Town Council

MINUTES ALTA TOWN COUNCIL VIRTUAL WORK SESSION, PUBLIC HEARINGS, AND REGULAR MEETING Wednesday, June 15, 2022, 3:45 PM Alta Community Center (virtual), 10351 E. Highway 210, Alta, Utah PRESENT: Mayor Roger Bourke Council Member Carolyn Anctil (arrived 4:35pm) Council Member John Byrne Council Member Sheridan Davis Council Member Elise Morgan STAFF PRESENT: John Guldner, Town Administrator Jen Clancy, Town Clerk Molly Austin, Deputy Town Clerk James Chickvary, Deputy Chris Cawley, Assistant Town Administrator ALSO PRESENT: Polly Mclean, Legal Counsel Craig Heimark, Treasurer Steve Rowley, K&C CPAs WORK SESSION 1. CALL THE WORK SESSION TO ORDER 00:00:01 The Mayor called the work session to order at 3:45 pm with a June 1, 2022 determination stating that it is in the community’s best interest to hold this meeting virtually without an anchor location. Jen Clancy started the discussion stating the Budget Committee had met recently and the 2022 year-end numbers are intended to sure-up the budget. Sheridan asked if there was a way in a surplus year to start a conversation about opportunity housing, and suggested a percent of the budget be tailored for it. John Byrne agreed that the need has never been greater and that the pressure for our workers was only going to increase because of the prices being offered for homes. The Mayor called for a discussion about the FY23 budget. Jen Clancy said that there was a tentative budget approved by the council last month, major changes included moving some grant funds from the FY22 to the FY23 budget because they were not completed and not moving forward with a truth in taxation process. Jen Clancy added there were two proposed edits. The first being, taking the $12,000 in discretionary funds that were coded to 10-41-620 and moving them back into salaries for the council. The Mayor could then use his salary to support programs and projects independent of the Town’s budget. The second suggestion was to increase the IT budget in admin department (10-43-245) to $16,000 since it doesn’t include some Caselle software expenses for the new Treasurer. This would be a net increase of $3,000 and could be facilitated by an equivalent increase in the use of unreserved fund balance. Alta Town Council Meeting June 15, 2022 1 John Byrne expressed his disappointment in moving away from truth in taxation, but said it good news for the property owners as the rate won’t increase. He hopes we move toward modest increases with truth in taxation in the future to keep it close to inflationary numbers. 2. ADJOURN WORK SESSION The Mayor adjourned the meeting at 4:00pm. *************** PUBLIC HEARINGS 00:13:50 1. CALL THE PUBLIC HEARING ON FY23 PROPOSED BUDGETS TO ORDER The Mayor called the public hearing to order to hear public comment on the FY 2023 proposed Budgets at 4:00pm. 2. PUBLIC COMMENT Cliff Curry said he agreed with John Byrne with the premise that the Town should do a truth in taxation each year, unless there is deflation. He suggested you need to do it each year simply to keep up with inflation. No other public comment. No written comment submitted. 3. ADJOURN PUBLIC HEARING #1 The Mayor closed the public hearing. *************** 00:16:46 1. CALL THE PUBLIC HEARING ON FY22 BUDGET AMENDMENTS TO ORDER The Mayor called the public hearing to order to hear public comment on the FY 2022 proposed Budgets. 2. PUBLIC COMMENT No public comment. No written comment submitted. 3. ADJOURN PUBLIC HEARING #2 The Mayor closed the public hearing. *************** Alta Town Council Meeting June 15, 2022 2 00:17:55 1. CALL THE PUBLIC HEARING ON ALTA SPECIAL SERVICE DISTRICT BUDGET TO ORDER Roger Bourke called the public hearing to order to hear public comment on the Alta Special Service District Budget. 2. PUBLIC COMMENT No public comment. No written comment submitted. 3. ADJOURN PUBLIC HEARRING #3 The Mayor closed the public hearing at 4:03pm. *************** TOWN COUNCIL MEETING 1. CALL THE REGULAR TOWN COUNCIL MEETING TO ORDER 00:18:57 The Mayor called the regular town council meeting of June 15 to order at 4:04pm with a June 1, 2022 determination that it is in the community’s best interest to hold this meeting virtually without an anchor location. 00:19:12 2. CITIZEN INPUT No written citizen input was received. Sheridan Davis offered she had been hearing from people that were unable to attend this meeting that they would like to see the town park funding be more robust. Cliff Curry thanked the folks that helped with the water main break response on Saturday, June 11th. What really crushed the Alta Lodge was that the fact that the main value couldn’t be closed for over 10 hours, it was supposed to be capable of being closed within only a few minutes. If the valve would have been closed the Alta Lodge would have been able to do Sunday Brunch. They lost a significant amount of revenue because of the water main break. 3. APPROVAL OF CONSENT AGENDA 00:22:13 Alta Town Council Meeting June 15, 2022 3  MOTION: The Mayor moved to accept the Consent Agenda and Sheridan Davis seconded the motion. No discussion. VOTE: In favor: Bourke, Byrne, Davis, and Morgan. None opposed. Anctil had not yet joined the meeting and did not vote. The consent agenda was approved. 4. QUESTIONS REGARDING DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS 00:24:13 John Byrne commented it was discouraging to hear in John Guldner’s report that the Town may get sucked into another lawsuit and asked about exposure. John Guldner said both he and the building official had been subpoenaed to see if there was any other fault related to the fires in Sugarplum E, F, G. John Guldner said we did everything by the book building permit wise. He doesn’t expect us to be too involved. 5. MAYORS REPORT 00:28:19 The Mayor started by introducing and welcoming Molly Austin as the newest member of our team. The Mayor also gave kudos to all the people involved in the water main break. It’s a reminder that we need to keep up with this infrastructure. The Mayor shared his screen saying we hit the news in the past couple weeks: the Rustler Lodge was named the best Mountain Resort Lodge in North America, there is a Washington Post article for the 10 best cities for outdoor recreation which included Salt Lake City and a photo of Albion Basin, and then on a less upbeat note an extensive article on the shrinking of the Great Salt Lake. The COVID situation lingers and we want to remain cautious and so we will continue to hold these meetings virtually so we don’t spread it. He had a good meeting with Dave Fields. Yesterday was canyon cleanup day. We have been in discussion with the Patsey Marley Estate regarding a water link hook up. The Mayor in Sandy has organized a meeting with the Governor about transportation in the canyons that the Mayor will attend. Evalyn Everson is setting up a press conference for Slow Down Utah. He met the new UDOT foreman, Sean Wright who stated the canyon would be striped next month, and that there would be lanes closed with delays throughout the summer due to Rocky Mountain Power line coming up the canyon. Our next meeting will be July 13, 2022, and there may or may not be a work session. 6. UTAH LOCAL GOVERNMENTS TRUST RENEWAL 0:45:52 The Mayor welcomed Josh McKell to go over the annual renewal with the council. He reported that the trust was not immune to pricing increases in the commercial insurance market, they do have to purchase reinsurance. Alta will not be seeing any increases to liability insurance, which is where majority of our premium is. On property the insurance is up 9% but that has nothing to do with us, just a standard rate increase. Our auto premium is down $91.00. He reported the Town hasn’t had a claim since joining the trust, which is one of the reasons for receiving a flat increase on our liability. Workers’ compensation is increasing 15% because we had a claim in 2018, but next year that will fall off the calculation and we should see a significant decrease. He reviewed the cumulative aggregate of all our programs and pointed out our safety program and the refund check we would receive. The Mayor asked about liability limits. Josh reported that we had a 5-million-dollar liability limit which is above governmental immunity, and Alta Town Council Meeting June 15, 2022 4 looked good. The Mayor added this speaks to how well the staff has run things. They will start offering trainings again in person and online. Polly McLean asked if the Town had a land use coverage. Josh explained all of their members received land use coverage that is in the form of defense costs, so we have that. They have the ability to provide an exclusionary endorsement, but we are in good shape and have the defense costs built in. Sheridan asked about land use coverage and payroll coverage. Regarding land use, Josh said training was our best defense because issues arise when there is a misstep. We also have malfeasance defense, crime coverage (5 million dollars), cyber coverage, and first and third party pollution. The payroll coverage has to do with our workers compensation policy which follows statutory law. (Carolyn Anctil joined the meeting at 4:35pm) 7. ALTA SKI AREA UPDATE _ MIKE MAUGHAN 01:08:13 Mike Maughan reported they are into their summer projects; the snow is melting. The top and bottom terminals for Sunnyside have come down and the chairs have been shipped off to Red Lodge. Projects on track, footing would be dug soon but dealing with shortage of concrete. The summer road is being graded and rolled, and scheduled for mag chloride, so may open the road as easy as July 1. The campground is reservation only. They have ben removing and milling tree to use at various projects around the area. On the sales front just went through first tier and sales and revenue were about the same as last year. They are in the process of gearing up to update their Master Plan with the Forest Service. 8. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION TO APPROVE RESOLUTION 2022-R-11 FOR FY2022 BUDGETS 01:15:45 The Mayor opened the meeting for discussion, said there was a work session earlier and they had invited public comments but got very few. Jen Clancy stated the resolution will accomplish two things, the shoring up of FY22 budget and authorizes the Town Clerk to make a transfer from the General Fund into the Capital Projects fund. MOTION: Roger Bourke motioned to approve 2022-R-11. Carolyn Anctil seconded. ROLL CALL VOTE BY JEN CLANCY: Mayor Bourke - I, Councilmember Davis - I, Councilmember Byrne – I, Councilmember Anctil – I, and Councilmember Morgan - I. Against: no votes. The motion passed unanimous. 9. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION TO APPROVE 2022-R-12 FOR FY2023 BUDGETS AND AUTHORIZING THE TOWN CLERK TO COMPLETE AND FILE THE TOWN’S CERTIFIED TAX RATE FOR FY2023 AT A “NO TAX INCREASE RATE” 01:20:00 MOTION: Elise Morgan motioned to adopt this resolution. John Byrne seconded. Alta Town Council Meeting June 15, 2022 5  MOTION AMENDED: John Byrne motioned to amend the motion and approve the budget with the modifications that were described earlier as moving the $12,000 in 10-41-62 (misc.) back into 10-42-110 (salaries) and increasing the IT expense in 10-43-245 by $3,000. Elise Morgan seconded. Jen Clancy reviewed the two changes noting the $3,000 increase to the budget could be offset by increasing 10-39-200 by the same amount. Sheridan Davis commented that while it was a small dollar amount for the increase to the IT budget, she requested more time to review the necessity of the expense. Craig Heimark expressed that there are costs associated with his onboarding. He stated he needed access to the general ledger in Caselle so that as Treasurer he could ensure and monitor the cash expenditures. Sheridan Davis expressed she was not super keen on this showing up the day the budget was being reviewed and the Mayor agreed. Craig Heimark explained the reason it was coming in so late in the process was that he was just being onboarded, and there are costs associated with bringing on new people. Polly McLean pointed out that this resolution also includes the ability for Jen Clancy to put in the certified tax rate at a “no tax increase rate” and accept what the County provides us. ROLL CALL VOTE ON AMENDMENT BY JEN CLANCY: Mayor Bourke - I, Councilmember Anctil – I, Councilmember Davis - I, Councilmember Byrne – I, and Councilmember Morgan - I. Against: no votes. The amended motion passed unanimously. 10. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION TO APPROVE 2022-R-13 FOR ALTA SPECIAL SERVICE DISTRCIT BUDGET AND CERTIFIED TAX RATE 01:31:39 Jen Clancy provided some background stating this effort was needed to keep the special service district on the books in case its needed in the future, the revenue and expenses in its budget were both zero. MOTION: The Mayor moved to adopt 2022-R-13 on the special service district. Sheridan Davis seconded the motion. ROLL CALL VOTE BY JEN CLANCY: Mayor Bourke - I, Councilmember Anctil – I, Councilmember Davis - I, Councilmember Byrne – I, and Councilmember Morgan - I. Against: no votes. The motion passed unanimous. 11. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION TO ADOPT A 2023 CAPITAL PROJECTS PLAN 01:33:26 Jen Clancy explain the Capital Projects Committee was composed of the staff and Mayor. She reviewed the project plan layout including estimates, timelines, and project management. This plan documents projects the committee feels are attainable in FY23 and beyond. Jen Clancy stated all the projects were contained in the FY23 budget that was passed and that she had worked to make sure this plan was in sync with the budget. Sheridan Davis expressed she was in strong support for many of the projects on this spreadsheet but also wanted to pump the breaks on others. She understood the needs for the police force to be up to date but Alta Town Council Meeting June 15, 2022 6 wasn’t convinced the AV system improvements are necessary in light of Zoom. She would like to hear more about the Tom Moore toilets and alternative forms of funding. She would like to amplify the idea of looking at opportunity housing in Alta sooner rather than later. She wasn’t sure how to proceed when some things have unqualified yes and others no. There was a discussion about the Tom Moore toilet project and its value as a CCC building. John Guldner noted currently they are just looking at $5,000 - $10,000 just to shore it up. Sheridan Davis wanted more information about the project and its funding before supporting. She said she was in support of preservation of the building but might prioritize the items on the plan differently. The Mayor offered that the building was deteriorating and that if they wanted to do anything, they should do something soon before it’s too late and the building deteriorates any further and collapses. John Guldner reminded the council that during the land transfer the Town had told the Forest Service they would look into preserving it since the Forest Service said they were not going to do anything with it. John Byrne encouraged the staff to return the building to some sort of functionality and or to consider making it a bathroom again to be able to provide a public toilet along the highway. The Mayor would like to preserve its physical appearance and also make it functional. Craig Heimark offered that many organizations in their budgeting process differentiated between a budget reserve and authority to spend. The need for an AV system at the community center for council meetings was also called out as something Sheridan Davis and Craig Heimark wanted the staff to review. There was some feeling that Zoom was sufficient. Jen Clancy pointed out that while it worked well with everyone being remote, there would be some investment needed to ready the community center for a hybrid style meeting in the future. John Byrne asked for clarification on the vote to adopt the plan and if that meant that the nine projects listed would be greenlighted for execution. Chris Cawley shared that individual project estimates on the plan were from various sources, with some being based on one quote and others using the high end of multiple quotes received. He also pointed out that many of the projects on the plan would require additional bids and or requests for proposals under the purchasing policy before the Town could proceed, thus most of these projects require more work. John Byrne recapped the discussion stating the approval of the plan was an endorsement to staff to move ahead and get as many of the projects listed on the plan done as possible. Sheridan Davis expressed a desire to continue the conversation about the project list and prioritization, including more of a discussion amongst council and a winnowing of projects. The Mayor suggested we get a good update on these projects at each meeting. MOTION: Mayor Bourke moved to adopt the 2023 capital projects plan. John Byrne seconded. ROLL CALL VOTE BY JEN CLANCY: Mayor Bourke - I, Councilmember Anctil – I, Councilmember Davis - No, Councilmember Byrne – I, and Councilmember Morgan - I. The motion passed four (4) to one (1). 12. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION ON 2022-R-14 PERTAINING TO WATER RATES 02:05:30 Jen Clancy highlighted the proposal included a 15% rate increase for all users and a 25% increase for any overage charges above the allocation amount. The budget as presented covers all expense while setting Alta Town Council Meeting June 15, 2022 7 aside some funds for future infrastructure improvement projects. The Mayor added the water system was independent from the other budget activities in the town. There was further discussion about infrastructure replacement and capital outlay line items in the budget. MOTION: The Mayor moved to adopt 2022-R-14 pertaining to water rates. Elise Morgan seconded the motion. VOTE: In favor: Bourke, Anctil, Davis, Byrne, and Morgan. None opposed. The resolution passed unanimously. 13. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION ON 2022-R-15 PERTAINING TO SEWER RATES 02:14:15 Jen Clancy stated this was a repeal and replacement of all previous sewer rate increases and the change is a 15% increase. That means for a single-family residence the monthly bill would go from $56.64 to $65.37. There has not been a sewer rate increase for a few years. The increase in the sewer budget is mainly due to disposal cost increases from Cottonwood Canyon District that we are proposing to pass forward as an operational increase to the customers. John Byrne commented that the enterprise fund for the sewer was in good financial shape. MOTION: The Mayor moved to adopt 2022-R-15 pertaining to sewer rate. Sheridan Davis seconded the motion. VOTE: In favor: Bourke, Anctil, Byrne, Davis, and Morgan. None opposed. The resolution passed unanimously. 14. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION ON 2022-R-16 REPEALING AND REPLACING THE FEE SCHEDULE 02:17:18 This is an action item referring to the two previous resolutions, any time a fee is changed it’s a best practice to repeal and replace the full fee schedule. MOTION: The Mayor moved to adopt 2022-R-16 repealing and replacing the fee schedule. John Byrne seconded the motion. VOTE: In favor: Bourke, Anctil, Byrne, Davis, and Morgan. None opposed. The resolution passed unanimously. 15. NEW BUSINESS 02:19:05 Sheridan Davis asked if we could have a work session in the next month or two about Capital Project Plan priorities. Alta Town Council Meeting June 15, 2022 8  16. MOTION TO ADJOURN 02:20:39 MOTION: Sheridan Davis motioned to adjourn and The Mayor seconded. VOTE: All in favor. The meeting was adjourned at 6:05pm. *************** ALTA LAND USE APPEAL AUTHORITY 02:20:58 1. CALL THE MEETING TO ORDER The Mayor called the meeting of the Alta Land Use Appeal Authority to order. 2. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION ON ALTA SKI AREA’S REQUEST FOR A VARIANCE TO ALLOW INSTALLATION OF 8 WYSSEN TOWERS ON MOUNT BALDY ON SLOPES OVER 30 PERCENT The Mayor said the appeal authority members had been informed of the project and asked if anyone had any questions. John Byrne commended the ski area for a great presentation and the staff for their analysis, as a result he feels fully informed. John Guldner explain that this was a two-step process, in order to do this in the FR 50 zone the ski area needed to get a conditional use permit form the planning commission. The planning commission heard that request and approved it for a conditional use permit for these 8 Wyssen towers on June 2, 2022. Regarding the variance the state code says that there are five (5) conditions that have to be met before you can approve a variance, the staff report addresses every one of these conditions. This request meets all of the conditions. MOTION: Elise Morgan motioned to approve the variance in accordance with the conditions and statements in the staff report. Sheridan Davis seconded. VOTE: All in favor. The variance request passed unanimously. Alta Town Council Meeting June 15, 2022 9  3. MOTION TO ADJOURN 02:30:33 MOTION: John Byrne motioned to adjourn on schedule. Sheridan Davis seconded. VOTE: All in favor. The meeting was adjourned at 6:15pm. Passed this 13th day of July, 2022 _____________________ Jen Clancy, Town Clerk Alta Town Council Meeting June 15, 2022 10