August 9, 2023 | General Meeting

Voting

• 5-0 approving City Council meeting minutes for May 4, May 24, and July 12, 2023

General Meeting

City Council recognitions

• The Council formally recognized Girl Scouts Alena Naylor and Kayla Gonzalez of Troop 1709 for their recent service project that benefits Herriman City. They built and ran a Gaga Ball pit at Fort Herriman Towne Days, providing a fun activity for families, and donated the pit to the City to use in future years.
• The Council also accepted a generous gift from Tom Schimpf of the Utah Warriors, which was given as a token of gratitude for the City's support of the Warriors franchise. 

Public comments

• Comment from an owner of a fiber network company expressing frustration over what he felt was the City preventing new franchise agreements for fiber network providers. The Council addressed the comment in a discussion in the 2nd work meeting.

City Council board and committee reports

• Councilmember Hodges, representing the South Valley Sewer District board, noted that the sewer infrastructure had a massive increase of water flow from recent rain storms and experienced no issues.
• Councilmember Hodges also praised the recent opening of the Salt Lake Community College/University of Utah joint Herriman Campus earlier this week.
• Councilmember Ohrn, representing the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District board, reported that the proposed property tax increase of about 9% for the district was approved. She also noted that water usage has decreased below normal recently, likely due to wet weather.
• Mayor Palmer, reporting from the Council of Governments, reported that a homeless shelter will be utilized in West Valley City this winter season.

Work Meeting

Oak Leaf Elementary Safe Walk Route

The Safe Walk Route for Oak Leaf Elementary School will include a crossing over Main Street and a sidewalk between 7300 West and Bethany Oak Drive. However, that Main Street sidewalk will not be completed in time for school starting because of property acquisition delays of 4-5 months that were a part of the Main Street improvement project. The Jordan School District will provide buses to safely shuttle student pedestrians instead, but only if the City participates in covering 50% of the expenses (about $30,000 for 6 months). The City Council expressed some frustration but agreed to cover half the costs for the shuttle service through September, allowing enough time for the City Council and Jordan School District representatives to have a deeper discussion about a fine-tuned solution. The permanent Safe Walk Route solution is not expected to be complete until at least December, perhaps later.

Friends of Herriman Memorandum of Understanding

The City Council discussed a draft MOU with the Friends of Herriman to set parameters guiding the relationship between the City and the FOH.

Strategic Plan

The City has been developing a strategic plan to guide the City's efforts. The Council discussed the draft document and feels confident about the direction it can help provide the City.

Property tax increase and police operations/growth funding

The City is proposing a property tax increase for the Herriman City Safety Enforcement Area entity, which makes up about 12% of the total property tax paid by Herriman residents. The proposed increase is for up to 15% of the HCSEA item and will have a public Truth-in-Taxation hearing on August 22nd. Information about the proposed increase can be found at www.herriman.org/property-tax.

This item was an in-depth report and discussion on police operations, how growth and funding is projected, and how the City ensures resources are maximized within budgetary means. Some major factors include the Herriman City's metrics on when to hire each type of new officer, when and how to rotate fleet vehicles, and so forth. A full staff report can be found at this link.

The first half of the discussion can be found here and the second half can be found here.

Meeting Video

• Work Meeting 1
• Work Meeting 2
• General Meeting