Video & Transcript
All right, everyone.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Welcome.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I'm going to call the Moab City Council meeting to order on June 10th, 2025 at
6.03pm. And we'll start with the pledge and Willie from the National Ability
Center is going to lead us in the pledge.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Thank you.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Next on our agenda is public comments.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Do we have anybody that has any public comments this evening?
Tawny Knutson-Boyd:
No.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
All right, we'll move on.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
We have no department head updates.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
We have two items on our consent agenda.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
4.1 is approval of the minutes from May 13th, 2025 and May 27th, 2025 and
approval of the bills against the City of Moab in the amount of $837,365.11. Can
I have a motion to approve the consent agenda?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I motion to approve the consent agenda.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Motion by Caitlin.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Second?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Second.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Second by Colin.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Any discussion?
Tawny Knutson-Boyd:
No.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
All in favor say aye.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Aye.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Motion passes 5-0.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
All right.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
First up, we have public hearing.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
We have four public hearings tonight.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
The first two are on the annexation and I don't know if you want, we've kind of
gone through the annexation process.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
We're at the final phase here for the National Mobility Center.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
They're here if you have any questions for them.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I'm going to open up the public hearing for ordinance 2509, an ordinance of the
City Council of Moab annexing the coal and fire property at 602 Surmat to the
City of Moab and assigning the zone of C3 Central Commercial to that parcel.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So I'm open up the public hearing.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Corey, I don't know if anybody has any questions before.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
We've kind of been through this a lot and know you've got, we've got a lot of
support for this project.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So I'm just going to, I don't know if you want Corey to go through this or if
you guys have any questions for him.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I don't.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
No?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Jason?
Jason Taylor:
No, I don't think so.
Jason Taylor:
I think I've read everything and kind of you've walked us through the whole
process since day one.
Jason Taylor:
So I think I'm pretty good.
Jason Taylor:
Unless there's anything that's come up that's not originally.
Speaker 8:
No, there hasn't been.
Speaker 8:
Just completing the process at this point.
Michael Black:
Okay.
Colin Topper:
I've got a question for you just for my own education.
Colin Topper:
I think this is a wonderful project and this is the third time it's come before
us.
Colin Topper:
But just in more generally, so I did, I saw that the pre annexation agreement
runs with the land upon ownership change.
Colin Topper:
Does the restricted covenant agreement, the 50 year agreement also transfer
with ownership?
Speaker 8:
Remains with the land.
Colin Topper:
Yes, it does.
Michael Black:
Okay.
Michael Black:
Okay.
Colin Topper:
So, okay.
Colin Topper:
Excellent.
Colin Topper:
That was just a question.
Michael Black:
That's it.
Colin Topper:
And thank you so much.
Colin Topper:
There was such a thorough packet entry and all the references to the general
plan and everything that is new to these.
Colin Topper:
It was really wonderful.
Colin Topper:
So thank you.
Colin Topper:
Very thorough.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Any other questions for Corey?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I forgot to open the public hearing.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I did, but I did.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I said, did I say a time?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
All right.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So now I'm going to open up to the public.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Does anybody in the public like to make a comment?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
All right.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I'm going to close the public hearing at 6 0 7 PM.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And I will ask for a motion to consider the adoption of ordinance 2025-09 and
ordinance to annex the property located at 602 Cermak Moab, Utah, 84532 located
in uncorporated Grand County.
Tawny Knutson-Boyd:
I can make a motion to approve ordinance 2025-09 and ordinance of the city
council of Moab.
Tawny Knutson-Boyd:
I'm doing this on my phone.
Tawny Knutson-Boyd:
I apologize.
Tawny Knutson-Boyd:
And I sing the Colin Fryer property at 602 Cermak to the city of Moab.
Tawny Knutson-Boyd:
And what was the rest of that? Assigning the zone of C3.
Tawny Knutson-Boyd:
I'll second.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Second by Jason discussion, Tawny?
Tawny Knutson-Boyd:
No, I just think this is a really good project.
Tawny Knutson-Boyd:
And I think it's been well thought out and I'm just glad that we can, we can do
this and move this forward.
Tawny Knutson-Boyd:
I think it's really an important program and benefits a lot of people that
often get left behind.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Thank you. Jason?
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Jason Taylor:
I just out in the world, you know, in town that there's a lot of discussion
about this, that it was, you know, more overnight accommodations and it wasn't
who, you know, or what, you know, or where he knows who, you know, and that
stuff.
Jason Taylor:
And I just want to say that that's not the case with this.
Jason Taylor:
This is providing housing for a group of people who, who have very specific
needs that is nowhere to be found within the housing in Moab.
Jason Taylor:
And that it's pretty critical to you that what the national ability center is
doing and what this project is.
Jason Taylor:
And so you know, we're not, you know, opening up more hotels.
Jason Taylor:
We're not opening up more accommodations.
Jason Taylor:
We're doing something to provide a service or these guys are to provide a
service for a very select group of people within our whole country, you know,
and provide them with the outdoor education and ability to come out here and to
see this great place and stuff.
Jason Taylor:
So I just want people to know that, you know, we're not, that this isn't us
opening up, you know, this and it's what it is really a very great and unique
thing.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Any other comments?
Kaitlin Myers:
Yeah, I'd echo both points.
Kaitlin Myers:
And I, and I also want to say, I really appreciate the way you guys have worked
with staff.
Kaitlin Myers:
I think we all feel really familiar with this because you've collaborated on
how to define that use and make sure that it is going to serve your needs, but
kind of also respect the intentions of, you know, overnight accommodations and
what we've doing at the city.
Kaitlin Myers:
So, so yeah, just really appreciate all the thoughtfulness that's gone into
this process for so long.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Anybody else?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
All right.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
We have a motion made by Tawny seconded by Jason to approve ordinance 2025-09.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
All those in favor say aye.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Aye.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Any opposed?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Motion passes 5-0.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Second public hearing is an ordinance 2025-10.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Only this is for property at 611 Cermak to the city of Moab assigning C3 code
zone.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And so I'm going to open that public hearing at 610.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Exactly the same thing, just a different parcel.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Any questions?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I'll ask for a motion.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Oh, wait, have anybody from the public?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
All right.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I'm going to close the public hearing at 610 and ask for a motion to adopt
ordinance 2025-10 and ordinance to annex the property located at 611 Cermak,
Moab, Utah, 84532, located in uncorporated Grand County.
Jason Taylor:
I can make that motion for adoption of Moab ordinance 2025-10 and ordinance to
annex the property located at 611 Cermak, Moab, Utah, 84532, located in
unincorporated Grand County.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Motion by Jason.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Second?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Second.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Second by Colin.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Any further discussion?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
All in favor say aye.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Aye.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Any opposed?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Motion passes 5-0.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Welcome to the city of Moab.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Glad to be here.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Glad we could do this for you.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Thanks Colin for all your work.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
All right.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So we've got the first two public hearings out of the way.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I'm going to open up the next public hearing, section 5.5 of public hearing for
resolution 08-2025 and ordinance amending the fiscal year budget 2024-25.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So I think, Michael, you're going to present this one.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Public hearing is open.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
As soon as you're done, we'll have questions and have the public.
Michael Black:
Okay.
Michael Black:
So I'll just go through what I presented in the staff report really quick.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Have a good dinner tonight.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Thanks for all the good work you guys are doing.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Really appreciate it.
Colin Topper:
Yep.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
We'll see you later.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Good to see you.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
All right.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So.
Michael Black:
Okay.
Michael Black:
So they're missing out the best part.
Michael Black:
Okay.
Michael Black:
So the first item is an amendment to the current budget, the budget we're in
now.
Michael Black:
We have an audit that's done every year and our auditors consistently mention
as a best practice that we should do an amendment at the end of the year to tidy
up the books, make sure everything is, because we make transfers throughout the
year.
Michael Black:
There are some projects that don't get finished in the year.
Michael Black:
There's some projects that go over a little bit in the year.
Michael Black:
For the most part, we're generally not increasing the budget.
Michael Black:
We're just kind of tidying things up and make sure each one of the funds is
showing either balance or a positive balance or a positive fund.
Michael Black:
So in this amendment, mainly what we did was we reduced items, line items that
we were not able to either get to this year, complete projects or priorities had
changed and we didn't spend the money or it was just not necessary to spend the
money.
Michael Black:
So we reduced a lot of different projects down quite a bit, but we did add a
few expenses as well.
Michael Black:
And that those expenses caused the budget to go up just a little bit, but I
want to explain what those expenses were.
Michael Black:
We did two transfers, one transfer from the, they, both of them came from the
general fund.
Michael Black:
One transfer for was for the RAP tax revenue.
Michael Black:
The RAP tax is a tax that comes in that is supposed to be used for certain
purposes.
Michael Black:
It's restricted, but since we've been receiving it, it's been being kept in the
general fund, which is a non-restricted fund.
Michael Black:
So in talking with council this year and looking at better ways to do this, we
decided to create a RAP tax fund.
Michael Black:
So we're just moving RAP tax money from the general fund to its own fund.
Michael Black:
It's $1.2 million, but it comes up as an expense.
Michael Black:
So it shows as an expense within the budget.
Michael Black:
It also shows as a revenue, but it's coming out of the general fund going into
the RAP tax.
Michael Black:
The other transfer is going to the housing fund.
Michael Black:
Walnut Lane property is a property that we own, the city owns, but we still
have a loan on that property.
Michael Black:
The loan happens to be the highest interest rate that we have of all the loans
that we have and bonds that we have at the city.
Michael Black:
And we did some research and found that we could save quite a bit of money.
Michael Black:
In fact, we could save $700,000 over the next 10 years if we were to pay off
that loan now, if we had the ability.
Michael Black:
And looking at the housing fund, the housing fund does have some money in it
and can handle part of it, but the general fund has been subsidizing housing as
well and has been putting money in to help, I guess, get that property moving
forward and following the guidelines or the priorities that the council has.
Michael Black:
So I'm suggesting that we transfer $660,000 from the general fund to the
housing fund and then use $800,000 out of the housing fund to match with that to
pay off the loan at $1,460,000.
Michael Black:
And again, that will save us $700,000 in interest over the rest of the life of
the loan.
Michael Black:
We have already paid interest.
Michael Black:
This is just the money that we'll not pay going forward.
Michael Black:
So those are the big changes.
Michael Black:
And with those changes, the budget did increase by $950,000, but those two
things alone are $1.86 million.
Michael Black:
So in order for it to only increase $950,000, you can see that we had to lower
things in other areas.
Michael Black:
And I won't go through all of those things that we lowered, but we've also seen
revenues come in a little bit higher than what we expected.
Michael Black:
You can see on the budget that we're proposing for next year and for the
amendment for this year that revenues have come in actually about $500,000 more
just in the tax area, not all of our revenues, but most revenues have come in
higher than what we anticipated, especially the tax revenues, which generally,
not all, but generally are dependent on visitation.
Michael Black:
So the ones that are dependent on visitation and people coming to town, we have
seen those increase.
Michael Black:
And we've also received increased grants.
Michael Black:
The Department of Public Safety has granted us several grants for DUI
enforcement and other kinds of enforcement.
Michael Black:
That was a lot more than what we had budgeted for in the actual budget.
Michael Black:
So we saw that go up.
Michael Black:
And these are just some of the things that you can see that are changed
throughout the document.
Michael Black:
I won't go through all of them, but in the end, I'm recommending that you do
review this.
Michael Black:
I have listed all of the funds and shown whether any of the funds had any
changes at all and tried to try to explain what those changes were.
Michael Black:
The changes that we have seen are in the general fund, RAP tax, parks and
recreation fund, and the housing fund.
Michael Black:
And there's explanations for what those are.
Michael Black:
So I recommend that the council approve the budget amendment as proposed.
Michael Black:
And I'm happy to answer any questions.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Questions.
Kaitlin Myers:
I've got a few.
Michael Black:
Go ahead.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Kaitlin Myers:
So just looking at actuals, we're at 14.23 million for taxes.
Kaitlin Myers:
I'm wondering if you have projections about, I guess, like what month are we
expecting to come in between now and the end of the month?
Kaitlin Myers:
Yeah, sales tax, but all of our kind of like tourism tax related.
Michael Black:
So if I understand the question, it's what am I expecting based on what we're
seeing that will come in, where we'll come in at the end of the year.
Michael Black:
I think we're going to come in higher than what was projected based on the
amendment that I proposed.
Michael Black:
It's it does show that that's exactly what we're looking at.
Michael Black:
Is it coming in higher now?
Michael Black:
We don't have we don't even have April's numbers yet.
Michael Black:
So April's numbers will be coming to us on the 22nd of this month.
Michael Black:
And I will report those out based on the numbers that we've seen so far in the
graph that I showed you a month ago.
Michael Black:
We're seeing there that there is definitely an increase in taxes related to
visitation.
Michael Black:
It's not the twenty five percent that we saw for the two years after covid.
Michael Black:
In each of those years, it was twenty five percent.
Michael Black:
We're looking at more like two to four percent, somewhere in that range.
Michael Black:
But the good news is, is that after covid, we did shoot up twenty five percent
each year and we haven't dropped back off.
Michael Black:
We've plateaued out, which is really, I think, good news.
Michael Black:
I think it's a new new normal.
Michael Black:
And that new normal is higher than what it was before covid.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So we will get those numbers for April, May and June, two months from the time
that they're reported.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So we really won't know the actual numbers for June until September.
Michael Black:
So after the yeah, so after the first quarter.
Michael Black:
After the first quarter, we'll be able to present on what the actuals were.
Michael Black:
But based on all of the data that we have and anecdotal information and hard
facts, I do believe the numbers that we're proposing for the revenue are going
to be hopefully just a little bit less than what we bring in.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Kaitlin Myers:
And I ask partially because it shows a two point four million dollar difference
between budget and actual in that.
Kaitlin Myers:
So providing some explanation, tentative budget between last month and this one
was two point one million.
Kaitlin Myers:
So I think that's that's right.
Kaitlin Myers:
But just a lot of conversation about visitation and tax revenue.
Kaitlin Myers:
I had.
Kaitlin Myers:
Went through a lot of highlighting, I think, started down a direction between
this and our proposed budget coming in later, trying to understand some of that.
Kaitlin Myers:
And I think I appreciate you sharing the updated, corrected actuals and the
other proposed had some questions about a few line items in here.
Kaitlin Myers:
Namely, looking at a couple of looking at H.R., for example, I'm wondering,
looking at.
Kaitlin Myers:
Projected, I know we're at the end of the year, but thinking about amending our
budget back to closer to actual and kind of cleaning up some of this, wondering
why for public notices that was budgeted at fifty thousand over this last year,
because I know that we're correcting that in our proposed budget moving forward.
Kaitlin Myers:
Kind of similar question for what the eighty six thousand for the other was
projected to be, because that came in significantly different.
Michael Black:
So those those are two that we could have reduced as well.
Michael Black:
Honestly, we are not we're definitely not spending that fifty thousand or that
eighty six thousand dollars.
Michael Black:
I think we just get to a point where we could probably reduce almost, I mean, a
majority of these things.
Michael Black:
And so I I think the twenty one thousand on other for human resources that that
definitely is probably as high as it's going to get for all intents and
purposes.
Michael Black:
Again, we can reduce that down to twenty five if we if we needed to.
Michael Black:
We don't need to, but that's something we could do.
Michael Black:
And the public notices, I don't see those being spent at fifty thousand dollars
either, but it's the original budget.
Michael Black:
And it also isn't necessarily hurting anything by by keeping it at that number.
Michael Black:
We're not we've actually one of the other things about this amended budget is
originally there was the intent to transfer on the revenue side from the ending
fund balance.
Michael Black:
And I just want to get up to that point.
Michael Black:
There was the intent to transfer from fund beginning balance one million.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Michael Black:
So we definitely I think we have another column issue here, to be honest with
you.
Michael Black:
Yeah, I think all the numbers are the same.
Michael Black:
I think this needs to be updated.
Michael Black:
So I ask that you just table this and I'll bring it back to you at the next
meeting.
Michael Black:
Unfortunately, we had some issues with the back end of Polaris and some people,
including me, programming it.
Michael Black:
And it was pulling different columns.
Michael Black:
And actually, on the June revised budget, what it ended up doing was pulling
the twenty twenty five January amended budget instead of putting in the June
budget.
Michael Black:
So the information that I have in my in my staff report is correct, but that
they call that last column is incorrect.
Michael Black:
Got it.
Michael Black:
Threw out all the line items.
Michael Black:
Is that right?
Michael Black:
All of them.
Michael Black:
They're exactly the same.
Michael Black:
If you look at.
Michael Black:
If you look at them all there, they're exactly the same.
Michael Black:
So we had we had the same issue with the general with the final budget.
Michael Black:
We fixed the final one today.
Michael Black:
I did not realize that this was an issue until just now.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Michael Black:
Apologize for that.
Michael Black:
But it's not crucial that it be approved today.
Michael Black:
We still have one more meeting that we can approve this and get I can get you
the information in advance.
Michael Black:
In fact, you can have it by the end of the week this week.
Kaitlin Myers:
That'd be great.
Kaitlin Myers:
Yeah, I think I definitely got twisted up in myself about trying to understand
the two and how we got to a certain budget thing.
Kaitlin Myers:
You know, I know we've we've talked about and I stand behind kind of the
general conversations we've had about the budget.
Kaitlin Myers:
But coming into today, I definitely got twisted up in myself.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Michael Black:
I don't know what else to say, except this this couldn't be approved the way
that it is.
Michael Black:
This is not the right budget.
Colin Topper:
So do you need a motion to table it?
Michael Black:
Well, it is a public hearing.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Yeah, I would like to suggest that if you guys have any more questions, like
bring up now, and then Michael can make those adjustments.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So the next meeting, you know, any anything that you want to go and want to
correct or change or ask about we're doing it tonight.
Kaitlin Myers:
Yeah, I guess one other thing that I thought about more after we talked this
afternoon, but you know, we're kind of restructuring the parks and rec and you
know, wrap and all of that.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And
Kaitlin Myers:
so I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about I guess this is a
little bit more for
Kaitlin Myers:
well, maybe this is more related to our proposed budget, but I just have all my
notes together,
Kaitlin Myers:
but as we're starting to look at addressing the MRAC and all that how we're
budgeting certain
Kaitlin Myers:
things within MRAC expenses, like typical building maintenance, we were over
budget this year,
Kaitlin Myers:
projected to go from 20,000 to 15,000 in our next budget.
Kaitlin Myers:
So kind of wondering and then in recreation admin, there's a big increase in
supplies and maintenance for that versus at the MRAC.
Kaitlin Myers:
And there's also capital in the capital fund.
Kaitlin Myers:
There's proposed stuff for that.
Kaitlin Myers:
So that's kind of one of my questions is if you can talk about how.
Michael Black:
Yeah, if you when we get to there, if you just want to bring up the line items,
I can, I can refer to my notes that when we're putting this budget together, and
I can answer anything I'm able to.
Kaitlin Myers:
Okay, great.
Michael Black:
So as far as a matter of business, rather than advertising the public hearing
again, it would be good to take to table this to a date certain is that how we
think that?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Yeah, I can take care of that.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Yeah, to that point.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Yeah, I'll close the public hearing.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I'll ask for a motion to table.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
But at this point, you guys are still asking questions.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Is that it?
Kaitlin Myers:
Well, I can hear the budget.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Yeah, about the amendments, I guess.
Kaitlin Myers:
Well, I think specific to I guess I have one more specific to this budget.
Kaitlin Myers:
We get building inspection, professional and technical, we're usually in kind
of the 80,000 this year was less than 1000. And then just wondering...
Michael Black:
That line item is reserved for what the state requires us to do when when we
can't handle getting our building permits inspections done in time.
Michael Black:
And what what the state requires is that we have a third party that we can use
or the developers or builders can use to get their inspections done in a timely
way.
Michael Black:
And then we we end up paying for that.
Michael Black:
So that's a requirement by the state.
Michael Black:
So that line item, and you'll see that in the next budget as well, virtually
the same amount of money, because we need to keep that just in case we we all of
a sudden get an influx of building permits for new homes is generally what it's
for.
Michael Black:
And then we, we can't with our two inspectors, keep up on all of the
inspections.
Michael Black:
So we have to hire outside help to do that.
Michael Black:
This year, what that says that we spent so little is that we didn't have a
problem meeting all of our inspection needs, which is in house.
Kaitlin Myers:
Yeah, yeah, which is great.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Great.
Kaitlin Myers:
And then also, I think between this and the other, other budget for admin,
professional and technical kind of similar but different question of like, what
what typically falls under professional technical for admin.
Michael Black:
So professional technical for admin generally is going to be contracts for
services.
Michael Black:
And we're talking about consulting services.
Michael Black:
So in the upcoming budget, we've got, we've moved things from the general or
from elected to admin.
Michael Black:
And that's why the number has gone up so much.
Michael Black:
But in previous years, what you what you
Michael Black:
see in those budgets, and and I can go back and I can tell you exactly what it
was, if you'd like to,
Michael Black:
if we want to look at admin specifically, but it's it's generally consulting
services for admin,
Michael Black:
it could be the audit, it could be related to any other special analysis that
we might have
Michael Black:
performed that doesn't fall under any other department specifically, but is
more general
Michael Black:
for the city.
Michael Black:
But it's more consulting work is what it is a lobbyist part of that, too.
Michael Black:
It will be next year, yeah.
Michael Black:
Oh, okay.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Michael Black:
Okay.
Michael Black:
So in this year, that that was, I believe in elected, right?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
It was.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Yeah, that's correct.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Kaitlin Myers:
And then also wondering, I'm just curious for us as electeds, for subscriptions
and memberships kind of what what that is for us.
Michael Black:
So and I've moved most of those in the coming budget to to general as well,
because subscriptions and memberships, it's like memberships to the National
League of Cities or Utah League of Cities and Towns or the ski towns or mountain
towns.
Michael Black:
Those those are all the memberships that we have.
Michael Black:
And I believe I mean, there might be a couple more.
Michael Black:
Those are the general ones.
Michael Black:
And then for professionals like for myself, I belong to the American Planning
Association and American Institute of Certified Planners.
Michael Black:
So does Corey.
Michael Black:
So that would be one of those things for him and and some of our other staff
and police department and things like that.
Michael Black:
They have different ones as well.
Michael Black:
So that's what that would cover.
Michael Black:
Thanks.
Kaitlin Myers:
Those are...
Kaitlin Myers:
I've got more, but I think we can next one and meet and talk about some of
this.
Kaitlin Myers:
I think those are some of my bigger ones going to propose or amended.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Anybody else comments about the amended budget?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Public.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Anybody want to talk about the budget?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Apparently not.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
All right.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
As noted, we need to table this to our next meeting.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So if I could have a motion to table.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
The adoption of Resolution 08-2025 amending the fiscal year budget 20 by 2425.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
No, I didn't close public hearing the close of public hearing at 632 and ask
for a motion to table Resolution 08-2025 until the June 27th meeting.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Is that the right date?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
24th.
Kaitlin Myers:
I motion to table adoption of Resolution 08-2025 and amendment to fiscal year
2025 budget to June June 24th.
Colin Topper:
Yep.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Meeting.
Colin Topper:
Yep.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Motion by Kaitlin.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Second.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Seconded by Tawny.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Any discussion?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
All those in favor say aye.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Aye.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Motion passes 5-0.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So in between now and the next meeting, if you find anything, we still have
time to make those changes.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Just let Michael know.
Michael Black:
So I will get you the budget that matches the staff report this week because
it's already done.
Michael Black:
Again, it's just a matter of the program pulling from the right column and we
have to direct it to do that.
Michael Black:
Once we do that, we can send that out.
Kaitlin Myers:
So great.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Thank you.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Next public hearing, I'm going to open this public hearing at 634 PM.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
It's a public hearing for Resolution 07-2025 adopting the fiscal year 2025-26
budget.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And Michael.
Michael Black:
Yeah, so this one's correct.
Michael Black:
I'll just start with that.
Michael Black:
So there was a line, a column issue on this one, but it didn't have anything to
do with the actual proposed budget.
Michael Black:
It was pulling the wrong actual year.
Michael Black:
And these are, again, this isn't a knock against our program.
Michael Black:
These are just some issues with programming.
Michael Black:
So I'll go through really quick what has changed in general since the tentative
budget and just remind you that the council did approve a tentative budget a
month ago.
Michael Black:
The state requires us to do a tentative budget and then one month later or by
the first meeting in June, approve a final budget.
Michael Black:
There's not supposed to be major changes between the two, but you can make
changes.
Michael Black:
The idea is that the tentative budget and the final budget are pretty similar.
Michael Black:
So the citizens have an opportunity to about a month that they could look at
that and ask questions and things like that.
Michael Black:
So there definitely are a few changes though.
Michael Black:
And I'll start with revenue.
Michael Black:
When we presented last time, we did not have the tax rate yet from the county
and the county sets the tax rate based on the revenue that the city is looking
for.
Michael Black:
And that revenue was established the first time you set the tax rate, which was
a year ago.
Michael Black:
It was actually less than a year ago, but for the previous or for the current
term that we're in right now.
Michael Black:
So we were able to get that tax rate, but we didn't get it until Monday, which
was yesterday.
Michael Black:
So that tax rate is on the resolution and it's .002167. And so it's virtually
the same as the previous year.
Michael Black:
The previous year was .002149. So that's an 18 millionth of a change.
Michael Black:
The reason why there was a change, the only reason why there was a change is
because according to the county, valuations went down in the city.
Michael Black:
So in order to have the same revenue, the county changed it by an 18th of a
million, 18 millionth of a percent of 1%.
Michael Black:
So virtually the same.
Michael Black:
So that changes a little bit what our revenue projection is or revenue
recommendation is for property tax only.
Michael Black:
Again, just property tax.
Michael Black:
So this document has been updated with the actual number, which is $3,351,250.
Michael Black:
So other changes within here in revenue, we did make a change under transfer
from other funds.
Michael Black:
There was a transfer that was originally anticipated to come from a certain
fund because that fund had not paid overhead for quite some time for a lot of
the work that had been done in through admin and things like that.
Michael Black:
But it actually comes to once we look at it a little bit further, we are
transferring money from the general fund to this fund.
Michael Black:
It's the housing fund.
Michael Black:
So it didn't make sense to transfer money back from the housing fund to the
general fund.
Michael Black:
So I took that out.
Michael Black:
So there's no transfer from the housing fund for overhead.
Michael Black:
The other $350,000 you see there from transfer from other funds is from the CIP
fund.
Michael Black:
And that is to pay for engineering overhead and to pay for the utility
assistance program.
Michael Black:
Those two things, which are directly related to either the property tax or
capital improvement plans.
Michael Black:
So other things, just there's some minor changes here and there.
Michael Black:
The only other thing of really of note is that I split out the community
contributions, which I think there was some conversation about what the correct
term for that division of the budget should be.
Michael Black:
But this is where the city enters into contracts with people who provide
services within the community that the city does not provide.
Michael Black:
And these technically are not just contributions, they're fees for services
that are being provided within the community.
Michael Black:
The other thing in this section, so for instance, we've got Seacave and
Multicultural Center and so on and so forth, people we've had contracts with in
the past to provide services, social services within the community that the city
doesn't provide.
Michael Black:
The other one in this section is social service, and that's actually the
utility assistance program, that's $75,000.
Michael Black:
And again, that money is coming from the general fund to offset the people's
payments for utilities and was related to the property tax when the property tax
was adopted.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Let me just add, so at our next meeting, Marcy is going to present to you her,
because she's going to come back in six months.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So she's going to give you guys data and information.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
We can talk about that at her next meeting.
Michael Black:
Okay.
Michael Black:
And that's pretty much, if you go down to the bottom of the general fund, those
are the only other changes you'll see in here.
Michael Black:
And these are just the transfer to the capital projects fund, which is, we just
changed that to match with the actual amount for the property taxes.
Michael Black:
And then there was a transfer that was scheduled to go to the culinary water
fund that is not necessary.
Michael Black:
And that was taken out.
Michael Black:
So not coming from the general fund to the culinary water fund.
Michael Black:
There was no basis for that, that we could find.
Michael Black:
So we just removed that from the transfer.
Michael Black:
And those are the changes from the tentative budget to the current budget.
Jason Taylor:
Can you remind me like why things like police, I know you talked about this
before, but like police vehicles, was it 93,000?
Jason Taylor:
Now it's zero.
Michael Black:
Well, yeah.
Michael Black:
So we moved vehicles all to its own fund because they were buried everywhere.
Michael Black:
They, sometimes they were in CIP.
Michael Black:
Sometimes they were in operations.
Michael Black:
Sometimes they were all over the place.
Michael Black:
So we moved them to one.
Michael Black:
So it'd be more I remember that now.
Colin Topper:
And then Michael, with the community contributions, I thought that we had
decided that, and I appreciated that in the tentative budget, you consolidated
those because I thought that that gave us a little bit more flexibility because
what we've seen with that money is it's a great way to sort of, a pot of money
to respond to things that are happening in our community.
Colin Topper:
For example, the, you know, with Walnut Lane, we were able to move a lot of
that money towards or a chunk of that money towards the Moab Valley
Multicultural Center who was supporting us so hugely in that.
Colin Topper:
And then is that, but didn't we, so I'm trying to remember, didn't we decide
that to go away from those community contributions in the revised, when we
updated the budget in January or December?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
No, I don't know.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I'm not that I would recollect.
Michael Black:
If we were going more towards contracts.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Contracting with them so that it's not a contribution.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
We have a contract with Multicultural Center, Moab Solutions, Seekhaven to
provide services that generally the city would be providing.
Colin Topper:
Right.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
But we don't have the capacity to do it.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And so I felt like it was important to have those line items in there.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And then talking to Jason earlier today, we thought, well, maybe we should
change that title to contract fees for services or something to that.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So it doesn't appear as though we have money available for any community
contribution.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Colin Topper:
The conversation that I remember having was that there are also other great
organizations that are doing this great work.
Colin Topper:
And so why did we just remind me why we amended the budget mid-year and took
those out?
Michael Black:
I don't think we did take them out.
Michael Black:
I took them out in the tentative budget.
Michael Black:
I didn't take them out.
Michael Black:
I just consolidated them into one line item, which was, I have to go back to
that.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Last year was, last in 2025, they were in public safety.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
We moved them from community contributions to public safety for that same
reason so that it was clear that they were, those were services that we were
providing for public safety purposes.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So we decided to move, I don't know why.
Colin Topper:
Why did we revise it in December and remove and zero out several of those
contributions?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I have no idea.
Colin Topper:
I don't know either.
Colin Topper:
Because we had a conversation at that time where, you know, we thought that
maybe we were better served by, you know, having this pot of money and being
able to really, you know, if we have a flood, if somebody is serving, you know,
a community need.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I don't remember that conversation.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And we can talk about that further because this has always been, these
contributions have always, this is what we've decided in the past, were the
organizations we really wanted to support.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I mean, in the past we used to support everybody, you know, they would come in
and they would make, you know, they would apply.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And when I became the mayor, I was like, why are we giving money away when we
can't even afford to fix our roads?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And so we kind of identified accounts, I think it's the council before you, you
guys remind me that these were the organizations we felt were, we should be
supporting because they are providing the service for us that we should be
providing to the community.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Luke Wojciechowski:
And I think a part of that conversation too is just when they were applying for
their community contributions, there wasn't any certainty as to like what amount
they would receive.
Luke Wojciechowski:
And so we were hoping that by giving them a fixed amount, it would help with
like budgeting for the upcoming year.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Jason Taylor:
I think what we're talking about is also two different pots of money.
Jason Taylor:
You have like this community contribution, which is these guys providing
services that we can't do, you know, such as, you know, or that we don't have
the ability to do, but then there's another pot of money that's like, oh, we had
this flood come up, we need to contribute or to this fund, you know, which would
be a community contribution.
Jason Taylor:
That's why I, like after I talked to you today, then I talked to the mayor and
I was like, community contribution kind of seems like people are applying for it
and getting it and stuff where, and that's why I was like, maybe we should
change it to community contracted services or something like that.
Jason Taylor:
So it's more the line item for services that we can't provide, but also we need
to maybe have like another pot that, you know, whether it's not listed as the
general fund that we can pull from for flood mitigation or additional funds to
cultural center, like they helped us out with helping us with Walnut Lane.
Colin Topper:
So be able to respond, respond.
Jason Taylor:
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Colin Topper:
And I think that the conversation that we had, at least the way I remember it
is, is I, I didn't have any say in, in these.
Colin Topper:
And so I didn't have input in these and, and, and I understand the the move
towards a contract.
Colin Topper:
And I think that's a really positive move because a lot of these seemed, one of
the issues that I had is that we were giving these to, and there wasn't a, a, a
written out contract of what we were receiving for these funds.
Colin Topper:
But I would also like as, as council to have a little bit more input on, on,
you know, who this money is going to, cause that, that hasn't been in the case.
Colin Topper:
And in my time on the council, it was just, this was, when I came on, this was
something that it was just in the budget to these organizations.
Colin Topper:
And I know there are also a lot of amazing organizations in this community that
are helping us out and sort of replacing our services or, or it's augmenting our
services in different ways.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
We have to be very careful that we don't end up funding everybody.
Colin Topper:
And that was, and that was my point with this.
Colin Topper:
I think that it's, it's a question, you know, to me, I would rather have a pot
of money that then we were able to respond to things or really identify as a
council, you know, who really is doing that work or have some of our
departments, you know, be able to reach out to us.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
One of the things we're going to do, and this came up when we did this, Jason,
remember, and you brought up the question, how do we determine, you know, what a
not, you know, how this, how it's allocated.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And so Nathan was here on Friday and we talked to him and he's going to draft a
policy so that it's really clear to, you know, a policy for whatever we want to
call this contract with fee for services or whatever.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So that it's so that every future council has an opportunity to understand how
we came to this conclusion.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And if there's more, if we find more programs that we should be, that we feel
it's our responsibility to fund, then, you know, that's another conversation.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
But I don't, I mean, we kind of, these are absolutely programs that we should
be providing.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And we're not because we don't have the capacity.
Luke Wojciechowski:
Yeah, I think like, in general, the ones that we're finding funding right now
have some sort of emergency component to it, right?
Luke Wojciechowski:
Where I, yes, they do a lot of other non emergency related, like services, but
they fill that gap of providing like emergency level services that need some
sort of immediate response that we're not able to provide within the city.
Luke Wojciechowski:
So that's kind of how I distinguish it.
Luke Wojciechowski:
And I think like that kind of other pot can be its own like community emergency
response pot, right?
Luke Wojciechowski:
Because it is like, it would be for flood mitigation.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Michael Black:
Like unexpected, unplanned for like, and that that's contained in the CIP.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Michael Black:
So then there's, I think that the final was $350,000 in that, in that fund for
that, that I'm just looking at the budget, the way it was approved originally.
Michael Black:
Only, it's the same all the way through.
Michael Black:
It wasn't amended in December to change who got what 24.
Michael Black:
Most of these contributions that you're seeing this year were basically the
same It looks like we budgeted for all of those.
Michael Black:
And then the following year 25, I think is when it was moved over to another
fund.
Michael Black:
And you're not seeing those show up in this in the 25 budget, right?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
It was in the police.
Michael Black:
Yeah, it was in police, but what was originally budgeted for in 25, the
original budget approval was 15,000 under free health clinic and 10,000 under
Moab, Moab information.
Michael Black:
And RAP tax distribution was 80,000 and Grand County.
Michael Black:
The last one was 13,000.
Jason Taylor:
Can I ask a question on the RAP tax?
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Jason Taylor:
You have the RAP tax distribution has been like 80,000.
Jason Taylor:
This year it's budgeted at 90,000.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Michael Black:
So the RAP tax is based on a percentage of how much is collected and we're
seeing the, the, an increase in the amount that's collected with RAP tax.
Michael Black:
So, um, I did increase that just a little bit.
Michael Black:
We would still only spend the, the percentage.
Michael Black:
I think it's 20% of what is collected.
Jason Taylor:
But 412 is 82,000.
Jason Taylor:
Is that what?
Michael Black:
Um, so we'll, so in the coming year, it's, yeah.
Michael Black:
Are you saying we budgeted 90,000 in the coming year?
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Jason Taylor:
You're budgeted 90,000 for RAP tax distribution and you, um, but the revenues
coming in from RAP tax is projected at 412,000.
Michael Black:
Oh, okay.
Michael Black:
So, so there, there might've been a little bit of overhead in there for
advertising and things like that and supporting the committee, those types of
things definitely don't have to spend that.
Michael Black:
And then the other thing is, is that although we, we do budget say 412, cause
we don't want to think we're going to get a 5% increase.
Michael Black:
Um, it could come in a little bit higher and, uh, and then 20% could be a
little bit more than $82,000.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Michael Black:
Out of our hands, but yeah.
Michael Black:
But it would still, no matter what, it would only be 20% of what the total is.
Michael Black:
Okay.
Michael Black:
And then, and then I do believe that there, there is some room in there for
advertising, things like that for, um, uh, doing applications, those types of
things, not it's not $8,000, but a few hundred dollars in there for that.
Kaitlin Myers:
Um, I guess just going back to community contributions, I I'm excited that
Nathan's working on our policy.
Kaitlin Myers:
I feel like we've been talking about that.
Kaitlin Myers:
Um, cause I, I think even just, you know, first of all, nonprofits that are
watching and engaging and are on this list.
Kaitlin Myers:
Um, I know that there's a lot of uncertainty about funding and so, you know,
definitely want to support this, um, consistency and the funding that they've
received is important.
Kaitlin Myers:
And also I think, you know, looking at some of these numbers, knowing what some
of the budgets are comparatively for organizations.
Kaitlin Myers:
Um, I'm, I'm just excited to look at that policy and see, um, kind of how we,
how we start treating this moving forward to future years, um, to make sure that
that's fair, make sure that we are having like a, a full lens of, you know, is
this the right list?
Kaitlin Myers:
Do we need to add people kind of like how, how we start making decisions in a,
an objective way about that?
Kaitlin Myers:
Um, cause I agree.
Kaitlin Myers:
I think there are a lot of entities that really support, um, and bolster city
services that are important.
Michael Black:
So, yeah.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Any other questions from, from Michael on the budget?
Kaitlin Myers:
I have some specific questions about certain things.
Kaitlin Myers:
Um, so moving forward in the budget, I was wondering about, um, so within
public safety, we've got different categories, um, saw that we're adding 40,000
free uniforms for safety and that kind of more so raised a question of what's
the difference between like police and safe, like what's the safety side of
that?
Michael Black:
Well, safety, safety is referring to kind of OSHA type stuff where public
safety is, is a department of public, you know, just police type, type things.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Kaitlin Myers:
Cool.
Kaitlin Myers:
Um, and then facilities, I'm excited to see this.
Kaitlin Myers:
I saw that 25,000 was added for education for facilities was wondering if that
was something specific or, um, kind of what that was.
Michael Black:
For education?
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Michael Black:
And facilities.
Michael Black:
Yes.
Michael Black:
So facilities, that would be the facilities division, which is under public
works and the education would be anything from, you know, learn going to in
services, things like that, um, going to trainings, those types of things.
Michael Black:
And they could be anything from anything related to, to facilities like pouring
concrete to, um, fixing roofs, those types of things, working on, uh, and doing
general fixes on, on things that they're authorized to do, probably not
elevators or electric coal, things like that, but, um, changing out, uh,
whatever, you know, those, you know, doing general maintenance on buildings.
Kaitlin Myers:
So, um, cool.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Kaitlin Myers:
I'm excited to see that.
Kaitlin Myers:
I think it's important to invest in, in those departments.
Kaitlin Myers:
They do a ton of work.
Michael Black:
The other thing that is just coming to mind now, this is, you know, there's a
lot of line items here.
Michael Black:
I believe part of that is for a, um, a, an arborist, uh, for facilities to
train up an arborist so that we have an arborist on staff.
Kaitlin Myers:
Cool.
Kaitlin Myers:
Um, okay.
Kaitlin Myers:
Um, moving other questions for me, um, moving to the MARC.
Kaitlin Myers:
Um, I think this is kind of a comment that I brought up during strategic
planning, um, looking at kind of consistent revenues coming into the MARC.
Kaitlin Myers:
Um, I saw that program fees are budgeted to increase from $4,000 to $16,000 and
that grants and donations will also increase.
Kaitlin Myers:
I was wondering if there was like something specific that informed that.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Probably it's from our master fee schedule that the planning commission is
going to be considering tonight.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And so that, I believe that's going to be on our next agenda.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So that probably reflects proposed fee schedule changes that we haven't seen
yet.
Michael Black:
Okay.
Colin Topper:
Right.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Am I right?
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Michael Black:
And there's, I believe there's also, um, some, some things on here where we are
able to, uh, make reservations and rent out, rent out things that we might not
have been doing in the past and providing more services that we, that we might
not have been doing in the past.
Kaitlin Myers:
Cool.
Kaitlin Myers:
Um, yeah.
Kaitlin Myers:
And then I guess I'm, back to, um, kind of breakdown of ongoing maintenance
versus capital, um, capital project allocation for MRAC and recreation supplies
maintenance.
Michael Black:
So the supplies and maintenance for the MRAC maintenance is generally things
like painting and putting, putting shingles on, fixing like an area of a roof
that where there might've been some damage or something like that, that's
generally considered maintenance.
Michael Black:
If you're replacing the entire member membrane on the roof, that might be
considered capital.
Michael Black:
If you are painting every building in the city at the same time, that might be
considered capital because it's large and capital.
Michael Black:
A lot of times it's described as something that lasts more than 10 years is
more than a certain dollar amount and different cities assign different things.
Michael Black:
It could be $10,000.
Michael Black:
It could be $50,000.
Michael Black:
And in some cases, um, there's another, uh, level of scrutiny to if it is
something that can be depreciated.
Michael Black:
And, um, so, so there's all of those things and adding value to whatever the,
the, um, uh, the asset that you have already.
Michael Black:
So if we added a room onto a building, that would definitely be a pet capital
expenditure because it is, it's adding value to that building.
Michael Black:
It's worth more.
Michael Black:
There's more square footage, you know, things like that.
Michael Black:
Maintenance when it comes to MRAC and things like that could be anything from,
um, supplies for the pool to, um, supplies for cleaning to supplies for, um, you
know, lots of different things that are considered maintenance as opposed to, to
capital.
Michael Black:
Like, like I described, I don't know exactly every little thing that's in, in
there.
Michael Black:
Um, but, uh, but that's generally what maintenance is considered.
Michael Black:
It could even be, for instance, um, maintenance could be a few chairs where
capital could be all the chairs in the building are getting replaced a couple
benches versus, you know, putting in new benches all through the entire park,
those types of things.
Kaitlin Myers:
Cool.
Kaitlin Myers:
I guess I'm, I'm kind of wondering if it might be, I don't know, I've just seen
how much we went over, um, because we know that there's just things that are
happening at that facility.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Some of those have been from that, um, could it have been from that, um, energy
audit we did?
Michael Black:
Yeah, they, they could.
Michael Black:
But the other thing is, is that in, in previous years, um, so which line item
are we looking at?
Kaitlin Myers:
Um, it's a combo of, uh, 452, 526 and 531.
Kaitlin Myers:
And then there's also, so that's like MRAC, but then, um.
Michael Black:
So one of the reasons why these would go down is because many, many things have
been moved to capital.
Michael Black:
And so if you look in the capital budget, MRAC has a whole section of, um, and
capital budget is 41.
Michael Black:
So I can just go to that really quick.
Michael Black:
There is a lot of, uh, attention being paid to the MRAC in the upcoming budget.
Michael Black:
And a lot of that, there's so much to do there and there's so much deferred
maintenance.
Michael Black:
Most of it is capital as opposed to just maintenance.
Michael Black:
It's been put off for so long.
Michael Black:
There's, there's more things that need to be done than just paint now.
Michael Black:
You know, there's, there's structural things that need to be done.
Michael Black:
There's, there's lots of other things, like for instance, the drywall in the,
um, in the swimming pool area, it all needs to be replaced.
Michael Black:
If it was just a couple of them or needed to just be painted, that might be
considered maintenance.
Michael Black:
But under, um, under the 41 fund, capital improvements fund, uh, just getting
to the MRAC here.
Michael Black:
So we have, um, we have structural, we have $85,000 under structural.
Michael Black:
We have, um, major maintenance.
Michael Black:
We have $125,000, um, ADA upgrades in the parks and rec.
Michael Black:
That's not just for the MRAC, but that, that's if we get CDBG, that's $250,000.
Michael Black:
And then the outdoor water feature is another $250,000.
Michael Black:
And then, um, some of these, like the $85,000 is to pay for engineering work so
that we can spend more money in the, in the year after to, to fix these
structural issues that we have.
Michael Black:
But there is $125,000 that is dedicated to major maintenance at the MRAC.
Michael Black:
And that could be fixing the doors.
Michael Black:
It could be all kinds of stuff, but it's not fixing the pool itself.
Michael Black:
That's a separate line item.
Michael Black:
And it's not the structural stuff.
Michael Black:
That's a separate line item as well.
Kaitlin Myers:
I think that's great.
Kaitlin Myers:
Um, I appreciate that.
Kaitlin Myers:
I think it also shows intentionality in the way that we're starting to think
about the MRAC.
Kaitlin Myers:
Um, okay.
Kaitlin Myers:
And then related to recreation, kind of separate from like under that for
recreation supplies and maintenance, that's increasing to $54,800.
Kaitlin Myers:
I was wondering if there was something specific behind that.
Michael Black:
So the recreation, um, that maintenance could be in the recreation areas, like
all of the fields, all of the programs that we provide on the fields and at the
different locations.
Michael Black:
And, um, there are definitely some needs there where they need to replace some
equipment and, uh, and, you know, with, with more activity as well, there's more
things going on.
Michael Black:
So let me, let me just get to that one so I can look at it closer.
Michael Black:
What's the number on that one?
Michael Black:
Okay.
Kaitlin Myers:
640525.
Michael Black:
Okay.
Michael Black:
So equipment supplies and maintenance.
Michael Black:
And then let me just go to my spreadsheet and then I can look at my notes here.
Kaitlin Myers:
Maybe replacing all those softballs from Jessica's house.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Michael Black:
That's the window replacement fund.
Michael Black:
Um, so that is the recreation fund.
Michael Black:
Okay.
Michael Black:
It's sports equipment.
Michael Black:
It's actually replacement of, um, things in the gym that need, like last year
we did, I think we might've done bikes and some treadmills.
Michael Black:
Um, so this is following up on that and, and finishing that.
Michael Black:
It's probably not finishing it out, to be honest with you.
Michael Black:
It's, it's probably just addressing the, the additional, um, needs that weren't
met in this last year or the, or just continue on, continuing on with the needs
that we had last year that we're trying to get, get to this year.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Great.
Kaitlin Myers:
I got a couple more.
Michael Black:
Go ahead.
Michael Black:
Okay.
Kaitlin Myers:
Um, skipping ahead to, and I only have a couple more, um, but in for, I noticed
in uh, capital projects, um, notice that, uh, revenue from UDOT hotspot funding
was not included.
Kaitlin Myers:
Was that because we had wrapped up dispersed parking?
Michael Black:
Yes.
Michael Black:
And there is a little bit being transferred, but the money's already paid.
Michael Black:
So there's no new money coming in.
Michael Black:
Um, in the carry forward, there could be just a little bit left to finish out
the project.
Michael Black:
I believe we're done, but if anything, it's just a little bit of carry forward.
Michael Black:
There's no new money coming from that.
Kaitlin Myers:
Okay, great.
Kaitlin Myers:
Um, and then I think my last one, I think worth talking about is, um, just
seeing that we have set aside 150,000 for the golf course.
Kaitlin Myers:
I know that that would be a future conversation.
Kaitlin Myers:
I think it's worth flagging, especially because I think the, the County has
been looking at supporting, um, funding for a study.
Michael Black:
So I've been working with the golf course on a, on a new lease.
Michael Black:
Uh, there, the old lease is not that old.
Michael Black:
It's only five years old, but, um, there's appears to be new circumstances.
Michael Black:
And so we're talking about a lot of different things.
Michael Black:
And one of the things that we're talking about is the potential for what, if
you owned an office building, you would call tenant improvements.
Michael Black:
And so in, in this situation where there are tenants, they're leasing it from
us, we're, we're the land owner.
Michael Black:
Um, they're leasing it so they can provide a golf club.
Michael Black:
Um, they, uh, we might be interested in providing some tenant improvements and
the way tenant improvements work is that they get paid back over time.
Michael Black:
So the new lease has a stipulation.
Michael Black:
This new lease has not been signed.
Michael Black:
It's, you would see it before any of that.
Michael Black:
But one of the things that contemplates is having the ability to, um, do some
tenant improvements and for the golf course to pay back those improvements at a
0% interest rate.
Michael Black:
If, if you agree to it over the life of the, of the, uh, lease.
Michael Black:
So if we sign initially signed a lease for 10 years and they don't have any
capital improvements for two years, there'd be eight years left.
Michael Black:
So the amount that they did in tenant improvements would be divided by those
eight years.
Michael Black:
And that's, they'd have to pay it back with those eight within those eight
years.
Michael Black:
That's my idea.
Michael Black:
Um, that $150,000 will not go anywhere unless the council approves it through
this lease process.
Michael Black:
So that is, that money is there with the understanding that it could happen.
Michael Black:
And with the understanding that there are leaseholders are, um, do have a need
for some, um, tenant improvements on irrigation and things like that.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So, and we'll be talking about that next week when we need more detail.
Colin Topper:
And did I see somewhere else in the budget also that, um, some revenue coming
into already like a $35,000?
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Michael Black:
So the revenue will only come in if they, of course, if they were to, um, to
borrow or to do the tenant improvements.
Michael Black:
So that revenue will, is dependent upon the, them borrowing that.
Michael Black:
Now, initially we talked about up to $350,000.
Michael Black:
I only put $150,000 in there because it's more of a placeholder.
Michael Black:
And then if the council feels like that needs to be increased, we can do a
budget amendment.
Michael Black:
Um, but, but the revenue, um, the revenue would be coming from the golf course
to pay that back depending on how much they, they borrow.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And there has been, you know, they did get the grant, um, from the County.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Um, well, I think, I'm not sure exactly how that process works, but they did
get a 70, it was recommended for a $75,000 grant.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
It sounds like the commission supported that, that money doesn't come in until
November or December.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And I know when I talked to you guys next week, Michael and I are talking,
perhaps we want to join in on that to some level to, to have a little bit more
oversight on what the scope of that planning is going to be.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So more to come on that.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Um, but that's something that, that 150 could be used for as well.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Not all of it, but some of it could.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Michael Black:
And the idea is their lease is only for 10 years.
Michael Black:
The life of the golf course is much longer and any master plan should be much
longer.
Michael Black:
So us participating kind of makes sense.
Colin Topper:
Right.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Kaitlin Myers:
I guess to be clear, they told the County that if the County gave them 75, the
city would match 75.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
No, that's never been, we've talked about 25,000.
Kaitlin Myers:
So great.
Kaitlin Myers:
Perfect.
Kaitlin Myers:
Glad we could clarify that.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Michael Black:
And nothing's nothing has been decided.
Michael Black:
We're still talking.
Michael Black:
I've, I've provided a lease to them and they're still reviewing.
Michael Black:
Okay.
Michael Black:
Okay.
Kaitlin Myers:
That's all for me.
Kaitlin Myers:
Thank you so much for taking the time.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Thanks, Kaitlin.
Kaitlin Myers:
Who else?
Jason Taylor:
Kaitlin took all of them.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Good for you, Kaitlin.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
You spoke for the group.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
All right.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I'm going to close the public hearing at seven.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Wait, is there anybody in the public that would like to come to talk miles?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
This is a learning experience for you.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Um, all right, I'll close the public hearing at seven 10 and next we have a
motion that I'll need to do a roll call and that is to adopt resolution 07, 2025
approving the final budget and setting the certified tax rate for the city of
Moab for fiscal year 2025, 2026.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Now, if you look in the resolution, we left that blank because we just got that
today and the resolution that we have has actually been filled in and the one I
have to sign.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Michael Black:
The one design has been filled in and it shows the tax rate and the total
revenue anticipated from that tax rate.
Colin Topper:
I move to adopt resolution 07 dash 2025 approving the final budget and setting
the certified tax rate for the city of Moab for fiscal year 2025 to 2026.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Thank you.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Second.
Tawny Knutson-Boyd:
I'll second.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Second by Tawny.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Discussion?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Colin?
Colin Topper:
Just add it.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Tawny?
Tawny Knutson-Boyd:
No.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Anybody else?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
All right.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Well, I do want to say this.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
This is Michael's first year doing the budget.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So there's been a few, I mean, this is what he's been focusing on for several
months.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And so I really appreciate you taking that on and really kind of getting into
the weeds of the budget.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I think it's important for our city manager to do that.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And so appreciate the work that you've put into it.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So, and your patience, because I know there's been some changes and moving
around.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So thanks, Michael.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
All right.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Roll call.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Kaitlin?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Aye.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Colin?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Aye.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Tawny?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Aye.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Luke?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Aye.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Jason?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Aye.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Motion passes 5-0.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
All right.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
That's it for our general business.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And then we'll move right to the city manager updates.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Michael Black:
And I'll just follow that up with, I, you know, I stand by this budget.
Michael Black:
This is a good budget.
Michael Black:
I think I, I know a lot about this budget and there was a lot, there was a big
learning curve on this.
Michael Black:
Apologize for the snafu on the, the amended budget.
Michael Black:
We'll get that fixed.
Michael Black:
It's done already.
Michael Black:
It's just a matter of getting the right column in there and we'll get that out
to you as soon as possible.
Michael Black:
As far as my report, just a couple of things on construction projects, the 100
East, 100 East Precon is happening next week.
Michael Black:
I believe it's Monday that's going to happen.
Michael Black:
And then they have a start date that's, that's coming up right as soon after
that as possible.
Michael Black:
And I believe it's within the next week, but I have, that's been cut off my
sheet.
Michael Black:
Oh no, the, the start date is they're looking at June 16th as a start date.
Michael Black:
Actually the Precon is, is I think happening this week.
Michael Black:
I apologize for that.
Michael Black:
The sidewalk pre-bid is also happening.
Michael Black:
Check with the engineering division.
Michael Black:
If there's a question on the date on that and we're, I'm reporting to you that
it's happening because those people who are planning the bid would, would be
aware of that and they'll come in.
Michael Black:
That project is moving forward.
Michael Black:
In other words, that's what I wanted to pass on.
Michael Black:
The obviously monsoon season is, is upon us.
Michael Black:
I, you know, officially, I don't think anybody knows when it starts or ends,
but the, the idea is that we're anticipating that we will have some, some issues
with our storm drain system.
Michael Black:
Our staff does a great job every year trying to get ahead of these things.
Michael Black:
And this year we're going to try and be pretty public about what we do to get
ahead of these things.
Michael Black:
So there's several things that are happening over the next week and hopefully
you'll notice those things happening.
Michael Black:
We've got everybody from the police department to public works, parks,
utilities, engineering, planning, and communications and admin working on this
right now, trying to identify areas of, of importance, prioritize areas and get,
get work, get workers out there to address these areas.
Michael Black:
Some of the things that you'll see is both sweepers out in the downtown,
Michael Black:
all around town, but, but really focusing on the areas where we've seen issues
before,
Michael Black:
focusing on those areas where there's already a buildup of debris, where any
water will take
Michael Black:
it to the low spot, which is generally where the storm drains are, working on
storm drains,
Michael Black:
using our vector trucks to, to address any issues that we can identify that we
could help with the
Michael Black:
vector truck, talking to neighbors if they're out there about problem areas and
what they can do to
Michael Black:
help.
Michael Black:
And, and then we also have several drain stitches that need to be cleaned and
maintained.
Michael Black:
I visited one today with the mayor, actually a large one, a very critical
drainage stitch, and that's going to be one of our highest priorities next week.
Michael Black:
And it's probably about a half a mile to that, that needs to be cleaned out.
Michael Black:
Luckily it's dirt and grass, and that's something that our staff can handle
going forward.
Michael Black:
I just want to be clear.
Michael Black:
These are yearly events that we do, yearly things that we do, and our staff
does these every year.
Michael Black:
This year, I'm just trying to put a little more public facing effort into that,
so that people see what we're doing, understand, and that maybe we can start
some conversations up as well.
Michael Black:
Rim2Rim has sent out a mailer.
Michael Black:
People should be getting that mailer that asks them, you know, what are you
doing?
Michael Black:
Are you aware of your risks?
Michael Black:
And gives them some ideas and some, some resources that they can use to contact
us, to contact Rim2Rim, to get information about what they can do at their own
properties to be prepared.
Michael Black:
One other change I'll mention, that it's not a change, sorry, one other
addition, the other things weren't changes.
Michael Black:
We will have more sandbag stations this year, as opposed to having two, we'll
have four and more if needed.
Michael Black:
Try to quadrant the city, so that people can, in different quadrants, it's not
going to be perfect, but there'll be something in the downtown, something in
the, on the east side neighborhoods, like we usually have, something on the west
side, where it's a public works yard, and then something north is where we're,
as well, where people can get sandbags.
Michael Black:
So around fourth north and fifth west is, is what we're thinking.
Michael Black:
And that area downtown, around first south and first east, so that people don't
have to go to only two locations, if, if they're waiting to the last minute to
get sandbags, and that we don't have people backed up at those locations, as
well, if we can prevent it.
Michael Black:
And so those are some of the things we're working on.
Michael Black:
I don't want to diminish any of the big projects we're working on.
Michael Black:
None of those priorities have changed.
Michael Black:
We're still working very hard on, on these big projects.
Michael Black:
In fact, there's a kickoff meeting.
Michael Black:
There's some other meetings going on for some planning that we're doing with
our engineers in the Mill Creek corridor.
Michael Black:
We're still working on the 300 South Bridge.
Michael Black:
We met with a legislative group recently, and a lot, and these things, all the
ones that we've told you about, they're all still moving forward.
Michael Black:
So that is my update.
Jason Taylor:
Can I ask a question on that?
Michael Black:
Sure.
Jason Taylor:
Going back to the sewer drains, I had someone ask me, and I've kind of noticed
it too, that there's a few places where there was construction, but there's not
construction anymore, like when they're going to be opening up those storm
drains.
Jason Taylor:
Like, yeah, like what's that?
Jason Taylor:
Kane Creek, Emma Boulevard.
Michael Black:
Yeah, I'll, I'll check on that.
Michael Black:
Most of those storm drains, and I'm not saying Kane Creek, but a lot of them
should just have the bales around them to protect them.
Michael Black:
Water still should be able to go into them.
Michael Black:
The ones that are closed or that are new, they should be, they should be being
opened very soon.
Michael Black:
I will check on that.
Michael Black:
I don't, I don't know the exact answer for that, for that project.
Michael Black:
But those are, those are definitely things that I'll, I'll make sure our staff
are looking at, making sure that we, we're hitting the low hanging fruit too.
Jason Taylor:
Is there a list of, when you're talking about the sidewalks, that are like, the
sidewalks that the city is going to be hitting or put on the list to be
repaired?
Michael Black:
Yeah, there's a, there's a map that we'll, we can bring, and a couple of you
have seen kind of a variation of that map, but just generally speaking, the, the
map includes, well, it includes probably a 60-40 split, I think is what it ended
up being, where 60% was on mainstream, 40% was in the neighborhoods.
Michael Black:
The neighborhoods we're focusing on are 300 South and 100 North, and then some
smaller pieces here and there that will be fixed.
Michael Black:
But there's two big sections on 300 South, one on 300 South, sorry, and one on,
well, there's a few on 100 North, but what we're trying to do is get a
consistent path from critical areas or nodes to the downtown, which is the big
district, right?
Michael Black:
So where, 300 South, as you know, there's, there's one on the north side of the
street between Main and 100 East that will be replaced.
Michael Black:
And then 100 North, it's the 30s to, to 4th East is a big section there.
Michael Black:
There's more, there's more than that, but that's one of the big consistent
sections.
Jason Taylor:
Yeah, I just had a few people that have called me or have asked, you know,
like, yeah, are we doing this one here?
Jason Taylor:
And I'm like, I don't know.
Michael Black:
So we'll get that now.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
When do you anticipate that to start that project?
Michael Black:
It, it's going to be this, it'll be this summer based on what we're, where we
are right now, we're probably looking at August, honestly, because June, we're
in June right now, getting contracts approved in July and, and work starting
late July, early August.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Can we, you know, something that's been brought to our attention about that for
the ones downtown and even maybe the ones in the neighborhoods, is there, is
there any plans to go downtown and talk and let the downtown businesses know
that this is happening?
Michael Black:
Yes.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Besides social media, I really feel like the face-to-face, you know, I think
it's important for somebody to go to the business and say, Hey, this is
happening.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Do you have any questions?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Is there anything we can do?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And then you put it on social media and, and that some people don't see it.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And then it happens and it's, you know, their business may be disrupted or
whatever.
Michael Black:
Yeah.
Michael Black:
It's part of the plan.
Colin Topper:
Absolutely.
Michael Black:
Face-to-face just like we did with downtown dispersed parking.
Michael Black:
Now where we are right now is we are, we are still gauging the feasibility of
the plan that we have.
Michael Black:
So we haven't gone to the businesses just yet and said, expect your sidewalk to
be done.
Michael Black:
But once we get the bid and we know that the scope we have fits under the
budget that we have, that's when we would, we would go.
Michael Black:
And, and, and obviously once we have a timeline as well.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Would you like to announce Sydney's?
Michael Black:
Yeah, we have, well, so we have a new employee.
Michael Black:
I wasn't prepared to announce this, but Sydney, who is our Vista, it will be
working full-time in our engineering division as an engineering associate.
Michael Black:
Is that correct?
Speaker 8:
Not until July.
Michael Black:
Will, emphasis on will.
Michael Black:
But Sydney has accepted the job.
Michael Black:
She has.
Michael Black:
So we're really excited to have her on board.
Michael Black:
She started here as a Vista and she does have a history and background in
engineering.
Michael Black:
And we're really excited to have her expertise and to be able to use her in the
engineering division to help keep these projects moving forward.
Colin Topper:
Absolutely.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Great.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Thanks Sydney.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Glad to have you on board.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I mean, this is a perfect example of how good that Vista program is.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I hope it comes back, you know, because this is how we find really good
employees.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
It gives us an opportunity to kind of test drive them.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And Sydney was great.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
She went from Vista to intern to now a full-time employee.
Michael Black:
There's a lot of those.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So welcome aboard.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Glad you're sticking around.
Michael Black:
Another success story.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Yes, exactly.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
All right.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Is that it, Michael?
Michael Black:
That's it.
Michael Black:
Yeah, that's right.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Now we move on to mayor council reports and we will start with you, Tawny.
Tawny Knutson-Boyd:
Oh, don't ever stop me.
Tawny Knutson-Boyd:
Last week I met with Representative Kennedy and his delegation.
Tawny Knutson-Boyd:
That was pretty informative.
Tawny Knutson-Boyd:
And I felt like they got some good feedback from our community and I felt like
they listened.
Tawny Knutson-Boyd:
I swung by the new playground for a few minutes on Saturday and the kids seemed
to really enjoy it, but I didn't think they'd want a grandma going down the
slide.
Tawny Knutson-Boyd:
I went down the slide.
Tawny Knutson-Boyd:
Did you get that picture?
Tawny Knutson-Boyd:
That's another reason I didn't want to go down the slide.
Tawny Knutson-Boyd:
I think that was after those couple of weeks.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
All right, Luke.
Luke Wojciechowski:
Yeah, I only had the special planning commission meeting last week about the
annexations, but that also means that everything's back loaded for this week.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Oh, right.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
All right, Kaitlin.
Kaitlin Myers:
Okay, I also attended lunch with Congressman Kennedy.
Kaitlin Myers:
I thought it was great.
Kaitlin Myers:
I really appreciate that since he's taken office.
Kaitlin Myers:
I've seen him in person three times.
Kaitlin Myers:
I think that that's huge for such a big district and for Moab, so I appreciate
his attention to our community.
Kaitlin Myers:
I have continued to attend weekly-ish Utah Housing Strategic Plan meetings.
Kaitlin Myers:
We're moving closer towards having recommendations about tactics within my
specific group for rural and resort communities, but now I'm participating in
Utah League of Cities and Towns LPC housing subcommittee.
Kaitlin Myers:
It's very interesting to see the difference between the two.
Kaitlin Myers:
I'm very excited about what we're talking about and think the things we're
talking about in rural and resort is very relevant.
Kaitlin Myers:
At the LPC meeting, we talked more about whether or not the state should have
minimum or maximum standards for roadway base and just this continuous back and
forth on semi-solutions to address housing that are pushing on local control.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Kaitlin, do you think that the LPC one is more geared towards potential
legislation coming up?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I know it's tied to the housing strategic plan, but it sounds like maybe
they're looking at potential legislation that could tie into that.
Kaitlin Myers:
Yeah, it feels more specific to legislation than this other group.
Kaitlin Myers:
Hopefully, the goal is to inform legislation, but this feels more specific to I
think that they're having more interrelations with the Commission on Housing
Affordability and what they're working on.
Kaitlin Myers:
I'm not sure.
Kaitlin Myers:
I think it'll be much more varied.
Kaitlin Myers:
We've only had one meeting so far and I was late for that conflict.
Kaitlin Myers:
We talked about city centers and technical assistance for growing urban edge
areas and things that feel very legislative and Wasatch Front specific.
Kaitlin Myers:
I'd be interested to see how that continues.
Kaitlin Myers:
Thanks for being a part of that.
Kaitlin Myers:
Yeah, that's great.
Kaitlin Myers:
Happy to.
Kaitlin Myers:
I want to give a lot of faith and optimism that this plan will do some really
good stuff for housing in the state.
Kaitlin Myers:
I attended a first meeting.
Kaitlin Myers:
EMS is starting a sustainability feasibility committee, so I attended a first
meeting for that and had some one-on-one meetings trying to get up to speed on
the conversations and how to support EMS. Relatedly, EMS week was a couple weeks
ago.
Kaitlin Myers:
I thought Andy did a great job writing his LTE.
Kaitlin Myers:
EMS does a really important service for our community.
Kaitlin Myers:
I think the city is supportive and looking forward to giving you updates as
that continues.
Kaitlin Myers:
I missed but then caught up on Community Renewable Energy Agency board meeting.
Kaitlin Myers:
Rocky Mountain Power is still having delays.
Kaitlin Myers:
They're still moving through solicitation process at Public Service Commission,
so the program is in negotiations and still no updates, just commission
meetings.
Kaitlin Myers:
A couple things.
Kaitlin Myers:
One, the Moab Area Housing Task Force is doing its second annual Moab Housing
Survey, which you can find on moabhousing.com.
Kaitlin Myers:
Regardless of what your housing type is, whether you're stable, you've lived in
your house for 50 years, it's paid off, or you're living in your vehicle, this
survey is intended to get a better picture on just what housing looks like in
our area, so please fill it out.
Kaitlin Myers:
It'll be running for about a month on moabhousing.com.
Kaitlin Myers:
Finally, it is June, so I just wanted to wish the community happy pride.
Kaitlin Myers:
Moab typically does more specific pride things in September, but it is Pride
Month, and I wanted to acknowledge and celebrate our queer people and our
allies.
Kaitlin Myers:
I really appreciated kind of even, we talked about a couple meetings ago, but
how the city is continuing to support that community, so that's it for me.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Jason.
Jason Taylor:
All right, so I attended, and over the last two weeks, I've attended an airport
board meeting.
Jason Taylor:
The big news out of that was we have hired a new airport director or manager.
Jason Taylor:
They hired a guy, airport director, they inquired about granting our city's
house for that.
Jason Taylor:
I haven't heard anything, and it's actually a guy, I think his name is Steve
Gleason, and he's coming from Provo originally, and he was the airport manager
in Provo, and he's the guy who kind of saw the airport grow to what it is today.
Jason Taylor:
He started with from a small municipal airport to where they're at and stuff,
so I think he has a lot of great knowledge and will be, I think he's starting on
the 16th, I think, so next week, and so that's really exciting, and I'm excited
to have him here, but we all should be.
Jason Taylor:
Today, I attended a travel council meeting, advisory board meeting, and that
was a good meeting, I think, for the city, in the fact that during the winter,
HB 456 passed, which was TRT reform.
Jason Taylor:
Part of that reform legislation was that cities or municipalities that collect
over 50% of the TRT should have a seat on the board, a voting seat on the travel
council board, and that was to take effect on July 1st.
Jason Taylor:
Today, the travel council that was brought to their attention, the mayor sent a
letter last week.
Jason Taylor:
I've been in contact with them as well that this was coming up, and today they
voted to support that ordinance, and we will have a vote on the travel council
board, which I think is a great thing, so yeah.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Does the commission need to vote on that?
Jason Taylor:
So now, it'll go to the commission, and it'll also be, I think there's a few
things that need to happen, like a bylaw change.
Jason Taylor:
It might not happen in July, but in July, there's no meetings for the travel
council, so it should happen before the August meeting and stuff, so that's very
good.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Very good.
Jason Taylor:
I also attended the meeting with Dr. Kennedy.
Jason Taylor:
I was able to drive around town with him, the mayor and Michael, and show him
kind of the flooding and kind of what our needs were coming up and where some of
the issues were in town, which was a really, it was a good meeting and a good
time with them.
Jason Taylor:
They came back for the luncheon, and it was great to spend some time with his
staff and talk to them about those things.
Jason Taylor:
I also spent an afternoon riding around town with Colin on bikes, looking at
sidewalks and street crossings and stuff.
You guys were exciting.
Jason Taylor:
It was fun.
Jason Taylor:
I was trying to keep up with Colin, but kind of looking at, getting an idea of
like kind of the lay of the town and kind of things that we kind of felt like we
would like to put on our, put on everybody's kind of, yeah, I don't know, radar,
you know, that there is that we thought after that.
Jason Taylor:
It was good just to ride around and look at things, you know, at a slow pace
and check things out.
Jason Taylor:
So anyway, and that's fun.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Colin.
Colin Topper:
Okay, on the 29th, I had a meeting with Michael, the district manager for solid
waste.
Colin Topper:
On the 31st, I attended the ribbon cutting for the Swanny playground.
Colin Topper:
Very exciting.
Colin Topper:
Huge event.
Huge.
Colin Topper:
I mean, just massive.
Huge.
Kaitlin Myers:
Was it really?
Colin Topper:
No, it was us.
Colin Topper:
And Patrick's family.
Colin Topper:
Oh, he has a big family.
Colin Topper:
And then on the third, I got to do a ride along with Sergeant Finlayson.
Colin Topper:
And besides being really impressed with Finney, and a very informative
afternoon, one of the things that really stood out to me is we went and parked
just north on 191, just north of the rock shop and were radaring cars.
Colin Topper:
And it was just absolutely stunning to me at how little effect the speed limit
drops have had on vehicle speeds.
Colin Topper:
You know, and the radar was just constantly registering, you know, in the 30
mile an hour zone, 50 plus miles an hour.
Colin Topper:
And I think James can attest to that, that it's just it's...
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I wonder if I was like one of those people.
Colin Topper:
You were one of it.
Colin Topper:
I was going to turn that off.
Colin Topper:
But then a really...
Michael Black:
On your bike.
Michael Black:
She was on her bike.
Colin Topper:
Of course she was.
Colin Topper:
So something that I hadn't considered that was brought to my attention was, you
know, we put so much emphasis on enforcement and, you know, being one of the,
you know, whatever the three-legged stool or however we want to phrase that.
Colin Topper:
But, you know, it was brought to my attention that the majority of traffic
stops in our town are out-of-towners.
Colin Topper:
Right.
Colin Topper:
And so traffic stops and tickets, these citations have very little effect at
affecting behavior in our town and with speeds.
Colin Topper:
And so, you know, that really hit home for me, like just how important, you
know, all the things that we're talking about with downtown, these design
elements and engineering, they really come into play because we have a very
unique transportation environment here with, you know, the vast majority of our
citations going to out-of-towners who are one and done.
Colin Topper:
They're passing through town.
Colin Topper:
And so we aren't really changing behaviors with the enforcement that we're
doing.
Colin Topper:
And so, you know, it just really,
Colin Topper:
you know, for me, you know, what the work that we're doing that Michael's doing
with UDOT Downtown,
Colin Topper:
you know, the conversations that we're going to be having with high visibility
crosswalks,
Colin Topper:
with all of this, it just, we really do need to be, you know, assisting our PD
with, you know,
Colin Topper:
all the visual cues that really help with enforcement, complement enforcement
and really
Colin Topper:
giving drivers those clues to slow down if they're in a slower speed
environment.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And we will be talking about that.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Michael's going to, when did you say you were going to try to have a policy, a
draft?
Michael Black:
We're going to do a presentation on the 24th and then talk about policy and
what we want in that policy, and then we can bring it back as soon as possible.
Colin Topper:
For the high visibility crosswalks?
Michael Black:
Yes.
Michael Black:
Okay.
Colin Topper:
That was the other point that I've just also been having a lot of conversations
with both the Mayor and Michael.
Colin Topper:
And so I'm really looking forward to, yeah, having some, a more, you know, just
formalized policy with, because a really simple cost and effective safety
enhancement that we can be doing in the community is upgrading their, when we do
repaint crosswalks and upgrade crosswalks to make them into a high visibility
crosswalk.
Colin Topper:
So yeah, I look forward to that.
Michael Black:
And consistency of intersection markings.
Colin Topper:
Absolutely.
Colin Topper:
You know, one more visual cue.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
That's it for me.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Thank you.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Thanks for bringing that up too.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And look forward to having that conversation with the whole council.
Colin Topper:
You bet.
Colin Topper:
Yep.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So I was pretty much a politician since we last met.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Had the meeting with Congressman Kennedy and his DC team and thank you guys for
participating in that.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
We had lunch with him.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
We spent a lot of time and I can tell you that they are very enthusiastic about
Moab.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I mean, they recognize that this area is a huge asset to the state.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And when I was in DC last week for a couple of days, all of our delegation
expressed how important Moab is to the state of Utah and that, you know, that
they will be fighting for us.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And I, that was very, made me feel really good.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Our delegation is behind us a hundred percent.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So most of my meetings were to discuss the 300 South Bridge and potential
appropriations for that and the budget reconciliation bill that they're working
on right now is fascinating.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I mean, there's a lot, a lot of conversation about what's going on in
Washington, if they're going to get a budget passed and so forth.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So it was very interesting.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I also had a chance to meet with the department of head, the department of
energy's EM leadership, the environmental management.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I met with Alicia Steen, she's the chief of staff for environmental management,
the deputy chief, John Howard, the assistant secretary, Kristen Ellis, and
Jocelyn, who's the director of inter-government and stakeholder programs.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
That was great.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
The purpose of that was to see where they stand on the UMTRA project.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
We wanted to make sure that the DOE is still moving forward with getting that
project closed in 2029.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And they are very supportive of the work that we've done with stakeholder
groups and things like that.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So I anticipate that is provided that the appropriation 64, $67 million goes
through.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
And I felt, I feel pretty confident that that's going to get funded at that
level.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So we can anticipate start planning for the future in 2029, which leads me to
the Moab UMTRA Transition Act.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
You guys approved the letter supporting that.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
That's going to be put before Congress in July and August.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So that bill, they're pretty excited about that.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
It'll be something that Senator Curtis wants to get across the finish line.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So may have to go back and testify before Congress about that.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
We'll see where that goes.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
But anyway, it was really good to be back and it's always good for us to have a
face with our congressional delegation in Washington.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I was with Tim Stewart and Ryan Levitt, who are lobbyists.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
They were fantastic and they know everybody.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I'll talk to you guys more about that when we meet, but I felt really positive
about the work that they're doing for us.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
This Friday, is it this Friday?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
We're meeting with Mark Welker, who's the business outreach director for
Senator Lee and Cora Phillips from the chamber set up this meeting.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I don't know if anybody's interested.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Jason, you might be as a business owner.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
If anybody else, if one other person wants to attend that meeting, let me know.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
I think it's Friday at one o'clock.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's this Friday at one.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So if you're available, just show up.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
If anybody else wants to go, wants to participate in that, let me know and we
can figure out.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
That's it for me.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Oh, I went to the ribbon cutting.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
That was great.
Michael Black:
Parking was hard, but it worked.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
So that's all I have and we don't need a closed session and so I will ask for a
motion to adjourn.
Tawny Knutson-Boyd:
Motion to adjourn.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Motion by Tawny.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Second.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Second by Colin.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
In favor, everybody?
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Aye.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Passes 5-0.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
We're adjourned.
Mayor Joette Langianese:
Thank you.
Transcript Notice: This transcript has been auto-generated then reviewed by Moab Sun News staff for clarity, but may still contain occasional errors in speaker labels or phrasing. We recommend double-checking key quotes or context against the official meeting video when accuracy is critical.
Moab City Council Meeting Summary
Annexation of property at 602 Cermak and 611 Cermak
The Moab City Council voted 5-0 to approve the annexation of property identified as 602 Cermak and 611 Cermak. These parcels are intended to serve as the future site of a facility operated by the National Ability Center, a nonprofit focused on inclusive outdoor recreation for individuals with disabilities.
The annexations expand the city’s boundary northward and lay the groundwork for the National Ability Center’s future development. Access to city water and sewer services was cited as a key reason for the annexation. No timeline for construction was announced. Click here for background on this item.
Budget Amendment Discussion Tabled Amid Questions on Accuracy
The council held a public hearing on a proposed amendment to the current fiscal year 2024–25 budget. The council ultimately tabled the vote after discovering inconsistencies in the budget documents provided.
City Administrator Michael Black, presenting his first budget since taking the role, reported that tax revenues had come in about $500,000 higher than expected, driven largely by visitation-related taxes. He explained that although post-COVID revenue spikes had leveled off, Moab’s revenue growth had stabilized around 2–4% annually, likely representing a “new normal.”
Notable budget items include a $1.2 million Recreation, Arts, and Parks tax fund to be created separate from the general fund and a $660,000 transfer to the city’s housing fund to pay down the Walnut Lane loan. Black said the city plans to pay off the loan early, potentially saving $700,000 in interest over the next decade.
Councilmember Kaitlin Myers raised specific questions about line items and discrepancies between projected and actual revenues. The council voted unanimously to table Resolution 08-2025, which would amend the city’s current fiscal year budget, citing the need for more time to review changes. That issue will return to the council’s June 24 meeting.
Later in the meeting, the council voted 5–0 to approve Resolution 07-2025 — finalizing the city’s budget and certified tax rate for the upcoming 2025–26 fiscal year.
Read the entire agenda with full documentation.
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