TREMONTON CITY CORPORATION
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
MAY 7, 2019
Members Present:
Diana Doutre
Lyle Holmgren
Jeff Reese
Bret Rohde
Lyle Vance
Roger Fridal, Mayor
Shawn Warnke, City Manager
Linsey Nessen, City Recorder
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
Mayor Fridal called the May 7, 2019 City Council Meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. The meeting was held in the Tremonton City Council Meeting Room at 102 South Tremont Street, Tremonton, Utah. Those in attendance were Mayor Fridal, Councilmembers Doutre, Holmgren, Reese, Rohde, and Vance, City Manager Warnke, and City Recorder Nessen. The following Department Heads were also present: Community Services Director Marc Christensen, Public Works Director Paul Fulgham, and Police Chief Kurt Fertig.
1. Opening Ceremony:
Mayor Fridal informed the audience that he had received no written or oral request to participate in the Opening Ceremony. He asked anyone who may be offended by listening to a prayer to step out into the lobby for this portion of the meeting. The prayer was offered by Director Christensen and the Pledge of Allegiance was led by Manager Warnke.
2. Declaration of Conflict of Interest: none
3. Approval of Agenda:
Motion by Councilmember Reese to approve the agenda of May 7, 2019. Motion seconded by Councilmember Holmgren. Vote: Councilmember Doutre – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Reese – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.
4. Approval of minutes – April 16, 2019
Motion by Councilmember Doutre to approve the minutes of April 16, 2019. Motion seconded by Councilmember Reese. Vote: Councilmember Doutre – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Reese – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.
Mayor Fridal called a Public Hearing to order at 5:32 p.m. to consider the tentative budget. There were 3 people in attendance.
5. Public Hearing:
a. On considering the Tentative Budget entitled “The Tremonton Tentative Implementation Budget 2019-2020 (General Fund, Capital Fund(s), Enterprise Fund(s) and Special Fund(s)” for the period commencing July 1, 2019, and ending June 30, 2020
There were no public comments. Mayor Fridal closed the Public Hearing at 5:33 p.m.
6. Public comments: This is an opportunity to address the City Council regarding your concerns or ideas. Please limit your comments to three minutes.
There were no public comments.
7. New Council Business:
a. Discussion and consideration of adopting Resolution No. 19-17 approving the Tentative Budget entitled “The Tremonton City Tentative Implementation Budget 2019-2020 (General Fund, Capital Fund(s), Enterprise Fund(s) and Special Fund(s)” for the period commencing July 1, 2019, and ending June 30, 2020
Councilmember Rohde asked if the City is expecting less revenue. Director Christensen said this has to do with big-ticket items like secondary water and the bio-solids handling. Councilmember Rohde clarified that on secondary water we have $4.2 million, but that is only if we need to spend it. We planned on spending about $3.2 million. Director Fulgham said our budget goes from July 1 to June 30. That includes last year’s expenditures in the secondary fund plus getting that money on our bond. Looking in this year’s budget, that includes what we have already spent. That is why that has driven that up so much. It includes phases 1, 2, and 3. Councilmember Rohde said we approved a $4 million bond incase we needed it, but we were only going to spend about $3 million and asked if that is different than this. Director Fulgham said yes, we bonded $3.4 million that is all borrowed. This other money was what we had set aside that we spent last year. It has nothing to do with that bond. We did the resolution for $4 million to make sure it covered everything, but we narrowed it to $3.4 million. Councilmember Doutre asked when phase 3 will be done. Director Fulgham said it would be in for next season. All the pipe work will be done before, but we cannot do the pump station until November after the canal goes out so we can dig into the bank.
Director Christensen gave an overview of the budget. I added a column under noteworthy expenses. If you have further questions, there are details in the memo of this packet. I will go through the ones I have highlighted. First is our health insurance renewal. We have been working with GBS and the initial renewal from Cigna came in at 24%. We went out to bid for other insurance carriers and Cigna came down to 14%. There were a couple others that have very similar packages to what we currently have that were about 10%, so GBS is going to see if Cigna will drop to that. Anywhere from 10-14% is what we are looking at for our health insurance renewal increase. If it were to be 14%, which is the highest, it could increase from $697,000 to $802,000. We also budgeted in a 2% cost of living adjustment with a 1% merit, which equates to $91,000.
Recorder Nessen told the Council about the elections for this year. She said we are doing vote-by-mail because the County machines are all out of date. They have gone to that and that is our only option. We can have a voting center, but they are still going to vote on a paper ballot they put in a box. We will have to pay for postage to mail to everyone.
Director Christensen then told the Council about senior programing. He said a part-time position at the senior center has had high turnover in the last couple of years and we are having trouble keeping programs running. We need a new programmer and wondered if our Recreation Program Coordinator, who is part-time now, could take on that position as well to make it one and boost her to 40 hours a week. This would create a full-time employee with benefits, but we would not have that turnover at the Senior Center and would have a better flow amongst all the City programs. If we were to combine the two into one full-time position, it is about $5,200 additional for the yearly cost.
Councilmember Reese said the copy machine is a lot. Director Christensen said that includes the yearly maintenance charge and all the toner. We would buy it outright so we would not have an annual lease. Currently employees at the Senior Center each have their local machine so they are buying new printers and ink instead of having one central copy machine. Anytime they run their newsletter or a lot of papers, they do it at the City Office. Councilmember Reese said their overhead cost might go down if they get all their ink cartages narrowed down to one. Director Christensen said I told Senior Center Director Jenny Christensen if we do go with this one machine, she would have to get rid of all the individual ones. Manager Warnke said the Police Department and the Recreation Department have machines that last about eight years. We replace our machine every four years, but based on their usage in those facilities, we think we can stretch it out to eight.
Director Christensen said last year the Council approved $11,800 to extend the hours of the library. We want to report it has been going well and at the next City Council meeting, the Library will have a report for you showing participation numbers.
Councilmember Reese asked if the County is participating on the new mural. Director Christensen said the County gave us a TAB grant last year for $8,000, which helps cover the professional fees for the artist.
Director Christensen said Cathy Newman at the Food Pantry has had back issues in the past and they would like to get an electric pallet jack to help her.
Councilmember Reese asked if they will ever break even with the Recreation Department or if that is just a good service to the community. Director Christensen said we shoot for covering the cost of the program and maybe a bit of the salaries. We had a tournament two weeks ago, which brought in about $3,000 of netted revenue. The gross was about $20,000, but it cost $17,000 to run it.
Director Christensen said a few have $10,000 impact fee updates. It has been five years since we have done an impact fee study. The vehicles scheduled for replacement are the Police Department has two cars and a Tahoe they are going to replace with three trucks. Director Fulgham has a truck he would replace and pass down to his other employees. We have a parks supervisor truck that has about 220,000 miles and is 15 years old.
Director Christensen said some of these numbers could change. Repairs to the Senior Center roof will cost about $40,000 and Director Fulgham has secured that bid. It should be done by the end of June. We still have to budget some money for a new carport in the back for the Meals on Wheels cars. That will help with the drainage because the roof leaks. We will keep you updated as those drop off the list. Mayor Fridal asked how much it costs to run the Senior Center. Manager Warnke said it was $400,000 when we did the analysis. Director Christensen went through that breakdown and said 40% is in Tremonton and 60% goes elsewhere. Mayor Fridal asked if we could have Senior Center Director Christensen tell the Council how much the City is spending and how much goes to Garland and Elwood. Councilmember Holmgren asked if we receive federal or state funds for this. Director Christensen said from the County we get $53,000, which increased from the previous $30,000. Intergovernmental gives us about $190,000. Manager Warnke said the total gap is about $200,000 between the revenues and the cost for service. The City is paying $200,000 more than the revenue we receive. The County pitched in $50,000 so that may have dropped to $150,000. We did the analysis and will send that out to everyone for review of exact numbers. The Council thanked Director Christensen and City staff for their efforts.
Motion by Councilmember Holmgren to adopt the resolution and approve the tentative budget. Motion seconded by Councilmember Reese. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Doutre – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Reese – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.
Councilmember Rohde said I would like to see a comparison and know where we are going to be this year. Manager Warnke said a year to date would be good for the Council’s review. Councilmember Vance asked how hard it would be to put that together. Director Christensen said once the 2019 numbers are in, I could add that column. It would take an hour or two to do that. Councilmember Vance said if we could get a run down on a quarterly basis it would give us all a better fiscal feeling of what is going on with the City. Director Fulgham said we could give the department and what percentage they are at without seeing every single item so it is shorter than 200 pages. The Council agreed that would be helpful.
Councilmember Doutre asked when the trail will be finished. Director Fulgham said we discussed June, but we need to add some drainage pipes and build it up a bit so it ramps better on the starting and stopping points of the trail. For the trailhead, we are starting concrete now and will finish the power so we can open the restrooms. Landscaping is in next year’s budget cycle. The playground will be next spring. Manager Warnke said the landscape architect has our comments and is targeting next spring. We need to raise some more money so I am looking into different grants. We might need to phase in the playground equipment and have the Council prioritize the project.
Councilmember Vance said he would like to see a run down for secondary water showing what we are spending and how it is coming together. Director Fulgham said I could email a year-to-date on the secondary showing what has been bought for which service area. Councilmember Doutre asked about water shares. Director Fulgham said today we have 188 shares and are ahead of where we need to be. The land purchase has 111 shares that will be put into the lease pool while we are not using them. As connections come on, they will be transferred where needed.
b. Discussion and consideration of awarding the bid for the Wastewater Treatment Facilities Upgrade Project including in the project for Nutrient Removal and Solids Handling and a second Influent Screen
Director Fulgham said we only had one bidder. The rest of them pulled out of the project because they are so busy. Spindler Construction bid a total of $2,891,000. Breaking that down, $812,000 of that is for the solids handling. That is because of growth so that is an impact fee related expense. Then $1.92 million of the project is the nutrient removal due to EPA rule changes. Finally $157,000 of that is for a second screen. When we built the building in 2003, we set a spot for a future screen to be added. Our other screen is 16 years old and starting to have issues. It has been totally depreciated out in our depreciation schedule. That would be paid out of internal funds. The reason we raised our rates from $18.30 to $28.30 was to handle these projects without having to borrow money. Councilmember Reese asked if Director Fulgham is confident in this company. Director Fulgham said yes, they have worked for us in the past. They are a good company and I feel good about this. I would have liked to see it for less, but it could have been higher, too. This was in the ballpark of where we were estimating. Our engineer’s updated estimate was $2.6 million without the screen. We are lucky we got as many years out of that as we have. Councilmember Reese asked about the projected start date. Director Fulgham said if the bid is awarded, within two weeks they will have all their bonds in place and will start getting equipment. The final complete date is January 30. Councilmember Rohde said we have an increase of almost $300,000 and asked if the fees are enough to make up that difference. Director Fulgham said yes, we have been saving. This project has been on the books for three to four years.
Motion by Councilmember Reese to award the bid for wastewater treatment facility upgrades to Spindler Construction. Motion seconded by Councilmember Vance. Roll Call Vote: Councilmember Doutre – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Reese – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.
c. Update on the status of the Tremonton City’s Water Revenue Bonds Series 2019
Manager Warnke said there is not much. We did close today and the money is in the bank. Finance Director Curtis Roberts will be here on Friday. We are going to setup a construction fund for that so we can monitor the expense and keep the Council posted. The terms came in as we had discussed and we have a good structure to do additional bonds.
8. CLOSED SESSIONS: No closed session was held at this time.
a. Strategy session to discuss the purchase of real property when public discussion of the transaction would disclose the appraisal or estimated value of the property under consideration or prevent the public body from completing the transaction on the best possible terms; and/or
b. Strategy session to discuss the character, professional competence or physical or mental health of an individual; and/or
c. Strategy sessions to discuss pending or reasonably imminent litigation; and/or Discussions regarding security personnel, devices or systems
9. Adjournment.
Motion by Councilmember Reese to adjourn the meeting. Motion seconded by Councilmember Rohde. Vote: Councilmember Doutre – aye, Councilmember Holmgren – aye, Councilmember Reese – aye, Councilmember Rohde – aye, Councilmember Vance – aye. Motion approved.
The meeting adjourned at 6:18 p.m.
The undersigned duly acting and appointed Recorder for Tremonton City Corporation hereby certifies that the foregoing is a true and correct copy of the minutes for the City Council Meeting held on the above referenced date. Minutes were prepared by Jessica Tanner.
Dated this 21st day of May, 2019.
Linsey Nessen, City Recorder
Follow-up items for the Council and City Staff
The Council would like Senior Center Director Jenny Christensen to tell them how much the City is spending and how much of that resource goes to Garland and Elwood.
The Council would like to see a comparison from year-to-year on the budget in a shorter, easier to digest packet. It was suggested having this on a quarterly basis. They would also like a run down for secondary water showing where money is being spent for each phase. Director Fulgham will email a year to date on the secondary showing what has been bought so far.
Chief Fertig said Garland wants the Council to field a softball team for Wheat and Beet Days so they will put together a team.