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[12:48] » To the May 19th, 2026 city council work
[12:51] session meeting. Um, our meetings are
[12:53] public and you're welcome to join us in
[12:55] person or by watching from the council
[12:57] agenda page, Zoom, uh, or YouTube. Um we
[13:01] hope that you will continue to join us
[13:02] in whichever manner you feel the most
[13:04] comfortable. Uh this is a work session
[13:06] meeting
[13:07] during which there is no public comment.
[13:10] Uh you can join us on May 19th during
[13:13] our 7 p.m. formal meeting to share your
[13:16] comments. Uh we of course welcome your
[13:19] feedback anytime by mail at PO Box
[13:22] 145476
[13:25] Utah 84114.
[13:27] Um, you can also email us at
[13:30] council.commentsslc.gov.
[13:34] Uh, or uh you can also leave us a
[13:37] message at at our 24 uh phone uh a
[13:42] 24-hour phone comment line 8015357654.
[13:47] Comments we received on agenda topics
[13:50] are shared with council members and
[13:52] posted on our website slc.gov/counsel.
[13:55] gov/consel.
[13:57] Our first agenda item is item one, which
[14:00] is a fiscal year 2026 2027 budget
[14:03] council staff overview. And we're going
[14:05] to turn the time to Jennifer Bruno, our
[14:07] council executive director.
[14:09] » Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. I will
[14:12] just um share my screen.
[14:18] Here we go.
[14:26] Why is it not?
[14:29] There we go.
[14:31] Um, so this is just a a perspective from
[14:34] the legislative branch looking at the
[14:36] overview of the budget as it's been
[14:39] presented by the mayor. Obviously, um,
[14:41] Mary Beth and the finance team did a
[14:43] great job going over, um, how the budget
[14:45] is put together from a, you know,
[14:47] dollars and cents perspective,
[14:49] percentages, changes in different
[14:50] departments. This is a a little bit of a
[14:53] um higher level kind of conceptual
[14:55] overview of the budget. Um I don't know
[14:58] why it did that.
[15:00] Uh the role of the council. So this is
[15:03] one thing that we just to remind the
[15:05] council the reason why uh the council
[15:08] looks at the budget um in the depth that
[15:10] they do.
[15:12] Let's see why is it not okay having
[15:16] technical issues on myself. [laughter]
[15:19] The reason why the council looks at the
[15:21] budget is is really to address what does
[15:24] the community need in real time. Every
[15:26] year that changes and um the reason why
[15:29] you all are elected is to um hear from
[15:32] your residents what are the needs? They
[15:34] change every year. What are what are the
[15:36] ways that those needs can be addressed?
[15:37] Usually it relates to money. And so
[15:39] that's um I think the main purpose of
[15:42] the budget. Um but the other kind of uh
[15:45] values that we hold um in terms of
[15:47] looking at the budget and the the role
[15:49] that the council has in the budget is
[15:51] how any decision you make this year
[15:53] might affect budgets in future years,
[15:56] right? Because um you can't necessarily
[15:59] bind councils, but I mean even this year
[16:01] we've gotten questions about how did we
[16:03] end up in this property tax increase
[16:05] situation and you know how how did our
[16:08] decisions in the past bring us here. So
[16:11] that's something that will will be a
[16:12] theme throughout several of the
[16:14] department um budget discussions. Um
[16:17] that kind of also relates to that next
[16:19] bullet point of how any decisions you
[16:21] guys make this year might create
[16:23] unintended consequences both from a
[16:25] budget personnel
[16:27] um citizen experience perspective,
[16:30] right? Any decisions you guys make might
[16:32] have the ability to for example see less
[16:35] watering in parks or less mowing in
[16:37] parks, things like that. Um, so we want
[16:40] to be sure to just disclose all of the
[16:42] potential consequences that might come
[16:44] from any budget decisions you make. And
[16:46] then I'm really proud of how our city
[16:49] um, ensures a transparent um, process
[16:53] for the budget so that we are very open
[16:55] with the public about how we're using
[16:58] tax dollars. Um, uh, just as a reminder,
[17:01] our budget hub is link.slc.govfy20.
[17:05] gov/fy27
[17:09] um for any budget information uh for
[17:12] anyone who's looking. Um and then you
[17:15] know of course all of that is rooted in
[17:18] the policy goals and priorities of the
[17:20] council. The policy goal of equity, the
[17:23] policy goal of transparency, um the
[17:26] policy goal of taking care of our um
[17:28] community, our assets, things like that.
[17:30] So that's another reason why um just
[17:34] some highle takeaways from the mayor's
[17:37] proposed budget. Um from the legislative
[17:39] perspective, this is the first
[17:41] substantial property tax increase in
[17:43] several years. Um and I think the mayor
[17:46] mentioned um in her speech that it
[17:48] wasn't a decision taken lightly um and
[17:52] uh that it it was uh arrived at with
[17:57] serious u evaluation. I think the next
[18:00] bullet point gets to what that
[18:01] evaluation was was which is that it cuts
[18:03] almost an equivalent amount from the
[18:05] overall budget as the amount of the
[18:07] property tax increase. Um, one council
[18:10] member asked me how we would explain to
[18:13] citizens that they're paying more
[18:16] um and potentially getting less. And I
[18:19] guess um it was um this sort of a light
[18:22] bulb moment when I went to the grocery
[18:24] store recently and you know you are
[18:27] spending more and there is less in your
[18:30] grocery cart and it's just it that is
[18:33] the that that is the reality that we're
[18:35] living. [clears throat] Um I think that
[18:38] it's important for this council to know
[18:42] though that a lot of those cuts are um
[18:46] potentially one time in nature. I think
[18:48] that the administration challenged
[18:50] departments to come up with efficiencies
[18:52] and I they did an admira admirable job
[18:55] coming up with those efficiencies.
[18:57] It's always interesting to see how those
[19:00] efficiencies can last over time, right?
[19:02] And if those are efficiencies that can
[19:04] last into the future and especially as
[19:06] it relates to operations.
[19:09] um it does use less money, less sorry,
[19:11] less one-time money than in previous
[19:13] years, which um you know, Mary Beth and
[19:15] I talk about have talked about for 20
[19:17] years now. [laughter] So, I think it's
[19:20] one of those goals that we're always
[19:22] trying to achieve is aligning one-time
[19:25] money with one-time expenses and ongoing
[19:27] money with ongoing expenses. Um,
[19:30] something that you'll probably hear
[19:31] about from residents who might be
[19:33] employees of the city is that there's no
[19:35] across the board cost of living increase
[19:37] for employees. And um, this is the first
[19:40] year in a long time that that will be
[19:42] the case for city employees. And so
[19:44] because those employees are also
[19:45] experiencing inflation, that's, you
[19:47] know, something that's uh, difficult.
[19:49] But I think if you ask any city
[19:50] employee, they're grateful for a job and
[19:52] not to be laid off. So um, there is an
[19:55] increased investment in affordable
[19:57] housing. uh but it is in different
[20:00] formats. So last year the investment in
[20:03] affordable housing was about $8 million.
[20:05] This year it's about $10 million.
[20:08] That said, funding our future uh the
[20:12] transfer the typical transfer for
[20:13] funding our future that goes to the RDA
[20:15] for the NOA is being paused for one
[20:18] year. I think there was a recognition
[20:22] that the westside community initiative,
[20:24] so the money that the city gets from the
[20:26] tax increment from the inland port has
[20:29] grown pretty significantly since
[20:31] previous years. And so it enables the
[20:33] RDA to continue investment in affordable
[20:36] housing without that NOA or sorry
[20:39] without the funding our future dollars.
[20:41] Um but I think I'm just flagging that as
[20:43] a a thing to consider in the long term.
[20:46] those funding our future dollars for
[20:48] affordable housing are really flexible.
[20:50] Um whereas the westside community
[20:52] initiative dollars are um by our own
[20:54] policy um guided to be west of I-15.
[20:59] Um that said that there there's still
[21:01] significant investments in affordable
[21:03] housing from RDA programs and project
[21:06] areas. So there will still continue to
[21:08] be sorry CRA I'll remember that at some
[21:11] point. Um there will continue to be um
[21:14] investments in affordable housing in the
[21:16] different CRA project areas. Um and
[21:18] you'll hear more about the CRA budget on
[21:20] Tuesday. So we'll get into that more. Um
[21:23] it does also add 40 FTEES in critical
[21:26] service areas. So I think we talk about
[21:28] like how to balance the budget while
[21:30] recognizing that it's not that the needs
[21:32] have decreased in our city. So the
[21:35] efficiencies that departments have
[21:36] realized um have enabled the and and
[21:40] then the proposed property tax uh
[21:42] increase have enabled um the budget to
[21:44] add FTEES in critical service areas. And
[21:48] I left um the fire department off here,
[21:50] but fire justice court legal system CIP
[21:53] are kind of the main highlights. And
[21:55] I'll there's a chart in a little bit
[21:57] later that I'll go through that. Um,
[21:59] this is something we talk about a lot in
[22:02] that each kind of decision you guys
[22:04] make, each um, big topic in the budget
[22:08] has balancing tests, right? It's not
[22:11] that there's a right answer or a wrong
[22:13] answer. It just means that you're
[22:14] balancing different outcomes of
[22:18] decisions. So, um I I'm not going to
[22:20] read all of these, but as an example,
[22:23] the property tax increase, it does add
[22:25] to the burden on residents and
[22:27] businesses in the city, but on the flip
[22:29] side, it also helps reduce the
[22:31] structural deficit in the future because
[22:33] it it aligns ongoing money with ongoing
[22:37] needs. Um it also reduces the city's
[22:40] reliance on sales tax, which is a
[22:43] volatile source of revenue. Um that is
[22:46] something that I think a lot of cities
[22:48] rely heavily on. Um, we've seen our city
[22:52] grow in our reliance on sales tax and
[22:55] that's something that I think the budget
[22:57] nerds of the city have appreciated to,
[22:59] you know, as uh as a good thing, meaning
[23:02] we have a robust sales tax revenue
[23:05] source, but it is a volatile source of
[23:07] revenue and if the economy turns and our
[23:10] budget is balanced on sales tax, that is
[23:12] a difficult thing to adjust. Whereas
[23:15] property tax is a reliable source of
[23:17] revenue. So, [snorts]
[23:18] um I'll just leave the rest of those um
[23:20] for you guys to read at another time. Um
[23:23] this is the general fund revenue trends.
[23:26] The only reason I'm sharing this is that
[23:28] and the reason that there's a red that
[23:30] it went down in this proposed budget.
[23:33] The main reason is because, and I think
[23:35] Mary Beth talked about this on Tuesday,
[23:37] the um finance department is proposing
[23:40] to separate the CRA property tax revenue
[23:45] and the library property tax revenue
[23:47] into an entirely different account from
[23:49] the general fund. So, I just wanted to
[23:51] flag that because we do these like
[23:54] longitudinal, you know, charts of what's
[23:57] happening with revenues and whenever you
[23:58] make like a policy shift, I think it's
[24:00] important to kind of call that out.
[24:03] Um, we've gone through this, I think, at
[24:05] the retreat. The only things that you
[24:07] guys can control that the city can
[24:09] control are property taxes, use of fund
[24:12] balance, and then other revenue, which
[24:14] is essentially fees. You cannot control
[24:16] sales tax. Um,
[24:19] you you can if the state lets you, if
[24:23] the state authorizes you guys to enact
[24:25] sales tax, you can. Um, this uh I think
[24:28] we've also been through. This is just
[24:30] kind of showing um the property tax
[24:33] distribution um for a typical kind of
[24:36] Salt Lake City household. Just to
[24:38] highlight that Salt Lake City's portion
[24:40] of the property tax bill is about 25%.
[24:44] Um I've also separated out some of the
[24:46] bonds that are um being discussed in
[24:49] both the city, the county, and the
[24:51] school district. Um, I think especially
[24:53] the school district in Salt Lake City,
[24:56] voters approving the school district's
[24:58] bond this last I can't remember if it
[25:00] was last calendar year or the year
[25:02] before. Um, but it's a very very very
[25:04] significant bond. And so that will be
[25:06] something that I think it will be
[25:07] important for taxpayers to look for and
[25:09] know about um in future years. What most
[25:13] people don't realize is that the bill
[25:16] for bonds does not show up until the
[25:18] entity, whether it's the school district
[25:20] or the county or whoever, actually
[25:22] issues the bond. And so that could be 2
[25:25] years after you vote. That could be 5
[25:27] years after you vote. There's a 10-year
[25:30] um time frame for tax exempt bonds to
[25:33] issue those bonds, but um I think that's
[25:35] important for people to know. Um
[25:38] so truth in taxation. So, this has come
[25:41] up uh a lot in the last um couple of
[25:44] weeks. Do your property taxes go up when
[25:48] the value of your home goes up? This is
[25:52] not supposed to be like a pop quiz, but
[25:55] » No, you guys passed. Good job.
[25:59] [laughter]
[26:00] So, um Utah is unique. It has a truth
[26:05] and taxation process that the core value
[26:09] of that truth and taxation process is to
[26:12] hold the government's budget the same.
[26:15] So if you consider that baseline
[26:17] property tax budget that green line as
[26:20] what the state wants us to operate with.
[26:22] So if your the value of your home goes
[26:25] up the rate of property taxes that
[26:29] 0.0000 0000 whatever figure
[26:32] automatically goes down. And that
[26:34] automatic thing happens at the state tax
[26:36] commission level because we tell the
[26:39] state tax commission what is the dollar
[26:41] amount that we need that green line to
[26:43] be. Do we need that dollar amount to be
[26:45] $50 million? Do we need it to be $80
[26:47] million? What we're assume what they're
[26:50] assuming is that we have the same dollar
[26:51] amount yeartoear. So if your value goes
[26:54] up, the rate goes down. In theory,
[26:56] you're paying the same amount of money.
[26:58] Likewise, if your value goes down, and
[27:00] this actually happened in 2009 when
[27:03] property values really tanked um in the
[27:06] area, the rate actually floats up to
[27:09] hold the government harmless to values
[27:12] going down. So, um you could think about
[27:15] this in a case like Detroit, right? That
[27:18] might have been helpful for their
[27:20] government to have that system. They
[27:22] don't have that system there. So um
[27:24] there are there are pros and cons to the
[27:27] truth and taxation system but this is
[27:29] the system we have in Utah. The only
[27:32] exception is new growth which is you
[27:34] know like you have a blank piece of
[27:37] property and then next year you have an
[27:38] apartment building on that blank piece
[27:40] of property and so now that property is
[27:42] considered new growth and the city is
[27:44] allowed to collect more money because of
[27:46] that property. Um or if you say like
[27:49] we're saying this year that green line,
[27:51] that baseline property tax budget is not
[27:53] enough to pay for our bills. We need to
[27:55] increase that green line by $13 million.
[27:57] And so we're going to ask residents what
[28:00] they think about that and go through a
[28:01] tooth and taxation process and we're
[28:03] going to raise that money. Um this is
[28:06] just a kind of hypothetical of what
[28:08] happens with new growth. So um again
[28:12] that baseline property tax budget is
[28:14] where we operate on a normal basis. If
[28:17] new development occurs in the city that
[28:20] raises our new
[28:23] baseline essentially. So um
[28:26] hypothetically so for example in this
[28:28] budget the um uh mayor's finance team
[28:32] projects that we'll get approximately
[28:33] $2.5 million from new growth this year.
[28:36] Um they actually they do a great job
[28:38] kind of projecting that based on
[28:41] building permits and certificates of
[28:42] occupancy which are kind of which are
[28:44] really good indicators of is this thing
[28:46] an actual new thing or is this just you
[28:48] know a building that was remodeled. Um
[28:51] it doesn't always pan out and we don't
[28:53] find out the actual new growth figure
[28:55] until uh June 12th now um by state law.
[29:00] So then we can collect um additional
[29:02] money from that new development.
[29:05] [sighs] This is um intended to just be
[29:08] uh an overview of what your tax notice
[29:11] will look like in July. This is what
[29:14] most residents will get in July. I've
[29:15] blocked out I just picked a random
[29:17] resident. I've blocked them out to
[29:19] protect the innocent. Um but I just
[29:21] wanted to highlight in that gold um kind
[29:23] of bar on the left there. Those are the
[29:26] only lines related to Salt Lake City. Um
[29:30] it's really important and um our
[29:33] communications group is working on ways
[29:35] to make it more accessible for to
[29:38] educate folks how to read through their
[29:40] property tax statement because that
[29:43] tells you which government should I call
[29:46] if I have concerns about the total bill
[29:49] that's at the bottom of that number. The
[29:51] other thing I wanted to highlight here
[29:53] that I think is not always um uh obvious
[29:57] is in Utah um when you have a primary
[30:01] residence you receive a 45%
[30:04] value reduction. So for example, this
[30:07] home is assessed at in 2024, so this was
[30:10] from 2024 is assessed at 787,500,
[30:15] but the taxes are assessed on 433,125.
[30:21] So it's a benefit to homeowners in Utah
[30:25] and um which is great for homeowners. It
[30:29] does cause it does cause the uh
[30:32] situation where when governments decide
[30:34] to increase taxes whether it's the city
[30:36] or the county or whoever um it it's kind
[30:39] of a disproport disproportionate version
[30:41] or u burden on commercial properties.
[30:44] Commercial properties do not receive
[30:46] that same exemption and so they are
[30:47] taxed at the full value of their
[30:49] property.
[30:52] Next, this is um the these are the
[30:55] amounts that are in the proposal for the
[30:58] fiscal year 2027 property tax increase.
[31:01] Um the state law was changed this last
[31:03] year to require a property tax impact
[31:06] statement, which I think is helpful from
[31:09] a transparency perspective, frankly, to
[31:11] let residents see exactly what their
[31:14] additional money is paying for. So you
[31:16] can see 1.7 million of the property tax
[31:19] increase is going to fire. 98,000 is
[31:22] going to public lands, 432,000 to
[31:26] justice court, 172,000 to the attorney's
[31:29] office, 800,000 to CAN. Um it might be
[31:33] helpful here to say youth and family
[31:36] programming. Um
[31:38] the city has recognized that federal
[31:41] grants for youth and family programming
[31:43] have been eliminated or reduced and um
[31:45] this is the city stepping into that
[31:47] space to make sure those programs don't
[31:49] end. The uh almost half of the property
[31:52] tax increase is going to CIP. The next
[31:54] slide will talk about exactly which
[31:57] projects in CIP are proposed to be
[31:59] funded with the property tax increase.
[32:01] And then several items that you can see
[32:03] in non-departmental.
[32:05] Um you can see that uh 961,000 is
[32:08] related to legal defenders. So I think
[32:10] we talked about that on Tuesday in the
[32:12] justice court briefing that you know the
[32:15] justice court is kind of a holistic
[32:17] system that requires if you're going to
[32:18] in if you are increasing in one area you
[32:21] need like judges for example you also
[32:23] need to increase in prosecutors and
[32:25] legal defenders because it's a a whole
[32:26] system. So that adds up to the total $13
[32:28] million increase. These are the um
[32:32] proposed CIP projects that will be
[32:34] funded with the property tax increase.
[32:37] Um I think I mean from from my takeaway
[32:40] it seems that most of these items fit in
[32:43] the category of maintaining or fixing
[32:47] what we already have. I think maybe the
[32:49] one exception is the vision zero safety
[32:52] improvements citywide which I know has
[32:53] been a a huge um goal of the councils.
[32:57] This also notes that if for some of
[32:59] these items, the [clears throat]
[33:00] property tax increase isn't the only
[33:02] funding source for some of those items.
[33:05] Some of those items are combined with
[33:06] the general fund or um county funds or
[33:10] class C funds in order to make that
[33:12] total higher. So, for example, street
[33:14] reconstruction, total investment in
[33:16] street reconstruction for the fiscal
[33:17] year 27 budget is 8.3 million of which
[33:20] the property tax is paying 627.
[33:24] Um, this is a chart just kind of showing
[33:26] where the FTEES are changing. Um, and
[33:30] again, I don't want to read through all
[33:31] of this text. Sorry for all the text on
[33:33] the [laughter] slides, but this is to
[33:36] show uh the in red is where um
[33:39] departments are proposing to eliminate
[33:41] FTEES and in blue um is showing where
[33:45] some FTEES are contingent upon the
[33:47] property tax proposal. Um there are also
[33:50] several additional FTEES that are being
[33:53] proposed that are not part of the
[33:54] property tax proposal. You guys are
[33:57] fully um empowered to decide which FTEES
[34:01] are funded with the property taxes and
[34:03] which FTEES should just be in the base
[34:06] budget. So this is what is proposed but
[34:08] it doesn't mean that you guys have to
[34:10] stick with it.
[34:13] Um so some other consideration for
[34:15] residents as they think about um bills
[34:18] both property taxes and other bills is
[34:20] the decisions of other governmental
[34:21] entities right like school district's
[34:23] decision for on raises county's decision
[34:26] on properties to buy things like that um
[34:29] and especially bonds I've noticed that
[34:32] um especially school districts are
[34:34] relying very heavily on bonds um and
[34:38] there are usually several years that
[34:40] separate when voters go to the polls,
[34:43] decide that they want new buildings for
[34:45] their kids, and then when the bill
[34:48] actually comes due, there's usually
[34:49] several years separating that. So, just
[34:51] as a good reminder of that, um again,
[34:54] the geo geo bond thing. And then, um
[34:57] utility fee increases um city and Rocky
[34:59] Mountain Power and um the administration
[35:01] has put together a handy, um calculator
[35:04] for people to figure out their rates.
[35:06] That's another thing that our
[35:07] communication staff has been working on
[35:09] with um the administration's
[35:11] communication staff about how to make
[35:13] sure um that's all um transparently
[35:17] communicated to residents. And then this
[35:20] this slide was actually left over from
[35:22] the retreat, but I decided to keep it in
[35:25] because I just can't help myself.
[35:28] [laughter]
[35:28] This is diverted revenue. So, I think
[35:32] that our city um is in a unique position
[35:36] because we're the capital city. We get a
[35:38] lot of attention and we have a lot of
[35:40] very important projects that want to
[35:43] locate here, which is great. I think the
[35:45] flip side of that coin is that sometimes
[35:47] those projects, the funding for those
[35:49] projects can come with diversion of
[35:52] revenue that would otherwise come to the
[35:54] general fund. And so I think we have to
[35:56] keep that in mind as we talk about
[35:59] property tax increases and talk about
[36:01] how to balance the budget is that the
[36:03] reason we're sometimes in this
[36:05] especially tight situation is because
[36:08] several million dollars of ours has
[36:10] already been spoken for or has already
[36:11] been diverted. So that's that.
[36:16] Sorry for all the talking.
[36:19] Um do you guys have any questions? And I
[36:21] see we have council member Wharton
[36:23] that's joined us on online as well. So
[36:25] we have council member Wharton and Petro
[36:26] online.
[36:27] » Council member Dugan.
[36:29] » Thanks Jennifer. I appreciate that very
[36:30] much. And back to the truth and
[36:32] taxation.
[36:34] » So that those rules apply to all the
[36:37] line items in your property tax.
[36:39] » Yes.
[36:40] » Bill.
[36:41] » So there's 12 line items I think we have
[36:44] in our bill. So each line item has that
[36:48] same requirement of the baseline new
[36:51] growth increases it but otherwise it has
[36:54] to be the same there.
[36:56] » And so when residents see a property tax
[36:58] increase it could be from the county the
[37:00] school board mosquito abatement
[37:03] » Metro water
[37:04] » Natural water
[37:05] » Central Utah water project
[37:06] » Others. Yes. So uh but ours Salt Lake
[37:11] City is those three there that you
[37:14] highlighted in the middle.
[37:15] » Yes. I think the maybe the one asterisk
[37:18] I would say is on each entity the bond
[37:24] line item is the one exception where
[37:28] an entity does not need to go through
[37:30] truth and taxation to increase the
[37:32] amount. What we and what we have to do
[37:34] is send the tax commission our exact
[37:38] bill for all of the bonds we have to
[37:41] pay. Um and then the tax commission
[37:44] allows us to set that rate on the bill
[37:46] [clears throat] to pay those uh geo
[37:48] bonds. Not our sales tax bonds. Our
[37:51] sales tax bonds are built into our
[37:52] general fund, but our geo bonds. Um, so
[37:56] for example, uh, the second trunch of
[37:58] the parks bond will likely, um, and
[38:02] maybe Mary Beth can correct me here.
[38:04] Will it appear on this calendar year's
[38:06] tax notices or next calendar year? It'll
[38:09] be this calendar year. Okay. So, that's
[38:11] something that Salt Lake City residents
[38:12] will see is the second trunch of the
[38:14] parks bond, which they approved um, you
[38:16] know, several years ago voting for. So,
[38:19] » And one more question on the uh uh pay
[38:23] raise side of the house.
[38:26] That's for the un uh
[38:29] » Non-represented.
[38:30] » Non-represented.
[38:31] » Sorry. Thank you for that.
[38:32] » Employees.
[38:32] » Yeah.
[38:33] » And that is I don't know what the
[38:36] percentage of employees that is, but
[38:38] it's non-representative. It's not
[38:40] police. It's not the fire. It's not uh
[38:43] ask me.
[38:44] » Yes.
[38:44] » It's a non-representative employees on
[38:46] that side.
[38:47] » That is accurate. And I I probably
[38:48] should have clarified, there is a line
[38:51] item in each department that uh
[38:53] department directors can work within a
[38:56] line item, a certain amount of money. Um
[38:58] and it's based on how many employees are
[39:00] in each department to give um market
[39:03] adjustments or pay increases to specific
[39:05] employees on a case- by case basis. So
[39:07] it's not necessarily like to hold
[39:09] employees stagnant in their careers.
[39:11] It's just um recognizing the tight
[39:14] budget,
[39:14] » Right? It was it was to bring those who
[39:16] are below well below the market rate up
[39:19] to closer to or at least to the market
[39:21] rate.
[39:22] » Yes.
[39:22] » Correct. Okay.
[39:25] » Thank you.
[39:27] » Any other questions online? No,
[39:32] » You don't see any hands up. Oh, looks
[39:34] like council member Wharton has a
[39:36] question.
[39:38] » Thank you. Um thanks Jen for that
[39:41] overview and um explaining the um truth
[39:44] in taxation.
[39:46] Um
[39:48] can you talk [clears throat] a little
[39:49] bit about um how
[39:53] given the um 13.5 million
[39:58] um
[40:00] what would
[40:02] um so a lot of residents have said just
[40:05] you know cut cut make cuts
[40:07] » [clears throat]
[40:08] » Um cut back um you know cut cut back on
[40:12] the extras is what I've heard a lot of
[40:15] um can Can you talk about how um
[40:22] just what that would would look like in
[40:24] a situation like this when we're where
[40:26] we have something [clears throat]
[40:28] um as high as 13.5 million.
[40:32] » Yeah, I think and I would welcome um you
[40:34] know if Mary Beth or if anyone from the
[40:36] mayor's team wanted to speak more to it.
[40:38] I think what I observe is that there w
[40:40] there is a lot of cutting back in this
[40:42] budget. Um and in fact it's just about
[40:45] the same amount as the property tax
[40:47] increase. So each department um was
[40:50] asked to find 5% of their uh department
[40:54] budget in cuts. Um not all of it ended
[40:58] up you know it was evaluated obviously
[41:02] with the needs of the city. And so, um,
[41:04] it doesn't necessarily mean that each
[41:05] department was cut by 5%, but you'll
[41:07] see, um, in the, uh, key changes that
[41:10] each department has, um, has made pretty
[41:14] significant cuts. I think I flagged um
[41:16] for you guys in the beginning of this
[41:18] though, one concern um I could see is
[41:22] how sustainable are those cuts and are
[41:25] we going to find that um what a
[41:28] department thought that they could do
[41:30] without or push off for a couple years
[41:32] is really needed. Um I I I observed that
[41:36] in the aftermath of the 2009 budget
[41:39] crunch where there were a lot of cuts
[41:41] made out of necessity. Um and then we
[41:44] realized that a lot of those cuts were
[41:46] really to essential functions of the
[41:48] city. Um so yes, so we there are a lot
[41:51] of cuts in that and I think we can focus
[41:53] on that as each department comes to
[41:54] brief you guys. I think that would be
[41:56] helpful.
[41:58] » Yeah. I mean one that comes to my mind
[42:01] that was impacted
[42:04] you know even when I came on to the
[42:07] council and we did funding our future in
[42:10] 2018.
[42:12] Um and that was that we, you know, uh
[42:16] before the recession, we had two road
[42:18] crews, um that that just worked around
[42:22] the clock, um all, you know, repairing
[42:25] and um one of them was cut. Um and we
[42:31] didn't
[42:33] bring that back until after the road
[42:36] study. Um and um as part of funding our
[42:41] future and um found that be you know the
[42:45] re by cutting that and having it gone
[42:48] for essentially 10 years um this date
[42:52] the overall quality of our roads was
[42:55] going down every year and we were it was
[42:57] kind of compounding instead of us um e
[43:01] keeping up with the problem or reducing
[43:03] the problem. like the roads were
[43:04] crumbling faster than we could repair
[43:06] them because we only had one crew. Um,
[43:09] are there other examples that uh you can
[43:13] think of that you um you said that you
[43:16] had some thoughts come to mind from back
[43:18] then?
[43:19] Um I think that the other um area that
[43:24] was cut pretty significantly in ' 09 was
[43:27] seasonal and maintenance dollars from
[43:30] public lands which at that point was um
[43:33] in
[43:34] I can't remember the name of the
[43:36] department now. It was in a big it was
[43:37] in a different department. It wasn't its
[43:39] own department but it was cut
[43:41] » Public services I think.
[43:42] » Yeah. Yeah. And I think um it took
[43:46] several you know years maybe a decade
[43:50] for us to kind of bring that back and I
[43:52] think that um to some extent I think
[43:56] what we hear from residents to some
[43:57] extent is still maybe lingering effects
[44:00] of that. Um I don't see that level of
[44:03] cut coming in this budget. I think the
[44:08] benefit of having this budget, the cuts
[44:11] in this budget being part of the mayor's
[44:15] deliberative process and not be if um
[44:18] those of you who are around in09
[44:19] remember we had to make a lot of those
[44:22] cuts in the middle of the fiscal year.
[44:24] So it was kind of mi midstream cuts.
[44:28] [laughter]
[44:29] So the options are a lot more limited
[44:31] when you're cutting in the middle of a
[44:33] budget year than when you're looking
[44:34] forward into the next budget year and
[44:36] can be a little bit more strategic. And
[44:38] so um just my general observation for
[44:41] this budget is that those cuts are a
[44:43] little bit they're a little bit more
[44:44] strategic. I think it doesn't
[44:46] necessarily completely erase the the
[44:49] need to be vigilant about when we
[44:51] realize that cuts are not sustainable.
[44:54] So,
[44:57] » Thank you.
[44:59] » Um, thank you, Jen. Always love hearing
[45:01] you talk about the budget and how
[45:03] animated you get and how clear you
[45:05] explain it to to all of us and to folks
[45:07] joining us online. So, I want to follow
[45:10] up on what you were talking about in
[45:12] regards to some of the cost savings
[45:14] found this year, particularly um want to
[45:18] zero in on vacancies.
[45:20] Um, I understand, you know, we are
[45:22] saving money this year by holding a
[45:25] position vacant and we've seen a number
[45:27] of vacancies across departments.
[45:30] What happens next year or the following
[45:33] fiscal year 28? Um, and how does the
[45:37] city plan for or anticipate that, decide
[45:39] to never fill the position, close it
[45:41] down versus say, "Hey, we realize we
[45:44] actually are having some real service
[45:46] impacts by not having these um these
[45:48] positions filled." So that's my first
[45:50] question about vacancies and I have a
[45:52] couple others.
[45:52] » Great. I think I mean that's a great
[45:54] question. Um and we
[45:58] I I want to say most budget years there
[46:01] are vacancy savings in several of the
[46:04] larger departments especially um just
[46:06] based on turnover and retention. And I
[46:09] think it's actually kind of a
[46:12] responsible way to do budgeting. Meaning
[46:14] it doesn't leave money on the table that
[46:16] you know is not going to be needed,
[46:17] right? Like you know at a certain point
[46:20] there's going to be enough turnover
[46:21] where you're going to have a month or
[46:22] two of a position of salary savings. Um
[46:25] I think and I'll you know look to Mary
[46:28] Beth if you want to add anything but I
[46:29] think what they'll probably need to do
[46:31] what each department will need to do is
[46:33] for fiscal year 28 evaluate if one if
[46:37] the vacancy savings is sustainable. So
[46:41] if the let's hold on for this tight year
[46:44] is something that is a longer term
[46:46] thing. I know that's what we'll be doing
[46:48] in our department is evaluating if these
[46:50] vacant positions are truly not needed.
[46:54] Um, and I think that that's where you're
[46:56] seeing some of the reduction in FTEES
[46:58] that some departments have decided to
[47:00] make, which is them kind of forecasting.
[47:02] It's not just about vacancy savings.
[47:04] It's about where did they actually need
[47:07] positions. So, but that's a uh that is
[47:11] definitely top of mind for
[47:13] um concerns for the fiscical year 28
[47:15] budget.
[47:17] » Thank you. Um, and as you can see, I'm
[47:20] thinking about this budget about
[47:21] decisions made in the past that bring us
[47:23] to this present moment and recognizing
[47:25] that decisions we make this year affect
[47:28] future years. And so, I'm really taking
[47:30] kind of that whole timeline perspective.
[47:32] Um, we've got, you know, we've got a
[47:36] reliance that we've had to use on on our
[47:39] fund balance and that's happened in
[47:41] previous years and we're using it again
[47:43] this year. Next year may not be an
[47:46] option for us. So, I'm curious as we
[47:49] both find these efficiencies, but
[47:52] there's also a property tax increase,
[47:54] how can I understand what's going to
[47:56] happen with our structural deficit in
[47:58] the next year or two?
[48:00] » I think that um that's where I think we
[48:03] will lean heavily on um the finance
[48:06] department to look into some of the
[48:08] revenue tools that um we talked about a
[48:12] little bit on Tuesday. the um
[48:15] transportation utility fee and the venue
[48:18] event tax um parking taxes. Um I think
[48:22] there are still some revenue streams
[48:24] that um that we can look at. I also
[48:28] think that just to be perfectly candid,
[48:30] I think that some of these vacancy
[48:32] savings will probably cause departments
[48:34] to reevaluate, you know, how services
[48:37] are deployed. um which may cause entire
[48:40] shifts. So that what would have been a
[48:43] structural deficit because maybe you
[48:45] have you know 10 positions to do a job
[48:48] that maybe only takes three is not a
[48:51] structural deficit because the
[48:52] department has decided we can do this
[48:54] job with three positions instead of 10.
[48:56] Um I think that to a certain extent
[48:59] there's a structural deficit every year,
[49:01] right? because you have health insurance
[49:04] costs, uh, inflation with contractual
[49:07] agreements that departments have with
[49:09] people. Um, to some extent the pension
[49:12] system, Utah retirement systems tells us
[49:15] every year it's sort of like a surprise.
[49:16] Here's your here's your bill. Um, this
[49:19] year it was better. Uh, but in other
[49:20] years it hasn't been. So, um, to some
[49:24] extent there's not a there's there's no
[49:26] way to completely avoid a structural
[49:28] deficit. Um, but it's just about how do
[49:31] you uh how do you manage the size of it?
[49:34] So,
[49:36] » Okay,
[49:37] » Victoria,
[49:38] » Victoria, it's your turn.
[49:41] » Thank you. Um, and yeah, Jen, thanks.
[49:43] This is really helpful to have a
[49:45] succinct kind of centralized review like
[49:48] this. Um, I know that some of the things
[49:50] that we need to do carry some political
[49:54] challenges. um fees. I know that, you
[49:58] know, uh developers who go to
[49:59] municipalities that are newer than us
[50:01] pay more in certain fees there than they
[50:03] do here just because we haven't adjusted
[50:06] our rates or been without the political
[50:09] pressure to adjust them uh since like
[50:11] the '9s literally. And so if you
[50:13] incorporated after like 1992 and you
[50:16] have a higher rate than us and so we're
[50:19] developing a modern city on an
[50:21] antiquated rate scale. Can you maybe
[50:23] help un with understanding this probably
[50:26] isn't a right now thing but maybe like a
[50:28] um a future-looking information. I'd
[50:31] love to know what some of the barriers
[50:32] are on some of those future revenue
[50:34] things just to prepare. I'm happy to get
[50:37] into whatever political trench I need to
[50:39] to make sure that the city is in solid
[50:42] financial shape and that we're not going
[50:44] back to our um our residents, especially
[50:48] those who are on um restricted incomes
[50:51] to ask for more property tax increase.
[50:53] But I'd love to know just to prepare
[50:55] myself psychologically, mentally,
[50:57] politically, socially, you know, for the
[50:59] for those because it it seems really
[51:01] important that we don't just keep
[51:02] relying on property owners for our
[51:06] revenue increases.
[51:07] » That's a that's a really great point and
[51:09] I think um the fees that come to mind
[51:13] that um we maybe are not recouping as
[51:16] much as we could are impact fees. Um, I
[51:21] know that the administration is working
[51:23] on updating the impact fee study to come
[51:26] up with a, you know, more uh, updated
[51:30] true cost of those impact fees. Um,
[51:33] public utilities as well charges impact
[51:35] fees and they haven't um, updated in
[51:37] several years. And so I think the goal
[51:39] was to bring all of the city's impact
[51:41] fees back to the council for approval. I
[51:44] can say the last time that the impact
[51:46] fees were reviewed, there was a
[51:49] substantial
[51:51] um uh political conversation about the
[51:55] balance of well, we we can't just give
[51:57] these people a bill, you know, based on
[51:59] I mean, we do a study to say it costs,
[52:02] you know, X dollars, let's say $2,000.
[52:04] cost $2,000 per unit that's built in
[52:08] order to fund the needs that are going
[52:11] to happen as a result of that additional
[52:13] unit. Um there's a calculation that
[52:16] happens after the sort of objective
[52:18] calculation which is does that mean that
[52:21] we're stalling development in our city?
[52:23] And if we charge $2,000, are we going to
[52:26] kill development in our city? And
[52:27] sometimes the answer is no. Or sometimes
[52:29] the answer is we might kill development.
[52:31] And so instead of charging 2,000, the
[52:33] council could decide to say we're going
[52:34] to charge 1,500. Um, and so that was
[52:37] that was kind of the conversation the
[52:39] last time the impact fee study um was
[52:42] brought to the council. And I wouldn't
[52:43] be surprised if it's a similar
[52:44] calculation. Now, there's a lot of
[52:47] competition with even neighboring
[52:48] cities, right, to say, do we want
[52:50] housing built in our city or in
[52:53] neighboring city where maybe impact fees
[52:54] are cheaper. Um, so there's that. The
[52:57] other um I think tricky one to be
[52:59] perfectly honest in our city is going to
[53:01] be the transportation utility fee
[53:03] because um two of our major nonprofit
[53:07] um partners in the city, the university
[53:09] and the LDS church will probably see a
[53:12] pretty significant change in how they're
[53:15] interacting with the city in terms of
[53:17] dollars. And so that's probably a
[53:19] conversation that will have to happen on
[53:21] a political level as well in order to um
[53:24] realize that money. But I think that
[53:26] will be happening over the next year. So
[53:28] that's a in a couple months problem.
[53:33] » Okay.
[53:35] Thank you for the questions everyone. Um
[53:39] thank you so much Jennifer for for the
[53:41] overview uh and and uh for helping us
[53:44] understand this these budgets uh for
[53:47] this year and how we're going to
[53:48] approach the discussion. Um, moving on
[53:51] to uh item number two, which is fiscal
[53:54] year 2026 2027
[53:56] budget discussion for the police
[53:58] department. We're going to welcome at
[54:00] the table Michael Sanders, council
[54:02] policy analyst, chief Brian Reid, SLC
[54:05] police chief, uh, and Shelley Dietrich,
[54:08] uh, financial manager.
[54:17] » Great. Thank you, chair. Um, so the FY27
[54:21] Police Department budget is proposed to
[54:23] be approximately $142 million, which is
[54:27] an increase of a little over $7 million
[54:29] or 5.24% from last year. This budget
[54:33] continues funding for 13 FTEEs, which
[54:36] would be funded by the Utah Inland Port
[54:38] Authority proposed under budget
[54:41] amendment number five, which is actually
[54:42] currently under consideration.
[54:45] Additionally, it proposes adding four
[54:48] other FTEEs with this budget proposal.
[54:51] None of the proposals from the police
[54:53] department budget will rely on the
[54:55] property tax increase, which we
[54:56] discussed. Um, assuming all FTEEs are
[54:59] approved, the police department would
[55:01] have staff of 797 positions, 63 623
[55:06] would be sworn officers, and there'd be
[55:08] 154 civilian staff. Notable items from
[55:11] the budget include funding for the real
[55:13] time crime center and drone as a first
[55:15] responder programs
[55:17] » And additionally
[55:21] » And additionally the social worker
[55:23] program and mental health responders
[55:24] have been moved from the non-EP
[55:26] department the non-EP departmental
[55:27] budget and into the police department
[55:30] based budget. With that, I'll yield the
[55:32] floor to Chief Red.
[55:36] » Let me give that. Sorry. First of all, I
[55:37] want to thank uh Michael for all of his
[55:39] support and help uh through this
[55:41] process. So, thank you. I want to thank
[55:42] the council executive director Bruno and
[55:45] not just for this, but just I've called
[55:47] her quite often and then Mayor Menhal
[55:50] for the the support in this budget as
[55:51] well. Um I we I just want to start off
[55:55] by saying that our our police department
[55:57] feels very supported by the council over
[55:59] this past year and uh we have some
[56:02] indicators that are showing our morale
[56:04] is is is up in the in the police
[56:06] department and we want to keep that
[56:07] momentum going. Uh we really emphasize
[56:10] being a learning organization. So when
[56:13] mistakes are made, we sit down as a
[56:15] team. We don't point fingers. We learn
[56:16] and we improve. And so that's a posture
[56:19] that we want to take in the police
[56:20] department. And and the value in that is
[56:22] that uh people are making decisions and
[56:25] learning and and we're becoming a
[56:26] stronger organization.
[56:28] Um
[56:30] uh next slide.
[56:35] Uh next slide.
[56:38] Uh just a couple accomplishments that I
[56:41] want to highlight. This year uh you we
[56:43] we started a or we put together a new
[56:46] mission vision values. This is was an
[56:48] exercise that we did with our police
[56:51] officers and professional staff. Uh this
[56:53] this exercise and our new mission,
[56:55] vision, values has really aligned our
[56:56] organization and kind of put us all on
[56:58] the same page. And as I mentioned, being
[57:01] able to push decision-m down to lower
[57:03] levels because we're all aligned has
[57:05] been very valuable. We are currently
[57:07] fully staffed. Now, all of those
[57:09] officers are not going to be deployed
[57:11] until uh November, December time frame,
[57:13] but we are currently fully staffed and
[57:15] excited about that. and we're starting
[57:17] to see the impacts of those those
[57:20] officers as they come out onto the to
[57:21] the street and and uh if I go to the
[57:24] next accomplishment uh we we we saw an
[57:27] overall decrease in crime last calendar
[57:29] year to date this year we're down it's
[57:32] actually 21% I checked with our data
[57:35] people today year to date compared to
[57:36] the same time period last year uh this
[57:39] includes violent crime going down um so
[57:42] we're we're having some some great
[57:44] successes there our officers are out
[57:45] working very hard. Uh I will also in and
[57:48] I don't have it in here, but our call
[57:50] response times are are are also dropping
[57:52] over the past year and we're seeing
[57:54] improvements there as well. So ju
[57:56] generally the the goal of this of this
[57:58] budget and these budget requests are to
[58:00] help us continue to bring crime down um
[58:03] improve call response times um which
[58:06] will then allow us over time to reinvest
[58:09] our officers time into community
[58:11] engagement, traffic safety, which is a
[58:14] problem in the city. we're having too
[58:15] many uh fatalities around traffic safety
[58:18] and then also investing more in our
[58:20] youth to get in on the front end so we
[58:22] have less issues uh down the road with
[58:24] these these youth. Uh next slide.
[58:30] When we talk about efficiencies, we're
[58:32] still kind of in the process of writing
[58:33] our strategic plan and and getting some
[58:36] key metrics in place so we can see
[58:38] efficiencies uh improving. Uh one of the
[58:41] big ones is we're working on 12-hour
[58:42] [clears throat] shifts. Uh we think
[58:44] that's going to improve staffing ac
[58:46] across the city and put officers in out
[58:48] on the streets in the time at the times
[58:50] we need them the most. Uh we're working
[58:52] closely with the union and the city on
[58:54] this uh to make sure we we're we're
[58:56] thoughtful in in some of these u changes
[58:58] around shift shift shift allocation. Um
[59:02] we're also working on a number of
[59:03] efficiencies. Uh we'll talk about
[59:05] overtime later, but we have brought
[59:06] overtime costs down this past fiscal
[59:09] year and we anticipate and our requests
[59:11] will reflect a a continued decrease in
[59:13] overtime as we get more fully staffed
[59:15] and become more efficient. Um and then
[59:18] we're we're going to talk a lot about in
[59:20] our budget today the our real-time crime
[59:22] center and expanding our drone first
[59:24] responder program. This is an alternate
[59:27] response and we're finding that we don't
[59:29] have to send officers to a number of
[59:31] calls when we send the drones. Uh or we
[59:34] give officers better information and
[59:35] improved response. Uh maybe a case where
[59:39] we don't have to send an officer at all,
[59:41] but it may be a social worker. And so
[59:43] we're finding some efficiencies there.
[59:45] Uh which is great. And then the last
[59:47] thing that I'll mention is we've worked
[59:48] really hard with our partners uh across
[59:50] the social services and criminal justice
[59:53] system. And for instance, in the real
[59:55] time crime center, we're we're
[59:57] partnering with the University of Utah
[59:58] and the Utah Transit Authority. They're
[1:00:00] providing resources so that we don't
[1:00:02] have to come to you and ask for that. Uh
[1:00:04] we're working closely with DPS and DNR
[1:00:06] uh Department of Natural Resources on
[1:00:08] the Jordan River and they're putting a
[1:00:09] lot of resources into our city and
[1:00:11] helping out there. And then uh of course
[1:00:15] you mentioned the Inland Port Authority
[1:00:17] who's putting a significant investment
[1:00:18] into our police department all saving
[1:00:20] the Salt Lake City taxpayer. Next slide.
[1:00:27] Uh Michael mentioned our overall budget.
[1:00:29] You can see a breakdown and you can see
[1:00:31] the mayor's recommended budget request
[1:00:33] of of 7 million with the 17 FTEES. 13 of
[1:00:36] those being the Inland Port. If you want
[1:00:37] to go to the next slide and you can see
[1:00:40] most of our budget is made up of
[1:00:41] personnel. [snorts] Um, so, uh, we're
[1:00:46] really really excited that the Inland
[1:00:47] Port Authority invested, uh, into the
[1:00:49] police department and we'll have 12
[1:00:51] additional officers and an evidence
[1:00:52] technician which will help us in the
[1:00:54] northwest quadrant with some of the
[1:00:56] challenges that we're having out there
[1:00:57] and in our on the west side of Salt Lake
[1:00:58] City. So, we're we're excited for that.
[1:01:01] I wanted to just to briefly mention
[1:01:02] fleet. Uh, last year the council, the
[1:01:05] mayor's office supported a number of an
[1:01:08] in a pretty good investment into our
[1:01:09] fleet. We still have a long way to go
[1:01:11] with our fleet and we in certain cases
[1:01:15] we have several cars that are past
[1:01:16] service life that need to be re re uh
[1:01:18] replaced and in certain cases we're
[1:01:20] actually investing more in maintenance
[1:01:22] and repairs than the car is worth. So
[1:01:25] we're just asking for continued support
[1:01:27] and investing in our mainten
[1:01:31] with uh the situation that we're in. It
[1:01:34] is a public safety risk, but also it's a
[1:01:36] recruiting retention tool. I mean, when
[1:01:38] officers do care about the cars that
[1:01:40] they're driving and so uh that's their
[1:01:42] office and and so when we we compete for
[1:01:44] the best officers in the state, our
[1:01:46] officers are constantly looking at
[1:01:47] salary, equipment, training, development
[1:01:50] opportunities, support from elected
[1:01:52] officials. So, it's important. Next
[1:01:54] slide.
[1:01:57] Uh these are the key changes in the
[1:01:59] budget which is in the budget book.
[1:02:00] We'll go over these one uh one at a time
[1:02:03] and feel free to ask questions along the
[1:02:04] way. Uh we if you want to go to the next
[1:02:07] slide, we can just get right into it.
[1:02:10] The school district approached us last
[1:02:11] year and requested two additional uh
[1:02:15] school resource officers for the
[1:02:16] district. Uh this is uh that request. Uh
[1:02:20] the the thing to note here is half of
[1:02:23] the funding will come from the school
[1:02:24] district. So even though it shows this
[1:02:26] amount, half of that will be in
[1:02:27] reimbursed back to the police department
[1:02:29] for those two FTEEs. We're working with
[1:02:32] the school district on ensuring that our
[1:02:34] school resource officers and they're
[1:02:35] doing an amazing job by the way, but
[1:02:37] they're investing in individuals,
[1:02:39] particularly kids who are at risk. And
[1:02:41] so, a lot of what we're doing, we're
[1:02:42] kind of retooling how we use our school
[1:02:44] resource officers, working closely with
[1:02:46] the district, and we're we're seeing
[1:02:47] some amazing outcomes. And you'll see
[1:02:49] here in the coming weeks an amazing
[1:02:51] story from one one of our school
[1:02:52] resource officers and how they invested
[1:02:54] in some youth, and we're excited for
[1:02:56] that to come out soon. Any questions on
[1:02:59] that one or should we just keep going
[1:03:00] and you'll interrupt if
[1:03:02] » Chief? Oh yeah, go ahead. Go ahead.
[1:03:05] » Uh so so I on the school resource
[1:03:08] officer's request from the school
[1:03:09] district.
[1:03:11] My understanding was that they we split
[1:03:14] them with the school district. We split
[1:03:16] the cost with them. So is this the half
[1:03:18] the cost of for two?
[1:03:20] » This is the full cost. Half of that will
[1:03:22] be reimbursed back to our budget mention
[1:03:24] at the end that
[1:03:25] » We just have to get approval from you to
[1:03:26] get the to get the full amount and then
[1:03:28] it'll it will be reimbured. So that will
[1:03:30] be cut in half.
[1:03:31] » Okay. And what happens? So in the budget
[1:03:33] with this
[1:03:35] you know
[1:03:37] $25,000 is that going goes back to to
[1:03:41] the general fund or it stays within
[1:03:43] » The personnel
[1:03:44] » Revenue the general fund.
[1:03:45] » Okay. Okay. Thank you. Do you have
[1:03:48] » Yeah. cuz we're doing
[1:03:49] » And chief I wasn't quite sure would was
[1:03:51] the uh because we had the the SRO
[1:03:54] discussion at the state level and then
[1:03:57] we had at the schoolboard level. Uh was
[1:03:59] this a state mandate that we increase
[1:04:01] the SRO or this just come from the
[1:04:04] school districts or was it like a highly
[1:04:06] recommended from the state level or do
[1:04:08] you remember? So, so the this the the
[1:04:10] the legislature passed a bill that
[1:04:13] requires schools uh to to have a
[1:04:16] guardian, private security or a school
[1:04:18] resource officer. So, the schools can
[1:04:21] determine how that breakdown is. So, I
[1:04:23] think part of this is affected by that.
[1:04:25] Um it's the school district's request
[1:04:27] and they and they they they in in
[1:04:29] talking to uh the superintendent, they
[1:04:32] prefer school resource officers to
[1:04:34] private security or guardians. So
[1:04:36] » Yeah, that that decision I'm totally
[1:04:38] supportive. I just My question really
[1:04:40] was more is like it was a a these are
[1:04:44] the three ways you can do this but we're
[1:04:46] not going to give you any funding either
[1:04:47] for it. It was mandated but not funded.
[1:04:52] I shouldn't say if it was mandated
[1:04:53] that's right.
[1:04:53] » Yeah. I think I I think that the
[1:04:55] requirement was put in place and I don't
[1:04:57] know what type of funding was provided
[1:04:58] » But they didn't provide any funding for
[1:04:59] that.
[1:05:00] » I I I would think I think school
[1:05:02] districts would say not enough but okay.
[1:05:04] I don't know for sure what funding was
[1:05:05] provided to school districts.
[1:05:07] » Okay, thank you.
[1:05:11] » Okay, sorry. Next slide.
[1:05:15] » Uh the next the next request is one FTE
[1:05:18] for a drone pilot. This is an officer
[1:05:20] position. Uh you know, we're going to
[1:05:22] talk more about the the drone our our
[1:05:25] real-time crime center as we go through
[1:05:26] this presentation today. Um, I think the
[1:05:28] main point that I would just make on
[1:05:30] this drone pilot, um, we're doing
[1:05:33] everything we can to find internal
[1:05:34] resources. So, we've we've reallocated
[1:05:37] internally to add positions to our
[1:05:39] real-time crime center. As I mentioned,
[1:05:40] the University of Utah and UTA are
[1:05:42] committing some resources. Uh, but this
[1:05:44] will be a drone pilot that will help us
[1:05:46] uh get get off of the ground. um these
[1:05:49] drones are arriving at to calls in 1 to
[1:05:51] two minutes where officers are taking
[1:05:54] depending on the call anywhere from six
[1:05:56] and a half up to 15 minutes. And so a
[1:05:58] lot of cases are being cleared by these
[1:06:00] drones. So we just think this alternate
[1:06:02] response is a is a real investment in in
[1:06:05] getting call response times down,
[1:06:06] getting better information to our
[1:06:09] officers. Um I would also add that that
[1:06:12] we we deploy for the fire department. So
[1:06:14] that's another efficiency that we're
[1:06:16] finding that that we we deploy on fire
[1:06:18] calls uh fires in the hills or in in
[1:06:21] buildings and and to give them that
[1:06:22] overview. So um this that's what this
[1:06:25] request is. Uh next slide.
[1:06:30] This next uh request is related to our
[1:06:32] real-time crime center. This individual
[1:06:34] will be an analyst uh who will uh work
[1:06:38] within the real-time crime center. One
[1:06:40] of the main focuses of this an analyst
[1:06:42] will be threat management. Uh you know
[1:06:46] in this day and age there's a lot of
[1:06:47] threats coming in to the police
[1:06:48] department. We have to assess those
[1:06:50] threats. We have to research and do do
[1:06:53] background work on those. This uh this
[1:06:55] analyst will do all of that provide for
[1:06:57] event research. Uh you know we have a
[1:06:59] lot of events in the community and so
[1:07:00] that this analyst will pro will support
[1:07:02] all of those efforts.
[1:07:05] Next slide.
[1:07:08] Uh
[1:07:09] coming back to the overtime just to give
[1:07:12] some background. So we're projecting
[1:07:15] overtime costs for FY27 at $6.5 million.
[1:07:19] This would represent almost a 10%
[1:07:21] decrease from FY26.
[1:07:24] And if you go back to FY25, we were at
[1:07:27] 8.2 million. So this fiscal year, we've
[1:07:29] been able to reduce overtime by almost
[1:07:32] 13% and we're projecting to get that
[1:07:34] down another 10%. Uh so this request of
[1:07:37] 1.7 million represents that 10%
[1:07:40] decrease. Uh we will always have
[1:07:42] overtime in the department. We're
[1:07:44] requesting this one time because we want
[1:07:46] to see what we're going to be able to do
[1:07:48] this year with alternate response with
[1:07:50] becoming more fully staffed and we think
[1:07:52] maybe hopefully we can even get it down
[1:07:54] more. But we're requesting one time just
[1:07:56] to make sure we have the overtime as we
[1:07:58] get our officers trained and and put out
[1:08:00] into the field.
[1:08:02] » Go ahead. kind of like along the lines
[1:08:05] of the uh overtime side of the house.
[1:08:07] You know, we get a lot of we you get a
[1:08:11] lot of uh requests and and uh
[1:08:15] from the University of Utah for all the
[1:08:17] events that they have at the at the
[1:08:18] stadium and other places and are is it a
[1:08:22] uh are we being fully paid for all our
[1:08:24] services that we provide the at the
[1:08:26] university level? And is that a separate
[1:08:28] contract or how does that work? because
[1:08:30] it seems like we we have to deploy a lot
[1:08:32] of officers for a lot of those things
[1:08:34] and it and it's got to be mostly
[1:08:36] overtime because it's uh
[1:08:38] » Yes,
[1:08:38] » They're not uh so all of the University
[1:08:41] of Utah sporting events are reimbursed
[1:08:44] by the University of Utah. Uh Greek Row,
[1:08:47] they reimburse for our officers to work
[1:08:49] overtime shifts on Greek Row as I
[1:08:51] mentioned with the Realtime Crime
[1:08:53] Center. They're they're putting uh
[1:08:54] personnel and and and helping us invest
[1:08:57] in in that as well. And then uh our
[1:09:01] public order unit, they're they're going
[1:09:03] to be putting officers on our public
[1:09:05] order unit. So I I feel like we have a
[1:09:06] really strong partnership with the
[1:09:07] University of Utah and and I'm I'm sure
[1:09:10] if there's any concerns, we could go to
[1:09:12] them and and but I I feel like it's a
[1:09:15] pretty fair relationship that we have
[1:09:17] going. Most most of the overtime is
[1:09:18] reimbured.
[1:09:20] » Council Petro,
[1:09:23] » Thank you. When we say overtime, is this
[1:09:26] the overtime that covers the basic
[1:09:29] functionality of the city? Are officers
[1:09:31] still will have the opportunity to do
[1:09:33] overtime
[1:09:35] um when community entities are asking
[1:09:36] and paying for that? Is that accurate or
[1:09:38] are we discontinuing that as well?
[1:09:42] » Oh boy. Could you I'm sorry, council
[1:09:44] member, can you maybe just ask that
[1:09:46] question one more time? It's a little
[1:09:47] hard to understand. Oh, [clears throat]
[1:09:48] » You sorry. Um, so the when you say
[1:09:53] overtime and what we're paying for here,
[1:09:56] that's the overtime that covers
[1:09:59] functionality within the city. That is
[1:10:02] when we've been understaffed, people
[1:10:04] taking extra shifts to make sure that
[1:10:08] the city doesn't lag behind. But the
[1:10:10] overtime where entities in the community
[1:10:13] pay for our officers to do either
[1:10:16] special events or some ongoing security,
[1:10:18] those sorts of things, that sort of
[1:10:20] overtime still stays. Is that correct?
[1:10:24] » Yeah. So, we have like the Delta Center
[1:10:26] who reimburses us, City Creek who
[1:10:27] reimburses us. So, we have a lot of
[1:10:28] contractual overtime that's reimbursed.
[1:10:31] I think this amount, and Shelley can
[1:10:32] correct me if I'm wrong, represents the
[1:10:34] overtime that we expend for mitigation
[1:10:36] shifts, for overtime for demonstrations
[1:10:39] for instance. Those are very expensive
[1:10:41] for us. Um, and just regular overtime
[1:10:44] for callouts for our investigations
[1:10:46] division, our our special operations
[1:10:48] division for just normal operations.
[1:10:51] » It does include special events, but
[1:10:52] those are reimbursed as part of the
[1:10:54] special event process.
[1:10:57] » Thank you so much for the clarification.
[1:10:59] Thank you. Other
[1:11:03] questions on this request?
[1:11:06] Okay, we'll go to the next
[1:11:10] slide. Okay, so this is actually a
[1:11:12] reduction, a onetime reduction. We're
[1:11:14] currently holding open eight vacancies.
[1:11:17] These are these are these vacancies are
[1:11:20] within our professional staff, our
[1:11:21] civilian staff, which goes across
[1:11:24] basically all of those divisions. Um, I
[1:11:26] just want to say our personal our
[1:11:28] professional staff do an amazing job in
[1:11:30] the department sometimes in the
[1:11:32] background. We don't we don't see their
[1:11:34] work as much, but our police department
[1:11:36] could not operate without them. So, this
[1:11:38] is quite a sacrifice on on our
[1:11:40] professional staff to to hold these
[1:11:42] vacancies open, but we're committed to
[1:11:43] doing that. And and as as you mentioned
[1:11:45] earlier, executive director Bruno will
[1:11:47] evaluate through the year to see what we
[1:11:49] can do on the on the long term here. Um,
[1:11:52] but it is it is definitely a sacrifice
[1:11:55] for our professional staff to do this.
[1:11:56] We appreciate them
[1:11:59] and and the positions may vary through
[1:12:01] the year, but we'll we're committed to
[1:12:02] holding open funding for at least that
[1:12:04] amount. And if we can do more, you know,
[1:12:06] we would do more. We'll have to evaluate
[1:12:09] as the year goes on. Next slide.
[1:12:14] Uh this next request is uh nearly
[1:12:17] $400,000
[1:12:19] uh for our real-time crime center
[1:12:21] technology. This is uh for cameras,
[1:12:24] drones, uh our LPRs, replacements. Um
[1:12:29] what we're trying to accomplish here is
[1:12:31] to get kind of on a 5-year rotation. So
[1:12:33] some of this the funding will will go to
[1:12:35] new tech, new cameras. You know, we pull
[1:12:37] trailer cameras and we get requests
[1:12:39] constantly to put put a trailer camera
[1:12:40] here or a trailer camera there or a pole
[1:12:42] camera in the city. So, this is allowing
[1:12:45] us to increase the number of cameras um
[1:12:47] but also replace equipment as it ages.
[1:12:51] So, that's what this request is.
[1:12:53] » Yeah. Councilman Eric Carson,
[1:12:55] » Do you have a sense of the breakdown of
[1:12:58] what is a replacement of existing
[1:13:01] equipment versus purchasing of new
[1:13:04] equipment
[1:13:05] » On a percentage basis? Um, I do have a
[1:13:08] slide or a slide here. Yeah, here it is.
[1:13:11] Thank you. I had it on text, but here it
[1:13:13] is. Um,
[1:13:15] here we're requesting about 15. Let's
[1:13:18] see. 15. I'm just going to look at a
[1:13:20] percentage basis and we can get this
[1:13:22] this detail to you. I would say it's
[1:13:24] about it's a little it's probably a 5050
[1:13:27] or 6040 split between new and
[1:13:30] replacement.
[1:13:31] » 60% new, 40% replacement.
[1:13:34] » Um I mean without doing the math on the
[1:13:36] spot here, I can get you the the
[1:13:38] specific, but but I I think it's it's a
[1:13:39] little of both. We're trying to kind of
[1:13:40] hit hit it in the middle there.
[1:13:42] » Thank you.
[1:13:42] » But I can get you specific details. We
[1:13:44] can work on that.
[1:13:46] » Council member Dugan.
[1:13:48] » Yeah. We had this discussion before on
[1:13:50] the grant funding and stuff like that,
[1:13:51] the contracts we have with the the
[1:13:53] cameras and the other uh surveillance
[1:13:55] stuff and do we have contracts with the
[1:13:58] the Flock group?
[1:13:59] » We have no contracts with Flock.
[1:14:01] » Okay. Just appreciate that. I I think
[1:14:02] we've already discussed it before, but I
[1:14:05] » That came up again. So, thank you very
[1:14:07] much.
[1:14:07] » And oh, I want to do back on the
[1:14:10] replacement. So, this is these
[1:14:13] replacements. We're going to we're
[1:14:15] always going to be replacing new ones
[1:14:16] and old ones. Is it is it like a cycle
[1:14:18] right now the city has cycles on the
[1:14:20] computers it's whatever it is three
[1:14:22] years or something like that is that the
[1:14:23] same thing where they have about a
[1:14:25] lifetime of
[1:14:27] three years two years something of that
[1:14:28] nature
[1:14:29] » I mean techn is changing fast but you
[1:14:31] know I think on average we're thinking
[1:14:32] about a about a 5year rotation um give
[1:14:35] or take you know give or take give or
[1:14:37] take and
[1:14:38] » And again um we know it's a tough budget
[1:14:40] year like if if this has to be one time
[1:14:42] you know that's we understand whatever
[1:14:43] we can do to to be a team player you
[1:14:46] know we'll do that But yeah, we're
[1:14:47] trying to get on an on we want the
[1:14:49] ongoing funding so we can just have a
[1:14:51] replacement. Uh we'll grow it some, but
[1:14:53] we'll mostly it's for replacement.
[1:14:57] » Uh Chief, the in the past I I learned uh
[1:15:01] about moving these cameras, the trailer
[1:15:02] cameras and installing the pole cameras
[1:15:04] was challenging. Um so are we trying to
[1:15:10] find a way what is the system that we
[1:15:12] have right now to move them faster or
[1:15:15] install them faster and uh because we
[1:15:19] may have even more um so that's even you
[1:15:22] know more complication.
[1:15:23] » Yeah. Right now we have officers that
[1:15:25] are doing that and one of the things
[1:15:26] that we're looking at is is is that the
[1:15:28] best model or should we use our civilian
[1:15:30] response team and that's kind of I think
[1:15:32] what we're looking at to so we use you
[1:15:34] know our officer resources more
[1:15:36] effectively and so I think we're trying
[1:15:38] to look at a model of of moving toward a
[1:15:40] maybe a civilian uh based you know team
[1:15:44] that could do something like that and we
[1:15:46] may have internal resources just to kind
[1:15:47] of work on that.
[1:15:48] » Okay. Uh and a follow-up question
[1:15:51] regarding this item. Um and are
[1:15:55] there uh license plate readers in within
[1:15:58] this budget line item too?
[1:16:00] » There are.
[1:16:00] » There are. Okay.
[1:16:01] » Yeah. And and and and many of them are
[1:16:03] for replacement. We can also work with
[1:16:05] you on what what you're comfortable
[1:16:06] with. But yeah, there's there are
[1:16:08] license plate reader uh in in there.
[1:16:11] » Yeah. Any other questions? I I see Chris
[1:16:16] Chris Wharton.
[1:16:18] Um, hi Chief. Thank you for the
[1:16:21] presentation and thank you for talking
[1:16:22] about um the
[1:16:25] um work that we do with the University
[1:16:27] of Utah um police department for Greek
[1:16:30] Greek row. I think um I put in a request
[1:16:33] to to meet and talk about that because I
[1:16:36] think there are some opportunities for
[1:16:38] more efficiency there um and talking
[1:16:41] with um the dean of students. Um but so
[1:16:46] I just wanted to highlight that and say
[1:16:47] that I'm interested in in hearing more
[1:16:49] about that and we can have a separate
[1:16:51] meeting.
[1:16:52] Um the other thing I wanted to ask about
[1:16:54] is just that um from my from my
[1:16:59] residents um I have heard a lot of
[1:17:03] really positive feedback um about um our
[1:17:07] officers and about the department being
[1:17:09] um more responsive to um kind of
[1:17:13] neighborhood issues um just a presence
[1:17:17] in the neighborhood and then also um um
[1:17:22] traffic concerns, things like that. Um,
[1:17:25] and those continue to be the number one
[1:17:28] thing that constituents reach out to me
[1:17:30] about. And I I know that um it's
[1:17:33] expensive to do, you know, targeted
[1:17:36] enforcement and to be out there doing
[1:17:37] tickets and that um our officers
[1:17:41] um a lot of times, you know, they have
[1:17:43] to take priority calls. But um can you
[1:17:47] speak to what in this budget um is going
[1:17:49] to help um with that problem? Because
[1:17:52] again it's it is the number one thing
[1:17:54] that residents reach out to me about and
[1:17:56] it's not even close to um you know the
[1:18:00] second and third place things that they
[1:18:01] reach out about. Um it's speeding, it's
[1:18:05] speeding in school zones, it's um
[1:18:09] traffic noise um that is um you know so
[1:18:14] disruptive that it's um having health
[1:18:18] impacts
[1:18:20] um and it's um yeah responsiveness to
[1:18:23] sort those same sort of issues. Can you
[1:18:25] just speak to that in this budget? Yes.
[1:18:28] I mean, one, the overtime will continue
[1:18:31] to allow us to do some of that targeted
[1:18:33] enforcement, and I think also the
[1:18:35] investment in the real-time crime center
[1:18:37] will allow us to respond to issues. So,
[1:18:41] in February, we ran a pilot where we uh
[1:18:45] deployed our drone as first responder,
[1:18:47] which we're going to talk about in the
[1:18:48] next I think it's the next budget item.
[1:18:50] We deployed that drone uh to certain
[1:18:54] calls for service, lower priority calls,
[1:18:56] and we were able to clearly 40% of those
[1:18:58] calls without sending an officer.
[1:19:01] That's really significant for two
[1:19:02] reasons. One, it means we can send
[1:19:05] officers to higher priority calls and
[1:19:06] get there quicker or it means we free up
[1:19:08] officer time to be more proactive. And
[1:19:11] again, as I said earlier and kind as we
[1:19:13] as we began the presentation, traffic
[1:19:16] safety is a problem in the city. I mean,
[1:19:18] we're we're losing more people to that
[1:19:20] than homicide right now. And so, we do
[1:19:22] need to reinvest. And I think as we get
[1:19:25] fully staffed, as we have the overtime,
[1:19:27] as we invest in the real-time crime
[1:19:29] center, alternate response, that will
[1:19:31] free up our officers to be more present.
[1:19:33] you know, we started a a foot patrol in
[1:19:36] the downtown area, which is is is
[1:19:38] proving to be very successful and and
[1:19:40] popular, and we want to be able to
[1:19:42] spread that across the city and and have
[1:19:44] our officers have more beat integrity.
[1:19:47] Uh when the department was down on
[1:19:50] staffing and crime was up, um not just
[1:19:54] here, but across the country, uh police
[1:19:56] departments really just had to respond
[1:19:58] to the highest priority calls and
[1:19:59] everything kind of fell by the wayside.
[1:20:01] I'm confident that over time with full
[1:20:04] staffing, with this investment, you
[1:20:06] know, we can start be be starting to
[1:20:08] handle these quality of life issues and
[1:20:10] and be be more responsive, be more
[1:20:12] connected to the community, um, and work
[1:20:14] on some of these issues. I I hope that
[1:20:16] answers your question. And on on the
[1:20:17] second point, we'll have my team set up
[1:20:19] a meeting with you, council member, on
[1:20:20] the University of Utah.
[1:20:22] » Thank you,
[1:20:26] » Counciloman.
[1:20:29] » Thank you. And thank you, Chief. Um, so
[1:20:33] the first thing I want to just draw
[1:20:34] attention to is clarifying that the
[1:20:38] inland court is rightfully returning tax
[1:20:41] increment to the city. There would be
[1:20:44] not there would not be a need for these
[1:20:46] additional officers if the development
[1:20:48] out there wasn't happening and we would
[1:20:50] be able to pay for these officers if the
[1:20:53] taxes were flowing as typically
[1:20:55] designed. However, the state has come up
[1:20:58] with this brilliant idea of an authority
[1:21:00] to preempt that taxation. So, I am
[1:21:02] grateful for the collaboration, but I
[1:21:04] really think especially in such a
[1:21:06] difficult taxation year. It's very very
[1:21:09] very clear to our neighbors that this is
[1:21:12] not an act of grace or charity, it is an
[1:21:15] act of rightful returning of taxes to a
[1:21:19] primary function of the city. Um the
[1:21:23] second thing is in concept I am in
[1:21:25] support of anything that amplifies the
[1:21:27] effectiveness of our skillful police
[1:21:30] force. Anything that returns us to
[1:21:34] community based policing and allows us
[1:21:36] to engage with our neighbors. Um, this
[1:21:39] is not a you problem, Chief, but I am
[1:21:41] putting on the public record that our
[1:21:43] data usage AI policies are not in a
[1:21:47] place yet where we can fully be
[1:21:50] confident with some of these
[1:21:51] investments. And so as we are investing
[1:21:53] as a council, I want us to challenge
[1:21:55] ourselves to also be investing as policy
[1:21:58] makers in making sure that the way we
[1:22:01] use the data, the way we use these
[1:22:03] tools, the way we collect and retain
[1:22:06] things is in the best interest of civil
[1:22:09] liberties, civil rights of all people.
[1:22:13] Uh we don't legislate for the people who
[1:22:15] abide by the law. It doesn't matter to
[1:22:17] me how much premeditation is required in
[1:22:19] murder for 31st degree because I haven't
[1:22:21] murdered and will not murder. We have to
[1:22:24] have protections for those who will
[1:22:26] violate though. So I am not worried
[1:22:28] about you chief. I'm not worried about
[1:22:30] the officers who I engage with. I am
[1:22:33] worried about making sure that as we
[1:22:35] move forward we have policy that
[1:22:37] protects the rights no matter who is
[1:22:40] doing what where in our city. So I just
[1:22:42] want to put that on the public record.
[1:22:45] Thank you, council member. And we're
[1:22:46] happy to work with you on that. And we
[1:22:48] want to have a sustainable uh we we want
[1:22:51] to have a sustainable program so that we
[1:22:53] can utilize the technology
[1:22:54] appropriately. So, we're always happy to
[1:22:56] engage. Thank you.
[1:22:59] » Um Chief, one more thing. Um the
[1:23:04] in 2024 the budget 2024 2025 I believe
[1:23:08] that's when what the budget was the the
[1:23:11] council uh shared their their um focus
[1:23:16] on the Jordan River. Um and uh I believe
[1:23:19] it was before you you were joined. Um
[1:23:23] and uh I wanted to our intent then and
[1:23:27] and maybe I can be corrected uh by
[1:23:30] [clears throat] our our own staff here
[1:23:32] uh about what uh we were intending there
[1:23:36] uh was to create sort of a a group of
[1:23:39] officers that were just hyperfocused on
[1:23:41] the river uh on the river trail and
[1:23:44] going up and down. Um and
[1:23:49] and that was a big deal for you know our
[1:23:52] community on the west side but certainly
[1:23:54] uh this you know generally for the whole
[1:23:56] city. I am not sure where that is. Uh
[1:23:59] and I would love an update and and if if
[1:24:03] that has changed you know I I would love
[1:24:05] to get an update. So last fall we
[1:24:08] deployed the two green space uh bike
[1:24:10] squads
[1:24:12] uh that were obtained off of a federal
[1:24:15] grant. The city council I think had to
[1:24:16] put some money in. You put some money in
[1:24:18] as well. And so they've been deployed
[1:24:20] since October and they're operating over
[1:24:22] in that area. And uh we hope you're
[1:24:26] seeing them and we hope you're feeling
[1:24:27] the effects of their work. But we we
[1:24:29] feel like we're making a lot of good
[1:24:30] progress over on North Temple along
[1:24:34] um both and we'll continue to to keep at
[1:24:38] it. Uh one one thing that we are also
[1:24:41] looking at is we've seen really great
[1:24:43] success with the downtown foot patrol is
[1:24:45] looking at areas like Sugar House and
[1:24:47] and North Temple and do we start using
[1:24:50] utilizing that model as well and in
[1:24:53] those areas and so we're having those
[1:24:54] discussions as well.
[1:24:56] » Great. Thank you. I that would be
[1:24:58] amazing for me to and maybe for you know
[1:25:01] council member Petro to to share with
[1:25:03] our community councils about you know
[1:25:05] how that discussion ended up and
[1:25:07] something tangible that department is
[1:25:09] doing certainly beyond that I think it's
[1:25:13] very obvious to us that live on the west
[1:25:15] side the improvements on North Temple
[1:25:17] and the Jordan River Trail it's
[1:25:19] significant um and a significant
[1:25:22] positive change um and uh there is still
[1:25:25] some work to do but it's, you know,
[1:25:28] please I would like you to share with
[1:25:30] with the officers that are working in
[1:25:31] the area. Uh we're very thankful uh to
[1:25:34] to see that improvement. So,
[1:25:36] » Thank you for that and we will share
[1:25:37] that. And I I just I will tell you we
[1:25:39] are committed to the residents of the
[1:25:40] west side and and making sure they have
[1:25:42] public safety and and we will keep at
[1:25:44] it. And you may not always see the bike
[1:25:47] squad on bikes. They do a lot of uh work
[1:25:50] uh with the drug activity that we we
[1:25:52] sometimes see in public. So, if you're
[1:25:54] not always seeing the bike squads on
[1:25:56] bikes, that's why. But they are out
[1:25:58] there working hard, very hard.
[1:26:01] All right. Uh, next. Let's see where we
[1:26:04] at here on the next slide. I didn't
[1:26:10] » Okay, next slide.
[1:26:13] Um, the the contractual increases. This
[1:26:17] is just an inflationary increase for
[1:26:19] things like uniforms, gear, ammo, safety
[1:26:23] equipment, and other supplies. This
[1:26:25] factors in at about a 1.86% inflationary
[1:26:29] increase. Um, again, you know, if it can
[1:26:32] be ongoing, that's great because those
[1:26:34] costs probably aren't coming down, but
[1:26:36] you know, we'll be a team player. But
[1:26:38] that's that request. And then the last
[1:26:40] one, uh, this is specifically for our
[1:26:43] drone as first responder program, and
[1:26:45] this is for the ongoing costs for the
[1:26:48] five drone docks that will be placed
[1:26:50] across the city for our drone's first
[1:26:52] responder program. As I mentioned
[1:26:54] earlier, um, we cleared nearly 40% of
[1:26:58] our calls in a test in February with
[1:27:01] these drones. Um, it's going to improve
[1:27:04] response times and we're going to be
[1:27:08] able to just a couple examples. One, we
[1:27:11] were able to speed up officers when a
[1:27:13] woman was threatened by an individual
[1:27:15] with a pipe. We were able to not send
[1:27:18] officers to a call where it was it was
[1:27:21] relayed as a violent person uh with a
[1:27:24] weapon, which was not the case. It was
[1:27:25] someone having a mental health crisis.
[1:27:27] We could send social workers or not send
[1:27:28] an officer at all. and we were able to
[1:27:31] pull a an individual off of a parking
[1:27:33] garage with the drone guiding officers
[1:27:35] in to to the location, which would have
[1:27:38] taken much longer to find her. So, this
[1:27:41] is this is going to be a gamecher. Uh
[1:27:44] again, I want to emphasize uh that we
[1:27:47] are not patrolling with these drones.
[1:27:49] We're not randomly flying them around.
[1:27:51] We're flying them to calls for service.
[1:27:54] uh when they fly across the city, we're
[1:27:55] keeping the camera as much as we can.
[1:27:57] The camera pointed up so it's not
[1:27:59] pointing down as it flies across the
[1:28:01] city. We're getting it to the call. It's
[1:28:03] it's giving our officers real-time
[1:28:04] information and then we're we're
[1:28:06] bringing it back. Um we keep a we keep a
[1:28:09] a record of the flight, the flight path,
[1:28:12] the case number, the reason for the
[1:28:14] flight. Um and that's all uh recorded
[1:28:19] and that's what the cost is there.
[1:28:23] And next slide.
[1:28:26] » And I think that's the last slide. Any
[1:28:29] questions?
[1:28:30] » Any last questions? Uh, Council Member
[1:28:32] Dugan and Carlson.
[1:28:34] » No. Carson, then.
[1:28:37] » Uh, thank you, Chief, um, for your
[1:28:39] presentation. My first question, I don't
[1:28:42] I think I know the answer to, but I
[1:28:44] think it's helpful to at least um, since
[1:28:46] this is public record, have an
[1:28:48] opportunity for residents to understand
[1:28:50] the answer to this question as well. So
[1:28:52] when the city publish when the mayor uh
[1:28:55] publishes her proposed budget and um
[1:28:58] residents of Salt Lake City just take a
[1:28:59] look at the pie chart of you know how
[1:29:02] much is going to each department. They
[1:29:04] look at the pie chart and they say wow
[1:29:06] the majority of our funding is going to
[1:29:08] the police department. You've got a
[1:29:12] deficit problem. You're going to raise
[1:29:13] my property taxes. Why not just cut from
[1:29:16] the police department? So, help me um
[1:29:19] provide an explanation when residents
[1:29:22] say to me, "Well, why don't you just
[1:29:24] balance your budget by cutting uh all of
[1:29:27] the resources that you've put in towards
[1:29:28] your police department?"
[1:29:32] » Well, you're asking a biased person
[1:29:34] probably that question because I am a
[1:29:36] police officer. I I think generally
[1:29:38] public safety is so critical and we hear
[1:29:41] concerns, council uh member Wharton
[1:29:44] brought up concerns in neighborhoods
[1:29:45] with speeding or by school zones or uh
[1:29:49] you know we've obviously the issues
[1:29:51] around homelessness which is not all
[1:29:54] homelessness that we are experiencing
[1:29:55] when we see those things on the streets.
[1:29:57] Much of it is but some of it's
[1:29:58] criminogenic behavior um violent crime
[1:30:02] all of those things. um to have a safe
[1:30:04] uh uh capital city uh I think you have
[1:30:07] to invest in in a police department.
[1:30:09] Now, as I mentioned, we're looking at
[1:30:12] efficiencies and when you know we we
[1:30:14] have to look out a number of years and
[1:30:16] so we're trying to figure out how we're
[1:30:17] going to model what resources we need.
[1:30:19] We feel like that this this investment
[1:30:21] in the police department in the short
[1:30:23] term is going to continue to bring call
[1:30:25] response times down. We're already
[1:30:26] seeing that those improvements. Uh we
[1:30:28] never want to be comfortable with what
[1:30:30] our call response time is. We always
[1:30:31] want to try to get that down. If you're
[1:30:34] if you're I our our priority one call
[1:30:36] response times are 6 and 12 minutes as
[1:30:38] uh as of April 2025. If you're if you're
[1:30:42] threatened uh
[1:30:45] in some way uh 6 and a half minutes is a
[1:30:48] long time. So that's actually a good
[1:30:50] call response time nationally, but we
[1:30:53] want to try to bring it down down even
[1:30:55] more. So, the the investment in public
[1:30:57] safety drives uh drives people in the
[1:31:00] community to get out and get into their
[1:31:02] parks. Uh we've had a lot of complaints,
[1:31:04] you know, with drug use in the parks and
[1:31:06] we can't take our kids to the parks or
[1:31:08] certain public spaces. So, we do need
[1:31:10] the investment. Um but we want to we
[1:31:12] want to be cognizant of people who are
[1:31:14] concerned that we're getting too much
[1:31:15] money and find ways to be more efficient
[1:31:17] for sure and we're committed to doing
[1:31:18] that.
[1:31:20] » Thank you, Chief. And then just a
[1:31:22] follow-up question to that because I
[1:31:24] feel like this is kind of the the number
[1:31:25] one question that I get pretty often is
[1:31:27] people look at the budget, they look at
[1:31:28] the page graph and say, "Well, just cut
[1:31:30] from there. It'll solve all your budget
[1:31:32] woes." I don't think it's that easy. Um,
[1:31:35] but I'm asking this question just for
[1:31:37] the public record and so people
[1:31:39] understand more about um how our budgets
[1:31:42] are formed. Um,
[1:31:44] so I think it's something like maybe 92%
[1:31:47] I could be getting this wrong, but 92%
[1:31:50] of the police department budget is
[1:31:52] associated directly with personnel.
[1:31:54] Personnel costs include health care, um,
[1:31:57] pensions, salaries, etc. Um, what are
[1:32:02] some of the drivers of those personnel
[1:32:04] costs and help me understand how things
[1:32:06] like labor agreements factor into that.
[1:32:08] » So we do have collective bargaining. So
[1:32:10] we are under anou with with our unions.
[1:32:13] So those those costs are are factored in
[1:32:15] there as well or factored in there. Um
[1:32:19] when you talk about recruiting you know
[1:32:21] if you you want the best you want the
[1:32:22] best officers you want the best talent
[1:32:24] and when you're competing for a limited
[1:32:26] resource we have to compete with other
[1:32:28] you know other departments across the
[1:32:30] state and nation. So a lot of it is
[1:32:32] driven by just market uh market uh you
[1:32:36] know the mark what the market is for for
[1:32:38] an officer. But yeah, the the theou
[1:32:41] controls a lot of those costs for sure
[1:32:43] and the collective bargaining. Um, you
[1:32:45] know, I'll always say this, we're always
[1:32:47] willing to sit down if people are
[1:32:48] concerned. I'm willing to sit down and
[1:32:50] and and hear them out and and uh see if
[1:32:53] they have ideas. I mean, we we we we
[1:32:55] take feedback and we try to improve and
[1:32:57] get more efficient and we're always
[1:32:58] willing to sit down with people and and
[1:32:59] and see if we can get better.
[1:33:02] » Thank you, Chief. Sorry, my last
[1:33:03] question.
[1:33:05] um in thinking about uh this proposed
[1:33:08] investment in the real time crime center
[1:33:10] and the uh highest and best use of
[1:33:13] officer time towards those higher
[1:33:15] priority calls. How do you think looking
[1:33:18] forward maybe over the next 5 years this
[1:33:21] will impact the staffing needs of the
[1:33:22] department?
[1:33:24] Yeah, I mean I think I think our
[1:33:25] alternate response I think the real time
[1:33:27] crime center may help us not have to ask
[1:33:30] for more officers as we move toward the
[1:33:32] Olympics and you know the capital city
[1:33:33] is just getting large. I mean we have
[1:33:35] hockey now. We have we have basketball.
[1:33:39] Uh there's potential for baseball in the
[1:33:41] future. Uh the University of Utah is
[1:33:43] expanding. I mean we just have more
[1:33:45] traffic, more events coming into to our
[1:33:47] city uh all the time. That's a lot of
[1:33:50] people. So, there are there are high
[1:33:51] demands on the police department. Um,
[1:33:54] I'm hoping that this alternate response
[1:33:56] can help free up time to respond to
[1:33:58] those those calls more quickly. And I
[1:34:00] also hope to Council Member Wharton's uh
[1:34:04] um concerns that he hears from his
[1:34:06] residents that we can also free up
[1:34:08] officer time just to engage on those
[1:34:10] quality of life issues, the traffic
[1:34:12] safety, the noise, um just just engaging
[1:34:15] with our youth so that we don't have
[1:34:17] issues with our youth in the future. Um,
[1:34:20] so I think those are I think the
[1:34:22] real-time crime center will help us get
[1:34:24] to a place where we can be more
[1:34:25] efficient and effective
[1:34:28] and we're seeing we're seeing it work
[1:34:29] pretty well across the country.
[1:34:32] » Uh, Council Petro and then Council
[1:34:34] Member Young.
[1:34:36] I just wanted to thank you, Chief, for
[1:34:39] being someone who is trustworthy.
[1:34:42] Whether we're asking you to go talk to
[1:34:44] the inland court or we're asking you to
[1:34:46] go meet with homelessness advocates,
[1:34:48] every time I hear that our police
[1:34:51] department is in the community, you all
[1:34:53] are representing the city. You're
[1:34:57] reshaping trust where it needs to be.
[1:35:00] This is I'm doing these surveys with my
[1:35:02] constituents. Public safety without
[1:35:04] exception is the number one place my
[1:35:07] constituents want investment. And that
[1:35:10] can be kind of difficult because some
[1:35:12] when some people say public safety, they
[1:35:13] mean social workers. When some people
[1:35:15] say public safety, they mean the sworn
[1:35:17] officers. Um, and I'm just really
[1:35:19] thankful. I want to put on the public
[1:35:21] record. I'm very thankful for your
[1:35:22] leadership for the officers who have
[1:35:25] been serving the west side and the whole
[1:35:26] city so faithfully. Um, and I look
[1:35:29] forward to being creative with you about
[1:35:31] how we keep our city safe, continue to
[1:35:33] grow in the face of all of the all the
[1:35:36] conflicts and issues we have coming
[1:35:37] here.
[1:35:40] » Thank you, Council Member.
[1:35:45] » Council Young,
[1:35:46] » Thank you. Um, Chief Red and to the
[1:35:49] team, again, I echo Council Member
[1:35:51] Petro's thanks. Um, one of the things
[1:35:53] that I think is also helpful to
[1:35:55] highlight is the way that your
[1:35:58] department has successfully been using
[1:36:00] data to be able to drive resource
[1:36:03] allocation to be more thoughtful with
[1:36:06] the resources we have. Um, just because
[1:36:08] again not everybody has insight to that,
[1:36:11] I'm wondering if you could give kind of
[1:36:13] like the the twominute overview of how
[1:36:16] like the data that you gather really
[1:36:18] helps to direct um resources in a more
[1:36:22] effective way so that if if I could
[1:36:24] speak so broadly that we're almost doing
[1:36:27] more with without having to increase um
[1:36:30] staffing um as the city has grown.
[1:36:34] » Sure. I mean, one example because this
[1:36:36] was the big issue when I when I came
[1:36:39] joined the Salt Lake City Police
[1:36:40] Department was some of the issues on the
[1:36:42] Jordan River Trail and some of the
[1:36:43] homeless related or transient related
[1:36:46] calls for service. Um, this is these are
[1:36:49] these are community members calling in
[1:36:51] or businesses or whatever indicating
[1:36:53] there's problems. So, we have a heat map
[1:36:55] that we we look at every week to see
[1:36:58] where the bulk of those calls are coming
[1:37:00] in from community members and then we
[1:37:02] will deploy our homeless resource center
[1:37:05] officers, our social workers uh or and
[1:37:08] even our patrol officers into those
[1:37:10] areas to uh try to see what the issue
[1:37:13] is. Um, I can I can give an example. In
[1:37:16] downtown, we were having a hot spot and
[1:37:17] we found out that we had uh we had drug
[1:37:20] dealers who were coming to that location
[1:37:22] and and and that's why we were having
[1:37:24] some of the issues that we were having.
[1:37:25] So, we that's an example of the way that
[1:37:28] we're using we're using data to um you
[1:37:31] know try to deploy our resources more
[1:37:33] efficiently.
[1:37:34] » Thank you. I appreciate the example
[1:37:36] because for me knowing that you're using
[1:37:40] that data driven approach gives me
[1:37:42] confidence as a council member related
[1:37:45] to the asks that are coming through
[1:37:47] related to your budget. Um and I
[1:37:50] appreciate seeing the connection between
[1:37:53] those two. Um, and I think to me it also
[1:37:56] gives me confidence in how you're both
[1:37:59] looking to be at the forefront of
[1:38:00] innovation to be thoughtful about our
[1:38:02] use of resources where we need like the
[1:38:05] human response aspect whereas where we
[1:38:08] may have you know alternative
[1:38:10] opportunities to be able to um be
[1:38:13] thoughtful about those deployments. Um,
[1:38:15] and just wanted to say that I that does
[1:38:17] give me a lot of confidence in the
[1:38:20] budget requests that come forward just
[1:38:21] knowing that that's a day-to-day
[1:38:23] practice of Salt Lake City Police.
[1:38:25] » Thank you. And we're writing our
[1:38:27] strategic plan now and we're going to
[1:38:28] have we're going to we're going to
[1:38:30] continue de to develop better key met
[1:38:32] keep key key performance indicators
[1:38:34] metrics. So we we have some work to do
[1:38:36] still, but we're definitely um utilizing
[1:38:39] data and it's helpful. Thank you.
[1:38:41] » Thank you.
[1:38:44] We're good. Thank you, chief. Thank you,
[1:38:46] everyone.
[1:38:47] » You council,
[1:38:49] » We have scheduled a tentative break that
[1:38:52] we passed. So, um I would like uh all of
[1:38:56] us to consider continuing with the with
[1:38:58] the discussion. I hope if anybody has
[1:39:01] strong opinions against
[1:39:03] speak now. Okay, we're going to continue
[1:39:06] with item number four, fiscal year 2026
[1:39:09] 2027 budget discussions. Uh this is
[1:39:12] about community and neighborhoods uh
[1:39:14] department. Now we're gonna uh welcome
[1:39:18] at the table uh Allison Roland, council
[1:39:21] policy analyst, uh Tommy Hanser,
[1:39:24] director of community and neighborhoods,
[1:39:26] Mike Oerllo, deputy director, and Brent
[1:39:30] Beck, financial manager is
[1:39:33] um Allison is your time.
[1:39:38] » Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um
[1:39:41] you know I always it always strikes me
[1:39:43] that can is a very diverse um department
[1:39:47] with building services, engineering,
[1:39:49] housing stability, planning,
[1:39:51] transportation, youth and family and
[1:39:53] then of course the arts council which is
[1:39:55] going to be um briefed in the next uh in
[1:39:58] the next bit. But um in spite of that
[1:40:03] you guys managed to pull it all
[1:40:05] together. So I'll just go over the
[1:40:06] basics quickly. um
[1:40:09] and then turn it over to the people who
[1:40:11] really know. Um the proposed FY27 budget
[1:40:15] is 41.4 million which is just about the
[1:40:18] same as FY26.
[1:40:21] The staff size will also remain just
[1:40:23] about the same. The largest cost savings
[1:40:26] um 702,000
[1:40:28] and change um is will be achieved
[1:40:32] through an attrition savings pool which
[1:40:35] is essentially holding vacated positions
[1:40:38] open for four to five months rather than
[1:40:40] filling them immediately.
[1:40:42] Other cost reductions come from cuts in
[1:40:45] the hive pass program. And this is for
[1:40:46] general writership, not for special
[1:40:48] populations like school kids and their
[1:40:50] guardians and from a variety of smaller
[1:40:53] items like the city match for fix the
[1:40:55] bricks um which now that the federal
[1:40:58] program has expired um there um it
[1:41:02] basically the program will be closed.
[1:41:04] Um, the most significant increase costs
[1:41:08] are an $800,000 one-time youth and
[1:41:12] family
[1:41:13] uh
[1:41:15] I was going to say subsidy. It's a
[1:41:16] subsidy. I guess that's fair. Um, for to
[1:41:19] replace federal funds which have
[1:41:21] disappeared as well. Um, and give the
[1:41:23] youth and family division time to try to
[1:41:26] find more um to try to find additional
[1:41:30] sources of revenue for their programs.
[1:41:33] and 330,000
[1:41:35] ongoing for taking over funding for the
[1:41:37] VO VOA homeless outreach team and
[1:41:41] shelter the homeless resource center
[1:41:43] liaison. So those are the two really big
[1:41:45] increases. Um and there are policy
[1:41:48] questions sprinkled throughout the uh
[1:41:51] the staff report. So I will turn it over
[1:41:53] now to Tammy.
[1:41:57] Thank you. Um, thanks to the council for
[1:41:59] the opportunity to present um, community
[1:42:01] neighborhoods FY27
[1:42:03] proposed budget. I also want to thank
[1:42:06] Allison Roland. She's been great to work
[1:42:07] with as always. Um, before we u dive
[1:42:11] into the budget proposal itself, I want
[1:42:13] to begin by recognizing the exceptional
[1:42:15] team um, behind this work. The
[1:42:18] accomplishments reflected in this budget
[1:42:19] are the result of a dedicated, talented,
[1:42:21] and missiondriven department. Allison
[1:42:24] outlined all of the various divisions
[1:42:26] within the department. Um, we're a large
[1:42:29] department with a broad scope of work.
[1:42:31] Next slide, please.
[1:42:36] Every division within the department
[1:42:37] plays a critical role in serving
[1:42:39] residents, strengthening neighborhoods,
[1:42:40] supporting community partners, and
[1:42:42] improving or implementing council
[1:42:44] priorities. Their expertise, creativity,
[1:42:47] and commitment to public service are
[1:42:49] reflected throughout this proposal. Next
[1:42:52] slide, please.
[1:42:57] Can's uh recent accomplishments are
[1:42:59] numerous um too numerous to list, but a
[1:43:02] sampling include the completion of the
[1:43:04] $89 million funding our future street
[1:43:07] bond that resulted in 122 miles of
[1:43:10] street reconstruction, 310 mi of
[1:43:12] pavement resurfacing, 60 mi of sidewalk
[1:43:16] curb and gutter, and we added over 2700
[1:43:18] new trees and plants. We have also been
[1:43:22] working hard within building services to
[1:43:24] create efficiencies with building
[1:43:26] inspections and we are currently current
[1:43:29] on all rental inspections which is a
[1:43:31] great accomplishment for that team. We
[1:43:34] have found efficiencies by
[1:43:35] cross-training building inspectors. Um
[1:43:38] by doing so we are building internal
[1:43:40] capacity, improving institutional
[1:43:42] knowledge, increasing responsiveness and
[1:43:45] um providing long-term value to the
[1:43:47] city. On the transportation note, we
[1:43:51] have successfully navigated the
[1:43:53] requirements of the transportation bill
[1:43:55] from 2025 which recently sunset SB95
[1:44:00] and we are currently going through the
[1:44:02] steps to comply with SB242.
[1:44:05] Um that process um now entails
[1:44:07] negotiating with UD do on an an
[1:44:10] agreement between our two entities.
[1:44:13] Um we are also continuing to implement
[1:44:16] thriving in place the anti-displacement
[1:44:18] plan that the council adopted a few
[1:44:20] years ago. Um this effort includes
[1:44:23] various aspects including those in
[1:44:26] planning and housing stability. An
[1:44:28] example of a success is the tenant
[1:44:30] resource center that started in the fall
[1:44:32] of 2024. To date, we have assisted over
[1:44:36] 2,200 individuals through that portal.
[1:44:39] Um, which is great. Um, we are also
[1:44:43] another accomplishment is uh continuing
[1:44:46] to provide highquality summer and
[1:44:48] afterchool programming in spite of
[1:44:50] significant federal cuts to our grants.
[1:44:54] Next slide, please.
[1:44:58] In terms of efficiencies, over the past
[1:45:01] year, we have focused on operational
[1:45:03] efficiencies and long-term
[1:45:05] sustainability of the department from a
[1:45:08] financial aspect. This includes
[1:45:10] implementing the commercial and mixeduse
[1:45:12] zoning district consolidation. This
[1:45:15] consolidation reduced the amount of
[1:45:17] zoning code. Um, also reducing resources
[1:45:21] necessary to administer the code and it
[1:45:24] created efficiencies for developers and
[1:45:26] property owners. These efficiencies in
[1:45:28] administering the code actually allowed
[1:45:29] us to shift staffing resources to work
[1:45:32] on adoptions of or um drafting of
[1:45:35] community plan updates.
[1:45:38] We um transferred the advantage service
[1:45:40] contract to public services to
[1:45:42] centralize cleaning efforts and to
[1:45:44] provide for staffing and funding
[1:45:45] efficiencies. The mayor mentioned this
[1:45:47] in her budget presentation to you. That
[1:45:50] um transfer allowed the city to find I
[1:45:53] think it was like a million dollars in
[1:45:54] savings.
[1:45:56] Um we are also coordinating with public
[1:45:58] services to optimize administrative
[1:46:00] office space. That includes re-imagining
[1:46:03] the old library. Um this will allow the
[1:46:06] city to utilize existing real estate
[1:46:09] instead of um looking to bond to build
[1:46:11] new administrative office sta space. Um
[1:46:15] and then within youth and family with
[1:46:17] the budget cuts that have been faced
[1:46:18] we've optimized budget expenditures.
[1:46:20] We're really looking at how we plan for
[1:46:23] and order supplies um for youth
[1:46:26] programming. Um we've gone up and down
[1:46:29] through that budget to cut where we can
[1:46:32] and create efficiencies to make the the
[1:46:34] delivery of services as streamlined and
[1:46:36] efficient as possible. Next slide,
[1:46:38] please.
[1:46:43] Um Allison provided an overview of CAN's
[1:46:47] budget. As she mentioned within K's
[1:46:49] budget, we're about flat from FY26.
[1:46:54] Also on this slide, you will see a new
[1:46:56] revenue change. That's new revenue that
[1:46:58] we're proposing for the general fund.
[1:47:01] And then um we also looked through our
[1:47:04] non-EP non-departmental expenditures
[1:47:07] that are attributed to our department
[1:47:09] and we fi found about a million dollars
[1:47:11] in savings there. Next slide.
[1:47:17] So, the new revenue that I just spoke
[1:47:20] about is $177,000.
[1:47:23] This wouldn't be new revenue for the
[1:47:24] Department of Community and
[1:47:25] Neighborhoods. It would go into the
[1:47:27] general fund. But, as the mayor's office
[1:47:30] asked us to look at cuts, we looked
[1:47:32] across the board at where we could
[1:47:34] either gener um generate new revenue or
[1:47:37] reduce expenditures. and in generating
[1:47:40] new revenue. The green vehicle program
[1:47:43] was implemented several years ago and
[1:47:47] the initial policy reason for
[1:47:48] implementing this program was to
[1:47:50] encourage
[1:47:52] uh individuals to buy EV vehicles and in
[1:47:56] looking at this program now we really
[1:47:57] think that the market the EV market is
[1:48:00] strong and the city's policy in regard
[1:48:02] to EV parking really isn't influencing
[1:48:05] the EV market anymore. So, if we
[1:48:08] eliminate this program, um it would be a
[1:48:11] net of 177,000 in new parking revenue
[1:48:15] for FY27. We worked with finance on that
[1:48:18] number, but it would actually be even a
[1:48:22] greater amount of revenue in future
[1:48:24] years because the finance department
[1:48:26] built in a few months to phase that
[1:48:29] program out. Um the other reason we are
[1:48:32] proposing to um eliminate the program is
[1:48:36] the EPA um publishes an EPA smartway
[1:48:40] vehicle list on an annual basis and our
[1:48:43] city code is actually tied to that list
[1:48:45] and there have been recent changes with
[1:48:48] the current federal administration with
[1:48:50] the EPA and how that list is managed. So
[1:48:53] there's actually lack of clarity right
[1:48:55] now on what new cars qualify. Um, the
[1:48:59] other consideration with the program is
[1:49:02] there are still green stickers out there
[1:49:04] on vehicles that qualified
[1:49:07] as an efficient vehicle sever several
[1:49:09] years ago but would no longer qualify
[1:49:11] under current lists. So that is one
[1:49:15] proposal for new revenue. Um, the second
[1:49:18] item on the slide is access and
[1:49:19] belonging. This is actually revenue or
[1:49:22] budget neutral. This budget was in the
[1:49:23] mayor's office last year. access and
[1:49:26] belonging staff moved from the mayor's
[1:49:28] office to community and neighborhoods.
[1:49:30] So, this is operating budget that was
[1:49:32] left in the mayor's office that we're
[1:49:33] asking to transfer over to CAN. It is
[1:49:36] budget that is used to operate the
[1:49:38] programs um including welcoming week,
[1:49:43] the IFAR dinner, um partnership events,
[1:49:46] new American projects, and know your
[1:49:48] neighbor volunteer fingerprinting.
[1:49:51] The third item on this slide is the
[1:49:54] police department lease contractual
[1:49:57] increases. We are contractually
[1:49:59] obligated um for this budget through
[1:50:02] lease agreements. So, community and
[1:50:04] neighborhoods, the real estate services
[1:50:06] team, we manage lease agreements um
[1:50:08] throughout the city, including the
[1:50:10] police department. So, this would be
[1:50:11] increases for the CL crime lab, the
[1:50:13] community connection center, and the
[1:50:15] police substations. Next slide, please.
[1:50:21] VA and shelter the homeless, $330,000.
[1:50:25] We're requesting this to be ongoing
[1:50:27] funding within CAN's budget. This is
[1:50:30] actually not new funding. It's currently
[1:50:32] funded through a BA in FY26.
[1:50:36] And in previous years, it was actually
[1:50:38] those contracts were funded through the
[1:50:40] state mitigation funds. Last year, um,
[1:50:43] the city shifted the priorities of the
[1:50:46] state mitigation funds from efforts that
[1:50:50] were being carried out through CAN to
[1:50:51] the police department because the state
[1:50:54] wanted cities to prioritize public
[1:50:55] safety with those funds. Um, so we want
[1:50:59] to build in the VA and shelter the
[1:51:01] homeless into housing stabilities
[1:51:03] budget. Um, VA is for a homeless
[1:51:06] outreach team. Um this team is actually
[1:51:09] working a lot with the connect program
[1:51:12] in PD. It's for engaging persons
[1:51:15] experiencing homelessness um for that
[1:51:18] program and also engaging that
[1:51:21] population like if there's an encampment
[1:51:23] mitigation. And then the shelter the
[1:51:25] homeless contract that is um how much is
[1:51:29] that one?
[1:51:31] 80,000. That would be for a homeless
[1:51:33] services liaison for the homeless
[1:51:35] resource center. And this liaison is
[1:51:37] actually an FTE employed by shelter the
[1:51:40] homeless that mitigates issues,
[1:51:42] coordinates with stakeholders and um
[1:51:44] does community outreach um with
[1:51:47] regarding the resource centers.
[1:51:51] And then um our fifth request is a large
[1:51:55] one. It is 800,000 for youth and family.
[1:51:59] Um, this would be funding to keep youth
[1:52:01] and family programming relatively
[1:52:03] stable, compensating for the loss of
[1:52:06] federal funding. Of note, even with this
[1:52:10] $800,000 request, this would if if the
[1:52:14] council approves this request, the
[1:52:16] division would still be over $500,000
[1:52:20] less in budget in FY27 than in FY26
[1:52:24] because there have been other federal
[1:52:26] budget cuts. But in talking with the
[1:52:29] team and looking at how we can optimize
[1:52:31] the 800,000 would keep programming for K
[1:52:35] through 6 and teens stable. We would
[1:52:39] consolidate adult programming. Right now
[1:52:41] we have an adult programming site in the
[1:52:43] Fair Park neighborhood as well as at
[1:52:45] Sorenson. We would consolidate adult
[1:52:47] programming at Sorenson and find some
[1:52:49] cost savings there. And like I said
[1:52:51] before, the division has already found
[1:52:53] some efficiencies and cost savings. So,
[1:52:55] we feel like 800,000 is the minimum that
[1:52:58] would be needed to keep programming
[1:53:00] relatively stable. I am sure you will
[1:53:03] agree that these programs are critical
[1:53:05] in supporting working families within
[1:53:07] our city and investment in youth and
[1:53:09] family collectively advances public
[1:53:11] safety, educational
[1:53:13] outcomes, workforce training, and
[1:53:16] community well-being. So, we feel
[1:53:18] strongly that this is would be good
[1:53:20] money spent if the council decides to
[1:53:23] approve. Next slide, please. Let let me
[1:53:26] construct uh council member Dugan.
[1:53:28] » Yeah, thank you Tammy and I'm uh agree
[1:53:32] with you on that number about the youth
[1:53:35] and family services. Can you kind of
[1:53:38] give the uh the city and the council and
[1:53:41] the metrics that you kind of make that
[1:53:44] decision for you? I mean, what are you
[1:53:45] tracking there as far as how many youth
[1:53:47] and families and K through sixth graders
[1:53:49] that you're you're touching by that
[1:53:52] funding and what you're not touching
[1:53:55] because you've lost that
[1:53:58] the other $500,000 I think you just
[1:54:00] mentioned that you're going to still
[1:54:01] find efficiencies. Can you kind of guess
[1:54:03] give us a broad view of those metrics
[1:54:05] that you're uh using to justify that
[1:54:09] because I think it's incredibly valuable
[1:54:12] uh and it's necessary but it'd be nice
[1:54:14] to know some of those metrics that
[1:54:15] you're tracking with that.
[1:54:17] » There are a lot of metrics we are
[1:54:19] tracking for the youth and family
[1:54:20] division and programming. I don't have
[1:54:23] them memorized on the top of my head but
[1:54:24] we have we actually have that data put
[1:54:26] together in a wireframe that we can send
[1:54:28] over. But the um program tracks
[1:54:32] enrollment. Um the programming is
[1:54:35] offered on a sliding scale basis in
[1:54:37] terms of the fees for the program. So
[1:54:39] most of the kids qualify for free or
[1:54:42] lowcost programming because they are
[1:54:45] from lower income families. So we have
[1:54:47] um income information on the students
[1:54:51] and the the participants um in looking
[1:54:54] in working with the team. and Liz Rich
[1:54:56] is here if you have any specific
[1:54:58] questions on on metrics. Otherwise, we
[1:55:00] can email those afterwards. But in
[1:55:02] looking at the the $500,000
[1:55:06] reduction, if we get the $800,000 that
[1:55:09] we're requesting, in talking it through
[1:55:12] with Liz and also with the mayor's
[1:55:14] office, we want to be responsible with
[1:55:16] taxpayer money. And we really looked at
[1:55:19] at programming and the the benefits that
[1:55:22] the programming is providing the
[1:55:24] community. And the adult programming is
[1:55:26] very valuable. It's it's well used. It's
[1:55:28] like computer labs. Um ESL. I think
[1:55:33] there's some financial literacy
[1:55:34] training, other things like that. We
[1:55:36] really feel like the um services for
[1:55:39] youth, the K through six and the teens
[1:55:42] is essential to keep intact for the
[1:55:44] community. So, we really looked at then
[1:55:47] consolidating the adult programming at
[1:55:49] Sorenson and just creating other
[1:55:51] efficiencies that would limit the cuts
[1:55:54] to services for youth. Does that help?
[1:55:57] » Yeah, that it does. And I just wondered
[1:55:59] and there's probably a lot of pressure
[1:56:01] to for the services too. It's it's not
[1:56:04] like you have a lot of empty seats. You
[1:56:07] have more requests than
[1:56:11] » Right weight lists.
[1:56:12] » You have the weight list.
[1:56:13] » And the program has um Liz, who's a
[1:56:17] newer director, she's been with youth
[1:56:19] and family for a long time, but she
[1:56:21] stepped in the director role um a bit a
[1:56:24] bit over a year ago, I believe. um she's
[1:56:26] really been creative, been forward
[1:56:29] thinking. Um she's been a lifesaver in
[1:56:33] working through all of these funding
[1:56:34] cuts. We've also um experienced other
[1:56:37] challenges like we had programming at
[1:56:39] the fair park. Um and then we moved to
[1:56:42] the lied boys and girls club, but the
[1:56:44] Boys and Girls Club is now selling lies.
[1:56:46] So now we're talking to the about moving
[1:56:48] programming into the Northwest Rec
[1:56:50] Center, which the county has been great
[1:56:53] to work with. So, um, there's been a lot
[1:56:55] going on with Ethan family.
[1:56:57] » Appreciate that and I'd love to see some
[1:56:59] of those metrics just to, you know, for
[1:57:01] there's probably a lot of questions
[1:57:02] about that, but because it's a big
[1:57:03] number, but I think that the the cost
[1:57:06] benefit is is huge. So, appreciate that.
[1:57:09] Thank you,
[1:57:10] » Carson.
[1:57:11] » Um, thank you for this presentation thus
[1:57:14] far. I think I want to uh follow up on
[1:57:16] Council Member Dugan's questions about
[1:57:18] the 800,000 for the youth and family
[1:57:21] programming and that's really coming um
[1:57:24] about this year because of uh federal
[1:57:26] funding uh cuts and and um changes
[1:57:29] related to that. And so I think my
[1:57:32] question as I'm thinking about this is
[1:57:33] are you thinking about this kind of as a
[1:57:35] bridge year and then in fiscal year 28
[1:57:38] finding additional resources to support
[1:57:41] this line item or how are you thinking
[1:57:44] about for future years?
[1:57:46] » That is a great question and I meant to
[1:57:49] mention that this is an 800,000 one-time
[1:57:52] funding request so we're not requesting
[1:57:54] ongoing. Um that being said, we are
[1:58:00] still it's still to be determined
[1:58:01] whether we can find other resources or
[1:58:04] other grant opportunities. Uh we also
[1:58:07] want to look at local grant
[1:58:09] opportunities um philanthropic
[1:58:11] opportunities. So we want to spend the
[1:58:13] next year uh analyzing and looking at
[1:58:16] other resources. We also recently um
[1:58:20] hired a national consultant who did a
[1:58:22] three-year strategic plan. And I think
[1:58:24] one of Allison's policy questions to you
[1:58:26] was if you want us to present that
[1:58:28] strategic plan to you. That plan was in
[1:58:32] process when funding cuts started to
[1:58:34] happen. So it does talk about some
[1:58:36] options with funding. So um I don't have
[1:58:40] any good answers for you now, but it's
[1:58:42] something we are working through.
[1:58:47] I just wanted to clarify really quickly
[1:58:49] um because I'm trying to mention it each
[1:58:51] time a department is before us that is
[1:58:53] related to the property tax. So um the
[1:58:55] $800,000 for youth and family is part of
[1:58:58] the $13.5 million property tax increase
[1:59:00] proposal.
[1:59:02] » Thank you. I meant to mention that as
[1:59:04] well. [laughter]
[1:59:05] Um the next item is a $700,000 cut from
[1:59:09] non departmental from vacant building
[1:59:12] maintenance.
[1:59:14] um this funding um for the current
[1:59:17] fiscal year, a portion of that has gone
[1:59:20] to the Fiser Mansion. I think it was
[1:59:22] 400,000's going to Fisher Mansion. So,
[1:59:25] we have been strategically looking at um
[1:59:28] improvements to uh vacant and
[1:59:32] underutilized city properties to help
[1:59:34] keep those buildings um well-maintained
[1:59:38] and improved as we look at um
[1:59:40] disposition strategies. So currently
[1:59:42] Fischer Mansion receives some of the
[1:59:44] money. We also use the money for just
[1:59:46] ongoing security and maintenance
[1:59:48] expenses. So we're proposing to cut the
[1:59:50] entire pot of money, but obviously we
[1:59:53] still need a strategy and a source for
[1:59:56] paying for um maintenance and utilities
[1:59:59] and lawnmowing and whatnot. So we are
[2:00:02] going to use the surplus. We're
[2:00:03] proposing to use the surplus property
[2:00:05] account for those basic expenses up to
[2:00:08] 200,000.
[2:00:11] The next item is a $50,000 cut from
[2:00:15] non-EP departmental transit outreach,
[2:00:18] education, and marketing. This um amount
[2:00:21] that R can receives in its annual budget
[2:00:24] is $100,000. So, we're proposing to cut
[2:00:26] it in half. And we're also proposing to
[2:00:29] broaden the scope not just to the
[2:00:32] transit network, but um CIP and road
[2:00:35] projects in general to do outreach and
[2:00:37] engagement with the community.
[2:00:40] Um the third one uh for our reduction
[2:00:42] request is the hive pass. Uh we were
[2:00:46] faced with tough decisions with this
[2:00:48] budget proposal and perhaps the toughest
[2:00:51] decision is to propose the cut to this
[2:00:54] program. The Hive Pass program currently
[2:00:57] provides discounted transit passes to
[2:00:59] residents regardless of their income.
[2:01:02] There are about 440 users of this pass a
[2:01:06] month. Um we made this decision for two
[2:01:09] primary reasons um faced with the budget
[2:01:12] um challenges that we are this year.
[2:01:14] First, we want to ensure that the
[2:01:16] transportation funding is doing the most
[2:01:18] good for the most in need. So we are
[2:01:22] leaving the lowincome pass program
[2:01:24] intact. That program partners with
[2:01:27] service providers to provide daily and
[2:01:29] monthly transit passes for the city's
[2:01:32] most vulnerable residents. And we are
[2:01:35] also proposing to leave intact the
[2:01:37] school district program that provides
[2:01:39] passes to school age children and
[2:01:42] guardians. Um we also are prioritizing
[2:01:47] the frequency of the transit network. We
[2:01:50] didn't want to look at any cuts there.
[2:01:52] So the city contributes about $10
[2:01:55] million a year for the go routes, the
[2:01:57] frequent transit network and for the
[2:02:00] ondemand programs. And so looking within
[2:02:03] the transportation division faced with
[2:02:06] um budget challenges, we felt like the
[2:02:08] hive pass since there isn't an income
[2:02:10] qualification
[2:02:12] that was where we could take the
[2:02:14] reduction over the low income the school
[2:02:18] district partnership and the frequent
[2:02:20] transit network because it's essential
[2:02:23] to keep that frequency up with the
[2:02:25] network. The other concern with the Hive
[2:02:28] pass program is it's getting more
[2:02:29] expensive to administer. So to keep
[2:02:32] administering it at the current level,
[2:02:33] we would actually have to ask for
[2:02:35] additional budget.
[2:02:37] So right now the budget is I think
[2:02:39] 350,000 to provide the passes. Um but
[2:02:44] the amount there's also an amount to
[2:02:46] administer the program. I think
[2:02:47] currently it's 60,000 and that will be
[2:02:49] increasing to about 150 if we don't cut
[2:02:53] the program. So we would actually have
[2:02:54] to ask for money to keep administering
[2:02:56] the program.
[2:02:58] » Council Dugan. Thank you for that
[2:03:01] explanation. Yeah, it is a it is a hard
[2:03:05] decision to make there on that one
[2:03:07] because as you said it's a valuable
[2:03:10] service. We want people on public
[2:03:11] transportation and this is a nice way to
[2:03:13] pe get people on keep people on buses.
[2:03:16] Do we have a number of how many of the I
[2:03:18] think it's 440 or somehat that use a
[2:03:21] pass would qualify for the lowinccome
[2:03:26] uh
[2:03:29] support for a pass if they were in that
[2:03:32] if they had taken that route instead of
[2:03:33] the hive pass route.
[2:03:35] » Do we do we have an idea? And
[2:03:37] » I don't think we have any idea because I
[2:03:40] don't think we collect any sort of
[2:03:41] income data with the hive pass applic.
[2:03:45] Yeah, because that's not part of the
[2:03:47] eligibility criteria.
[2:03:50] » And is there there's probably other
[2:03:52] multiple sources for passes, companies
[2:03:55] provide passes. Uh we have low-inccome
[2:03:58] passes.
[2:04:00] Is there we're going to be providing
[2:04:03] information for people who currently get
[2:04:05] the high pass where there's other
[2:04:07] options for them to get a pass? Because
[2:04:10] I I it is a service that they're using
[2:04:12] and they're using the pass because
[2:04:13] that's why they want it. and how do we
[2:04:15] make sure that they still ride the
[2:04:16] public transportation, they still get to
[2:04:18] work in that regard.
[2:04:20] » Um, I can coordinate with the
[2:04:22] transportation team on ideas for that.
[2:04:25] Um, I do know a lot of employers provide
[2:04:27] passes like Salt Lake City does. Um, but
[2:04:31] I don't know if we have a comprehensive
[2:04:32] list of of those sources and um I'd need
[2:04:37] to talk to the transportation team about
[2:04:39] and maybe UTA about um other ideas for
[2:04:43] communicating
[2:04:45] um programs and offers for transit
[2:04:48] passes.
[2:04:49] » Yeah, I I keep on I'm trying to push
[2:04:51] more and more people on about public
[2:04:53] transportation because it helps
[2:04:54] everybody. It helps people who aren't on
[2:04:55] the track on the public transportation
[2:04:57] because there's fewer cars, but it also
[2:04:59] helps people get to work and, you know,
[2:05:00] affordable living.
[2:05:03] So, I'd love to have that communication
[2:05:04] so we can absolutely use all the
[2:05:07] different services for everybody and not
[2:05:09] just the easiest one, which might have
[2:05:11] been the high pass.
[2:05:13] » Yeah. One idea, maybe we've done this
[2:05:15] with housing and with other um areas
[2:05:17] within CAN, maybe we could create a web
[2:05:19] page with resources.
[2:05:23] » Yeah. Yeah.
[2:05:23] » Um and ideas for transit passes.
[2:05:27] » Consumer Carlson.
[2:05:29] » Um in regards to uh the on demand, I
[2:05:33] think that's if I remember right, it's
[2:05:34] about like 3.5 million. Um
[2:05:38] maybe as a follow-up, I'd love to see
[2:05:40] how many writers are served by that
[2:05:42] program, number of trips um that that
[2:05:45] program helps to uh supplement.
[2:05:48] » We can get you that information. And our
[2:05:51] partnership with UTA with the frequent
[2:05:53] transit networks um is interesting in
[2:05:57] that we are subsidizing the frequency of
[2:06:00] the transit network and then as the
[2:06:02] system and the the frequency is in place
[2:06:05] for a while and then writership
[2:06:07] increases
[2:06:09] there's that's actually bringing in more
[2:06:11] revenue to UTA and our subsidies then
[2:06:13] being reduced. So we're actually seeing
[2:06:16] some of those positive impacts start to
[2:06:18] happen. So we can provide that
[2:06:20] information to you.
[2:06:22] » Uh thank you for the update. Since we
[2:06:25] are talking about the the high pass, I
[2:06:28] been reached out you know many members
[2:06:30] of the committee reached out to me about
[2:06:32] you know what this looks like uh to the
[2:06:34] city. Uh the impact to individual
[2:06:37] families. you highlighted how tough this
[2:06:41] was to decide between all of these
[2:06:43] programs that do took do good in our
[2:06:46] community and uh choosing between all of
[2:06:48] them is not easy. So, thank you for um
[2:06:52] you know looking through your budget and
[2:06:54] trying to thoughtfully make deci tough
[2:06:58] decisions and and uh uh prioritizing
[2:07:01] what what programs does the best um um
[2:07:06] does the best for for uh for the most
[2:07:09] people. Um I do I would like more
[2:07:12] information about uh the subsidy you
[2:07:15] know the the high pass that is income uh
[2:07:18] qualified. Um I wonder if you know
[2:07:21] ending this program will increase the
[2:07:23] demand on on the on that portion of of
[2:07:26] the of the pass. Um I I struggle with
[2:07:30] the write out you know completely ending
[2:07:32] of it. Um but I you know I would love to
[2:07:35] get a little more information as well
[2:07:38] about uh managing this program and you
[2:07:41] know what um what does it cost to manage
[2:07:44] it and you you you mentioned that it may
[2:07:47] require even more uh resources to manage
[2:07:49] it. I would love more information about
[2:07:51] that as well. Um so certainly this is
[2:07:55] one of those uh programs that I struggle
[2:07:57] with and it when you are looking at your
[2:08:01] own department it makes sense that
[2:08:02] you're looking into this these programs.
[2:08:05] Um I would like to see it certainly for
[2:08:07] us it's it's appropriate to do this is
[2:08:10] look at at it holistically through all
[2:08:13] the different departments in the city.
[2:08:16] Um, and I'm more inclined to find
[2:08:19] savings in other places within the city
[2:08:21] to try to uh, you know, potentially
[2:08:25] hopefully try to make an impact or keep
[2:08:27] something like this going. Um, which is
[2:08:30] not on you, uh, and and it's within us.
[2:08:34] uh and I know that uh 440 you know
[2:08:38] individuals use this pass and it seems
[2:08:40] significant to me and uh in some ways
[2:08:43] disconnected and disjointed maybe to
[2:08:45] what of the goals of the city are. Again
[2:08:47] this is not on you because you have a
[2:08:49] tough decision to make and try to find
[2:08:51] the the most impact for for the money
[2:08:54] that we have and you met the task that
[2:08:57] administration gave you which is try to
[2:08:59] find savings uh within your your
[2:09:02] program. Um, Council Member Wharton has
[2:09:04] a question.
[2:09:08] » Thank you, Tammy. Um, I appreciate
[2:09:10] [clears throat] the presentation and,
[2:09:12] um, yeah, CAM is, um, one of our biggest
[2:09:16] departments and is vast in terms of all
[2:09:18] the services that are provided. So, um,
[2:09:20] thanks for recapping all of that.
[2:09:23] Um I don't want to
[2:09:26] uh like micromanage or or say that you
[2:09:30] know ane every not every anecdote that
[2:09:33] we
[2:09:35] uh see is representative of um
[2:09:41] you know like system flaws or whatever.
[2:09:43] Um, but I do get quite a few um,
[2:09:47] requests throughout the year from people
[2:09:49] that are um, either businesses in my
[2:09:52] district or constituents that um, say
[2:09:55] that, you know, they filed for this
[2:09:58] permit or asked for that and um, that
[2:10:02] there are delays or inefficiencies in
[2:10:04] the system. And a lot of times, um, I
[2:10:07] just want to say like to to our credit
[2:10:09] and our and your staff's credit, um,
[2:10:13] most of the time when I look into those,
[2:10:15] the delay is actually on the petitioner.
[2:10:20] um and uh or it's something that they
[2:10:24] um something's been back to sent back to
[2:10:26] them for um that like something's
[2:10:28] incomplete or whatever and they didn't
[2:10:32] know that or they missed an email or
[2:10:35] something like that. Um but sometimes it
[2:10:39] is um delay on the city's part or that
[2:10:42] there's some kind of like
[2:10:44] um
[2:10:46] um it seems like extra uh or um more
[2:10:53] processes that could be streamlined. So
[2:10:56] I'm really interested. I appreciate the
[2:10:58] what you've already done to add to that.
[2:11:00] I I'm convinced that there are um more
[2:11:04] efficiencies that we can do out there.
[2:11:07] Um and so uh I just would be really
[2:11:10] interested to hear more about that in
[2:11:12] the coming year. Um I think you said
[2:11:15] that that was something that that
[2:11:17] uh you and your team were going to
[2:11:19] study. Um so I'm really interested to
[2:11:21] hear more about that.
[2:11:24] » Thank you for that feedback, council
[2:11:26] member. And I know this has been an
[2:11:28] ongoing topic of discussion and the
[2:11:31] administration has often talked about
[2:11:33] efficiencies and improvements that we
[2:11:35] are looking into. Um I think the time is
[2:11:39] right for some major um analysis to take
[2:11:43] place for um those processes. I have the
[2:11:47] utmost confidence in the building
[2:11:49] services and the planning team and
[2:11:51] engineering. Um, one tricky thing is is
[2:11:55] that building permitting crosses
[2:11:58] departments. So there like public
[2:12:01] utilities is involved in other
[2:12:02] departments. Um, but the mayor's office
[2:12:05] is supportive of looking into
[2:12:08] significant changes. Another um kind of
[2:12:12] sea change that we're experiencing is
[2:12:14] the new IMS director has come to the
[2:12:16] table really wanting to be part of that
[2:12:18] discussion and looking at because
[2:12:21] process improvements a lot of times have
[2:12:22] to come along with technology
[2:12:25] improvements. We've been using the same
[2:12:27] technology for a long time and um he's
[2:12:30] really interested in going down that
[2:12:33] path exploring improvements and ideas
[2:12:36] and alternatives with us. So, I'm
[2:12:39] excited to see what we can do over the
[2:12:40] next year.
[2:12:44] » Okay. Well, thank you. Yeah. I and I
[2:12:47] think you know to the extent that we've
[2:12:50] done a lot of these big changes to
[2:12:52] consolidate
[2:12:54] um zones and um things like that in
[2:12:58] planning I I think we should try to do
[2:13:00] like commensurate
[2:13:02] um
[2:13:04] like efficiencies um inhouse within our
[2:13:08] own systems to uh
[2:13:11] yeah to address that even though I know
[2:13:13] it's multi-ep departmental and and that
[2:13:16] you know there our constraints based on
[2:13:18] technology, but I would just love to see
[2:13:20] that um us look at these things more
[2:13:24] comprehensively and and prioritize that.
[2:13:27] So, thank you. I appreciate it.
[2:13:29] » Thanks,
[2:13:31] » Council Member Young.
[2:13:34] » Thank you. Um I just wanted to dive a
[2:13:37] little bit deeper on the youth and the
[2:13:39] family programming. um because that is
[2:13:42] one of the pieces that would be funded
[2:13:45] by the proposed property tax increase.
[2:13:48] Um can you give us like a maybe a couple
[2:13:50] more details about that um to help folks
[2:13:53] understand why um those programs are so
[2:13:57] essential to our families and residents
[2:13:59] in Salt Lake?
[2:14:03] » Sure. Uh, youth and family provides
[2:14:07] afterchool programming, summer
[2:14:09] programming. Um, this is not only
[2:14:12] benefiting the kid, providing positive
[2:14:14] social outcomes, there's educational
[2:14:17] standards that the programming meets.
[2:14:19] So, it's not just daycare, there's an
[2:14:22] actual education component to the
[2:14:24] program. And it's also essential for
[2:14:26] working families. This allows working
[2:14:29] parents, single moms to be at work while
[2:14:32] their kids are doing something that
[2:14:35] provides knowledge and um social skills.
[2:14:39] So we really feel that um the
[2:14:42] programming is essential. If you look at
[2:14:44] the demographics of the kids that
[2:14:46] participate in the program in the
[2:14:49] programming, it's a lot of um extremely
[2:14:52] low-income vulnerable populations, new
[2:14:54] Americans. So, um, it's really
[2:14:58] essential, we feel, to keep this
[2:14:59] programming at a stable level. But like
[2:15:02] I did say, we looked critically at where
[2:15:05] the money was going, how we would create
[2:15:07] efficiencies. And we're asking for the
[2:15:10] 800 and cutting from the current budget
[2:15:14] 500,000 because we felt like if we were
[2:15:17] going out and asking for property tax
[2:15:21] funds to be used for these programs that
[2:15:23] we had to be critical and use our
[2:15:26] funding as wisely as possible.
[2:15:30] » Thank you. And I I appreciate those
[2:15:32] additional details. I would just for the
[2:15:35] the broader community conversation draw
[2:15:37] an analogy um to cuts that we recently
[2:15:41] saw happening um at the county level and
[2:15:45] kind of the the public outcry associated
[2:15:48] like with those cuts um when they were
[2:15:51] part of consideration and I appreciate
[2:15:55] um you looking at efficiencies within
[2:15:57] that space um but but tying it to a key
[2:16:00] core demographic and a need that we want
[2:16:03] to continue to meet within our community
[2:16:06] to allow those working parents that
[2:16:08] opportunity um to you know provide
[2:16:12] educational opportunities for their
[2:16:14] kids. To me these are very similar
[2:16:16] conversations. So I just wanted to draw
[2:16:18] that analogy um in terms of kind of the
[2:16:22] the rationale and the justification for
[2:16:24] that aspect of this request.
[2:16:28] Can someone repeat?
[2:16:33] » Did you say Petro?
[2:16:35] » Yes, I did.
[2:16:36] » Okay. Um, Tammy, I wanted to thank you
[2:16:40] for this presentation and for
[2:16:43] the amazing work that we know you do.
[2:16:45] Um, I want to start it off with the
[2:16:48] Sony. I think it was really interesting
[2:16:50] to hear that there's actually costing
[2:16:53] » V consumer Victoria. I um the sound is
[2:16:58] not very clear. So maybe the connection
[2:17:03] is a little poor. I wonder if you can
[2:17:07] slow down the So we have time to
[2:17:11] translate in our brain.
[2:17:14] » Is this better?
[2:17:15] » Yes.
[2:17:17] » Okay. It's stupid Bluetooth. Sorry. I'm
[2:17:19] being a mom while I'm being a council
[2:17:20] woman.
[2:17:21] Um, no Tammy, I just wanted to say thank
[2:17:24] you as usual. This is pretty remarkable
[2:17:27] stuff. Your your knowledge and expertise
[2:17:29] in protecting the city on such wide
[2:17:32] ranging things is really remarkable. Um,
[2:17:35] first of all, on the zoning, it's really
[2:17:37] interesting to hear to see the um
[2:17:40] economic impact of this. Really
[2:17:41] exciting. I'd love to track some data
[2:17:44] throughout the year to see what it looks
[2:17:46] like for adoption and what's actually
[2:17:49] happening with our land use to have a
[2:17:50] comprehensive um idea of how successful
[2:17:53] or how much we need to modify. But this
[2:17:55] is a really really interesting data
[2:17:56] point. Thank you for bringing it. Um
[2:17:58] secondly, I'll look for a similar data
[2:18:00] point with the hive pass if we do end up
[2:18:03] cutting it. If uh I don't I don't I say
[2:18:06] if because council member Dugan is
[2:18:07] really persuasive and if he finds a way
[2:18:09] to not cut it, I know we won't. But if
[2:18:11] we do end up cutting it and we see a
[2:18:13] change in ridership as a result, I
[2:18:15] really would love to revisit that and
[2:18:17] make sure that we collect that data
[2:18:18] point so we can have a robust discussion
[2:18:21] going forward. But then finally, I want
[2:18:23] to join the youth and family programming
[2:18:26] chorus. I openly admit that this is a
[2:18:29] place where I am possibly the greatest
[2:18:31] hypocrite because for a long time I've
[2:18:34] wanted this uh programming to be
[2:18:36] transferred to something more privately
[2:18:38] funded just because you know I want to
[2:18:41] keep as much free for the core city
[2:18:43] services at this moment in time. This is
[2:18:47] to me a core city service if we haven't
[2:18:49] transitioned it. Our families who rely
[2:18:51] on this service do not have the
[2:18:53] bandwidth to absorb this. And the, you
[2:18:57] know, $2 a year that'll be returned to
[2:19:00] the property tax holder if we don't fund
[2:19:02] it is not worth the collective impact of
[2:19:05] what we can do if we do fund it. So, for
[2:19:08] me, this is a core city service at this
[2:19:10] point. I am so thankful for leaders like
[2:19:13] Liz and you, uh, Representative Romero,
[2:19:16] who make sure that we have bang for our
[2:19:18] buck. But at this point, I am viewing
[2:19:20] youth and family services as a core city
[2:19:23] service. While I do look forward to us
[2:19:26] finding ways to privatize and reduce
[2:19:28] reliance on the general fund for it, I
[2:19:32] am fully in support of it and I'm going
[2:19:34] to go to the Mat to make sure that we
[2:19:35] don't do it. I'm thankful to you and the
[2:19:37] mayor for finding a path even in a tough
[2:19:39] budget year for us to protect these
[2:19:41] families. But thank you.
[2:19:46] » Um, quick question. I noticed uh that
[2:19:49] advantage was you know reabsorbed within
[2:19:53] you know the department. I'm a little
[2:19:55] worried.
[2:19:55] » No, it's still in public services. Yes.
[2:19:58] » Uh so we still have a contract with
[2:19:59] Advantage Services.
[2:20:01] » Yes. Well, actually oh um you're talking
[2:20:05] about on the next slide cuz I'm actually
[2:20:08] not done with my slide. So I have the
[2:20:11] list of things I want to chat with you.
[2:20:13] Maybe I let you talk about first. I can
[2:20:17] um be efficient.
[2:20:19] » No, no, you are being efficient. I am uh
[2:20:21] just a good student, I guess. Uh
[2:20:23] [laughter]
[2:20:23] keep keep going. Keep going.
[2:20:25] » There's two different advantage services
[2:20:27] contracts. So, one is still in can. So,
[2:20:30] and and for the record, we would love to
[2:20:33] uh preserve the Hive Pass program, but
[2:20:35] we we know there are it's a challenging
[2:20:38] budget year. So, um we will leave
[2:20:40] [clears throat] it at that. Next slide,
[2:20:41] please.
[2:20:46] Um, we are also proposing a $125,000
[2:20:51] reduction in non non-dep departmental
[2:20:54] that goes um transfers to the arts
[2:20:57] council foundation. This would reduce
[2:20:59] the city's transfer to the arts council
[2:21:02] um from 1,25,000
[2:21:04] to 900,000. This cut would cause
[2:21:07] reductions in programming such as the
[2:21:10] busker fest, Mondays in the park,
[2:21:12] springboard for the arts, professional
[2:21:14] development, or other programming. If
[2:21:16] historical practices followed, it would
[2:21:19] be the arts council foundation board
[2:21:21] that decides what specific programming
[2:21:24] would be cut. And the foundation board
[2:21:26] could look at because they leverage the
[2:21:29] city's money with grants and other
[2:21:31] fundraising. So they could look at grant
[2:21:34] opportunities or um other sources of
[2:21:37] revenue within the foundation to cover
[2:21:39] programming. We have I think the next
[2:21:41] agenda item is the arts council. So we
[2:21:43] can get into this more. Council member
[2:21:45] Pu, I know that public art is very
[2:21:47] important um for you. So this isn't the
[2:21:50] public art portion of the arts council.
[2:21:52] This is the transfer to non-dep
[2:21:54] departmental that is mostly for
[2:21:56] programming. Um, the next item is
[2:21:59] $50,000 proposed to be cut from planning
[2:22:03] for a historic preservation consultant.
[2:22:05] This funding has been used over the past
[2:22:08] few years to update historic survey
[2:22:10] records for local historic districts. We
[2:22:13] feel that we can transfer these duties
[2:22:15] inhouse. Um, we still have some
[2:22:18] consulting money that would remain
[2:22:19] within planning for the expertise that
[2:22:21] we need like for architectural
[2:22:23] historians and other consultants. The
[2:22:26] next item is a $50,000 cut um for
[2:22:30] engineering's public outreach
[2:22:32] consultant. This would cut that funding
[2:22:34] entirely. Council member Young, you I'm
[2:22:37] sure are familiar with these services
[2:22:38] with the Sugar House Street
[2:22:40] Reconstruction Project. That funding
[2:22:42] paid for the consultant that did
[2:22:45] outreach with the community. Um we feel
[2:22:48] that with the although we would miss
[2:22:50] this funding, we feel that with the um
[2:22:55] completion of the streets bond and with
[2:22:57] shifting our priorities more from large
[2:23:00] reconstruction projects to local streets
[2:23:03] that um we can manage without this
[2:23:06] funding and do those efforts inhouse. Um
[2:23:08] the next one, if you go to the next
[2:23:10] slide,
[2:23:14] um housing fix the bricks match. There
[2:23:17] was a federal requirement through FEMA.
[2:23:19] Um we no longer have FEMA funding for
[2:23:21] fix the bricks. So we do not need this
[2:23:24] $84,000 match. Um reduction number eight
[2:23:28] is the neighborly software for $60,000.
[2:23:31] We would not be this wouldn't be a cut
[2:23:33] in services. we would be shifting the
[2:23:35] software expense from the general fund
[2:23:37] and charge it to federal grants like
[2:23:39] CDBG.
[2:23:41] um the housing funding our future
[2:23:44] contract. This 90,000 $92,000 reduction
[2:23:47] from funding our future, it actually
[2:23:49] wouldn't result in a loss in services
[2:23:52] because the tenant resource center is
[2:23:55] administered by the community
[2:23:56] development corporation of Utah and you
[2:23:58] just admin or you just awarded funding
[2:24:00] to CDCU for that program through the
[2:24:03] funding our future round. So this
[2:24:06] reduction would not result in loss of
[2:24:08] services. Next slide please.
[2:24:12] the homelessness contracts. Um we
[2:24:15] haven't been using um an amount every
[2:24:18] year that's allocated for portable
[2:24:20] toilet rentals for 32,000. So we're
[2:24:23] proposing to reduce that. But we are
[2:24:26] proposing to have a $12,000 increase for
[2:24:29] advantage services a place for your
[2:24:31] stuff. So this would increase that
[2:24:33] contract from 85,000 to 97,000. So
[2:24:36] that's for the storage program. That's
[2:24:38] program still administered through CAN,
[2:24:40] but the cleaning is administered through
[2:24:42] public services. And then the last two
[2:24:46] are um vacancy savings essentially.
[2:24:49] There's actually an engineering 7
[2:24:52] position that's currently open that
[2:24:54] we've agreed to hold open for the entire
[2:24:56] year. um because we've consolidated um
[2:25:00] engineering management efforts within
[2:25:02] transportation, we don't want to
[2:25:04] eliminate that FTE yet because we want
[2:25:07] to make sure that this is a viable path
[2:25:09] forward. Um I did listen to the earlier
[2:25:12] briefing and I think Jennifer, you
[2:25:14] described our approach to vacancy
[2:25:16] savings spoton. Um we really want we
[2:25:19] have a large um the last item is a
[2:25:21] $72,000
[2:25:23] attrition vacancy savings pool. We did
[2:25:26] not want to eliminate any FTEEs. Right
[2:25:28] now, um CAN is a large department with
[2:25:31] about 250 employees. So, we naturally
[2:25:33] get quite a bit of vacancy savings over
[2:25:36] the year. This is more than we typically
[2:25:38] get. So, we are planning to hold
[2:25:40] positions open for a longer period of
[2:25:42] time. And we also want to look at any
[2:25:46] efficiencies or combining of job
[2:25:48] responsibilities over the next year. But
[2:25:50] we really wanted to take the next year
[2:25:52] to kind of analyze how that shakes out.
[2:25:56] And I think that is it. Um, again, I
[2:26:01] appreciate the partnership and support
[2:26:03] from the council and I'd be happy to
[2:26:05] answer any more questions or hear any
[2:26:07] more feedback.
[2:26:08] » Council Mugan has more questions.
[2:26:09] » Sorry, I just one more question about
[2:26:10] the fix the brick program. So, is that
[2:26:12] program now because the feds aren't
[2:26:15] uh supporting it, is that eliminated or
[2:26:19] is it still a fix the bricks? you're
[2:26:20] just not uh
[2:26:22] » So the council has allocated over some
[2:26:26] previous budget rounds some funding from
[2:26:28] CDBG so there is a smaller pot of money
[2:26:31] that is still being used for fix the
[2:26:32] bricks the FEMA program there was not an
[2:26:36] income requirement for um recipients of
[2:26:39] the program but since it's CDBG and HUD
[2:26:42] there is an income requirement with the
[2:26:45] smaller pot of money that that we still
[2:26:47] have.
[2:26:48] » Gotcha. Thank you very much. But the
[2:26:49] FEMA had a match requirement and that's
[2:26:52] where the general fund um allocation
[2:26:55] came in play. Um so we don't need that
[2:26:58] anymore. So that's why we proposed that
[2:27:00] reduction.
[2:27:01] » Gotcha. But the program's still ongoing
[2:27:03] and but there's there's now more of the
[2:27:04] income uh threshold for that.
[2:27:08] » And a lot less money.
[2:27:09] » And a lot less money. Right.
[2:27:11] » Okay. Thank you.
[2:27:15] » I wonder there's no hands up. So I guess
[2:27:19] it's my turn. Uh so the the cleaning
[2:27:23] portion of the advantage uh can you
[2:27:26] explain a little more about how we're
[2:27:27] going to maintain uh
[2:27:30] service levels? Um you know a little bit
[2:27:36] tell me a little more.
[2:27:37] Um, when Jorge presents public services
[2:27:40] budget, he can get in much more detail
[2:27:42] than I can with that because the new
[2:27:44] urban services team has been operating
[2:27:47] for almost a year. And um, we did
[2:27:50] transfer the advantage services portion
[2:27:52] of the cleaning to public services for
[2:27:55] administration by that team. And it's my
[2:27:57] understanding that they have found a lot
[2:27:59] of cost savings with that contract and
[2:28:01] transferred a lot of that scope of work
[2:28:03] inhouse.
[2:28:04] » Okay, that that's helpful. um EV uh the
[2:28:08] north the north temple substation uh and
[2:28:10] you have the the downtown the region
[2:28:13] street substation and the north temple
[2:28:15] substation as part of the increase for
[2:28:17] $60,000. How much is that? How much of
[2:28:20] that is the north temple? Uh, and are we
[2:28:22] using it? Because I is it that necessary
[2:28:25] right now? And I know it's probably the
[2:28:27] smallest portion of that increase, but I
[2:28:29] would love
[2:28:30] » It is very small. I can't remember the
[2:28:32] exact amount off the top of my head, but
[2:28:34] I do remember it's a 5-year lease. It's
[2:28:37] the downtown site is an actual precinct.
[2:28:40] The one on North Temple is just a bike
[2:28:42] substation. Uh, I did ask um the police
[2:28:46] department a while ago if they're using
[2:28:48] it and they they did say that they use
[2:28:50] it. It's not a high amount of rent. I do
[2:28:54] remember the first year the city
[2:28:56] actually paid zero rent and then I think
[2:28:58] it went up to like 1,200 and it it ticks
[2:29:00] up every year but it's it's not a lot of
[2:29:03] money.
[2:29:04] » Yeah. No, I remember that you know the
[2:29:06] offer because I was part of that
[2:29:08] conversation very early on. It took us a
[2:29:11] year to actually get pull it off. So
[2:29:13] that free year was uh but uh I would
[2:29:17] love to if we are constructed you know
[2:29:20] to to maintain that rent that makes
[2:29:22] sense. But I I would love to uh ask the
[2:29:25] department uh you know if we're going to
[2:29:28] vacay that place to start looking at it
[2:29:31] you know sooner rather than later and
[2:29:32] still getting locked in into a continued
[2:29:35] rent when we might not need it. Uh
[2:29:37] ultimately it may not be a lot of money
[2:29:38] and and they might see value on it. Um
[2:29:41] but you know I would love more
[2:29:43] information about that. [clears throat]
[2:29:44] Um then there is um uh you mentioned EV
[2:29:49] uh parking um which is uh I think is it
[2:29:52] makes sense to to make that change. Um
[2:29:55] is the EV electrical uh portion the cost
[2:29:58] of the electricity for those uh u
[2:30:02] charging units uh within uh your
[2:30:04] department? it isn't
[2:30:07] » It is.
[2:30:08] » So I would love to have that
[2:30:10] conversation as well. So I'm gonna flag
[2:30:12] it for all of us to make sure that we
[2:30:14] have that conversation as well. Um as
[2:30:17] far as dispositional properties, um it's
[2:30:20] a question I have. I there is I keep
[2:30:23] learning about new properties that we
[2:30:25] own and we have owned for a while and I
[2:30:28] would love to find out what are we going
[2:30:30] to do with them because they cost us a
[2:30:32] lot of money to maintain. I still don't
[2:30:34] know um if there is a grand plan to to
[2:30:39] dispose of them or to develop them or uh
[2:30:43] and I feel like this is a conversation
[2:30:45] we had had for a little while. You know,
[2:30:47] maybe because it's an administrative
[2:30:49] thing. It makes sense that we may not be
[2:30:51] privy to the details, but when we have
[2:30:55] um
[2:30:56] budget struggles, you know, to me, you
[2:30:59] know, it comes to mind all the
[2:31:00] properties that we own. And you know, is
[2:31:02] it possible that we disposing or some of
[2:31:05] them may make sense to try to cancel out
[2:31:09] some of the costs that we have? Yes, is
[2:31:12] one-time money, but you know, uh we have
[2:31:14] we we have uh made decisions like that
[2:31:17] in the past and currently too. So I
[2:31:20] would love to know a little more about
[2:31:21] the disposition of property within the
[2:31:23] department.
[2:31:24] » We'd be happy to have that discussion.
[2:31:26] » Thank you. Any other random questions or
[2:31:29] not random or very smart ones?
[2:31:33] » No. Okay.
[2:31:34] » Could I correct just quickly what I said
[2:31:36] before? Um it looks like it's
[2:31:39] sustainability and public services that
[2:31:41] take care of the EV chargers.
[2:31:43] » Okay. We're looking forward to that
[2:31:44] discussion soon. Um thank you so much
[2:31:46] for the update. I I I cannot speak
[2:31:49] highly of the work that you guys do in
[2:31:51] that department. I it's just incredible.
[2:31:54] Uh so
[2:31:56] really uh we are very lucky to have you
[2:31:59] uh as a team leading this city. So thank
[2:32:01] you.
[2:32:02] » Well, thank you. A lot of the credit
[2:32:03] goes to the division leadership. A lot
[2:32:06] of I think a lot of them are behind me.
[2:32:09] » Thank you.
[2:32:12] Uh council members, we are
[2:32:17] Not too far behind. We made up some time
[2:32:19] somehow. Oh, the break. That's how uh we
[2:32:22] ate on that break. Um we're still good,
[2:32:24] right? We can do this.
[2:32:28] » You need a
[2:32:30] » Yes, we do have a quorum. Okay, I will
[2:32:32] speak slowly to give you a little more
[2:32:35] time.
[2:32:36] » Oh god. One one at a time. We have
[2:32:38] quorum issues. Um take turns. Uh so
[2:32:43] moving on to item number five for this
[2:32:46] is again fiscal year 2026 2027 as a
[2:32:49] budget discussion for the arts council.
[2:32:51] Now we're going to welcome Sylvia
[2:32:53] Richards council policy analyst Felicia
[2:32:56] Baka arts council director uh Lauren uh
[2:33:00] Laurel Conan Alder arts council
[2:33:03] assistant director. Sorry for you know
[2:33:06] all of the blame on my English. Uh
[2:33:09] [laughter]
[2:33:09] so thank you. It is your time, Sylvia.
[2:33:12] » Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is uh as you
[2:33:14] mentioned, the arts council briefing,
[2:33:16] which is a division of the community and
[2:33:19] neighborhood development department.
[2:33:22] This division supports, local artists,
[2:33:25] arts organizations, and cultural
[2:33:28] programs.
[2:33:30] Um, it is funded through the general
[2:33:32] fund and arts foundation contributions
[2:33:35] and includes nine full-time employees
[2:33:37] plus part-time and seasonal staff.
[2:33:40] The proposed budget for the arts council
[2:33:43] is 1,ion200,
[2:33:45] excuse me, 1,275,844,
[2:33:49] which is a reduction of 5.8%
[2:33:52] as compared to fiscal year 2026.
[2:33:57] As a result of proposed cuts, the
[2:33:59] division may need to consider cancelling
[2:34:02] smaller programming events, which Tammy
[2:34:04] just mentioned in the CAN budget, and
[2:34:07] Felicia or Laurel will address in their
[2:34:09] presentation. the arts council, the CAN
[2:34:12] department, the mayor's office provided
[2:34:14] information during small group meetings
[2:34:16] and transmitts earlier this year uh in
[2:34:21] response to council member questions and
[2:34:23] the adoption of a legislative intent to
[2:34:26] review the arts council's funding,
[2:34:28] programming, and priorities.
[2:34:31] And with that, I'd like to turn the time
[2:34:34] over to Felicia and Laurel.
[2:34:37] » Thanks, Sylvia. Um, thank you all for
[2:34:39] having us here and I want to thank some
[2:34:41] of our board members and staff for being
[2:34:43] present. Um, we know this is a year with
[2:34:47] really difficult decisions for the
[2:34:48] administration and council and I want to
[2:34:51] just say as of this organization for the
[2:34:55] past eight years. Um, we've had a lot of
[2:34:57] conversations about how we do things and
[2:34:59] what we facilitate, but I have never
[2:35:01] once had to doubt the administration or
[2:35:05] council's belief in the power of arts as
[2:35:08] essential to the social, cultural, and
[2:35:10] economic fabric of our city. And um,
[2:35:12] this isn't the case everywhere and we
[2:35:14] never take this for granted. Um, we've
[2:35:17] had a banner year and we're so excited
[2:35:19] to share it with you today. Um
[2:35:21] throughout this presentation we'll refer
[2:35:23] to a number of items in your transmittal
[2:35:25] and council questions. Next slide.
[2:35:32] Um this year we completed a public
[2:35:34] private partnership that raised $1.4 4
[2:35:36] million including the largest singular
[2:35:39] grant to our organization for public art
[2:35:42] with over 100,000 attendees, 13 projects
[2:35:46] in every city council district and over
[2:35:48] 50 events and broad international press
[2:35:50] including the New York Times. We started
[2:35:53] eight Capitol Public Art projects this
[2:35:55] year, more than any year in the last
[2:35:58] decade, with many more in progress and
[2:36:00] more on that later. We were selected as
[2:36:02] a national partner of the Smithsonian
[2:36:05] Folk Life Festival for Living
[2:36:06] Traditions, the nation's most renowned
[2:36:09] folk festival, and tripled our
[2:36:11] fundraising goals. And we hope you'll
[2:36:12] all join us starting tomorrow. Despite
[2:36:15] higher venue costs and reduced capacity
[2:36:18] during the transition to the Civic
[2:36:19] Center, the Twilight Concert Series,
[2:36:22] an 8% increase in ticket sales from 2024
[2:36:26] to 2025. The series continues to
[2:36:29] activate downtown and the civic campus
[2:36:31] while remaining affordable and
[2:36:33] accessible to residents who might not
[2:36:35] otherwise have the opportunity.
[2:36:37] According to an economic impact study
[2:36:39] last season, the series generated more
[2:36:41] than $1.6 $6 million in downtown
[2:36:44] economic activity, continued to support
[2:36:47] the careers of local emerging artists,
[2:36:49] and even drew a surprise appearance from
[2:36:51] Post Malone, whose tickets are an
[2:36:53] average of $150 to $700 in Salt Lake
[2:36:57] City right now. As part of our continued
[2:37:00] goals to reach new residents, this is
[2:37:02] evidenced by 23% of our grant
[2:37:05] applications being new firsttime
[2:37:07] applicants. And [snorts] lastly, at the
[2:37:09] council's request, we conducted a review
[2:37:12] of annual mural production in five
[2:37:14] comparable cities and found that our
[2:37:16] program produced 33% more murals than
[2:37:19] the cities included in the comparison.
[2:37:21] And more to come on that. Next slide.
[2:37:27] We just because we're an arts
[2:37:28] organization wanted to share some images
[2:37:30] of what we do. This is Olifer Aliasen's
[2:37:33] uh Symphony of Disappearing Sounds of
[2:37:35] the Great Salt Lake at Memory Grove,
[2:37:37] which served 25,000 diverse residents,
[2:37:40] the Living Traditions Festival, and then
[2:37:42] one of our public art projects, Life on
[2:37:44] State, serving emerging artists.
[2:37:49] Next slide.
[2:37:53] uh our Twilight concert series with our
[2:37:55] appearance from Post Malone, our new
[2:37:57] ballpark mural program and um bike rack
[2:38:00] murals in the foothill trails. Next
[2:38:02] slide.
[2:38:06] This is a image of some of the programs
[2:38:08] that our city project grants support
[2:38:12] murals at Liberty Park and a park um or
[2:38:15] a public art project in the fair park
[2:38:17] that was recent. Next slide.
[2:38:21] So from our conversations last year and
[2:38:24] for those of you that might be newer, we
[2:38:25] thought it would be good to res revisit
[2:38:27] our organization's structure as it
[2:38:29] relates to the budget. A go we are a
[2:38:31] governmental nonprofit as defined by
[2:38:33] state code, which is an independent
[2:38:35] nonprofit that receives most of its
[2:38:37] funding from various public entities. We
[2:38:40] were created in 1976 as a missionalign
[2:38:43] nonprofit advancing shared civic goals
[2:38:45] while maximizing and leveraging public
[2:38:47] and private investment. In 2020, the
[2:38:50] structure was re-evaluated and Salt Lake
[2:38:52] City reaffirmed the implementation and
[2:38:54] impact of this structure with the
[2:38:56] administration and move forward to
[2:38:57] fortify it with an annual operating
[2:38:59] agreement and public benefit analysis.
[2:39:02] We are governed by this operating
[2:39:04] agreement with Salt Lake City in a
[2:39:05] non-EP departmental contract. We undergo
[2:39:08] an annual um independent audit that's
[2:39:10] integrated into the city's audit and we
[2:39:12] report and are accountable to state,
[2:39:14] county, and federal entities as well as
[2:39:16] several other private foundations. We
[2:39:18] have 64 private funders across our
[2:39:21] programs. This year to really simplify
[2:39:24] this structure, it looks like two arms.
[2:39:26] The Arts Council Foundation operates
[2:39:28] programs including the Finch Lane
[2:39:30] Gallery, Living Traditions, Busker
[2:39:32] Festival, Poet Laurette, City Arts
[2:39:34] Grant, among others. And we also support
[2:39:37] non-C capital components of public art
[2:39:39] here. City public art funding rests on
[2:39:42] the city side of operations and includes
[2:39:44] CIP funding as well as the facilitation
[2:39:47] of many other funds for public art
[2:39:48] outside our division. Next slide.
[2:39:52] Part of this oversight structure is two
[2:39:55] primary boards. The Arts Council Board
[2:39:57] oversees foundation policy, budget, and
[2:40:00] strategic oversight and acts as an
[2:40:02] advisory body to the city and mayor on
[2:40:04] arts. And the art design board
[2:40:06] recommends public art projects for
[2:40:08] mayoral approval by ordinance. Next
[2:40:11] slide.
[2:40:15] So with the non-EP departmental funding
[2:40:17] that we receive, we think about it as
[2:40:19] going into three different buckets. the
[2:40:21] city arts grants, the public programming
[2:40:24] which we've talked about which includes
[2:40:26] things like living traditions and
[2:40:27] twilight and busker and then facility
[2:40:29] maintenance of our beloved little 1930
[2:40:33] uh home.
[2:40:35] Next slide please.
[2:40:40] We raise on average and we're really
[2:40:42] proud of this 30 cents on every taxpayer
[2:40:46] dollar except for the last four or five
[2:40:48] years we've raised 55 to 65 uh% of our
[2:40:53] total budget and we again we have over
[2:40:56] 64 private funders for our programming
[2:40:59] this year. Next slide.
[2:41:04] We are examining a number of strategies
[2:41:06] to incorporate the budget cut and those
[2:41:08] have already been discussed a couple of
[2:41:10] times today. Uh we are looking at
[2:41:13] cutting the bus busker festival which
[2:41:16] happens at the end of May. Jordan River
[2:41:18] strolls is a part of this program.
[2:41:21] Mondays in the park the city arts grants
[2:41:23] could see a reduction and other
[2:41:26] supplemental public art would be just
[2:41:28] the outreach that happens align aligned
[2:41:31] with that. uh we will work hard to
[2:41:34] maintain the service levels and quality
[2:41:36] that we have. Uh the criteria that we
[2:41:39] are considering is in the orange box. We
[2:41:42] are preserving programs with high impact
[2:41:44] of heart of artists and public served.
[2:41:47] We're maintaining diversity of
[2:41:49] programming to preserve grant funders.
[2:41:52] We are preserving revenue generating
[2:41:54] programs. We will consider
[2:41:56] recommendations of course from you and
[2:41:58] from our board uh based on our strategic
[2:42:01] plan. We will consider eliminating
[2:42:04] programs with escalating costs in the
[2:42:06] future and we are considering what other
[2:42:08] services are being provided with similar
[2:42:10] offerings extern external to the city.
[2:42:13] Next slide.
[2:42:17] So, we also uh wanted to talk about our
[2:42:19] public funding because our public
[2:42:21] funding makes up about 30% of our raised
[2:42:25] dollars.
[2:42:26] So, we get a significant grant from the
[2:42:30] zoo arts and parks fund. Uh the zoo arts
[2:42:33] and parks fund has two tiers and we are
[2:42:36] in the tier one group and the tier one
[2:42:38] group uh make up the the largest of the
[2:42:42] cultural entities in this in the city.
[2:42:44] For example, um Utah Museum of Fine
[2:42:48] Arts, Tracy Aviary, Redbute Gardens are
[2:42:50] all tier one organizations. We are the
[2:42:52] only local arts agency which is a spec
[2:42:56] special designation within that tier.
[2:42:59] And in terms of the formula for the way
[2:43:01] tier one organizations are funded, it's
[2:43:04] based on two things. It's based on a on
[2:43:06] a qualifying expenditure and then the
[2:43:09] services that we offer. They do look at
[2:43:12] the narrative that we provide on the on
[2:43:14] the diversity of the programs that we
[2:43:16] offer. And this year we uh got about
[2:43:20] $215,000 in that grant. The Utah
[2:43:24] Division of Arts and Museums is the
[2:43:25] state funding and we are defined as the
[2:43:28] only local arts agency within Salt Lake
[2:43:30] City. Uh the state defines a local arts
[2:43:34] agency as an agency that provides
[2:43:36] diverse programming and also can provide
[2:43:38] grants, short-term policy create
[2:43:40] supporting policy creation and public
[2:43:43] art. The this LAA status could change if
[2:43:46] we had large shifts in our mission and
[2:43:49] funding could be the basis for a reduced
[2:43:51] grant award. If we were to significantly
[2:43:54] change the breadth of our programming or
[2:43:56] serve considerably fewer residents, that
[2:43:58] could also impact our award.
[2:44:01] Additionally, the state is already
[2:44:03] anticipating a reduction in their FY27
[2:44:07] general operating support grants of 30%
[2:44:10] due to a change in the funding that the
[2:44:12] state received from that the state
[2:44:14] received from the legislature. And
[2:44:16] that's going to result in approximately
[2:44:18] a $14,000 cut to us this year.
[2:44:23] Uh we received federal funding. Uh it's
[2:44:25] a grant specifically for the Living
[2:44:27] Traditions Festival and the federal
[2:44:30] administration under President Trump has
[2:44:32] again uh requested or proposed complete
[2:44:35] elimination of the National Endowment
[2:44:37] for the Arts which is where that funding
[2:44:39] comes from. We're hopeful that this will
[2:44:42] be uh again a bipartisan supported
[2:44:46] National Endowment for the Arts uh
[2:44:49] effort and and that it has it has
[2:44:52] survived previous cuts. We are hopeful
[2:44:54] it will survive this uh this
[2:44:55] recommendation. Uh and in recent years
[2:44:58] we have averaged between 25 20 to
[2:45:01] $45,000.
[2:45:03] So we are hoping to again see something
[2:45:05] like that next year.
[2:45:08] Uh it's also important to know that all
[2:45:11] this government funding uh these sources
[2:45:14] compose again 30% of our non-EP
[2:45:17] departmental funds but we are pro
[2:45:19] prohibited from spending any of these
[2:45:21] grant funds on public capital expend
[2:45:24] expenditures.
[2:45:26] Next slide.
[2:45:30] Now, we're going to transition to
[2:45:31] focusing specific on public art um
[2:45:35] centered on some of our conversations
[2:45:37] that we've hope had over the last year.
[2:45:40] Um so again coming the Japan town mural,
[2:45:43] the new u mural to come on out of the
[2:45:45] blue and then the another image of the
[2:45:48] ballpark murals. Next slide.
[2:45:53] So in this slide, as you can see, we
[2:45:55] partner and leverage many funds in the
[2:45:57] city for public art, and investment in
[2:46:00] dollars has been steadily increasing. As
[2:46:03] I mentioned, in FY26, we started more
[2:46:05] individual projects than in any past
[2:46:08] decade with over 15 projects or so in
[2:46:10] process right now. And we also created a
[2:46:13] very much needed maintenance fund in
[2:46:15] 2022. Um, please note in this chart that
[2:46:19] percent for art funding is in red. So,
[2:46:21] this is the only fund within our own
[2:46:23] budget, the jurisdiction of our own
[2:46:26] budget. Um, we're incredibly grateful to
[2:46:28] all our partners in the CRA and public
[2:46:30] lands and enterprise funds and many
[2:46:32] others that support these efforts in the
[2:46:34] city for us to facil facilitate as an
[2:46:36] agency on our behalf. Um, and that CIP
[2:46:40] funding, you'll see it here, distributed
[2:46:42] in the in the year that the project
[2:46:44] starts, but again, we're looking at, I
[2:46:45] believe this year we were at about
[2:46:47] $151,000.
[2:46:49] Next [snorts] slide.
[2:46:53] So, we're gonna Oh, you [laughter]
[2:46:56] » Get to I get to share the good news
[2:46:57] about the murals and the challenge that
[2:46:59] you gave us to look at our uh the cities
[2:47:03] that surround us and some of the things
[2:47:05] that are that have been done there. This
[2:47:07] is a photo of the of one of the uh
[2:47:11] murals in the ballpark, the 10 murals
[2:47:13] that were uh were um commissioned this
[2:47:17] fall. Next slide.
[2:47:20] So, we're actually really grateful that
[2:47:22] you invited us to look at uh what uh
[2:47:25] other mural programs are doing uh and
[2:47:27] how we could aspire to them. Uh because
[2:47:30] we are thrilled to share that we are
[2:47:34] actually doing really well in terms of
[2:47:36] our of of comparisons.
[2:47:38] uh we looked at five Utah cities and we
[2:47:41] had 33% more murals in terms of the
[2:47:45] annual murals produced uh in that report
[2:47:48] done by an outside uh consultant. Um so
[2:47:52] this slide highlights some of the murals
[2:47:54] that are complete and some that are in
[2:47:56] progress. So uh we partnered with Love
[2:47:58] Your Block and in your meeting materials
[2:48:01] there are photos of some of these of the
[2:48:04] Love Your Blocks murals from the last
[2:48:06] year. Uh the 33% higher number doesn't
[2:48:11] include any of the photo any of those
[2:48:14] love your block projects although we
[2:48:16] love working with love your blocks and
[2:48:18] we do collaborate with them. We just
[2:48:20] wanted to make sure you were aware of
[2:48:21] those. Uh we adapted our grants program
[2:48:26] in order to fast track a funding tool
[2:48:29] for murals through the grants and this
[2:48:32] year we had four murals funded through
[2:48:34] that. And then in yellow you can see the
[2:48:37] murals that were completed this year. Uh
[2:48:40] we had one uh permanent with Bloomberg
[2:48:42] and uh two temporary murals. Uh we had
[2:48:47] the 10 ballpark murals and then we had
[2:48:50] the blocks mural that we partnered with.
[2:48:53] Uh we have that we are coming up this
[2:48:55] year. We have Japan Town that was
[2:48:58] recently announced and it was in an
[2:49:00] earlier slide. Uh we have the pop the
[2:49:03] Popular Grove pickle ball court. We have
[2:49:06] the Jordan River Parkway is going to be
[2:49:08] receiving four murals. North Temple will
[2:49:10] be receiving six murals. And then uh I
[2:49:14] know it's a different surface, but out
[2:49:15] of the blue, the whale is going to get a
[2:49:18] a facelift and that is considered a
[2:49:19] mural as well. Uh and then we also are
[2:49:24] working on donations. So, I'm going to
[2:49:25] talk a little bit more about that, but
[2:49:27] we are in the process of uh accepting
[2:49:29] the rack into our collection
[2:49:32] or the rack collective into our
[2:49:33] collection. Okay, next slide.
[2:49:35] » One quick question.
[2:49:36] » Just one quick question. Uh mostly for
[2:49:38] bragging rights. Uh you said you
[2:49:40] compared uh Salt Lake City mural
[2:49:42] production to five peer cities. What
[2:49:44] were those five peer cities?
[2:49:46] » We like bragging rights, too. Uh so we
[2:49:48] have South Salt Lake, Murray, Midvale,
[2:49:50] Provo, and
[2:49:53] I'm blanking. Uh,
[2:49:54] » It's in your cap.
[2:49:55] » Ogden. Did you say Ogden?
[2:49:56] » No, I did say Ogden. So, Ogden. I'm glad
[2:49:59] that somebody smarter here is good.
[2:50:02] » What was the total of murals that you
[2:50:04] you're using?
[2:50:05] » Uh, those cities had a total annual
[2:50:09] production of 12 at its highest point
[2:50:12] annually. Collectively, they have more
[2:50:14] than that because some of them have had
[2:50:15] programs in the past, but of recent year
[2:50:18] totals, 12 is the most. And so again,
[2:50:20] ours were 33% higher, but not including
[2:50:22] any of the love your block efforts or
[2:50:24] even the facade improvement program that
[2:50:26] we partner with in the city.
[2:50:28] » Yeah. So you're comparing you're
[2:50:30] comparing how many murals they're
[2:50:32] producing is per
[2:50:33] » Just a total number. Yes.
[2:50:35] » Yeah. Yeah. And you know, SA Lake is the
[2:50:37] size of a council district actually
[2:50:39] smaller than a council district here,
[2:50:40] right? And they're creating 10 every
[2:50:42] year. But that is a good point of
[2:50:45] comparison. I like where the trend that
[2:50:46] we're we're seeing.
[2:50:47] » Yeah. And they do have um a really high
[2:50:50] quantity uh geography and kind of
[2:50:52] physical landscape is important. High
[2:50:55] high um quantity of light industrial
[2:50:58] manufacturing buildings and less
[2:51:00] buildings that have historical
[2:51:01] requirements not to be painted or uh
[2:51:04] property owners that um are vigilant
[2:51:06] about um not having murals that may be
[2:51:09] beloved and that are torn down that
[2:51:11] affects development. So there's some
[2:51:13] factors that are hard to compare there.
[2:51:15] » Yeah.
[2:51:16] Uh the next slide is was taken this
[2:51:19] week. Uh this is Cosmo and Cosmo is uh
[2:51:22] in his new home. I think it's a a he is
[2:51:26] in his new home and we are really
[2:51:28] thrilled that he is uh that he's landed
[2:51:31] and and there's some fun stuff coming up
[2:51:33] with uh announcing that as well. Next
[2:51:35] slide.
[2:51:38] So we have received feedback this year
[2:51:40] that there uh that we could do better
[2:51:43] and we are trying to do faster more and
[2:51:45] better. Uh but we are trying to
[2:51:47] streamline some processes to make our
[2:51:49] public art processes more accessible. Uh
[2:51:52] and I want to just walk you through a
[2:51:54] few of the things that we've been
[2:51:55] working on. So we facilitated more
[2:51:58] donations of artwork to the city. We've
[2:52:00] talked about Cosmo and the rack. We also
[2:52:02] uh are happy that down the hall we have
[2:52:04] Martha Hughes Cannon now living in this
[2:52:06] building. Uh we and this is a a
[2:52:09] statutory process for accepting a
[2:52:12] donation. Um, next we have drafted city
[2:52:16] a citywide guide for internal
[2:52:18] departments and community members to aid
[2:52:20] in the facilitation of community
[2:52:22] sponsored public art. Uh, the 14 council
[2:52:26] project or the $14,000
[2:52:29] through the legislative intent in the
[2:52:31] seven council districts is well underway
[2:52:32] and it will be completed this year.
[2:52:35] We are actively working to structure a
[2:52:38] tri-governmental partnership with the
[2:52:40] state and county to facilitate public
[2:52:42] private partnership for public art to be
[2:52:45] placed in Salt Lake City. And this uh
[2:52:48] Robert Love Robert Indiana love
[2:52:50] sculpture is an example of that effort.
[2:52:53] We are currently working on both loaning
[2:52:55] out and borrowing artwork at city hall.
[2:52:59] And as a reminder, we are we helped
[2:53:01] ensure the public benefit funding for
[2:53:03] public art in the downtown
[2:53:05] entertainment, cultural, and convention
[2:53:07] district for public art in the coming
[2:53:10] years totaling no less than $5 million.
[2:53:13] So that is coming up as well. Next
[2:53:15] slide, please.
[2:53:19] So there's also a list contained in your
[2:53:22] transmitt of ways that we're hoping to
[2:53:24] work more closely together in the
[2:53:25] future. But I wanted to share some
[2:53:27] potential mechanisms that other larger
[2:53:29] cities have in place that could be a
[2:53:32] model for our city in the future when
[2:53:35] they expand their public art programs.
[2:53:37] These are tools um of course we'd have
[2:53:40] to consider with our city family. Um we
[2:53:42] could expand the percent for art program
[2:53:44] to enterprise funds. Um right now we do
[2:53:48] have that program that we partnered with
[2:53:49] the CRA on and we could formalize it
[2:53:51] with other enterprise funds. Um we do
[2:53:54] not have a percent for art program
[2:53:56] within the transportation or streets
[2:53:58] budgets. Many cities do. Um there are
[2:54:01] planning and development based
[2:54:02] incentives that we could develop for
[2:54:05] concessions on planning and zoning where
[2:54:07] we could um require allocations for
[2:54:10] public art. We do this with the CRA. Um,
[2:54:13] many cities have impact fees with
[2:54:15] required cultural allocations. And as we
[2:54:18] build more business improvement
[2:54:20] districts in the city, we have an
[2:54:22] incredible partnership of course with
[2:54:24] our downtown alliance, but for things
[2:54:26] like Sugar House coming online, we can
[2:54:28] um uh request requirements for cultural
[2:54:32] uh programs in there. Next slide.
[2:54:35] And looking ahead for the rest of the
[2:54:37] budget year, um this is an installation
[2:54:40] coming to Pioneer Park which states the
[2:54:42] name of the park but when viewed from
[2:54:44] other perspectives is modeled on uh
[2:54:47] different languages and their various
[2:54:50] patterns.
[2:54:51] Next slide.
[2:54:55] The following public art projects are
[2:54:57] projected for completion in FY27 with
[2:54:59] many more not listed here coming in 2028
[2:55:02] like Fleet Block, Glendale, Fairmont,
[2:55:04] and Mlen. But we'll have Pioneer Park,
[2:55:07] the Donner Trail Park coming on, 20
[2:55:09] sculptures in 20 different bond parks,
[2:55:12] the reinstallation of the goals of Salt
[2:55:14] Lake City with the CRA, and um again
[2:55:17] many more projects. Next slide.
[2:55:21] Other milestones for budget that we're
[2:55:24] looking forward to is our CIP project
[2:55:26] for the Finch Lane Gallery renovations,
[2:55:29] launching the poet laurette program
[2:55:31] fully reinvisioning the mayor's artist
[2:55:33] awards in the 40th anniversary of our
[2:55:35] twilight concert series. Um we're again
[2:55:38] thankful to be here and looking forward
[2:55:40] to working together more in the future
[2:55:42] and um we appreciate the constructive
[2:55:44] feedback that we've received and we're
[2:55:46] happy to answer any questions.
[2:55:49] some members.
[2:55:53] President
[2:55:55] » Appreciate all the work. Uh we all need
[2:55:58] art. So, uh I I really do appreciate all
[2:56:02] the work you're doing and and the
[2:56:03] transformation from, you know, the
[2:56:05] concerts right here on the civic center.
[2:56:07] So, that's that was a great uh I mean, I
[2:56:10] know we had to make the move, but it
[2:56:12] also it seemed like it was uh still
[2:56:15] great rep venue and it and it worked out
[2:56:18] well. So, We were kind of worried there
[2:56:20] a bit, but I'm appreciate for that. And
[2:56:22] I and I also appreciate all the the
[2:56:23] murals and the and the public art. Um,
[2:56:27] you know, if you ever go to a city that
[2:56:29] doesn't have any art, you really realize
[2:56:30] that
[2:56:31] » There's a lack of beauty in it. So, any
[2:56:33] big city and any good city has good art.
[2:56:35] So, I appreciate your work and and uh
[2:56:37] providing us for the art and the music.
[2:56:39] Thank you.
[2:56:40] » Thanks.
[2:56:42] » Uh, my questions relate to performing
[2:56:45] arts. Um the Twilight series I mean
[2:56:48] we're approaching the 40 maybe the 40th
[2:56:51] year of the Twilight series.
[2:56:52] » That's correct.
[2:56:53] » Uh Select City has changed a lot since
[2:56:56] you know you know for for the last 40
[2:56:58] years and I will well think that is a
[2:57:02] tradition to select city. I would love
[2:57:03] to dig in a little more about um you
[2:57:07] know the revenue that this uh this uh
[2:57:10] this series creates.
[2:57:11] » Sure. um the cost um as far as what you
[2:57:15] know really cost us in and and in and
[2:57:18] salaries and and putting it together.
[2:57:20] Also, I would like to dig in a little
[2:57:21] more about the economic impact that the
[2:57:24] numbers the economic impact that you
[2:57:26] mentioned.
[2:57:27] » Absolutely. Uh and and dig in a little
[2:57:29] more about that. I I know that we're now
[2:57:31] competing with other venues and other
[2:57:33] concert series in in Salt Lake City. Uh,
[2:57:37] and I'm not sure while I really
[2:57:39] appreciate I attended my myself to
[2:57:41] Twilight before I joined the council.
[2:57:43] Now, uh, I I wonder if the role of the
[2:57:47] city has shifted a little bit about
[2:57:49] this. And I, again, I value the work. I
[2:57:51] value the the the series. I wonder if
[2:57:55] uh, the role in the last, you know,
[2:57:57] almost 40 years has changed a little
[2:57:59] bit. um and if the place of select city
[2:58:02] is to compete with other concert venues
[2:58:04] and other concert series. Uh and um but
[2:58:08] again so that information will be
[2:58:10] awesome for me. Um I appreciate the
[2:58:13] presentation. Uh I appre appreciate big
[2:58:16] time the the change uh and the direction
[2:58:19] uh the transparency uh and the work that
[2:58:22] you have put on uh and your team has put
[2:58:25] on to to level up the the the department
[2:58:29] the division sorry not the department.
[2:58:31] » Um so any information about those things
[2:58:33] will be great.
[2:58:34] » I can speak to that right now. Okay. So,
[2:58:36] um, some of you might remember, I'm
[2:58:38] looking [laughter] at you, um, that the
[2:58:40] Twilight concert series used to be
[2:58:42] produced in house and it was an economic
[2:58:44] challenge on the city. In, uh, 2019, I
[2:58:48] believe, I was tasked with restructuring
[2:58:50] the way that program ran. So, we
[2:58:53] produced the series with a private
[2:58:54] vendor. The cost of that program, of
[2:58:56] course, since those times, um, has
[2:58:58] increased the total cost like for
[2:59:00] Twilight Concert Series. Um, in total
[2:59:03] for that program, this is not what we
[2:59:05] pay, but for total production of that
[2:59:08] concert series, it's about $1.2 to $1.3
[2:59:11] million.
[2:59:13] We pay $180,000
[2:59:17] on a contract to get the same value for
[2:59:20] the residents of Salt Lake City. So,
[2:59:22] outside our staff salaries that help
[2:59:25] facilitate that program, it's a $180,000
[2:59:29] contract. Um the economic impact uh is
[2:59:33] generated from a study that we
[2:59:35] participate in within an organization
[2:59:37] nationally called Americans for the
[2:59:39] Arts. And we participate in that study
[2:59:42] um with the state, with the county, with
[2:59:44] the cultural corps and many entities
[2:59:46] nationally to generate the impact, the
[2:59:49] economic impact of attending nonprofit
[2:59:51] arts events in cities. The last study we
[2:59:54] participated in was in 2022. And the way
[2:59:58] that we generate this number is that
[3:00:00] it's based on the average per person's
[3:00:02] spending. When a resident comes
[3:00:04] downtown, they're taking public
[3:00:06] transportation. They're getting
[3:00:07] babysitters. They're going to food.
[3:00:09] They're getting they're going to bars.
[3:00:11] They're um patronizing places downtown.
[3:00:15] And um based on the attendance of the
[3:00:17] Twilight Concert Series in that series,
[3:00:19] which is 41,000 people, we that's how
[3:00:23] the math is created of generating the
[3:00:24] economic impact of the series. Um, and
[3:00:28] we do think the program is unique. As I
[3:00:30] mentioned, Post Malone tickets right now
[3:00:33] are $150 to $700. Most concerts in the
[3:00:38] cities are about $70 to $80 for
[3:00:41] nationally touring bands. We do think
[3:00:44] that gathering and belonging for music
[3:00:46] experiences of of course you can do that
[3:00:48] in the city, but the uniqueness of this
[3:00:50] program is the affordability and the
[3:00:52] accessibility. Um, another feat that we
[3:00:55] pull off with this program, which most
[3:00:57] national bands do not um, favor, is
[3:01:00] allowing local musicians to open for
[3:01:02] them. We're really about professional
[3:01:04] development and launching the careers of
[3:01:07] u, young artists in the community. And
[3:01:10] this is a key component of that program.
[3:01:13] And third, like tour tourism and
[3:01:15] economic um, livability of downtown. Um,
[3:01:19] that's a really important part of the
[3:01:21] program. It's been important to us that
[3:01:22] that program stays downtown for those
[3:01:24] reasons. It's close to public
[3:01:25] transportation. So, we we do believe the
[3:01:28] program is very unique in in its
[3:01:31] accessibility for residents where they
[3:01:32] might not have opportunity.
[3:01:35] » Sorry about that sound. This is not
[3:01:37] » It's okay.
[3:01:38] » The sound in the in those microphones
[3:01:40] somehow it just like cuts out and it
[3:01:42] comes back immediately. So,
[3:01:43] » And and I'll just say with performing
[3:01:44] arts and the programs that we have
[3:01:46] proposed for potential elimination, we
[3:01:48] really are looking at services that are
[3:01:51] duplicative in the community potentially
[3:01:54] um services that have the escalating
[3:01:56] costs in the future, which we've
[3:01:58] identified the busker fest as that. um
[3:02:01] and uh ones that other again service
[3:02:04] providers could do and ones that don't
[3:02:07] um jeopardize our grant funding in terms
[3:02:09] of people served and impact and and the
[3:02:12] funders that we have many of our
[3:02:13] programs are bundled with certain
[3:02:14] funders as well. So again that criteria
[3:02:17] is how we made that determination.
[3:02:19] » Yeah. Will you expand a little bit maybe
[3:02:21] uh I'm not sure how how many uh
[3:02:24] employees uh you know do help with with
[3:02:27] the putting together of the of the uh of
[3:02:31] the concert series. Oh. Um, yeah, we
[3:02:35] have one um staff designated for
[3:02:37] performing arts on our team which um
[3:02:40] does a variety of of programs. Um,
[3:02:43] Living Traditions, Busker Festival,
[3:02:45] Mondays in the Park, performing arts
[3:02:47] generally. Um, as I mentioned, Twilight,
[3:02:50] um, and Buskerfest are also contracted
[3:02:53] services for us. So, they're um, they
[3:02:55] can be a little bit more low touch, but
[3:02:57] we we all work across all our programs.
[3:03:00] So, there's a number of staff that have
[3:03:02] a different role in Twilight.
[3:03:03] » Okay. Any other questions? Everybody's
[3:03:06] very quiet.
[3:03:08] » Okay. I think we're good. Thank you so
[3:03:10] much.
[3:03:10] » Thank you.
[3:03:14] » Thank you,
[3:03:19] » Council members. We have We're almost
[3:03:23] done. So, let's
[3:03:25] uh five minutes behind. That's not too
[3:03:27] terrible. Um let's uh move on to item
[3:03:30] number six. Um cultural co summary uh on
[3:03:34] the blocks update. Um we're going to
[3:03:38] welcome Sylvia Richards uh again at the
[3:03:40] table and she's staying at the table.
[3:03:42] And we're going to uh welcome Lucas
[3:03:46] Horns, the blocks program manager. D
[3:03:49] Brewer, Downtown Alliance executive
[3:03:51] director. Is your time Sylvia?
[3:03:54] » Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, this briefing
[3:03:58] is an update on the block B blocks arts
[3:04:01] district, formerly known as the cultural
[3:04:04] corps. The blocks is a city and county
[3:04:07] initiative focused on growing and
[3:04:09] celebrating Salt Lake City's creative
[3:04:11] community. This is a review of year 9
[3:04:16] and um a preview of the plan for year
[3:04:20] 10. And with that, I will um pass the
[3:04:24] baton on to Lucas and D and Felicia if
[3:04:28] she still wanted to participate.
[3:04:33] » Okay. Hi, council. Uh great to see you
[3:04:36] all. I'm excited to report on what the
[3:04:37] blocks has been up to for the last year
[3:04:39] and give you a preview of what we have
[3:04:40] on the horizon. Uh first off, I want to
[3:04:43] introduce myself. I realize I'm a new
[3:04:45] face since you last had this briefing
[3:04:47] about a year ago. My name is Lucas Horns
[3:04:49] and I took over for Britney Helmers as
[3:04:51] program director of the blocks about six
[3:04:53] months ago. Uh, next slide, please. So,
[3:04:56] as you all know, the blocks is a
[3:04:59] visionary initiative of the city and
[3:05:01] county to promote downtown Salt Lake
[3:05:03] City as the premier arts and culture
[3:05:06] destination of the Inter Mountain West.
[3:05:08] Next slide, please. Our boundaries per
[3:05:13] our contract with the cultural corps run
[3:05:16] roughly from 600 west to 300 east and
[3:05:18] north temple to 400 south. Next slide,
[3:05:21] please.
[3:05:24] Our team is made up of myself and Kai
[3:05:26] Henrikson. He regrets not being able to
[3:05:28] be here today. He's taking a muchneeded
[3:05:30] vacation to visit some family in
[3:05:31] Colorado. Next slide, please.
[3:05:36] Our cultural core budget committee is
[3:05:37] made up of eight members. These are
[3:05:39] representatives from the city and the
[3:05:40] county. A lot of these names are
[3:05:42] familiar to you. Those uh names on the
[3:05:44] left are your city representatives.
[3:05:46] Those on the right are the county
[3:05:48] representatives. Next slide, please. Oh,
[3:05:51] and just to note, we meet every two
[3:05:53] months. Uh the cultural core budget
[3:05:54] committee uh monitors our spending and
[3:05:57] ensures that our our programs and
[3:06:00] spending are meeting the goals of the
[3:06:01] cultural core action plan. So, what are
[3:06:04] the goals of the cultural core action
[3:06:05] plan? As much as I hate reading off of a
[3:06:07] slide, uh I think these are all really
[3:06:10] thoughtful and important and I think
[3:06:11] that our our programming really touches
[3:06:13] on all eight of these. So, I'm going to
[3:06:15] go through them quickly. One, celebrate
[3:06:18] and promote Salt Lake's rich array of
[3:06:19] arts and cultural activities and
[3:06:21] experiences. Two, support increased
[3:06:23] collaboration and creative development
[3:06:25] among Salt Lake's creative community.
[3:06:28] Three, enhance Salt Lake's brand and
[3:06:29] support increased visitation from the
[3:06:31] region and inner mountain west. Four,
[3:06:33] expand and diversify audiences for Salt
[3:06:35] Lake's arts and culture. Five, foster
[3:06:38] downtown as an inclusive, diverse, and
[3:06:40] welcoming place. Six, support downtown
[3:06:43] residential growth. Seven, enhance the
[3:06:46] downtown business environment. And
[3:06:48] eight, enrich the urban experience and
[3:06:50] sense of place. These are lofty goals,
[3:06:53] and so I want to go over how we're
[3:06:54] achieving these goals. Next slide,
[3:06:56] please. I've really boiled our work down
[3:06:58] into three focus areas. First of all is
[3:07:00] our programming and events. We put on a
[3:07:02] lot of our own programming, activations,
[3:07:05] public art to add to the arts offerings
[3:07:07] in downtown Salt Lake. And just to note
[3:07:10] that we really focus almost entirely on
[3:07:12] producing free all ages programming as
[3:07:15] not all arts organizations are able to
[3:07:17] offer this downtown and we see it as a
[3:07:19] really important niche to fill in in
[3:07:21] downtown's arts offerings. Secondly is
[3:07:23] marketing and promotion. We have over
[3:07:25] two dozen arts organizations who are
[3:07:27] consistently performing or exhibiting in
[3:07:29] downtown. This is the highest
[3:07:30] concentration of arts activity in the
[3:07:32] region and we want to amplify all the
[3:07:34] work going on so the community really
[3:07:36] recognizes downtown as an arts
[3:07:38] destination. Between our combined
[3:07:41] followers with the downtown alliance, we
[3:07:42] have about 300,000 followers between
[3:07:44] newsletter subscribers and social media
[3:07:46] followers. And all 300,000 of these
[3:07:49] folks get updates weekly about all the
[3:07:52] fun events and things happening in
[3:07:53] downtown. And lastly, fostering
[3:07:56] collaboration. As part of the downtown
[3:07:58] alliance, we see ourselves as a really
[3:08:00] unique player as an arts organization
[3:08:02] that also has really intimate,
[3:08:03] meaningful ties to the business
[3:08:04] community. We like to bring stakeholders
[3:08:08] into the same room that are business
[3:08:09] owners, property owners, as well as arts
[3:08:12] organizations to really recognize that a
[3:08:14] thriving arts environment does uplift
[3:08:16] the business community downtown. Next
[3:08:19] slide, please.
[3:08:22] I want to go over some metrics. Um, and
[3:08:24] just a note that I'm reporting metrics
[3:08:26] on the calendar year. Our programming
[3:08:28] runs during the warmer months. And so
[3:08:30] it's important that we report on a
[3:08:31] calendar year because as we're expanding
[3:08:34] and introducing new programs, we're
[3:08:36] doing that planning on the calendar
[3:08:37] year. And so to measure the efficacy and
[3:08:41] uh impact that these new programs,
[3:08:43] expansions, new campaigns have, it's
[3:08:45] important that we do it on a calendar
[3:08:47] year, although our fiscal year does run
[3:08:48] same day as yours, July to June. So
[3:08:51] looking back on 2025 in numbers, we put
[3:08:54] on 26 events and activations. That was
[3:08:56] up 17% from 2024. We commissioned seven
[3:09:00] works of public art downtown. That was
[3:09:01] up 40% from 2024.
[3:09:04] We hired 140 artists and performers from
[3:09:07] the local community, up 82% from the
[3:09:10] year before. And lastly, we Arctics
[3:09:13] venues sold about 750,000
[3:09:16] tickets. This is not our programming,
[3:09:18] but we use it as an important metric to
[3:09:20] gauge the health of the general art
[3:09:22] scene downtown. You'll notice those
[3:09:24] ticket sales are down 8% from 2024, and
[3:09:27] I'll go over why that is uh in a later
[3:09:30] slide. It's not concerning, don't worry.
[3:09:32] Next slide, please.
[3:09:35] Looking at our marketing in 2025, we
[3:09:37] posted to social media 1.4,000 times to
[3:09:40] our 300,000 followers. We sent out 52
[3:09:44] weekly newsletters. This is our this
[3:09:46] week downtown series written by the
[3:09:48] downtown Josh Jones. These newsletters
[3:09:51] have a 40% open rate which if you know
[3:09:53] anything about newsletters is pretty
[3:09:55] remarkable and a testament to the the
[3:09:58] value people find in in these
[3:10:00] newsletters. Next slide please.
[3:10:03] We were in the press quite a bit this
[3:10:05] year uh for our different uh or last
[3:10:08] year, excuse me, for our different uh
[3:10:11] some of our public art commissions as
[3:10:13] well as activations we were doing on
[3:10:14] Main Street. Next slide.
[3:10:17] And now I want to talk about show a
[3:10:20] little bit of data to back up the the
[3:10:22] impact that our programming had last
[3:10:24] year. Uh this is showing home distance
[3:10:27] by mile by miles from downtown for
[3:10:31] people who visited Arctic's venues. So
[3:10:33] on the uh y-axis there you have the
[3:10:36] percent of visitors to Arctic's venues.
[3:10:39] That's Capital Theater, Abraven Hall,
[3:10:40] Eckles Theater, and Rose Wagner. These
[3:10:43] are not all the arts venues downtown,
[3:10:44] but they're representative of where
[3:10:46] people are coming from to visit arts in
[3:10:48] downtown. On the x-axis, you have their
[3:10:51] home distance by miles. So you can see
[3:10:53] that about a third are coming from
[3:10:55] within 10 miles. Another third are
[3:10:57] coming from 10 to 30 m and still another
[3:11:00] third are coming from more than 30 miles
[3:11:01] away with a lot coming from over 250 mi
[3:11:04] away. What this data is showing is that
[3:11:06] we are achieving our goal of
[3:11:07] establishing downtown as a regional arts
[3:11:09] destination
[3:11:11] um
[3:11:13] with so many visitors coming from from
[3:11:15] across the region and frankly across the
[3:11:17] country.
[3:11:19] Please
[3:11:19] » Just a quick question. This is a an
[3:11:22] really interesting um chart. Can you
[3:11:25] explain, you know, maybe some of the
[3:11:27] reasons for the 250 mi uh radius in
[3:11:31] terms of more people coming from from
[3:11:33] that radius versus 30 to 50, 50 to 100
[3:11:36] or 100 to 250?
[3:11:38] » Yeah, absolutely. That's because that
[3:11:40] includes the entire country. And so, um,
[3:11:44] we have a lot of, we have, we had
[3:11:45] visitors from all 50 states, uh, buy
[3:11:48] tickets to our arts venues. And so,
[3:11:53] 250 mi to 2,000 miles is a much bigger
[3:11:57] area than 150 to 250 mi, if that makes
[3:12:00] sense. So, that's why there's there's
[3:12:03] such a large number coming from 250.
[3:12:06] I'll just I'll pipe in with what I know
[3:12:07] from the so I serve on the board of the
[3:12:09] Eckles Theater and so we dove into a
[3:12:11] little bit of the of because we were
[3:12:13] seeing kind of similar trends. I
[3:12:14] actually think it's a credit to the
[3:12:17] national level of acts both music and
[3:12:21] you know Broadway kind of touring
[3:12:23] performance and the value that you get
[3:12:25] as in terms of like comparing if you're
[3:12:28] going to go see a Broadway show in
[3:12:29] Chicago versus here the value of Salt
[3:12:31] Lake City it's a much cheaper place to
[3:12:33] go and so we're seeing that a lot of
[3:12:34] people are choosing to see those
[3:12:37] national touring acts because of the
[3:12:40] Echo Theater is more affordable than
[3:12:41] seeing in San Francisco or you know
[3:12:43] somewhere like that
[3:12:44] » 100% and it speaks to our local arts
[3:12:47] organizations as well. Ballet West is at
[3:12:50] par with any ballet company you can see
[3:12:52] as well as the Utah Symphony and Utah
[3:12:54] Opera and the ticket price is going to
[3:12:55] be a lot cheaper and you're going to
[3:12:56] have a much more enjoyable stay
[3:12:58] depending on which city you're going to.
[3:13:00] Next slide, please.
[3:13:03] So, once these these visitors are coming
[3:13:05] from across the region and coming into
[3:13:07] our downtown, they're not just visiting
[3:13:08] our arts venues, they're spending money
[3:13:10] in our downtown. We know arts are an
[3:13:12] economic driver. Last year in 2025,
[3:13:15] 317,000
[3:13:17] of the visits generated by our downtown
[3:13:20] Arctics venues, uh those visitors went
[3:13:23] to re restaurants or retail directly
[3:13:26] before or after visiting the theater.
[3:13:28] This data comes from Placer AI, just as
[3:13:30] a as a side note. Um but that's showing
[3:13:33] that that the arts are attracting
[3:13:35] visitors and those visitors are not just
[3:13:37] coming for the arts. They're coming into
[3:13:38] downtown to to put their money into the
[3:13:40] local economy. [clears throat] Next
[3:13:42] slide, please.
[3:13:44] Now I want to get to those Arctics
[3:13:45] ticket sales trends. Um so as you can
[3:13:50] see over the last four years those
[3:13:52] numbers have gone up and down quite a
[3:13:53] bit. This is actually more due to the
[3:13:55] variability in the number of shows at
[3:13:57] the Eckles Theater. Eckles Theater
[3:14:00] relies on a lot of touring shows. Um and
[3:14:03] that number just varies greatly from
[3:14:05] year to year. If we take Eckles out of
[3:14:07] the equation, next slide please.
[3:14:10] and we look at just Capital Theater, a
[3:14:11] Braven Hall and Rose Wagner Theater. You
[3:14:14] can see that there is a steady incline
[3:14:16] in ticket sales year-over-year,
[3:14:18] including from 2024 to 2025. Next slide,
[3:14:21] please. I want to quickly go through
[3:14:23] some highlights from 2025 of in terms of
[3:14:26] our programming. Next slide. 2025 was
[3:14:29] the second year of our co-create
[3:14:30] program. This is our artist and
[3:14:32] residence program where we invite
[3:14:33] artists to envision a placemaking
[3:14:36] project in the downtown. We had five
[3:14:39] projects last year including Echoes of
[3:14:41] the Great Salt Lake. This was a new
[3:14:43] symphony piece performed on Gal Gallivan
[3:14:45] Plaza inspired by the Great Salt Lake.
[3:14:47] Next slide. We had Sonder SLC. This was
[3:14:51] a photo gallery that's still on display
[3:14:53] in the Vicilius Prriscos Walkway by
[3:14:55] artist Kelly Freshman. Next slide,
[3:14:57] please. Little Stages was a program
[3:15:01] invisioned by local community organizer
[3:15:04] Tim Sullivan who wanted to create these
[3:15:06] pop-up stages that were easy for buskers
[3:15:09] to carry around the city and set up to
[3:15:11] essentially build mobile concert venues.
[3:15:13] Next slide. Absolutely amazing animals
[3:15:17] was a large-scale mural uh produced by
[3:15:20] artist Dallas Graham on the back of a
[3:15:21] parking garage on Edison Street. Next
[3:15:23] slide. And the day of the dead festival
[3:15:26] was put on by local muralist Betto
[3:15:28] Kanejo that brought around 200 attendees
[3:15:31] to Feice Gallery for for a large
[3:15:33] festival. Next slide. Moving on from
[3:15:36] co-create.
[3:15:39] 2025 was also the second year of our
[3:15:41] step-in on Main program. These are the
[3:15:43] free concerts put on on the front steps
[3:15:45] of the Eckles Theater every Friday night
[3:15:47] from June through September. These
[3:15:49] performances range from anywhere from
[3:15:51] jazz to Brazilian dance to drum groups
[3:15:54] and everything in between. Next slide.
[3:15:58] We also put on the uh third annual
[3:16:00] mariachi fest at the Eckles Theater,
[3:16:02] bringing four mariachi groups, one
[3:16:04] national from New York and three local
[3:16:05] mariachi groups. Next slide.
[3:16:08] Curbside theater was a partnership with
[3:16:10] SB Dance. We programmed that show on the
[3:16:12] rooftop of a parking garage on Pure Pont
[3:16:14] Avenue. This offered a really cool venue
[3:16:17] and a free dance performance in downtown
[3:16:19] with sweeping views of the mountains in
[3:16:21] city skyline. Next slide. And lastly, we
[3:16:25] continued our urban plane air program.
[3:16:27] We brought uh 19 artists to the farmers
[3:16:31] market to paint scenes that they saw at
[3:16:33] the market and then sell their work at a
[3:16:35] pop-up gallery at the market the
[3:16:36] following week. Next slide, please. I
[3:16:40] want to talk about some of our
[3:16:41] programming we have on the uh horizon in
[3:16:43] 2026. Now, next slide. We're continuing
[3:16:47] co-create again this year, and I'm
[3:16:49] really excited to announce the three
[3:16:50] projects we've selected. The Wish
[3:16:52] Exchange Place will be an uh
[3:16:54] installation that will be interactive on
[3:16:55] Exchange Place up for three months uh by
[3:16:58] artists Alejandra Moya and Kathy Tran.
[3:17:01] Bees Around the Block is a series of
[3:17:03] sculptures on Main Street envisioned by
[3:17:05] uh urban planner and designer Landon
[3:17:07] Krazik. Standing room only is it will be
[3:17:09] a series of dance performances as well
[3:17:11] as installations at former theater sites
[3:17:14] in downtown. This is by local
[3:17:15] choreographer and dancer Constance. Next
[3:17:18] slide.
[3:17:20] Fridays on Maine. This is an expansion
[3:17:21] of our stepping on Main program. So I'm
[3:17:23] really excited to include two more
[3:17:25] stages in addition to the steps of the
[3:17:27] Eckles Theater. We'll have a second
[3:17:29] stage at the um at where Gallivan Center
[3:17:33] intersects Main Street and a third stage
[3:17:35] at Exchange Place. So, we're going to
[3:17:36] put live music and dance performance up
[3:17:38] and down Main Street every Friday night
[3:17:40] from June through September. Next slide.
[3:17:43] The Art Garden. This is a popup art
[3:17:47] exhibition and beer garden held at the
[3:17:49] site of the former Utah Theater on Main
[3:17:51] Street between 100 South and 200. This
[3:17:55] um is a partnership with the Utah Utah
[3:17:57] Museum of Contemporary Art who will be
[3:17:58] be building out two uh art exhibi
[3:18:01] exhibitions and we'll be partnering with
[3:18:03] local breweries to serve beer. And
[3:18:05] although there's beer, this space is
[3:18:07] still all ages. Next slide. Urban plane
[3:18:10] air. We're expanding this program as
[3:18:12] well. Uh we're relieving the market and
[3:18:14] we're bringing 30 artists to paint 30
[3:18:17] iconic buildings around downtown Salt
[3:18:18] Lake. Their art will then be displayed
[3:18:20] in the windows of the buildings that
[3:18:21] they feature. Next slide.
[3:18:24] We'll also be expanding our curbside
[3:18:26] theater program to additional
[3:18:28] performances on parking garage rooftops
[3:18:30] because this is such a unique
[3:18:32] interesting place for a a show like
[3:18:34] this. Uh we're we'll be moving over to
[3:18:36] the parking garage right here at the
[3:18:38] echo uh excuse me on exchange place that
[3:18:41] offers really beautiful views of this
[3:18:43] building in the mountains as you can see
[3:18:44] there. Next slide. Curtain up. This is a
[3:18:48] firstofits-kind event to celebrate the
[3:18:50] start of the 2026 2027 arts season. This
[3:18:53] will bring all arts organizations
[3:18:55] programming in the downtown into one
[3:18:57] under one roof. Uh to to celebrate the
[3:19:00] start of the season, we'll be screening
[3:19:02] a short film that previews each art
[3:19:04] organization's upcoming season from the
[3:19:06] ballet to the opera to modern dance
[3:19:07] companies to Yumoka and everyone in
[3:19:10] between. This will be on September 8th.
[3:19:12] I'll be sure to send you an invite soon.
[3:19:14] Next slide, please.
[3:19:17] And then we have some really exciting
[3:19:18] marketing campaigns um really painting
[3:19:22] the picture of downtown as a arts
[3:19:25] destination showing the breadth and
[3:19:26] diversity of artists working in downtown
[3:19:28] and public art that we have here in
[3:19:30] downtown. So be sure to follow us on
[3:19:32] socials to to keep up with those
[3:19:34] campaigns. Next slide.
[3:19:37] And so much more. I don't want to go
[3:19:39] into these too much detail. Our
[3:19:42] programming is quite extensive, but we
[3:19:44] have continued ongoing programs such as
[3:19:46] our exhibitions on Maine where we
[3:19:48] display public art on Main Street on our
[3:19:49] kiosks. We loan assets to artists like
[3:19:52] lighting, sound systems, stage for free
[3:19:55] if they're working downtown. And then
[3:19:57] we've done a number of partner events um
[3:20:00] already some of these occurred this year
[3:20:02] such as signs was a block party we did
[3:20:04] with Sundance and Feice Gallery during
[3:20:07] the Sundance Film Festival. Cir Kickass
[3:20:10] was a circus performance we put on at
[3:20:11] Gallivan Center with Utah Presents. Uh
[3:20:14] Mariachi Fest will be happening again on
[3:20:16] June 20th. Pogo Fest is a multi- venue
[3:20:19] music festival that will be also
[3:20:20] happening on June 20th. Uh we'll be
[3:20:23] putting up an outdoor stage as part of
[3:20:24] that festival on Exchange Place. The
[3:20:26] Cycle Nation installation is up right
[3:20:28] now in the Vicilus Prriscos Walkway. I
[3:20:31] recommend going and checking it out at
[3:20:32] night. It's a cool interactive uh
[3:20:35] sculpture that lights up when you crank
[3:20:36] these hand cranks. And the Bakau
[3:20:38] installation will be displayed next
[3:20:40] month uh on a Bravo Plaza. This is a
[3:20:43] collaboration with the Gina Bachau
[3:20:44] Foundation. We'll be building a
[3:20:46] large-scale sculpture built out of
[3:20:48] pianos for that. Next slide, please.
[3:20:52] These are our partners that we're
[3:20:53] working with on all of these programs.
[3:20:54] They range from property owners to
[3:20:56] developers to businesses and of course
[3:20:58] the majority of the arts groups working
[3:21:00] downtown. Next slide.
[3:21:03] I wanted to offer just a really high
[3:21:04] overview of our budget for FY27 which
[3:21:07] begins on July 1. Um
[3:21:11] you will be receiving in a transmitt a
[3:21:13] more detailed breakdown of our budget.
[3:21:15] This budget was approved by the cultural
[3:21:17] core budget committee just this week. Um
[3:21:19] but we also found out just this week
[3:21:21] that we'll be receiving open streets
[3:21:22] funding. Thank you very much. And we're
[3:21:24] excited to apply that and expand the
[3:21:26] exciting programming we have this summer
[3:21:28] even more. So the the new budget you you
[3:21:32] will receive will will reflect that
[3:21:33] additional funding as well.
[3:21:36] Next slide. And with that, I'll turn it
[3:21:38] over to you all for any questions.
[3:21:47] Council members,
[3:21:49] I put a minute in my mouth so I can
[3:21:51] barely speak. Um
[3:21:54] no. And will you expand a little bit on
[3:21:56] the open streets funding? Um I'm a
[3:21:58] little confused about that. thought we
[3:22:01] made some, you [clears throat] know,
[3:22:02] there was some changes regarding the
[3:22:04] open um the temple opening and whatnot,
[3:22:06] but is that a proposed
[3:22:16] » So, I think I think it's my
[3:22:18] understanding that some funds within uh
[3:22:21] the city and potentially was open
[3:22:23] streets was redirected to other
[3:22:25] programming and in budget amendment 4,
[3:22:28] you all approved an additional $100,000
[3:22:31] go to the blocks contract. So not
[3:22:33] exactly open streets programming but to
[3:22:36] the mission of the blocks.
[3:22:38] » Sorry for the confusion.
[3:22:39] » We did aund I think that in last year's
[3:22:42] budget we did a little but I guess it's
[3:22:45] the current year.
[3:22:46] » It was a budget on me
[3:22:47] » And I I could it was my understanding it
[3:22:50] was redirected. I could be misspeaking
[3:22:52] but it was in BA4 the extra 100.
[3:22:55] » That that helps. Um
[3:22:58] he's nodding. Okay, we have a Okay, that
[3:23:00] helps a lot. Um, it I will uh it's
[3:23:04] impressive the amount of work that
[3:23:06] you're doing with with the funding that
[3:23:07] you're getting. So, I you know, I'd love
[3:23:09] to see more more more fun things uh
[3:23:12] happening on POP and downtown um and to
[3:23:15] see more activation in our in our city.
[3:23:18] So, uh impressive work. Any
[3:23:20] » No, just thanks.
[3:23:22] » Okay. No, I see some hands. Uh, I don't
[3:23:25] know which one was first, so I'm going
[3:23:27] to give um time to council member Petro
[3:23:30] first.
[3:23:33] » Thank you and thanks for the work. Um,
[3:23:35] the numbers on the performances and the
[3:23:38] statistics that you gave, are any of
[3:23:40] those redundant with what we saw from
[3:23:42] the arts council? And if not, how do we
[3:23:45] decide who gets to count what as part of
[3:23:48] their programming or does everyone just
[3:23:49] get to claim it because we contributed
[3:23:51] to it?
[3:23:52] » Yeah, that's a really good question.
[3:23:54] Yeah. So the events and activations that
[3:23:56] I was counting for 2025 and 2024 were
[3:24:00] blocks produced events and activations
[3:24:02] where a blocks staff member was present.
[3:24:05] So uh they there shouldn't be redundancy
[3:24:08] between anything that this arts council
[3:24:10] produced.
[3:24:11] » Thank you so much. That's really
[3:24:12] encouraging to hear.
[3:24:13] » Yeah.
[3:24:14] » One
[3:24:16] » And one mural.
[3:24:19] » That's the only redundancy I'm speaking
[3:24:22] for.
[3:24:23] Uh, Felicia and Felicia for one second.
[3:24:30] » Uh, Council Wharton.
[3:24:33] » Um, thank you for that presentation. Um,
[3:24:36] Lucas, that was really comprehensive and
[3:24:38] I'm really excited about um all the
[3:24:40] programming that's that's happening and
[3:24:42] [music] um and what we're going to be
[3:24:44] able to continue to do. and just wanted
[3:24:47] to congratulate you in this new role and
[3:24:50] um we look forward to uh working with
[3:24:52] you as one of the partners.
[3:24:54] » Thank you.
[3:24:56] And the last question I have um relates
[3:24:59] how do you get 40% of people to open
[3:25:01] your newsletter because no one opens
[3:25:03] ours. So any tips for the council?
[3:25:06] » It's amazing. If you're not already
[3:25:07] subscribed to it, it's a really
[3:25:09] well-written newsletter that has a lot
[3:25:11] of whimsy in it that I think people look
[3:25:12] forward to every week. So, it's it's a
[3:25:15] it's a credit to Josh Jones's writing. I
[3:25:16] think
[3:25:17] » We need whimsy. Okay. Okay. Thank you.
[3:25:20] Thank you for your time.
[3:25:23] » Oh, no.
[3:25:25] » Chris, do you have more questions?
[3:25:26] » Oh, sorry.
[3:25:29] » I think it's probably gone.
[3:25:35] » Um, council members, this
[3:25:39] uh concludes that portion of the agenda.
[3:25:41] We're going to move on to the reported
[3:25:43] announcements from the executive
[3:25:44] director,
[3:25:46] Lehua.
[3:25:48] » The V team here. Um
[3:25:50] » The V team. Not quite.
[3:25:52] » Um
[3:25:52] » Always the
[3:25:53] » We have uh Linda came and passed out a
[3:25:56] handout. And this is something that we
[3:25:59] did when the council had um the last
[3:26:02] vacancy. Um and Cindy Lou may come up to
[3:26:05] the table so that she can help me
[3:26:08] uh correct. She will correct me if I say
[3:26:11] anything not quite right
[3:26:15] » And she will make sure the record is
[3:26:16] clear.
[3:26:17] » You can throw the hand sanitizer towards
[3:26:19] us.
[3:26:20] » Yeah. Do you want to
[3:26:23] » Okay.
[3:26:24] » So, this is an important update.
[3:26:26] » This is an important update. This is to
[3:26:27] confirm the timeline for filling the
[3:26:29] vacancy in district 4. Uh the timeline
[3:26:32] has been created based on a conversation
[3:26:35] with actually the three of the members
[3:26:36] here in person um during the chair vice
[3:26:39] chair meeting on Tuesday. Um the
[3:26:42] calendar is a visual look of what I
[3:26:45] would run through in this outline
[3:26:46] handout that you have as well just to
[3:26:48] confirm. Um if it's okay I'll just read
[3:26:51] through this and you guys can stop me if
[3:26:53] you have questions. Um so the the
[3:26:57] process basically is um outlined in
[3:26:59] state code and it requires that the
[3:27:01] council would receive applications and
[3:27:04] conduct interviews with eligible
[3:27:08] applicants and then um select a new
[3:27:10] council member within 30 days. Um based
[3:27:13] on the way the counting works out uh
[3:27:16] Wednesday was day one and the 30-day
[3:27:19] would 30 days would end on June 11th.
[3:27:22] Um, because of the number of meetings
[3:27:24] that the council already has on your
[3:27:26] calendar, uh, due to the budget, I don't
[3:27:29] anticipate that you would need to add
[3:27:30] any new council meetings. Uh, but you
[3:27:34] can confirm that for me as we walk
[3:27:36] through this. Um,
[3:27:39] there's also been a question, so I just
[3:27:41] wanted to go over a little bit of
[3:27:42] general info. There's been a question
[3:27:44] just about how it works. when council
[3:27:46] member Young was selected and appointed
[3:27:49] to fill the vacancy in district 7 there
[3:27:52] um she needed to hold elections because
[3:27:56] of the amount of time left in the term
[3:27:59] in this situation because there is less
[3:28:01] than two years left in the in the term.
[3:28:03] Whoever you appoint will serve the
[3:28:06] remainder of the term and then elections
[3:28:08] will still be held in fall of 2027 for
[3:28:12] the next term um beginning in January of
[3:28:15] 2028. Uh the recorders office will also
[3:28:18] post the applications
[3:28:20] um on the website once they have been or
[3:28:23] the names of the applicant and the
[3:28:25] paperwork on a website once those
[3:28:27] applicants have um the eligibility has
[3:28:30] been verified. So, that information is
[3:28:32] available to the public um along with
[3:28:35] also a conflict of interest form. Um,
[3:28:38] and we'll see how this plays out in your
[3:28:41] timeline down below. But just wanted to
[3:28:43] note um Cindy Lou pointed out that
[3:28:45] there's a new state code requirement
[3:28:47] that conflict of interest forms would be
[3:28:49] placed and available online for 7 days
[3:28:53] before the council appoints the new
[3:28:55] candidate. So, that is another extension
[3:28:58] that needs to be accounted for in our 30
[3:29:00] days. Could uh are we allowed to request
[3:29:03] the the conflict of interest form with
[3:29:05] the application?
[3:29:06] » Exactly. It will be
[3:29:08] » So it's it's so
[3:29:09] » Yeah they won't be a valified a verified
[3:29:11] candidate until they submit that.
[3:29:13] » Okay. So it's part of the process.
[3:29:14] » It will be part of the application.
[3:29:16] » Okay.
[3:29:18] » Okay. And then also you'll you um will
[3:29:21] have a resolution placed on one of your
[3:29:23] upcoming agendas that just cl addresses
[3:29:26] um the voting circum different voting
[3:29:29] circumstances. It's a new state code
[3:29:31] requirement as well that that
[3:29:32] information is um formally adopted so
[3:29:35] that everyone knows what to expect about
[3:29:37] how voting will occur. So, I'll just run
[3:29:39] through the dates. Um as we said, May
[3:29:41] 13th, yesterday, Wednesday, May 13th was
[3:29:44] day one. Um and so from that time, uh
[3:29:48] our office, Cindy Lou and the recorder's
[3:29:50] office, Keith and his staff have been
[3:29:53] coordinating on getting an ad posted. Um
[3:29:56] there is a requirement for a legal ad to
[3:29:58] be placed in the paper. It will be
[3:30:00] placed with the Salt Lake Tribune um and
[3:30:03] it and Utah legals. Um and it basically
[3:30:07] outlines what the timeline will be when
[3:30:09] application the application period
[3:30:11] opens, when it closes, and when the
[3:30:13] council anticipates you might hold the
[3:30:15] interviews and make um an appointment.
[3:30:19] Um, so in that time, not only will the
[3:30:22] public notice go out, but also um the
[3:30:26] your council staff communications team
[3:30:28] will kick into gear. Um, there's a there
[3:30:31] will be social media posts, website
[3:30:34] updates. Um, they have a vacancy hub
[3:30:37] website that goes through and explains a
[3:30:39] lot of the information that people can
[3:30:42] expect. We also take emails from anyone
[3:30:44] who wants to receive notification as we
[3:30:48] proc progress through this process and
[3:30:50] also notice will be posted in the city
[3:30:53] building. Um and the recorders office is
[3:30:56] also able to post that in the district 4
[3:30:58] library and other community gathering
[3:31:00] spaces too. So I I would say we will go
[3:31:03] ahead and do those steps but you guys
[3:31:05] can tell me if you don't want any of
[3:31:08] those things to happen.
[3:31:11] Could we add an additional things?
[3:31:13] » Yeah, of course.
[3:31:14] » Um, could we uh can we ensure that the
[3:31:17] newsletter on the social media pages for
[3:31:20] the district
[3:31:21] » Specific
[3:31:22] » Are updated so those that are in that
[3:31:24] email list and they're following those
[3:31:26] pages
[3:31:27] » Of course
[3:31:27] » Get it get
[3:31:29] » The nudge.
[3:31:30] » Yep. Absolutely. We will do that.
[3:31:32] So, the application period would begin
[3:31:36] next Monday, May 18th, and then it would
[3:31:38] extend through Monday, June 1st, at 5:00
[3:31:42] p.m. The council's past policy and
[3:31:44] practice has been to keep the
[3:31:46] application period open for two weeks.
[3:31:48] So, that is that twoe period, especially
[3:31:50] given that there's a holiday in the
[3:31:52] middle of it. Um the application um
[3:31:56] obviously will follow the state code
[3:31:58] requirements for what information needs
[3:32:00] to be provided. And then in the last
[3:32:03] time that the council held this process,
[3:32:06] we also included three to four questions
[3:32:08] on the application that the applicants
[3:32:10] would provide written answers to when
[3:32:13] they turn in their application. Um,
[3:32:17] I'm going to keep going, but I have a
[3:32:20] question for you on when the application
[3:32:21] period closes, but we'll come back to
[3:32:23] that. Um
[3:32:26] given applications being completed and
[3:32:30] provided to the council, um if the
[3:32:32] application period closes on Monday,
[3:32:34] June 1st, then realistically those would
[3:32:37] be the recorder's office could provide a
[3:32:40] complete packet of all of the
[3:32:41] applications to you by Tuesday morning
[3:32:44] on June 2nd. Given that, do you want to
[3:32:48] consider having interviews held on
[3:32:51] Thursday, June 4th, or do you want to
[3:32:53] wait and see how many applications you
[3:32:56] have to review and then decide
[3:32:59] on an interview and appointment
[3:33:02] schedule?
[3:33:04] I think it would have to be on the
[3:33:06] number of applications we have, but even
[3:33:08] on a Thursday, even if it's just only a
[3:33:10] few, uh I almost think that we need more
[3:33:13] time, especially that's the and because
[3:33:16] we have the budget going on also that I
[3:33:18] would recommend the 9th as a first date
[3:33:22] that we could actually interview it and
[3:33:25] select.
[3:33:26] » Yeah. And the reason that's helpful too,
[3:33:28] just to insert, is this 7-day conflict
[3:33:30] of interest posting requirement. If you
[3:33:34] wanted to definitely plan on Thursday,
[3:33:36] June 4th, we would want to change the
[3:33:39] application close date.
[3:33:41] » So the nine will meet that, right?
[3:33:43] Because if the applications end on the
[3:33:45] on the first,
[3:33:46] » That that will be enough time for that
[3:33:48] piece.
[3:33:50] » Nine seems to seems reasonable to me.
[3:33:53] » Um,
[3:33:54] » Okay. I think we got Sarah's Sarah's
[3:33:56] nodding. Yes.
[3:33:57] » Okay.
[3:33:59] » Okay, that's perfect. And then that also
[3:34:00] allows you flexibility
[3:34:02] » For me too.
[3:34:04] » Thank you. It also allows you
[3:34:06] flexibility if you did need to delay
[3:34:09] the final appointment until for one more
[3:34:12] night for whatever reason, then you
[3:34:13] would have until the that Thursday the
[3:34:15] 11th. So you we we'll just kind of
[3:34:17] reserve that as 9th and 11th. Okay. Um
[3:34:23] so that takes us through those last few
[3:34:27] items. Um
[3:34:30] next page um direction needed date a
[3:34:34] item one we already covered also item
[3:34:37] two and then so application questions.
[3:34:40] I've listed here the four questions that
[3:34:43] were used on the district 7 vacancy
[3:34:46] application. I modified them very
[3:34:49] slightly just to account for the fact
[3:34:50] that this is a different district. If
[3:34:52] you wanted to review those and give me
[3:34:54] any edits and council members online,
[3:34:56] I'm sorry, I should have mentioned that
[3:34:58] you have this information in your email
[3:35:00] either from Kristen or me earlier this
[3:35:02] afternoon. Um, and so if you wanted to
[3:35:05] review those questions and either give
[3:35:06] those to me now or by tomorrow, um, I
[3:35:10] could follow up with you all tomorrow to
[3:35:12] get any edits to the questions.
[3:35:14] » I personally think that there are
[3:35:15] accurate questions. they're they follow
[3:35:17] the a pattern of you know that we have
[3:35:20] followed in the past. Um but if maybe if
[3:35:25] any council member has changes or
[3:35:28] suggestions
[3:35:29] » Um but then by you know
[3:35:34] Monday uh you know we go with this
[3:35:37] questions um or no time right now.
[3:35:41] » Well I think it's tomorrow Friday would
[3:35:43] be good so that by Monday the
[3:35:45] application is available.
[3:35:46] So if but if you don't have any
[3:35:48] suggestions on changing them um then
[3:35:52] let's you know submit them by tomorrow.
[3:35:56] » Perfect.
[3:35:58] » Yeah. No no edits here.
[3:36:02] » No edits.
[3:36:03] » Me either.
[3:36:04] » Me neither. Thank you.
[3:36:06] » Perfect. Okay. We'll go with those.
[3:36:07] » Don't even wait then.
[3:36:08] » Then we can have it already online. Um
[3:36:12] regarding the interview format. Um, in
[3:36:14] the past the council um had on the night
[3:36:18] of interviews, um, state code requires
[3:36:21] that you give everybody an opportunity
[3:36:22] to address the council. The way that
[3:36:24] you've handled that in the past is to
[3:36:26] give each of the applicants five minutes
[3:36:28] to address the council on any topic they
[3:36:31] they want to. Do you want to continue
[3:36:33] with that practice for round one?
[3:36:36] » Generally, yes. Let me ask a clarifying
[3:36:38] question. So we are required to give
[3:36:41] every applicant
[3:36:43] uh every single one of them
[3:36:45] » An interview opportunity.
[3:36:47] » An interview opportunity and it has to
[3:36:48] be in a public meeting.
[3:36:50] » Correct.
[3:36:50] » It does and it does have to be eligible.
[3:36:53] So only validated applicants. Okay. If
[3:36:55] someone does not meet the requirements
[3:36:58] that are outlined in state code or does
[3:37:00] not submit their conflict of interest,
[3:37:01] they would not be available to be
[3:37:04] interviewed.
[3:37:05] » Let me ask about the time. Do we have to
[3:37:07] tell them how much time we're going to
[3:37:09] give them?
[3:37:10] » Yeah, that's my question. I'm wondering
[3:37:12] if it's like possible to give a range
[3:37:15] and then adjust and give them a final
[3:37:18] number based on how many applicants we
[3:37:20] had.
[3:37:21] » That's that's what I Yes, we we're
[3:37:23] synced in here.
[3:37:24] » What do you think is a good minimum
[3:37:25] number?
[3:37:26] » I feel like between three and five, but
[3:37:28] you know,
[3:37:28] » That's what I was thinking. Yes,
[3:37:30] » So you know, if we have 20 people apply,
[3:37:33] you know, we might go with a three. Um,
[3:37:35] you know, so that's sort of the the
[3:37:37] general sense.
[3:37:38] » The way that we've provided that
[3:37:40] information to the applicants in the
[3:37:42] past is once the application period is
[3:37:44] closed and we collect all of the
[3:37:46] applications, we I have sent them an
[3:37:49] email to just let them know what to
[3:37:51] expect in terms of next steps. And so we
[3:37:53] could even just wait until at that time
[3:37:56] tell them whatever you all have decided.
[3:37:59] » Okay.
[3:38:01] » Okay. And then in the past also we come
[3:38:04] up with a plan in case there's a round
[3:38:06] two, round three, round four. And the
[3:38:09] way that we've done that in the past is
[3:38:11] um round one is over, the council takes
[3:38:14] a vote to reduce the number of
[3:38:16] applicants who move on to round two and
[3:38:19] then you give them a question and let
[3:38:20] the applicants address the council um
[3:38:23] just on that one question and you give
[3:38:25] them two to three minutes to respond to
[3:38:27] that. Um, are you okay with that as a
[3:38:30] process for round two?
[3:38:31] » Could we do some rank choice voting?
[3:38:33] Although
[3:38:33] » Oh, rank choice voting might be
[3:38:35] interesting. Is it the same question for
[3:38:37] every applicant in round two?
[3:38:39] » I think that's what we did last time.
[3:38:41] » It is. [clears throat]
[3:38:42] It is what you did.
[3:38:43] » No,
[3:38:45] no, experience.
[3:38:46] » We got different questions and I think
[3:38:49] that that is one of the things I would
[3:38:52] flag feels a little inequitable.
[3:38:56] Um, and I just wonder if there's a way
[3:38:58] like like I said, you can have one
[3:39:00] applicant step out, one answer, and then
[3:39:03] come back in and answer um, so that
[3:39:05] they're answering the exact same
[3:39:07] question because I know in the final
[3:39:09] round we were answering different
[3:39:10] questions.
[3:39:13] » Yeah, that's
[3:39:15] Sarah. I believe Sarah
[3:39:18] » It might be worthwhile and I'm going off
[3:39:21] out of my lane but perhaps if there's an
[3:39:24] opportunity to pull the various
[3:39:26] questions so that you could determine
[3:39:29] which ones you want to ask as a group
[3:39:31] and have that consistency before the
[3:39:33] meeting. That would help. You don't have
[3:39:36] to share them with the public until you
[3:39:37] present them, but it would help with the
[3:39:39] congruence of all of you providing what
[3:39:41] you're interested in for the round two
[3:39:44] or the final round.
[3:39:46] » I like that as an option. Customer
[3:39:48] Wharton.
[3:39:49] » So, this will be my seventh time going
[3:39:52] through this process and it is uh never
[3:39:57] uh flawless. Um and it's um almost
[3:40:02] always
[3:40:04] um we discover some kind of flaw from
[3:40:07] the previous pro way that we did it. I
[3:40:11] mean I think that one way to avoid that
[3:40:14] is to
[3:40:16] give some questions uh or give a list of
[3:40:20] questions and let the applicant select
[3:40:23] which questions they want to answer. Um
[3:40:26] and that might give us you know, we
[3:40:29] could have it some questions that we
[3:40:30] want everyone to answer and then some
[3:40:32] questions that it's like you can pick
[3:40:33] which one of these you want us to you
[3:40:35] want us to know. Um, and then that way
[3:40:38] we might be able to kind of get
[3:40:41] not be getting the same thing over and
[3:40:43] over, but also be getting new and and
[3:40:46] relevant information. Um, but I'm sure
[3:40:48] that there's probably some flaw in that
[3:40:50] as well. But, um, that's the best thing
[3:40:53] that I've thought of um to address this.
[3:40:56] What what about to just merge some of
[3:41:00] the ideas? We select some questions for
[3:41:02] round two and we let them pick uh
[3:41:06] » You know out of those questions to which
[3:41:08] one they want to address. Um
[3:41:10] » Sure
[3:41:11] » I don't know. I I remember the the
[3:41:15] process that I went through. It wasn't I
[3:41:17] mean the flaw there that you guys didn't
[3:41:19] select me but um that was the biggest
[3:41:22] flaw. Chris looking at you. Um
[3:41:24] » I know I
[3:41:26] » Um but uh I would never forget that. Um
[3:41:29] but uh
[3:41:29] » The people the people of district 2
[3:41:31] promptly informed us they disagreed. So
[3:41:35] I'm glad that they did because this is
[3:41:37] not this is the le this is the worst
[3:41:39] part about being on the council.
[3:41:40] » No, no, no. I I don't care. Um so Dan,
[3:41:45] » My question we on round two, we're not
[3:41:47] giving them the questions until we give
[3:41:49] them the questions at round two.
[3:41:51] » Right.
[3:41:52] » Yeah. I think I think that's what we're
[3:41:53] asking here is that from Sarah's point,
[3:41:55] we we pick we can maybe pick out of a
[3:41:58] hat or we say we're going to select
[3:41:59] these questions to give them in round
[3:42:01] two and this question you've given round
[3:42:02] three.
[3:42:03] » But isn't that what Sarah flagged as
[3:42:05] like an odd um process?
[3:42:07] » But but we but we give them all the same
[3:42:09] question, but we don't tell them that
[3:42:12] question until we come to that round
[3:42:13] two.
[3:42:14] » Is that what you're saying, Sarah? So, I
[3:42:17] just remembered that there was a
[3:42:19] fishbowl and there were random questions
[3:42:21] that were in there and they drew out a
[3:42:23] question and I got to answer it and then
[3:42:25] they drew out a different question and
[3:42:27] another candidate got to answer it and
[3:42:30] at least from my perception and memory
[3:42:33] of it, I felt like I got an easier
[3:42:37] question and and I felt bad for the
[3:42:41] other applicant in that process.
[3:42:45] uh
[3:42:46] hearing some of these and I think maybe
[3:42:48] this was uh Council Member Wharton or
[3:42:50] maybe Council Member Young's uh
[3:42:52] suggestion. I think for round two, I
[3:42:55] like the idea of like here are
[3:42:56] recommended questions and then letting
[3:42:58] the applicant select um from that pool
[3:43:01] of recommended questions. That was your
[3:43:03] suggestion. I know it was somebody's
[3:43:05] idea. I'm trying to give credit trying
[3:43:06] to give credit. whoseever idea it was,
[3:43:08] I've aligned in that direction so that
[3:43:11] we hear a diversity of responses um and
[3:43:14] we are able to uh kind of compare
[3:43:17] answers across candidates for those who
[3:43:19] decide to answer the same question. Um I
[3:43:22] would like to suggest and this is my
[3:43:24] first rodeo on this so happy to defer to
[3:43:27] other council members. I imagine there
[3:43:29] will be around three and possibly around
[3:43:32] four. Um maybe maybe not. Um, I would
[3:43:36] like to leave subsequent rounds after
[3:43:39] round two open for more specific and
[3:43:41] tailored questions to the candidates.
[3:43:46] » I I will be okay with that. Um, what if
[3:43:49] we to throw a wrench in this whole
[3:43:51] conversation, the last five minutes?
[3:43:54] Who hates the idea of of rank choice
[3:43:57] voting? I mean, we, you know, that's how
[3:43:59] voters elect people. we just rank and
[3:44:02] you know we just use the process and
[3:44:03] it's just done in one ballot. Um it's a
[3:44:07] little harder for your side. Um
[3:44:09] potentially um
[3:44:11] » I the reason I would say I'm hesitant to
[3:44:15] do that but we do we do uh break it down
[3:44:19] and we need to look at the percentage
[3:44:21] year. If you have five candidates up
[3:44:23] there where do we break the line off for
[3:44:26] take the top two? Do we need unanimous
[3:44:29] respon unanimous or do is it you know
[3:44:31] you only need four.
[3:44:33] » So it it needs to be a majority but we
[3:44:36] also have to determine how the if a if
[3:44:38] it isn't a majority how the next segment
[3:44:42] next group of people would be um
[3:44:44] defined. That's part of the resolution
[3:44:46] that the attorney is preparing in
[3:44:48] response to the state legislation. So
[3:44:49] they asked that to be clarified before
[3:44:51] the process is defined. So what I can
[3:44:54] offer is that the attorneys are working
[3:44:56] on the resolution to outline that plan
[3:44:59] in respect of how you've done this in
[3:45:02] the past and we would circle a draft
[3:45:04] back to you for your review of that
[3:45:06] voting process so that we secure the
[3:45:10] reality that it must be a majority.
[3:45:12] » Okay. And the the other thing is in the
[3:45:15] past we've had some where uh we had two
[3:45:18] candidates that were neck and neck and
[3:45:20] we went through a couple different
[3:45:21] rounds and and it uh changed some uh
[3:45:26] votes there to make it. So I think that
[3:45:28] would have and we selected the right
[3:45:30] candidate uh but we may not have
[3:45:33] selected the right candidate if we had
[3:45:34] the right rate right. So that's that's
[3:45:37] why I'm always hesitant on that. It may
[3:45:39] shorten the process, but it may not be
[3:45:43] the the uh the best outcome.
[3:45:47] » Yeah, I'm okay if we don't do that and
[3:45:49] we stick to the process that we have in
[3:45:51] the past. Um we do it one round and then
[3:45:56] we have some questions that we we
[3:45:58] pre-select
[3:45:59] um and we let them decide for which one
[3:46:01] they want to answer. Um that sort of
[3:46:04] meets both worlds of issues here. uh to
[3:46:08] keep consistency but at the same time
[3:46:10] allowing us to some flexibility on some
[3:46:12] of the questions. Um
[3:46:15] and then we maybe to your point, Council
[3:46:20] Member Carlson,
[3:46:22] allow for some flexibility if there are
[3:46:24] more rounds. Um you know, anybody has
[3:46:27] any thoughts about that process?
[3:46:31] My only worry is having uh a a question
[3:46:34] come out that hasn't really been vetted
[3:46:36] from the rest of the council members. So
[3:46:37] that's and then directed to those. I
[3:46:39] think the questions that we ask, no
[3:46:41] matter where we ask should all be vetted
[3:46:43] and we all should agree to those
[3:46:44] questions, not have you know Dugan say,
[3:46:47] "Oh, this is my question now that we've
[3:46:48] gone all this stuff." It should be
[3:46:50] vetted by all of us and we kind of it's
[3:46:52] written and we just
[3:46:53] » So let's do this for round number three.
[3:46:55] We don't just get to throw a question
[3:46:58] out there. We coordinate what question
[3:47:00] we're gonna in the majority manner.
[3:47:02] Yeah. You know, four of us at least
[3:47:04] decide what question to ask if there is
[3:47:06] a round three and four.
[3:47:08] » And then we ask that question.
[3:47:10] » So we don't just throw random questions
[3:47:11] on there.
[3:47:12] » It may be random questions, but maybe a
[3:47:14] majority of us agreeing to that
[3:47:16] [laughter] random question.
[3:47:18] » Okay,
[3:47:19] » Perfect. Um,
[3:47:20] » Clear as mud.
[3:47:21] » Clear as mud. Great.
[3:47:22] » I think most of it is clear as mud or is
[3:47:25] actually really clear. And then on this
[3:47:27] voting process thing, we'll report back
[3:47:29] to you guys. We'll probably take time in
[3:47:30] another announcement to just get really
[3:47:32] clear on that.
[3:47:33] » No, and I appreciate it is a very clear
[3:47:35] process. I I do appreciate the staff
[3:47:38] working on these. Uh I know that we're
[3:47:40] working through the budget, working
[3:47:42] through all of the things. It's a big
[3:47:43] deal. Uh I also appreciate the
[3:47:46] consistency that this council um you
[3:47:49] know is following uh with in this
[3:47:51] process um and following the the same
[3:47:54] generally the same process we always
[3:47:56] followed to to solve this this issue. So
[3:47:59] um I think that that means a lot to me
[3:48:01] and I think it should mean a lot to the
[3:48:02] community. So thank you.
[3:48:05] » Sorry just one more question um because
[3:48:08] that's the word of the hour. Um, I
[3:48:11] imagine that uh applicants may want may
[3:48:14] have questions about can I talk to
[3:48:16] current council members about their
[3:48:18] experience to introduce myself and what
[3:48:20] I'd like to do confirming that that is
[3:48:22] allowed in the process or are there any
[3:48:25] restrictions or um items we should be
[3:48:28] aware of when talking to applicants?
[3:48:31] » Sure.
[3:48:33] Thanks for asking the question. there's
[3:48:36] been a an adjustment in the practices in
[3:48:39] order to keep the relationships clear
[3:48:42] from your voting. Right? So there have
[3:48:44] been an opportunity generally what what
[3:48:46] has been followed in my recollection and
[3:48:49] Lehwa can correct me if I'm wrong it was
[3:48:51] that if someone wanted to speak to you
[3:48:52] or wanted to share more about their
[3:48:53] experience it was encouraged that they
[3:48:55] provide a recommendation letter or that
[3:48:57] they put something in writing so that it
[3:48:59] can be within within the public record
[3:49:01] and it could be directed it's
[3:49:03] essentially directed to the entire
[3:49:04] council on their priorities so that it's
[3:49:07] beyond the application. It's just a
[3:49:09] recommendation. It's not required.
[3:49:10] That's totally optional, but there is
[3:49:12] not a legal component about any
[3:49:15] relationship or discussion you have with
[3:49:17] any of the applicants as a council
[3:49:19] member. And I would refer to Mark for
[3:49:22] any legal guidance.
[3:49:28] » We're good.
[3:49:29] » Okay. Thank you everyone. This meeting
[3:49:31] is journ. Thank you. [laughter] Bye.
[3:49:50] » [music]