of existing
equipment versus purchasing of new
equipment
» On a percentage basis? Um, I do have a
slide or a slide here. Yeah, here it is.
Thank you. I had it on text, but here it
is. Um,
here we're requesting about 15. Let's
see. 15. I'm just going to look at a
percentage basis and we can get this
this detail to you. I would say it's
about it's a little it's probably a 5050
or 6040 split between new and
replacement.
» 60% new, 40% replacement.
» Um I mean without doing the math on the
spot here, I can get you the the
specific, but but I I think it's it's a
little of both. We're trying to kind of
hit hit it in the middle there.
» Thank you.
» But I can get you specific details. We
can work on that.
» Council member Dugan.
» Yeah. We had this discussion before on
the grant funding and stuff like that,
the contracts we have with the the
cameras and the other uh surveillance
stuff and do we have contracts with the
the Flock group?
» We have no contracts with Flock.
» Okay. Just appreciate that. I I think
we've already discussed it before, but I
» That came up again. So, thank you very
much.
» And oh, I want to do back on the
replacement. So, this is these
replacements. We're going to we're
always going to be replacing new ones
and old ones. Is it is it like a cycle
right now the city has cycles on the
computers it's whatever it is three
years or something like that is that the
same thing where they have about a
lifetime of
three years two years something of that
nature
» I mean techn is changing fast but you
know I think on average we're thinking
about a about a 5year rotation um give
or take you know give or take give or
take and
» And again um we know it's a tough budget
year like if if this has to be one time
you know that's we understand whatever
we can do to to be a team player you
know we'll do that But yeah, we're
trying to get on an on we want the
ongoing funding so we can just have a
replacement. Uh we'll grow it some, but
we'll mostly it's for replacement.
» Uh Chief, the in the past I I learned uh
about moving these cameras, the trailer
cameras and installing the pole cameras
was challenging. Um so are we trying to
find a way what is the system that we
have right now to move them faster or
install them faster and uh because we
may have even more um so that's even you
know more complication.
» Yeah. Right now we have officers that
are doing that and one of the things
that we're looking at is is is that the
best model or should we use our civilian
response team and that's kind of I think
what we're looking at to so we use you
know our officer resources more
effectively and so I think we're trying
to look at a model of of moving toward a
maybe a civilian uh based you know team
that could do something like that and we
may have internal resources just to kind
of work on that.
» Okay. Uh and a follow-up question
regarding this item. Um and are
there uh license plate readers in within
this budget line item too?
» There are.
» There are. Okay.
» Yeah. And and and and many of them are
for replacement. We can also work with
you on what what you're comfortable
with. But yeah, there's there are
license plate reader uh in in there.
» Yeah. Any other questions? I I see Chris
Chris Wharton.
Um, hi Chief. Thank you for the
presentation and thank you for talking
about um the
um work that we do with the University
of Utah um police department for Greek
Greek row. I think um I put in a request
to to meet and talk about that because I
think there are some opportunities for
more efficiency there um and talking
with um the dean of students. Um but so
I just wanted to highlight that and say
that I'm interested in in hearing more
about that and we can have a separate
meeting.
Um the other thing I wanted to ask about
is just that um from my from my
residents um I have heard a lot of
really positive feedback um about um our
officers and about the department being
um more responsive to um kind of
neighborhood issues um just a presence
in the neighborhood and then also um um
traffic concerns, things like that. Um,
and those continue to be the number one
thing that constituents reach out to me
about. And I I know that um it's
expensive to do, you know, targeted
enforcement and to be out there doing
tickets and that um our officers
um a lot of times, you know, they have
to take priority calls. But um can you
speak to what in this budget um is going
to help um with that problem? Because
again it's it is the number one thing
that residents reach out to me about and
it's not even close to um you know the
second and third place things that they
reach out about. Um it's speeding, it's
speeding in school zones, it's um
traffic noise um that is um you know so
disruptive that it's um having health
impacts
um and it's um yeah responsiveness to
sort those same sort of issues. Can you
just speak to that in this budget? Yes.
I mean, one, the overtime will continue
to allow us to do some of that targeted
enforcement, and I think also the
investment in the real-time crime center
will allow us to respond to issues. So,
in February, we ran a pilot where we uh
deployed our drone as first responder,
which we're going to talk about in the
next I think it's the next budget item.
We deployed that drone uh to certain
calls for service, lower priority calls,
and we were able to clearly 40% of those
calls without sending an officer.
That's really significant for two
reasons. One, it means we can send
officers to higher priority calls and
get there quicker or it means we free up
officer time to be more proactive. And
again, as I said earlier and kind as we
as we began the presentation, traffic
safety is a problem in the city. I mean,
we're we're losing more people to that
than homicide right now. And so, we do
need to reinvest. And I think as we get
fully staffed, as we have the overtime,
as we invest in the real-time crime
center, alternate response, that will
free up our officers to be more present.
you know, we started a a foot patrol in
the downtown area, which is is is
proving to be very successful and and
popular, and we want to be able to
spread that across the city and and have
our officers have more beat integrity.
Uh when the department was down on
staffing and crime was up, um not just
here, but across the country, uh police
departments really just had to respond
to the highest priority calls and
everything kind of fell by the wayside.
I'm confident that over time with full
staffing, with this investment, you
know, we can start be be starting to
handle these quality of life issues and
and be be more responsive, be more
connected to the community, um, and work
on some of these issues. I I hope that
answers your question. And on on the
second point, we'll have my team set up
a meeting with you, council member, on
the University of Utah.
» Thank you,
» Counciloman.
» Thank you. And thank you, Chief. Um, so
the first thing I want to just draw
attention to is clarifying that the
inland court is rightfully returning tax
increment to the city. There would be
not there would not be a need for these
additional officers if the development
out there wasn't happening and we would
be able to pay for these officers if the
taxes were flowing as typically
designed. However, the state has come up
with this brilliant idea of an authority
to preempt that taxation. So, I am
grateful for the collaboration, but I
really think especially in such a
difficult taxation year. It's very very
very clear to our neighbors that this is
not an act of grace or charity, it is an
act of rightful returning of taxes to a
primary function of the city. Um the
second thing is in concept I am in
support of anything that amplifies the
effectiveness of our skillful police
force. Anything that returns us to
community based policing and allows us
to engage with our neighbors. Um, this
is not a you problem, Chief, but I am
putting on the public record that our
data usage AI policies are not in a
place yet where we can fully be
confident with some of these
investments. And so as we are investing
as a council, I want us to challenge
ourselves to also be investing as policy
makers in making sure that the way we
use the data, the way we use these
tools, the way we collect and retain
things is in the best interest of civil
liberties, civil rights of all people.
Uh we don't legislate for the people who
abide by the law. It doesn't matter to
me how much premeditation is required in
murder for 31st degree because I haven't
murdered and will not murder. We have to
have protections for those who will
violate though. So I am not worried
about you chief. I'm not worried about
the officers who I engage with. I am
worried about making sure that as we
move forward we have policy that
protects the rights no matter who is
doing what where in our city. So I just
want to put that on the public record.
Thank you, council member. And we're
happy to work with you on that. And we
want to have a sustainable uh we we want
to have a sustainable program so that we
can utilize the technology
appropriately. So, we're always happy to
engage. Thank you.
» Um Chief, one more thing. Um the
in 2024 the budget 2024 2025 I believe
that's when what the budget was the the
council uh shared their their um focus
on the Jordan River. Um and uh I believe
it was before you you were joined. Um
and uh I wanted to our intent then and
and maybe I can be corrected uh by
[clears throat] our our own staff here
uh about what uh we were intending there
uh was to create sort of a a group of
officers that were just hyperfocused on
the river uh on the river trail and
going up and down. Um and
and that was a big deal for you know our
community on the west side but certainly
uh this you know generally for the whole
city. I am not sure where that is. Uh
and I would love an update and and if if
that has changed you know I I would love
to get an update. So last fall we
deployed the two green space uh bike
squads
uh that were obtained off of a federal
grant. The city council I think had to
put some money in. You put some money in
as well. And so they've been deployed
since October and they're operating over
in that area. And uh we hope you're
seeing them and we hope you're feeling
the effects of their work. But we we
feel like we're making a lot of good
progress over on North Temple along
um both and we'll continue to to keep at
it. Uh one one thing that we are also
looking at is we've seen really great
success with the downtown foot patrol is
looking at areas like Sugar House and
and North Temple and do we start using
utilizing that model as well and in
those areas and so we're having those
discussions as well.
» Great. Thank you. I that would be
amazing for me to and maybe for you know
council member Petro to to share with
our community councils about you know
how that discussion ended up and
something tangible that department is
doing certainly beyond that I think it's
very obvious to us that live on the west
side the improvements on North Temple
and the Jordan River Trail it's
significant um and a significant
positive change um and uh there is still
some work to do but it's, you know,
please I would like you to share with
with the officers that are working in
the area. Uh we're very thankful uh to
to see that improvement. So,
» Thank you for that and we will share
that. And I I just I will tell you we
are committed to the residents of the
west side and and making sure they have
public safety and and we will keep at
it. And you may not always see the bike
squad on bikes. They do a lot of uh work
uh with the drug activity that we we
sometimes see in public. So, if you're
not always seeing the bike squads on
bikes, that's why. But they are out
there working hard, very hard.
All right. Uh, next. Let's see where we
at here on the next slide. I didn't
» Okay, next slide.
Um, the the contractual increases. This
is just an inflationary increase for
things like uniforms, gear, ammo, safety
equipment, and other supplies. This
factors in at about a 1.86% inflationary
increase. Um, again, you know, if it can
be ongoing, that's great because those
costs probably aren't coming down, but
you know, we'll be a team player. But
that's that request. And then the last
one, uh, this is specifically for our
drone as first responder program, and
this is for the ongoing costs for the
five drone docks that will be placed
across the city for our drone's first
responder program. As I mentioned
earlier, um, we cleared nearly 40% of
our calls in a test in February with
these drones. Um, it's going to improve
response times and we're going to be
able to just a couple examples. One, we
were able to speed up officers when a
woman was threatened by an individual
with a pipe. We were able to not send
officers to a call where it was it was
relayed as a violent person uh with a
weapon, which was not the case. It was
someone having a mental health crisis.
We could send social workers or not send
an officer at all. and we were able to
pull a an individual off of a parking
garage with the drone guiding officers
in to to the location, which would have
taken much longer to find her. So, this
is this is going to be a gamecher. Uh
again, I want to emphasize uh that we
are not patrolling with these drones.
We're not randomly flying them around.
We're flying them to calls for service.
uh when they fly across the city, we're
keeping the camera as much as we can.
The camera pointed up so it's not
pointing down as it flies across the
city. We're getting it to the call. It's
it's giving our officers real-time
information and then we're we're
bringing it back. Um we keep a we keep a
a record of the flight, the flight path,
the case number, the reason for the
flight. Um and that's all uh recorded
and that's what the cost is there.
And next slide.
» And I think that's the last slide. Any
questions?
» Any last questions? Uh, Council Member
Dugan and Carlson.
» No. Carson, then.
» Uh, thank you, Chief, um, for your
presentation. My first question, I don't
I think I know the answer to, but I
think it's helpful to at least um, since
this is public record, have an
opportunity for residents to understand
the answer to this question as well. So
when the city publish when the mayor uh
publishes her proposed budget and um
residents of Salt Lake City just take a
look at the pie chart of you know how
much is going to each department. They
look at the pie chart and they say wow
the majority of our funding is going to
the police department. You've got a
deficit problem. You're going to raise
my property taxes. Why not just cut from
the police department? So, help me um
provide an explanation when residents
say to me, "Well, why don't you just
balance your budget by cutting uh all of
the resources that you've put in towards
your police department?"
» Well, you're asking a biased person
probably that question because I am a
police officer. I I think generally
public safety is so critical and we hear
concerns, council uh member Wharton
brought up concerns in neighborhoods
with speeding or by school zones or uh
you know we've obviously the issues
around homelessness which is not all
homelessness that we are experiencing
when we see those things on the streets.
Much of it is but some of it's
criminogenic behavior um violent crime
all of those things. um to have a safe
uh uh capital city uh I think you have
to invest in in a police department.
Now, as I mentioned, we're looking at
efficiencies and when you know we we
have to look out a number of years and
so we're trying to figure out how we're
going to model what resources we need.
We feel like that this this investment
in the police department in the short
term is going to continue to bring call
response times down. We're already
seeing that those improvements. Uh we
never want to be comfortable with what
our call response time is. We always
want to try to get that down. If you're
if you're I our our priority one call
response times are 6 and 12 minutes as
uh as of April 2025. If you're if you're
threatened uh
in some way uh 6 and a half minutes is a
long time. So that's actually a good
call response time nationally, but we
want to try to bring it down down even
more. So, the the investment in public
safety drives uh drives people in the
community to get out and get into their
parks. Uh we've had a lot of complaints,
you know, with drug use in the parks and
we can't take our kids to the parks or
certain public spaces. So, we do need
the investment. Um but we want to we
want to be cognizant of people who are
concerned that we're getting too much
money and find ways to be more efficient
for sure and we're committed to doing
that.
» Thank you, Chief. And then just a
follow-up question to that because I
feel like this is kind of the the number
one question that I get pretty often is
people look at the budget, they look at
the page graph and say, "Well, just cut
from there. It'll solve all your budget
woes." I don't think it's that easy. Um,
but I'm asking this question just for
the public record and so people
understand more about um how our budgets
are formed. Um,
so I think it's something like maybe 92%
I could be getting this wrong, but 92%
of the police department budget is
associated directly with personnel.
Personnel costs include health care, um,
pensions, salaries, etc. Um, what are
some of the drivers of those personnel
costs and help me understand how things
like labor agreements factor into that.
» So we do have collective bargaining. So
we are under anou with with our unions.
So those those costs are are factored in
there as well or factored in there. Um
when you talk about recruiting you know
if you you want the best you want the
best officers you want the best talent
and when you're competing for a limited
resource we have to compete with other
you know other departments across the
state and nation. So a lot of it is
driven by just market uh market uh you
know the mark what the market is for for
an officer. But yeah, the the theou
controls a lot of those costs for sure
and the collective bargaining. Um, you
know, I'll always say this, we're always
willing to sit down if people are
concerned. I'm willing to sit down and
and and hear them out and and uh see if
they have ideas. I mean, we we we we
take feedback and we try to improve and
get more efficient and we're always
willing to sit down with people and and
and see if we can get better.
» Thank you, Chief. Sorry, my last
question.
um in thinking about uh this proposed
investment in the real time crime center
and the uh highest and best use of
officer time towards those higher
priority calls. How do you think looking
forward maybe over the next 5 years this
will impact the staffing needs of the
department?
Yeah, I mean I think I think our
alternate response I think the real time
crime center may help us not have to ask
for more officers as we move toward the
Olympics and you know the capital city
is just getting large. I mean we have
hockey now. We have we have basketball.
Uh there's potential for baseball in the
future. Uh the University of Utah is
expanding. I mean we just have more
traffic, more events coming into to our
city uh all the time. That's a lot of
people. So, there are there are high
demands on the police department. Um,
I'm hoping that this alternate response
can help free up time to respond to
those those calls more quickly. And I
also hope to Council Member Wharton's uh
um concerns that he hears from his
residents that we can also free up
officer time just to engage on those
quality of life issues, the traffic
safety, the noise, um just just engaging
with our youth so that we don't have
issues with our youth in the future. Um,
so I think those are I think the
real-time crime center will help us get
to a place where we can be more
efficient and effective
and we're seeing we're seeing it work
pretty well across the country.
» Uh, Council Petro and then Council
Member Young.
I just wanted to thank you, Chief, for
being someone who is trustworthy.
Whether we're asking you to go talk to
the inland court or we're asking you to
go meet with homelessness advocates,
every time I hear that our police
department is in the community, you all
are representing the city. You're
reshaping trust where it needs to be.
This is I'm doing these surveys with my
constituents. Public safety without
exception is the number one place my
constituents want investment. And that
can be kind of difficult because some
when some people say public safety, they
mean social workers. When some people
say public safety, they mean the sworn
officers. Um, and I'm just really
thankful. I want to put on the public
record. I'm very thankful for your
leadership for the officers who have
been serving the west side and the whole
city so faithfully. Um, and I look
forward to being creative with you about
how we keep our city safe, continue to
grow in the face of all of the all the
conflicts and issues we have coming
here.
» Thank you, Council Member.
» Council Young,
» Thank you. Um, Chief Red and to the
team, again, I echo Council Member
Petro's thanks. Um, one of the things
that I think is also helpful to
highlight is the way that your
department has successfully been using
data to be able to drive resource
allocation to be more thoughtful with
the resources we have. Um, just because
again not everybody has insight to that,
I'm wondering if you could give kind of
like the the twominute overview of how
like the data that you gather really
helps to direct um resources in a more
effective way so that if if I could
speak so broadly that we're almost doing
more with without having to increase um
staffing um as the city has grown.
» Sure. I mean, one example because this
was the big issue when I when I came
joined the Salt Lake City Police
Department was some of the issues on the
Jordan River Trail and some of the
homeless related or transient related
calls for service. Um, this is these are
these are community members calling in
or businesses or whatever indicating
there's problems. So, we have a heat map
that we we look at every week to see
where the bulk of those calls are coming
in from community members and then we
will deploy our homeless resource center
officers, our social workers uh or and
even our patrol officers into those
areas to uh try to see what the issue
is. Um, I can I can give an example. In
downtown, we were having a hot spot and
we found out that we had uh we had drug
dealers who were coming to that location
and and and that's why we were having
some of the issues that we were having.
So, we that's an example of the way that
we're using we're using data to um you
know try to deploy our resources more
efficiently.
» Thank you. I appreciate the example
because for me knowing that you're using
that data driven approach gives me
confidence as a council member related
to the asks that are coming through
related to your budget. Um and I
appreciate seeing the connection between
those two. Um, and I think to me it also
gives me confidence in how you're both
looking to be at the forefront of
innovation to be thoughtful about our
use of resources where we need like the
human response aspect whereas where we
may have you know alternative
opportunities to be able to um be
thoughtful about those deployments. Um,
and just wanted to say that I that does
give me a lot of confidence in the
budget requests that come forward just
knowing that that's a day-to-day
practice of Salt Lake City Police.
» Thank you. And we're writing our
strategic plan now and we're going to
have we're going to we're going to
continue de to develop better key met
keep key key performance indicators
metrics. So we we have some work to do
still, but we're definitely um utilizing
data and it's helpful. Thank you.
» Thank you.
We're good. Thank you, chief. Thank you,
everyone.
» You council,
» We have scheduled a tentative break that
we passed. So, um I would like uh all of
us to consider continuing with the with
the discussion. I hope if anybody has
strong opinions against
speak now. Okay, we're going to continue
with item number four, fiscal year 2026
2027 budget discussions. Uh this is
about community and neighborhoods uh
department. Now we're gonna uh welcome
at the table uh Allison Roland, council
policy analyst, uh Tommy Hanser,
director of community and neighborhoods,
Mike Oerllo, deputy director, and Brent
Beck, financial manager is
um Allison is your time.
» Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um
you know I always it always strikes me
that can is a very diverse um department
with building services, engineering,
housing stability, planning,
transportation, youth and family and
then of course the arts council which is
going to be um briefed in the next uh in
the next bit. But um in spite of that
you guys managed to pull it all
together. So I'll just go over the
basics quickly. um
and then turn it over to the people who
really know. Um the proposed FY27 budget
is 41.4 million which is just about the
same as FY26.
The staff size will also remain just
about the same. The largest cost savings
um 702,000
and change um is will be achieved
through an attrition savings pool which
is essentially holding vacated positions
open for four to five months rather than
filling them immediately.
Other cost reductions come from cuts in
the hive pass program. And this is for
general writership, not for special
populations like school kids and their
guardians and from a variety of smaller
items like the city match for fix the
bricks um which now that the federal
program has expired um there um it
basically the program will be closed.
Um, the most significant increase costs
are an $800,000 one-time youth and
family
uh
I was going to say subsidy. It's a
subsidy. I guess that's fair. Um, for to
replace federal funds which have
disappeared as well. Um, and give the
youth and family division time to try to
find more um to try to find additional
sources of revenue for their programs.
and 330,000
ongoing for taking over funding for the
VO VOA homeless outreach team and
shelter the homeless resource center
liaison. So those are the two really big
increases. Um and there are policy
questions sprinkled throughout the uh
the staff report. So I will turn it over
now to Tammy.
Thank you. Um, thanks to the council for
the opportunity to present um, community
neighborhoods FY27
proposed budget. I also want to thank
Allison Roland. She's been great to work
with as always. Um, before we u dive
into the budget proposal itself, I want
to begin by recognizing the exceptional
team um, behind this work. The
accomplishments reflected in this budget
are the result of a dedicated, talented,
and missiondriven department. Allison
outlined all of the various divisions
within the department. Um, we're a large
department with a broad scope of work.
Next slide, please.
Every division within the department
plays a critical role in serving
residents, strengthening neighborhoods,
supporting community partners, and
improving or implementing council
priorities. Their expertise, creativity,
and commitment to public service are
reflected throughout this proposal. Next
slide, please.
Can's uh recent accomplishments are
numerous um too numerous to list, but a
sampling include the completion of the
$89 million funding our future street
bond that resulted in 122 miles of
street reconstruction, 310 mi of
pavement resurfacing, 60 mi of sidewalk
curb and gutter, and we added over 2700
new trees and plants. We have also been
working hard within building services to
create efficiencies with building
inspections and we are currently current
on all rental inspections which is a
great accomplishment for that team. We
have found efficiencies by
cross-training building inspectors. Um
by doing so we are building internal
capacity, improving institutional
knowledge, increasing responsiveness and
um providing long-term value to the
city. On the transportation note, we
have successfully navigated the
requirements of the transportation bill
from 2025 which recently sunset SB95
and we are currently going through the
steps to comply with SB242.
Um that process um now entails
negotiating with UD do on an an
agreement between our two entities.
Um we are also continuing to implement
thriving in place the anti-displacement
plan that the council adopted a few
years ago. Um this effort includes
various aspects including those in
planning and housing stability. An
example of a success is the tenant
resource center that started in the fall
of 2024. To date, we have assisted over
2,200 individuals through that portal.
Um, which is great. Um, we are also
another accomplishment is uh continuing
to provide highquality summer and
afterchool programming in spite of
significant federal cuts to our grants.
Next slide, please.
In terms of efficiencies, over the past
year, we have focused on operational
efficiencies and long-term
sustainability of the department from a
financial aspect. This includes
implementing the commercial and mixeduse
zoning district consolidation. This
consolidation reduced the amount of
zoning code. Um, also reducing resources
necessary to administer the code and it
created efficiencies for developers and
property owners. These efficiencies in
administering the code actually allowed
us to shift staffing resources to work
on adoptions of or um drafting of
community plan updates.
We um transferred the advantage service
contract to public services to
centralize cleaning efforts and to
provide for staffing and funding
efficiencies. The mayor mentioned this
in her budget presentation to you. That
um transfer allowed the city to find I
think it was like a million dollars in
savings.
Um we are also coordinating with public
services to optimize administrative
office space. That includes re-imagining
the old library. Um this will allow the
city to utilize existing real estate
instead of um looking to bond to build
new administrative office sta space. Um
and then within youth and family with
the budget cuts that have been faced
we've optimized budget expenditures.
We're really looking at how we plan for
and order supplies um for youth
programming. Um we've gone up and down
through that budget to cut where we can
and create efficiencies to make the the
delivery of services as streamlined and
efficient as possible. Next slide,
please.
Um Allison provided an overview of CAN's
budget. As she mentioned within K's
budget, we're about flat from FY26.
Also on this slide, you will see a new
revenue change. That's new revenue that
we're proposing for the general fund.
And then um we also looked through our
non-EP non-departmental expenditures
that are attributed to our department
and we fi found about a million dollars
in savings there. Next slide.
So, the new revenue that I just spoke
about is $177,000.
This wouldn't be new revenue for the
Department of Community and
Neighborhoods. It would go into the
general fund. But, as the mayor's office
asked us to look at cuts, we looked
across the board at where we could
either gener um generate new revenue or
reduce expenditures. and in generating
new revenue. The green vehicle program
was implemented several years ago and
the initial policy reason for
implementing this program was to
encourage
uh individuals to buy EV vehicles and in
looking at this program now we really
think that the market the EV market is
strong and the city's policy in regard
to EV parking really isn't influencing
the EV market anymore. So, if we
eliminate this program, um it would be a
net of 177,000 in new parking revenue
for FY27. We worked with finance on that
number, but it would actually be even a
greater amount of revenue in future
years because the finance department
built in a few months to phase that
program out. Um the other reason we are
proposing to um eliminate the program is
the EPA um publishes an EPA smartway
vehicle list on an annual basis and our
city code is actually tied to that list
and there have been recent changes with
the current federal administration with
the EPA and how that list is managed. So
there's actually lack of clarity right
now on what new cars qualify. Um, the
other consideration with the program is
there are still green stickers out there
on vehicles that qualified
as an efficient vehicle sever several
years ago but would no longer qualify
under current lists. So that is one
proposal for new revenue. Um, the second
item on the slide is access and
belonging. This is actually revenue or
budget neutral. This budget was in the
mayor's office last year. access and
belonging staff moved from the mayor's
office to community and neighborhoods.
So, this is operating budget that was
left in the mayor's office that we're
asking to transfer over to CAN. It is
budget that is used to operate the
programs um including welcoming week,
the IFAR dinner, um partnership events,
new American projects, and know your
neighbor volunteer fingerprinting.
The third item on this slide is the
police department lease contractual
increases. We are contractually
obligated um for this budget through
lease agreements. So, community and
neighborhoods, the real estate services
team, we manage lease agreements um
throughout the city, including the
police department. So, this would be
increases for the CL crime lab, the
community connection center, and the
police substations. Next slide, please.
VA and shelter the homeless, $330,000.
We're requesting this to be ongoing
funding within CAN's budget. This is
actually not new funding. It's currently
funded through a BA in FY26.
And in previous years, it was actually
those contracts were funded through the
state mitigation funds. Last year, um,
the city shifted the priorities of the
state mitigation funds from efforts that
were being carried out through CAN to
the police department because the state
wanted cities to prioritize public
safety with those funds. Um, so we want
to build in the VA and shelter the
homeless into housing stabilities
budget. Um, VA is for a homeless
outreach team. Um this team is actually
working a lot with the connect program
in PD. It's for engaging persons
experiencing homelessness um for that
program and also engaging that
population like if there's an encampment
mitigation. And then the shelter the
homeless contract that is um how much is
that one?
80,000. That would be for a homeless
services liaison for the homeless
resource center. And this liaison is
actually an FTE employed by shelter the
homeless that mitigates issues,
coordinates with stakeholders and um
does community outreach um with
regarding the resource centers.
And then um our fifth request is a large
one. It is 800,000 for youth and family.
Um, this would be funding to keep youth
and family programming relatively
stable, compensating for the loss of
federal funding. Of note, even with this
$800,000 request, this would if if the
council approves this request, the
division would still be over $500,000
less in budget in FY27 than in FY26
because there have been other federal
budget cuts. But in talking with the
team and looking at how we can optimize
the 800,000 would keep programming for K
through 6 and teens stable. We would
consolidate adult programming. Right now
we have an adult programming site in the
Fair Park neighborhood as well as at
Sorenson. We would consolidate adult
programming at Sorenson and find some
cost savings there. And like I said
before, the division has already found
some efficiencies and cost savings. So,
we feel like 800,000 is the minimum that
would be needed to keep programming
relatively stable. I am sure you will
agree that these programs are critical
in supporting working families within
our city and investment in youth and
family collectively advances public
safety, educational
outcomes, workforce training, and
community well-being. So, we feel
strongly that this is would be good
money spent if the council decides to
approve. Next slide, please. Let let me
construct uh council member Dugan.
» Yeah, thank you Tammy and I'm uh agree
with you on that number about the youth
and family services. Can you kind of
give the uh the city and the council and
the metrics that you kind of make that
decision for you? I mean, what are you
tracking there as far as how many youth
and families and K through sixth graders
that you're you're touching by that
funding and what you're not touching
because you've lost that
the other $500,000 I think you just
mentioned that you're going to still
find efficiencies. Can you kind of guess
give us a broad view of those metrics
that you're uh using to justify that
because I think it's incredibly valuable
uh and it's necessary but it'd be nice
to know some of those metrics that
you're tracking with that.
» There are a lot of metrics we are
tracking for the youth and family
division and programming. I don't have
them memorized on the top of my head but
we have we actually have that data put
together in a wireframe that we can send
over. But the um program tracks
enrollment. Um the programming is
offered on a sliding scale basis in
terms of the fees for the program. So
most of the kids qualify for free or
lowcost programming because they are
from lower income families. So we have
um income information on the students
and the the participants um in looking
in working with the team. and Liz Rich
is here if you have any specific
questions on on metrics. Otherwise, we
can email those afterwards. But in
looking at the the $500,000
reduction, if we get the $800,000 that
we're requesting, in talking it through
with Liz and also with the mayor's
office, we want to be responsible with
taxpayer money. And we really looked at
at programming and the the benefits that
the programming is providing the
community. And the adult programming is
very valuable. It's it's well used. It's
like computer labs. Um ESL. I think
there's some financial literacy
training, other things like that. We
really feel like the um services for
youth, the K through six and the teens
is essential to keep intact for the
community. So, we really looked at then
consolidating the adult programming at
Sorenson and just creating other
efficiencies that would limit the cuts
to services for youth. Does that help?
» Yeah, that it does. And I just wondered
and there's probably a lot of pressure
to for the services too. It's it's not
like you have a lot of empty seats. You
have more requests than
» Right weight lists.
» You have the weight list.
» And the program has um Liz, who's a
newer director, she's been with youth
and family for a long time, but she
stepped in the director role um a bit a
bit over a year ago, I believe. um she's
really been creative, been forward
thinking. Um she's been a lifesaver in
working through all of these funding
cuts. We've also um experienced other
challenges like we had programming at
the fair park. Um and then we moved to
the lied boys and girls club, but the
Boys and Girls Club is now selling lies.
So now we're talking to the about moving
programming into the Northwest Rec
Center, which the county has been great
to work with. So, um, there's been a lot
going on with Ethan family.
» Appreciate that and I'd love to see some
of those metrics just to, you know, for
there's probably a lot of questions
about that, but because it's a big
number, but I think that the the cost
benefit is is huge. So, appreciate that.
Thank you,
» Carson.
» Um, thank you for this presentation thus
far. I think I want to uh follow up on
Council Member Dugan's questions about
the 800,000 for the youth and family
programming and that's really coming um
about this year because of uh federal
funding uh cuts and and um changes
related to that. And so I think my
question as I'm thinking about this is
are you thinking about this kind of as a
bridge year and then in fiscal year 28
finding additional resources to support
this line item or how are you thinking
about for future years?
» That is a great question and I meant to
mention that this is an 800,000 one-time
funding request so we're not requesting
ongoing. Um that being said, we are
still it's still to be determined
whether we can find other resources or
other grant opportunities. Uh we also
want to look at local grant
opportunities um philanthropic
opportunities. So we want to spend the
next year uh analyzing and looking at
other resources. We also recently um
hired a national consultant who did a
three-year strategic plan. And I think
one of Allison's policy questions to you
was if you want us to present that
strategic plan to you. That plan was in
process when funding cuts started to
happen. So it does talk about some
options with funding. So um I don't have
any good answers for you now, but it's
something we are working through.
I just wanted to clarify really quickly
um because I'm trying to mention it each
time a department is before us that is
related to the property tax. So um the
$800,000 for youth and family is part of
the $13.5 million property tax increase
proposal.
» Thank you. I meant to mention that as
well. [laughter]
Um the next item is a $700,000 cut from
non departmental from vacant building
maintenance.
um this funding um for the current
fiscal year, a portion of that has gone
to the Fiser Mansion. I think it was
400,000's going to Fisher Mansion. So,
we have been strategically looking at um
improvements to uh vacant and
underutilized city properties to help
keep those buildings um well-maintained
and improved as we look at um
disposition strategies. So currently
Fischer Mansion receives some of the
money. We also use the money for just
ongoing security and maintenance
expenses. So we're proposing to cut the
entire pot of money, but obviously we
still need a strategy and a source for
paying for um maintenance and utilities
and lawnmowing and whatnot. So we are
going to use the surplus. We're
proposing to use the surplus property
account for those basic expenses up to
200,000.
The next item is a $50,000 cut from
non-EP departmental transit outreach,
education, and marketing. This um amount
that R can receives in its annual budget
is $100,000. So, we're proposing to cut
it in half. And we're also proposing to
broaden the scope not just to the
transit network, but um CIP and road
projects in general to do outreach and
engagement with the community.
Um the third one uh for our reduction
request is the hive pass. Uh we were
faced with tough decisions with this
budget proposal and perhaps the toughest
decision is to propose the cut to this
program. The Hive Pass program currently
provides discounted transit passes to
residents regardless of their income.
There are about 440 users of this pass a
month. Um we made this decision for two
primary reasons um faced with the budget
um challenges that we are this year.
First, we want to ensure that the
transportation funding is doing the most
good for the most in need. So we are
leaving the lowincome pass program
intact. That program partners with
service providers to provide daily and
monthly transit passes for the city's
most vulnerable residents. And we are
also proposing to leave intact the
school district program that provides
passes to school age children and
guardians. Um we also are prioritizing
the frequency of the transit network. We
didn't want to look at any cuts there.
So the city contributes about $10
million a year for the go routes, the
frequent transit network and for the
ondemand programs. And so looking within
the transportation division faced with
um budget challenges, we felt like the
hive pass since there isn't an income
qualification
that was where we could take the
reduction over the low income the school
district partnership and the frequent
transit network because it's essential
to keep that frequency up with the
network. The other concern with the Hive
pass program is it's getting more
expensive to administer. So to keep
administering it at the current level,
we would actually have to ask for
additional budget.
So right now the budget is I think
350,000 to provide the passes. Um but
the amount there's also an amount to
administer the program. I think
currently it's 60,000 and that will be
increasing to about 150 if we don't cut
the program. So we would actually have
to ask for money to keep administering
the program.
» Council Dugan. Thank you for that
explanation. Yeah, it is a it is a hard
decision to make there on that one
because as you said it's a valuable
service. We want people on public
transportation and this is a nice way to
pe get people on keep people on buses.
Do we have a number of how many of the I
think it's 440 or somehat that use a
pass would qualify for the lowinccome
uh
support for a pass if they were in that
if they had taken that route instead of
the hive pass route.
» Do we do we have an idea? And
» I don't think we have any idea because I
don't think we collect any sort of
income data with the hive pass applic.
Yeah, because that's not part of the
eligibility criteria.
» And is there there's probably other
multiple sources for passes, companies
provide passes. Uh we have low-inccome
passes.
Is there we're going to be providing
information for people who currently get
the high pass where there's other
options for them to get a pass? Because
I I it is a service that they're using
and they're using the pass because
that's why they want it. and how do we
make sure that they still ride the
public transportation, they still get to
work in that regard.
» Um, I can coordinate with the
transportation team on ideas for that.
Um, I do know a lot of employers provide
passes like Salt Lake City does. Um, but
I don't know if we have a comprehensive
list of of those sources and um I'd need
to talk to the transportation team about
and maybe UTA about um other ideas for
communicating
um programs and offers for transit
passes.
» Yeah, I I keep on I'm trying to push
more and more people on about public
transportation because it helps
everybody. It helps people who aren't on
the track on the public transportation
because there's fewer cars, but it also
helps people get to work and, you know,
affordable living.
So, I'd love to have that communication
so we can absolutely use all the
different services for everybody and not
just the easiest one, which might have
been the high pass.
» Yeah. One idea, maybe we've done this
with housing and with other um areas
within CAN, maybe we could create a web
page with resources.
» Yeah. Yeah.
» Um and ideas for transit passes.
» Consumer Carlson.
» Um in regards to uh the on demand, I
think that's if I remember right, it's
about like 3.5 million. Um
maybe as a follow-up, I'd love to see
how many writers are served by that
program, number of trips um that that
program helps to uh supplement.
» We can get you that information. And our
partnership with UTA with the frequent
transit networks um is interesting in
that we are subsidizing the frequency of
the transit network and then as the
system and the the frequency is in place
for a while and then writership
increases
there's that's actually bringing in more
revenue to UTA and our subsidies then
being reduced. So we're actually seeing
some of those positive impacts start to
happen. So we can provide that
information to you.
» Uh thank you for the update. Since we
are talking about the the high pass, I
been reached out you know many members
of the committee reached out to me about
you know what this looks like uh to the
city. Uh the impact to individual
families. you highlighted how tough this
was to decide between all of these
programs that do took do good in our
community and uh choosing between all of
them is not easy. So, thank you for um
you know looking through your budget and
trying to thoughtfully make deci tough
decisions and and uh uh prioritizing
what what programs does the best um um
does the best for for uh for the most
people. Um I do I would like more
information about uh the subsidy you
know the the high pass that is income uh
qualified. Um I wonder if you know
ending this program will increase the
demand on on the on that portion of of
the of the pass. Um I I struggle with
the write out you know completely ending
of it. Um but I you know I would love to
get a little more information as well
about uh managing this program and you
know what um what does it cost to manage
it and you you you mentioned that it may
require even more uh resources to manage
it. I would love more information about
that as well. Um so certainly this is
one of those uh programs that I struggle
with and it when you are looking at your
own department it makes sense that
you're looking into this these programs.
Um I would like to see it certainly for
us it's it's appropriate to do this is
look at at it holistically through all
the different departments in the city.
Um, and I'm more inclined to find
savings in other places within the city
to try to uh, you know, potentially
hopefully try to make an impact or keep
something like this going. Um, which is
not on you, uh, and and it's within us.
uh and I know that uh 440 you know
individuals use this pass and it seems
significant to me and uh in some ways
disconnected and disjointed maybe to
what of the goals of the city are. Again
this is not on you because you have a
tough decision to make and try to find
the the most impact for for the money
that we have and you met the task that
administration gave you which is try to
find savings uh within your your
program. Um, Council Member Wharton has
a question.
» Thank you, Tammy. Um, I appreciate
[clears throat] the presentation and,
um, yeah, CAM is, um, one of our biggest
departments and is vast in terms of all
the services that are provided. So, um,
thanks for recapping all of that.
Um I don't want to
uh like micromanage or or say that you
know ane every not every anecdote that
we
uh see is representative of um
you know like system flaws or whatever.
Um, but I do get quite a few um,
requests throughout the year from people
that are um, either businesses in my
district or constituents that um, say
that, you know, they filed for this
permit or asked for that and um, that
there are delays or inefficiencies in
the system. And a lot of times, um, I
just want to say like to to our credit
and our and your staff's credit, um,
most of the time when I look into those,
the delay is actually on the petitioner.
um and uh or it's something that they
um something's been back to sent back to
them for um that like something's
incomplete or whatever and they didn't
know that or they missed an email or
something like that. Um but sometimes it
is um delay on the city's part or that
there's some kind of like
um
um it seems like extra uh or um more
processes that could be streamlined. So
I'm really interested. I appreciate the
what you've already done to add to that.
I I'm convinced that there are um more
efficiencies that we can do out there.
Um and so uh I just would be really
interested to hear more about that in
the coming year. Um I think you said
that that was something that that
uh you and your team were going to
study. Um so I'm really interested to
hear more about that.
» Thank you for that feedback, council
member. And I know this has been an
ongoing topic of discussion and the
administration has often talked about
efficiencies and improvements that we
are looking into. Um I think the time is
right for some major um analysis to take
place for um those processes. I have the
utmost confidence in the building
services and the planning team and
engineering. Um, one tricky thing is is
that building permitting crosses
departments. So there like public
utilities is involved in other
departments. Um, but the mayor's office
is supportive of looking into
significant changes. Another um kind of
sea change that we're experiencing is
the new IMS director has come to the
table really wanting to be part of that
discussion and looking at because
process improvements a lot of times have
to come along with technology
improvements. We've been using the same
technology for a long time and um he's
really interested in going down that
path exploring improvements and ideas
and alternatives with us. So, I'm
excited to see what we can do over the
next year.
» Okay. Well, thank you. Yeah. I and I
think you know to the extent that we've
done a lot of these big changes to
consolidate
um zones and um things like that in
planning I I think we should try to do
like commensurate
um
like efficiencies um inhouse within our
own systems to uh
yeah to address that even though I know
it's multi-ep departmental and and that
you know there our constraints based on
technology, but I would just love to see
that um us look at these things more
comprehensively and and prioritize that.
So, thank you. I appreciate it.
» Thanks,
» Council Member Young.
» Thank you. Um I just wanted to dive a
little bit deeper on the youth and the
family programming. um because that is
one of the pieces that would be funded
by the proposed property tax increase.
Um can you give us like a maybe a couple
more details about that um to help folks
understand why um those programs are so
essential to our families and residents
in Salt Lake?
» Sure. Uh, youth and family provides
afterchool programming, summer
programming. Um, this is not only
benefiting the kid, providing positive
social outcomes, there's educational
standards that the programming meets.
So, it's not just daycare, there's an
actual education component to the
program. And it's also essential for
working families. This allows working
parents, single moms to be at work while
their kids are doing something that
provides knowledge and um social skills.
So we really feel that um the
programming is essential. If you look at
the demographics of the kids that
participate in the program in the
programming, it's a lot of um extremely
low-income vulnerable populations, new
Americans. So, um, it's really
essential, we feel, to keep this
programming at a stable level. But like
I did say, we looked critically at where
the money was going, how we would create
efficiencies. And we're asking for the
800 and cutting from the current budget
500,000 because we felt like if we were
going out and asking for property tax
funds to be used for these programs that
we had to be critical and use our
funding as wisely as possible.
» Thank you. And I I appreciate those
additional details. I would just for the
the broader community conversation draw
an analogy um to cuts that we recently
saw happening um at the county level and
kind of the the public outcry associated
like with those cuts um when they were
part of consideration and I appreciate
um you looking at efficiencies within
that space um but but tying it to a key
core demographic and a need that we want
to continue to meet within our community
to allow those working parents that
opportunity um to you know provide
educational opportunities for their
kids. To me these are very similar
conversations. So I just wanted to draw
that analogy um in terms of kind of the
the rationale and the justification for
that aspect of this request.
Can someone repeat?
» Did you say Petro?
» Yes, I did.
» Okay. Um, Tammy, I wanted to thank you
for this presentation and for
the amazing work that we know you do.
Um, I want to start it off with the
Sony. I think it was really interesting
to hear that there's actually costing
» V consumer Victoria. I um the sound is
not very clear. So maybe the connection
is a little poor. I wonder if you can
slow down the So we have time to
translate in our brain.
» Is this better?
» Yes.
» Okay. It's stupid Bluetooth. Sorry. I'm
being a mom while I'm being a council
woman.
Um, no Tammy, I just wanted to say thank
you as usual. This is pretty remarkable
stuff. Your your knowledge and expertise
in protecting the city on such wide
ranging things is really remarkable. Um,
first of all, on the zoning, it's really
interesting to hear to see the um
economic impact of this. Really
exciting. I'd love to track some data
throughout the year to see what it looks
like for adoption and what's actually
happening with our land use to have a
comprehensive um idea of how successful
or how much we need to modify. But this
is a really really interesting data
point. Thank you for bringing it. Um
secondly, I'll look for a similar data
point with the hive pass if we do end up
cutting it. If uh I don't I don't I say
if because council member Dugan is
really persuasive and if he finds a way
to not cut it, I know we won't. But if
we do end up cutting it and we see a
change in ridership as a result, I
really would love to revisit that and
make sure that we collect that data
point so we can have a robust discussion
going forward. But then finally, I want
to join the youth and family programming
chorus. I openly admit that this is a
place where I am possibly the greatest
hypocrite because for a long time I've
wanted this uh programming to be
transferred to something more privately
funded just because you know I want to
keep as much free for the core city
services at this moment in time. This is
to me a core city service if we haven't
transitioned it. Our families who rely
on this service do not have the
bandwidth to absorb this. And the, you
know, $2 a year that'll be returned to
the property tax holder if we don't fund
it is not worth the collective impact of
what we can do if we do fund it. So, for
me, this is a core city service at this
point. I am so thankful for leaders like
Liz and you, uh, Representative Romero,
who make sure that we have bang for our
buck. But at this point, I am viewing
youth and family services as a core city
service. While I do look forward to us
finding ways to privatize and reduce
reliance on the general fund for it, I
am fully in support of it and I'm going
to go to the Mat to make sure that we
don't do it. I'm thankful to you and the
mayor for finding a path even in a tough
budget year for us to protect these
families. But thank you.
» Um, quick question. I noticed uh that
advantage was you know reabsorbed within
you know the department. I'm a little
worried.
» No, it's still in public services. Yes.
» Uh so we still have a contract with
Advantage Services.
» Yes. Well, actually oh um you're talking
about on the next slide cuz I'm actually
not done with my slide. So I have the
list of things I want to chat with you.
Maybe I let you talk about first. I can
um be efficient.
» No, no, you are being efficient. I am uh
just a good student, I guess. Uh
[laughter]
keep keep going. Keep going.
» There's two different advantage services
contracts. So, one is still in can. So,
and and for the record, we would love to
uh preserve the Hive Pass program, but
we we know there are it's a challenging
budget year. So, um we will leave
[clears throat] it at that. Next slide,
please.
Um, we are also proposing a $125,000
reduction in non non-dep departmental
that goes um transfers to the arts
council foundation. This would reduce
the city's transfer to the arts council
um from 1,25,000
to 900,000. This cut would cause
reductions in programming such as the
busker fest, Mondays in the park,
springboard for the arts, professional
development, or other programming. If
historical practices followed, it would
be the arts council foundation board
that decides what specific programming
would be cut. And the foundation board
could look at because they leverage the
city's money with grants and other
fundraising. So they could look at grant
opportunities or um other sources of
revenue within the foundation to cover
programming. We have I think the next
agenda item is the arts council. So we
can get into this more. Council member
Pu, I know that public art is very
important um for you. So this isn't the
public art portion of the arts council.
This is the transfer to non-dep
departmental that is mostly for
programming. Um, the next item is
$50,000 proposed to be cut from planning
for a historic preservation consultant.
This funding has been used over the past
few years to update historic survey
records for local historic districts. We
feel that we can transfer these duties
inhouse. Um, we still have some
consulting money that would remain
within planning for the expertise that
we need like for architectural
historians and other consultants. The
next item is a $50,000 cut um for
engineering's public outreach
consultant. This would cut that funding
entirely. Council member Young, you I'm
sure are familiar with these services
with the Sugar House Street
Reconstruction Project. That funding
paid for the consultant that did
outreach with the community. Um we feel
that with the although we would miss
this funding, we feel that with the um
completion of the streets bond and with
shifting our priorities more from large
reconstruction projects to local streets
that um we can manage without this
funding and do those efforts inhouse. Um
the next one, if you go to the next
slide,
um housing fix the bricks match. There
was a federal requirement through FEMA.
Um we no longer have FEMA funding for
fix the bricks. So we do not need this
$84,000 match. Um reduction number eight
is the neighborly software for $60,000.
We would not be this wouldn't be a cut
in services. we would be shifting the
software expense from the general fund
and charge it to federal grants like
CDBG.
um the housing funding our future
contract. This 90,000 $92,000 reduction
from funding our future, it actually
wouldn't result in a loss in services
because the tenant resource center is
administered by the community
development corporation of Utah and you
just admin or you just awarded funding
to CDCU for that program through the
funding our future round. So this
reduction would not result in loss of
services. Next slide please.
the homelessness contracts. Um we
haven't been using um an amount every
year that's allocated for portable
toilet rentals for 32,000. So we're
proposing to reduce that. But we are
proposing to have a $12,000 increase for
advantage services a place for your
stuff. So this would increase that
contract from 85,000 to 97,000. So
that's for the storage program. That's
program still administered through CAN,
but the cleaning is administered through
public services. And then the last two
are um vacancy savings essentially.
There's actually an engineering 7
position that's currently open that
we've agreed to hold open for the entire
year. um because we've consolidated um
engineering management efforts within
transportation, we don't want to
eliminate that FTE yet because we want
to make sure that this is a viable path
forward. Um I did listen to the earlier
briefing and I think Jennifer, you
described our approach to vacancy
savings spoton. Um we really want we
have a large um the last item is a
$72,000
attrition vacancy savings pool. We did
not want to eliminate any FTEEs. Right
now, um CAN is a large department with
about 250 employees. So, we naturally
get quite a bit of vacancy savings over
the year. This is more than we typically
get. So, we are planning to hold
positions open for a longer period of
time. And we also want to look at any
efficiencies or combining of job
responsibilities over the next year. But
we really wanted to take the next year
to kind of analyze how that shakes out.
And I think that is it. Um, again, I
appreciate the partnership and support
from the council and I'd be happy to
answer any more questions or hear any
more feedback.
» Council Mugan has more questions.
» Sorry, I just one more question about
the fix the brick program. So, is that
program now because the feds aren't
uh supporting it, is that eliminated or
is it still a fix the bricks? you're
just not uh
» So the council has allocated over some
previous budget rounds some funding from
CDBG so there is a smaller pot of money
that is still being used for fix the
bricks the FEMA program there was not an
income requirement for um recipients of
the program but since it's CDBG and HUD
there is an income requirement with the
smaller pot of money that that we still
have.
» Gotcha. Thank you very much. But the
FEMA had a match requirement and that's
where the general fund um allocation
came in play. Um so we don't need that
anymore. So that's why we proposed that
reduction.
» Gotcha. But the program's still ongoing
and but there's there's now more of the
income uh threshold for that.
» And a lot less money.
» And a lot less money. Right.
» Okay. Thank you.
» I wonder there's no hands up. So I guess
it's my turn. Uh so the the cleaning
portion of the advantage uh can you
explain a little more about how we're
going to maintain uh
service levels? Um you know a little bit
tell me a little more.
Um, when Jorge presents public services
budget, he can get in much more detail
than I can with that because the new
urban services team has been operating
for almost a year. And um, we did
transfer the advantage services portion
of the cleaning to public services for
administration by that team. And it's my
understanding that they have found a lot
of cost savings with that contract and
transferred a lot of that scope of work
inhouse.
» Okay, that that's helpful. um EV uh the
north the north temple substation uh and
you have the the downtown the region
street substation and the north temple
substation as part of the increase for
$60,000. How much is that? How much of
that is the north temple? Uh, and are we
using it? Because I is it that necessary
right now? And I know it's probably the
smallest portion of that increase, but I
would love
» It is very small. I can't remember the
exact amount off the top of my head, but
I do remember it's a 5-year lease. It's
the downtown site is an actual precinct.
The one on North Temple is just a bike
substation. Uh, I did ask um the police
department a while ago if they're using
it and they they did say that they use
it. It's not a high amount of rent. I do
remember the first year the city
actually paid zero rent and then I think
it went up to like 1,200 and it it ticks
up every year but it's it's not a lot of
money.
» Yeah. No, I remember that you know the
offer because I was part of that
conversation very early on. It took us a
year to actually get pull it off. So
that free year was uh but uh I would
love to if we are constructed you know
to to maintain that rent that makes
sense. But I I would love to uh ask the
department uh you know if we're going to
vacay that place to start looking at it
you know sooner rather than later and
still getting locked in into a continued
rent when we might not need it. Uh
ultimately it may not be a lot of money
and and they might see value on it. Um
but you know I would love more
information about that. [clears throat]
Um then there is um uh you mentioned EV
uh parking um which is uh I think is it
makes sense to to make that change. Um
is the EV electrical uh portion the cost
of the electricity for those uh u
charging units uh within uh your
department? it isn't
» It is.
» So I would love to have that
conversation as well. So I'm gonna flag
it for all of us to make sure that we
have that conversation as well. Um as
far as dispositional properties, um it's
a question I have. I there is I keep
learning about new properties that we
own and we have owned for a while and I
would love to find out what are we going
to do with them because they cost us a
lot of money to maintain. I still don't
know um if there is a grand plan to to
dispose of them or to develop them or uh
and I feel like this is a conversation
we had had for a little while. You know,
maybe because it's an administrative
thing. It makes sense that we may not be
privy to the details, but when we have
um
budget struggles, you know, to me, you
know, it comes to mind all the
properties that we own. And you know, is
it possible that we disposing or some of
them may make sense to try to cancel out
some of the costs that we have? Yes, is
one-time money, but you know, uh we have
we we have uh made decisions like that
in the past and currently too. So I
would love to know a little more about
the disposition of property within the
department.
» We'd be happy to have that discussion.
» Thank you. Any other random questions or
not random or very smart ones?
» No. Okay.
» Could I correct just quickly what I said
before? Um it looks like it's
sustainability and public services that
take care of the EV chargers.
» Okay. We're looking forward to that
discussion soon. Um thank you so much
for the update. I I I cannot speak
highly of the work that you guys do in
that department. I it's just incredible.
Uh so
really uh we are very lucky to have you
uh as a team leading this city. So thank
you.
» Well, thank you. A lot of the credit
goes to the division leadership. A lot
of I think a lot of them are behind me.
» Thank you.
Uh council members, we are
Not too far behind. We made up some time
somehow. Oh, the break. That's how uh we
ate on that break. Um we're still good,
right? We can do this.
» You need a
» Yes, we do have a quorum. Okay, I will
speak slowly to give you a little more
time.
» Oh god. One one at a time. We have
quorum issues. Um take turns. Uh so
moving on to item number five for this
is again fiscal year 2026 2027 as a
budget discussion for the arts council.
Now we're going to welcome Sylvia
Richards council policy analyst Felicia
Baka arts council director uh Lauren uh
Laurel Conan Alder arts council
assistant director. Sorry for you know
all of the blame on my English. Uh
[laughter]
so thank you. It is your time, Sylvia.
» Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is uh as you
mentioned, the arts council briefing,
which is a division of the community and
neighborhood development department.
This division supports, local artists,
arts organizations, and cultural
programs.
Um, it is funded through the general
fund and arts foundation contributions
and includes nine full-time employees
plus part-time and seasonal staff.
The proposed budget for the arts council
is 1,ion200,
excuse me, 1,275,844,
which is a reduction of 5.8%
as compared to fiscal year 2026.
As a result of proposed cuts, the
division may need to consider cancelling
smaller programming events, which Tammy
just mentioned in the CAN budget, and
Felicia or Laurel will address in their
presentation. the arts council, the CAN
department, the mayor's office provided
information during small group meetings
and transmitts earlier this year uh in
response to council member questions and
the adoption of a legislative intent to
review the arts council's funding,
programming, and priorities.
And with that, I'd like to turn the time
over to Felicia and Laurel.
» Thanks, Sylvia. Um, thank you all for
having us here and I want to thank some
of our board members and staff for being
present. Um, we know this is a year with
really difficult decisions for the
administration and council and I want to
just say as of this organization for the
past eight years. Um, we've had a lot of
conversations about how we do things and
what we facilitate, but I have never
once had to doubt the administration or
council's belief in the power of arts as
essential to the social, cultural, and
economic fabric of our city. And um,
this isn't the case everywhere and we
never take this for granted. Um, we've
had a banner year and we're so excited
to share it with you today. Um
throughout this presentation we'll refer
to a number of items in your transmittal
and council questions. Next slide.
Um this year we completed a public
private partnership that raised $1.4 4
million including the largest singular
grant to our organization for public art
with over 100,000 attendees, 13 projects
in every city council district and over
50 events and broad international press
including the New York Times. We started
eight Capitol Public Art projects this
year, more than any year in the last
decade, with many more in progress and
more on that later. We were selected as
a national partner of the Smithsonian
Folk Life Festival for Living
Traditions, the nation's most renowned
folk festival, and tripled our
fundraising goals. And we hope you'll
all join us starting tomorrow. Despite
higher venue costs and reduced capacity
during the transition to the Civic
Center, the Twilight Concert Series,
an 8% increase in ticket sales from 2024
to 2025. The series continues to
activate downtown and the civic campus
while remaining affordable and
accessible to residents who might not
otherwise have the opportunity.
According to an economic impact study
last season, the series generated more
than $1.6 $6 million in downtown
economic activity, continued to support
the careers of local emerging artists,
and even drew a surprise appearance from
Post Malone, whose tickets are an
average of $150 to $700 in Salt Lake
City right now. As part of our continued
goals to reach new residents, this is
evidenced by 23% of our grant
applications being new firsttime
applicants. And [snorts] lastly, at the
council's request, we conducted a review
of annual mural production in five
comparable cities and found that our
program produced 33% more murals than
the cities included in the comparison.
And more to come on that. Next slide.
We just because we're an arts
organization wanted to share some images
of what we do. This is Olifer Aliasen's
uh Symphony of Disappearing Sounds of
the Great Salt Lake at Memory Grove,
which served 25,000 diverse residents,
the Living Traditions Festival, and then
one of our public art projects, Life on
State, serving emerging artists.
Next slide.
uh our Twilight concert series with our
appearance from Post Malone, our new
ballpark mural program and um bike rack
murals in the foothill trails. Next
slide.
This is a image of some of the programs
that our city project grants support
murals at Liberty Park and a park um or
a public art project in the fair park
that was recent. Next slide.
So from our conversations last year and
for those of you that might be newer, we
thought it would be good to res revisit
our organization's structure as it
relates to the budget. A go we are a
governmental nonprofit as defined by
state code, which is an independent
nonprofit that receives most of its
funding from various public entities. We
were created in 1976 as a missionalign
nonprofit advancing shared civic goals
while maximizing and leveraging public
and private investment. In 2020, the
structure was re-evaluated and Salt Lake
City reaffirmed the implementation and
impact of this structure with the
administration and move forward to
fortify it with an annual operating
agreement and public benefit analysis.
We are governed by this operating
agreement with Salt Lake City in a
non-EP departmental contract. We undergo
an annual um independent audit that's
integrated into the city's audit and we
report and are accountable to state,
county, and federal entities as well as
several other private foundations. We
have 64 private funders across our
programs. This year to really simplify
this structure, it looks like two arms.
The Arts Council Foundation operates
programs including the Finch Lane
Gallery, Living Traditions, Busker
Festival, Poet Laurette, City Arts
Grant, among others. And we also support
non-C capital components of public art
here. City public art funding rests on
the city side of operations and includes
CIP funding as well as the facilitation
of many other funds for public art
outside our division. Next slide.
Part of this oversight structure is two
primary boards. The Arts Council Board
oversees foundation policy, budget, and
strategic oversight and acts as an
advisory body to the city and mayor on
arts. And the art design board
recommends public art projects for
mayoral approval by ordinance. Next
slide.
So with the non-EP departmental funding
that we receive, we think about it as
going into three different buckets. the
city arts grants, the public programming
which we've talked about which includes
things like living traditions and
twilight and busker and then facility
maintenance of our beloved little 1930
uh home.
Next slide please.
We raise on average and we're really
proud of this 30 cents on every taxpayer
dollar except for the last four or five
years we've raised 55 to 65 uh% of our
total budget and we again we have over
64 private funders for our programming
this year. Next slide.
We are examining a number of strategies
to incorporate the budget cut and those
have already been discussed a couple of
times today. Uh we are looking at
cutting the bus busker festival which
happens at the end of May. Jordan River
strolls is a part of this program.
Mondays in the park the city arts grants
could see a reduction and other
supplemental public art would be just
the outreach that happens align aligned
with that. uh we will work hard to
maintain the service levels and quality
that we have. Uh the criteria that we
are considering is in the orange box. We
are preserving programs with high impact
of heart of artists and public served.
We're maintaining diversity of
programming to preserve grant funders.
We are preserving revenue generating
programs. We will consider
recommendations of course from you and
from our board uh based on our strategic
plan. We will consider eliminating
programs with escalating costs in the
future and we are considering what other
services are being provided with similar
offerings extern external to the city.
Next slide.
So, we also uh wanted to talk about our
public funding because our public
funding makes up about 30% of our raised
dollars.
So, we get a significant grant from the
zoo arts and parks fund. Uh the zoo arts
and parks fund has two tiers and we are
in the tier one group and the tier one
group uh make up the the largest of the
cultural entities in this in the city.
For example, um Utah Museum of Fine
Arts, Tracy Aviary, Redbute Gardens are
all tier one organizations. We are the
only local arts agency which is a spec
special designation within that tier.
And in terms of the formula for the way
tier one organizations are funded, it's
based on two things. It's based on a on
a qualifying expenditure and then the
services that we offer. They do look at
the narrative that we provide on the on
the diversity of the programs that we
offer. And this year we uh got about
$215,000 in that grant. The Utah
Division of Arts and Museums is the
state funding and we are defined as the
only local arts agency within Salt Lake
City. Uh the state defines a local arts
agency as an agency that provides
diverse programming and also can provide
grants, short-term policy create
supporting policy creation and public
art. The this LAA status could change if
we had large shifts in our mission and
funding could be the basis for a reduced
grant award. If we were to significantly
change the breadth of our programming or
serve considerably fewer residents, that
could also impact our award.
Additionally, the state is already
anticipating a reduction in their FY27
general operating support grants of 30%
due to a change in the funding that the
state received from that the state
received from the legislature. And
that's going to result in approximately
a $14,000 cut to us this year.
Uh we received federal funding. Uh it's
a grant specifically for the Living
Traditions Festival and the federal
administration under President Trump has
again uh requested or proposed complete
elimination of the National Endowment
for the Arts which is where that funding
comes from. We're hopeful that this will
be uh again a bipartisan supported
National Endowment for the Arts uh
effort and and that it has it has
survived previous cuts. We are hopeful
it will survive this uh this
recommendation. Uh and in recent years
we have averaged between 25 20 to
$45,000.
So we are hoping to again see something
like that next year.
Uh it's also important to know that all
this government funding uh these sources
compose again 30% of our non-EP
departmental funds but we are pro
prohibited from spending any of these
grant funds on public capital expend
expenditures.
Next slide.
Now, we're going to transition to
focusing specific on public art um
centered on some of our conversations
that we've hope had over the last year.
Um so again coming the Japan town mural,
the new u mural to come on out of the
blue and then the another image of the
ballpark murals. Next slide.
So in this slide, as you can see, we
partner and leverage many funds in the
city for public art, and investment in
dollars has been steadily increasing. As
I mentioned, in FY26, we started more
individual projects than in any past
decade with over 15 projects or so in
process right now. And we also created a
very much needed maintenance fund in
2022. Um, please note in this chart that
percent for art funding is in red. So,
this is the only fund within our own
budget, the jurisdiction of our own
budget. Um, we're incredibly grateful to
all our partners in the CRA and public
lands and enterprise funds and many
others that support these efforts in the
city for us to facil facilitate as an
agency on our behalf. Um, and that CIP
funding, you'll see it here, distributed
in the in the year that the project
starts, but again, we're looking at, I
believe this year we were at about
$151,000.
Next [snorts] slide.
So, we're gonna Oh, you [laughter]
» Get to I get to share the good news
about the murals and the challenge that
you gave us to look at our uh the cities
that surround us and some of the things
that are that have been done there. This
is a photo of the of one of the uh
murals in the ballpark, the 10 murals
that were uh were um commissioned this
fall. Next slide.
So, we're actually really grateful that
you invited us to look at uh what uh
other mural programs are doing uh and
how we could aspire to them. Uh because
we are thrilled to share that we are
actually doing really well in terms of
our of of comparisons.
uh we looked at five Utah cities and we
had 33% more murals in terms of the
annual murals produced uh in that report
done by an outside uh consultant. Um so
this slide highlights some of the murals
that are complete and some that are in
progress. So uh we partnered with Love
Your Block and in your meeting materials
there are photos of some of these of the
Love Your Blocks murals from the last
year. Uh the 33% higher number doesn't
include any of the photo any of those
love your block projects although we
love working with love your blocks and
we do collaborate with them. We just
wanted to make sure you were aware of
those. Uh we adapted our grants program
in order to fast track a funding tool
for murals through the grants and this
year we had four murals funded through
that. And then in yellow you can see the
murals that were completed this year. Uh
we had one uh permanent with Bloomberg
and uh two temporary murals. Uh we had
the 10 ballpark murals and then we had
the blocks mural that we partnered with.
Uh we have that we are coming up this
year. We have Japan Town that was
recently announced and it was in an
earlier slide. Uh we have the pop the
Popular Grove pickle ball court. We have
the Jordan River Parkway is going to be
receiving four murals. North Temple will
be receiving six murals. And then uh I
know it's a different surface, but out
of the blue, the whale is going to get a
a facelift and that is considered a
mural as well. Uh and then we also are
working on donations. So, I'm going to
talk a little bit more about that, but
we are in the process of uh accepting
the rack into our collection
or the rack collective into our
collection. Okay, next slide.
» One quick question.
» Just one quick question. Uh mostly for
bragging rights. Uh you said you
compared uh Salt Lake City mural
production to five peer cities. What
were those five peer cities?
» We like bragging rights, too. Uh so we
have South Salt Lake, Murray, Midvale,
Provo, and
I'm blanking. Uh,
» It's in your cap.
» Ogden. Did you say Ogden?
» No, I did say Ogden. So, Ogden. I'm glad
that somebody smarter here is good.
» What was the total of murals that you
you're using?
» Uh, those cities had a total annual
production of 12 at its highest point
annually. Collectively, they have more
than that because some of them have had
programs in the past, but of recent year
totals, 12 is the most. And so again,
ours were 33% higher, but not including
any of the love your block efforts or
even the facade improvement program that
we partner with in the city.
» Yeah. So you're comparing you're
comparing how many murals they're
producing is per
» Just a total number. Yes.
» Yeah. Yeah. And you know, SA Lake is the
size of a council district actually
smaller than a council district here,
right? And they're creating 10 every
year. But that is a good point of
comparison. I like where the trend that
we're we're seeing.
» Yeah. And they do have um a really high
quantity uh geography and kind of
physical landscape is important. High
high um quantity of light industrial
manufacturing buildings and less
buildings that have historical
requirements not to be painted or uh
property owners that um are vigilant
about um not having murals that may be
beloved and that are torn down that
affects development. So there's some
factors that are hard to compare there.
» Yeah.
Uh the next slide is was taken this
week. Uh this is Cosmo and Cosmo is uh
in his new home. I think it's a a he is
in his new home and we are really
thrilled that he is uh that he's landed
and and there's some fun stuff coming up
with uh announcing that as well. Next
slide.
So we have received feedback this year
that there uh that we could do better
and we are trying to do faster more and
better. Uh but we are trying to
streamline some processes to make our
public art processes more accessible. Uh
and I want to just walk you through a
few of the things that we've been
working on. So we facilitated more
donations of artwork to the city. We've
talked about Cosmo and the rack. We also
uh are happy that down the hall we have
Martha Hughes Cannon now living in this
building. Uh we and this is a a
statutory process for accepting a
donation. Um, next we have drafted city
a citywide guide for internal
departments and community members to aid
in the facilitation of community
sponsored public art. Uh, the 14 council
project or the $14,000
through the legislative intent in the
seven council districts is well underway
and it will be completed this year.
We are actively working to structure a
tri-governmental partnership with the
state and county to facilitate public
private partnership for public art to be
placed in Salt Lake City. And this uh
Robert Love Robert Indiana love
sculpture is an example of that effort.
We are currently working on both loaning
out and borrowing artwork at city hall.
And as a reminder, we are we helped
ensure the public benefit funding for
public art in the downtown
entertainment, cultural, and convention
district for public art in the coming
years totaling no less than $5 million.
So that is coming up as well. Next
slide, please.
So there's also a list contained in your
transmitt of ways that we're hoping to
work more closely together in the
future. But I wanted to share some
potential mechanisms that other larger
cities have in place that could be a
model for our city in the future when
they expand their public art programs.
These are tools um of course we'd have
to consider with our city family. Um we
could expand the percent for art program
to enterprise funds. Um right now we do
have that program that we partnered with
the CRA on and we could formalize it
with other enterprise funds. Um we do
not have a percent for art program
within the transportation or streets
budgets. Many cities do. Um there are
planning and development based
incentives that we could develop for
concessions on planning and zoning where
we could um require allocations for
public art. We do this with the CRA. Um,
many cities have impact fees with
required cultural allocations. And as we
build more business improvement
districts in the city, we have an
incredible partnership of course with
our downtown alliance, but for things
like Sugar House coming online, we can
um uh request requirements for cultural
uh programs in there. Next slide.
And looking ahead for the rest of the
budget year, um this is an installation
coming to Pioneer Park which states the
name of the park but when viewed from
other perspectives is modeled on uh
different languages and their various
patterns.
Next slide.
The following public art projects are
projected for completion in FY27 with
many more not listed here coming in 2028
like Fleet Block, Glendale, Fairmont,
and Mlen. But we'll have Pioneer Park,
the Donner Trail Park coming on, 20
sculptures in 20 different bond parks,
the reinstallation of the goals of Salt
Lake City with the CRA, and um again
many more projects. Next slide.
Other milestones for budget that we're
looking forward to is our CIP project
for the Finch Lane Gallery renovations,
launching the poet laurette program
fully reinvisioning the mayor's artist
awards in the 40th anniversary of our
twilight concert series. Um we're again
thankful to be here and looking forward
to working together more in the future
and um we appreciate the constructive
feedback that we've received and we're
happy to answer any questions.
some members.
President
» Appreciate all the work. Uh we all need
art. So, uh I I really do appreciate all
the work you're doing and and the
transformation from, you know, the
concerts right here on the civic center.
So, that's that was a great uh I mean, I
know we had to make the move, but it
also it seemed like it was uh still
great rep venue and it and it worked out
well. So, We were kind of worried there
a bit, but I'm appreciate for that. And
I and I also appreciate all the the
murals and the and the public art. Um,
you know, if you ever go to a city that
doesn't have any art, you really realize
that
» There's a lack of beauty in it. So, any
big city and any good city has good art.
So, I appreciate your work and and uh
providing us for the art and the music.
Thank you.
» Thanks.
» Uh, my questions relate to performing
arts. Um the Twilight series I mean
we're approaching the 40 maybe the 40th
year of the Twilight series.
» That's correct.
» Uh Select City has changed a lot since
you know you know for for the last 40
years and I will well think that is a
tradition to select city. I would love
to dig in a little more about um you
know the revenue that this uh this uh
this series creates.
» Sure. um the cost um as far as what you
know really cost us in and and in and
salaries and and putting it together.
Also, I would like to dig in a little
more about the economic impact that the
numbers the economic impact that you
mentioned.
» Absolutely. Uh and and dig in a little
more about that. I I know that we're now
competing with other venues and other
concert series in in Salt Lake City. Uh,
and I'm not sure while I really
appreciate I attended my myself to
Twilight before I joined the council.
Now, uh, I I wonder if the role of the
city has shifted a little bit about
this. And I, again, I value the work. I
value the the the series. I wonder if
uh, the role in the last, you know,
almost 40 years has changed a little
bit. um and if the place of select city
is to compete with other concert venues
and other concert series. Uh and um but
again so that information will be
awesome for me. Um I appreciate the
presentation. Uh I appre appreciate big
time the the change uh and the direction
uh the transparency uh and the work that
you have put on uh and your team has put
on to to level up the the the department
the division sorry not the department.
» Um so any information about those things
will be great.
» I can speak to that right now. Okay. So,
um, some of you might remember, I'm
looking [laughter] at you, um, that the
Twilight concert series used to be
produced in house and it was an economic
challenge on the city. In, uh, 2019, I
believe, I was tasked with restructuring
the way that program ran. So, we
produced the series with a private
vendor. The cost of that program, of
course, since those times, um, has
increased the total cost like for
Twilight Concert Series. Um, in total
for that program, this is not what we
pay, but for total production of that
concert series, it's about $1.2 to $1.3
million.
We pay $180,000
on a contract to get the same value for
the residents of Salt Lake City. So,
outside our staff salaries that help
facilitate that program, it's a $180,000
contract. Um the economic impact uh is
generated from a study that we
participate in within an organization
nationally called Americans for the
Arts. And we participate in that study
um with the state, with the county, with
the cultural corps and many entities
nationally to generate the impact, the
economic impact of attending nonprofit
arts events in cities. The last study we
participated in was in 2022. And the way
that we generate this number is that
it's based on the average per person's
spending. When a resident comes
downtown, they're taking public
transportation. They're getting
babysitters. They're going to food.
They're getting they're going to bars.
They're um patronizing places downtown.
And um based on the attendance of the
Twilight Concert Series in that series,
which is 41,000 people, we that's how
the math is created of generating the
economic impact of the series. Um, and
we do think the program is unique. As I
mentioned, Post Malone tickets right now
are $150 to $700. Most concerts in the
cities are about $70 to $80 for
nationally touring bands. We do think
that gathering and belonging for music
experiences of of course you can do that
in the city, but the uniqueness of this
program is the affordability and the
accessibility. Um, another feat that we
pull off with this program, which most
national bands do not um, favor, is
allowing local musicians to open for
them. We're really about professional
development and launching the careers of
u, young artists in the community. And
this is a key component of that program.
And third, like tour tourism and
economic um, livability of downtown. Um,
that's a really important part of the
program. It's been important to us that
that program stays downtown for those
reasons. It's close to public
transportation. So, we we do believe the
program is very unique in in its
accessibility for residents where they
might not have opportunity.
» Sorry about that sound. This is not
» It's okay.
» The sound in the in those microphones
somehow it just like cuts out and it
comes back immediately. So,
» And and I'll just say with performing
arts and the programs that we have
proposed for potential elimination, we
really are looking at services that are
duplicative in the community potentially
um services that have the escalating
costs in the future, which we've
identified the busker fest as that. um
and uh ones that other again service
providers could do and ones that don't
um jeopardize our grant funding in terms
of people served and impact and and the
funders that we have many of our
programs are bundled with certain
funders as well. So again that criteria
is how we made that determination.
» Yeah. Will you expand a little bit maybe
uh I'm not sure how how many uh
employees uh you know do help with with
the putting together of the of the uh of
the concert series. Oh. Um, yeah, we
have one um staff designated for
performing arts on our team which um
does a variety of of programs. Um,
Living Traditions, Busker Festival,
Mondays in the Park, performing arts
generally. Um, as I mentioned, Twilight,
um, and Buskerfest are also contracted
services for us. So, they're um, they
can be a little bit more low touch, but
we we all work across all our programs.
So, there's a number of staff that have
a different role in Twilight.
» Okay. Any other questions? Everybody's
very quiet.
» Okay. I think we're good. Thank you so
much.
» Thank you.
» Thank you,
» Council members. We have We're almost
done. So, let's
uh five minutes behind. That's not too
terrible. Um let's uh move on to item
number six. Um cultural co summary uh on
the blocks update. Um we're going to
welcome Sylvia Richards uh again at the
table and she's staying at the table.
And we're going to uh welcome Lucas
Horns, the blocks program manager. D
Brewer, Downtown Alliance executive
director. Is your time Sylvia?
» Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, this briefing
is an update on the block B blocks arts
district, formerly known as the cultural
corps. The blocks is a city and county
initiative focused on growing and
celebrating Salt Lake City's creative
community. This is a review of year 9
and um a preview of the plan for year
10. And with that, I will um pass the
baton on to Lucas and D and Felicia if
she still wanted to participate.
» Okay. Hi, council. Uh great to see you
all. I'm excited to report on what the
blocks has been up to for the last year
and give you a preview of what we have
on the horizon. Uh first off, I want to
introduce myself. I realize I'm a new
face since you last had this briefing
about a year ago. My name is Lucas Horns
and I took over for Britney Helmers as
program director of the blocks about six
months ago. Uh, next slide, please. So,
as you all know, the blocks is a
visionary initiative of the city and
county to promote downtown Salt Lake
City as the premier arts and culture
destination of the Inter Mountain West.
Next slide, please. Our boundaries per
our contract with the cultural corps run
roughly from 600 west to 300 east and
north temple to 400 south. Next slide,
please.
Our team is made up of myself and Kai
Henrikson. He regrets not being able to
be here today. He's taking a muchneeded
vacation to visit some family in
Colorado. Next slide, please.
Our cultural core budget committee is
made up of eight members. These are
representatives from the city and the
county. A lot of these names are
familiar to you. Those uh names on the
left are your city representatives.
Those on the right are the county
representatives. Next slide, please. Oh,
and just to note, we meet every two
months. Uh the cultural core budget
committee uh monitors our spending and
ensures that our our programs and
spending are meeting the goals of the
cultural core action plan. So, what are
the goals of the cultural core action
plan? As much as I hate reading off of a
slide, uh I think these are all really
thoughtful and important and I think
that our our programming really touches
on all eight of these. So, I'm going to
go through them quickly. One, celebrate
and promote Salt Lake's rich array of
arts and cultural activities and
experiences. Two, support increased
collaboration and creative development
among Salt Lake's creative community.
Three, enhance Salt Lake's brand and
support increased visitation from the
region and inner mountain west. Four,
expand and diversify audiences for Salt
Lake's arts and culture. Five, foster
downtown as an inclusive, diverse, and
welcoming place. Six, support downtown
residential growth. Seven, enhance the
downtown business environment. And
eight, enrich the urban experience and
sense of place. These are lofty goals,
and so I want to go over how we're
achieving these goals. Next slide,
please. I've really boiled our work down
into three focus areas. First of all is
our programming and events. We put on a
lot of our own programming, activations,
public art to add to the arts offerings
in downtown Salt Lake. And just to note
that we really focus almost entirely on
producing free all ages programming as
not all arts organizations are able to
offer this downtown and we see it as a
really important niche to fill in in
downtown's arts offerings. Secondly is
marketing and promotion. We have over
two dozen arts organizations who are
consistently performing or exhibiting in
downtown. This is the highest
concentration of arts activity in the
region and we want to amplify all the
work going on so the community really
recognizes downtown as an arts
destination. Between our combined
followers with the downtown alliance, we
have about 300,000 followers between
newsletter subscribers and social media
followers. And all 300,000 of these
folks get updates weekly about all the
fun events and things happening in
downtown. And lastly, fostering
collaboration. As part of the downtown
alliance, we see ourselves as a really
unique player as an arts organization
that also has really intimate,
meaningful ties to the business
community. We like to bring stakeholders
into the same room that are business
owners, property owners, as well as arts
organizations to really recognize that a
thriving arts environment does uplift
the business community downtown. Next
slide, please.
I want to go over some metrics. Um, and
just a note that I'm reporting metrics
on the calendar year. Our programming
runs during the warmer months. And so
it's important that we report on a
calendar year because as we're expanding
and introducing new programs, we're
doing that planning on the calendar
year. And so to measure the efficacy and
uh impact that these new programs,
expansions, new campaigns have, it's
important that we do it on a calendar
year, although our fiscal year does run
same day as yours, July to June. So
looking back on 2025 in numbers, we put
on 26 events and activations. That was
up 17% from 2024. We commissioned seven
works of public art downtown. That was
up 40% from 2024.
We hired 140 artists and performers from
the local community, up 82% from the
year before. And lastly, we Arctics
venues sold about 750,000
tickets. This is not our programming,
but we use it as an important metric to
gauge the health of the general art
scene downtown. You'll notice those
ticket sales are down 8% from 2024, and
I'll go over why that is uh in a later
slide. It's not concerning, don't worry.
Next slide, please.
Looking at our marketing in 2025, we
posted to social media 1.4,000 times to
our 300,000 followers. We sent out 52
weekly newsletters. This is our this
week downtown series written by the
downtown Josh Jones. These newsletters
have a 40% open rate which if you know
anything about newsletters is pretty
remarkable and a testament to the the
value people find in in these
newsletters. Next slide please.
We were in the press quite a bit this
year uh for our different uh or last
year, excuse me, for our different uh
some of our public art commissions as
well as activations we were doing on
Main Street. Next slide.
And now I want to talk about show a
little bit of data to back up the the
impact that our programming had last
year. Uh this is showing home distance
by mile by miles from downtown for
people who visited Arctic's venues. So
on the uh y-axis there you have the
percent of visitors to Arctic's venues.
That's Capital Theater, Abraven Hall,
Eckles Theater, and Rose Wagner. These
are not all the arts venues downtown,
but they're representative of where
people are coming from to visit arts in
downtown. On the x-axis, you have their
home distance by miles. So you can see
that about a third are coming from
within 10 miles. Another third are
coming from 10 to 30 m and still another
third are coming from more than 30 miles
away with a lot coming from over 250 mi
away. What this data is showing is that
we are achieving our goal of
establishing downtown as a regional arts
destination
um
with so many visitors coming from from
across the region and frankly across the
country.
Please
» Just a quick question. This is a an
really interesting um chart. Can you
explain, you know, maybe some of the
reasons for the 250 mi uh radius in
terms of more people coming from from
that radius versus 30 to 50, 50 to 100
or 100 to 250?
» Yeah, absolutely. That's because that
includes the entire country. And so, um,
we have a lot of, we have, we had
visitors from all 50 states, uh, buy
tickets to our arts venues. And so,
250 mi to 2,000 miles is a much bigger
area than 150 to 250 mi, if that makes
sense. So, that's why there's there's
such a large number coming from 250.
I'll just I'll pipe in with what I know
from the so I serve on the board of the
Eckles Theater and so we dove into a
little bit of the of because we were
seeing kind of similar trends. I
actually think it's a credit to the
national level of acts both music and
you know Broadway kind of touring
performance and the value that you get
as in terms of like comparing if you're
going to go see a Broadway show in
Chicago versus here the value of Salt
Lake City it's a much cheaper place to
go and so we're seeing that a lot of
people are choosing to see those
national touring acts because of the
Echo Theater is more affordable than
seeing in San Francisco or you know
somewhere like that
» 100% and it speaks to our local arts
organizations as well. Ballet West is at
par with any ballet company you can see
as well as the Utah Symphony and Utah
Opera and the ticket price is going to
be a lot cheaper and you're going to
have a much more enjoyable stay
depending on which city you're going to.
Next slide, please.
So, once these these visitors are coming
from across the region and coming into
our downtown, they're not just visiting
our arts venues, they're spending money
in our downtown. We know arts are an
economic driver. Last year in 2025,
317,000
of the visits generated by our downtown
Arctics venues, uh those visitors went
to re restaurants or retail directly
before or after visiting the theater.
This data comes from Placer AI, just as
a as a side note. Um but that's showing
that that the arts are attracting
visitors and those visitors are not just
coming for the arts. They're coming into
downtown to to put their money into the
local economy. [clears throat] Next
slide, please.
Now I want to get to those Arctics
ticket sales trends. Um so as you can
see over the last four years those
numbers have gone up and down quite a
bit. This is actually more due to the
variability in the number of shows at
the Eckles Theater. Eckles Theater
relies on a lot of touring shows. Um and
that number just varies greatly from
year to year. If we take Eckles out of
the equation, next slide please.
and we look at just Capital Theater, a
Braven Hall and Rose Wagner Theater. You
can see that there is a steady incline
in ticket sales year-over-year,
including from 2024 to 2025. Next slide,
please. I want to quickly go through
some highlights from 2025 of in terms of
our programming. Next slide. 2025 was
the second year of our co-create
program. This is our artist and
residence program where we invite
artists to envision a placemaking
project in the downtown. We had five
projects last year including Echoes of
the Great Salt Lake. This was a new
symphony piece performed on Gal Gallivan
Plaza inspired by the Great Salt Lake.
Next slide. We had Sonder SLC. This was
a photo gallery that's still on display
in the Vicilius Prriscos Walkway by
artist Kelly Freshman. Next slide,
please. Little Stages was a program
invisioned by local community organizer
Tim Sullivan who wanted to create these
pop-up stages that were easy for buskers
to carry around the city and set up to
essentially build mobile concert venues.
Next slide. Absolutely amazing animals
was a large-scale mural uh produced by
artist Dallas Graham on the back of a
parking garage on Edison Street. Next
slide. And the day of the dead festival
was put on by local muralist Betto
Kanejo that brought around 200 attendees
to Feice Gallery for for a large
festival. Next slide. Moving on from
co-create.
2025 was also the second year of our
step-in on Main program. These are the
free concerts put on on the front steps
of the Eckles Theater every Friday night
from June through September. These
performances range from anywhere from
jazz to Brazilian dance to drum groups
and everything in between. Next slide.
We also put on the uh third annual
mariachi fest at the Eckles Theater,
bringing four mariachi groups, one
national from New York and three local
mariachi groups. Next slide.
Curbside theater was a partnership with
SB Dance. We programmed that show on the
rooftop of a parking garage on Pure Pont
Avenue. This offered a really cool venue
and a free dance performance in downtown
with sweeping views of the mountains in
city skyline. Next slide. And lastly, we
continued our urban plane air program.
We brought uh 19 artists to the farmers
market to paint scenes that they saw at
the market and then sell their work at a
pop-up gallery at the market the
following week. Next slide, please. I
want to talk about some of our
programming we have on the uh horizon in
2026. Now, next slide. We're continuing
co-create again this year, and I'm
really excited to announce the three
projects we've selected. The Wish
Exchange Place will be an uh
installation that will be interactive on
Exchange Place up for three months uh by
artists Alejandra Moya and Kathy Tran.
Bees Around the Block is a series of
sculptures on Main Street envisioned by
uh urban planner and designer Landon
Krazik. Standing room only is it will be
a series of dance performances as well
as installations at former theater sites
in downtown. This is by local
choreographer and dancer Constance. Next
slide.
Fridays on Maine. This is an expansion
of our stepping on Main program. So I'm
really excited to include two more
stages in addition to the steps of the
Eckles Theater. We'll have a second
stage at the um at where Gallivan Center
intersects Main Street and a third stage
at Exchange Place. So, we're going to
put live music and dance performance up
and down Main Street every Friday night
from June through September. Next slide.
The Art Garden. This is a popup art
exhibition and beer garden held at the
site of the former Utah Theater on Main
Street between 100 South and 200. This
um is a partnership with the Utah Utah
Museum of Contemporary Art who will be
be building out two uh art exhibi
exhibitions and we'll be partnering with
local breweries to serve beer. And
although there's beer, this space is
still all ages. Next slide. Urban plane
air. We're expanding this program as
well. Uh we're relieving the market and
we're bringing 30 artists to paint 30
iconic buildings around downtown Salt
Lake. Their art will then be displayed
in the windows of the buildings that
they feature. Next slide.
We'll also be expanding our curbside
theater program to additional
performances on parking garage rooftops
because this is such a unique
interesting place for a a show like
this. Uh we're we'll be moving over to
the parking garage right here at the
echo uh excuse me on exchange place that
offers really beautiful views of this
building in the mountains as you can see
there. Next slide. Curtain up. This is a
firstofits-kind event to celebrate the
start of the 2026 2027 arts season. This
will bring all arts organizations
programming in the downtown into one
under one roof. Uh to to celebrate the
start of the season, we'll be screening
a short film that previews each art
organization's upcoming season from the
ballet to the opera to modern dance
companies to Yumoka and everyone in
between. This will be on September 8th.
I'll be sure to send you an invite soon.
Next slide, please.
And then we have some really exciting
marketing campaigns um really painting
the picture of downtown as a arts
destination showing the breadth and
diversity of artists working in downtown
and public art that we have here in
downtown. So be sure to follow us on
socials to to keep up with those
campaigns. Next slide.
And so much more. I don't want to go
into these too much detail. Our
programming is quite extensive, but we
have continued ongoing programs such as
our exhibitions on Maine where we
display public art on Main Street on our
kiosks. We loan assets to artists like
lighting, sound systems, stage for free
if they're working downtown. And then
we've done a number of partner events um
already some of these occurred this year
such as signs was a block party we did
with Sundance and Feice Gallery during
the Sundance Film Festival. Cir Kickass
was a circus performance we put on at
Gallivan Center with Utah Presents. Uh
Mariachi Fest will be happening again on
June 20th. Pogo Fest is a multi- venue
music festival that will be also
happening on June 20th. Uh we'll be
putting up an outdoor stage as part of
that festival on Exchange Place. The
Cycle Nation installation is up right
now in the Vicilus Prriscos Walkway. I
recommend going and checking it out at
night. It's a cool interactive uh
sculpture that lights up when you crank
these hand cranks. And the Bakau
installation will be displayed next
month uh on a Bravo Plaza. This is a
collaboration with the Gina Bachau
Foundation. We'll be building a
large-scale sculpture built out of
pianos for that. Next slide, please.
These are our partners that we're
working with on all of these programs.
They range from property owners to
developers to businesses and of course
the majority of the arts groups working
downtown. Next slide.
I wanted to offer just a really high
overview of our budget for FY27 which
begins on July 1. Um
you will be receiving in a transmitt a
more detailed breakdown of our budget.
This budget was approved by the cultural
core budget committee just this week. Um
but we also found out just this week
that we'll be receiving open streets
funding. Thank you very much. And we're
excited to apply that and expand the
exciting programming we have this summer
even more. So the the new budget you you
will receive will will reflect that
additional funding as well.
Next slide. And with that, I'll turn it
over to you all for any questions.
Council members,
I put a minute in my mouth so I can
barely speak. Um
no. And will you expand a little bit on
the open streets funding? Um I'm a
little confused about that. thought we
made some, you [clears throat] know,
there was some changes regarding the
open um the temple opening and whatnot,
but is that a proposed
» So, I think I think it's my
understanding that some funds within uh
the city and potentially was open
streets was redirected to other
programming and in budget amendment 4,
you all approved an additional $100,000
go to the blocks contract. So not
exactly open streets programming but to
the mission of the blocks.
» Sorry for the confusion.
» We did aund I think that in last year's
budget we did a little but I guess it's
the current year.
» It was a budget on me
» And I I could it was my understanding it
was redirected. I could be misspeaking
but it was in BA4 the extra 100.
» That that helps. Um
he's nodding. Okay, we have a Okay, that
helps a lot. Um, it I will uh it's
impressive the amount of work that
you're doing with with the funding that
you're getting. So, I you know, I'd love
to see more more more fun things uh
happening on POP and downtown um and to
see more activation in our in our city.
So, uh impressive work. Any
» No, just thanks.
» Okay. No, I see some hands. Uh, I don't
know which one was first, so I'm going
to give um time to council member Petro
first.
» Thank you and thanks for the work. Um,
the numbers on the performances and the
statistics that you gave, are any of
those redundant with what we saw from
the arts council? And if not, how do we
decide who gets to count what as part of
their programming or does everyone just
get to claim it because we contributed
to it?
» Yeah, that's a really good question.
Yeah. So the events and activations that
I was counting for 2025 and 2024 were
blocks produced events and activations
where a blocks staff member was present.
So uh they there shouldn't be redundancy
between anything that this arts council
produced.
» Thank you so much. That's really
encouraging to hear.
» Yeah.
» One
» And one mural.
» That's the only redundancy I'm speaking
for.
Uh, Felicia and Felicia for one second.
» Uh, Council Wharton.
» Um, thank you for that presentation. Um,
Lucas, that was really comprehensive and
I'm really excited about um all the
programming that's that's happening and
[music] um and what we're going to be
able to continue to do. and just wanted
to congratulate you in this new role and
um we look forward to uh working with
you as one of the partners.
» Thank you.
And the last question I have um relates
how do you get 40% of people to open
your newsletter because no one opens
ours. So any tips for the council?
» It's amazing. If you're not already
subscribed to it, it's a really
well-written newsletter that has a lot
of whimsy in it that I think people look
forward to every week. So, it's it's a
it's a credit to Josh Jones's writing. I
think
» We need whimsy. Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you for your time.
» Oh, no.
» Chris, do you have more questions?
» Oh, sorry.
» I think it's probably gone.
» Um, council members, this
uh concludes that portion of the agenda.
We're going to move on to the reported
announcements from the executive
director,
Lehua.
» The V team here. Um
» The V team. Not quite.
» Um
» Always the
» We have uh Linda came and passed out a
handout. And this is something that we
did when the council had um the last
vacancy. Um and Cindy Lou may come up to
the table so that she can help me
uh correct. She will correct me if I say
anything not quite right
» And she will make sure the record is
clear.
» You can throw the hand sanitizer towards
us.
» Yeah. Do you want to
» Okay.
» So, this is an important update.
» This is an important update. This is to
confirm the timeline for filling the
vacancy in district 4. Uh the timeline
has been created based on a conversation
with actually the three of the members
here in person um during the chair vice
chair meeting on Tuesday. Um the
calendar is a visual look of what I
would run through in this outline
handout that you have as well just to
confirm. Um if it's okay I'll just read
through this and you guys can stop me if
you have questions. Um so the the
process basically is um outlined in
state code and it requires that the
council would receive applications and
conduct interviews with eligible
applicants and then um select a new
council member within 30 days. Um based
on the way the counting works out uh
Wednesday was day one and the 30-day
would 30 days would end on June 11th.
Um, because of the number of meetings
that the council already has on your
calendar, uh, due to the budget, I don't
anticipate that you would need to add
any new council meetings. Uh, but you
can confirm that for me as we walk
through this. Um,
there's also been a question, so I just
wanted to go over a little bit of
general info. There's been a question
just about how it works. when council
member Young was selected and appointed
to fill the vacancy in district 7 there
um she needed to hold elections because
of the amount of time left in the term
in this situation because there is less
than two years left in the in the term.
Whoever you appoint will serve the
remainder of the term and then elections
will still be held in fall of 2027 for
the next term um beginning in January of
2028. Uh the recorders office will also
post the applications
um on the website once they have been or
the names of the applicant and the
paperwork on a website once those
applicants have um the eligibility has
been verified. So, that information is
available to the public um along with
also a conflict of interest form. Um,
and we'll see how this plays out in your
timeline down below. But just wanted to
note um Cindy Lou pointed out that
there's a new state code requirement
that conflict of interest forms would be
placed and available online for 7 days
before the council appoints the new
candidate. So, that is another extension
that needs to be accounted for in our 30
days. Could uh are we allowed to request
the the conflict of interest form with
the application?
» Exactly. It will be
» So it's it's so
» Yeah they won't be a valified a verified
candidate until they submit that.
» Okay. So it's part of the process.
» It will be part of the application.
» Okay.
» Okay. And then also you'll you um will
have a resolution placed on one of your
upcoming agendas that just cl addresses
um the voting circum different voting
circumstances. It's a new state code
requirement as well that that
information is um formally adopted so
that everyone knows what to expect about
how voting will occur. So, I'll just run
through the dates. Um as we said, May
13th, yesterday, Wednesday, May 13th was
day one. Um and so from that time, uh
our office, Cindy Lou and the recorder's
office, Keith and his staff have been
coordinating on getting an ad posted. Um
there is a requirement for a legal ad to
be placed in the paper. It will be
placed with the Salt Lake Tribune um and
it and Utah legals. Um and it basically
outlines what the timeline will be when
application the application period
opens, when it closes, and when the
council anticipates you might hold the
interviews and make um an appointment.
Um, so in that time, not only will the
public notice go out, but also um the
your council staff communications team
will kick into gear. Um, there's a there
will be social media posts, website
updates. Um, they have a vacancy hub
website that goes through and explains a
lot of the information that people can
expect. We also take emails from anyone
who wants to receive notification as we
proc progress through this process and
also notice will be posted in the city
building. Um and the recorders office is
also able to post that in the district 4
library and other community gathering
spaces too. So I I would say we will go
ahead and do those steps but you guys
can tell me if you don't want any of
those things to happen.
Could we add an additional things?
» Yeah, of course.
» Um, could we uh can we ensure that the
newsletter on the social media pages for
the district
» Specific
» Are updated so those that are in that
email list and they're following those
pages
» Of course
» Get it get
» The nudge.
» Yep. Absolutely. We will do that.
So, the application period would begin
next Monday, May 18th, and then it would
extend through Monday, June 1st, at 5:00
p.m. The council's past policy and
practice has been to keep the
application period open for two weeks.
So, that is that twoe period, especially
given that there's a holiday in the
middle of it. Um the application um
obviously will follow the state code
requirements for what information needs
to be provided. And then in the last
time that the council held this process,
we also included three to four questions
on the application that the applicants
would provide written answers to when
they turn in their application. Um,
I'm going to keep going, but I have a
question for you on when the application
period closes, but we'll come back to
that. Um
given applications being completed and
provided to the council, um if the
application period closes on Monday,
June 1st, then realistically those would
be the recorder's office could provide a
complete packet of all of the
applications to you by Tuesday morning
on June 2nd. Given that, do you want to
consider having interviews held on
Thursday, June 4th, or do you want to
wait and see how many applications you
have to review and then decide
on an interview and appointment
schedule?
I think it would have to be on the
number of applications we have, but even
on a Thursday, even if it's just only a
few, uh I almost think that we need more
time, especially that's the and because
we have the budget going on also that I
would recommend the 9th as a first date
that we could actually interview it and
select.
» Yeah. And the reason that's helpful too,
just to insert, is this 7-day conflict
of interest posting requirement. If you
wanted to definitely plan on Thursday,
June 4th, we would want to change the
application close date.
» So the nine will meet that, right?
Because if the applications end on the
on the first,
» That that will be enough time for that
piece.
» Nine seems to seems reasonable to me.
» Um,
» Okay. I think we got Sarah's Sarah's
nodding. Yes.
» Okay.
» Okay, that's perfect. And then that also
allows you flexibility
» For me too.
» Thank you. It also allows you
flexibility if you did need to delay
the final appointment until for one more
night for whatever reason, then you
would have until the that Thursday the
11th. So you we we'll just kind of
reserve that as 9th and 11th. Okay. Um
so that takes us through those last few
items. Um
next page um direction needed date a
item one we already covered also item
two and then so application questions.
I've listed here the four questions that
were used on the district 7 vacancy
application. I modified them very
slightly just to account for the fact
that this is a different district. If
you wanted to review those and give me
any edits and council members online,
I'm sorry, I should have mentioned that
you have this information in your email
either from Kristen or me earlier this
afternoon. Um, and so if you wanted to
review those questions and either give
those to me now or by tomorrow, um, I
could follow up with you all tomorrow to
get any edits to the questions.
» I personally think that there are
accurate questions. they're they follow
the a pattern of you know that we have
followed in the past. Um but if maybe if
any council member has changes or
suggestions
» Um but then by you know
Monday uh you know we go with this
questions um or no time right now.
» Well I think it's tomorrow Friday would
be good so that by Monday the
application is available.
So if but if you don't have any
suggestions on changing them um then
let's you know submit them by tomorrow.
» Perfect.
» Yeah. No no edits here.
» No edits.
» Me either.
» Me neither. Thank you.
» Perfect. Okay. We'll go with those.
» Don't even wait then.
» Then we can have it already online. Um
regarding the interview format. Um, in
the past the council um had on the night
of interviews, um, state code requires
that you give everybody an opportunity
to address the council. The way that
you've handled that in the past is to
give each of the applicants five minutes
to address the council on any topic they
they want to. Do you want to continue
with that practice for round one?
» Generally, yes. Let me ask a clarifying
question. So we are required to give
every applicant
uh every single one of them
» An interview opportunity.
» An interview opportunity and it has to
be in a public meeting.
» Correct.
» It does and it does have to be eligible.
So only validated applicants. Okay. If
someone does not meet the requirements
that are outlined in state code or does
not submit their conflict of interest,
they would not be available to be
interviewed.
» Let me ask about the time. Do we have to
tell them how much time we're going to
give them?
» Yeah, that's my question. I'm wondering
if it's like possible to give a range
and then adjust and give them a final
number based on how many applicants we
had.
» That's that's what I Yes, we we're
synced in here.
» What do you think is a good minimum
number?
» I feel like between three and five, but
you know,
» That's what I was thinking. Yes,
» So you know, if we have 20 people apply,
you know, we might go with a three. Um,
you know, so that's sort of the the
general sense.
» The way that we've provided that
information to the applicants in the
past is once the application period is
closed and we collect all of the
applications, we I have sent them an
email to just let them know what to
expect in terms of next steps. And so we
could even just wait until at that time
tell them whatever you all have decided.
» Okay.
» Okay. And then in the past also we come
up with a plan in case there's a round
two, round three, round four. And the
way that we've done that in the past is
um round one is over, the council takes
a vote to reduce the number of
applicants who move on to round two and
then you give them a question and let
the applicants address the council um
just on that one question and you give
them two to three minutes to respond to
that. Um, are you okay with that as a
process for round two?
» Could we do some rank choice voting?
Although
» Oh, rank choice voting might be
interesting. Is it the same question for
every applicant in round two?
» I think that's what we did last time.
» It is. [clears throat]
It is what you did.
» No,
no, experience.
» We got different questions and I think
that that is one of the things I would
flag feels a little inequitable.
Um, and I just wonder if there's a way
like like I said, you can have one
applicant step out, one answer, and then
come back in and answer um, so that
they're answering the exact same
question because I know in the final
round we were answering different
questions.
» Yeah, that's
Sarah. I believe Sarah
» It might be worthwhile and I'm going off
out of my lane but perhaps if there's an
opportunity to pull the various
questions so that you could determine
which ones you want to ask as a group
and have that consistency before the
meeting. That would help. You don't have
to share them with the public until you
present them, but it would help with the
congruence of all of you providing what
you're interested in for the round two
or the final round.
» I like that as an option. Customer
Wharton.
» So, this will be my seventh time going
through this process and it is uh never
uh flawless. Um and it's um almost
always
um we discover some kind of flaw from
the previous pro way that we did it. I
mean I think that one way to avoid that
is to
give some questions uh or give a list of
questions and let the applicant select
which questions they want to answer. Um
and that might give us you know, we
could have it some questions that we
want everyone to answer and then some
questions that it's like you can pick
which one of these you want us to you
want us to know. Um, and then that way
we might be able to kind of get
not be getting the same thing over and
over, but also be getting new and and
relevant information. Um, but I'm sure
that there's probably some flaw in that
as well. But, um, that's the best thing
that I've thought of um to address this.
What what about to just merge some of
the ideas? We select some questions for
round two and we let them pick uh
» You know out of those questions to which
one they want to address. Um
» Sure
» I don't know. I I remember the the
process that I went through. It wasn't I
mean the flaw there that you guys didn't
select me but um that was the biggest
flaw. Chris looking at you. Um
» I know I
» Um but uh I would never forget that. Um
but uh
» The people the people of district 2
promptly informed us they disagreed. So
I'm glad that they did because this is
not this is the le this is the worst
part about being on the council.
» No, no, no. I I don't care. Um so Dan,
» My question we on round two, we're not
giving them the questions until we give
them the questions at round two.
» Right.
» Yeah. I think I think that's what we're
asking here is that from Sarah's point,
we we pick we can maybe pick out of a
hat or we say we're going to select
these questions to give them in round
two and this question you've given round
three.
» But isn't that what Sarah flagged as
like an odd um process?
» But but we but we give them all the same
question, but we don't tell them that
question until we come to that round
two.
» Is that what you're saying, Sarah? So, I
just remembered that there was a
fishbowl and there were random questions
that were in there and they drew out a
question and I got to answer it and then
they drew out a different question and
another candidate got to answer it and
at least from my perception and memory
of it, I felt like I got an easier
question and and I felt bad for the
other applicant in that process.
uh
hearing some of these and I think maybe
this was uh Council Member Wharton or
maybe Council Member Young's uh
suggestion. I think for round two, I
like the idea of like here are
recommended questions and then letting
the applicant select um from that pool
of recommended questions. That was your
suggestion. I know it was somebody's
idea. I'm trying to give credit trying
to give credit. whoseever idea it was,
I've aligned in that direction so that
we hear a diversity of responses um and
we are able to uh kind of compare
answers across candidates for those who
decide to answer the same question. Um I
would like to suggest and this is my
first rodeo on this so happy to defer to
other council members. I imagine there
will be around three and possibly around
four. Um maybe maybe not. Um, I would
like to leave subsequent rounds after
round two open for more specific and
tailored questions to the candidates.
» I I will be okay with that. Um, what if
we to throw a wrench in this whole
conversation, the last five minutes?
Who hates the idea of of rank choice
voting? I mean, we, you know, that's how
voters elect people. we just rank and
you know we just use the process and
it's just done in one ballot. Um it's a
little harder for your side. Um
potentially um
» I the reason I would say I'm hesitant to
do that but we do we do uh break it down
and we need to look at the percentage
year. If you have five candidates up
there where do we break the line off for
take the top two? Do we need unanimous
respon unanimous or do is it you know
you only need four.
» So it it needs to be a majority but we
also have to determine how the if a if
it isn't a majority how the next segment
next group of people would be um
defined. That's part of the resolution
that the attorney is preparing in
response to the state legislation. So
they asked that to be clarified before
the process is defined. So what I can
offer is that the attorneys are working
on the resolution to outline that plan
in respect of how you've done this in
the past and we would circle a draft
back to you for your review of that
voting process so that we secure the
reality that it must be a majority.
» Okay. And the the other thing is in the
past we've had some where uh we had two
candidates that were neck and neck and
we went through a couple different
rounds and and it uh changed some uh
votes there to make it. So I think that
would have and we selected the right
candidate uh but we may not have
selected the right candidate if we had
the right rate right. So that's that's
why I'm always hesitant on that. It may
shorten the process, but it may not be
the the uh the best outcome.
» Yeah, I'm okay if we don't do that and
we stick to the process that we have in
the past. Um we do it one round and then
we have some questions that we we
pre-select
um and we let them decide for which one
they want to answer. Um that sort of
meets both worlds of issues here. uh to
keep consistency but at the same time
allowing us to some flexibility on some
of the questions. Um
and then we maybe to your point, Council
Member Carlson,
allow for some flexibility if there are
more rounds. Um you know, anybody has
any thoughts about that process?
My only worry is having uh a a question
come out that hasn't really been vetted
from the rest of the council members. So
that's and then directed to those. I
think the questions that we ask, no
matter where we ask should all be vetted
and we all should agree to those
questions, not have you know Dugan say,
"Oh, this is my question now that we've
gone all this stuff." It should be
vetted by all of us and we kind of it's
written and we just
» So let's do this for round number three.
We don't just get to throw a question
out there. We coordinate what question
we're gonna in the majority manner.
Yeah. You know, four of us at least
decide what question to ask if there is
a round three and four.
» And then we ask that question.
» So we don't just throw random questions
on there.
» It may be random questions, but maybe a
majority of us agreeing to that
[laughter] random question.
» Okay,
» Perfect. Um,
» Clear as mud.
» Clear as mud. Great.
» I think most of it is clear as mud or is
actually really clear. And then on this
voting process thing, we'll report back
to you guys. We'll probably take time in
another announcement to just get really
clear on that.
» No, and I appreciate it is a very clear
process. I I do appreciate the staff
working on these. Uh I know that we're
working through the budget, working
through all of the things. It's a big
deal. Uh I also appreciate the
consistency that this council um you
know is following uh with in this
process um and following the the same
generally the same process we always
followed to to solve this this issue. So
um I think that that means a lot to me
and I think it should mean a lot to the
community. So thank you.
» Sorry just one more question um because
that's the word of the hour. Um, I
imagine that uh applicants may want may
have questions about can I talk to
current council members about their
experience to introduce myself and what
I'd like to do confirming that that is
allowed in the process or are there any
restrictions or um items we should be
aware of when talking to applicants?
» Sure.
Thanks for asking the question. there's
been a an adjustment in the practices in
order to keep the relationships clear
from your voting. Right? So there have
been an opportunity generally what what
has been followed in my recollection and
Lehwa can correct me if I'm wrong it was
that if someone wanted to speak to you
or wanted to share more about their
experience it was encouraged that they
provide a recommendation letter or that
they put something in writing so that it
can be within within the public record
and it could be directed it's
essentially directed to the entire
council on their priorities so that it's
beyond the application. It's just a
recommendation. It's not required.
That's totally optional, but there is
not a legal component about any
relationship or discussion you have with
any of the applicants as a council
member. And I would refer to Mark for
any legal guidance.
» We're good.
» Okay. Thank you everyone. This meeting
is journ. Thank you. [laughter] Bye.
» [music]