City Council Budget Meeting - ARCHIVED

SOUTH JORDAN CITY CITY COUNCIL BUDGET MEETING January 24, 2024 Present: Mayor Dawn R. Ramsey, Council Member Patrick Harris, Council Member Kathie Johnson, Council Member Don Shelton, Council Member Tamara Zander, Council Member Jason McGuire, City Manager Dustin Lewis, Assistant City Manager Jason Rasmussen, Director of Commerce Brian Preece, Director of Strategy & Budget Don Tingey, Fire Chief Chris Dawson, Director of Administrative Services Melinda Seager, Director of Public Works Raymond Garrison, Director of Recreation Janell Payne, CFO Sunil Naidu, Director of Planning Steven Schaefermeyer, Police Chief Jeff Carr, Human Resources Director Teresa Cook, IT Director Jon Day, City Recorder Anna Crookston, Meeting Transcriptionist Diana Baun Absent: Others: 5:15 P.M. BUDGET MEETING A. Welcome, Roll Call, and Introduction: By Mayor Dawn R. Ramsey Mayor Ramsey welcomed everyone present and introduced the meeting. B. Invocation: By Director of City Commerce, Brian Preece Director Preece offered the invocation. C. Discussion Item C.1. Fiscal Year 2024-25 Budget. City Manager Dustin Lewis gave a brief review of the last budget meeting. He reviewed staffing requests and shared his recommendations for those requests, noting there were 29 full-time a few part-time positions requested. - Associate Director of Administrative Services o Manager Lewis reviewed the department’s duties and noted that as a former director in that department he knows how complex and varied that department is. He did not recommend hiring that position at this time, believing they can get by for a little longer without filling that position. - Communications Department, specifically a part-time Intern South Jordan City 2 City Council Budget Meeting January 24, 2024 o Manager Lewis recommended including the position into the budget due to the amount of outreach and marketing being done within the city. - Police Department, specifically two sergeants, two officers, and an animal control officer. o Manager Lewis noted that as a growing city, we are constantly trying to keep up and avoid getting behind. The department’s initial request was for five people. He feels strongly they should hire the two police sergeants. Regarding the two officers, he thinks they are very much needed as well. After the previous case management software discussion, he is recommending hiring the two sergeants and one officer, using the funds intended for the second officer to institute and implement the case management software since the cost would actually be less than hiring an actual physical officer and outfitting them for the job. Regarding the request for an animal control officer, he gave a brief history of the position and our staffing partnership with Herriman City for animal control services. Herriman now has their own facility and have separated from partnering with South Jordan. They are currently short-staffed in animal control with an employee being out on FMLA leave, and have temporarily moved an employee from Public Works to help with that coverage. However, even when the employee returns, they will need the additional staffing to provide adequate services to residents, and he is recommending filling that position at this time. Mayor Ramsey asked if Pam’s vacancy was ever filled when she retired. Manager Lewis responded that yes, it was filled but they are just short manpower now with the separation from Herriman. Council Member Shelton asked for a brief review of the Case Management Software and the reasons for implementing it. Manager Lewis and Police Chief Jeff Carr reviewed the purpose of the software and the benefits of implementing it in the city, as well as what the police department has learned from trialing the software internally. Council Member Shelton asked how user-friendly the software is realistically, as he personally feels that some of the city’s current systems are not necessarily user-friendly from the public’s point of view. Manager Lewis added that the software is AI driven, and interacting with it will be just like interacting with a physical officer in terms of the questions asked and the progression of those questions. Council Member Zander asked about the average salary of a new officer and agreed with the comments that choosing the AI driven software over a new physical officer would actually save quite a bit of money since they don’t have to pay to outfit the software with all the standard equipment and a car. South Jordan City 3 City Council Budget Meeting January 24, 2024 - Fire Department – Medical Training Captain o Manager Lewis noted that this has been discussed in the past and is certainly needed as the department grows and with the amount of medical done. In the coming years he is also aware that they will need to bring a lot of fire staff on board with new stations being built. Upon looking at the numbers of people involved in staffing those kinds of positions, both he and Sunil suggested holding off on hiring the medical captain and make that part of the plans to hire staff during the coming growth. In the past, when planning to staff new fire stations, they typically spread that hiring over a couple of years. With that in mind they are thinking long term regarding strategy for hiring those additional 40 people for the fire department over the next couple of years, and starting to think about how that will fit into the budget. - Human Resources – HR Administrative Assistant o Manager Lewis noted there is no doubt there is a need in that department, as there are over 400 full-time employees, along with seasonal and part-time employees. He noted they are looking for ways to use software to help with some of the work, and he is not recommending hiring the HR position this year. - Building and Engineering – Full- time Code Compliance Officer o Manager Lewis reviewed the previous discussions about the city getting into parking enforcement business, and they would need a full-time position just to get that started, with more being added on after that. He added that all building inspectors within the city double as code-compliance officers when they have time. Inspectors used to be too busy with all the construction, but last year it was noted there was a significant downturn in the number of permits, which in turn reduced the number of inspections, freeing up time for the building inspectors. Given the current trend, he feels this can hold for a year and allow our current building inspectors to augment what needs to happen there; he is not recommending that position be filled at this time. - Recreation and Events o Manager Lewis noted that this department over the years has always asked for positions, and has always been bumped, usually for public safety. The recreation department puts on a lot of activities in the city. In the last year to year and a half they have had to cancel some events because the staffing wasn’t there to cover everything going on. He took these requests very seriously, knowing they haven’t had the staffing to keep up with the growth over the last few years and knowing what will be needed for public safety in the next few years, it could be a while for these positions to be added. South Jordan is adding a baseball program, and the city is quickly gaining a reputation as a ‘baseball destination city” and our little league programs need to reflect in our partnerships. That information played a lot into the requested positions and he is recommending the following positions be added into the budget:  Grant and Sponsorship Coordinator. If this position can be filled, it could be very helpful in working better with the community and keeping South Jordan City 4 City Council Budget Meeting January 24, 2024 different departments from duplicating requests. Having someone that can closely watch the grants awarded to the city, that can look for opportunities for grants. The position would probably pay for itself and then some. He is recommending filling this position. The position may change slightly as they develop the job description and narrow down what they want the position to accomplish. Council Member Zander noted that if she were hiring for this position in the private sector, she would bonus the position, and asked if that would be possible in the public sector. She strongly suggested that someone in that position should be bonused, as it would be great motivation to get the job done, and if the expectations are exceeded a bonus would be given. Manager Lewis responded that is a very sticky situation in the public sector. He agreed to look into it, as he understands it is great motivation. He gave the example that when engineers in the private sector save $30 million on a job, they get a $100,000 bonus. When our city engineers do that he can only give them a $400 gift card and say “thanks.” The hope is that the position will be a huge benefit to the team, and that’s partly why he’s recommending filling the position, along with believing that the city is now at a size where that position needs to exist; he feels Recreation is a good spot for that. He will look into that and see what prohibitions or other limits exist in regards to bonuses. He continued with the next position requested in the Recreation Department.  Event Coordinator. With the sheer volume of events the city is trying to do year round, Recreation just doesn’t have the staff to keep up and he is recommending filling that position. Mayor Ramsey asked about Natalie’s title, thinking she was already the event coordinator. Manager Lewis responded that she is the Special Events Coordinator currently, the requested position would be in addition to her current one. He added that in Recreation currently they have only six employees running all of that stuff for the entire city, and there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes that isn’t seen by the general public. He continued with the next requested position in Recreation.  Full-time Recreation Coordinator, dedicated to baseball. The city currently has two coordinators that deal with softball and soccer, all of those events, and they are maxed out; they don’t have room to add a program like baseball and the thousands of participants, management of coaches and umpires, all of those elements involved. He thinks it is in the city’s best interest to have a dedicated person to run baseball. Council Member Harris asked what that position would look like, being that baseball is a seasonal sport. South Jordan City 5 City Council Budget Meeting January 24, 2024 Manager Lewis responded that during the non-playing months there is still a lot that happens behind the scenes with baseball. Bingham Baseball has already been doing things for the last few months to ramp up for the new season. There is a bit of capacity there, which will quickly be eaten up by assisting the other event coordinators and programs when needed. He continued with the next requested position in Recreation.  Public Art Coordinator. A new Arts Plan was recently adopted and there is a lot happening there, including the Art’s Council becoming much more involved and the city including many more activities. He doesn’t have the budget to fill that position this year, so he will not recommend that position at this time. Currently Tiffany is doing a fantastic job in this area and all these new positions will be helping her out. He knows there is a lot coming in the arts world and she will need that help. Council Member McGuire realizes there isn’t room for that position now, but the arts programming being offered really does need another person. He is sure they will adapt with the other positions and their free time.  Part-Time Museum Assistant. Manager Lewis added that the museum has also gained huge popularity with influencers posting about it and the Mayor noted she had seen those posts and agreed with their popularity. Maren and the team there have done amazing with their make and take projects, along with having exciting exhibits. They have asked for a part- time museum assistant to simply ensure enough bodies to keep the museum doors open with the significant and growing numbers of visitors per month. Mayor Ramsey added that they should be mindful of the strategy creating the high traffic in the museum, especially as it relates to other events in the city with turnout numbers less than expected. There were around 3800 likes on a social media post that promoted the Gale Center Museum, with tons of comments. There could be other times when engaging with other people to share our good story could be really good for the city. Manager Lewis also added that some of the Recreation team is housed over there and this part- time museum employee requested could lend help to other projects as needed. Council Member McGuire asked if part of that need was due to having less volunteer docents compared to past years. Manager Lewis responded that this would help when docents are unable to make a shift, or when there are gaps in coverage; it is really an all-purpose solution that will help in that area. He continued with the Recreation requests.  Two Seasonal Part-time Cemetery workers. The cemetery is unique in that the work schedule is hard to predict. There is also a lot of acreage South Jordan City 6 City Council Budget Meeting January 24, 2024 requiring a lot of weeding and trimming, which has required contracting out for help; he thinks it is more cost effective to have people on staff for that. After speaking with Director Garrison about the request, it was discovered that they were underutilizing some part-time positions currently approved in the Streets Division. Through discussions, they felt it would be more useful to move those towards the part-time cemetery seasonal positions. Director Garrison was willing to make accommodations for that and that would be his recommendation to address those two part-time cemetery worker requests. Ultimately, that should end up saving money, no longer having to contract out for extra labor when needed. This also allows some of the cemetery workers to take a vacation day in the summer, as they need all three workers when there is a burial, and those typically occur on Fridays and Saturdays. - Public Works Department o Manager Lewis reiterated that we are a growing city, with anticipation of building a second public works facility on the west side in the near future. He sat down with the department head and discussed visioning what staffing needs to look like over the next few years. How do they get there and what should the organizational chart look like now to set us up to make those transitions to being a big city, having multiple Public Works lots, and dividing the workforce in a way that makes sense. He gave the example that they know we do many more meter sets on the west side, because that is where all the building is happening. However, there are more cleaning and storm drains on the east side, so they know many services and needs have geographical components. They developed an organizational chart of what they think things will need to look like when the Public Works Department has 150 employees and geographically covers 26 square miles of city, and worked backwards from there. To make some of the requests work, Director Garrison was willing to make changes now in combining some division and doing other things to set the city up for that future. Requests were made for a Street Supervisor and two Streets Maintenance Workers. With the changes made, they have found a way to make that work in the budget. - Parks Department o Becoming a “baseball city” means we want our fields, and parks around those fields, to be well-maintained and safe. Last year we required Bingham Baseball to maintain the fields and the areas surrounding them, and it just didn’t work out with players and parents complaining. As a result, he recommends hiring a ballfield maintenance foreman as a specialty position in the Parks Department. They will have the primary role of taking care of and maintaining the city’s baseball and softball fields around the city, now and in the future. He also suggested hiring a Parks Supervisor for Event Support, due to all the events we are putting on. This position would ensure there is always someone there to control and direct the setting up and taking down of events. During the slower periods they would help fill needed gaps in the Parks Department. There was also South Jordan City 7 City Council Budget Meeting January 24, 2024 a request for four Parks Maintenance workers. They were able to find the budget for, and he recommended filling, two of those positions. He would love to fill all four since a few years ago it was shown we were short about 34 FTEs in Parks, but staff feels they can fund two of those positions and that is his recommendation. Council Member Zander asked if users were required to maintain the fields previously, and we are having to take that back on, are we raising the fees to help compensate for that. Manager Lewis noted that the city will now be the user, rather than Bingham Baseball; all their registration fees will now come to the city, rather than to Bingham Baseball. There will still be outside users scheduling use of the fields, and for all users the city will have to assess and charge the appropriate fees to cover the costs, rather than subsidizing them. He also noted that our city’s fees are the cheapest around because we’ve never raised them, and that will be part of the creation of these new baseball positions, assessing that to make sure our fees are appropriate. - Storm Drain Division, which is an Enterprise Fund o Manager Lewis said they requested a part-time person, and after analysis it is within the Enterprise Fund and he recommended filling that since it can be supported. This is to help with the growing infrastructure needs of the city. - Water Division, which is an Enterprise Fund o Manager Lewis said there was a request for a Backflow Technician, to help keep up with growth. The Enterprise Fund can support that and he recommends filling that. - Mulligans, which is an Enterprise Fund o Manager Lewis said there is a request there for two full-time positions. The first is an additional Golf Course Maintenance Worker. We are really trying to make things look good and they need that extra hand there. They have had to borrow from other departments at times to help out and that additional full-time person would solve that problem. The other position is a Food Service Coordinator, which is something new and unique. There have been lots of experiments with food service at Mulligans, and his hope is that this position will help the city figure out what needs to happen inside Mulligans, but also support the scheduling of the help that runs that part of the Caddy Shack. He is also hoping this person will help with the concessions at the baseball and softball fields, as we will be taking that over and making it a revenue center for the city. His also hoping that person will help out in other things like providing the meals before council, events requiring meals, etc. Council Member Shelton asked if he could get a copy of the list of requests and the recommendations. South Jordan City 8 City Council Budget Meeting January 24, 2024 Manager Lewis responded they could do that. He then moved on to discuss existing employees and career ladder requests, with 96 requests for career ladders from all the departments. He believes they will be able to fund all of those after speaking with HR. HR has also researched current rates for positions in the city and they are working to make sure that our pay is competitive in today’s market. Council Member Zander asked about what was considered “out of market.” Manager Lewis responded this year that included the Attorney’s Office, Information Technology, Parks Department, and a few specific positions within the Fire Department. He discussed the premium costs for medical and dental insurance, and the importance of continuing to provide good insurance while keeping things stable for employees. He also discussed adjustments on the general pay plans in regards to step plans to keep the city competitive. They are also still watching the legislative process, which could cause some adjustments in these recommendations in the future. Council Member Shelton asked if the compensation committee has looked at the COLAs. Manager Lewis responded that they did look at that. Council Member Shelton is now on the compensation committee, but the last meeting was last year before he was appointed to that committee, which is why he hasn’t seen anything. If everyone is comfortable with his recommendations they will continue down the path discussed tonight. Council Member Shelton asked about experience levels with these changes, will police and fire response times remain the same or get better, will the parks continue to be maintained at the level expected; he just wants to make sure they are making these changes with a focus on resident satisfaction. Manager Lewis responded that there shouldn’t be any differences in the emergency response levels, until they really start growing west, which will start affecting the fire response times as a result of geographical changes. That is a big reason why they are looking at Station 65, to cover that larger distance. Hiring the officers and the new AI solution does help keep up with growth as well. Chief Carr added that with the AI implementation, if what’s being seen in the industry is true, 30%-40% of calls are what they deem “late reports” and this software should help free up time. This allows more physical officers to be available for in progress calls and spend more time on things like traffic issues, which would help bring traffic complaints down. Manager Lewis added that having the Communication Intern to help with marketing and coverage of programs will add to their communication potential, and the part-time workers at the cemetery will help with experience levels as well. All of these positions will either help maintain the current levels or bring them back to the level they once were and be foundational in keeping those levels going forward. South Jordan City 9 City Council Budget Meeting January 24, 2024 Mayor Ramsey is looking forward to the Grant and Sponsorship Coordinator, having one person oversee that will be a huge help and pay for itself. Manager Lewis moved on to discuss the city’s invitation last year to partner with the LIVE Daybreak group for the End of Summer Bash. By all reports it was successful and welcomed in the community. They have reached out regarding doing that again, and he wanted to discuss the resources required for that to ensure they are allocated for. He referenced Attachment A which showed the costs last year with the estimated costs for the same event this year. Recreations Director Janell Payne shared that with the lessons learned from last year there were some adjustments to make. If the city wants to continue as a true partner in this event there are some unique resources within the city in Risk Management and Incident Command Systems used for large scale events. She would like to collaborate more with LIVE Daybreak and have a good emergency action and incident management plan like we already do for big events like Summerfest and Light the Night. That would take some additional personnel time, which is reflected in the information on Attachment A. Right before this meeting she was given some information from the LIVE Daybreak Director that they anticipate some costs going up and would like to increase their ask from the city for the drone portion of the event to $14,000, which moves the total up to about $31,000. Manager Lewis asked the council how they feel about the information and the event. There are some advantages partnering with LIVE Daybreak and participating in this, and he reviewed those. However, he wants the council to be aware of the price tag associated with the partnership. Mayor Ramsey noted that Saturday at the Polar Plunge benefitting Special Olympics Utah, which LIVE Daybreak helped put on and was a wildly successful event, our emergency response team was fantastic. It was really well done between all the parties sponsoring and running it. The LIVE Daybreak people spoke to her throughout and after the event, and multiple times throughout the day they expressed to her and her family that they would really love to partner with the city on more things if interested. She agrees that the partnerships with them are a good thing for all involved, but she wanted to note that while she appreciates LIVE Daybreak committing to additional prominent promotion of Summerfest, the event was marketed last year as a LIVE Daybreak End of Summer Bash event. If South Jordan is going to put these kinds of resources and time into it, it has to be appropriately marketed with South Jordan’s name just as prominent as LIVE Daybreak if it is being hosted together. Manager Lewis will take that message back to them. Council Member McGuire suggested naming the event “End of Summer Bash” with the two logos in the Sponsorship section. Council Member Zander said she would say no to the $2000, and tell LIVE Daybreak that in lieu of giving them the money the city is adding additional staff and doing improved emergency incident action. They will do it with or without the city, despite their claims otherwise. Their budget has been cut so of course they are leaning on the city for that. We should provide our best South Jordan City 10 City Council Budget Meeting January 24, 2024 resources, and here that is the emergency incident staff. Every time the city shows up with our police and fire, that costs a lot of money and they don’t feel or recognize that to the degree that the city does. Manager Lewis added that the city’s Emergency Manager, Aaron Sainsbury, had the opportunity to take several members of Janell’s team to Park City to see how they plan for the Sundance Film Festival and see how their incident action planning works. They were able to attend the briefing for that with the kickoff, which continues to add to the knowledge in that area we bring to the table. Council Member Zander agreed, noting that the city’s biggest value here isn’t monetary, it’s our partnership and experienced personnel. She also agreed with the mayor’s sentiments that all marketing from Daybreak should clearly state that they are South Jordan, not just Daybreak. The council has done such a great job communicating that this is all South Jordan, and Dan and his team need to rework things on their end if they want this partnership. Things need to be done with the two groups side by side, not stacked, and if we are participating monetarily we should be expecting and demanding specific things if they want us to partner on this. She loves this and wants to see it move forward. Assistant City Manager Jason Rasmussen suggested requesting LIVE Daybreak share their marketing and branding with the city before giving the financial commitment to the event, and the council agreed. Manager Lewis noted that the next budget meeting will be to discuss the Capital Improvement Projects in the future. The council agreed that they are comfortable to go ahead with what was presented. Council Member Zander motioned to adjourn the January 24, 2024 City Council Budget Meeting. Council Member Shelton seconded the motion; vote was 5-0 unanimous in favor. The January 24, 2024 City Council Budget Meeting adjourned at 6:25 p.m. This is a true and correct copy of the January 24, 2024 City Council Budget Meeting Minutes, which were approved on February 6, 2024. South Jordan City Recorder Attachment A