SPEAKER_08: You’re good to go first. All right, I will call the
SPEAKER_10: meeting back to order at 5 4 and 4 p.m. on the 2nd of December. Thanks everybody for allowing us to get through that business. And we will move on with our commission reports. Commissioner Hadeen, would you like to start us off?
SPEAKER_08: Sure, let
SPEAKER_02: me just get it up. Okay, so mine is fairly quick and yeah, so… On the 20th, I had a library board meeting. They have had their HVAC system replaced, but still not worth it. Isn’t that lovely? Yeah, they finished their interlocal agreement with St. Louis County. That was on our consent agenda. They approved their 2026
SPEAKER_02: schedule,
SPEAKER_02: and their capital improvement, and it’s really kind of imperative, is they have to do a light retrofit, and it’s approximately $99,000. It’s basically… All the, you know, they’re just disintegrating the casing of, you know, the lights. Isn’t that lovely? It’s so weird that that library is already that old. I know. It’s just like a
SPEAKER_11: new library. I
SPEAKER_02: know. I know. It’s a new library just like New Rapids. I know. It’s so weird. On the 24th, Commissioner McGann and myself hosted Ms. Wooten’s third grade class here to talk about local governance and And Mary had them, you know, do a little role playing, so that was cute. They were vibrant, to say the least. I had a Planning Commission meeting on the 24th.
SPEAKER_02: They are looking at new Planning Commission member applications in the next meeting, I believe. Is that correct, Brian? And they’re going to set time aside for those interviews and recommendations.
SPEAKER_01: I’m
SPEAKER_02: afraid of meeting dates. So the
SPEAKER_01: 22nd is canceled and it’s going on at
SPEAKER_02: 15th. Okay, thank you. So people are aware of that. We talked about having a draft RFP for the land use code update. They had a public hearing for the LaVena subdivision, which is 14.78 acres on Plateau Drive going from large lot residential to highway commercial. The motion was approved by Aaron Lindberg and seconded by Jerry Cleese. This did… In theory, passed three to two. However, their bylaws state that they have to have not the majority but four, so it didn’t pass. So I appreciate learning every day,
SPEAKER_02: not just a majority in the Planning Commission. We talked about the McCurdy Rezone, Rural Residential, the Highway Commercial. Mary H moved to deny. This was seconded by OB this past 4-2 to send an unfavorable recommendation. The Bates Rezone, this was Rural Residential, the Compact Neighborhood or Small Lot Residential. Derek Cleese motioned to pass, seconded by Aaron Lindberg, 4-1 to send a favorable recommendation. And then yesterday, and I don’t know how much we want to share. I guess maybe I need some guidance on the meeting.
SPEAKER_02: Are you guys okay? Share what you want. Okay. Okay, great. So we had a meeting, the National Park Service, PLIPCO, people from the Department of Interior, county commissioners, a couple mayors from around the state.
SPEAKER_02: They talked about the need to put an MOU in place between the state, the state of Utah, and the Department of Interior to deal with emergencies, things like emergency shutdowns, so when the state has to step in, and fun to keep those, to keep the parks open. So just some clarification on that.
SPEAKER_02: Then we just went through Zion County Commissioners from Washington and King County, and then commissioners from Grand County did presentations on plans that they would like to see implemented in Zion National Park and Arches National Park. And then after that, Flipco just kind of went through Glen Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Grand Canyon, Canyonlands, Holman Week, Natural Bridges, Golden Spike, and just outlined kind of, I guess you would say, a wish list that they would like to see at each of those parks.
SPEAKER_02: It was stated that you probably all know that Grand Canyon is not a national park in Utah is in Arizona. And they did state that that was odd that they bring it up. However, they really want to see that North Rim access opened year around. And this is kind of an interesting note that the Grand Canyon lost 106 structures in the Dragon Bravo fire and a loss of all kind of necessary infrastructure power.
SPEAKER_02: water, and then their heavy equipment. So they’re really just limping along to stay alive. Extraneous requests are probably not in the near future. So I guess that’s, do you guys want to add to that? I don’t need to go through all that. I did have all the specific requests, which that is, by the way, in the packet, I have kind of a very detailed request summary of that meeting and all the requests that were made so you guys are welcome to look at this at that that’s
SPEAKER_08: it all right i’m sure i have you
SPEAKER_04: um i didn’t i it was a thanksgiving obviously i spent a good bit of it out in our public lands backpacking with my family I did send one meeting, it was the Historical Preservation Commission meeting, where Russ Von Koch from the tailings pile steering committee presented to us about a desire, an idea to display, to have a display and signage about the historical atlas mill at the tailings pile site once it’s come over again. to hopefully come over to the county and how that might look. He had some ideas that he shared with the committee, and those are great ideas. There’d be a board in a covered area that people could peruse and kind of get the history of that site.
SPEAKER_04: There was also discussed… putting up signage at the Mill Creek Power Dam. I guess there’s a historic wooden pipe that’s been exposed out there from the flooding. And just to let people kind of know some of the history of that area, because a lot of people just go up there and they don’t know anything about it. So there was also, after the meeting, there was some email discussion about how that signage or information would look at that. store campsite. Both those, I think, are regarding the Grand Canyon history.
SPEAKER_04: And that is all that I had.
SPEAKER_03: Commissioner McCurt? I know it’s pretty easy. You guys wrote, it’s hot lake, I picked up an airport board meeting. Business as usual out there, looking towards some advertising from the airport itself.
SPEAKER_03: Just advertising that they both have leaseable lot spaces, hangar spaces, etc. with the new taxiways and new road areas. I can’t think of what they all are, but taxiways and hangar spots. Yeah, hangar access.
SPEAKER_03: Update on construction out there. It is wrapping up. They’re in the last few points before a taxiway opens up and the airport’s fully back on. So it was pretty quick and easy on the airport board meeting.
SPEAKER_06: Yes,
SPEAKER_03: Commissioner McGann.
SPEAKER_06: Yes, I went to the USU Advisory Board, and some of the things that they reported on is they are now offering 70 different programs people can study, which is great. And a new president, they have a new president, Brad Montenson, small N-T-E-N-S-E-N, The Red Rocks Flats new pilot project housing program is very exciting and underway. There’s going
SPEAKER_06: to be hundreds of units, and there’s hope that it will bring in students from out of the area because nursing programs throughout the state have this huge waiting list, and we have vacancies. So… I think it will be a big draw. 70 high school students are in a role in college classes. 50% of those are seniors.
SPEAKER_06: The students in the graduate programs are down. The students in the undergraduate programs are up. So it’s even out, but maybe a little bit higher. They have had 102 students attend the ESL program. It’s been extremely successful, and they’re completing their fourth session.
SPEAKER_06: Eight high school students in the CNA program, and they want to increase the visibility in the community. And I was thinking, I’m not sure who to talk to, Quinn, Mark, but if we could increase the somehow put some visibility on our website. Support, you know, a proud supporter of USU Moab, something we want to start having that front and center, because a lot of people really aren’t aware that we have,
SPEAKER_06: you know, an extension here in Moab, and we need to start pushing that, making people aware of it. So… You know, if you could, Mark or Quinn, if you can let me know who to talk to about that, I’d appreciate it. And they’re having more face-to-face student professors programs in the undergraduate, which they’re really excited about because that’s more engaging to its students.
SPEAKER_06: Canyonland Solid Waste Special Service District. Ms. Zachary is preparing a strategic management plan, which will… Outline where funds will be spent and give an overview of the direction of the districts is headed in 2026. In 2026, single stream recycling will be combined into one cycling class to gauge revenue versus operations costs for recycling
SPEAKER_06: as a whole. I’m very glad it’s been a hard number to, you know, pin down. They’re anticipating purchasing a rear load truck and a roll-off truck for 2026, which is a huge expense. We’ll create a replacement schedule so that we can start planning when we’re going to have to replace equipment because every piece of equipment they use out there is extremely expensive.
SPEAKER_06: They’re talking about adding a new administrative assistant because, again, It would still be less than what we were paying for before because we’re down one, you know, administrator in the office.
SPEAKER_06: So they’re considering, that’s being considered, discussed at the next meeting, important. The importance of staff training has been emphasized. The DEQ’s permit for the Moab landfill operation has been submitted.
SPEAKER_06: And there will be a board vacancy. If anybody’s interested in being on the Solid Waste Special Service District, just line up. We’d love to have you join. We will have a vacancy in January.
SPEAKER_06: Ms. Racker has gained access to the UDOAT, which is something to do with learning portal for environmental control. So this is going to be real helpful for the staff.
SPEAKER_06: Purchase software and camera systems were approved and reclassification of district’s position to administrative coordinator.
SPEAKER_06: Homeless counsel and the project steering committee were both canceled. Homeless, because they were working very hard on submitting some applications to the city. They felt the time would be better used working on those closed avenue meetings, and the steering committee was canceled because of shutdown.
SPEAKER_06: We were supposed to have the celebration of the 16 million tons tomorrow, but that also has been postponed because of the shutdown, and it hasn’t been rescheduled as of yet.
SPEAKER_08: It just takes a while to find out who the dignitaries can come from D.C. I believe that’s all I have to
SPEAKER_05: report. Commissioner Martinez? I’ll try to make it quick this time. Yes. So just so everybody knows, on the 4th, which is Thursday, we’re going to be lighting up the Colorado River Beach. So I was out there this last couple of days. They got the lights on, and it’s pretty exciting.
SPEAKER_05: It’s really neat. Thank you. What we’re going to be doing is we’re going to have kids that want to show up at 5.30. We’re going to have some hot chocolate and some cookies for them to show up, and they’ll walk across the bridge in the dark.
SPEAKER_05: We were planning on lighting the bridge at 6 o’clock in the evening, and then Santa Claus will be sitting underneath delicate arts right there, and we’ll have a photographer that’s going to be taking some photographs and be able to get those to the families that do see that. So it should be a fun event for the kids coming up on the 4th. A couple of meetings. I do want to just hit real quick. I think I would like to add some other stuff in, but the one that I did attend that’s not going to be covered here was on the 24th. I got an update on the Colorado River Compact that was going on to the Southeastern
SPEAKER_05: River Authority Advisory Council. And so that was presented by Jean Ashcroft, who is the director representative for Utah out there doing our negotiations.
SPEAKER_05: A couple of things, you know, so the seven commissioners are meeting weekly right now, and the upper basin commissioners are meeting daily. So they are working on a solution.
SPEAKER_05: The 11th deadline that was talked about that you might have read about in the paper was not a deadline for them to have a sign deal. What they were looking for more was the intent of the proposal. So they still feel like as long as they have things in order by February, that’s the next, that’s when they really want to have the details of the plan kind of set out. So he wasn’t worried about where they were in the process.
SPEAKER_05: A couple of things that got brought up, I don’t know if you guys remember last time we were kind of talking about the, let’s see, the natural flow concept. And so the natural flow concept was is that is that the lower basin would receive less water based on the natural flow.
SPEAKER_05: And it was really the interpretation of that natural flow that kind of really threw a big kink in the negotiations. So if that natural flow was on a percentage, right, the lower basin would be at an advantage. And if it was actually on what was coming down the pipe, which is how the upper basin kind of viewed that natural flow, then the lower basin thought that the upper basin was at an advantage. So that whole idea… Percentage of population? Percentage of water.
SPEAKER_05: Yes, the percentage of water that was coming on in. So anyways, the natural flow idea, while it was a great idea, and they explored a lot… What did Gene say? We explored a lot of difficult concepts. That was the…
SPEAKER_05: It ended up falling apart. And they’re back to curtailments and to… and to conservation. So right now, the big sticking point of where we’re at is we want to make sure that whatever our short-term goals are is that we can get by without a call on the compact. So I think that’s really what the upper basin is hoping for. In the short term, we want to make sure that we don’t call on the compact. Because there’s a very good chance with the way things are right now that coming at the end of this water year that there might be a call on the Colorado Compact. So whatever our negotiations are, I think that’s one of
SPEAKER_05: at least Utah’s big concerns is that we don’t end up with a claim on the Compact. And then as we look towards our like six to 20 year kind of plan, it’s how does the curtailment work if we have to here in Utah, And then, you know, just a couple other things.
SPEAKER_05: On conservation is how we kind of manage our upper reservoirs. So, you know, there’s just a lot of talk of how we’re going to manage those upper reservoirs to make sure that there’s the water available down there.
SPEAKER_05: The other big sticking point that we’re having right now from the lower basin is as we talk about that conservation, or that curtailment that we’re both willing to take, like how much less are you willing to use?
SPEAKER_05: Right now, the lower basin actually has a bank, right? And so what the upper basin is afraid of is they’re going to say, oh, yeah, we’re going to take this much less, and then we’re going to go ahead and use our bank and not actually make any moves towards conservation. So the negotiations are still out there trying to get going. But Jim’s last prop did say that there’s been much further So I do feel good. I mean, it really is neat. Any chance that I get to hear from Gene, it’s always fantastic.
SPEAKER_05: You know, I don’t think that anything could really startle that guy. The other thing that is, as we’re talking about, is, you know, just avoiding bad deals. I mean, that’s really a lot of what we’ve been kind of moving up until now is just been avoiding bad deals on that compact. So, you know, just as important as that we try to strike a good deal, I think it’s also equally as important that we don’t end up in a spot where we have a bad deal, which personally I think is where we’re at right now is, you know, we definitely catch the short end of the sit.
SPEAKER_05: All the waterfalls here that we have to sand most of the family fight. Yeah. Anyways, there was that. I also covered the PAZ pretty well. One other thing is that the MTAB board is going to be discussing the special events co-op marketing grant. That’s that $250,000 that will be going out to special events in 2026. They did make a preliminary idea. They’re going to try to do it in two batches so that we are able to
SPEAKER_05: spread that money out throughout the entire year so that people that are basically in the fall don’t have a better chance as people in the spring.
SPEAKER_08: You said $250? $250
SPEAKER_05: is what the commission decided on that. And to co-op, so the idea, and I do think that we need to kind of rethink how that is. It’s not a $250,000 handout. What we’re doing is the same as what the state of Utah is doing, which is we’re leveraging our money.
SPEAKER_05: So we’re taking $250,000. Other folks that are running the special events will have to put money in to match that money. So we’re leveraging our money of $250,000 possibly to whatever it ends up doing.
SPEAKER_05: So that’s happening. And then let’s see here. What else did I have? Oh, just a couple of things. So just the intent of the meeting, I think it was kind of missed. So for the meeting that we had up there on December 1st, it was yesterday, but I don’t really have too much together.
SPEAKER_05: It was really because Arches National Park and Zion are currently in a visitor use management process right now. So both Zion and Arches National Park have a visitor use management process that’s open. This was the opportunity, and it was the state of Utah, so it was CLIPCO was involved. The governor’s office was involved. The Utah Office of Tourism was involved.
SPEAKER_05: DNR was involved. And the Division of Outdoor Rec and State Parks all were involved in the state. This was an opportunity for the eight-year communities to come out and just present some ideas of what they thought might be, what the park might be able to consider when they’re designing their visitor use management plan.
SPEAKER_05: So when the visitor use management plans come out, they will have alternatives. So they’ll have their three alternatives. One is a no alternative. And then in the last visitor use management plan, I don’t know if you noticed, but there was two alternatives that they presented. One was a reservation.
SPEAKER_05: The other was a reservation system. So this is where the Department of the Interior was listening to see what other ideas or what might be important to some of the communities out there. And so both Grand County was there to present some ideas, and we also made sure that the mayor, the city was represented up there and had a chance to critique some of these ideas. And I think that it was very productive up there to have all those people together and to be able to just workshop some of these ideas that we had. That’s all I got.
SPEAKER_10: Perfect. As stated earlier, I was at the UAC conference
SPEAKER_05: that
SPEAKER_10: This last week and spend three days up there. A big portion of that was on the centrally assessed issue, which I’ve already gone over in depth. I’ve been in, I think, three other meetings with CIV in the last month. Well, since the last submission meeting, actually, because there’s an ongoing battle, I guess you would say, or discussions on what to do with some money that was set aside for a coal port.
SPEAKER_10: And though it doesn’t really affect Grand County because we don’t have any coal here, it does affect Grand County in the fact that if the coal port does come through, then there will be an additional amount of coal shipped out of, say, Utah, which is additional revenue for the CIB board, which then turns into more grants that are available for the counties and the municipalities municipalities in the counties that can receive funds because of the impacts of oil and gas and coal.
SPEAKER_10: And so the state set aside approximately $54 million. I think it’s been about five or six years ago. And that money is now being considered to be used on a coal court at Oakland. They believe that they’re finally over the hurdles with the legal battles in California. They’re considering a port in Longview, Washington State, and there’s discussions of a coal port in Llamas, I think it’s called, in Mexico,
SPEAKER_10: but I have yet to hear one legislature or representative or senator that has any interest in doing business with Mexico. They are very reluctant to do anything there, so eventually… this chunk of money that’s sitting at the CIB will be put towards a coal port or transport of coal out of the state of Utah at some point.
SPEAKER_10: And I understand it doesn’t have much effect on us other than it will increase revenues we’ll be able to hopefully tap into for grants, loans, whatever, that come out of the CIB board. And I think it’ll have a huge impact. for many of the smaller communities is really the ones that benefit the most out of those.
SPEAKER_10: So, again, just because it’s such a chunk of money, there’s all kinds of people that want to get their fingers into it or want to determine how it’s spent. And so CIV has had multiple meetings in the last three weeks, about one a week. I’m traveling to Salt Lake to be a part of those. The other meeting… Thanks, Mike, for carrying my air support meeting.
SPEAKER_10: And just an update, I do know that there’s one hangar that will start now that the construction has been done. I don’t think they’ve applied for their permit or anything yet, but I do know that will be coming forward.
SPEAKER_10: Skydive wants to build a new hangar, and they’ve already
SPEAKER_05: purchased.
SPEAKER_10: So, yeah, three possibly, he’s saying, but… I know that for sure they purchased the hangar. They were just waiting for the paving to be done, and then they start their permitting process. So I think that’s good news for Keith and the Skydive guys, as well as, you know, some future growth out there, which, again, is additional tax revenue and can help hopefully offset some of the costs that we supplement to the airport.
SPEAKER_10: And, again, I was in the same meeting with both Trish and Commissioner Martinez, Commissioner Hadeen, and Commissioner Martinez yesterday. And I’ll say the thing that I was most impressed with was there were probably eight to ten National Park Service people there, superintendents of Bryce, Zion, Arches, Canyonlands, which is the same superintendent.
SPEAKER_10: But the entire thing was about how we could solve some problems, and they weren’t all around how do we solve a financial problem. There are issues with parts of Bryce that have closures that go on every time a storm comes up and the way that everybody kind of came together individually in those groups and worked on all of those. I was extremely impressed with the superintendent of Bryce with his
SPEAKER_10: transit system. I mean, he’s got a… Voluntary system. It’s not mandatory that he has that’s in that part there and I was intrigued enough to want to know more I mean, I didn’t have time to get it there, but the the overall attitude was even right down to Associate Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Interior what a title Karen Bartholin, you know,
SPEAKER_10: I just saw her all day. She was taking notes every day. She did a good job. She listened to everybody. She asked a lot of questions, and she was open to anyone talking to her about any item. But, you know, the Zion superintendent, the Bryce, and…
SPEAKER_10: What’s the other one out here? I’m forgetting right now. But it was a meeting that everybody had an attitude of what can we do to try and make things better. And the state’s very involved in it.
SPEAKER_10: I did hear the DNR people talking about a possible MOU with Hoven Week. Because Hoven Week, they don’t have the money to even have anybody at Hoven Week for when visitors are there and part of the resources. protection that we like to do, it would be nice to at least have an employee there. So I think both the state and the National Park Service and the Department of Interior are there to try and come together and come up with some real solutions that I think will be long-lasting, and I don’t think any one entity is going to get everything they want, but I do think that there was some real
SPEAKER_10: a real attitude of everybody wanting to work together and try and come up with some solutions. And so it was well received, I think, by everybody there. So that’s all I’ve got for my report. And at 6.13, do we want to open the public meeting? We want to do the citizens here first and then go to the public meeting, right? Yeah. All right. So with that, I will call for the 6 p.m. citizens to be heard for anyone that would like to come up and speak. from the audience that haven’t spoken previously.
SPEAKER_08: Yes, ma’am. Please introduce yourself.
SPEAKER_07: Hey, my name is Janine Sayah, and I live at 797 Tallahassee Drive. I always believe you should say something nice before you say something critical. I want to say thank you very much for all of you for being in this position as commissioners.
SPEAKER_07: It seems extremely difficult to have a career and then pivot and try to learn this job. So thank you. Okay. This is one of my grievances.
SPEAKER_07: I’m upset by Commissioner Winfield’s proposal to loan commissioners. 200,000 to private developers for an affordable housing project that doesn’t include any loan terms, documents, or legal review, to my understanding.
SPEAKER_07: I was even more disturbed by Commissioner Martinez’s comment that anyone voting against it was against affordable housing. That’s simply not true. The commissioners who voted against the proposal have done plenty for affordable housing during their terms. I’d like to outline it here. Commissioner McGann, knowing the overnight rentals were affecting neighborhoods and reducing our town’s stock of long-term rentals, created an overlay that allowed overnight rentals only in specifically approved areas. This action helped protect
SPEAKER_07: neighborhoods and especially long-term rentals. She also created the Housing Task Force, which brings together stakeholders working on housing to discuss ways to increase affordable or assured housing.
SPEAKER_07: Commissioners Hadler, Hadeen, and McGann provided funding to the Moab Area Land Trust to hire a director to manage a Royal Crossing. This multimillion-dollar project was too large for a volunteer board to handle. Once the director was in place, a Royal Crossing became a reality, and hundreds of units have been provided to our community.
SPEAKER_07: Lastly, Commissioner McGann pushed to put $100,000 in the 2025 budget earmarked for affordable housing. These are the very monies that Commissioner Winfield proposed to use for this loan to private developers. Commissioner Hadler and Hadeem both voted for this proposal, while Commissioners Winfield and McCurdy did not.
SPEAKER_07: I wish this commission would develop policies and procedures for dispersing money that would support affordable housing projects in this community. However, I would think the easiest avenue would be to work with housing and existing organizations like HASU and MACL. to promote affordable housing projects that have community and stakeholder buy-in instead of investing our community’s precious dollars in an opaque process in a single private out-of-town developer with no legal review and seemingly no strengths attached.
SPEAKER_07: Thank you.
SPEAKER_08: Thank you. Anyone else? Online, anybody this time? All right. One last call.
SPEAKER_10: Okay, we will
SPEAKER_08: move on to our public
SPEAKER_10: hearing. Grand County Commission will hold the public hearing on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2025 at 6.17 p.m. and we will take public input and consider amendments to the 2025 budget and the adoption of the 2026 budget. including the county fee schedule for 2026. The budgets are available at the Grand County Clerk’s Office, 125 East Center Street, Moab, and on the county website on the clerk auditor page.
SPEAKER_10: The county will receive written comments until 5 p.m. on Wednesday, December 10th, 2025. And we will take comments now if anyone has on those items or up until the 10th via email or letter.
SPEAKER_10: Anyone here that would like to comment on the budget?
SPEAKER_08: Yes, please. Mary
SPEAKER_07: O’Brien. In light of the lack of transparency around the access and capacity enhancement proposal that came out of the blues, presumably via some meetings of who knows which commissioners with who know what, I was looking at the proposed increases in travel budgets for commissioners in 2026. Presumably a lot of that is travel to me and I have
SPEAKER_07: not been getting clear answers as to whether there’s any formal accountability in the commission for what those travel trips are for and for what purpose and meeting with whom.
SPEAKER_07: We know from the history of Curtis Wells on the commission, certainly didn’t work on behalf of the county with his travel up to the state legislature making legislation that was kind of not even noticed by the county before it was passed, changing our process of elections and I noticed there’s a proposed jump for Brian Martinez of $3,000 to $7,500. Increase for Bill Winfield from $7,000 to $7,500. And Mike McCurdy of $4,500. I don’t know whether that means all three. of those are going to be going
SPEAKER_07: to the legislature time and time again when perhaps one would be useful for the county and I don’t know what kind of accountability in terms of reports back for who was visited and for what issues supposedly on behalf of the county.
SPEAKER_07: I just think the sense of transparency of this commission is really low. The accountability is really low. The answering of questions is really low.
SPEAKER_07: And so I would urge that in the budget process, the county commission sets the minimal rules in terms of when you’ve spent county money traveling, what issues have you been working on supposedly on behalf of the county? because there’s a lot of displeasure at what is being claimed as a
SPEAKER_07: county position and very little public collaboration. It’s more
SPEAKER_08: private. So
SPEAKER_07: thank you.
SPEAKER_08: Thank you. Anyone else on the budget?
SPEAKER_10: Nobody else online?
SPEAKER_09: I could add some comment, not necessarily as part of the hearing. Yes, please do, sir. Yeah, as was mentioned earlier in this meeting, it’s worth noting that there will be budget workshops on the 8th and 9th in the morning. Those are open in public meetings where budget topics will be discussed, still needing to be worked out.
SPEAKER_09: And I also wanted to point out that the PDF version of the budget that is available is includes buttons on each department budget that link to, in this document, link to further detail for each department budget, including general descriptions of budget lines that are repeated throughout different department budgets, further narrative detail, past years, expenditures, so on and so forth. This is in an effort to front load these budget documents with as much information as is possible for consumption by the public and all related decision makers.
SPEAKER_09: And so I hope that there is some, I hope that this can be useful to those that are interested in utilizing them and I’m happy to receive feedback about how those documents can continually improved for future years.
SPEAKER_09: And also, of course, happy to address any questions regarding any individual line in the county budget. I’m always available for such inquiries. Email is the best way to contact me for those things, gpointech at grantcountyutah.gov.
SPEAKER_09: And my office will be preparing a presentation in relation to the adoption of just goes about some summary information regarding the budget as a whole
SPEAKER_10: meeting back to order at 5 4 and 4 p.m. on the 2nd of December. Thanks everybody for allowing us to get through that business. And we will move on with our commission reports. Commissioner Hadeen, would you like to start us off?
SPEAKER_08: Sure, let
SPEAKER_02: me just get it up. Okay, so mine is fairly quick and yeah, so… On the 20th, I had a library board meeting. They have had their HVAC system replaced, but still not worth it. Isn’t that lovely? Yeah, they finished their interlocal agreement with St. Louis County. That was on our consent agenda. They approved their 2026
SPEAKER_02: schedule,
SPEAKER_02: and their capital improvement, and it’s really kind of imperative, is they have to do a light retrofit, and it’s approximately $99,000. It’s basically… All the, you know, they’re just disintegrating the casing of, you know, the lights. Isn’t that lovely? It’s so weird that that library is already that old. I know. It’s just like a
SPEAKER_11: new library. I
SPEAKER_02: know. I know. It’s a new library just like New Rapids. I know. It’s so weird. On the 24th, Commissioner McGann and myself hosted Ms. Wooten’s third grade class here to talk about local governance and And Mary had them, you know, do a little role playing, so that was cute. They were vibrant, to say the least. I had a Planning Commission meeting on the 24th.
SPEAKER_02: They are looking at new Planning Commission member applications in the next meeting, I believe. Is that correct, Brian? And they’re going to set time aside for those interviews and recommendations.
SPEAKER_01: I’m
SPEAKER_02: afraid of meeting dates. So the
SPEAKER_01: 22nd is canceled and it’s going on at
SPEAKER_02: 15th. Okay, thank you. So people are aware of that. We talked about having a draft RFP for the land use code update. They had a public hearing for the LaVena subdivision, which is 14.78 acres on Plateau Drive going from large lot residential to highway commercial. The motion was approved by Aaron Lindberg and seconded by Jerry Cleese. This did… In theory, passed three to two. However, their bylaws state that they have to have not the majority but four, so it didn’t pass. So I appreciate learning every day,
SPEAKER_02: not just a majority in the Planning Commission. We talked about the McCurdy Rezone, Rural Residential, the Highway Commercial. Mary H moved to deny. This was seconded by OB this past 4-2 to send an unfavorable recommendation. The Bates Rezone, this was Rural Residential, the Compact Neighborhood or Small Lot Residential. Derek Cleese motioned to pass, seconded by Aaron Lindberg, 4-1 to send a favorable recommendation. And then yesterday, and I don’t know how much we want to share. I guess maybe I need some guidance on the meeting.
SPEAKER_02: Are you guys okay? Share what you want. Okay. Okay, great. So we had a meeting, the National Park Service, PLIPCO, people from the Department of Interior, county commissioners, a couple mayors from around the state.
SPEAKER_02: They talked about the need to put an MOU in place between the state, the state of Utah, and the Department of Interior to deal with emergencies, things like emergency shutdowns, so when the state has to step in, and fun to keep those, to keep the parks open. So just some clarification on that.
SPEAKER_02: Then we just went through Zion County Commissioners from Washington and King County, and then commissioners from Grand County did presentations on plans that they would like to see implemented in Zion National Park and Arches National Park. And then after that, Flipco just kind of went through Glen Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Grand Canyon, Canyonlands, Holman Week, Natural Bridges, Golden Spike, and just outlined kind of, I guess you would say, a wish list that they would like to see at each of those parks.
SPEAKER_02: It was stated that you probably all know that Grand Canyon is not a national park in Utah is in Arizona. And they did state that that was odd that they bring it up. However, they really want to see that North Rim access opened year around. And this is kind of an interesting note that the Grand Canyon lost 106 structures in the Dragon Bravo fire and a loss of all kind of necessary infrastructure power.
SPEAKER_02: water, and then their heavy equipment. So they’re really just limping along to stay alive. Extraneous requests are probably not in the near future. So I guess that’s, do you guys want to add to that? I don’t need to go through all that. I did have all the specific requests, which that is, by the way, in the packet, I have kind of a very detailed request summary of that meeting and all the requests that were made so you guys are welcome to look at this at that that’s
SPEAKER_08: it all right i’m sure i have you
SPEAKER_04: um i didn’t i it was a thanksgiving obviously i spent a good bit of it out in our public lands backpacking with my family I did send one meeting, it was the Historical Preservation Commission meeting, where Russ Von Koch from the tailings pile steering committee presented to us about a desire, an idea to display, to have a display and signage about the historical atlas mill at the tailings pile site once it’s come over again. to hopefully come over to the county and how that might look. He had some ideas that he shared with the committee, and those are great ideas. There’d be a board in a covered area that people could peruse and kind of get the history of that site.
SPEAKER_04: There was also discussed… putting up signage at the Mill Creek Power Dam. I guess there’s a historic wooden pipe that’s been exposed out there from the flooding. And just to let people kind of know some of the history of that area, because a lot of people just go up there and they don’t know anything about it. So there was also, after the meeting, there was some email discussion about how that signage or information would look at that. store campsite. Both those, I think, are regarding the Grand Canyon history.
SPEAKER_04: And that is all that I had.
SPEAKER_03: Commissioner McCurt? I know it’s pretty easy. You guys wrote, it’s hot lake, I picked up an airport board meeting. Business as usual out there, looking towards some advertising from the airport itself.
SPEAKER_03: Just advertising that they both have leaseable lot spaces, hangar spaces, etc. with the new taxiways and new road areas. I can’t think of what they all are, but taxiways and hangar spots. Yeah, hangar access.
SPEAKER_03: Update on construction out there. It is wrapping up. They’re in the last few points before a taxiway opens up and the airport’s fully back on. So it was pretty quick and easy on the airport board meeting.
SPEAKER_06: Yes,
SPEAKER_03: Commissioner McGann.
SPEAKER_06: Yes, I went to the USU Advisory Board, and some of the things that they reported on is they are now offering 70 different programs people can study, which is great. And a new president, they have a new president, Brad Montenson, small N-T-E-N-S-E-N, The Red Rocks Flats new pilot project housing program is very exciting and underway. There’s going
SPEAKER_06: to be hundreds of units, and there’s hope that it will bring in students from out of the area because nursing programs throughout the state have this huge waiting list, and we have vacancies. So… I think it will be a big draw. 70 high school students are in a role in college classes. 50% of those are seniors.
SPEAKER_06: The students in the graduate programs are down. The students in the undergraduate programs are up. So it’s even out, but maybe a little bit higher. They have had 102 students attend the ESL program. It’s been extremely successful, and they’re completing their fourth session.
SPEAKER_06: Eight high school students in the CNA program, and they want to increase the visibility in the community. And I was thinking, I’m not sure who to talk to, Quinn, Mark, but if we could increase the somehow put some visibility on our website. Support, you know, a proud supporter of USU Moab, something we want to start having that front and center, because a lot of people really aren’t aware that we have,
SPEAKER_06: you know, an extension here in Moab, and we need to start pushing that, making people aware of it. So… You know, if you could, Mark or Quinn, if you can let me know who to talk to about that, I’d appreciate it. And they’re having more face-to-face student professors programs in the undergraduate, which they’re really excited about because that’s more engaging to its students.
SPEAKER_06: Canyonland Solid Waste Special Service District. Ms. Zachary is preparing a strategic management plan, which will… Outline where funds will be spent and give an overview of the direction of the districts is headed in 2026. In 2026, single stream recycling will be combined into one cycling class to gauge revenue versus operations costs for recycling
SPEAKER_06: as a whole. I’m very glad it’s been a hard number to, you know, pin down. They’re anticipating purchasing a rear load truck and a roll-off truck for 2026, which is a huge expense. We’ll create a replacement schedule so that we can start planning when we’re going to have to replace equipment because every piece of equipment they use out there is extremely expensive.
SPEAKER_06: They’re talking about adding a new administrative assistant because, again, It would still be less than what we were paying for before because we’re down one, you know, administrator in the office.
SPEAKER_06: So they’re considering, that’s being considered, discussed at the next meeting, important. The importance of staff training has been emphasized. The DEQ’s permit for the Moab landfill operation has been submitted.
SPEAKER_06: And there will be a board vacancy. If anybody’s interested in being on the Solid Waste Special Service District, just line up. We’d love to have you join. We will have a vacancy in January.
SPEAKER_06: Ms. Racker has gained access to the UDOAT, which is something to do with learning portal for environmental control. So this is going to be real helpful for the staff.
SPEAKER_06: Purchase software and camera systems were approved and reclassification of district’s position to administrative coordinator.
SPEAKER_06: Homeless counsel and the project steering committee were both canceled. Homeless, because they were working very hard on submitting some applications to the city. They felt the time would be better used working on those closed avenue meetings, and the steering committee was canceled because of shutdown.
SPEAKER_06: We were supposed to have the celebration of the 16 million tons tomorrow, but that also has been postponed because of the shutdown, and it hasn’t been rescheduled as of yet.
SPEAKER_08: It just takes a while to find out who the dignitaries can come from D.C. I believe that’s all I have to
SPEAKER_05: report. Commissioner Martinez? I’ll try to make it quick this time. Yes. So just so everybody knows, on the 4th, which is Thursday, we’re going to be lighting up the Colorado River Beach. So I was out there this last couple of days. They got the lights on, and it’s pretty exciting.
SPEAKER_05: It’s really neat. Thank you. What we’re going to be doing is we’re going to have kids that want to show up at 5.30. We’re going to have some hot chocolate and some cookies for them to show up, and they’ll walk across the bridge in the dark.
SPEAKER_05: We were planning on lighting the bridge at 6 o’clock in the evening, and then Santa Claus will be sitting underneath delicate arts right there, and we’ll have a photographer that’s going to be taking some photographs and be able to get those to the families that do see that. So it should be a fun event for the kids coming up on the 4th. A couple of meetings. I do want to just hit real quick. I think I would like to add some other stuff in, but the one that I did attend that’s not going to be covered here was on the 24th. I got an update on the Colorado River Compact that was going on to the Southeastern
SPEAKER_05: River Authority Advisory Council. And so that was presented by Jean Ashcroft, who is the director representative for Utah out there doing our negotiations.
SPEAKER_05: A couple of things, you know, so the seven commissioners are meeting weekly right now, and the upper basin commissioners are meeting daily. So they are working on a solution.
SPEAKER_05: The 11th deadline that was talked about that you might have read about in the paper was not a deadline for them to have a sign deal. What they were looking for more was the intent of the proposal. So they still feel like as long as they have things in order by February, that’s the next, that’s when they really want to have the details of the plan kind of set out. So he wasn’t worried about where they were in the process.
SPEAKER_05: A couple of things that got brought up, I don’t know if you guys remember last time we were kind of talking about the, let’s see, the natural flow concept. And so the natural flow concept was is that is that the lower basin would receive less water based on the natural flow.
SPEAKER_05: And it was really the interpretation of that natural flow that kind of really threw a big kink in the negotiations. So if that natural flow was on a percentage, right, the lower basin would be at an advantage. And if it was actually on what was coming down the pipe, which is how the upper basin kind of viewed that natural flow, then the lower basin thought that the upper basin was at an advantage. So that whole idea… Percentage of population? Percentage of water.
SPEAKER_05: Yes, the percentage of water that was coming on in. So anyways, the natural flow idea, while it was a great idea, and they explored a lot… What did Gene say? We explored a lot of difficult concepts. That was the…
SPEAKER_05: It ended up falling apart. And they’re back to curtailments and to… and to conservation. So right now, the big sticking point of where we’re at is we want to make sure that whatever our short-term goals are is that we can get by without a call on the compact. So I think that’s really what the upper basin is hoping for. In the short term, we want to make sure that we don’t call on the compact. Because there’s a very good chance with the way things are right now that coming at the end of this water year that there might be a call on the Colorado Compact. So whatever our negotiations are, I think that’s one of
SPEAKER_05: at least Utah’s big concerns is that we don’t end up with a claim on the Compact. And then as we look towards our like six to 20 year kind of plan, it’s how does the curtailment work if we have to here in Utah, And then, you know, just a couple other things.
SPEAKER_05: On conservation is how we kind of manage our upper reservoirs. So, you know, there’s just a lot of talk of how we’re going to manage those upper reservoirs to make sure that there’s the water available down there.
SPEAKER_05: The other big sticking point that we’re having right now from the lower basin is as we talk about that conservation, or that curtailment that we’re both willing to take, like how much less are you willing to use?
SPEAKER_05: Right now, the lower basin actually has a bank, right? And so what the upper basin is afraid of is they’re going to say, oh, yeah, we’re going to take this much less, and then we’re going to go ahead and use our bank and not actually make any moves towards conservation. So the negotiations are still out there trying to get going. But Jim’s last prop did say that there’s been much further So I do feel good. I mean, it really is neat. Any chance that I get to hear from Gene, it’s always fantastic.
SPEAKER_05: You know, I don’t think that anything could really startle that guy. The other thing that is, as we’re talking about, is, you know, just avoiding bad deals. I mean, that’s really a lot of what we’ve been kind of moving up until now is just been avoiding bad deals on that compact. So, you know, just as important as that we try to strike a good deal, I think it’s also equally as important that we don’t end up in a spot where we have a bad deal, which personally I think is where we’re at right now is, you know, we definitely catch the short end of the sit.
SPEAKER_05: All the waterfalls here that we have to sand most of the family fight. Yeah. Anyways, there was that. I also covered the PAZ pretty well. One other thing is that the MTAB board is going to be discussing the special events co-op marketing grant. That’s that $250,000 that will be going out to special events in 2026. They did make a preliminary idea. They’re going to try to do it in two batches so that we are able to
SPEAKER_05: spread that money out throughout the entire year so that people that are basically in the fall don’t have a better chance as people in the spring.
SPEAKER_08: You said $250? $250
SPEAKER_05: is what the commission decided on that. And to co-op, so the idea, and I do think that we need to kind of rethink how that is. It’s not a $250,000 handout. What we’re doing is the same as what the state of Utah is doing, which is we’re leveraging our money.
SPEAKER_05: So we’re taking $250,000. Other folks that are running the special events will have to put money in to match that money. So we’re leveraging our money of $250,000 possibly to whatever it ends up doing.
SPEAKER_05: So that’s happening. And then let’s see here. What else did I have? Oh, just a couple of things. So just the intent of the meeting, I think it was kind of missed. So for the meeting that we had up there on December 1st, it was yesterday, but I don’t really have too much together.
SPEAKER_05: It was really because Arches National Park and Zion are currently in a visitor use management process right now. So both Zion and Arches National Park have a visitor use management process that’s open. This was the opportunity, and it was the state of Utah, so it was CLIPCO was involved. The governor’s office was involved. The Utah Office of Tourism was involved.
SPEAKER_05: DNR was involved. And the Division of Outdoor Rec and State Parks all were involved in the state. This was an opportunity for the eight-year communities to come out and just present some ideas of what they thought might be, what the park might be able to consider when they’re designing their visitor use management plan.
SPEAKER_05: So when the visitor use management plans come out, they will have alternatives. So they’ll have their three alternatives. One is a no alternative. And then in the last visitor use management plan, I don’t know if you noticed, but there was two alternatives that they presented. One was a reservation.
SPEAKER_05: The other was a reservation system. So this is where the Department of the Interior was listening to see what other ideas or what might be important to some of the communities out there. And so both Grand County was there to present some ideas, and we also made sure that the mayor, the city was represented up there and had a chance to critique some of these ideas. And I think that it was very productive up there to have all those people together and to be able to just workshop some of these ideas that we had. That’s all I got.
SPEAKER_10: Perfect. As stated earlier, I was at the UAC conference
SPEAKER_05: that
SPEAKER_10: This last week and spend three days up there. A big portion of that was on the centrally assessed issue, which I’ve already gone over in depth. I’ve been in, I think, three other meetings with CIV in the last month. Well, since the last submission meeting, actually, because there’s an ongoing battle, I guess you would say, or discussions on what to do with some money that was set aside for a coal port.
SPEAKER_10: And though it doesn’t really affect Grand County because we don’t have any coal here, it does affect Grand County in the fact that if the coal port does come through, then there will be an additional amount of coal shipped out of, say, Utah, which is additional revenue for the CIB board, which then turns into more grants that are available for the counties and the municipalities municipalities in the counties that can receive funds because of the impacts of oil and gas and coal.
SPEAKER_10: And so the state set aside approximately $54 million. I think it’s been about five or six years ago. And that money is now being considered to be used on a coal court at Oakland. They believe that they’re finally over the hurdles with the legal battles in California. They’re considering a port in Longview, Washington State, and there’s discussions of a coal port in Llamas, I think it’s called, in Mexico,
SPEAKER_10: but I have yet to hear one legislature or representative or senator that has any interest in doing business with Mexico. They are very reluctant to do anything there, so eventually… this chunk of money that’s sitting at the CIB will be put towards a coal port or transport of coal out of the state of Utah at some point.
SPEAKER_10: And I understand it doesn’t have much effect on us other than it will increase revenues we’ll be able to hopefully tap into for grants, loans, whatever, that come out of the CIB board. And I think it’ll have a huge impact. for many of the smaller communities is really the ones that benefit the most out of those.
SPEAKER_10: So, again, just because it’s such a chunk of money, there’s all kinds of people that want to get their fingers into it or want to determine how it’s spent. And so CIV has had multiple meetings in the last three weeks, about one a week. I’m traveling to Salt Lake to be a part of those. The other meeting… Thanks, Mike, for carrying my air support meeting.
SPEAKER_10: And just an update, I do know that there’s one hangar that will start now that the construction has been done. I don’t think they’ve applied for their permit or anything yet, but I do know that will be coming forward.
SPEAKER_10: Skydive wants to build a new hangar, and they’ve already
SPEAKER_05: purchased.
SPEAKER_10: So, yeah, three possibly, he’s saying, but… I know that for sure they purchased the hangar. They were just waiting for the paving to be done, and then they start their permitting process. So I think that’s good news for Keith and the Skydive guys, as well as, you know, some future growth out there, which, again, is additional tax revenue and can help hopefully offset some of the costs that we supplement to the airport.
SPEAKER_10: And, again, I was in the same meeting with both Trish and Commissioner Martinez, Commissioner Hadeen, and Commissioner Martinez yesterday. And I’ll say the thing that I was most impressed with was there were probably eight to ten National Park Service people there, superintendents of Bryce, Zion, Arches, Canyonlands, which is the same superintendent.
SPEAKER_10: But the entire thing was about how we could solve some problems, and they weren’t all around how do we solve a financial problem. There are issues with parts of Bryce that have closures that go on every time a storm comes up and the way that everybody kind of came together individually in those groups and worked on all of those. I was extremely impressed with the superintendent of Bryce with his
SPEAKER_10: transit system. I mean, he’s got a… Voluntary system. It’s not mandatory that he has that’s in that part there and I was intrigued enough to want to know more I mean, I didn’t have time to get it there, but the the overall attitude was even right down to Associate Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Interior what a title Karen Bartholin, you know,
SPEAKER_10: I just saw her all day. She was taking notes every day. She did a good job. She listened to everybody. She asked a lot of questions, and she was open to anyone talking to her about any item. But, you know, the Zion superintendent, the Bryce, and…
SPEAKER_10: What’s the other one out here? I’m forgetting right now. But it was a meeting that everybody had an attitude of what can we do to try and make things better. And the state’s very involved in it.
SPEAKER_10: I did hear the DNR people talking about a possible MOU with Hoven Week. Because Hoven Week, they don’t have the money to even have anybody at Hoven Week for when visitors are there and part of the resources. protection that we like to do, it would be nice to at least have an employee there. So I think both the state and the National Park Service and the Department of Interior are there to try and come together and come up with some real solutions that I think will be long-lasting, and I don’t think any one entity is going to get everything they want, but I do think that there was some real
SPEAKER_10: a real attitude of everybody wanting to work together and try and come up with some solutions. And so it was well received, I think, by everybody there. So that’s all I’ve got for my report. And at 6.13, do we want to open the public meeting? We want to do the citizens here first and then go to the public meeting, right? Yeah. All right. So with that, I will call for the 6 p.m. citizens to be heard for anyone that would like to come up and speak. from the audience that haven’t spoken previously.
SPEAKER_08: Yes, ma’am. Please introduce yourself.
SPEAKER_07: Hey, my name is Janine Sayah, and I live at 797 Tallahassee Drive. I always believe you should say something nice before you say something critical. I want to say thank you very much for all of you for being in this position as commissioners.
SPEAKER_07: It seems extremely difficult to have a career and then pivot and try to learn this job. So thank you. Okay. This is one of my grievances.
SPEAKER_07: I’m upset by Commissioner Winfield’s proposal to loan commissioners. 200,000 to private developers for an affordable housing project that doesn’t include any loan terms, documents, or legal review, to my understanding.
SPEAKER_07: I was even more disturbed by Commissioner Martinez’s comment that anyone voting against it was against affordable housing. That’s simply not true. The commissioners who voted against the proposal have done plenty for affordable housing during their terms. I’d like to outline it here. Commissioner McGann, knowing the overnight rentals were affecting neighborhoods and reducing our town’s stock of long-term rentals, created an overlay that allowed overnight rentals only in specifically approved areas. This action helped protect
SPEAKER_07: neighborhoods and especially long-term rentals. She also created the Housing Task Force, which brings together stakeholders working on housing to discuss ways to increase affordable or assured housing.
SPEAKER_07: Commissioners Hadler, Hadeen, and McGann provided funding to the Moab Area Land Trust to hire a director to manage a Royal Crossing. This multimillion-dollar project was too large for a volunteer board to handle. Once the director was in place, a Royal Crossing became a reality, and hundreds of units have been provided to our community.
SPEAKER_07: Lastly, Commissioner McGann pushed to put $100,000 in the 2025 budget earmarked for affordable housing. These are the very monies that Commissioner Winfield proposed to use for this loan to private developers. Commissioner Hadler and Hadeem both voted for this proposal, while Commissioners Winfield and McCurdy did not.
SPEAKER_07: I wish this commission would develop policies and procedures for dispersing money that would support affordable housing projects in this community. However, I would think the easiest avenue would be to work with housing and existing organizations like HASU and MACL. to promote affordable housing projects that have community and stakeholder buy-in instead of investing our community’s precious dollars in an opaque process in a single private out-of-town developer with no legal review and seemingly no strengths attached.
SPEAKER_07: Thank you.
SPEAKER_08: Thank you. Anyone else? Online, anybody this time? All right. One last call.
SPEAKER_10: Okay, we will
SPEAKER_08: move on to our public
SPEAKER_10: hearing. Grand County Commission will hold the public hearing on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2025 at 6.17 p.m. and we will take public input and consider amendments to the 2025 budget and the adoption of the 2026 budget. including the county fee schedule for 2026. The budgets are available at the Grand County Clerk’s Office, 125 East Center Street, Moab, and on the county website on the clerk auditor page.
SPEAKER_10: The county will receive written comments until 5 p.m. on Wednesday, December 10th, 2025. And we will take comments now if anyone has on those items or up until the 10th via email or letter.
SPEAKER_10: Anyone here that would like to comment on the budget?
SPEAKER_08: Yes, please. Mary
SPEAKER_07: O’Brien. In light of the lack of transparency around the access and capacity enhancement proposal that came out of the blues, presumably via some meetings of who knows which commissioners with who know what, I was looking at the proposed increases in travel budgets for commissioners in 2026. Presumably a lot of that is travel to me and I have
SPEAKER_07: not been getting clear answers as to whether there’s any formal accountability in the commission for what those travel trips are for and for what purpose and meeting with whom.
SPEAKER_07: We know from the history of Curtis Wells on the commission, certainly didn’t work on behalf of the county with his travel up to the state legislature making legislation that was kind of not even noticed by the county before it was passed, changing our process of elections and I noticed there’s a proposed jump for Brian Martinez of $3,000 to $7,500. Increase for Bill Winfield from $7,000 to $7,500. And Mike McCurdy of $4,500. I don’t know whether that means all three. of those are going to be going
SPEAKER_07: to the legislature time and time again when perhaps one would be useful for the county and I don’t know what kind of accountability in terms of reports back for who was visited and for what issues supposedly on behalf of the county.
SPEAKER_07: I just think the sense of transparency of this commission is really low. The accountability is really low. The answering of questions is really low.
SPEAKER_07: And so I would urge that in the budget process, the county commission sets the minimal rules in terms of when you’ve spent county money traveling, what issues have you been working on supposedly on behalf of the county? because there’s a lot of displeasure at what is being claimed as a
SPEAKER_07: county position and very little public collaboration. It’s more
SPEAKER_08: private. So
SPEAKER_07: thank you.
SPEAKER_08: Thank you. Anyone else on the budget?
SPEAKER_10: Nobody else online?
SPEAKER_09: I could add some comment, not necessarily as part of the hearing. Yes, please do, sir. Yeah, as was mentioned earlier in this meeting, it’s worth noting that there will be budget workshops on the 8th and 9th in the morning. Those are open in public meetings where budget topics will be discussed, still needing to be worked out.
SPEAKER_09: And I also wanted to point out that the PDF version of the budget that is available is includes buttons on each department budget that link to, in this document, link to further detail for each department budget, including general descriptions of budget lines that are repeated throughout different department budgets, further narrative detail, past years, expenditures, so on and so forth. This is in an effort to front load these budget documents with as much information as is possible for consumption by the public and all related decision makers.
SPEAKER_09: And so I hope that there is some, I hope that this can be useful to those that are interested in utilizing them and I’m happy to receive feedback about how those documents can continually improved for future years.
SPEAKER_09: And also, of course, happy to address any questions regarding any individual line in the county budget. I’m always available for such inquiries. Email is the best way to contact me for those things, gpointech at grantcountyutah.gov.
SPEAKER_09: And my office will be preparing a presentation in relation to the adoption of just goes about some summary information regarding the budget as a whole
Agenda
See the full agenda packet here
Budget Workshop
General Business – Action Items
Approval Of Consent Agenda Items
a. Approval Of Meeting Minutes
b. Ratification Of Payment Of Bills
c. Ratification For Approval To Accept A&E Electrics Quote For The Electrical Installation In The Old Spanish Trail Arena Pickle Ball Court Lighting Project.
d. Interim Zoning Administrator Letter
e. Ratification Of Local Consent For The 2026 Bull Wars At the Old Spanish Trail Arena
f. Renewal Of The ILA Between Grand County Library And San Juan County Library
g. 2026 Meeting Schedule
h. Grand County Search & Rescue Jet Boat Purchase
i. Appointment Of Municipal Representative To The Economic Opportunity Advisory Board
Approved 6-0 with Commissioner McCandless absent.
2023 Rural Community Opportunity Grant Contract Extension
This is an extension of terms from the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity for the 2023 Grant funding received by Moab Area Community Land Trust.
Passed 6-0 with McCandless absent.
Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Project Support
Commissioners discussed pursuing a Community Development Block Grant to buy a fire truck, though eligibility is uncertain until January because a previous project remains open. Staff recommended preparing the application and completing the required income study so it is ready if allowed. The Moab Valley Fire Department noted two previous failed attempts due to missing income survey data and delays tied to a federal shutdown.
Approved 6-0 with McCandless absent.
Meador Drive Townhomes — Resolution (Previously Approved As An Ordinance) Approving Final Plat
This was previously approved as an ordinance in error in November; this resolution corrects that.
Approved 5-1 with Commissioner Hedin in opposition and Commissioner McCandless absent.
Public Hearings
To Amend The 2025 And Adopt The 2026 Grand County Budgets
Discussion Items
Centrally Assessed Properties – Utah Association of Counties Lobbying Effort
Grand County commissioners signaled support for joining a statewide lobbying effort to change how Utah taxes large companies such as pipeline operators. Chair Bill Winfield introduced the discussion item, noting that companies frequently appeal their property valuations and often win refunds years later, forcing local governments to repay money that already funded schools, public safety, and other services. Because the state sets valuations but local entities must refund overpayments, commissioners said the current system shifts costs onto homeowners and small businesses.
Property taxes from centrally assessed assets have dropped from about 27% of Grand County’s tax base in 2016 to roughly 13% today, while residential and commercial taxpayers now carry more of the burden. The Utah Association of Counties is organizing a campaign to push legislation in 2026 that would make the state share refund costs and set limits on appeals. Grand County’s contribution would be about $6,130. Commissioners expect to consider the funding at an upcoming meeting.
Discussion of Pending Or Reasonably Imminent Litigation (Closed Session)
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