Cache County Fire District Board Meeting -- 06-26-2026

And then we can meet. I would love to sit down and and talk about this, but to be fair, I can't do it in the next two weeks. They're like, you use the word safe. It's all over liability. You're done. Well, I don't pretend to be busier than anybody else, but just particularly drowning right now. So, yeah, I did get a chance to read it though. I do think that it has very it's it's done well. Like, I think that this is a family, well researched, well written, and and very thought provoking approach.

So would love to talk about it.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Sure. Yeah, please. We have two that won't be here. Larry. Yeah. You missed those two. Yeah. So maybe hold on to those until those two until they're able to come. I just don't know how we get I don't want them to be wasted. Yeah. I don't want them to be wasted. They're missing out. Yeah. Well, thank you. Thank you. Aaron Rudy. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Thanks for what you're doing. Yeah. Be helpful. Yeah. I appreciate it. K. I'll do it tomorrow. Attendance? Yeah. Just I mean, once she's gonna print one up and set it over to her in the end. Hello? Okay. I will. Thanks.

Yeah.

Started reading it. I've already got a hard copy. I've printed it and it's got red marks all over it and my name at the top. I'm reading it and studying it. It merits that. Okay. Appreciate the additional copy.

Tyrell Frederickson. Hi, Tyrell. I'm the union president. George, were you out of town too? I've got it. What? Were you out of town in the last couple weeks too? I just wanted to make Oh, you were here? We will be out of town. Oh. And you? This isn't Okay. Yeah. I'm

I've read it and I've also posted some things I have with Okay. So but I appreciate you putting that on legal terms. They're just the one. Yeah. So you're related to Troy? Yes.

I have to get my photo on my resume. Okay. So you live in paradise. I used to live in paradise. I live in paradise. Paris. I'm gonna give you extra copies back to George. Maybe I'll send one down to Tara to have him do that.

Who's your sidekick here?

September.

Yeah. That's totally on my list.

We're and then two weeks later, we're going back to Wow. What's the national on a cruise down The blue sky. From Barcelona. Like, we should just take

I know. Like, then come back. Do you have any ties to Scotland or is it just So no.

It's just about you just pronounce it. Traveled with One second. Right? I will send you things. Go and became friends with, like, four married couples, and they all have to go to fair shops. Oh. And now we've just, like, turned into this travel group. I Oh. Where do you remember? The woman from there, one of the wives is from Scotland, and her husband served as mission trips. Oh my gosh. So we'll be able That's amazing. Like, for people there. Yeah. First week, we're gonna go, like, kinda south and then It's good to see you. Thanks for what you do. I've been to Switzerland. Thanks for the docking. Back to England and then Oh. The second week. That's so cool. Dave Erickson is there. We're good. Dave's up and running there. Dave, are you still there?

I sure am. Okay. Perfect. Okay.

Thank you. We'll go ahead and call the meeting to order today for the Cache County Fire District Board of Trustees for June 26.

I can't hear any audio.

K. We will work for a second to see if Dave can hear us. If not, we can always put him on our speaker phone. Yes. Do you need me to call you, Dave? Or he can't hear me though. He can't hear me. Did that change anything, David? Say

have them say something in their minds.

Dave, can you hear us now?

Barely. Barely? Yep. So if they speak up, we're okay, I believe.

Okay. Well Go ahead. I've got the If you can hear us, then hopefully, we'll we'll speak up and and that'll be good enough for you. We acknowledge that Dave is joining us electronically and that Mayor Laird Jacobsen is not able to join us today. As our items of business today, we'd I'd like the approval of the minutes for the 06/11/2026 meeting.

Make a motion to approve.

With respect to the minutes, the minutes of the previous meeting

is this not live? Oh, Dave's having a hard time hearing us. So if you speak into the mic, then Okay.

Dave and the rest of the board, as I looked at the minutes of the previous meeting, the the minutes were slightly inaccurate in that Dave made the motion, and this isn't the most recent set of minutes. This is the minute prior to that. I believe it's May 20. The minutes currently say, Catherine, that you made the motion to propose the amended and restated article. But when I listened to the thing actually, David made the motion and you restated the motion before it was voted on. I'd like to to propose that correction in the minutes of May 20, just so it's clear. Chair doesn't typically make motions and and I'd like it clarified that it was Dave Erickson's motion. The vote was correct, but the statement in the minutes that you were the one that made the motion was incorrect.

Accordingly. I'll second that motion. Okay.

All those in favor to correct the previous May 20 minutes as, proposed by executive Danes, say aye. Aye. Aye. And I would move that we approve the minutes for June 11. And I'll second up. The motion is by George and a second by Lindsay. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. K. Thank you. Moving on, I'm I'll accept a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. Mayor Rudy and seconded by Mayor Peterson. Any discussion on the agenda?

Yes. I brought the resume of an attorney today. I'd like to add to the agenda that we consider we it's on a discussion item that we're discussing attorney Amy Hughey's termination. I'd like to add as an item for discussion the appointment of mister Mark Anderson as attorney for the fire board.

Okay.

And that shows up as as c as well. But I think discussing it would also be appropriate.

K. Any other further discussion? Seeing none, we'll vote on this. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Think I heard Dave. Okay. It's Nay. Oh, nay. Okay. So there is the four in favor and and mister Erickson, in dissent. Okay. Moving on to item three a, discussion regarding attorney Amy Hughey terminating a contract on the grounds of violations of the Utah Open and Public Meetings Act. We received a letter as a fire board, dated I don't know date. Does anybody have the date? It's June 12. June 12, that she will no longer provide services as our counsel as the for the Cache County Fire District.

I sent a letter to my fellow board trustees with respect to missus miss Hughey's criticism and I would like that letter added to the record of this meeting. It well states my response to her claims that we violated the law. However, as you recall in our meeting, we noted that there was a failure in the agenda to be as clear as we would like, and we made the decision to re ratify in this meeting the the previous thing so that there wouldn't be any issue at all. That's exactly what I would recommend we do because of the potential problem with the agenda. But my motion would be to add this letter. I'm not asking the board to join in the letter, but I'd I'd rather than go through the letter. I think just adding it to the record of the meeting would be appropriate. I think you all have a copy of the letter. That's my motion to add that letter to our record. I'll second that.

Is there any discussion on the motion? K. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. You have a copy of the letter, Tara? Okay. Thank you. So in conjunction with that, I think we had added that we will discuss the resume for contracting and Mark Anderson, we have the resume here for us as potential legal representation for the fire district. George, since you brought this to us, would you introduce

No. I Mark is a distinguished attorney that has spent his life dealing with special districts and local districts in the state of Utah. If you read his biography, he's focused on that. I think it would be helpful to have his expertise to advise the fire board. I just know, Mark and I were friends in college. That's almost fifty it's more than fifty years ago. He was graduating in Ag, Econ, and so was I. We both decided not to go into Ag Econ. He went to University of Utah Law School, and I went somewhere else. But he made his practice in Salt Lake. Interestingly, Mark has partially retired and Still running a law business through his with his law firm. And he has bought a home in Nibley and is living in Nibley. And that happened in the last two or three weeks. So I think He's local. Yes. He's local. I think he would be an excellent person to look us over and make sure we're doing everything proper, particularly as we get ready to deal with taxation and some of our governance issues. I think he can give us good quality advice. The fact that he's local is a real plus.

So So is he willing to come in person sometimes to give us advice? Yes. He is.

Lindsay, he's living up here. So he's not living in Salt Lake anymore. He's living here. His wife is is ill, and that part of his partial retirement, he needs to be home to take care of some family things. So real opportunity here to get excellent legal counsel. And I think we'll also be getting some advice from our county attorney, but we do need a formal person to represent the firebird. So I would recommend we retain his services. I Catherine, I think we budgeted. This is an expense of the county fire department at this point, but I think it's appropriate to hire him as the attorney for the fire district.

Open it up to the board for some discussion. Thoughts?

I think we've had nothing but great things that he comes highly recommended before we were we knew that we were in need of an attorney, a new attorney, so I I fully support it. I think it it'll be such a relief. This is a really niche area of law, so it'll be nice to have someone that specializes in that.

Yeah. I didn't know he was local. I thought No. That travel I expect from Salt Lake would be a a potential hindrance, and that's an added bonus. Any other thoughts? Yeah. Catherine? Yes. Dave.

Is he is he still retaining and going to be representing the state association of special districts? Yes.

Yes, Dave.

I think that I think that this sounds all really good, but I think it still needs to come forth. We we need to have some clarity and some direction and have it come forth at the next meeting on an agenda because we need to have money. We need to everything needs to be tied together for us to approve that. I think we're covered by that action item

number, like, four c that says contract replacement of legal counsel.

But but David is right. The money's gonna come from Cache County. So we we can recommend this, but I I do think we should take it to the Cache County Council because it's coming out of the budget that they have put through full. I think it's appropriate for us to approve it, but then have them ratify it because of the budget control. So I think David's correct in that regard. But we could act legally today to to recommend it. And and I would so move that we we recommend that he be retained to provide advice for the fire board on behalf of the fire board.

I will second that as long as we can jump down to our action items. I'd I'd second that recommendation.

Yeah. If we yeah. The not following the agenda. That's fine if the board is okay with that. We have a motion by George and a second by Lindsay. It is in the, agenda saying contracting replacement legal counsel as an action item today. So any discussion on the motion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. It passes. Action item b or excuse me. Items for discussion b, North and South committees and the requirements of the Utah Open and Public Meetings Act.

Okay. Both of those committees are advisory committees only. They do not take any action. I I should provide a little bit of a report about them. I met with the Hire Committee two weeks ago, and they chose Chad Lindley to be the chairman of that committee.

Were they all in attendance? All of them the mayors and

At that meeting, Providence and River Heights were not in attendance, but it was unanimous. So that it carried, and they selected Justin Mon to be the secretary. And the five cities that were going to make a recommendation recommended that Ed Buys serve recommend to the to us and to the county council that the county council consider appointing Ed Buse to the fire board. That was the first meeting. They gave me a list of things they wanted me to generate. I met with them this morning. I just left that meeting. Steve was there. We had a good meeting, didn't we, Steve? We did. And, Chief George was there. Chief George is really the one that pulled all the material together that they needed. We talked about it about it being clearly an advisory meeting, and we added that to the title of the meeting so that it's clear that that board or that committee does not make meetings. They advise us that we make decisions. So I think that's an answer to the Utah Open Meetings Act. But quite frankly, if anyone want to be there, I think it's second and and fourth Fridays. It's at the Hiram City offices at 10AM, and we'll post it there then. But I don't think it is covered by the Open Public Meetings Act.

Is there a quorum there? Like, do we are we ever going to have enough people from the fire board that it constitutes a quorum? If if you were there and Larry

and if if Ed is appointed Yes. Yes. You would you would have a quorum there. And and Steve It would be a quorum of the fire board. Uh-huh. Yeah. So that's where I think you would trigger OPMA. Yeah. So we'll Isn't it so the requirement would just be that it's advertised the agenda is advertised twenty four hours in advance? Yeah. We'll have Jut and do that, so it's done. But it is an advisory committee, and and let me just say, we're transitioning this board into being a decision making body that a quorum makes a difference because we're we're more or less anyway, I I we will treat it as an open and public meeting, so there isn't any dispute about that.

Yeah. I was gonna say I think that's the safest way to do it is that if you're gonna have a quorum, you're going to be discussing substantive

if if the board was present just just to cover it. Yeah. Notice it. We'll

start that practice with the South. We've had one meeting at the South in the South. We've had two meetings in the South. Let's see. Help me out, Mayor Rudy. We we had

Barry's the chairman of the committee. Correct? For the North? Yeah. Jeff Young and

Jeff Young's the chair, and Barry is the representative to the fire board that was recommended. Right?

From? Richmond? Richmond. Oh, Jeff is. But who is the who's Barry? Who's Barry representing? Oh, not Barry. Jeff is. The mayor of Louisville.

Right there. Hi.

I'm sorry. The new You're a mayor from Lewiston.

Lewiston. Yeah. I'm sorry. Nice to meet you. Brady. Brady. Brady. Brady. Had a good meeting. Brady, I don't know when our next meeting is, but we're gonna wanna do the open and public meetings thing. And Justin, you're here, so we're gonna burden you with that.

Jay Downes was the secretary. Jay Downes is the secretary.

So he can publish.

So it'll be good meetings. It it been really helpful to have chief George there. So been been good.

Thank you. Now we're moving on to item c, and this is validation of the current board appointments by the county council. Yeah. Let me just just say,

the the bylaws under which this group was appointed are are really a mess. And it it says in the bylaws that that we're to choose our successors when they really need to be chosen by the county council. And looking at that, I'm gonna get Mark to go back through it. We may, as we appoint these new people to the fire board, just go through the process of getting the rest of it going through that nomination selection process so that it's completely validated. That's gonna be about the first thing that I ask Mark Anderson to look at is to make sure that not only the new ones are properly seated, but all of us So

it will go through the council. All of our names will be presented to the council. Mark tells us to do what we have with this project. That's a yeah. Make sure that everything Right. The entire process is done correctly. Part of it is is done correctly. Part of it is is we need to be qualified

to be a taxing authority, and and that's the critical issue is that we have the ability to levy a tax. And so that's what I'm gonna have him focus on. What steps do we need to take in our government to make sure we qualify for that purpose?

So part of that would be noticing well, we'll let him review, but that would, according to our bylaws, would be noticing this

opening for thirty days. I think there may be more changes to our bylaws, even the membership of the trustee. We there may be some more things that he advises us to do, but we

k. Well, we're making progress, hopefully.

K. So can I just ask, what's the what's the timeline in the procedure? You talked about increasing the number on the boards with Well,

what's the timeline? The timeline will be the first step is to have Mark Anderson take a look at our foundational document and make sure we're operating correctly, And then follow his advice. I anticipate getting with him next week, and I'll get in touch with Catherine if we need to schedule another quick meeting to do something. And we may need to be involved with the county council meeting too. But but, Steve, we need to make absolutely sure that we follow all those rules so that our actions with respect to property taxes will be respected by the state tax commission. That's really the issue that we're focused on.

K. Moving on to action items. We already acted on action item four c, but move on to action item four a, proposed amendment and restatement board of trustees bylaws.

And I'll make that motion that we ratify the decision that we made to accept those amendments and restatements to the Board of Trustees' bylaws.

Second. We have a motion by Mayor Peterson and a second by Executive Daines. We have any discussion? Seeing none, we'll vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye.

No chance.

Sorry, Dave. Will you repeat what you said?

I yeah. On the discussion? Yes. I am I'm, I'm still having, you know, I think we're I think we're headed definitely the wrong direction in things. And I I cannot in any way support this. I think that we're we're not actually making this the flavor of what district should be. This is just a it's just not going that direction, and I cannot in any way support this.

Okay. We'll go ahead and and and is there any further discussion? Sorry. It's hard with the the technology that was meant to be part of the discussion. Is there any further discussion?

I I mean, I I would just say for the record that that this board is supposed to represent the county as a whole.

And so Yeah.

Yeah. And so I would disagree though, council member Erickson, that I think that what we're trying to do is make this board representative of and and to make sure that we have both buy in and also input from a broader swath of our elected leaders. So I think that's the intention. I think there's an argument to be made that maybe we're not doing it exactly right. I think it's been a difficult process. Right? Like, we've we've gotten different advice from the attorneys who advised the board thus far. But but I would say just for the record that that is the intention is to make sure that we get both input and buy in from a a broad swath of those elected officials.

I think maybe we should because the way it happened, I would call the question on the motion.

K. Vote first on the question. Vote on the question on the table. All those in ready to make the decision. I've

that's that's what called the question. K. We'll vote

on the question raised by executive. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Nay. Okay. Well, now we'll go back to the original motion on the floor, which is to, the proposed amendment and restatement of the board of trustees' bylaws. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. And opposed?

Nay.

K. So we have one, two, three, four, five. In favor, one opposed, according to our bylaws, it does pass with the super majority. K. It passes with the super majority. It does pass with the super majority of five. K. Thank you. We have more work to do and we acknowledge that. We'll continue working. Action item b, consideration of establishment of the North and South committees. We've we've kind of discussed that already and we've got them moving and and they are

functioning. They're they're starting to function. They're the mayors of the South cities are the members of the south committee, but typically at their meetings, they bring their fire chiefs and many of the city managers. Practice in the North. We're starting those meetings for keeping minutes. We will abide by the open public meetings act with respect to all meetings going forward.

Do we need to take action on that establishment of those committees in this body? I think we actually did in our last meeting,

form the committees. Let me just say Providence did attend the meeting this morning. So

Okay. That should have been an agenda item on the last meetings before we just formed performed actual ad hoc committees like that from the fire district. I thought that was should have been an agenda item. Okay. I will And it wasn't.

I will move since it's an agenda item today that we appoint a north Steering Committee and a South Steering Committee, composed of the mayors in the North and the and composed of the mayors in the South. And that those two committees will act as advisory committees to the fire board.

I second that motion. Motion and a second.

Further discussion on the motion? Seeing none, we'll vote. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

I think that was a good point by council member Erickson. And and I think it now that it is an action item, I think it's good to tie that up. Thank you. So I appreciate him pointing that out. Yeah. Thank you.

We've taken action on on item c, and we'll move on with other items. Okay. We have setting meeting annual meeting schedule for the board and committees. Well, we have been setting these just as we go. We haven't set an annual meeting schedule. We've been every two weeks. Have we been every two weeks? No. I don't think it's in that quite that frequently, is it? It feels like it's every week. Yeah. Every other day. Every other day.

So do we need we have to have That's part of yeah. But So we've mostly been doing this Thursdays. Right? So we could say second and fourth Thursdays or first and third Thursdays at around noon. That's kind of been our pattern. Should we do that unless like, we can say that we'll meet let's say what's this? The fourth? What? Yeah. It's this Friday. And then just say it unless otherwise scheduled.

What I would move is that we set up our meetings, the first and third Thursday here in our offices at noon and get the the chair the decision as to whether to conduct the I think we may only need one meeting a month and and give her permission upon her discretion to decide whether we need the second meeting each month. So that we're not coming in every two weeks unless we have action that needs to be done, and let her have that discretion. So I would move that we have a meeting on the first Thursday of every month, and that at her discretion, we have another meeting two weeks later. Okay.

I second that. K.

We have the motion on the floor. Dave, were you able to hear that? First meet first Thursday of every month and and discretion of the board chair for an additional on the third Thursday as needed. Any further discussion on the schedule? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Aye. It's unanimous. Mhmm. Got that one. Okay. And it says for the committees, I the committees, if you'll adopt your own schedule, when when you are conducting your committee meetings, please do that when you're in your next

I think we ought to have those both committees are generating minutes of their meeting. Yeah. And let's have those minutes sent to the, the board members as well so that they can monitor what's occurring there in the materials.

And you can let Jay know that for the North.

K. So the first Thursday is next Thursday.

Yeah. We're not gonna meet next Thursday.

We say that we

Like, that we start that

in August. In August. Effectively August.

Yeah. August 6. Catherine, that would give you discretion to call the meeting on the third Mhmm. Of, Thursday of July if you felt it was necessary.

K.

So we're all clear on that. We will not be meeting the first Thursday of July. Yeah. We will not meet, and that will give us time to

we need to officially talk with the council to contract the new legal representation and hopefully for him to review the bylaws for the next action items. They'll need to be taken with that. Purchase of crime insurance for members of the board. We'll we'll take that up with our attorney after he is able to review everything. I think that's a quest another question we have with our attorney. Special district and special service district board member training for members of the board. So this is provided by the Utah the auditor the auditor's office.

And I know that we did that. Mhmm. Is are you talking about the new members of the board, or do we have to renew that?

People ask him. Okay. Yeah. Let us know because I know that we've all office is We've all done that as elected officials.

OPMA training. Yeah. It was more extensive.

Yeah. So ask him and to please that's another item for the attorney. He's we've got a lot for our attorney to do. So just a question. So the next official meeting is August 6? August 6 unless otherwise noticed. And OPMAs annual. And OPMAs annual, which each of us should be doing with our municipalities. Yeah.

So maybe we just all send that to Tara just so that you have those certificates.

Yeah. Can you check your number? Yeah. So please send your certificates of completing the OPMA training to to Tara. Okay. In item six, we've just said our next meeting officially is set for the August 6, unless we feel another one is needed in the meantime.

K. I'll, make a motion that we adjourn.

Thank you. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. We We stand adjourned. Please, everyone sign the roll. We didn't have it out before the meeting started and everyone was filtering in. So please stop and and sign the roll before you leave. Yes. Thank you.