City Council Meeting - ARCHIVED

SOUTH JORDAN CITY CITY COUNCIL MEETING March 15, 2022 Present: Council Member Brad Marlor, Council Member Don Shelton, Council Member Jason McGuire, Council Member Patrick Harris, City Manager Gary Whatcott, Assistant City Manager Dustin Lewis, City Attorney Ryan Loose, Strategic Services Director Don Tingey, CFO Sunil Naidu, Police Chief Jeff Carr, City Recorder Anna Crookston, Director of Public Works Jason Rasmussen, City Engineer Brad Klavano, Administrative Services Director Melinda Seager, IT Director Jon Day, GIS Coordinator Matt Jarman, Planning Director Steven Schaefermeyer, Fire Chief Chris Dawson, Meeting Transcriptionist Diana Baun, Communications Manager Rachael Van Cleave, Communications Specialist Joshua Timothy, Marketing Specialist Matt Jorgensen Absent: Mayor Dawn Ramsey, Council Member Tamara Zander Others: Sam Bishop, Representative Jordan Teuscher, britterny@gmail.com, Jamie, Carol’s iPhone, Darrell, 6:31 P.M. REGULAR MEETING A. Welcome, Roll Call, and Introduction to Electronic Meeting - By Mayor Pro Tempore Patrick Harris Mayor Pro Tempore Harris welcomed everyone present, excused Mayor Ramsey and Council Member Zander, and introduced the electronic meeting. He acknowledged Representative Teuscher who was in attendance and thanked him for attending the meeting. B. Invocation – By CFO Sunil Naidu CFO Naidu offered the invocation. C. Pledge of Allegiance – By Fire Chief Chris Dawson Chief Dawson led the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance. D. Minute Approval D.1. February 15, 2022 City Council Study Meeting D.2. February 15, 2022 City Council Meeting D.3. February 23, 2022 City Council Budget Meeting South Jordan City 2 City Council Meeting March 15, 2022 Council Member Shelton motioned to approve the February 15, 2022 City Council Study Meeting minutes as printed, the February 15, 2022 City Council Meeting minutes as printed, and the February 23, 2022 City Council Budget Meeting minutes as printed. Council Member Marlor seconded the motion; the vote was unanimous in favor, Council Member Zander was absent from the vote. E. Mayor and Council Reports Council Member McGuire has met with the Arts Council, where they were able to secure the rights to the next production, which will be The Music Man. They are also working with the Parks and Recreation Department on some additional murals in the city. Council Member Marlor had an Architectural Review Committee meeting on March 9, it was fairly brief and mainly about some home designs in a subdivision. Later that evening we also had the budget session meeting where a lot of progress was made. Council Member Shelton met with the Larry H. Miller group out at Daybreak, talking about their urban center. There were a few Western Growth Coalition legislative updates, a couple of Legislative Policy Committee meetings that he attended, a Senior Advisory Committee meeting, a SR-111 environmental study kickoff that he attended via Zoom, as well as a Jordan River Commission meeting and an Association of Municipal Councils meeting. Mayor Pro Tempore noted that while Mayor Ramsey is absent, she is still working on behalf of our city and he thanked her for all she is doing. F. Public Comment Mayor Pro Tempore Harris opened up the public comment portion of the meeting. There were no comments and the hearing was closed. G. Presentation Item G.1. New website preview (By Communications Manager Rachael Van Cleave) Manager Van Cleave discussed the new look and features of the city website, including its new and improved ADA compliance and ease of use. Everything is easy and quick to update or make changes to, and staff can contact either herself, Matt Jorgensen or Joshua Timothy with those changes or updates. She went through a few of the pages on the site for everyone to see how things looked and encouraged everyone to visit the page and look around. Marketing Specialist Matt Jorgensen discussed our new branded pages, like the Fire Department and Police Department pages, which are branded with the department’s specific colors, badge/logo, and pictures. It’s very similar to the layout of the regular website with the mega menus on top and a search function key; the search function key is also integrated into the South Jordan City 3 City Council Meeting March 15, 2022 regular website, so it will search the entire website. There is also a “return to home” button over by the search bar to take visitors back to the city homepage. Mayor Pro Tempore Harris asked if hovering over the department badge gives you a link like the city’s homepage icon. Mr. Jorgensen said you’ll get the hand that shows a link. Mayor Pro Tempore Harris said the homepage button lights up when you hover over it to make it obvious it’s a link, he asked if there is any way that could be done with the department badges as well. Manager Van Cleave said the difference on this branded page is that the badge is a particular graphic of the badge, it is not an animation; whereas the homepage button is an animation. They could look at potentially highlighting it, however they have not done that yet as that it is site standard to have the logo go back to the homepage of a particular thing. Mr. Jorgensen said that just like the regular page, they have the quick links for the fire department on their page including buttons for things like recruitment; these branded pages will help with a unique look for each department to help with recruitment. As they move forward, they will build some nice recruitment pages for both police and fire, which will allow residents to access those sections quick and easy. Branded pages also have a news section, similar to the homepage, with the option of adding a calendar in the future; currently, they have chosen to put their Facebook feed in that spot. They can also include other articles from the city to cross promote articles across pages. There is a branded footer with the quick links and helpful navigation links. This gives a unique brand and feel, but branded to the specific department. He then moved to the police department page and showed how that page worked. He then went to the Mulligan’s section, a branded page as well, which is showing off the property to entice people to visit. They have been working with Mulligans on online booking for golf times, and there is a link to do that now which sends the visitor to a third party site to book those times. Just like the other branded pages, they can cross promote the city news feed and promote city information to help brand the city and Mulligans together. Communications Specialist Joshua Timothy discussed and demonstrated the mobile view of the new website. Around 60% of residents use their mobile phones to access the website, so it was important to have a website that can be accessed anywhere. In the mobile view, you still have the same look and feel as the desktop version, with images at the top and easy to access buttons. As you scroll down, the news feed reformats itself so visitors can scan and see what’s going on in the city; residents can also click on the upcoming events to find out all the specific event info easily. He encouraged everyone to take some time to browse the website from their mobile devices and experience the new format. Manager Van Cleave said they are very happy with how this turned out, it took a long time and they worked with all the departments to find out what they needed and wanted on their website pages. She addressed the “report a problem” button that takes you to a form, similar to what was on the old site, but this is a direct way to engage with residents and report street and other issues, including issues with the website. South Jordan City 4 City Council Meeting March 15, 2022 Council Member McGuire was looking at the Arts Council page, but he doesn’t see anything about the production for The Music Man; he asked to have that added to the events feed. He thinks the new format is more user friendly and really likes the new look. Mr. Jorgensen noted that on the internal pages, based on the directory it will bring up a site menu on the side to give additional options for navigation. They also have the key clickable icons on the bottom, and they can be used on any page. Mr. Timothy said some of the internal pages will also have a right hand menu to see who the director is over the department with an address and contact phone number. Manager Van Cleave said the goal was to make everything as easy as possible for our residents. Council Member McGuire asked about residents applying to volunteer on a committee, is it an online form they can fill out, or do they still have to download a PDF to print and send to the city. Manager Van Cleave said it is still a PDF, however they are working on that. She also mentioned that under the “I Want To…” section, it shows the committees and boards, as well as who to get in contact with to speak directly with the staff member working on the particular committee. Council Member Marlor said the website is wonderful. Council Member Shelton said he hasn’t personally tried it, but it looks terrific. On his way to the meeting, he got a call from a resident telling him how much they love the new website. Council Member McGuire asked how residents would access agendas for the meetings in the future. Manager Van Cleave said that is now being handled through Municode and we have centralized everything, starting from the City Council page. When visiting the City Council page, the very first thing they see is the picture of the mayor and council, then just under that they have “next meeting information” and “agenda and supporting documents;” those links take you to the Municode window. They also have the audio files available, along with an archive; over time, that archive will go away because it will all be done through Municode. Mayor Pro Tempore Harris said he got on earlier and looked around, especially around the City Council page; he found it to be very easy and quick to get where he needed to be. He can tell this took a lot of time and effort to get here, and he said the council fully recognizes the efforts made to get it here and make it look this wonderful. Mr. Timothy said this did launch today, so he asked anyone who finds any issues to use the “report a problem” form or send an email to let them know. H. Action Item H.1. Resolution R2022-17, Denouncing Russia's unjustified invasion of Ukraine. Calling upon the Russian Federation to cease fire and vacate the sovereign territory of Ukraine and urge the United States Federal Government to take action South Jordan City 5 City Council Meeting March 15, 2022 against the Russian Federation and restore peace in Europe. (By Council Member Don Shelton) Representative Jordan Teuscher thanked the council for this invitation. He represents District 42 and is currently running for District 44 as they’ve just redistricted, but is a lifelong resident of South Jordan and grateful to be here. His wife is from Ukraine, her family still lives there. They still have family and friends there, and he served an LDS mission in Ukraine which is where he started learning Ukrainian; in his undergrad he focused on Eastern European politics. In law school, his capstone project was on Eastern European law and he practiced law in Eastern Europe for about three years before taking his current job. Ukraine obviously has a special spot in his heart and he has been able to study it for a long time and knows some of the history. Every Ukrainian knows about the famous Ukrainian poet, Taras Shevchenko. He was born early in the 19th century, his parents and grandparents had fought as Cossacks years before that and fought for Ukrainians’ freedom. He was born as a slave to Russia as a child and was sold off to a family where he ended up living for a very long time, even though he was a very talented artist, writer and poet. At the age of 34, a group of artists actually bought his freedom and he was finally able to share his work with the rest of the world; he dedicated his talents and ability to Ukraine and what had happened, so he has some really rich poetry about that time. One of those poems really stands out to him as he has read it a few times; his wife has said it’s not his best poem or the prettiest, but it’s one that’s important. After receiving his freedom, his poetry really ruffled some feathers with the people in charge at the time. He had long periods while he was in exile and actually died in exile. During Soviet times, his poetry was banned; they didn’t allow for Ukrainians to read the poetry. That being said, Ukrainian parents in their own homes would teach the children these poems from Shevchenko because it meant so much to them and taught them about their past, and really what their future is. Shevchenko wrote: “Dear God, calamity again. It was so peaceful, so serene, we but begin to break the chains that bind our folk in slavery when, halt, again the people’s blood is streaming. Like rapturous dogs about a bone, the royal thugs are at each other’s throat again.” Representative Teuscher said what he loves about this is that it shows this isn’t new to Ukraine, the idea of Russian aggression or action that leads to Ukrainian blood spilling; it has really been the history of Ukraine throughout the very beginning of its time, starting back in the 10th century where Kievan Rus began as an empire. The ongoing fighting in that area is similar to a lot of Europe, but Ukraine itself and its people for a very long time never had a state. They were parts of different empires, whether it was the Russian Empire more on the eastern part of what is now Ukraine, or part of the Polish Empire, Austrian/Hungarian Empire, or the Romanian Empire coming from the south up. It wasn’t until 1991, at the fall of the Soviet Union, that Ukraine really had its first independent state. Even then, though it was independent in a sense, meaning there wasn’t another country they were servient to, the people themselves weren’t necessarily free. They had the leaders there during the Soviet times who just took off their Soviet hat and put on their democratic hat; however, it was the same people South Jordan City 6 City Council Meeting March 15, 2022 in power. It took a really long time for the people to be able to move through that and really tough economic times in the 1990s, going into 2000, to really get to a place where they could start adding some economic development and life into their economy. In 2004, Ukraine held what most people would say was the first free election in Ukraine; there was no incumbent that had been in power since Soviet times, someone fresh. It was a battle of ideas, there was a pro- west candidate in Viktor Yushchenko and a pro-east candidate in Viktor Yanukovich, and the question on the ballot was really “where does Ukraine want to be?” Do they want to align themselves with the west, or the east. As they went through that election year, for about 18 months beforehand, the number of people at the crowds for the pro-west candidates was greater than the east. Everyone could see exit polling seemed to show that yes, Ukraine was going to vote for the pro-west candidate. When the election results came out, the government had said that it was a close race, but the pro-east candidate had won. Every Ukrainian in their heart knew that it probably wasn’t fair, that it wasn’t accurate. In 2004, we saw people actually being able to exercise their freedom of speech. They came out to their city centers and they started protesting, saying this isn’t fair, we are a democracy and we should have the person we elect in place. Every city throughout Ukraine, a country of over 40 million people, started protesting and eventually they said “come to Kiev.” People started going by the busloads to Kiev, until there were over a million people standing day and night in the center, Independence Square in Kiev, demanding their freedom. After a two week period in the middle of winter, when they demanded every day that they want their freedom and democratically elected leader to actually be the leader of the country, the supreme court of Ukraine agreed with the people. They found there were fraudulent results in the election and they held a new election; Viktor Yushchenko, the pro-west candidate, was eventually elected. This protest and showing of the Ukrainian people was called the Orange Revolution because of the color of that candidate; everyone would wear orange to show solidarity with that candidate, but it was a peaceful revolution in a sense. People came, they worked through the government process, found there was a problem and fixed it. That all seemed to work for a while, but change wasn’t easy for Ukraine; they wanted NATO membership, they wanted EU membership and they worked towards that. In 2010 they had another presidential election and Yushchenko lost, the pro-east candidate actually won in a close election. He took over after a while but they still were making moves towards the west. It wasn’t until 2013-2014 that Viktor Yanukovich came forward and said they were going to align with Russia, and there was some concern. People started protesting, especially students, who came out and said this wasn’t what they wanted. After a while, the president of Ukraine at the time didn’t like the protests and was afraid it might spark into something bigger like they saw in 2004, so he asked the military to start firing on the protestors to get them out of the street. That sparked a lot of people to come out and they had what was called the “Euromaidan,” where they fought again for their freedoms. At that point, they got so many people to come and protest that it wasn’t as peaceful as what they had seen in the Orange Revolution, but they eventually stormed the presidential palace and were able to push the president into exile in Russia, installing a new president of Ukraine. He believes that was the trigger that Vladimir Putin saw that showed he couldn’t keep Ukraine under his thumb anymore. The people were standing up and starting to make changes, so you saw in that very next year aggression from Russia with the annexation of Crimea and the taking of their Black Sea fleet, taking over everything Ukraine had there. Following that, we South Jordan City 7 City Council Meeting March 15, 2022 saw the aggression that happened in Donetsk on the far east side that was very much contained but there were Russian separatists coming in and fighting, trying to stir up a lot of issues there. He thinks Putin miscalculated at that point because there was this idea that once you start these areas like Crimea and Donetsk to be under Russian control and fighting, wanting to align with Russia, that the rest of eastern Ukraine would just fall into place. Kharkiv is a university town with around 10 different universities, a very big city, and Putin assumed they would just want to align themselves with Russia since many of them already spoke Russian. However, the exact opposite happened, and when Crimea was taken over and the fighting started happening in Donetsk, the students came out in protest against Russia. They said that even though their parents might have been Russian, and they might speak Russian at home, they are Ukrainian; they grew up in Ukraine, went to Ukrainian schools, they cared about this country and wanted to fight for it. They toppled over any of the Lenin statues that were up in eastern Ukraine. He thinks that was a catalyst where Putin had to rethink his strategy there. He didn’t want Ukraine to be a part of NATO or the EU, but even more, it’s a pride issue, coming down to Ukraine always being known as “the little Russia.” There is a real sentiment among many Russian people wondering why Ukraine thinks they can go off and do something different from them; they are no better and shouldn’t be able to do that. Now Russia feels like they need to have that control over Ukraine, that it strikes at the heart of Russian Nationalism to have a free and independent Ukraine; especially one that is aligned with Western Europe. There are some perceptions out there that maybe Ukraine might be somewhat at fault for this, or that there is a large majority of Ukrainians that really want to align with Russia, and he declared that is not the case. In the early 1990s you might have been able to make a case that there was a really divided Ukraine, that the eastern Ukraine might have been more united with the Russians, while the western side of Ukraine was more united with Europe; that has changed in the last 20-30 years. Since 2014 there is a very strong sense of Ukrainian nationalism, and very few people who want to align themselves with Russia. Also, he appreciates the role the United States has played, kind of the leadership role, and to be able to punish Russia for what is happening and to try and take actions to try and help. We have seen this type of support all over the world. There is certainly more that can be done, Ukrainians need our help. The fight in Ukraine isn’t just a civil war of what’s going to happen in Ukraine, it’s really an assault against democracy and an assault against all of us and humanity. He asked for continued support for Ukraine, more than what we’re doing right now. He strongly believes if we don’t take the necessary steps now, this is not going to stop at Ukraine and continue to move forward. His mother in law and sister in law were able to escape to Poland, they have been there for the last week. There are almost 3 million refugees leaving Ukraine right now and it’s a huge crisis in Europe. He met with the Romanian ambassador to the US today and he will be talking about this issue, they have accepted more than 400,000 refugees into their country, but they don’t know how to integrate that large of a population. He would assume that, just as in the past, if that comes we will step up as a state and accept these refugees here, and integrate them into our great community. He thanked the council for the opportunity to speak, the resolution being brought forward, and the support of Ukraine. Mayor Pro Tempore Harris noted that as a council, this is a first, discussing geopolitical issues. It is such a significant issue here, and it does touch all of us. For Representative Teuscher to South Jordan City 8 City Council Meeting March 15, 2022 come and explain some of the history was very helpful. Council Member Shelton brought it up a few weeks ago that they should put a resolution together denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Mayor Pro Tempore Harris feels it was the right decision. Council Member Shelton has been inundated with news about what is happening in and around Ukraine, and he came to the last budget meeting feeling weighed down by all of it. That made him wonder what he could do as an individual to help a problem so far away, yet so important, as this really is an assault on Democracy; not just in Ukraine, but on Democracy as an idea across the world. As stated, they as a council have always focused on staying in their lane; they have made an effort to not get caught up in political issues outside of our city, and it has served them well in the past. He was hesitant to bring up the idea of this resolution, but after some thought he really felt a resolution would be appropriate; the mayor really liked the idea, and it was brought up at the budget session. City staff agreed to do some research and create the resolution being presented tonight, which Council Member Shelton then proceeded to read out loud. He felt the resolution was well written and he congratulated our staff on the wonderful job. He also mentioned there are legitimate ways to contribute and help the humanitarian efforts, and he encouraged everyone to help where and how they can. Manager Whatcott believes we have learned a lot from what the state provided, and their resolution as well. Mayor Pro Tempore Harris said this is well aligned with what the legislature and governor are doing as well. This isn’t done very often here, but they wanted to show their support as the city council. Council Member Shelton motioned to approve Resolution R2022-17, denouncing Russia’s unjustified invasion of Ukraine. Council Member McGuire seconded the motion. Roll Call Vote was 4-0, unanimous in favor; Council Member Zander was absent from the vote. Council Member McGuire motioned to recess the City Council Meeting and move to the Redevelopment Agency Meeting. Council Member Marlor seconded the motion; vote was unanimous in favor. Council Member Zander was absent from the vote. RECESS CITY COUNCIL MEETING AND MOVE TO REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY MEETING I. Public Hearing Items I.1. Resolution RDA 2022-02, Daybreak CRA Draft Plan and Budget approval. RCV By Director of City Commerce Brian Preece) Mayor Pro Tempore Harris noted that they are going to amend the agenda to move this item to the April 5, 2022 City Council meeting. Just in case anyone still came to speak on this South Jordan City 9 City Council Meeting March 15, 2022 item, he opened the hearing to public comment. There were no comments and the public hearing was closed. Council Member Marlor motioned to amend the agenda and move this public hearing to the April 5, 2022 City Council meeting. Council Member Shelton seconded the motion; vote was unanimous in favor. Council Member Zander was absent from the vote. ACM Lewis said the item above has been noticed for the public hearing on April 5, 2022. Council Member Shelton Motioned to adjourn the Redevelopment Agency meeting and return to the City Council meeting. Council Member McGuire seconded the motion; vote was unanimous in favor. Council Member Zander was absent from the vote. ADJOURN REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY MEETING AND RETURN TO CITY COUNCIL MEETING J. Staff Reports and Calendaring Items Manager Whatcott thanked Ms. Van Cleave and her team for their work on the new website, that was a huge job and they did an amazing job. Administrative Services Director Spencer Kyle has left the city, so Manager Whatcott went through the changes that have been made in the wake of that. They have created a new office under the Office of the City Manager, which will be Strategic Planning and Budget. Director of Strategic Services Don Tingey has been working in Strategic Planning for a number of years now and they have been working on priority based budgeting. Now they will try and get a lot deeper into the priority based budgeting, where they have asked Katie Olsen and Abby Patagonai to join this new department. They will start developing more forward looking motions with all the department heads, this allows them to go deeper into creating performance measures and making sure we measure our successes and/or failures. Additionally, Recreation has grown so much that we created a new Department of Recreation, as a standalone department; Janell Payne will be the director of that department, and the new business manager at Mulligans will be her assistant director. Mulligans has been moved under Recreation to create a more cohesive group. Director of Government Affairs Melinda Seager has been brought from the Legal Department back to this side. She came from this department before and brought a lot of good management and leadership experience to that position; they felt she could really help that department grow. There have been a few adjustments, but she will now be over facilities, the justice court, risk management, information technology and communications and marketing for the city. Emergency/Safety Manager Aaron Sainsbury used to be in that department; he has been moved back under Chief Dawson and the fire department. Executive Assistant Melanie Edwards is now called the Assistant to the City Manager, taking on a lot of the duties Katie Olsen had and some of Mr. Tingey’s duties he was doing before. She will be over the call center in the office as well, and doing a lot of South Jordan City 10 City Council Meeting March 15, 2022 project management stuff for Manager Whatcott. They will be hiring a new executive assistant, that will be coming on board soon and they will be the liaison for the council and the mayor, helping the council with their needs. These changes will strengthen our organization and we will see big improvements in the future. They will be housing all the master plans together and working with the departments to make sure those are being seen and incorporated in our strategic planning, as well as the CIP management and tracking all of the financial aspects of the projects; that is part of what Ms. Patagonai will be helping with since her skill set is analytically oriented and there will be much more data collection. Mayor Pro Tempore Harris recognized Representative Pulsipher joining the meeting and thanked her for being here. Council Member Marlor motioned to adjourn the City Council meeting. Council Member Shelton seconded the motion; vote was unanimous in favor. Council Member Zander was absent from the vote. ADJOURNMENT The March 15, 2022 City Council meeting adjourned at 7:43 p.m. This is a true and correct copy of the March 15, 2022 City Council Meeting Minutes, which were approved on April 5, 2022. South Jordan City Recorder