Cache County Council Regular Meeting – 09-23-2025

We have all of our technical issues taken care of, and we are ready to start our meeting. Welcome everyone to our council meeting tonight. I want to start by excusing council person Barbara Tidwell who is out of town, and we will also want to excuse our county attorney Taylor, and our county clerk, Bryson, but we're grateful to have Michelle and Jeris here with us. Thank you for being with us. We'll go ahead and have an opening by council member Keegan Garrity. Yeah. So

I was out to lunch with a friend of mine and actually saw Catherine and her husband there. We're keeping conversations. I didn't really get to talk to her. But this friend of mine is a refugee from Iran. He has his US citizenship now, but we're talking about American inventions and entrepreneurship. He was saying when he was a kid, he noticed how many things came out of America and thought that was interesting because, I mean, the Persian Empire has been around forever. So he's wondering how a country that's, you know, not very old, just a couple 100 years old, has all these inventions that came out of it. He mentioned a few. The telephone by Alexander Graham Bell, who was a Scottish immigrant, alternating current from Nikola Tesla, and he's Serbian, aspirin, which is created by Hoffman from Germany, and the nuclear reactor, which is Fermi from Italy, but all took place in The US. So he he ended up putting his thoughts into an article that he shared with me, and I wanted to share some of the insights that he said. So he he talked about how the First Amendment core component of American invention, and the reason being is because it guaranteed that even unpopular or disruptive ideas could be shared, debated, and refined. Authoritarian regimes could command vast resources, but without free speech and property rights, their innovations often stalled. He said free speech must be protected if we're to continue, especially when it comes from voices we find deeply objectionable. This isn't comfortable. It means defending the right of climate change skeptics to publish research that challenges mainstream science. It means protecting the academic freedom of scholars whose conclusions about gender, race, or economics might make you cringe. It means allowing entrepreneurs to build platforms for ideas you despise. Why? Because breakthrough innovations often begin as heretical thoughts. The Wright brothers were dismissed as bicycle mechanics with delusions. Tesla's ideas about alternating current were ridiculed by Edison. Early Internet pioneers were told their information superhighway was a fantasy, and so as we think about hearing things from people we disagree with, we should be really careful not to silence them. We should celebrate our right to say what we want because that ultimately pushes the best ideas to the top when everyone can participate in the marketplace of ideas. I'm grateful for the freedom of speech we enjoy in this country, and I hope we can all do our part to protect that. With that said, please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America, and to the republic

I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Keegan. Those remarks were very, very timely. Appreciate that. K. Could I get a motion to, approve the agenda, please? So moved. Second. Been moved and seconded that we approve the agenda. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. We have not yet received minutes from our last meeting which was just a week ago so we will approve those at our next meeting. We'll have two sets of minutes to approve, so we'll go past that, and we'll move on to the report of the County Executive. Mr. Daines.

This last week I had spent the time basically on the budget. We're preparing to start our meetings with the different departments and the elected official offices. Matt Funk and I will start those meetings tomorrow. Or is it Wednesday Matt? I think it's Tomorrow's Wednesday. Tomorrow is Wednesday. Tomorrow. We've gone through what we're going to propose to the in the meetings. We've met with the council members, and kind of given them an update as to what we're doing. Various officers and people in the office. County officials and employees that I've met. Fine, outstanding group of people. Appreciate the opportunity to join this team. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Appreciate that. And I would like to say too, it's been one week since we, be officially sworn in and it is, there's been a lot done in that week and we have appreciated the opportunity to work with our our new executive, Danes. So thank you. The next item on our agenda is a budget process update and that basically is what you just gave, that we are hard at work in the middle of updating that and getting ready for public hearings that will happen later. Six b, the bankruptcy, issue. Jeris, can we

Sandy? Yes. Is there do we do the appointment

now, or is that later? Did you want to make an appointment tonight, George?

I'm not sure how that's set up on your agenda. Yes. I have I think now would be the time to do that. I forgot. I've nominated mister R. Kurt Webb to be a deputy county executive, and I would ask for advice and consent from the County Council for that appointment.

Okay. Mr. Webb is here. Maybe he can stand up Curt, so we can

I just say Mr? Webb is an experienced business man. He served in the legislature for eight years, Kurt? Thirteen. Thirteen. Thirteen. Time flies when you're having fun. But he comes in with experience in government, experience in working with committees, experience in budget, and I think he will be a significant addition to the team that we're running in the County Executive Office. I would ask for your advice and consent to employ him in that capacity.

K. Could I have a motion to that? I'll make a motion that we approve our executive's recommendation of Art Kurt Webb as the chief deputy executive. Second. Okay. It's been moved and seconded that we accept the appointment of Kurt Webb as our deputy executive. Is there any further discussion? Those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Welcome, Kurt.

Alright. Thank you, Council and Chair, for letting me speak on this. We do have Craig McAllister here. If I say anything wrong, please correct me. We've been working with, the treasurer on this to make sure that this is is handled properly, and he's done a great job in that effort. Basically, what this is is that there's an individual who filed bankruptcy. There were some, taxes due and then some interest that was, accrued on those those taxes due. Through the legal process, through bankruptcy court, those a certain amount and the tax obligation that we have right now is $4.75 27. That's the amount. So $475.27 was owing, but based on, the actions that took place in bankruptcy court under Federal law, we cannot, charge that individual. So, we're just asking the Council to approve this resolution, that has been provided to you, basically stating that the amount is canceled and released,

and that's what we're asking today. Did we get a number on that, Jeris? The top of it just says 2025Dash?

Yeah. That that will need to be assigned. We drafted this today, so that will have to be assigned afterwards, and that will be provided in the That's okay that we pass it without having that number assigned yet. Yeah.

Alright. Does anyone have any questions for Jerus about this bankruptcy?

Alright. I would entertain a motion then. I would go ahead and move to approve resolution 2025 of the parcel 98034.

been moved and seconded that we approve this resolution that is number 2025Dash to be determined about, mister Brandon Bear's tax obligation to the county's property tax records. Those is there any further discussion? Those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Jairus. Okay. The next on our agenda is Brandon McBride from Logan Regional Hospital.

Well, good evening. Thank you for, having us join for a few minutes this evening. Yes. I'm sorry. I'm Brandon McBride. I'm the hospital president at Logan Regional Hospital.

And Emilio Rodriguez. I'm the communications manager at Logan Regional Hospital.

Great. Well, we wanted just to come tonight and spend a few minutes with you, to do two things. One, to give you a brief update on some things that are happening at the hospital. And then two, to give you a brief summary of our tax exempt status and our reporting that we completed earlier this year, in the spring, with Barbara, who represented the county council. That's the formal annual process that we go through, but we like to always come back in the fall and circle back with the full council, give you a brief update on our charity reporting, and the amount of charity care that we're providing to the community as a tax exempt, not for profit organization. So thank you for pulling those slides up for us. So, we can go to the next slide. Just wanted to give you a brief overview, of Intermountain Health and Logan Regional Hospital and our mission and focus on helping people live the healthiest lives possible. That's something that's really important to us, so much that we really have changed our business model to try to get upstream and change relationships with insurance companies and and contracts, to help keep people out of the hospital. That's our goal, in, helping to, change those relationships so that we get paid a a fixed amount from our insurance companies, and then it's our responsibility to try to proactively manage the health of the community. We can go to the next slide. As a not for profit organization, our goal is to ensure that we provide the best care possible, but do it regardless of our patient's ability to pay. And we can talk a little bit about our financial assistance policy and the charity care that we provided to the community here in just a moment. We can go to the next slide. For profit healthcare versus not for profit healthcare. I won't spend a lot of time on this, but really wanna focus on the right side of the screen. Our focus, again, as a not for profit organization is to make sure that we are reinvesting back into the community through health and wellness, that we're prioritizing our offerings to meet the community need, and sometimes that comes at a loss. We have a number of services that we provide at the hospital that are, not profitable, but we do that because it's the right thing to do for the community. And our goal really is to focus on long term sustainability rather than short term gains. Go to the next slide. Just a little overview of Logan Regional Hospital, where we currently stand on some of our key statistics. We have about 1,100 employees. We call all of our employees caregivers. So about 1,100 caregivers. A 146 licensed beds. We're the largest level three trauma center in the state of Utah. Our volumes actually approach many of the level two trauma centers, which is the next largest level up, but we're currently a level three trauma center. We have dozens of medical and surgical specialties and currently have over 400 physicians on our medical staff. Here are just some key highlights from a volume standpoint. From 2024, delivered just under two thousand babies, just about seventy five hundred surgeries. That was only what was performed in the hospital. We also have a separate entity, which is the Logan Surgery Center, which is not under our not for profit status. It's a separate entity of Intermountain Health where we performed about another 2,500 surgeries on the hospital campus, and then just under 32,000 emergency room visits, so a very busy ER as the community continues to grow. This is really where I wanted to spend some time with you and just really highlight our focus on providing financial assistance and charity care to the community. I think as all of you know, as a tax exempt, not for profit organization, we have to demonstrate to you and to the community that, what we would have paid in property tax, we are providing at least that amount, if not more, in financial assistance or charity care to the community. And so the numbers you see here, the 2024 estimated property tax for Logan Regional Hospital would have been about $2,100,000 in lieu of that, we provided $13,400,000 in pure charity care or financial assistance. And what I want to make sure I highlight on that number two things. One, that's an adjusted number. That is not a gross number. So we adjust that number down for what we would actually have been paid had we billed insurance or a patient for that amount. And two, that is not bad debt. So we have a separate bad debt bucket that's completely separate from the $13,400,000 in charity care that we provided. The other piece that I'll mention as well is that we do, as an organization and as a hospital, we do pay property tax. It's not as if we are tax exempt across the board. We pay property tax on any building where we have a physician leasing space from us and there is revenue that we are generating from a physician lease. We pay taxes on those properties. We also pay taxes on all of our medical group clinics, So the Budge Clinic, North and South Cash, Logan Clinic, those are not under the property tax exemption, and we pay property taxes on those buildings. This is something we are really proud of. We love the ability to provide care to the community at the highest levels, striving to provide the best quality and most safe care we can, while also offering over $13,000,000 in pure financial assistance to the community. Let me just pause there and see if there's any questions on the charity care piece.

Do you have examples or breakdown of some of the ways you're investing?

Well, that number there is just, again, it's just pure charity care. So, that is a patient presents to, you know, let's say the patient presents to the emergency department, and they need care, even if it's non emergent, they present for a surgery and don't have the means to fully pay for it. We have a very robust process that goes up to about 300% of the poverty limit that allows for individuals and families to receive financial assistance. And so that's what that, that's what that bucket of money is. So, yeah, I mean, there's, thousands of encounters that would that would add up to that 13,400,000, and that can be both elective and emergent encounters. So, yeah, great question. Thank you. And we all question. Thank you.

Brandon, will you also explain oh, sorry. You go ahead. Go ahead. No. We explain the relationship to that number as far as what the difference between what Medicare pays

and and what Medicaid pays? Yes. Yeah. Great point. So typically, we get paid Medicaid is typically the lowest payer. We get paid anywhere between 20 and maybe 30¢ on the dollar from Medicaid from our gross charges. Medicare is usually about in the 40% range. And then private insurance is a little higher, typically in the 50 to 60, sometimes 70% range, just depending on the contract. So, yeah, it's a really good point. So when we adjust that number down, we adjust for the fact that we would only be getting paid 20 to 60¢ on the dollar, depending on the payer, to make sure that's an accurate reflection and we're not overstating the charity care provided. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you.

I jumped ahead in your presentation. Oh, you're good. You're gonna answer my question here shortly. Okay. Great.

K. I'll turn some time to Emilio to talk a little bit more about our our community benefit.

If you can go to the next slide, please. Yeah. So every three years, we partner with the Bear River Health Department and what we do with them is that we, complete a community health needs assessment. Essentially, we evaluate the health needs of our community and, we do that through surveys, through meetings, through discussions with community leaders and the community at large. And what you see on your screen right now are the results, of that assessment from 2023 to 2025. Those were to improve mental well-being, improve chronic disease and health outcomes, address and invest in social drivers of health, and access to care. Some of the implementation strategies, that we've implemented that support those, and I'll just list a couple here because there's several of them. Is that we've deployed upstream mental well-being resources, we've improved access to behavioral health care, expanded community based suicide prevention, deployed community health workers, reduced childhood vaping, building community capacity, improved educational outcomes. There's a lot of ongoing work that is being done by our incredible community health team. As I mentioned earlier this is this was the results for the 2023 to 2025 assessment. Our community health team has recently done that same assessment. This past April. I believe they met on April 21 to discuss the results of the community survey. And so right now, our our health needs that we're gonna be focusing on for the next three years, are currently being approved by our inter mountain board, And we'd be happy to share that information once we've received that approval. We'd be happy to send that over to you. But I just want to go back to one thing that Brandon had mentioned earlier. A phrase that we really love at Intermountain is that we're always swimming upstream. And essentially, what that means is that we're being proactive as as we can to solve problems rather than just reacting to them. And this, community health initiative is and our charity care are just two small examples, two fairly large examples, I should say, on how we're doing that. And so we're very, very proud, of what we've accomplished and what we, see as opportunities moving forward. Does anybody have any questions about community health before we move forward? I believe that actually is the the end of our presentation. If anybody else has any other questions or comments.

I will just say I happen to be a lucky Serves on the board of the Logan Hospital. Been on it for twelve, thirteen years, and they are a very, very valuable community partner. And I have been through many of the committees there and appreciate their task and their service to the community and all that they do. Some very great people there. So

Thank you. Yeah. We appreciate the opportunity to be here. We appreciate the partnership that we have with each of you, your support, and, the relationship we have with you to be able to work through any challenges that come up as they arise. I will just mention, so you're aware, we are getting close to finalizing our large project on our campus that's been ongoing for many years. We're just about a month away from having substantial completion. It's gonna be really nice to have that project done and, not have a major construction project going on on the campus, at least for now. We are needing to expand our emergency department and our lab, hoping to be able to get that approved and maybe move forward with that in the next one to two years, and we'll keep you posted on on the timing and what that looks like. So thank you for allowing us to be here tonight. It was a pleasure to be with you. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. The next item on our agenda is our public hearings, and we're gonna start with, ordinance twenty twenty five dash 26, the Lauer Foods. And, we'll have Angie present on that. And then as we open this up to the public in each of these, when we open it up for public hearings, we'd ask you to please be respectful in your comments, and please keep your comments to two minutes. And we'll have Andrew being a timer. He'll gently let you know that your two minutes are up. So if we can make sure everybody has a chance to speak.

Hello. Good evening. Angie Zutterquist, interim director of development services. The first rezone that we have for you tonight, and I believe Andrew is bringing up the presentations, is 7.8 acres located near just South of Richmond, actually on their boundary, their southern boundary. It's 7.88 acres that they wanna go from the agricultural a 10 to the industrial zone. It's located just off the highway, about 700 south, And it's a project that's associated with the Lauer Foods facility that's located within the within the Richmond city limits. And, again, this property is just immediately south of that. But as part of their bigger project where they're expanding, this would be an area where they would do a kind of a parking and staging area for their trucks. And I believe there might be a scale located on that too as well, but we'll go through all the specifics of that project and that development of that piece through the conditional use permit process if we get the rezone approved. The question is, with the facility in Richmond and this property located immediately south of it, why don't they annex? It's a personal decision to not annex into Richmond. And Richmond has commented that they have no concerns with the rezone. This image here is a vicinity map that kinda shows you that parcel in blue. The gray area is the Richmond city limits. And then the next slide just kinda shows the aerial there. As we look forward to, future development if the rezone is approved, they are working with UDOT currently on gaining access from Highway 91. It's a limited access area, as they have to go through a process to purchase those access rights back. There is a county road on the south side I mean, on the east side of the property, South State Street, that would probably require some improvements. And then there's potential for a road along the south boundary of this property to align with 9400 North on the west side of the highway. As far as Planning Commission's recommendation, a public hearing was held on August 7, and they recommended approval to the County Council on a six to zero vote, finding that the property is consistent with the industrial zone. It's appropriately served by public roads and services. It's consistent with the general plan as far as being within the urban expansion over really given its proximity to Richmond. And, yeah, it will be part of a property that's, immediately adjacent to their industrial facility in Richmond. So, with that, if you have any questions for staff. Do you have any questions for Andy?

Okay. Thank you. Is there anyone here from the public that would like to speak to this rezone application?

Move to close the public hearing.

Second. Yeah. I think they didn't realize that that was their option.

They didn't realize that that was their offer. That this is your time.

Jake Latham, Sunrise Engineering, representing Lauer Foods. I'm happy to answer any questions.

I don't know if anybody has any questions.

Yes. I was planning zoning, so I have no questions.

Just a question as to why you did you chose not to annex into Richmond City?

The owner made it very clear. It's not in his interest right now, and

Richmond City has also shared that sentiment. But if, Alan, if you'd like to delve into it.

Alan Lauer and I'm the owner of Lauer Foods. I guess our family business is something I have a great passion to to build and then pass on to to my family. And we've we've worked hard to to build our business and to be good partners in that community. But I've been in the meat business. I'm 65 years old and I know what's going on in my industry. And over time, as town grows around meat businesses, they're asked to leave. And I've invested so much, I can't leave. And so I don't want the town to get past me. And so that's plain. And I bought that land to the south as a buffer. In fact, I bought it from Matt Funk. And if he stood here, he would agree with what I'm doing. So But that that's

why. Thank you.

Is there anyone else from the public that would like to speak to this?

Okay. Now Then I would move to close the public hearing. And I'll second.

Moved moved and seconded that we close public hearing. Those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? K. Alright. Ordinance twenty twenty five dash 28.

So this is a very long name, the S B A U T 24138 Dash B Paradise Rezone. It's actually a small request for approximately a 2,500 square foot area, for the public infrastructure overlay zone. That would allow for the PI zone would allow for construction of a telecommunications facility, and so that's all the land that they need in order to, construct that, future telecommunications telecommunications facility. With overlays, the underlying zone remains the same. So it'll be the a 10 and it will just, again, have this overlay in order to allow the construction of a, cell tower. This is the property in blue, as you can see, just north of Paradise boundaries, which is in the dark gray. The next slide will show the aerial, and that yellow dot kind of represents the general location where that overlay will be and the new tower constructed. As far as planning commission, public hearing was held on September 4, and right they recommended approval on a vote of six to zero to county council, finding that the subject property is consistent with the overlay zone. And we did receive, one comment from Paradisetown. They were concerned about the rezone and the future telecommunications facility, because this property is located with our annexation area, and their code is a little different in that it requires, stealth telecommunication towers or, being located on buildings so they're not as visible. The county code does not have any requirements for design of towers or requiring them to be stealth. So, it would just be what it is, a tower, telecommunications tower. But again, they did recommend approval, for that small overlay zone on this property.

Okay. Anyone have any questions about that for Angie? After the public hearing, I might Okay. We'll go ahead and open that up to a public hearing. Is there anyone here to speak to this SBA rezone for the cell phone tower? This is your time.

I'm Ben Feldman. I'm just representing the telecommunications carrier. If you guys have any questions. There's no resistance.

Do you have any questions for This is their time. Our time comes later. Yeah. Yeah. If you have anything you want to present to us about that,

Nothing right now till the CEP. So

Okay. Thank you very much. Alright. Move to close the public hearing. Second. It's been moved and seconded that we close the public hearing. Those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Any any opposed? Okay. Ordinance 2025 Dash 20.

Hang on. Now I'd like I have one question on that. Don't we do that when we're down here approving it? No. I'll pull the puppy here in on this I can ask questions, I believe, on this property. Okay. And the one question I had was in that little area, that little spot within that 16 acres Mhmm. The whole 16 acres is affected then by

that overlay zone, or will it be very specific just to in that one spot? It'll be very specific. We'll have require that they print the legal description for that area so that it's very limited to just that portion and not the entire 16. Play within that area. Okay. Now if you look at our GIS maps, kind of pull it out and keep put that overlay on, you'll see a lot of little postage stamp overlay zones for that PI for telecommunications

facilities. So Thank you. That's all. Thanks, Angie. Yep. Okay. Go ahead with 2025Dash29.

So this is the Sparks Venture rezone. It is a request to rezone 10 acres from the agricultural A 10 to the industrial zone. This parcel is located near, Smithfield, if you wanna go to the next slide. This is kind of the the vicinity map. So this is West of Smithfield, west and south. You can kinda see the little bit of Smithfield up at the top and then Hyde Park boundaries down below. It is the nearest industrial zone to this property is located on the same road, 4200 North, just, east of the property. I think I have a map on that if you wanna go to this is the aerial. And then, from this map, you can see the blue light blue is the subject property. The purple pieces to the west and north are, currently zoned industrial. The furthest north piece, is an existing storage facility, with, units on it that recently expanded. The closer one on 4200 North, received approval of a rezone, 2023, I believe, but they have not come in to develop that piece and so it remains vacant. In taking this to Planning Commission, they have recommended denial of the rezone to county council as the property is not consistent with the industrial zone. Those roads that provide access, the 4200 North and then, I believe, it's 800 West could you go back to the yeah. 800 West to the East are both substandard, and any development on them would require improvements pretty much clear back to the East. So they're not currently served by adequate public roads. Hyde Park City also provided comments that they expressed concern, it being in their future annexation area, that they would not be able to provide adequate services in the future as well. And, they're opposed to development on that property including, installation of a septic tank due to a low water table. So they just don't believe it's appropriate for an industrial type use. So, again, Planning Commission recommended denial on a vote of five to one to not advance this reason.

Okay. We have a question for Angie. K. Is there anyone here from the public that would like to speak to this ordinance?

So my name is Blake Sparks. I'm owner of that property, and, you know, I've owned that place for, like, forty years. And it's it's kinda lower ground, a lot like the a lot of the ground around the airport there. It's really untillable ground. I do try to run some livestock on there periodically to keep, you know, the the the grass and the burrs down. But, as I've taken and seen this piece of property down the the across the street, down the road from me, moved to industrial, I'm thinking that it's an opportunity that, you know, I can take to maybe put my piece into industrial and develop that there. The piece that went in that you did move into industrial, I mean, it's tillable ground. I think that we rely on canal water to take and serve that. My place, you know, is is is unfarmable. I have a a well there, so I have fresh water there. I realized that there is gonna need to be some roadwork done on around that property, and, you know, we have took and considered that. Along with when we had our meeting a month ago or so, I realized that there are residential homes to the north half a mile. And, you know, as, you know, as that played out, it seems like north of that, the temple is is being built up there. There is added traffic to 800 East, north of me, you know, a half a mile. And I understand that that, you know, roadways are are there are gonna be more traffic, you know, as things develop. And I was just wanting to take and, you know, try to provide some infrastructure for us there and try to provide

some tax base for us there. Okay. Thanks. Thank you, mister Sparks. Is there anyone else that would like from the public that would like to speak to this rezone application?

K. Move to close the public hearing. Second.

It's been moved and seconded that we close the public hearing. Those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Alright. 2025Dash30.

Where did you find that? Yes. So this is, the Greenfield Industrial Warehouse rezone. This is a request to go from the agricultural a 10 and commercial to an an industrial zone. If you go to the next map, you can see the parcels here. The location is just North of Richmond. This is directly across the road from the Utah Flour Mill project. From this image, it appears to be three parcels, but what that's actually reflecting is two different parcels and then one of those parcels has a split zoning. So part of it's a 10, part of it's commercial. And the GIS program we have, just kind of draws a line to bring that to our attention. So, in fact, it is just, two parcels totaling that 8.79 acres. The nearest industrial to this is the flour mill and the, Peppered Farm Campbell's across the road. This is the aerial showing the existing use. That front lot is actually a 10 and then the lot with the building, the white building is the commercial zone. And then the parse the split parcel, just to the south and east is also a 10. So So those are the parcels they're looking to, rezone. They would like to have not rezoned that, separate section of 0016, but, unfortunately, there's not enough acreage to do a division of property on that. So, again, any use within the industrial zone would be allowed if the, rezone was approved. The stated purpose is to provide more staging area and parking for trucks that are going to the flour mill. Apparently, it's been hugely successful and they need another place to locate trucks and that that are visiting the site, both receiving and, distributing. So at the planning commission meeting, September 4, public hearing was held, and planning commission recommended of the approval of the rezone on a vote of five to zero with one of our commission members abstaining. The conclusions were that it's reasonably consistent with the industrial zone. It's consistent with the urban expansion overlay of the industrial zone, and there are industrial zones already, nearby this property immediately on the West Side Of Highway 91. Richmond City provided comment that, they had no issues with the rezone. So

if you have any questions for me on that? I have questions for for Angie about this one.

What was the reason for the extension? Is there a conflict of interest?

I believe he has a property interest in it. So He owns property next.

Close.

Anybody else? Okay. Thanks, Angie. Okay. Is there anyone here from the public that would like to speak to this ordinance?

Kirk Aarons, vice president of environmental health and safety for Greenfield. We just we wanna make sure that it's zoned properly. It's been used by Pepperidge. Their lease came up. We were we took over the lease from Dana Christenson, and it was used as a warehouse and staging area with Pepperidge. And underneath commercial with your guys' rules, that doesn't fit with inside the zoning where it needs to be industrial so we can continue to use it as a staging area and a warehouse area for the overflow that we're having off of the industry right now.

K. Does anyone have any questions for mister Ahrens? K. Thank you. Yep. Thank you. Is there anyone else from the public that was is here to speak to this ordinance?

Move to close the public hearing.

Second. It's been moved and seconded that we close public hearing. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Alright. 20 now we get to the the happy stuff. Twenty twenty five dash 31, proposed amendments to compensation of county elected officials. Amy, thank you for being here. I know that that was a rush for you.

It was tight, but traffic was in our favor, so that was good. Now if the PowerPoint will just, cooperate, we will be good.

And before we begin, Amy, I just want to clarify also that this is only elected officials' salaries that we're gonna talk about, not the appointed officials. That will happen at another time. Correct.

So here up on the screen, we can see the, full time elected officials' salaries, and this is how we are comparing two other counties. Over to the right hand side, what's been one of the recommendations from the compensation committee is a two and a half percent cost of living adjustment, along with a 5.5% market adjustment. This is based off of, the average of, what employees is being proposed to the council as well. And historically, we have treated full time elected officials very similarly, and their compensation increases the way that we have treated our employees. So as you can look on this graph, the average there is that middle orange line that says average, and that's the average of all of those, other counties and what those, rates are. You can see Cache County is there in the yellow. And then in the light purpley blue color is the dollar difference and the percentage difference between what the average is of other counties' elected officials versus Cache County's elected officials. So as we look at that, in the assessor, currently, the assessor is making a $123,028 and the proposed is a 133,717. So that would be a 8.69% increase, to bring them up to the market average of where that that is. So if you follow that example along, you can see, how that would play out there with, the rest of the elected officials. Are there any questions on this?

No. Does anyone have questions for Amy about this?

The next one we'll wanna look at is gonna be for our council members. Here is, the annual salaries of council members, of other part time councils. The ones that are highlighted in the orange are third, third class county part time councils. And we can see there at the top, that Cash County at 24,000 as an annual salary, is actually the lowest paid out of the third class counties. And so, what the compensation committee is proposing, we had two proposals that we talked about. The average of the third class, it would be $45,000 for the chair, or sorry, for a council member. And then, historically, what has been the increase for the chair is an additional 20% because of the additional duties that the chair does, raising that to 50. And I didn't fix the slide. It was corrected last time. It would be 54,000. I apologize for not fixing that slide. If you took the midpoint of all of the part time councils there, that's showing between third, fourth, fifth, and sixth class counties, the average of all of those, or the midpoint, would be $40,000 And so that could also be a consideration of the council. But the compensation committee is recommending 45,000 for part time council members and 54,000 for the chair. Any questions?

Will you go back to the previous slide, Amy? Sure. Okay. So the average is that that orange line up there, but down the proposed rate for 2026.

The proposed rate, there is, oh, yes. Sorry. I misspoke as I was giving that example. Thank you. So the proposed rate, as we look down at the bottom So let me just start over with that example. How about that? Okay. So for the assessor, the current rate is a $123,028 the cost of living adjustment would be $3,075.70. The market adjustment would be the $8,007.66 53. So the '53. So the proposed 2026 rate would be 132,870. So thank you for for catching that. So then the the What's being proposed then is that bottom green line for, the the market adjustment for the full time elected officials.

Okay. Perfect. Does anyone else have any questions for Amy or anything you want to clarify? I just had a question. When I was trying to look into this and,

I know we're comparing our counties of the third class. Did we look at employee count and annual budget for those?

So all the third class would you know what that is? I mean, I don't have those numbers off the top of my head. It it's we're grouped into counties by population, and so it would be very similar. So there's a range of population that third class counties would be at. But, yeah. I was just wondering, like, administratively. So there might be a third class county with, let's say,

a county library system or a rec center that might require more administration.

I I just I don't know if you had any data on that. Well, we would be the biggest of the third class counties. And so I would with just assume, not knowing, that they would probably have less of an infrastructure than what we do because we are the of the highest population of the third class counties. Employee count would probably be higher. I would assume so as

Thanks.

They just barely went to third class. K. Anybody else have questions for for Amy? K. Thank you so much, Amy. Okay. This is a time that we open this up to the public. If there's some public that would like to speak to this ordinance, then this is the time to come forward.

Move to close the public hearing.

Second. It's been moved and seconded that we close public hearing. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Thank you. Alright. Seven f, resolution twenty twenty five dash 33, the third quarter county budget amendments. Matt Funk, our esteemed auditor.

Council members, I've passed out an updated version that's been changed since the one that you received yesterday. There are two changes which I will highlight. If you look on page five, you will see at the top of page five, item number 25. This is a request to fund the appointment of a new deputy for the Office of the Executive for the remainder of 2025. This would allocate $21,800 to full time employees' object code for that department. It would allow $5,900 for employee benefits, and these funds would be drawn from the appropriated fund balance.

Benefits?

The entire $27,700 would be, drawn from the appropriated fund balance. Are you asking why we're, why there's a benefits? We understand that there will not be benefits.

There are to be no benefits associated with that position.

Okay. We will then I will make a note of that. We'll make an amendment

on that.

He's still here to then

take I don't know. You can leave Is he just learning getting no benefits, Kurt?

I think it's in code

that that they are benefits provided. They can't. They can choose not. Choose to not check that with

me. On the bottom of page four, item number 24, the Cash Community Foundation, This is a request to transfer funds from the General Fund nongovernmental department to the Cash Community Foundation, dollars 5,000 to be used as seed money, I suppose, for the America Two Fifty event. I am reminded of my Britney notes that the employee benefits of $5,900 includes a provision for FICA taxes, so we're going to need to include that in there. And there's a URS component in there as well. Those are the two changes, number 24 and number 25, to the, items that you were sent earlier. Would you like me to go do an overview, or do you have any specific questions about this, budget opening?

We went through it quite thoroughly in the Appropriations meeting, but for those of you that weren't there,

please ask any questions. I ask an obvious question. The reason for the office is that's a change in salary from what it was before for the previous deputy. Is that what that's about?

No. The the previous occupant of that office is receiving severance for the remainder of the year, so there's no so the funds from his salary are not available to fund this new employee. So for this brief period, we need to make the summons. Correct. Yes. Got it.

Okay. Where is the number 20. Okay. I just wanted to mention as well to everyone, in Appropriations in, on number 20 for the senior center, they they have a truck that they have a lease on, and the buyout on that lease is $41,000 but that's money that was in their budget for something else that they they they had budgeted to buy a vehicle that the state ended up paying more than they expected. So we had already approved money in the budget for that vehicle that they don't need. And they do have this lease, And I talked to, the director of the senior center today, and I also checked with Matt. That that truck is on a lease that has a four four years left on it. It's a contract that we cannot get out of. If we take that $41,000 we had talked about maybe not even doing that and just eliminating that truck from our inventory, but we don't have that option. And spending the 41,000 to buy off the lease now is cheaper than because then we can keep it for fifteen years. They can keep driving that truck for their maintenance. But if we pay the next three years on the lease and then try and buy it out, it'll be far more expensive. It'll be over $15,000 more to it was, I believe, the the figures that I was given. So in appropriations meeting, we had talked about eliminating that from this budget opening, but it sounds like legally we cannot. We we do still have to continue the lease. We could Can't terminate the lease. Yeah. We can't terminate the lease. So since this is already in their budget for this year, I would think that I would like to propose that we leave that in there in the budget opening the way it's written so that we can continue to, so that we can buy out the lease on that truck. That was probably one of the only differences from Appropriations meeting. I don't know if anyone else has any other requests or any questions for Matt at this time?

Just to make clear, I believe I followed, but so the 41,000 was already budgeted in the senior center's budget, but we need to have it in the budget opening to reallocate it to this purpose. Yes. Thank you.

Okay. Alright. Any other questions? Okay. Alright. Is there anyone here from the public to speak to our budget opening that was posted? This would be time for you to come.

We close the public hearing.

Second. It's been moved and seconded that we close the public hearing. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Alright. Now we move to our consideration of action. So the first one we have is ordinance twenty twenty five dash 26, the Lauer Foods extension rezone. This is the time for the council to consider and deliberate amongst ourselves. This one was recommended as approval from the planning commission six to zero. Does anyone want to to address that and talk about this?

I think it's pretty clear and pretty clean

and, therefore, I would move to go ahead and suspend the rule and pass ordinance twenty twenty five Dash 26 Lauerfield South Road extension rezone.

K. It's been moved and seconded that we suspend the rules and approve ordinance twenty twenty five Dash 26 Lauer Food Lauer Foods South Road extension rezone. Is there any further discussion? Those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. That passes. Alright. Ordinance 2025Dash28, the SBA UT 4138 B rezone. That's the one in Paradise. I believe that's the one with the, the little side, the overlay for the Stairs. Cell phone tower? Correct. Okay, does anyone have questions for Angie or anything you want to discuss? Yeah, what buildings in Paradise are big enough to put a tower on? I know.

But anyhow Is it down where it looks like a pine tree? Yeah. You can't even I think it's better to be just honest with what it is. Real.

We can get a palm tree, maybe. Yeah. Paradise.

Tree might be more fitting. Can I make a motion that we approve 2025 dash 28? I suspend the rules and make a motion to approve ordinance twenty twenty five dash twenty eight, the S B A U T two four one three eight dash b rezone.

Second. It's been moved and seconded that we suspend the rules and approve ordinance twenty twenty five dash 28. Is there any further discussion? Those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Alright. Ordinance 2025Dash29, the Sparks Ventures rezone. That one was Denial. The planning the planning and zoning commission

recommended denial five to one on that one. I did have a question. You mentioned that septic tanks or that it wasn't, that area wasn't a good area to have a septic tank. Is there any septic tanks in that area that

that the table's too high? Well, there are some residential homes that are north of that on 800 West, so I'm assuming they do. And, again, we didn't get anything from Bear River confirming that. It was Hyde Park City that brought that to our attention and was one of the reasons they opposed the the rezone as well. So I'll

just share I can't remember if you shared this as well, that the roads, 4200 North and 800 West, this is in the notes. They're considered substandard roads and would need substantial improvements.

Yeah. And I believe that's one reason why that other industrially zoned property to the east has not been developed yet because of the substantial road improvements that would be required. So The the other question maybe for the gentleman that spoke earlier is if there's

if you can't grow on ag land, what are some alternate options for that zone? Yeah. Is that pretty much it?

Well, the a 10 zone allows for a variety of different things, including ag, A single family home, granted, again, the low water table and septic might be an issue. But if there's water rights there and they were able to figure out a type of septic system that worked, that would still be a possibility. Yeah. I don't have the full list of ag things, but those are the main ones. There are other options Yes. Which is the yeah.

K. I will go ahead and make a suspend the rules and make a motion on ordinance twenty twenty five dash 29 that we follow the planning and zoning's recommendation of denial. I'll second that.

Okay. It's been moved and seconded that we deny ordinance twenty twenty five dash 29, the Sparks Venture Rezone. Is there any further discussion? Those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Alright. Eight d, The Greenfield Milling Industrial Warehouse Rezone. Does anyone have any questions about that one?

This is an easy one to me. Yeah. Yeah. They've been It sounds like they just wanna be compliant with something that's already been done. Yeah. They're already doing it. So I moved to approve, ordinance twenty twenty five To suspend the rules. Suspend the rules and approve. Ordinance twenty twenty five Dash 30 Greenfield Milling Industrial Warehouse Rezone.

Seconded. K. It's been moved and seconded that we approve ordinance twenty twenty five, suspend the rules, and approve ordinance twenty twenty five dash 30. Is there any further discussion? Those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Thank you. Alright. Ordinance twenty twenty five dash 31, proposed amendments to compensation of Cache County elected officials. Alright. Let's let's discuss this. Do you wanna do the council salaries first or the other elected officials? You guys tell me. It's easy to do the other elected officials. Okay. We'll do the other elected officials first. If you look at the green the green proposed rate, which added in a cola and a market, Most of them do not even bring us up to the average for the other third class counties for this for this state, except for one, and that's our county attorney who is already above average. So, I don't know if you guys have had a chance to look at that. If you want to

The ordinance reference is that the attorney stays the same since they are would be over. Okay.

So they would stay the same rate that they are? Mhmm. Okay.

The rest of the ordinance references the rates that are on the sheet in front of us.

K. Would you guys do you want to discuss that? Do you want to make a motion? I know that our our new county executive would would prefer that his rate not be raised, but we'll we're we're I think in order for future executives to be paid fairly, we're gonna probably pass that tonight, but we'll work with our HR department to make sure that it's done equitably for, for your wishes. But that's that's something we all need to discuss. And I don't know, Amy, do you wanna talk about that? Our our new executive would prefer that his salary be lowered.

What what my preference is is that the salary be set at a $125,000 and no benefits. That's what my preference is, and I would like to address the subject that you're talking about. Okay. We've just been through an election process, and we've had a significant group of candidates. I think if you look closely at the candidates at the salary you've chosen to put, all of those candidates would be receiving a pay increase to become the County Executive. I don't, I don't, I don't think there is a connection between those that are willing to serve the public and the salary. Just bluntly, I don't think there is that kind of a connection. And I think you can economize on the county executive and have good people serve. And it is my preference that you reduce my salary to 125. I think that's adequate to attract the kind of people you want to serve as county executive in Cache County.

How does that work for the future, Amy? If

I was just gonna make a comment that it's important to consider everything in the future, because people will be filing in January for these elected seats that are up. And depending on the type of candidate that you were hoping to attract or if mister Daines is going to run and that's where he wants that to be, then that's something I just want you to consider future possibilities. And I think that that's the same thing that mister Daines is explaining. So it's up to the council.

One of the things that we repeatedly said on the compensation committee is removing all personalities and all of the sitting officials as we discuss these salaries. I think that goes into this current situation as well. We're removing everybody. We're discussing this. So if you're talking about an executive of a corporation of 400 people, they're going to be making less than other individuals whom they are overseeing. Mhmm. I don't think that that is proper.

I think they need to be making more than than the people that they're overseeing. Yes. And that definitely was one of our our big conversations in the compensation committee is that, elected officials, they're not receiving pay for report for performance. And so we need to take the person out of the the situation and out of the consideration, because the people are the ones who are going to decide on their performance and if they get reelected or not. And so, we need to consider what it looks like in the future and to be paying equitable, with the market so that we can attract candidates that may have that type of skill set to accomplish the the tasks that we're asking them to do.

Okay. And I feel like the proposed rates are less even than the average for third class county elected officials in in almost every case. Yes. But still would be a raise to our elected officials who did not get a raise last year, and I don't know about the year previous.

I don't have that right off the top of my head. I'm sorry, but I know that we did have a few years that some did not receive an increase. I do also want to call to your attention the auditor and the sheriff. Those have asterisks next to them. This is because people that they are supervising, their rates are coming up very close to what that elected official is. As we look at, succession planning and who would be maybe someone to step into those roles, it would be probably their second in in line that would be, favorable for that or be willing to run for that office. And if it's not an increase in pay, but they're having to do more duties and be more in the spotlight of an elected official, that may be something that they choose not to run for because of that reason. So I would just wanted to point those out to you that, maybe consider, the sheriff, there, maybe a a bit more towards the the market and possibly even the auditor. But that's up to the council.

So I have a question, Amy. So respecting mister Dain's wishes, we could keep it at this rate for press resolution at the 2026? So it advertises this for this rate, but then just address that salary at the 2026 to bring it down?

I would need to work with the attorneys, and that's something that Juris and I could talk about and maybe bring back to a future meeting. I would hate to give Yeah. My assumption with not knowing all of the the laws and legalities that we need to follow with that. So

Do you mind if I Yeah. Address that a little bit? Yeah. So so the law requires that the council holds a hearing whenever the compensation for elected officials is gonna be raised before the budget. And and the way the law suggests is is the final budget. And so that it might be something that you'd consider on an annual basis, but we can look at that further just to see if there's any other just off of the top of my head, that's what I recall the law saying.

Okay. I if I may, I appreciate what the executive has said and is doing. But I also want to point out that we have some outstanding individuals currently who are as elected officials that aren't I think deserve more pay even though they're there. And that's I appreciate what the compensation committee's done on that. I look at our auditor. I look at our treasurer. I look at our sheriff. I look at all of those positions, and I think they're worthy of being paid what a market rate is. And and tough because that's some very good money in the county, but we've got some very good people in the county. So I want to recognize that. And that's my 2¢. Maybe only 1¢ today. So

Jeris, can we make a motion on all the other electeds besides the council and then make a separate motion for just the council's elected, salaries? It's all the same. It's all under one. It's all under one resolution. Okay. Never mind. It'll have to just be amended. Just amend the resolution if you wanted to. Okay. To to read that way. Okay.

Chairs, if, the council passes a salary that's higher than what mister Danes is is talking about, does he need to take the full salary, or could he request to be paid at a lower rate? That's a question I'm not sure about where I would wanna That's what I wanted to look at too. Okay. Thank you.

But if we stated in this motion, then we can change it again just like Catherine pointed out. Correct?

Well, what Jer says if the public hearing has to be held before the budget's passed, once we pass the budget, we can't change it for 2026.

Is that correct? Changes going anywhere during 2026. '26. Can we hold you to it?

Hasn't worked in the past. But publishing it for whoever declares in January. Yeah.

So that's what we're saying is we want it. This makes this one tough. They know. I I feel like personally that we need to pass it at this rate for the for the next person that runs, but, I don't know what the legalities would be then for mister Daines to to voluntarily take less. And I guess we can depend on Jairus to help us get that settled before we pass the final budget.

If I might, that influences me when we're headed to the council as well. So k.

And and the idea of of having a a public hearing is so that the public can provide input. So you you technically have until you pass the budget to make a decision on on these issues that you're addressing today. Okay. So there is time. My inclination, without diving into it is that that would be the amount that the county would set, and that's what the county would pay. I'm not sure if there's anything that actually addresses if someone were to not accept that. So, I think we would have to the executive would have to be creative in in either donating that money or things like that. I don't know that the law addresses what we we want to, but I'm happy to look into it. I'm just not sure that that would be addressed.

This is initial proposal. So you don't have to pass it tonight.

Okay. Has anyone heard from constituents on compensation? I've heard from a few people. I can share what I've heard, which is I realize that the increase is probably a drop in the bucket of the $70,000,000

budget. You know, we're talking about a couple $100,

point 01% or less. 83. 80 yeah. So, yeah, 83. So of 70,000,000, it's very insignificant. So there is optics that property tax is going up, and let's look at anything that we could cut. Right? So just to address that, that is a perception that's out there. I if you do the math, it's probably not an accurate perception, but because that perception exists, there were the majority of people I talked to specifically for council salary were not in favor of that. I think a modest three to 5% was acceptable, but beyond that was, yeah. Just sharing what I've

the feedback I've received. Madam chair, if I may Yes. Addressing, this particular this group of of elected officials as part of the compensation committee, we wanted to depoliticize this as much as we could, and that's why we thought applying similar measures of the coal and market to this, then it could be fair to the electeds and also, again, take that heat of the political aspect out of it. And so then that's why we we came up with this approach for again, we're not talking about the the council. We're talking about this specific group of elected officials to to try to get them on that same treatment as we treat our employees. And so that's that's how this approach was brought for these, eight elected officials.

Yeah. And I know we are looking for ways to cut our budget, but I also know that our we're we're proposing a raise for our employees all that they do and our elected officials kind of have taken the brunt of that in the last few years where they we have not, voted a raise for them. They don't get cola or or market automatically. It has to come specifically. And I feel like the the elected officials we have are excellent. They are doing such a good job, and they deserve, to be given a raise, which still they're not even if we if we do what's proposed, it doesn't even put them at the average. That's my opinion. The council

the council pay, we can talk about different differently. But yeah. I think it's important to remember too that these are our full time elected officials, so this is their career. This is not a part time job for them. They don't have other full time employment. This is what they do every single day. I wanna say eight to five, but I know it's not eight to five. It's eight to whenever the job is done. It is eight to five. I know. It's it's 04:57. We are still working today. But, you know, I want I want to just point that out that, they this is their full time job. They do work tirelessly. They do do a lot for the community and for our county. No matter who sits in that position, that's what this elected official should be paid.

Yes. I'm never sure

Thank you. Okay. Does anyone want to address the proposed rate for the council members?

Oh, boy.

Amy's looking at me because she knows I asked the compensation committee. I was, like, having a a mentee be as my kids would say. I was having a breakdown. I was like, I can't I can't go and suggest this to the council because I felt like it was it was too much. So they voted, and I was I did not vote for this, the amount that was I respect the the the committee, but I did not, vote this same amount as as, they they voted. So I was outvoted. The amount that I proposed was, 36,000 for, members of council 20% increase for the chair. So that would take them to forty three two.

Rather than the 45 that the compensation committee Mhmm. Rather than the 45 that the compensation committee I would be much more comfortable with that then. I would not have supported 45. We're still We're still below Below average bull market. But

But that was what I had proposed and, you know, was outvoted.

And I agree with you except for one thing. I have watched the chairs of the past council and the current chair. You guys put an amazing amount of time in. I would have no problem with the chair making what's there, but I do have my personal opinion, for me, I would almost like to stick stand that mister Daines is that I would stay at what I'm at and get back the other. That's my personal opinion. But because I agree with what mister Garrity says, but at the same time, we gotta reflect on, you know, new council members coming in. But I'm sitting here. You're stuck with me for a while. So

Well, I just also wanna point out the fact that that most of the council members have full time jobs, and that the time that they take to do this many times take they either have to take personal time off or they it costs them money that they would have been making through clients or through their personal employment. And I think that that needs to be considered, that it's I think there's value in what we do. I think there the the things that we do for the county, we oversee a lot of different things that affect our taxpayers, and I know that I have such great respect for everyone here and for the the deliberative way that we look at things and, the time and effort that everybody puts in. And so, I just think that needs to be thought about, especially when we're looking, as like Amy said, when you want qualified people to run for this office. And we don't always want it to be people who are retired or who don't who are already done with their career, then we we really get a monolith of thought processes. We want to encourage young people or people with careers and families to have their voice in this council, and that requires a great sacrifice to their family and to their career many times to do this job. And so I just wanna put that out there. Okay. I would entertain a motion if someone's ready to make a motion or if we want to continue this. This is the initial the initial consideration, we could continue it to our next meeting or we could have a motion.

I'm not ready to make a motion, but I do wanna say there's a lot of changing dynamic. We have a new executive. We've this is me watching from a distance over the last eight years, but I've seen the council put in more time gradually. And I don't know if that's the council executive dynamic, but I think there's a potential for that to change. So I do worry that if we're basing our compensation off the time we've been committing based on the past, that may not be the same commitment going forward. So and with again, the the I mean, the property tax stuff is on my mind, and I would feel better about increasing our compensation personally if that was sorted out.

So

to to what George said and what Nolan said, I would, you know, consider, at least until the next election cycle, if we do pass this, I guess I can't take less, but maybe donating the surplus until we get that figured out.

Anybody else want to comment or make a motion or make a motion to continue? I guess we don't need a motion to continue, but

The hardest pill that I have to swallow on this is I don't in any way want to as we start talking about compensation, money, it kinda just hits me a little bit that it starts bringing the word public servant. Kinda starts pushing that down below, you know, the career individuals. And I I hope that we're that we don't raise this so high that we lose the a little we start losing some vision of, hey. I'm I'm here to to serve the people of Cache County. You know, I I mean, some of you guys are in the same boat as me as when we first got on the council. I remember Janine calling me, saying, hey, will you come down, fill out some paperwork? And I said, what for? And she says, well, so you can get your pay. I had no clue that we even got paid. And and so I I just don't want people to just look at the dollars. See, hey. And that's what exactly I'm going to do it for. That's the only thing that just just that's the only thing that kinda

worries me a little bit. I think I'd have more friends if I didn't do this. Yeah.

If you didn't know you're getting hate, you didn't read your packet. They go over it with you before you They'll send 24,000. That was an oversight.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 20

in the year is not gonna be a career for anybody. I think the biggest thing and I and I said this and Sandy said it. I want to have a diverse council. I think it represents the county, and I think it brings a rich dialogue. And and and we can't just have it attract the the people who can afford it be the ones that can do it. I'm a young family. We got other young families here, and there's a cost. So I think that there's some type of compensation that comes with that cost. So

I just wanted to point out that the last time the council received a raise was in 2022. So if this raise were to pass, in 04/20 being effective 2026, it will have been four years since the council has had an increase.

So just thought that might be a a fun fact for you to know. Thank you. On on that note, I think when we look at any kind of budget stuff, we should look at incremental changes. So I I will state for the record, I am in favor of the modest incremental change.

K. Andrew, do you have any number. He can 5%.

5%?

Yes, Andrew.

In addition to Amy's fun fact, I have another one.

You guys, from my understanding, are the only part time

Okay. So am I hearing that we want to continue this discussion to the next meeting or does somebody want to make a motion? Someone feel strongly enough about making a motion?

If we continue it, can Jaris get back to us on mister Daines and some of those other things so that we'll have more clarity in this? Or can it be I guess it can't be split because it's one. Right? It's one moment. It's one ordinance. Have clarity as to how we deal with Mr. Daines and that that would help in some things. Yeah. I mean, I honestly don't think I will find anything that would suggest otherwise.

Otherwise being that you receive the pay that you get. And then at that point, it's really up to you to determine how you're gonna use that money. I don't I don't president get away with it then.

You know, I I still think that we you're a good man, but we've gotta not think of you as separate I I think we need to just be more visionary out further To the job. To Not the person. I agree with that. Whomever will be It has to be that

the person's current conversation is nobody else's business. If

George, God forbid, gets hit by a bus next week, then the the executive salary should be what it should be regardless of who's sitting in it or what they personally want to take.

Okay. So, for lack of emotion, I think, oh,

yes. What would be an ideal situation, I think, is to set the salary of what you think is best long term, but but give the person who's serving an option to take what they feel comfortable with. I I came into this office, obviously saying that budget need to be cut, and so on, and I just don't feel good about taking the additional funds. So set set it where you want, but but let me just take what I want. I'd I'd appreciate it if I don't have to pay taxes on what I don't take.

K. So we're gonna continue this to our next meeting. Is that what I'm hearing? No. Unless somebody wants to make a

I think a motion. I will make a motion that we pass ordinance and suspend the rules. We pass ordinance twenty twenty five dash 31 for the elected officials, amending it to read that council members make 36,000, the chair making 20% more, 43,200, and all the other pay as outlined in the packet, I don't do I have to read all of those? Nope. Okay.

I have a motion on the tables, and we want to second that motion. Okay. Motion dies for lack of a second. Thank you. Alright. It will be continued to the next meeting that we have. Alright. So, resolution twenty twenty five dash 37. No, no, no, no, no. I'm getting ahead of myself. Third quarter budget amendments, 2025 dash 33. K. Does anyone have any further questions for our auditor before we discuss this and vote on it?

I am fine with this that has gone through, so k. I will make I will suspend the rules and make a motion for resolution twenty twenty five dash 33, third quarter county budget amendments that we approve as presented.

Alright. I'd second.

K. It's been moved and seconded that we approve resolution twenty twenty five dash 33. Is there any further discussion? Let's we suspend the rules to do this. K. Those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Alright. We go to eight gs. Andrew, are you presenting this one? Yes, ma'am. Okay.

Good evening, counsel. So resolution twenty twenty five dash 37 amends the ratio apportionment of the property tax that you guys passed back in December. This is the point 3% sales tax that you guys allocated 75% for the purpose of public safety and 25% for the purpose of transportation. This resolution would be amending those proportions such that it would be 60% public safety, 40% transportation.

Okay. Does anyone have any questions for Andrew or anybody want to discuss that?

I would also like to point out that this would be effective January 1 if passed today. 01/01/2026. So I had a question about that. This is to kind of fix because we were we did three quarters this year, not quite. And so this would balance it out for 2026

being Yeah. When you when you do the math, the exact amount that went to public safety would be pretty much covered by that 60% now of the of the whole year rather than 75% of three quarters of the year. Yeah. Right. Okay. And I will just say this. If we in order for the tax commission to allow us to change this apportionment on January 1, we have to pass it before the September. So that would be tonight. So if we want to amend that or change it, we can. But we need to pass something tonight or it won't go into effect January 1 with the tax commission. Does anyone want to discuss that or ask any questions, make a motion?

I move to suspend the rules and adopt resolution twenty twenty five dash 37, the adjustments to apportionment percentages of sales and use tax for public safety and transportation.

Second. Okay. It's been moved and seconded that we, suspend the rules and approve resolution dash twenty twenty five dash 37. Any further discussion?

Those in favor say aye. Hang on one. Oh, wait. Hang on. One question on that was Okay. The purpose of transportation, we still have ability to move that where we feel like it needs to go. Right? Yes. Correct. Okay. Yep.

Yep. We did the budget amendment we just passed set up a separate fund for that. So it goes into its own separate fund. Okay. So it's been moved and seconded that we suspend the rules and pass resolution twenty twenty five-thirty seven. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Alright, our pending action, the resolution twenty twenty five-thirty five and thirty two, we would like to strike from the agenda and do some further we need to do some further Continuing it or do you wanna keep it I don't I don't think we should continue it because we're gonna need a few weeks to I don't think we need to keep it coming on every agenda until we get some things settled with the, our optional plan.

Is the interest to move it back to OMP? Yes.

Yep. There there were several, resolutions within that that, ordinance or several there there was a resolution and an ordinance, but they probably need to be done one at a time through OMP. And so that'll take a little bit of time. And so I don't think we need to continue having this on our A lot of it a lot of it was just technical. Some of it was. We can unpack that.

I I think it I support the intent to move it off the agenda. Some conversation, I think we've all heard it from the executive too, that he would appreciate some more time to review this particular item that was it was already a motion prior to to his selection. Will do. I think it makes sense to continue this on back to the OMP where the executive will have full opportunity to be a part of that deliberation.

So, Jeris, to do that, do we need to make a motion to take it we don't wanna continue it. We just want it to what do we do legally?

Move to strike nine a and nine b, many pending action. Right? Currently.

Seconded it. Okay. It's been moved and seconded that we strike nine a and nine b pending action for the for now. Those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you, Dave. Like I did, sorry.

Madam Chair, can I have a question? Yes, please. So, Amy, I'm going backwards now. Okay. I'm unsettled on something. Okay. In 2022, the council voted. And when we voted on the elected salary, didn't we only vote on council and not the others? Because as it presents now, I'm split because I wanna give It was separate. Yeah. I wanna give our elected people who have a career a vote. And you can splitting my vote by me having to vote for council too. That's concerns me, and it seemed before we were separate. I agree with Nolan. I And you can you can strike. If you want, you can strike it from that that motion or from that resolution. I just think that's should be discussed because bring it up here. I'm separate one. Hesitant as heck because I wanna give our full time elected officials that recognition, but I wanna talk about the councils Yeah. In a separate deal. Agreed. The the part on that So just to continue Sorry. I remember. You're right. Your your recollection is correct. That's what the council did. That was prior to

Tapas Tapas not being on the council. The council. Maybe that's what Amy's talking about, but I think maybe there's been code change that we would need to look at for what is considered elective issue. If not, then Well I only agree with you that that ought to be a separate But it it goes into effect January 1, so I think continuing it

But as we continue it, I'd like it split or look at the opportunity of splitting so I can really voice my support for the full time elected officials.

motion. I can make that motion? Oh, yeah. Well, didn't we already did we we went past it.

No. It was just died for lack of a second. Oh, died for lack of a second. We can go back and do it again. It's continued. It's continued. So it'll be the next agenda. Like, for example, if I was to say, madam chair, I I move that we suspend the rules and that we pass ordinance twenty twenty five dash 31 with council member and council chair pays taken out of that that

Okay. It's been moved and seconded that we suspend the rules and pass ordinance twenty twenty five dash 31 with the amendment to remove council pay for pay for County Council and the Council Chair.

Is there any further discussion? No. Madam Chair, I I think it'd be best if you were to bring it up rather than Would you accept an amendment to pull me out as well so that I'm not decided tonight and we have that additional time.

I won't.

Yes. And as Catherine mentioned, if you're the CEO of several 100 people, that's a reasonable salary. I just wanna I wanna look at them as a gen generic

pay.

Yeah. And if you wanna donate it or do whatever, that's your prerogative. Your prerogative. No. We can set the pay, but whatever's

by legally If he can only accept a portion of it? That's between you, the attorneys, and Amy. He gets to tax and then do tax on it. Well, they'll I think they can work that legally. Sorry for saying that

though. Okay. I have a motion to that was in second that we suspend the rules and pass ordinance twenty twenty five dash 31 with with the amendment to remove the council pay and the council chair pay. Is there any further discussion? So will that portion be continued to the next meeting? That would be continued to the next meeting. But they said that would be up to the

chair and the vice chair to get that portion put into a different ordinance later. Mhmm. K.

Alright. Those okay. Those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. That passes. Alright. The USU homecoming parade is supposed to be October 18. Eighteenth? Yep. So the Saturday the eighteenth. I will not be there. Does anyone

No. It's too far in advance.

Okay. Alright.

Is your Halloween costume figured out? It's too far from now. I don't know what to do with it.

Do do, we wanna suspend council member reports and go into executive session or are there things that people want to with us? I want to give you ample opportunity to share.

We just did it a week ago. I know. We were just here a week ago. Yeah. I I can share just a COSAC update. I did attended the meeting yesterday. They had a presentation from the Inca Agricultural Land Trust, you all, who has very similar goals. So they've identified some properties that they can work together on. Oh, good. And just an update to their next meeting, they're bringing their recommendation for the letter and the postcard, how much it's gonna cost, so they can get that to council for for approval. K. Yeah. That's all. Alright. Thank you, Keegan. Does anyone else have a report of something that they would like? I just mentioned tomorrow, 03:00 here. We've got a bunch of people coming, so if you can make it, it would be important.

Yep. That'll be a meeting on and that's open to the public. Correct?

That's the reason why.

Just for those of you it's a meeting on water.

It It's like it has a lot to do with water. It's been noticed on that website too. It will be very similar Did you better represent this case?

I did not. I've just I've invited the state water engineer. I've invited the Bear River Health Department. I've invited the US geologic survey group that's doing the study on the water. I've invited fire. I've invited a county engineer, a county executive, planning and zoning, and the county council.

We should probably include our legislators if there's any way we could get them here. Yeah. They can Yeah. They could. That'd be a good idea. K. Anybody else?

We'll be very similar to the last meeting that we had with them.

be here at three tomorrow for that meeting. Okay. Does someone wanna make a motion about the executive session, please?

We need to go into executive session. How will you come back? Right? For the strategy sessions to discuss purchase, exchange, or lease of real property, including any form of water right, water shares, or to discuss the proposed development agreement, project proposal, or finance sheet financing proposal related to the development of land owned by the state or political subdivision.

Second. It's been moved and seconded that we move to executive session for the reasons stated. Those in favor say aye. Aye.