We We are ready to start the meeting.
We We are ready. We'll give a couple of
minutes to
quiet down.
Can you hear me? Okay, Lacy.
Uh yes, I can hear you.
Okay, perfect. We'll go ahead and get
started. Before we call the meeting to
order, I've asked Brett Wright, Council
Member Wright, if he'd offer a prayer.
So, uh, when it's quiet there, Brett, if
you'd uh lead us out.
Our heavenly father, we're grateful this
evening to be able to bow our heads in
prayer and express gratitude for the
opportunity to gather as fellow fellow
citizens. We're grateful to live in this
great city, in this great state, and in
the United States of America, and to be
able to enjoy the freedoms and the
opportunity to pursue life in in the way
that we choose. We express gratitude for
the many blessings that we have, for the
safety that we enjoy, um, for one
another's camaraderie and companionship.
We pray, Father, as we're about to
embark in several hours of discussion
and and opportunity to listen, we pray
that thou bless us with listening ears
and listening hearts. Uh bless us with
those of us who will speak, those of us
who have come uh with an opportunity to
express comment and thoughts and uh and
with a desire to help the city council
hear the concerns uh that that they may
want to raise. Bless those that will
speak with the ability articulate their
words uh to be able to do so in the
allotted time. Bless us with civility
one to another. Bless us to
be appropriate in our actions to uh
maintain at all times the the decorum
that is expected in this public setting.
Express gratitude for our employees, for
our first responders, for those who are
serving in the military. We we pray that
we'll be mindful of them and their
families. uh bless us to be aware of
those who are less fortunate than us,
those who are uh in need. Help us to
continue to be the great neighbors of
Eagle Mountain has known for these
things we humbly pray in the name of
Jesus Christ. Amen.
Okay.
Thank you, Brett. I appreciate it.
It is 6:02 and we'll officially call
this meeting to order and uh ask that
everybody stand and join Craig is going
to lead us in the council member Whiting
will lead us in the pledge of
allegiance.
Yeah, if you could join me in the pledge
of allegiance
Okay. Thanks, Council Member Whiting.
Uh, just to start off a couple of
housekeeping items. First of all, I
appreciate everybody accommodating me
being remote. Uh, I can see a full house
there and I appreciate everybody showing
up. We love it when people participate
and uh come to the to the meetings to
help us make these difficult decisions
for our city. Uh I'm I love technology
and the fact that uh we're able to still
join. I see there's quite a few
participants online as well. And
mayor, we're having a hard time hearing
you. If you could speak right into the
mic, it would be greatly appreciated.
Okay, I'll see if is that better?
Yes. Thank you.
Okay. Yes. Uh we appreciate you guys be
there and and uh I'm sad that I'm not
there in person due to uh a previous
obligation, but I appreciate the fact
that we can still join remote and have
these same conversations. So with that,
we'll start. Uh I saw look like Natalie
was passing out some uh packets. There
are packets at the back of the room with
the following documents available just
for uh public knowledge. It is the
property tax impact schedule form from
Eagle Mountain City. Also, a physical
copy of the Utah County notice of
proposed tax increases available for
review.
The agenda is in that packet as well and
the truth and taxation overview or
basics. And also for more information,
you can visit em.gov for or
eaglemount.gov
for additional information on our
website. I communications team's kept
that up and it's uh it's been very good.
So, any other information that's that
you're looking for, hopefully those are
the areas you can find it and if you
need a packet, it's at the back of the
room. Um we're going to start with the
agenda item 3A, which is the public
hearing for proposed property tax
increase. Uh there will be some rules
just like as our uh other meetings, some
decorum as was mentioned before. We
expect everybody to be respectful and to
follow the rules and uh make sure we
handle this with respect. This public
hearing is for the proposed property tax
increase. Please keep your comments
related to this topic only. The council
will listen to all comments but will not
engage in a discussion until the public
hearing has been closed. Each person
will have three minutes to address the
council.
We ask that everyone remain respectful
throughout the hearing. Disruptive
behavior, personal attacks, cheering,
booing, clapping are not permitted. If
this occurs, will you'll be asked to
leave the room.
If you've submitted a public comment
form online, Lacy will read your name to
see if you're in attendance to give your
comments. After all comments are
submitted, the meeting
the in the meeting have been addressed.
We will invite those attending in person
to speak first, followed by those
participating online. So, Lacy will help
us manage that. Everyone will have a
chance to speak if you so desire. Um,
and we'll go in the order that she sets
forth with people uh in person, the ones
submitted online and then those online.
For those attending virtually, uh,
including email, by the way, for those
attending virtually, when the time
comes, uh, Lacy will call your name and
will electronically ask you to unmute
your microphone. Your three minute
speaking time will begin once you start
speaking.
You're welcome to remain in the meeting
to observe, but you will not be able to
provide additional comment. Everybody
gets one chance. If you prefer, you may
continue to watching the meeting through
the city's online streaming portal.
Please make sure to speak clearly into
the microphone. After all speakers have
had the opportunity to comment, the
reporter's office will conduct one final
check. We'll check to make sure
everybody's had a chance. If you still
feel like you haven't had a chance to
speak, we'll allow one last chance, and
then we'll close the public hearing. So,
I've read those things. Again, order of
events. We're going to start with public
comment prior to the meeting, then the
participants in attendance, then the
virtual ones, then email. Lacy, have you
uh heard those instructions? And do you
feel like uh there's any clarification
needed?
I think you hit everything perfectly. We
will go with it as we go. So, we're
good.
Okay. Perfectly. It is 507
on the 6th of August.
Correct. Hang on, Mayor. Hang on, Mayor.
Uh you're in a different time zone. It's
I'm 607. 607. Sorry. at uh I look at my
clock and that's what told me. So 607 on
August 6th. Um and we will now open this
public hearing. So Lacy, I'll turn it to
you to call up in order.
Sounds great. We will go ahead and start
with John Breeding.
So, I went online earlier today and I
looked up that uh since 2020, we've had
about a 78%
increase in revenues. We've had a
population growth of about 60%.
Inflation's run about 29% since then.
and um
an 11% increase in taxes would given an
inflation adjusted equivalent of what uh
we had for revenue in 2020.
Uh I'm kind of cynical. I believe that a
220%
increase um is kind of a head fake that
I don't think anybody here actually
believes that that's what is going to
happen.
Um
but when you eventually come up with
about a 40%
increase in taxes, which is also
outrageous, uh people will be less up in
arms about it. And I don't understand
why as government as our as our
population grows and as the government
grows that you don't become more
efficient with artificial intelligence
and computers and things like that.
seems like government is the only thing
that doesn't become more efficient with
scale. Anyway, that's my comment.
Chaz Roberts.
I do not see Chaz Roberts in attendance.
We will encode it into the record.
Melissa Bradley.
I'm disappointed. I'm frustrated. It's
not the resident's job to prevent a tax
increase. Mayor, council, you're
supposed to be able to pri prioritize
needs over wants. I'm against the 220%
property tax increase because it's not
for public safety. It's for
non-essential projects that the city
can't afford. Let me be clear. I support
funding our sheriff's office. I support
paying employees competitive wages. I
support needing roads, water, and sewer
improvements. And you already have the
money in place to do all of that. This
increase is a burden on the average
taxpayer.
25.2 million Americans under 35 lived
with their parents last year. That's not
normal. And raising our property taxes
is not the solution. You're adding to
this crisis. Craig, Rich, Brett, you all
are real estate agents. You should
understand this. Jared, you were the
real estate agent. You should know the
consequences. Zach, as an investor, you
should get this. Melissa, as a mom with
adults living in your home, I assume you
understand. Property tax increases don't
stop with homeowners. Landlords will
pass those costs to their renters. And
our children and your residents will pay
higher rent. Families will have less
money to help their kids with rent,
gasoline, or groceries. As housing costs
rise, which they are unaffordable right
now, young adults will stay home longer,
and that delays their independence.
Families already caring for adults,
children, grandchildren, or aging
parents have even less room in their
budgets when you increase fixed housing
costs. By increasing our property taxes,
each one of you is choosing to
negatively impact 26 families in my
neighborhood. In one week, that will be
27 because my kids are moving in. My
adult kids, two of them. When you're
proposing what you're proposing is
wrong, it's dishonest. When you claim
it's for public safety, it isn't. It's
for completely optional structures like
a new city hall and rec center. And the
fact that you had the city manager admit
that on Tuesday instead of standing up
and saying it from your saying it for
yourselves is crap. I hope you choose to
lead with honesty moving forward. When
you took your oath of office, you all
promised to be faithful stewards of the
taxpayer dollar. The people of Eagle
Mountain work hard for each dollar they
earn and they're making difficult
financial decisions every day. We want
you to do the same.
We have contracts in place and they will
benefit our community soon. Be patient.
Focus on public safety, sewer, water,
and roads. And looking to the taxpayers
to solve your pretend budget crisis. We
don't believe you. Go attract businesses
to expand the tax business. And you and
then you better leave residents sales
tax alone. I caught that in Tuesday's
meeting. It is our right to decide when
and how we want to spend our money. Stay
out of our pockets. Our community wants
freedom from taxes, not slavery to it.
Do not raise property taxes and no new
taxes.
[applause]
I'm just going to remind you that the
mayor gave us clear instructions that
we're not going to entertain that
was not part of those.
Yes. Yes, it was. So, we're going to ask
you to refrain from that type of
outburst because it's going to delay the
opportunity for those who want to come
and and speak to us. So, please refrain
from that or according to his
instructions, we're going to ask you to
leave.
I do have Adam Brady for the next one.
It does say uh my wife Melissa will read
the statement. I am unsure if he's here.
Adam Bradley.
Sorry, I have to hear from you again.
Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name
is Adam Bradley and I'm here to strongly
oppose this proposed 220% property tax
increase. In fact, I believe you should
be lowering taxes and not raising them.
A 220% increase is an enormous ask.
Saying it's justified simply because
property taxes haven't been raised in 15
years is an insult to basic math. This
represents real money for families
already struggling with inflation,
rising home values, and higher taxes
across the board. Eagle Mountains
explosive growth has already expanded
the city's revenue through impact fees,
building permits, and commercial
development. So why isn't that growing,
paying for these needs? I've seen no
convincing evidence that existing
revenue can't fund competitive wages for
our employees. And I've seen no
categorical proof that we need more
sheriff deputies. Comparing Eagle
Mountain to other cities doesn't work.
There's no other city like Eagle
Mountain. Show me the 911 calls that
aren't being answered. Show me domestic
violence calls going unanswered. Show me
crimes not being solved. I haven't seen
that evidence. Until a few days ago,
residents were told every dollar of this
tax increase would go to public safety.
Then people started doing the math. The
sheriff's contract increases by roughly
1.5 million, while this tax height
brings in about 6.7 million.
Only after residents started asking
questions did you admit the rest is for
other projects, including a new city
hall. This was never just about public
safety. I've also heard almost no
discussion of alternatives. Where's the
debate? Where are the compromises? One
council member even told my wife to do
the research and come back with ideas.
with respect. That's the job that you
were elected to do. When I served on
this council, I said no all the time
because protecting taxpayers came first.
Growth should be allowing us to reduce
the tax burden, not asking families to
pay more. I'll leave you with this. Have
you forgotten the proper role of city
government? This council and the last
have continued to grow government and
spending. what happened to Eagle
Mountain being a place that valued
limited government and respected tax
players. Please no more.
Please vote no on this increase and
start looking for ways to lower our
property tax instead. And on a personal
note, I would like to add,
I love remaining.
He was a great council member and he
worked
You're you're reading his statement, not
your own.
You don't get to go twice.
Ben Braracknel.
I don't see Ben Brachnel. Um it says
opposition to proposed tax increase. Um
I do want to remind those of you online
uh for the Zoom link, this is for
participating virtually. If you want to
watch the meeting and not participate,
you can go to our portal to watch it. I
do have Alex Washburn uh for the public
comment, but I do see you're online, so
we will call you when the virtual time
comes. Um Ashley Lowour or lower.
Um it only says property tax increase. I
do not see her, but we will add it to
the record. Duncan Cersi.
Sorry, I didn't hear the mayor say no
clapping. He was quiet. But I also don't
think our first amendment rights care
much about his decorum. Um, so the the
title of this meeting is truth in
taxation public hearing. I want to quote
the city. This is what they said. Eagle
Mountain City is proposing a property
tax increase with every dollar going
straight to public safety. period.
So, that's a lie and we all know that
now. And so, that's not a great way to
start this meeting off. I was a lot
nicer on Tuesday when I spoke. Um, but
some of the responses I got from you
actually is what made me upset and I'm
not going to be quite as nice tonight.
You'll see some of the pensioners I
mentioned on Tuesday are here. That's
great. Um, every single one of you when
I brought this up expressed remorse like
we don't want to be doing this. You
know, this is so hard on our community.
This is just a necessary evil that we
have to do. And Brett, you said
something that struck me. You said, "We
have been called upon to make this
decision." Brett, who is calling upon
you to raise the property taxes if we
elect you and you work for us? I would
like to know after all this is done, if
you would address that specifically,
who's calling upon you to make any kind
of decision? Okay. And then Melissa, it
bothered you so much. Just the thought
of raising taxes on our poor families
brought you to tears. Sweetheart, you
don't need to be upset. Just vote no.
You don't have to raise the taxes. This
is your choice. You get to vote yes or
no. Okay? So, I think we just need to
realize everybody is struggling in this
economy. Every single person. Okay? If
we as citizens are tightening our belts
and we're deciding what we have to cut
out of our lives, so must the city.
Okay? There's money coming down the
pipeline. Mayor Gray preaches about it
all the time. So, let's tighten up our
belt as a city instead of pushing those
tax burdens onto the regular person.
Okay? And Melissa, I'm sorry. I'm going
to call you out a little bit. I'm tired
of the performative testimony meeting
style emotion. It's manipulative. Okay?
And you have the chance tonight to vote
no and prove that I'm wrong and that you
really do care about the poor families.
But when you sit up there and get
emotional, it really bothers those of us
that have discernment. Okay?
A big reason why we're here tonight is
because you gave Meta, a $ 1.5 trillion
company, a 20-year tax break. Okay? Had
you not done that,
I don't think we'd be in this financial
situation that we're at. And you keep
touting this infrastructure that
Facebook has brought to the city. I have
never once driven out to the Facebook
building. Probably never will. They have
not improved anything in the city that
we the citizens use on a daily basis. So
stop trying to gaslight us into oh
Facebook has been such a good deal. This
is such a good deal. We're tired of it.
Start working for us or next election we
are going to speak even.
Your time is up. Thank you.
Ryan Parker.
Uh, also does not say it just says
property tax increase. I do not see him
here, so we'll add it to the record.
Charles Peterson.
Good evening. As a former federal
government program analyst, I have more
questions than answers. So, uh, in
reviewing all this material, I what I'll
give you is some questions. We we've
moved here well, we've been here for 10
years now and so on. So, I've got a
number of questions that bother me. A
couple of these things have already been
mentioned.
uh of the 6 uh
9 million
and with a million and a half for the
the added police officers. I would be
curious what the analysis was done.
Sorry, as an analyst
to say how do we how do we uh need that
many more and it's already been
addressed a little bit. Is our
uh public safety been reduced without
these? I don't know.
That's a question that I have.
Second is uh
by looking at the the information that
was available by going and proving this
we will become the most I think the
second most uh property taxed city in
Jeff I'm sorry
my own old county but in Utah County we
are now second best and there and I was
reading a piece and talking about being
so wonderful about how our taxes are low
now we're if this is approved we're
going to go right up to the top excuse
me um the other thing that bothers me as
an analyst list
is the other
what is it
five about five yeah 5.4 million goes
into public safety
now
is there is there a fund called public
safety
what happens that is there an outline of
all the things that you're going to do
with this $5.4 four million dollars.
I haven't seen anything.
Uh so what what we would expect as an
analyst and say okay and had a lot of
dealings with budget analysts what what
are we actually talking about? What are
the line items
and what are those results going to be?
I think that's critical and if you can't
show that then we ought not to be voting
for it frankly. Thank you very much.
Um I do want to clarify that I we do
have Ryan Parker online so we'll go back
to his comment but he is virtual. Um
Dave Breahan.
Thank you,
Mr. Mayor and City Council. Thank you
for allowing me the opportunity to
speak.
[clears throat] I'm grateful for each
one of you and I know how tough your job
is. I really do. I wouldn't want to be
in your position.
the people that you represent, the
people of Eagle Mountain,
which has a median age of 23
and approximately 44% of our population
are under 18,
which helps us to see this is a
community filled with a lot of young
families.
Then there's people over 65 like me. We
only make up about 3% of Eagle Mountain.
Young families are just getting started
building careers and do not have a
significant income with the median
individual income of 48,15
per person. The average retired couple
have a combined income of 79,315.
We are all strapped for cash.
The cost of living is making it harder
and harder for the average family to get
by.
The added proposed tax adds to that
burden and makes life more difficult
than it already is for the vast majority
of all these young families.
I got my numbers from Google, by the
way.
Eagle Mountain charges an impact fee on
new residential and commercial
development.
That fee is intended to fund the
expansion of services because of the
impact of that development.
A portion of that impact fee is intended
for public safety.
I know about impact fees because I was a
member of the legislature when we voted
that into state law. I go back a ways.
Families, young and old, have a specific
income that must be budgeted to take
care of all the expenses for their
family. As the cost of living goes up,
families must find ways to cut corners
and tighten the budget, which means
shopping sales, using coupons, using
Facebook Marketplace, and they do
without a lot of times in order to make
it all work.
30 seconds. I would suggest that the
city has the mechanism to pay for
additional services that come with the
growth of the city through impact fees.
I know developers hate those fees, but
it's a poor it's a part of the cost of
doing business and they are making
millions in Eagle Mountain. Those impact
fees won't affect their millions.
Hopefully, the city can find ways to
become more efficient in the services
that the city provides. I ask the city
council to
Your time is up. Thank you.
Brian Free,
great to be here today. I want to thank
you all for not kicking the can down the
road. That seems like the trend since
I've lived here for 20 20 years can keep
getting kicked down the road so we can
keep our taxes low or whatever and the
needs of our city continue to grow.
We're a growing city. There's needs and
they have to be taken care of. So, thank
you for that. Um, I think that goes I
also want to say that a lot of us have
probably had a knee-jerk reaction to to
a 220% increase which is actually lower
if you add in, you know, your fire and
your sheriffs and put that all together
like another city would have in their
city tax. We're probably right in the
middle and then we're probably at the
top when we had 220%. So that's so
that's more of an apples to apples
comparison which is good to do. I think
one of the issues is there wasn't a lot
of transparency, right? So we're not
seeing what you guys are seeing and that
may not necessarily be right on you but
on those who were tasked with putting
out information for us. Um we like to
see what all those we like to know that
it's not 100% for one one portion but
it's for a bunch of things that are all
needs within our city and and seeing
those line items is really helpful. so
we can see exactly what it's pay for.
There may be be a lot of us that would
say I don't like it, but those are all
needs. I don't know how we don't take
care of them and if we saw what each of
those things are, right? And maybe have
some different different type of
discussion we would all come more
informed um without having to dig deep
to try to find those answers on our on
our own and do that work that could
easily be easily be provided for us
because you you guys already have it
that some of that information. So that
would be very helpful for us to see what
those line items are. Um, I will say
that, um, in addition, one of the things
that we want to make sure we're doing is
that we're taking advantage of looking
at the things that, let's say, my
basement's flooding. I got to get that
water shut off, get that water out of
there, and clean everything up or I'm
going to lose my home, right? Those are
the kind of things we need to take care
of. And I know we have some of those
kinds of issues in our city that need to
be addressed that maybe we don't always
see day-to-day as residents. And so,
that's important. Um but 2 220% or the
lower number if we include everything
together whatever that percent is it's
still an increase. It's still attacks um
without everything else like has been
mentioned that that we're seeing
increased in our lives and we want to
make sure that that's being um we're
looking at zero. Let's say we can't do
anything zero without going into major
debt to do it and then add to that what
can we do and then what can we do in two
three years when that some of that data
center money starts coming off like
we've when they first were talking about
data centers we were told whatever the
size is one data center is like four or
five CSOS or Walmart's worth of revenue
that's a lot of revenue if that starts
coming on board in a couple years we've
got a lot of revenue coming right so
we'll be able we should be able to then
reduce taxes
30 seconds remaining
but uh one one thing I'll leave you with
just because It's a bu a buzz term. Um,
let's not California our Utah. I 220%
increase is a California or Utah. And
that's something I don't think any of
you want to do or any of you are in
favor of. Most of you would consider
yourself conservative, fiscally
conservative. And I would hope that
you'll really take that in
consideration. Thank you.
Matt Oakman.
I don't see him online and I don't see
him in person. Add him to the record.
Matthew Endicott.
My name is Matt Endicott and I've lived
in Eagle Mountain for about six years.
I've listened to the presentation given
by Chief Deputy Kitson in April as well
as the comments I've received from the
city council in response to my email
this week. Um, thank you for your
responses. Um, but I seem to have missed
some important discussion and Tuesday's
meeting. Um, I'll have to go back and
review that. After reviewing of the
budget that was released earlier this
week, this issue has been made clear.
The messaging from the mayor was
confusing and may have led to the level
of negative responses being voiced. But
after review, I have a couple of qu
questions. Based on my review, the
proposed public safety budget is about
$10 million, which is two, you know,
based off of other things, which is
about 2 million higher than last year.
This revenue from property taxes last
year covered about 50% of the previous
costs with the other 50% coming from the
general fund, so sales tax or other
things. if I understand that correctly.
So, I have a couple questions. Why is it
necessary for the entire amount of the
sheriff's contract to be covered by
revenue from property taxes? Was revenue
from the other sources projected to fall
below the needed amount to cover the
contract amount? Or are there other
budget areas that need a roughly $4
million increase? And this tax hike is
being done under the guise of public
safety because that is an easier sell
than other programs.
With this switch from using the general
fund along with property taxes to only
using property taxes for the sheriff,
will the general fund be reduced a
proportionate amount to reflect the
change or is the city total city budget
raising the $6 million?
With the increase in sheriff deputies,
is there any changes to the contract to
make sure we are being protected and
that the increased presence won't be
used for generating revenue through
tickets or over policing as seen in
neighborhood cities such as Saratoga
Springs and American Fork. I understand
but have my disagreements with the
comments made by the sheriff's office
and the city council that Eagle Mountain
could use a larger police force. I also
understand there has not been a property
tax hike in Eagle Mountain for a number
of years. These two things being
understood, why did the city council
feel the need to swap a 100% of the
costs, including the $2 million increase
in one year? Could it not be possible to
continue using alternative revenue
sources for the sheriff's office with a
modest increase to property taxes to
cover the $2 million increase? Why was
there the need to switch the entire $10
million over to property taxes? This
seems this just seems to me and I
imagine a number of folks here a
dramatic increase to the size and scope
of the city under the guise of public
safety to avoid having to have
discussion or try and sell a less
popular budget item. Thank you.
Andrew Burke.
My name is Andrew Burke. I've been here
a couple times. A couple years back,
like five years ago, and then recently
moved here after we built our home last
year. Uh I'm going to make this short. I
do agree that the police off the
sheriff's department has to be
supported. I do believe that, you know,
we do need to based off the research
that I've done, we do need to increase
it four or five over a thousand
residents versus the average of about
08. I mean, some of the stuff that Chief
Deputy said wasn't accurate. like
Saratoga is at 1.56 per thousand, but
I'm not going to go into those
semantics. Um, I do agree with the
previous speaker that I don't think that
the property taxes should be the thing
that's covering all the increases
and I think my biggest issue and I think
most people would agree is that the
transparency is just not there. Why
can't you give us if you've allotted a
certain amount for improvements under
the guise of public safety, why can't
you give us an itemized report before
you say, "Yeah, we're voting on this.
Let us know what you're increasing."
So,
I mean, it's frustrating because
everybody is struggling. It's harder.
Like, I heard a comment about AI. A lot
of us don't know if we're going to have
jobs in two years because AI is taking
away the workforce.
And you know, now they sit there and
say, "Hey, 220% right now. We haven't
done it in 15 years right now without
gradually rolling it out. It's almost
criminal."
Like, why would you why would you do
that to us? You were we voted for you
and this is how you repay us. Now, I'm
not against increasing the budget for
our sheriffs public that is public
safety. But 6.7 or 6.7 almost8 million
increased with no itemized budget,
that's not acceptable.
[snorts] So my question is, if you are
going to do this, can we get an itemized
line for line on how every dollar is
going to be spent?
Because if you're if if you're not going
to do that, then don't pass the bill.
That's my time.
Kelly Horton.
I don't see Kelly.
You can.
You can fill out a paper.
Oh, you're there.
No worries.
It's all right. you can take your own
time.
My name's Kelly Horton. I've been here
since 2016. You know, I first want to
begin by saying that, you know, we
really do support our public safety
here. We love our law enforcement out
here. I don't think anybody's going to
disagree with that. Our firefighters,
first responders, everything they do
every day. It's not about whether they
deserve support. They absolutely do. I
said this is about whether asking
residents to shoulder such a substantial
tax increase is the only or the best
solution. Many of us are already
struggling. The cost of groceries,
utilities, insurance, and housing is
increased dramatically. Families are
making difficult choices every month
just to stay afloat. For people living
on fixed incomes, seniors, and residents
with disabilities, even a few hundred
dollars a year can make the difference
between paying bills and falling behind.
You know, before asking taxpayers to pay
more, I respectfully ask, you know, what
specific spending reductions were made
before deciding to raise taxes? You know
what programs or projects were delayed
or eliminated to demonstrate that every
other option has been exhausted? You
know, why is the increase this increase
being proposed all at once instead of
being phased in over several years? You
know, and what guarantees can you
provide that this won't become the new
normal with additional large increases
in the future? How will the city measure
whether these additional tax dollars
actually improve public safety? And will
those results be reported publicly?
Transparency matters. Residents deserve
to know exactly where every additional
dollar will go, how success will be
measured, and what accountability exists
if the expected results are not
achieved. You know, Eagle Mountain has
grown rapidly. That growth has brought
challenges, but it's also brought
additional homes, businesses, and a
broader tax base. I asked the council to
to please explain what that growth alone
why that growth alone is not enough to
help meet these needs. And most
importantly, please remember that behind
every tax bill is a family. You know,
for for some, this may seem like a
budget decision, but for residents, it's
groceries, it's medicine, it's gas, it's
schools, clothes, it's child care, or
keeping a roof over our heads. You know,
I respectfully ask the council to
reconsider the size and timing of this
increase. If additional funding is truly
necessary, consider a phased approach.
Continue identifying spending
efficiencies and ensure residents are
fully informed before placing a greater
financial burden on them. Thank you for
your time.
Anthony Wood.
My name is Anthony. Uh
so true true representation means
reflecting the will of your
constituents. When you must convince us
of your narrative, then that's
manipulation.
The tax uh increase is being advertised
as a need for increase in law
enforcement.
The supporting stats that are being used
are how many officers there are per
1,000 uh citizens.
I don't like that. I don't like that
number. What I do think we should be
looking at is the the crime rates. So,
if we're using some of the comparative
cities you guys were using in the in the
uh how many officers per capita, uh
Sandy is 32 in 10,000 means you're going
to be you have a chance of uh being a
victim uh 32 times out of a thousand.
For Lehi, it's 22 per 10,000. Do you
guys have any idea what Eagle Mountain
is? It is 1 to 1.2 per 10,000. Our crime
rate is very low. We see our officers uh
multiple vehicles per stops. That's what
we get to see as citizens. Uh four,
three squad cars, four squad cars per
stop, per incident. Um we see them at
the gas stations. It doesn't look like
they're they're crazy busy. They may
need some support, but this is the wrong
way to go about it. You're asking the
wrong people to uh to pay for this. What
I mean is that there are a lot of
corporations, like we were talking about
with the data centers, that are getting
those tax breaks. They they do a lot of
damage to our infrastructure, our water,
our roads, and they're not contributing
to that. I was looking at the repairs to
Pony Express and it it took us the end
of 24 and 25 to finish Pony Express and
I went on there the very next day and I
rode it. I I ride a motorcycle. I wrote
it. It's garbage. I I don't know how
much you guys spent on that, but it's
trash. It needs to be done again. Who
Who signed off and saying that that was
okay?
Another
example about the spending and like I I
would like to focus on budgeting what we
have first before we ask for more. And
another example that I have concerns
with with how we spend our money is that
in 2022 and August we spent we sent a
hund uh $1.13 million to a scammer.
Just money gone. Like we need to budget
what we have before we ask for more. I I
I agree. We may need more, but I need to
focus on the budget before we get there.
I mean, I don't lend money to family
members and friends that are
irresponsible with money, and I don't
want to do the same thing here. I don't
want to give you more money. I don't
trust you guys with it.
Sending money to a scammer. I have to
teach my grandma not to do that. I don't
want to have to teach you guys not to do
that.
That's all I have.
Bruno Hunaker.
I don't know about following all these
guys that's been up here. Some great
comments. Um
I'm just going to represent the the old
guys or the old women. We're the
seniors. So most of most people on
social security the average like Brett's
mom is probably 13 or $1,400 a month
because she's been on it. I'm about
1,800 so I'm a little more fortunate. So
I give you $300 extra dollars and so
and we're on a fixed income. I'm lucky I
still work part-time so it's not going
to affect me as much but these young
families that they've all been talking
about. So we get $300 there. And those
of you that don't know what's going to
happen next year when this
[clears throat] mighty new school
district comes in that you all buffaloed
into voting for, they're going to start
out $200 million in the hole. So, if you
think the city council is going to
charge you $300 more on a $500,000 home,
you wait till next year's tax and truth
when the district is going to raise that
up probably $3 to $400 plus a bond the
next year. They need 17 schools in the
next 15 years and they're a pretty small
school district to do that. So, I'm just
telling you, I hope you all show up next
year in total force when that school
board meets to increase your taxes. Um,
and also I agree on some of those roads
because I ride a bike, too. And, uh,
it's supposed to be a soft tail, but it
really is a hard tail on that road. So,
anyway, uh, I I support law enforcement.
I don't know what the crime rate is. I
I'm thinking per capita it might be as
bad as West Valley City because all I
ever hear is domestic this and domestic
that. They're doing their job and I know
they need an increase, but like
everybody else said, "How many building
permits?" We had the most building
permits in the state of Utah in Eagle
Mountain last year. And then I see him
build two homes over by Black Ridge. And
they brought gravel in, compacted a
little bit, and put these two new homes
in just to get a building permit. I'm
starting to wonder if people will sell
somebody in their family for a building
permit. Just that much. Those building
permits and those impact fees should be
paying for what you're asking for. I
know your minds are made up. I don't
think you're going to budge. I think
it's going to go through. And I know you
feel our pain. So anyway,
30 seconds.
I appreciate the job you guys are doing
and I know it's a hard job, but I'm just
telling people you're going to be paying
a lot of money the next three years
between this and the new school
district. And the mayor tells me while
he was a city councilman, the water
treatment plant needs to be updated next
four years. There is another $50 a month
on top of that. Thank you,
Nathan Thornberg.
[snorts]
Hello, I'm Nathan Thornberg. Um,
I can understand the way state tax
regulations and codes don't
uh help increase revenue as property
values increase.
Uh, however,
like everybody else, I have questions.
Why wasn't why was the campaign
initially that was initially released
that
this is going to 100% be to increase our
public safety? The end. Period. And we
were all I think the way that the
messaging was presented was we were all
supposed to go yes.
Um
and it was only after members of our
community actually pressed that there
was more of an explanation given. This
is going to free up money so that we can
better improve things.
I think we all would have loved to hear
that initially if money was if there was
a plan to increase
revenue to improve the
the quality of life here in Eagle
Mountain.
You wouldn't be getting slammed right
now.
You probably still would be because 220%
as was stated earlier
is almost criminal.
Do you see how the changing of the
narrative only after being pressed
erodess trust? Now we don't know what to
believe. You were either dishonest then
or you're dishonest now.
Anything you say to smooth it over can
at best only be taken with a grain of
salt, but most likely is just not going
to be believed at all.
Unless
you start putting the actual money where
your mouth is. I think it's safe to say
that after tonight you have an
assignment.
What's the plan? Is there a proposed
budget or schedule of these capital
projects
uh that the city intends to complete?
And the only way to regain trust in this
community is to follow through with what
we need. And if there is no publicly
released budget
30 seconds remaining
to have access to so that we can you
know maybe see begin to see some of your
intentions
if that isn't released to us.
What are we left to believe? Are we
supposed to just trust you? We don't
trust you. If there is no
line item given to us,
what are we left with?
Your time is up. Thank you, Matt
Everett.
Good evening, council. Good evening,
mayor, wherever you are. I um stand to
uh stand firmly in the minority opinion
of the people that are in this room
tonight. Um I encourage you to pass this
tax increase. Now, having said that,
220% is a big number. I wish it wasn't
that big. I knowing you and the
interactions that I've had, I would
assume that you probably have a similar
feeling to that. In my opinion, 220% is
a direct reflection of poor management
and leadership that the city has had in
the past 15 plus years. My family and I
have lived in the city for about 17, a
little over 17 years. I've raised my
family here. I'm continuing to raise my
family here. There are a lot of things
that need to be improved in the city.
Talked about roads. We've talked about
infrastructure. We've talked about a lot
of different things. All of those things
cost money. and there's limited ways
that the city is able to to take care of
those those needs and the requirements
that they have. Moving the property
taxes and using this increase to p to
fund public safety makes it a stable
fund that we're able the city will be
able to use those known dollars every
year to fund the needs in the public of
the public safety. So, this is a
difficult night. Uh this is going to be
a difficult thing for a lot of
residents. I understand that. But I
encourage you to continue on the path of
leadership that you have and to make the
hard decisions regardless of what the
outcomes of those will be. Thank you,
Mark McConi.
Others have talked about their
frustration that these funds aren't
being aren't actually being used for
public safety. And I feel that pain,
especially as the funds we use for
public safety now get sent out of the
out to the county rather than being used
to establish our own public safety
through a city police department
accountable to the mayor and this
council. Eagle Mountains, the largest
city in Utah without its own dedicated
city police department. And looking at
the states bordering Utah, we're the
second largest city without a without a
police department. Only Centennial in
Colorado is bigger. In fact, if we were
to take a deeper dive on this and take a
look at the size of the largest cities
in each of the state without a police
department, here's what we'd see. Eagle
Mountain is twice the size of Kuna,
Idaho, their largest city. We're are
three times larger than Fernley, Nevada,
their largest city without a police
department. We're 4.6 times larger than
Castle Pines, Colorado, which is their
second after Centennial.
We are 3.1 times larger than Fountain
Hills, Arizona. And we're a whopping
37.8 times larger than Pinedell,
Wyoming, which is their largest city
without a city police department. We've
outgrown the point where we should rely
on on county support rather than owning
that ourselves. Every dollar that we
send to the county for policing is a
dollar that we give to be controlled by
the county. And every decision about how
our streets are patrolled is made by
people who don't answer to this council
or to the residents of Eagle Mountain.
Right now, as we contract with the
county sheriff, that means we have no
direct say over hiring standards, use of
force policy, response priorities, or
community policing style. Those
decisions are made for the whole county
and are not tailored to us. If we ever
disagree with those decisions, we don't
have the ability to push for those
changes outside of election season. Even
during election season, Eagle Mountain
only accounts for 10% of the voter
population in Utah County. And there may
well be some elections where the sheriff
runs unopposed as he is this year, which
limits our options even more. A city
police chief would answer to the mayor
and to this council and its residents,
getting a clear line of accountability.
I know the first objection is going to
be cost, especially startup cost, but
the city already owns the building the
sheriff's department operates out of
right here in Eagle Mountain. If we
convert that city to a police
department, there's no new facility,
building, or lease. uh that overhead
already exists. Because our contract
with the county sheriff's department
accounts for about onethird of their
budget, we'd likely be able to
transition many of their officers to
city officer positions as well, reducing
costs of hiring and training. We're not
building departments from scratch. We're
being able to convert what's already
here. Beyond that, the startup and
transition costs will only be higher in
the future as our population grows. When
it comes to our policing options, I see
three options. Start a police department
now. start a police department at
sometime in the future, but for a higher
cost as our population grows or never
start a police department and be okay
with not having control over our police
force. So my ask tonight is to conduct a
study of the cost for standing up a
municipal police department. As we
earmark these funds for public safety,
let's use these funds in a way that we
can control. Thank you,
Betty Peralta.
Good evening. My name is Betty Peralta
and I'm here to oppose the increase and
these are comments I have. The um
proposed increase I feel is outrageous.
The justification is not clear enough.
The homeowner property rates increase
and as our income remains the same. The
property values, especially in my
community, which is Sweetwater, continue
to fall. Eagle Mountain City Center and
communities look more rundown every day.
My property value alone has decreased
$7,000 in two months. So, yes, I agree
with the previous um speakers that this
is criminal to impose a tax rate
increase of this kind. The traffic has
increased here significantly. The roads
are horrible and [clears throat]
the
um majority of homeowners I'm asking to
oppose this increase. And my other
question is because it has not been
outright and truthful what these funds
are being used for. Are we using any of
these funds for city council staff pay
increases?
I'm all in for safety and first
responders. I'm a retired 38-year first
responder, so I know that those are
essential and necessary needs for Eagle
Mountain, but I cannot justify the
increase. Thank you,
Joseph Pill. I don't know how to say
close.
Thank you.
French.
Not even close.
Um, first of all, I just want to say I'm
sorry. Hold on. Joseph, will you say it
in for the record?
Oh, uh, Joseph Pedlo.
All right. So, first I want to say I
don't want to be being in your seats
tonight. It's probably not a fun
meeting. Um, but I do want to thank you
for your service and the commitment
because you wouldn't have run for this
position if you didn't want it. Um, big
thing I want to say is just urging
caution. So, I work in uh higher
education in the state and I've worked
there for about 10 years. And over those
times, we've seen again and again when
the state legislature has proposed big
budget increases and big budget pushes
and there'll be community blow up and
hard fans and often gets redacted. And I
think we can learn a lesson from that. I
don't think anyone here doesn't want to
help our officers. We do. We want them
to be the best officers in the county.
We want them to have the resources they
need. But I think we also can all agree
that 220% is a lot at once, especially
since a lot of us are nervous about the
new school district, about water
facilities, road infrastructure, more
infrastructure as the city grows. One of
the fastest growing cities in Utah. So
my hope would be just to urge caution
because we don't know what it's going to
be like in three years. We don't know if
the new school district is going to ask
for a 300% increase because they don't
have administrative buildings. They
don't have a bus depot. They don't have
the mechanics. We don't know that. We
don't know what the water will be. We
don't know what the infrastructure will
be and we do know we are getting more
stores. We're getting Lowe's. We're
getting Smiths and we will see that
income increase as a hospital comes out
here and there's other plans happen. But
we just don't know what that is right
now. But we do know 220% is a lot to ask
especially since transparency has been
an issue for a lot of residents. So my
only advice is just caution because
maybe this is where we do need to be and
maybe you have very important reasons. I
believe you're all amazing people who
aren't increasing this for no reason.
But we can all agree that this is a bit
of a shock in the community and you
probably don't have this typical turnout
at events like this because we're
shocked at the number and we're shocked
at the fact that we don't know exactly
what the general fund that's going to be
increasing by about 5 million. What's
that meant for? So my only advice is
just to urge caution. Maybe do a smaller
increase. Let us see what the new
revenues will be when we get more
infrastructure. Let us see what the new
property value revenues will be. Let us
see what the store revenues will be and
then let us know what we need to do
because I think no one here is opposed
to bettering our city and bettering our
police force. I think what we are
opposed for is making a jump in the
dark. So, thank you.
Josh Shad.
My name is Josh Shad. I've been a
resident here for about 12 years.
really came to me as a shock that you
guys are going to increase the taxes by
220%. So, I just have some comments I
wrote down. With the increased tax
revenue that will be added to the
general fund and use for capital
projects, it's a little deceitful to
present present this as 100% funding
towards public safety as the previously
allocated funds are now set into the
general fund and used for capital
projects. As we build out housing in
Eagle Mountain, property taxes should
increase. And why haven't those been
funds been properly allocated in the
budget? And just to clarify, I don't
have any issue with increasing policing
police presence within the city limits
of Eagle Mountain. The issue I have is
the communication of this city council
to its member to the to the residents of
Eagle Mountain and being clear with your
guys's intention of what you intend to
do with our tax dollars. This is
something that I have brought up before
is communication from this city hall.
The city hall is terrible at messaging.
You guys are terrible at communicating
meetings. You guys are terrible at
reaching out to the citizens. The only
reason I saw this is because I happen to
go on Facebook. I've signed up for all
your newsletters, all your text
messages. I go on the website every once
in a while, but I have a life outside of
this city. So, you guys need to get be
better at messaging.
Previous city councils have also failed
to take to take to be good stewards of
our taxpayer dollars. convince us that
this tax increase for for the taxpayers
is going to not be wasted and
misallocated and spent on things that
are not in the budget or or hidden or
moved to the side. On another note, I do
believe we have had a utility rate
increase uh that's supposed to happen
over the next couple years and that is
in addition to this. So, you guys are
going to be putting undue stress on the
normal families of Eagle Mountain.
And I think that's pretty much it I got.
Thank you guys for your time.
Mark Espinosa.
Council, thank you for having this
meeting. Sure. Big turnout here. I hear
a lot of people concerned. My big
concern is guys, I
I had a business, made a payroll and
stuff. All the things that you need to
do to run a business, you got to make
guys 220% increase. If I did that to my
customers, I'll be out of business. So,
we got to do something. Everybody's so
fed up that 220%.
If it's 3%, you would have had a half a
crowd in here. But you go to you hit it
big, 220%.
Maybe go back. I don't know if we have
time or if you're going to vote on this.
If you're going to vote on this tonight,
we're pretty much pretty much done. You
got to go back and look how can we bring
up revenue. I hope the mayor is doing
something. I I wish he was here instead
of thinking that he's looking at a a
video in Zoom. I wish he was in front of
us looking at all these people here. But
if he's making a great deal for Eagle
Mountain, fantastic. He's got my
approval. But I don't think so.
It's important. You got a lot of people
hear a lot of things, especially I hear
on on the communication with you guys.
Go on your website, put a link on there,
and then it line item be uh line item.
to show everybody what's going on.
But again, bring it out to 220. Come on,
guys. You know better. I heard some
people here in businesses.
Shoot. You do that to your customers and
see how how long you're in business.
Again,
we're were I heard fixed incomes and
stuff. I came from California.
A lot worse. They don't even listen. Got
so bad. I don't move.
I'm glad I I moved to Eagle Mountain. I
love the place. Family oriented. Love
it. But do not do not go down that road.
There's a reason why people move out of
California. It's not the poor people.
It's people with money
and they come in to spend the money.
Keep them in Eagle Mountain. That's one
way to get the revenue. Other ways get
some bigger people in businesses. That's
how you generate m into the coffers.
Again, I thank you guys. I thank you
guys for listening to us. But I hope I
really hope you hear everybody what they
had to say.
I'm retired. I can come up here. I was
ticked off working 30 years buying a
business. Ticked off. I couldn't go to
these meetings. Shoots 13, 14 hours a
day. Well, now I'm retired. I could do
some more.
Thank you again and thanks for everybody
coming out. Be sure to vote. Be sure to
vote.
Thank you.
Your time is up. Thank you, Jeff Ruth.
Hey, Council Jared. Um, I'm going to be
the admon out aside from Matt, I think.
But, uh,
I'm a little frustrated because this is
going to impact me. But, I can't tell
you how many times I've called for an
officer
and they don't show up. Yeah, it was
kind of minor on the list of things that
were probably going on, but they didn't
show up. Once in a while, I get a call
and say, "Hey, we're sorry. You know, we
didn't make it, but
we had this going on." Okay, that's
fine. I've called for other things. Hey,
we only got two officers on duty this
morning. We can't come out right now.
All right, fine. I've asked,
why don't the officers out here do
preventative? Uh, we can only do
reactive. We don't have enough officers
to do
um preventative calls. I can't tell you
all the vandalism I've seen over at
Corey Ride. I mean, it's ridiculous.
Every once in a while, an officer should
be sitting out there and catch some of
these teens out there busting things up,
busting up the bathrooms and everything
else.
Um, and I understand you're going to
shift the money
for the officers into their kind of
their own separate account and that's
going to free up other money. How many
times have I been up here and asked you
guys to mow along the roads to fix this
to fix that? Well, it's my understanding
that if you move the money,
then you'll have the money to do this
other stuff.
I mean, it's like with the vos at the
park.
Max, I think got hurt because he his leg
went into one of those holes. I've asked
it to be addressed. Never. Never done.
Um, so I mean, I love our officers. I
met many of them. I've dealt with them
and they're good. I think we need this.
Like I said, it's going to impact me a
lot. I'm on social security. It's going
to be tough. Me and Melissa talked I
think it was at the convention about
this and I understand
it's just but it gets me people say well
bring in more businesses every time a
big business wants to come in here what
do you get you can't bring THAT IN HERE
OH IT'S GOING TO USE TOO much water TOO
MUCH ELECTRICITY THIS AND THAT it just
drives me crazy
remaining
um so like I said, "How many people here
would vote for a rec center even if it
was 300%."
So, I hope you pass this. Get us some
officers out there to help us out. Thank
you.
Denver Doral.
All right. Um I didn't come up here
prepared. Um
life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
The American dream.
That's what I've always wanted.
Eagle Mountain was the first place I was
able to actually achieve that.
And I'm going tell you right now, I'm
I'm stressed out, panicked, because that
American dream is about to turn into a
nightmare.
I am in a single income household.
Yeah, I make good money, but
you know, I got everything else going
on. Um, I don't think anybody here would
argue setting money aside for the
sheriff's department, first responders,
because, you know, my family alone has
benefited so much from them. You know,
with my four-year-old daughter who has
more flight hours in a life flight than
the pilot himself.
um my son who was shot in his neck, you
know, right before Christmas.
One of the sheriff's deputies stuck her
finger in my son's neck.
Keep him from bleeding out.
We ain't got no problem
with setting money aside for the
sheriff's department or first
responders,
but that, you know, coming at us, you
know, hey, we're going to increase taxes
5, 10, 15%.
You know, we can understand that.
But 220%
I'm living off of credit cards.
I'm sure there's a lot of other families
that are doing the same. fixed incomes,
single income household.
This is going to break me.
I won't be able to afford it.
And um we ended up getting kicked out of
uh American Homes for rent because of
the incident with my son. Even though we
had no idea, you know, we couldn't
prevent that.
That was an incident that came from a
whole another town.
Um, yeah, we got kicked out and by the
grace of God, he gave us our own home to
move into,
but now that's about to be taken away
and I ain't got nowhere else to go.
So, I hope that y'all don't have your
minds already set up on approving this
because it's going to put not only me
and my family, but I'm sure a lot of
other families out.
30 seconds remaining. Thank you all for
listening.
Mark Cookston Cooken.
Good evening and thank you uh city
council and everybody that works for the
city. This is I wouldn't want to be in
your chair. This is going to be very
very difficult for for you as as it is
for for all of us.
In 2018, I was
in the hospital for five weeks and
lifellighted down to the University of
Utah. I lost my pancreas and
automatically became diabetic
and automatically became tied to Utah.
We I was lifellighted down from uh Idaho
and uh because of that we have to we
have to live down here in or I should
say we get to live down here in Utah.
We chose Eagle Mountain because my wife
and I grew up in small towns in Idaho
and like the small town values and we
saw that in Eagle Mountain. We moved in,
you know, five years ago this coming
Thanksgiving
and we had just passed 40,000 people
here. Now we're closing in on 80,000
people. Um, we liked the vibe of the
community. Um, I will say that never in
my lifetime did I ever think that I
would ever be purchasing a home for half
a million dollars, but coming from Idaho
and, you know, coming to Utah was an
eyeopening experience.
Uh, we chose Eagle Mountain because it
was affordable.
We were told by the previous mayor and
then Councilman Gray that, oh no, we
won't have to raise taxes because, you
know, we've got large companies that are
going to be uh paying uh a large uh or
footing a large part of the uh of the
taxes down the road. Little did I know
that down the road is 20 years long
after I'll be dead. So that really that
argument was kind of a moot point for
us.
I'm on social security. Last year I got
a raise of $27 a month. My god, I
thought the rainbow had fallen upon my
house.
Then the county of Utah
raised my taxes $250
and that was all gone.
This year we've got this one that is
proposed. It's going to be wiped out.
Whatever increase that I that I get is
going to be wiped out.
What am I supposed to do?
Where am I supposed to go? This was the
most affordable place for us to live.
I'm here health reasons, guys.
Where am I supposed to go? What am I
supposed to do? Tighten my belt. I was
told
your time is up.
You guys tightened your belt.
Tracy Petta.
All righty.
This isn't my first meeting. You all
know we've come to these meetings and
there's been literally nobody here. It's
an absolute ghost town. Okay, you guys
all fit in this city hall perfectly. You
don't need this one time you go to raise
taxes and we get people in here for a
meeting.
You are fine in the building you're in.
You don't need to build the new uh what
do you call it in it's the new
new base camp
on the city page you did back in March
of 25. You [snorts] put up all these
plans of everything you guys want to
build and spend money on. I don't know
where you're getting this money, but it
shouldn't be from taxes because I came
here and I sat right over there in a
meeting and I opposed the new data
center going in the QST. And I was told
by you Melissa personally and Jared both
told me afterward, "Oh, this is such a
great thing. The reason we're passing
this is because our taxes are going to
go down. They're going to be so low with
all the revenue we're going to get from
the data centers coming in that your
taxes are going to go to almost zero."
Explain that to me personally, Melissa,
because I will spend the rest of my time
getting you out of office because you
lied to me. Same for Jared. If if our
taxes don't go down to almost zero, why
are you raising them so high? We don't
need a rec center. You know, the last
thing you need to do is when money is
tight is say, "Oh, I need to add on to
my house because I get a big group of
people at Christmas."
It's not logical. You've got to spend
your money wisely. when everybody here
is tightening their budgets, you guys
are building new Eagle Mountain city
signs because the rocks were
deteriorating.
You know, I left one weekend, came back,
and I noticed you put up uh new street
signs. Uh what was that price? Your new
street signs that you put up were a
total of I mean the city mount eagle
mountain city sign out there at Corey
Bide, that was probably a $200,000
project or more.
Um, you put in a new set of signs that
were on the page. It says that they were
wayfinding sign project uh to have Eagle
Mountain and make it more cohesive with
their signage. And that was $50,000.
If you tighten your budget everywhere
like every single other family has to,
you could make up the money you need for
the police and the fire.
Seconds remaining.
You don't need to take our taxes and
raise them for something that is just
frivolous. We don't need a rec center.
We don't need a new town city hall.
Tighten your budget and figure it out
because I was told that taxes are going
to go down with all the new data
centers. And that's not what you're
doing.
Thank you,
Steve Peretta.
Hi, welcome. U thanks for thanks for
hearing me. Uh
my wife just got done speaking of the
speaking about the data centers. Uh I'm
going to speak about them too. We spoke
about them about a year ago. Uh we took
the math of what the the tax revenue was
going to be. We divided it by the number
of households in Eagle Mountain and we
came up with about about 50 bucks a
month towards each household throughout
the city of Eagle Mountain. So 50 bucks
a month is 600 bucks a year. Now you're
you're proposing a 220% increase that by
your own documentation says around $314
a year increase. So, we have a $900 plus
differentiation in what your word was a
year ago
because well, oh, we we need to we need
to allow the data centers. The data
centers are good because they're going
to bring all this tax revenue in and
it's going to reduce your taxes.
A year later, we're $900 the other
direction. I I'd love to see somebody's
math on that as to how that math got got
screwed up. Um, so unless you guys fix
this, I mean, this was prior to the
mayor race. Um, all of these people are
unh the vast majority of these people, I
won't say all, are pretty unhappy. So
when unhappy people go go to the voting
booths, all of you get to go find new
jobs. Okay.
Um,
if my home budget was short,
the first thing I do as a conservative
is I figure out how to reduce my
spending. I don't just go figure out
where I can get more money. Um, there's
also been talk of no transparency. You
guys are not giving us all of the
information. No, just trust us. But then
your stories are changing, so how can we
trust you?
That doesn't work. Inconsistent
statements. We need to itemize budget.
We need to quit spending money like
drunken sailors on a port call. Okay. Um
running out and and you know buying
signs.
Uh oh. Let's get a rec center. Let's
let's build a new city hall. What's
wrong with this one?
uh
instead of looking at the entire budget
and making educated, informed decisions,
you guys are taking the easy way out.
That's the bottom line. Where's the easy
money we can get? All we have to do is
increase our property taxes by 220%. And
we can cover all these other expenses we
want to do.
You were elected to make hard decisions.
make those hard decisions.
Thank you,
Charlotte Ducos.
Charlotte Ducos, I'm going to uh join
Jeff and Matt um in um making some
comments that are maybe a little bit
different. Um, I've lived here for 26
years and been involved in the city for
the majority of that time, um, if not
all of it. And, uh, over for the last
over a year, I've attended almost all
city council meetings. Missed a couple
for other things. Um and in attending
those meetings, uh there's a lot of um
the questions that are being presented
here tonight that that have been
answered and I want to acknowledge that.
Um the budget is online line item um in
a 200page document. Uh and so um that is
available. All of these projects,
everything that we're talking about
tonight has been talked about in city
meetings. And so I want to thank you for
actually um having those discussions in
public meetings for those that were
there. Um,
Eagle Mountain has run lean since its
beginning. We have employees doing the
job of two to three people, probably
more in some cases. We have offices
renting space all over the city because
they don't fit in this one. We have
projects that we have funded but don't
have personnel to complete and so they
stay undone. We have complaints all over
the city of things that are not
maintained, things that have um been
promised but have not been done. And um
we don't have the personnel to complete
it because we don't have the money to
pay them. And we have waited too long to
address these shortfalls. They should
have been addressed years ago uh in a
graduated manner, a little bit at a
time, but that did not happen. and we
can't keep kicking the can down the
road. At some point, something has to be
done and I applaud you for taking the
time to do that. Now,
that having been said, um I do think the
communication could probably have
improved. I think most of you um agree
with that now as well. Um and I do think
that a more um moderate approach would
be good. Uh it's not too late to do that
and I think a smaller percentage might
be good. I don't think it's going to be
a percentage that most people like. I
still think it needs to be a significant
one, but maybe not 220. We would go from
being um one of the lowest tax rates um
in the area to the third highest. And I
think that maybe something a little more
moderate would be a good way to start.
Um and maybe we decrease that amount a
little bit. remaining.
Um, I also would encourage you to put a
policy in place that I do not believe is
existing right now where we review this
yearly or every other year and do
graduated increases as they are needed.
We need to stop being afraid to uh
balance our budget on a yearly basis so
that these big jumps don't have to
happen. And that is my the conclusion of
my comments. Thank you so much for your
service,
Michael Valentini.
Hello,
my name is Michael Valentini. I moved
out here almost two years ago to the
date. Um, we moved out here because it
uh gave us an opportunity that we didn't
have in Lehi for our children. Uh, one
thing I'd like to say is that uh the
data centers, my question for you is
what tax breaks did the data centers
get? So, I've been a union member of
Local 140 Plumbers and Pipe Fitters here
in Utah for 29 years. I work at the data
centers. I've worked at Facebook and QTS
since 2000. Okay, that's my question. Uh
QTS is has three buildings going on now.
A fourth is being built now. The fifth
is coming. From what I understand,
there'll be six additional buildings at
QTS. Facebook has five buildings now.
the three ECO or the three uh original
buildings to additional buildings that
went in just previously and they are
building two more buildings out there
now. So what tax breaks do they get as
more people come in building these that
brings revenue into the economy?
Am I wrong to say that there's 6,000
four to 6,000 construction workers
between Facebook and QTS building those
facilities? They bring money into this
community every day at the gas stations,
the grocery stores, everything. So that
generates money for this community.
Okay? We do need to have police a police
force out here. The first responders,
those are very important, but we also
need to be able to live. There are a lot
of communities that are being built in
here that have uh what do they call
them? The ADUs, apartments, and the
basement. So that shows that people that
are buying these houses are
supplementing income by having renters
in their basement. Okay. What's the uh
average income of of Eagle Mountain?
78,000. What's the average cost of a
house? What's the average cost of that
house? And then you want to increase our
taxes by 220%.
So, if we haven't had a tax increase on
our property tax in 10 or 15 years, why
wasn't this budgeted in at 5% 2% a year
over the last 15 years? That's kind of
piss poor planning.
It really is. Sorry to say it. So,
30 seconds remaining.
You got it. I work 60, 70 hours a week,
not because I like to, but because I try
to provide for my family, so that we can
have the house we live in, the vehicles
that we drive, and take vacations, put
food on our table. When these property
taxes go up, and they're going to go up
on residents and commercial, commercial
is going to raise their t their cost of
living, their prices at the grocery
stores, at the convenience stores,
everywhere. And it's going to affect
everybody in this in this room, not just
220%.
Your time is up. Thank you.
Ela Maria Perez.
Hi, my name is Ela Maria Perez
and pretty much everything that I was
going to say has been said, so I don't
want to repeat it. The only thing that I
have not heard is that I don't hope but
I pray that you guys really listen to
what is being said.
Each one of you really listen because
people are suffering and you're chocking
us by these big increases in taxes.
I really pray that you will listen to
what has been said this evening.
That's all.
Walter Peterson.
Hi, good evening. I'm Walter Peterson.
I've lived here for about three years.
Uh, and we just were able to buy a home
here in Eagle Mountain. Um, which we're
really excited about. I'm a little less
excited with the 220% increase. Um, and
a lot of my thoughts have been said. Um,
a more moderate view of this or increase
would be appreciated here. I'm also
extraordinarily weary about the school
district coming in next year as a
teacher. Um, that is something that
worries me with that where I probably
won't have a pay increase for those few
years where they're trying to get going.
Um, and so
having maybe a 100%
130, I don't know, a smaller number
increase would be greatly appreciated if
you do have time to make that change.
Uh, I think that you've heard that from
the other people that have spoken this
evening. Um, but we appreciate what you
do and we hope that you listen tonight.
Thank you,
Jacob Moore.
Thank you to the city council and Mayor
Gray. My name is Jacob Moore. I was not
intending to make a comment tonight and
I initially strongly oppose this
increase.
However, I recently received more clear
information to the city's purpose and
why the drastic 221% increase. The state
is planning on passing a law this next
legislative session limiting any city to
a 5% increase. So, Eagle Mountain City
has to do it now or will be restricted
by state policies.
Because Utah is revenue, not rate
driven, the massive growth has not
increased the city's tax revenue.
Because the rate is lowered to account
for the growth, which keeps the revenue
roughly the same. That's something that
I've frequently heard that we've had so
much growth, we should have more money.
But that's apparently not the way it
works here in Utah.
It's important to understand that the
221% increase applies only to the city's
portion of your property tax bill, not
your total property taxes. For the
average homeowner, that translates to
roughly a 12% increase in the overall
property tax, not 221%.
The city wants the property tax
increase, so our full sheriff's contract
is paid for by the property tax has been
said multiple times tonight, not having
to pull those millions from the city's
general fund. I've been told that the
funds freed up, the funds freed up in
the general fund would be used for
infrastructure and other public safety
improvements. If that's true, then the
messaging from the city has not been as
misleading or dishonest as a lot of
people are saying.
I believe it would go a long way if the
city council and mayor would explain as
much as possible exactly what the freed
up general fund money would be used for,
as others have requested.
I do believe it's unfortunate that the
city's hand is being forced by the state
legislature, which wants to step into
city policies and tell cities what they
are and are not allowed to do with their
tax rates.
I'm not opposed anymore, but I believe a
smaller increase, as many others have
said, is a better solution than the
proposed increase.
And um I did want to add that I
encourage Eagle Mountain citizens to ask
the state legislator legislature to
change the property tax to a rate driven
system. So as the population increases,
our revenue does as well. instead of the
current system that is forcing the city
council's hand to increase our taxes to
increase the revenue.
And then I do also believe that it's
um there's been unintentional confusion.
30 seconds remaining
and it's not the same as dison
dishonesty as many are claiming tonight.
And I feel like a lot of emotions are
clouding judgment. Want to thank you for
all you do. I can't imagine being in
your shoes and I'm glad I'm not.
have a great night.
Uh, we do have a form filled out by
Garrett Hodter who does not want to make
a verbal comment but did note down I
want to echo what Charlotte Duko said.
Um, and then our next one is Jason
Rasmmanson.
Uh, good afternoon. Jason Rasmmanson.
I've been a resident here for three
years. First of all, I want to thank all
of you for the efforts that you make and
I want to thank um our public uh first
responders for all the things that they
do to to keep our city safe. Um I think
uh a lot of the frustration that um
we're hearing is essentially what you
did is you held up a marble that said
public safety and you put it under a cup
and then you had three other cups, you
flipped them around, you pulled up the
cups, and what you revealed was a card
that said 210% tax increase. Um, and so
we're a little bit confused how this
public safety marble was replaced with a
a 210% or 220% tax increase. Um, and I
know that a lot of people have already
expressed um that we just need more
transparency about like how the monies
would be spent. We need more
transparency about how money could be
reclaimed. We need more transparency
about how money could be saved, how you
can retrench uh in ways. So, it's it's
essentially just what can you do to kind
of let us know how the money is going to
be spent? Are there other sources of
revenue and how can you retrench in in
places that you can retrench? And I
would add just one one additional item.
Um, I know that a lot of the data
centers that have been built uh in Eagle
Mountain have been built with, you know,
tax breaks of up to 77 million
uh $50 million. Um, and that's a large
percentage more than the $6 million
revenue that that you're trying to get.
And it seems in in some ways like you're
you gave a break to artificial
intelligence at the expense of all the
human intelligences
uh in this room and in our community. So
thank you
Joy Rasmmanson.
So, in 2018, Facebook um got tax breaks
um on their property taxes. That was
pretty hefty. And some of you were
involved in that. It was $150 million in
property tax incentives that they are
not paying for what, 40 years. So,
that's money the city could have been
using all this time that you took away
from us. Um and then 2021
more data centers were given 7 77
million in property tax incentives again
for Meta. QTS is currently building more
data centers that are for Meta and
Google and they have also been given tax
breaks um on sales tax. So the city has
made a choice. Do we tax data centers to
build AI to take our jobs and take our
children's jobs and then tax the
residents or do we not do that? And you
have made those choices. Now, to say
that you're paying the price for
previous politicians, most of you have
been here in city politics for many
years. You have voted. Last year's
budget, you did not increase property
taxes, but you added uh public safety
officers and you bragged about it on
your website. I took the screenshot
tonight. Somehow you managed to do it
before, but now you're saying you can't
anymore. I have done some research and
guess what? When you add data centers to
your city, public infrastructure costs
go up. So, somebody in this in this
town, Alex Washburn, has done a grammar
request and asked you guys for
information about why you're doing this
and where you're spending the money and
what capital projects this is going to
go towards because that's what it's for.
And his request was denied and you made
him ch you're going to charge him a huge
fee he can't afford. and [snorts] then
you met with him and somehow got him to
think it was necessary. But here's the
thing, we have a lot more houses in
Eagle Mountain than we did before. So
even if the amount that you can charge
per house has not increased, the number
of houses has increased. So you still
have more revenue with the increase in
citizens. This is absolutely to fund the
data centers. There's an electrician in
Eagle Mountain that has messaged me. He
works at the data centers. He said that
QTS wants to put 27 data centers in
Eagle Mountain. There's already about
seven approved. And that's he said if he
lived here he would be upset. He said
he's not going to stay because the
energy cost and the water costs are
going to skyrocket. He doesn't
understand why the residents are not
upset. The city has been trying to put
nuclear reactors in the city for the
data centers. All of you in this room
need to know this and wake up. We need
to fight this like boxelder county
because we are already paying the price.
These data centers are getting the break
and we're getting dorkked over.
30 seconds remaining.
Um people can't afford it. There's a
lady I know who messaged me. She is
elderly. Her husband has dementia and
Parkinson's. They are on fixed incomes
and she said, "Our house is paid for,
but we cannot afford this property tax
increase. My husband's going to have to
go into a care center for $5,000 a
month. This is going to bankrupt us."
You need to think about those people and
not do this. This is totally
inappropriate. There needs to be more
time and more public disclosure about
where this money is really going and
what infrastructure you're putting it
towards, what capital projects, and give
listen to the people.
Your time is up. Thank you,
Michael Kerry.
Michael Kerry, I'm going to read this.
Mayor and members of the city council,
thank you for your service and for the
opportunity to speak tonight. I want to
begin by saying that I support public
safety. I believe our deputies and first
responders deserve the resources they
need to protect our growing community.
As Eagle Mountain continues to grow, it
is reasonable to expect that the cost of
providing those services will grow as
well. My concern is not whether we
should invest in public safety. My
concern is the size of the proposed
increase and whether residents have been
given the complete financial picture.
The city's public information states
that every dollar of the proposed
increase will go toward funding the
sheriff's contract and expanding public
safety. At the same time, the city's
public uh published materials also
discuss other financial pressures facing
Eagle Mountain, including rapid
population growth, inflation, increased
road maintenance, parks, infrastructure,
and other essential city services. If
public safety is the immediate use of
these new tax dollars, I understand
that. But if broader budget pressure
pressures are also contributing to the
need for this increase, I believe
residents deserve a transparent
discussion about those challenges as
well. an informed public is better able
to support difficult decisions. I would
also encourage the city council to
consider a phased approach instead of
implementing the full increase in a
single year. A three to fiveyear
graduated plan would still provide
additional funding for public safety
while giving families time to adjust to
higher prop property taxes during a
period when many are already
experiencing rising costs in housing,
insurance, groceries, and utilities. a
three to five um sorry, a phased
approach would also allow the city to
measure results along the way. Before
each phase, the city council could
publicly report measurable outcomes such
as improvements in emergency response
times, changes in deputy workload and
staffing ratios, growth in calls for
service, progress toward clearly defined
public safety goals, whether growth
related revenues or operational
efficiencies have reduced the need for
future tax increases. I would also
respectfully ask the council to explain
why seven additional deputies represent
the appropriate staffing level and what
objective analysis supports that
recommendation. Understanding the data
behind the proposal will help public
confidence. Finally, I encourage the
council to continue exploring every
available option to reduce the burden on
taxpayers, including efficiencies within
city operations, careful prioritization
of spending, and identifying growth
related revenue sources before asking
residents to absorb significant
increases in property taxes. I believe
Eagle Mountain residents are willing to
invest in their community when they
understand the need and have confidence
in the plan. transparent, measurable,
and gradual approach can strengthen that
trust while still meeting city's
responsibilities, keep our community
safe. Thank you for your time and
service, and for your consideration,
Camille Gardner.
I don't see Camille. We'll add her paper
to the record. Um, please remember you
represent those who elected you. We
don't need additional police nor all the
other projects do you think we do? We
want economy at the city. Like Steuart
Adams, we will vote you out if you vote
for this increase. Additionally, we
don't need Ranch's Parkway widened. We
need a right-hand turn.
Um
KB Bergensson.
Good evening, KBB Ferguson. I've lived
here about three years. Before that, I
lived in California and Washington and I
moved here uh to get away from those
places. So, I was glad to be here. But,
uh I am a seven-year Army veteran and I
also retired from law enforcement. I
worked for a sheriff's office, so I have
deep respect and uh grateful for the
services they do provide us. and I'm
grateful, you know, for their service
and what they, you know, do for us. I'm
75 years old and I live with my daughter
and her family. I came here to join with
them so we could be on a budget and uh
survive the economy. I'm on a fixed
budget. I'm retired.
Um, with that in mind, I don't think
that we need a 220% increase in property
tax um, to support law enforcement and
what they're doing.
I emailed all of you uh, you know,
asking you about this and I did receive
one response from Craig and I appreciate
that. I thought it was very insightful.
I quote, he said, "Also, I don't think
we need we need that we'll end up
needing a 220% increase. In the past few
weeks, we've been diving into the
numbers, and I think the city can get by
with a smaller than two than a number
than 220%. I'm not sure what number. It
will still be a large increase, but not
220%.
A few comments I'll give you since I
been on the council for three and a half
years. We anticipate we next year we
anticipate revenue uh that revenue the
data center revenues will take a jump.
we need an increase to help with
additional needs. Said if next year
doesn't bring enough data center
revenue, I'm sure three and four years
um we'll see that money coming in
further. We should have Smith's
development online by then as well. And
I think there's a realistic possibility
to visit that increase.
I think if that's the case, if that's in
mind, we should take a measured approach
to any increase right now. Uh there's
other things that can be done for law
enforcement, too. I know that there's uh
other places I've been, they've had a
citizens patrol where they have seniors
volunteer to take a workload off of
deputies that can be done and maybe that
can be looked into. And there's a lot of
other things that can be done and looked
into to help uh with law enforcement
without, you know, budgeting huge
amounts of money. I'm on a fixed
balanced budget and I think that the
city should also be on a fixed balance
budget. need to get take the funds that
you make and use them wisely and
determine what takes priority and
remaining according to those priorities
and other things should not be done
until the money comes in and it can be
spent accordingly. Thank you very much
Steve Campbell
Mayor Gray Councilman Councilman Wright.
Uh I'm a 20-year resident. Um I'm going
to make this really simple. I think
we've been here long enough and everyone
has said a lot, but I have a question.
The other day I just happened to hear
that the federal government office of
management and budget provides grants to
cities. A grant is free money. I mean,
it's not free. It's our tax dollars to
the federal government. They will
provide grants to cities to upgrade
public safety, police departments, this
type of thing. I wasn't aware of this. I
don't know if you folks are aware or
not. If you're not, it bears looking
into. If you have, great. I don't know
the prop I don't know the process for
applying for a grant. I do know they're
available. My daughter gets them all the
time from the federal government for
disadvantaged children in the school
systems. So, just point of interest.
Anyway, good to see you. Good to see you
all. Thank you very much.
Uh,
Shedric D. Shermont.
Feel free to correct me if I'm not
close. Okay. [clears throat]
Yeah. For the record, Cedric Desermo.
Um, I was going to write this with the
help of AI, but the Wi-Fi wouldn't
connect, and I thought maybe it's a
little too ironic to not just speak from
the heart.
[clears throat]
So, my wife and I moved to Eagle
Mountain a little over three years ago
due to the prospect of affordable
living, safety, wellplanned growth
strategy, and to raise our own family.
Um, I've worked and lived all across
this country. This is the first home
I've ever bought, and I'm proud of it.
Um, as a young family, our budget is
tight, and our options are weighed when
we spend our hard-earned money. We want
to start a family and often deliberate
how. I want to explain what it is you're
doing in economic principles. Plenty of
us have already done that already, and
frankly, you should already know. Taxes
and costs often go up and rarely go
down. I worry that you already know
that, too. The proposed tax increase, or
upon its original inception, does not
even begin to address concerns regarding
the following: future impacts due to the
new school district, and my wife is a
teacher. um current shortfalls in
infrastructure and future growth of
infrastructure needs. The irony and the
truth in transparency is that as
taxpayers, we are seeing a limited view
into the current stewardship of the use
of our current tax revenue. If you are a
poor steward now, you will be a worse
steward with more.
But as a general propolis, we cannot
contend with what we do not know and
what you are failing to accurately
disclose. We as citizens can't keep up
with all of the wavering of priorities
and promises being potentially broken.
We can nonetheless see that you are
obstensively lying.
Are all of the developers, outside
contractors, and multi-billion dollar
industries that operate and profit off
of our city paying their fair share? We
all know the answer. You want to hold
our feet to the fire, but won't stand
against them. Can you account for the
impact of this proposed tax increase in
terms of hungry mouths, missed payments,
and ultimately families no longer being
able to call Eagle Mountain their home?
I don't think you can. You can't share
the budget you have, and you can't show
the forecast for the projects you want.
A lot of people blame young kids for the
hood behavior and damage we see growing
around here. I blame parenting. Can we
account for the lack of parental
guidance as a result of them having to
work harder to pay for this fund?
Are we operating in a banana republic? I
and others helped elect you and those
chairs on the principles of family
values, economic frugality, and fiscal
conservatism. Is this tyranny? We have
enough of that going on in our country
and in our world. This shitty council
should reject those sins. I would
request that you consider a motion to
defer this vote until you can better
communicate your past decisions, future
future intents, and your clearly stated
budget objectives to the community that
deserves to hear a transparent truth of
the situation. Thank you,
Isaac Gardner.
He did provide a written comment in
opposition to the tax increase. We will
add it to the record. Daniel Lamb, Bob
Lob,
feel free to correct me if I'm incorrect
on your name.
For some reason, it's always lamb, it's
lob. Um anyway, thank you for having
this uh opportunity for us to speak. Um
I'm here not because I want to be like a
lot of other people. We have a lot of
other things we want to be doing, but
we're so against this increase. That's
why we're here. We we can't we don't
feel that we can afford this.
Transparency has been discussed. Like I
just agree with all the other comments
have been made. Like that's probably the
best way to sum it up. Um
yeah, right now we're we're not buying
it. We're just we don't buy what you
guys are proposing. We don't agree to
it. That's why I'm here is to you know
make my voice heard. Don't agree to it.
Um
there's it's not the best thing and I
hate to say this like I'm not trying to
be offensive but the citizens like for
myself I will try to make sure you're
not reelected again. I will if this
passes just know it may be your last
term. So anyway, we appreciate
everything else you're doing that's
that's positive and not trying to be
negative here, but we really don't want
this increase. And if it goes through
and you pass it, it's a death nail. I'm
pretty sure about that.
Shauna Clark,
that right?
I wasn't going to get up today because
I'm not very eloquent and there's been a
lot of people that have talked very
well. Um, but the more I sat there, the
more I just wanted to make sure that I'm
just not a person sitting in the
audience observing that, you know, that
how I feel. Um, in September of 1998, my
family moved out here. So, next month
will be 28 years that I've been out
here. We moved out here because we
couldn't afford to live anywhere else.
I raised my kids out here. I became
single out here through divorce and I've
been able to stay here. My what? My
youngest daughter and her four kids age
age um range in age from three to nine
live with me as well. She stays home to
take care of the kids and I make $16 an
hour.
I've heard it said about the impact fees
the um homes being built more money that
way.
I just feel like with the tax breaks
that other big businesses get and then
being scammed out of the money, I feel
like me as a $16 an hour person and
being asked to pay that. It is not my
fault.
Not that it's your fault, not all of it.
Um, but I feel like this is a huge ask
of you guys. Not ask, you're not asking
us, you're just going to do it. Um,
I've had to refinance my house a few
times to get my ex-husband off to get
money out because I couldn't afford
things. And the last time was to um
lower my interest rate. So even though
I've been out here for almost 28 years,
I still owe 25 years on my house. It's
not like I can save many other places.
And so I really wish you would think
about how this affects the small people.
Dax steadily.
All right. I do not see him present. Um
also in opposition to the tax increase.
We'll add his comment to the record.
Colton Hart.
I do not see him uh in opposition to the
tax increase. We'll add his comment to
the record. Sadi Hart.
Um also, um opposition to the tax
increase. We'll get that one added as
well.
Melissa Gordet.
Um, she states, "Please don't raise our
taxes." I do not see her in person.
We'll add her comment to the record.
Kristen Meyer.
Uh, good evening, mayor and city council
members. My name is Kristen Meyer and
I'm a resident in Eagle Mountain. I'm
here to tonight to urge you to vote no
on the proposed tax increase. Let me
state why. Roughly 1.5 million is
allocated to the Utah County Sheriff's
contract. I don't have an issue with
that. Um my issue is with the remaining
amount that has been al it hasn't been
allocated clearly enough. Um we want to
know exactly how it will be spent.
Um,
these are public funds and we need
transparency, not vague line items.
Second, how did we get here? The podcast
indicated that a failed bill from the
previous legislative session may have
capped it might have capped um future
tax increases. Fair enough. But your
response along with other cities seems
to be that we should raise taxes now
before the state can cap us in the
future. And the bill failed. And what is
the response? As a city, you knew we
were growing. You approved the
development. You approved the growth.
And instead of having the common sense
to plan for the roads and the
infrastructure and all the needs that we
require, you failed to act.
Third, we are in an affordability
crisis. It's a crisis fueled in part by
greedy corporations and the politicians
who too often put the powerful interests
ahead of the hardworking Americans.
I propose you lower the tax to cover
only the sheriff's contract. And before
these words fall on deaf ears, think
about the people you represent. Think
about the senior living on a fixed
income. Think about the mother wondering
how she's going to make it to the next
paycheck. Think about the people who
have experienced the embarrassment of
having their credit card declined.
Although we do not have the power to
decide how you vote, we do have the
power to decide who votes in these seats
tomorrow.
And I ask that you earn our trust. Vote
no on this proposal as it stands and we
ask for greater transparency. Thank you,
Cheryl Carr.
Good evening. My name is Cheryl Carr.
Um,
we bought our land in 1998.
We built our home in 2004.
Been here for 22 years. I'm 71 years
old. My husband is 76. Our
property has
more than doubled since we've been here.
Our income has not.
That value is not realized unless we
sell our home.
I want to read um
President Donald Trump
has he may be federal but this is his
view.
He has proposed eliminating local
property taxes for homeowners
aged 65 and older who have fully paid
off their mortgages. He characterized
property taxes as a form of perpetual
rent that prevents seniors on fixed
incomes from truly owning their own
homes.
Relief for fixed incomes. Supporters
state the plan protects older Americans
from raising housing, insurance, and
valuation costs. Aging in place,
advocates argue it helps retirees keep
their lifelong homes instead of being
forced to move. I will tell you, if this
passes, we will have to sell and we will
have to move.
I know there needs to be more money
and the people who are coming to Eagle
Mountain
[sighs]
create more traffic on the roads. We've
all seen that. So, what is the answer?
It's it's a tough one, but I think that
the impact fees need to be raised. I
don't know what they are, but I do know
that this problem is a result of more
people moving here.
And they need to pay for that impact.
And
so that would be my request that you
look at those impact fees and see where
things can be shifted.
30 seconds remaining.
I do thank you for your service and for
your time. Thank you.
Roger Leard.
Sorry, I'm not exactly dressed as nice
as everybody, but my day started at 2:30
this morning and I didn't get off until
4:30 today and I rushed down to be here
for this
220% is rather asinine.
I probably more than anybody in here
support police officers in EMS because I
spent the entirety of my young adulthood
in EMS. I've been shot at. I've been
stabbed. I've been shoulderto-shoulder
with police fighting.
And it's not fun. Well, it was, but um
but probably none of you guys have been
shot at or stabbed or been in those
situations or watched people die or drug
a wounded police officer that was shot
because some gangbanger wanted some
clout while we were on the side of a
road at a call.
I work very hard for my money. We moved
here because it was affordable. It was a
nice community. And it's a little bit a
ways from it all.
You can't tell me. You can't convince me
220%
is reasonable. Some of you are real
estate agents. That is a negative asset
that you're trying to sell people.
And if you're the kind of real estate
agent that sells negative assets to
people, I would probably say you're not
exactly an ethical real estate agent. I
did real estate. One of the many things
I've done besides EMS, paramedic, crane
operator, real estate, and mortgage loan
officer.
the fact that you guys can't articulate
where all that's going other than you're
selling it under the guise of helping
the police officers, which is a good
thing. I don't think anybody's opposed
to giving them help and the EMS any
help. But
those data centers, which I've worked
on, I've been on a crane in there for 16
hours one day.
the F and it's you
the tax breaks you give them could be
paying for all of this and and the the
bull crap part is you guys know it but
you give them all these tax breaks then
all these builders that want to come in
and we're getting more revenue from
taxes on that again you know it I'm not
saying you guys that things weren't
mismanaged in the past but you can fix
it by simply cutting costs and stop
giving all these tax breaks
There's seven more buildings going in
there. I know that because I work there.
Please do better.
Budget
like we all do.
Thank you.
Zeke Zeke Magdalo.
Hi, my name is Zeke Magdalino. I've been
here about seven years. I'm kind of
neutral gentleman right here. Uh between
the data centers and a resident because
I build them and I know what they cost.
I know what they bring in and I have to
be careful what I say. So I have a job
tomorrow. So
but I I'm finding myself not
understanding because I feel it's a duty
to even though I could lose my job if
I'm not careful. I have to say something
for all these people here, including
myself, that might not be able to afford
a home. I was able to, as a single dad,
uh, afford a house on a single income,
raise my children, and I'll be perfectly
honest, I I hated it in the middle of
the desert. I couldn't stand it. But
we've come a long way in six years.
So, I want to be bring some transparency
for the people behind me.
um on the data centers
and by the time QTS is done I can say
QTS we all know it's signs out there
they're predicted that Eagle Mountain
will be the biggest data center campuses
for them in the world not United States
the world
let that sink in
so if we're allowing these data centers
to be built and we get we are getting
them tax breaks which I understand we
want them to come here and build these
data centers but isn't that supposed to
help these people us out in the long run
that's what I thought that's what
they're supposed to do and I know how
many they're planning on building
honestly we shouldn't have to pay taxes
for our lifetime these guys have so much
money I know what they bring in when
they rent these data centers and it's
insane it's insane insane how much money
that that these these people have that
are building these data centers. So, I'm
confused
on why 220%
why are we paying anything? I I maybe I
I got here late, so I'm sorry if this
was talked about earlier, but being that
I'm building them and I'm kind of
neutral, I just don't see and I'm I you
know, obviously I'm a community member
paying my mortgage, that's insane. I
think that comes out to like $300 more,
I think, a month, something like that.
That's crazy. But anyways, just to stick
up for the data centers a little bit,
the ones we're building are closed
systems. They don't use water like the
other ones. Just letting you know. They
do in the beginning, but they're closed.
They're not evaporative. That's
Facebook. I worked on that one, too.
That's all I got to say.
Megan Straighter.
Does it start when I speak? Hi, I um I'm
a delegate and precinct chair in Eagle
Mountain and have interacted with
several of my city council members. Nice
to see you, Brett. Nice to see you,
Melissa. Um I know you too and find you
to be reasonable, logical humans. And
with that said, I do feel like we are
missing a mark here. I do feel that way.
Um especially with the sheriffs. I do
not dislike the sheriffs.
Appreciate you. Um but I do think in the
current state we're in, I mean think I
think it's a good idea to invest with
them in the current state we're in. But
I do feel that we need our own
department.
Um and um with that said, uh
renting is worse than owning and I do
feel like we are making a a bad decision
by renting the sheriffs. I don't think
it's an investment for our city. Aside
from that, I do believe we are missing
the opportunity to negotiate with data
centers. And he pretty much set me up
for success when he was speaking. I have
a unique perspective as I've rented land
from many of the farmers out there by
the data centers. I have watched as
these farmers have been cornered. I've
watched as they have been bullied. I've
watched even their own um cows be
poisoned and we're not I mean there's so
many stories you guys don't know about
and you haven't been out there talking
to the farmers and if you've ignored
them then you would know what's been
going on. Um, one of those guys out
there, he leased his land for $100,000 a
month and then when he's done leasing,
he will be bought out. Um, and then just
one Q QTS manager gets $500,000 for 10
months. We need to stop acting like we
need the data centers and start acting
like they need us as they do. We have
the land and the water to provide space
for them. Data centers are being banned
all over the nation and in the world.
And we know this. It's it's a hot topic
right now. Um they need us, period. And
they have the money to give us the full
$7 million you need for the 220
increase. I guarantee that you can
negotiate this. I have faith in you. I
absolutely believe that you guys could
do this because they need us. Eagle
Mountain's special. We're unique. Um,
and aside from that, I love this city
and I hope we can manage these
situations in a way that allows us uh to
move forward in a small town ideal since
a lot of these people moved here for
that and I did as well. And I absolutely
hate your job. I'm sure it's horrible,
but I really think that we're missing
the mark and I really hope we can do
something better. I really do. [snorts]
Tony Castile.
Tony Castillio. Um, you know, everybody
knows who we are. We own a roofing
company. COVID hit us hard.
I saw prices go up every month. My
material cost every month. 10% here, 10%
there. I'd go to my wife, we got to
raise our prices.
And this is after my suppliers were
chewing me out because they're hearing
from competitors how I was undercutting
them.
And I said, "Is it affecting your bottom
line? I'm still buying from you guys.
The only difference is I'm not getting
rich like those guys are."
This year, I'm out of co we had about a
60% price increase.
60%. Just in one year.
I got smart. Didn't change didn't change
suppliers.
Just negotiated.
This year we had about a 30% price
increase because of the war.
I watch my I'm just to be upfront, guys.
My per bundle price
to operate my company
for one brand is $150 a bundle. That was
after the price increase that I got. And
I went back and I said, "I can't operate
like this."
And
you know, a lot of you guys are my
customers. I had Charlotte asked me, her
daughter ask me, "How the heck are you
$5,000 less than these other companies,
but you're doing more? I want your
business. I know my numbers.
I'll go back to my mathematic suppliers
and renegotiate.
You guys got to renegotiate. I support
the tax increase
220%.
I mean, I'll be I'll be honest with you,
it's it's very shocking.
Um, can you imagine if I raised my
prices 220%.
I mean, Craig, you had a customer beat
me up over the quote I gave him, even a
repair, I had to walk away from it. Had
I done it, it would have opened me into
into a multi-million dollar community.
But my values are a lot worth more than
that.
Oh, elections are coming up again.
At the end of the day, guys, do what's
right.
30 seconds remaining.
A lot of us can't can't afford to eat.
And I was like,
I'm wondering, you know, I can afford,
you know, buy a cow this year if the
rate goes up because that's the first
thing I'm going to be cutting. So,
thanks guys. Appreciate y'all.
Um, I have Melanie Castillo who chooses
not to make a verbal comment and while
um she states, "While I support an
increase and see its need, um she's
interested to hear from each member of
the council the top three capital
projects." um and she's seen the list
and uh wants to know what's important to
the council members. That one. Um and
then we do have we did have a public
comment from Matthew Joseph um who has
that he would like to discuss the budget
and we just want to remind you that this
is for the proposed tax rate only that
the budget public hearing will be on
August 18th. So Matthew Joseph wanted to
clarify that and I don't see him here so
we will add it to the record.
Um, Joanna Brown.
Hi, Joanna Brown. Um, I'm sorry that I'm
dressed this way. I would never approach
in any other circumstance, but um, I
heard a comment that was made and I had
to stop in before I go to my volleyball
game. Um the comment that was made was
um
made that somebody said that they
support the tax increase but maybe to
less than 220%. And then the comment was
made maybe it's something that most pro
most people probably still won't be
happy with. Um and that got me off of
watching it on my phone here in front of
you because that's not the way
government works. Government's for the
people. So the majority of the people
voted you guys into where you are. The
majority of the people are represented
by you. So the majority of the people
should be happy with the decisions that
are made. So um I guess I just wanted to
reiterate that that's a democracy is a
government for the people by the people
and we are in a democratic republic
where we vote for representatives who
represent the majority. So that comment
of maybe the majority will be upset but
that's fine. Do what you want to do. No,
remember that the majority of the people
are why we have this government and why
you're all sitting where you are because
the majority of us voted for you. Um,
and I guess my other really quick
comment before I head out the door was
just thanking Mr. Rasmmanson for
clarifying that again it's been put out
which I felt like it was a little bit
confusing that under that truth and
taxation that yes, the amount per
household stays the same but because
there's more households
there is more money. So, um
I hope that most people don't come from
a house where dinner
was mom coming home with a can of beans
and saying that's all she could afford
and that that can of beans now cost her
$37 instead of $2 because now she was
getting an overdraft fee for it. But I
hope that the city isn't going into
direction because we need whatever these
capital projects are to put its citizens
in that kind of a position. Um because
I'm grateful I'm not in that position
anymore, but I have been and it sounds
like a lot of our citizens also
know what that feels like. Um so I would
just ask you to remember that you
represent the majority. Remember
like try to make the majority happy, I
guess. Thank you for your time.
These public comments are from
participants who showed up today um but
does not they do not want to make a
verbal comment. So I'll just read the
names. Um they are all in opposition to
the tax increase to be clear. Um Trenton
Web,
Derek Rapey,
M. Patrick Mayo,
uh, Brianna Nelson,
Alex Nelson,
Jessica Demers,
David Gordette, and Vienna Portella
Portella.
Um, these are the public comments that
came into in through uh through via
email and I am unsure if they are
intended, so I'll call your name and if
you're here, come on up. Um, Britney
Mitchell,
um, she's in opposition to the tax
increase, so we'll get that in the
record. Uh, Lily Anna Elliot,
also in opposition.
Cammy Wat,
um, also not here. Um, she states, "I'm
uh, all for keeping the city running
safe, um, but why is it 220%." So, she
doesn't say for or against. Jill Jones,
um I do not see her here. Um she uh
wishes to pause the increase of the
property taxes.
Susanna Norris,
um she's vo uh writing to voice the
strong opposition to the 220% increase.
Carly King,
also not here. Um, opposition to the
increase as well.
Brenda Martinez.
Oh, we do have Carly King online. Let me
double check that.
Okay, we do have Carly King online, so
we will come back to her. Brenda
Martinez,
I do see a Brenda online, so that could
be her. Um
and she her statement is uh the point is
lack of transparency. Um so we will get
that added in. Zachary Vance
um he doesn't say for or against either.
And then Martin
in Draboi
I do not see that. And he does not also
say for or against. Okay. So, now we're
going to move to the virtual comment
period. Um, and as a reminder, I will
unmute your mic if you are online and it
will tell you um to unmute it on your
side. Um, I will start the timer once
you start speaking and then once you are
finished, you're welcome to stay online
to watch the meeting um but not required
to as you only be able to speak once. Am
I missing anything else? Okay, we're
just going to go ahead and start at the
beginning. Um, I see AJ online. I do not
see last names on some of them, so
please state your first and last name
when you jump on as well. Okay, we're
going to move over to that.
AJ, you should be able to unmute your
mic.
Looks like he's still muted, so we might
have to come back to him.
Okay, we're gonna uh go past AJ and
we're going to go over to Alex Washburn.
See if I can get this one to work. Here
we go.
Good evening, uh, mayor, council,
members, and fellow residents. My name
is Alex Washburn. Over the past week,
I've spent dozens of hours reading the
city's budgets, attending meetings,
filing grandma requests, and trying to
understand why Eagle Mountain is
proposing what amounts to a 220%
property tax increase. Yesterday, I had
the opportunity to spend about an hour
meeting with Mayor Jared Gray, the city
manager, Council Member Clark, and
members of the finance team. I sincerely
appreciate each of them taking the time
to answer my questions because that
meeting genuinely changed my
understanding of several things. I now
have a much better understanding of how
Utah's truth and tax law has affected
Eagle Mountain over the last 15 years.
As property taxes values increased, the
certified property tax rate decreased
while the cost of providing services,
especially law enforcement, continued to
rise. I now understand why the city has
gradually had to use more and more of
the general fund to cover the increasing
cost of the sheriff's contract, leaving
less capacity for roads, infrastructure,
parks, and other priorities. I believe
that's a real problem, and I believe it
needs to be addressed. However, I still
have two significant concerns. The first
is the policy objective itself. During
yesterday's meeting, it was explained
that this recommendation was built
around fully funding the sheriff's
contract through property taxes. But
when I reviewed the 2010 budget, the
last time there's a tax increase, I
found that property tax revenue was
appro approximately 974,000
while police expenditures were
approximately 2 million. So, unless I'm
misunderstanding those numbers, property
taxes did not fully fund law enforcement
even then. That tells me that fully
funding the sheriff's contract through
property taxes isn't simply restoring
the way things have always been. It's a
policy decision. And I think taxpayers
deserve to understand why that policy
was chosen. Why is it better to have
property taxes fully fund the sheriff's
contract instead of continuing to fund
it through a combination of property
taxes and other general fund revenues as
the city has historically done? My
second concern is how the amount of this
increase was determined. During
yesterday's meeting, I asked what I
thought was a simple question. If this
proposed tax increase were reduced or
didn't pass at all, what projects or
priorities would actually be delayed or
eliminated? The answer was that those
decisions haven't been made yet. I
appreciate the city genuinely wants
public input before making those
decisions, but I respectfully believe
that the analysis should have come
first.
30 seconds remaining.
I wish the city had come to the public
with several funding scenarios. If we
approve the full increase, if we reduce
it by 10% or reduce by 20%. What
projects would have to wait? that would
allow taxpayers to have an informed
discussion about priorities instead of
simply reacting. Based on everything, I
support raising it the 1.5 million to
fund the 2027 sheriff's contract, but I
oppose the increase beyond that unless
the city can clearly explain exactly
what the remaining dollars will fund and
what priorities.
The next one we have online is Amy
Larcher. I'm going to go ahead and allow
you to talk and unmute your mic.
It looks like she left. Uh Ashley
Garside
Lacy, I see Ashley's on there twice. Is
there a chance that the other mic that
she could be using maybe?
Maybe. Yeah, let me try to
You You unmuted me on accident.
Uh, we will move on to Ben Crabtree. One
moment.
Okay. Thank you.
All right, Ben.
Thanks. Sorry, I'm just [clears throat]
driving back. I really appreciate uh
each member of the city council and uh
mayor for hearing our comments. And I
think most of most of what I would have
said has already has already been
stated. Um in in regards to those who
are on fixed incomes who uh don't have
room in the budget for this level of
increase, uh it's just it's way too
much. Um, and I also appreciate I don't
remember her name, but the
uh she she mentioned that there have
been communications that have been sent
out from the city uh about some of these
uh some some of the projects that need
to be done or or are going to be um
done. I would love to see those as well.
I think a lot of us um are feeling that
same feeling [clears throat] that same
way. I I would also follow up with uh
follow up on some of the other comments
that were made about the data centers. I
really I I I can't imagine how companies
like Meta and Google can come out here
and [clears throat] I know they're going
to they're going to they they can they
have enough money to fund wherever they
want to build. And so why would we I
don't know the the nature of the
negotiations, but I also run my own
business. And so I also have six kids.
I'm trying to support six kids. And so
hearing this hearing this increase is
just is just wild. And why are we
passing it on to the uh taxpayers when
we could get some of these companies who
are building infrastructure that's going
to increase our cost of electricity and
increase the cost of water um to to foot
some of these bills. It just seems like
that would be a better approach. Um and
again, just think of think of the number
of people in our community. I would I I
I hope to be more involved in future
city council meetings and uh look up
some of the data behind our community
and and looking at how many people are
really struggling and um from a
financial standpoint and what people are
doing to to try and already make ends
meet. Um what what can we do in other
ways besides raising taxes like this,
especially at such a high rate, uh to
help to help lower their burdens. That's
what I have to say. Thank you.
Okay, we're gonna try Amy Lurcher again.
Give one moment.
Looks like she left again. Um, let's go
down to Brenda.
I don't know your last name, Brenda.
Okay, we'll move on to Brett.
Okay, we'll move on to Bruce.
Bruce, can you hear us?
Uh, Cam Pew.
Hey, you hear me? Okay.
Yep. Go ahead.
Awesome. Yeah. I just going to say
simply I agree with everybody. Um, I
think you represent the people who voted
you in.
I think that the majority has a
consensus that transparency um hasn't
met for an ask this big.
I think a lot of families
open their wallet and
they don't see much.
And I think that you as a council need
to look in your wallets
and simply ask yourself,
who do you represent?
You know, I I came from a big family
and I uh
my parents struggle to put food on the
table
and um
you know, it hurts. I think every person
who grew up seeing their parents
struggle to put just a meal on the table
to feed their kids. And um
for a city as big as Eagle Mountain,
I'll be honest with you,
it's not just not right,
it's deceptive. And it's kind of evil to
think that you as a council are going to
ask each citizen to open their pallets,
their their pockets, their wallets that
might be empty and say, "You know what?
We haven't been transparent with you,
but we're going to ask a huge, huge
favor. Give me money that you don't
have.
That's all I have to say.
Thanks, Kim. Uh, we're going to move on
to Carly King.
All right, I think I'm unmuted. Um,
yep, we can hear you. Go ahead.
My name's My name is Karly Kane. I have
lived in Eagle Mountain for about 11
years. And initially, I wasn't going to
share very much about myself. I don't
like speaking. But hearing that the
council members have
pretty much already made up their minds,
stating that their hands were being
forced. I feel like it's important for
you guys to all understand the weight
that you are putting on the shoulders of
your citizens. Um, so just a little bit
about my family. I'm the mom of a
2-year-old. My husband and I both work
full-time. I have to manage working
full-time while also being home with my
daughter
um and trying to be a present parent to
her while keeping my job. Uh this is my
reality because I can't we can't afford
to lose one of our incomes. We already
struggle as it is. We have medical debt,
bills, groceries, gas, diapers, as does
everyone else. And sometimes we have to
choose between
any one of those items. Which one are we
going to pay this month?
Um so
I am against this 220% tax increase.
This is going to devastate many families
in Eagle Mountain.
Single family incomes will become
non-existent
and this is going to force many mothers
that are able to currently stay home
with their kids back into the workforce.
Moms deserve better and so do those
kids.
Um voting for this is a vote. Um,
sorry. The city is going to um make a
decision without being transparent.
And the suggestion of a 220% increase is
pretty egregious.
We haven't been presented with data.
We've just been told it's going to
public safety. And like many other
people have echoed, nobody's against
public safety, but you aren't being
truthful.
Everyone's already living paycheck to
paycheck. So, what you're asking is for
people to take time away from their
families, to work more hours, and to cut
up back on necessities,
um, just to be able to afford this tax
increase. You should all be ashamed.
Whoever votes for this,
you are the ones that have to go home
and look.
30 seconds remaining.
You're stealing from the pockets of the
citizens of the city.
Eagle Mountain needs to manage our top
tax dollars better. We need to hold the
city employees to a higher standard.
Hold them accountable for fraud, waste,
and abuse.
In addition, stop giving data center
centers astronomical tax breaks.
Thank you.
Uh, next one we have is Chris. I don't
have a last name on this. We were asked
to unmute.
Okay, moving on. Um, the next one we
have is just citizen. I'm not sure if
you would like to make a public comment.
Okay, the next one we have is Courtney.
All right. Uh, the next one we have the
title is Elder and Sister Squire.
mute your mic if you'd like to give a
public comment at this time.
Okay, the next one we have is embert.
Um, we have we have a couple more, so
why don't we do this? Um, if you would
like to give a public comment and you're
currently on our Zoom portal, will you
please raise your hand?
All right. Oops. There we go. We're
going to start with Steve Muggles.
Can you hear me?
Yes. There you go. Yep.
Okay. Uh, like everyone here, I want my
community to be safe. I support our
deputies and I support giving law
enforcement the resources that they need
to protect the citizens. This isn't
about public safety. Um this isn't
whether or not public safety is
important because it is. But placing
this tax burden solely on the residents
is egregious. Eagle Mountain residents
are already carrying heavier financial
burdens than they were just a few years
ago. A Forb survey finds that 78% of
Americans consider themselves living
paycheck to paycheck. Mortgage payments
have increased. Property insurance has
gone up. Groceries cost more. Utilities
cost more. Nearly every household
expense has risen. People must make
difficult choices every month. And now
the city is asking them to shoulder one
of the largest property tax increases in
its history. At the same time, Eagle
Mountain has welcomed some of the
largest and wealthiest companies in the
world to b to build multi-million dollar
data centers in our community. To
attract these projects, the city
approved redevelopment agreements that
reimburse a substantial portion of the
new property tax revenue those
developments re generate. Homeowners
should not become the default solution
every time the city needs more revenue
while generous incentive agreements
remain in place for billiondoll
companies. How much tax revenue has been
reimbured to these major data center
developments?
This money is going straight to the
pockets of those who don't even know
Eagle Mountain exists and do not support
the community that they use. This isn't
about opposing growth or law
enforcement. This is about fairness,
accountability, and transparency. Thank
you.
Thanks, Steve. We'll move on to Joel
Anderson online.
Yeah. Um, yeah. Thanks. Thanks for
taking your time to listen to us. Um, a
lot of what I was going to say has
already been said. Uh, so let me just
maybe pitch uh one possible alternative
to the uh 220% increase. Um, doing a
little bit of research. Um, looking back
at 2016,
um, we were paying about uh $6753
per capita for public safety. in 2026
estimated to be about $6316
per capita uh adjusted for in or
adjusted to 200 or 2016.
So um we're spending roughly 6.9% uh
less than than what we should be if we
were to be on par with 2016. So, if we
were to do something like uh maybe um
add uh three new sheriffs rather than
seven, uh that would get us actually a
little bit over that uh being on par
with 2016. And then if we were to to
take that uh $5.3 million
that is currently being being pulled
from other
um budgets to help uh pay for the, you
know, current sheriff contract. If we
were to cut that in half
um and leave half of it to pay for
um sheriffs and public safety and then
put the other roughly 2.7 million uh
back toward the original I guess back
toward other projects,
um that would um leave the new property
tax. Uh
let's see, excuse me. Um anyway, that
would that would result in about an 8%
property tax increase that would be
required to to get us into that that
range. Um
anyway, maybe something like that might
be an alternative that uh it it would uh
u reduce the t the tax change from 220%
to 8%. It would, uh, put $2.7 million
back into other projects and it would
increase the sheriff's capacity by three
sheriffs. And so, um, anyway, just just
a thought, something along those lines
possibly could, uh, be a more tempered
approach to to what's needed here. Um,
30 seconds remaining.
Let's see. I did Yeah. Also, well, yeah,
that's all I have to say. I think
everything else has been said. I don't
want to beat a dead horse. Thank you.
Thanks, Joel. Uh, the next one we have
is Joe. I do not have a last name on
here, so so please ensure that you give
us your last name for the record.
Yes, my name is Joe Richmond. Um, thank
you for the time. Um, so it's
interesting going towards the end of
this comment time, uh, there have been a
lot of common themes that have come up.
Lack of transparency, not knowing where
the money's going. We're asking to more
money uh more in taxes to cover things.
And maybe
uh you know, the city council being in
leadership is not easy. I understand
that. I've been in leadership my entire
career and I understand that you see
things and have context um that the
citizens probably don't have and and
that's why you're elected. But part of
your job as being elected is to
communicate well, to be transparent, to
simplify and make it easy for citizens
who you how many people have come up who
have sacrificed to be here to to voice
their comment and their opposition to
this as I am. And we don't have time in
our daily lives to to research this and
to become experts. And so if this many
people are coming to the table and are
opposed to this because we don't
understand it and it's not clear where
the money's going, then you have failed
at your job at leadership. It is your
job to help us understand it. It's your
job to we may not like it, but if we can
understand it, I think we have a better
chance of supporting something. We have
to do that all the time as adults, as as
leaders, right? So that is what I ask.
and expect from leadership and I think
everybody uh that's that that's present
in the room and that's online that's
listening and those that haven't haven't
been able to join to voice their opinion
I've talked to so many people who can't
even join because they're busy running
businesses they're busy with life and
they can vote their uh voice their
opinion here so my I I want to voice my
opposition to this not because it's a
big increase maybe it's needed but you
have not done your job to let us to to
simplify to help us to understand what's
happening. I mean the and especially
with the data centers help us to
understand how there is such a how we
are giving such tax breaks to these
these large corporations with deep
pockets and yet families um and
households that don't have deep pockets.
We can't just raise uh funds for 220%
for to to to buy a new car or whatever.
30 seconds remaining.
So, I'm asking that uh please take a
step back, pause, and do a better job of
communicating and helping us understand
what it is you're trying to accomplish.
Trust your citizens to understand that
what you're seeing and explain it to us
in a simple way so that we can maybe get
behind. Maybe we don't we don't need the
220%, maybe we need 150% or whatever it
is, but help us understand it. Thank you
for your time.
Uh the last one we have online is
Zachary Vance.
Hello. I feel like uh Joe led right into
my points. Basically, as a democracy, as
a experiment in self-governance, a lot
of this comes down to adequate
representation. And I don't even know
where the citizenry lands on how many
support it, how many reject it. I get
the feeling after tonight that if you
took this to some kind of ballot
initiative somehow, we would likely be
rejecting this. And honestly, the bottom
line is nobody cares what you think as
the city council. As the city council,
you were elected to represent us. So I
just want to have more transparency on
how you're adequately representing the
will of the people. That's what you were
elected to do. You need to represent the
will of the people. And if the people
are against you and you see a better
reason, like Joe just said, explain
yourself. With clear communication, we
could be on board. We might support you,
but I don't even know if you're
listening. I don't know if you've done
anything to listen to your constituents
and adequately represent them. That's
the point of this democracy. That's the
point of your job. You need to represent
your people. It does not matter what you
think. It is about the people you
represent. And that is my only point.
Thank you, Zachary. Um, I want to
reiterate anybody online who would like
to participate, will you please raise
your hand at this time?
Okay, we're going to go ahead and move
over to the email submission. Oh, we
have Joe already spoke.
Yes, Joe Richmond already spoke.
So, we will move over to the email
portion. We got a couple emails through
um our to the recorder. We have one from
David Salazar. Thank you, mayor, council
members, for working so hard to ensure
the city can continue providing strong
public safety services and funding the
critical projects for our community
needs. My father taught me that true
character is revealed when we are faced
with advers. I appreciate each of you
being willing to stand in the face of
criticism and confrontation and still
make the decisions you believe are
right, not for yourselves, but for for
political gain, but for the long-term
betterment of our city. Um, so he says,
"Thank you for your service, courage,
and your commitment to the future of
Eagle Mountain City." Um, the other
public comment that we got through email
is from Gary Fuches. Um, he did email it
to the council on August 3rd. Um, it's a
lengthy email, so we'll make sure it's
part of the record, but it um, he says
he's unable to attend. that he doesn't
want to pay higher taxes, but
understands the 22% increase gets people
attention and continues to say, "My my
hope is that the investment is followed
by regular incremental planning so Eagle
Mountain never again faces the need for
an increase of this magnitude."
And then the last email we got was from
Steve Profett. It was also sent to the
council uh looks like on August 6th this
morning. Um, thank you for your
dedication to the future of the city. I
understand that proposing a tax increase
is a difficult decision. Um, and he
talks about how the proposal will
directly affect his family. He asks that
you vote no to the proposed increase and
revise the budget with outcomesbased
plan that lessens the financial impact
on the residents.
Um, mayor, that is all of the public
comments that I have received at this
time. I will move it to you at this
time.
Lacy, I will I'm going to forward you
one that just came in at 803 to the
council.
You send it to recorder at Eagle
Mountain, please. Stephanie will get
that printed.
Okay. While he's doing that, can you
hear me? Okay.
Yes, we can hear you. Mayor,
I just wanted to
Mayor. Mayor, hold on.
Uh, yeah. Remind me of her name, please.
No, that's not appropriate.
All right, we received it. Uh, it was it
was a packet of opposition to the tax
increase and it's read, "No other city
in Utah has ever passed a 22% tax
increase." 220% tax increase.
Okay, we'll get that one printed.
Um, okay. So, this is the email that was
just received to our office. um from
Ethan Neil, who is a husband, father of
two, and a resident of Eagle Mountain.
If the city council chooses to approve
the proposal, which would increase my
property taxes by approximately 220%
and place an even greater burden on my
families already struggling in my
community. I want I will make it my
mission to ensure residents are aware of
how each council member voted. I urge
you to consider the financial impact of
this proposal that will have on the
families you were elected to represent.
So, we'll make sure to get that printed
for the packet as well.
Now I think we have them all. Mayor.
Okay. I just wanted to give uh one last
chance. Is there anyone in person that
did not get a chance to speak that would
like to please make it known?
Anybody?
I see nobody.
Thank you.
Hold on. Hold on. Mayor, we have one
raised hand. Hold, please.
Okay. Please state your name for the
record and fill out a sheet if you
would. You can return it to the recorder
afterwards.
Of course, we'll do. [clears throat]
So, my name is Chris Baldrin
and uh I didn't want to talk, but I kept
thinking all night, what would Rich
would do? And he would make his voice
known. So, I want to applaud you for
your example of fearless being able to
can say what you want. I listened to the
Pitchbook podcast
and I was appalled at a comment that was
made about we're doing this tax increase
because the state
is going to could potentially cap the
city's ability to increase it. And to
me, the fact that that's admitted kind
of shocked me. It made me think of
Tiffany Walden and the comments she's
made about malfcence.
I just don't think that's ethical to
increase at such a high rate because the
state might stop our ability to do it.
It completely
exemplifies why the state would have to
have that bill even on the table. So
that was it.
Okay, one more time. Is there anyone
else in person that would like to make a
comment at this time?
There's one in the back. I can see.
Yeah, same instructions. If you'll get a
paper to Lacy when you're done and state
name for the record.
Uh my name is Eric Nelson. I as well
didn't want to speak, but um 220% is
above egregious. It's this only the iron
horse for the Trojan horse. It's just
the start. What 220 220 is this year,
what's it going to bring to us in the
future. Um, there's claims for a new
city hall, a rec center.
I agree that if this goes through,
you guys aren't going to be elected and
you won't be using that city hall.
the financial burdens that are being put
on the families for
this kind of increase. They can barely
afford groceries, their bills, just
surviving, barely keeping their heads
above water, and you want to provide
them with a community center that they
can't afford to even use.
It's just
so far out there. I moved to Eagle
Mountain a year ago.
Moved to Eagle Mountain a year ago
because this is the only place I could
afford. And now these kinds of increases
are happening.
It's going to very quickly make this a
place that's not affordable to live. I
left Salt Lake County to live somewhere
that I could afford.
This is going to turn into Salt Lake
County if you approve this.
There will be even more problems in this
community with a 220% increase. Support
our law enforcement 100%. But 220%
doesn't need to support our law
enforcement. A much smaller number can
support our law enforcement. That's all
I got.
Okay, I'm going to stay uh in person.
Was there anyone else that feels like
they did not get an opportunity to
address the council?
I don't see anyone. Lacy, uh, have we
received any last?
We got one more. Yep.
Okay.
Hello. My name is Alisa Harless and um
I've come to city councils a little bit
and um I'm newer to Eagle Mountain. I
work in a local dental office here and I
know that when I'm presenting treatment
plans to families, a lot of them
struggle to provide proper dental care
for their children, for their families
because they can't afford it. I know
that we came and met with the city of
commerce and I know that um you guys try
and help small businesses,
but your choice of doing this is going
to be detrimental to those small
companies that are trying to thrive that
move to Eagle Mountain for a purpose
because they can't afford Salt Lake
County. They can't afford the east side.
They move out here. They're families
that both parents work and they live on
they live on low incomes and they
already can't afford their medical bills
and their dental bills and you know they
asked to make payments on things and and
they're really struggling and it's it's
real out there and I don't know if you
guys can even relate to that. I don't
know your personal situations. Um but
what's going on I I feel like and I feel
like a lot of people feel like this too
that there's been a lot of mismanagement
of money. And I don't know if you guys
know history, but it sounds like a lot
of the French Revolutionary where King
Louie was overspending and keeping it
secret and not being co uh transparent
with his people until they realized what
was going on and look what happened to
them. It's getting to the point where
you guys are responsible for our money
and using it wisely. It's not your money
to spend. It's our money and you need to
treat it and respect it and have
integrity and have a voice and know how
to say no and stand up to these big
corporate companies. But to me, and I
feel like a lot of people feel like that
too is there's been really a lot of poor
decisions made in the past government of
the city. And we know we know it. We
know it and we we we recognize it and
we've had enough of it and we're saying
no. So think about history.
think how, you know, government has
changed because of poor decisions with
spending money and being bankrupt and
not telling the people and it's going to
come out. So for me, I feel like that's
why you have to increase taxes so much
is because you're we we could be
bankrupt. We we don't even know and you
have to keep increasing taxes to make up
for poor excuses and poor decisions that
you guys made in the past. And I know
that some of you are new to 30 seconds,
but there's people that have been on the
board for a long time that were part of
those poor decisions. And it's
unfortunate that they still get voted
in. I don't know why. Um, but something
has to change. So,
okay. Thank you, Lacy. I did see a
couple online. I know there's a Joe and
also I just lost the other one. Can we
go to those two real quick?
Yep. Uh, Tim Blair.
Yes. Uh
I uh am calling remotely now, but I just
uh uh couldn't let this pass without
getting my two cents in. I've lived in
Eagle Mountain now about four years.
Last year, my taxes went up about $800 a
year. That's about $70 a month uh for
evaluation and one thing and another.
And you know, that doesn't sound like a
lot, but it is to me a lot. Uh, and I've
lived all over the United States pretty
much. And, uh, the reason the poorest
places I ever lived in were the ones
that had the highest taxes. And, uh, you
know, out here in this community, we've
got a lot of things going for us. And I
just uh I don't know that I could afford
to to keep uh you know getting that kind
of tax increase every year. So uh you
know I'm I'm totally set against uh this
uh this 220 something% uh increase and
uh just wanted to say that I think it's
a losing proposition so for a lot of us.
So, uh, that's all I've got. Thank you.
Okay. I think this is a different Joe.
We could hear from one Joe. So, would
you check and see if this if Joe has
spoke? Maybe state the last name.
Yep. He's the same one that had spoke
already. Looks like reckon he's a
picture.
Okay.
Um, was there before I go on, I just
wanted to double check. I'm running two
devices here. Sorry, I'm a little slow.
Uh, was there anyone else online who did
not get the opportunity to speak?
If they would raise their hand, please.
Oh, actually,
I'm trying to run the two devices and I
believe on Joe's device, his wife wanted
to speak. Roxan, is that correct? Can we
ask if Roxan wanted to speak?
Gotcha.
Okay. Yeah, we'll get him unmuted.
Yeah, my name is Roxan Richmond.
Go ahead, Roxan. We'll get you going.
Okay. Thank you for
Thank you for um listening to me. Um my
family and I have lived in Eagle Mount
for seven years. We really love the
community here. I really believe that
the city council members and the mayor
are good people. Um Jared called me
personally the other day to help me
understand why the city um needs more
revenues. Um and that makes some sense.
However, I took the time to compare this
proposed tax rate of 0.0071
to other cities in Utah County. And what
I found is that that rate is extremely
high even in comparison to cities like
Oram, Lynen, Highland, Alpine, and
Saratoga Springs.
Um, I wanted to figure out if this
protos tax rate was sensible in
comparison to other cities which have
happen to have far more services. Um,
although they're not, some of them
aren't going through as much rapid
development as Eagle Mountain.
But what I've concluded is that it is an
extremely high rate and that the
citizens should not be asked to foot
this bill. Um, I support um improved law
enforcement, but I would ask the city
council to go back to the drawing board
and re-evaluate
um what's needed, prioritize and
renegotiate with the data centers and
try to bring in revenues elsewhere
because this burden would be far too
much and asking far too much of
taxpayers. Thank you.
Okay, if there was anyone else online,
if you'd please raise your hand if you
have not spoke. Uh, one final chance
there. Also, I wanted to ask Lacy, uh,
have there been maybe I think
Stephanie's tracking. Is there anyone
that has emailed in uh, in the last few
minutes that we did not get to?
We will double check.
No, no more emails.
Okay. And I don't see any hands raised
on the uh computer. Uh last call for
those in person who have not had a
chance to speak. Is there anyone there
that feels like they would like to
speak?
I don't see anyone standing.
Last call for anyone online, emails. I
want to make sure everybody feels like
they've been heard and had a chance. Are
we good, Lacy? Uh, we have Tyler Duclo
online that just raised his hand.
Okay,
we'll get him unmuted.
Hi [clears throat] everyone. My name is
Tyler Dlo. I've lived in Eagle Mountain
for over seven years and I lived in Lehi
where Eagle Mountain was a part of it.
Um, my whole family lives out here and
for a tax increase, a property tax
increase of 220% is I'm opposed of it.
I'm all for supporting our police or our
sheriff's department and public safety,
but I am like most that I've heard
tonight think that we got to go back and
find it elsewhere.
Taxes are killing us already. You know,
I I can barely afford groceries, medical
supplies. I'm a type 1 diabetic and I'm
having to go without,
you know, and
talking with family, friends, neighbors,
you know, majority of my circle are all
for uh supporting
our sheriff's department, public safety,
but if you look at what the city's done,
look at our parks, look at our uh p uh
walking paths, even behind my house,
which is a new build,
For the most part, it's all gone to
crap. It looks unpresentable,
ugly on the eyes, and I don't think that
a 220% increase is going to help with
that because the the problems more
within of like looking
of what we need to do to improve.
Uh there's countless times I see Eagle
Mountain City trucks just parked not
doing anything with employees just
sitting there.
And I don't think that's right. If you
have employees that are overworked, I
understand. But for someone to be
overworked but yet sitting in a parking
lot not doing anything, that's not being
overworked, that's being lazy. And they
got to be held accountable.
But I just wanted to add my two cents to
this. And I don't think that this is
going to help us. I think it's going to
hurt us as a community where we grow
further apart. Thank you.
[snorts]
Okay. I don't see any other hands
raised. I don't see anyone in person and
no emails. Is that correct?
Correct.
All right.
Oh, wait. We have one more. One more in
person, right?
Yes.
Oh, yes.
Okay.
Friends, colleagues, good to see you
guys. Um, yeah, I just quickly will say,
um, it's hard to squeeze money from
people have no money, but we do have
companies of global wealth income like
Facebook and Google. So, it's better to
try to get some strategy plans to see
what they can do because they could
easily cover whatever you guys need
versus squeezing these people out. So,
that's just a good strategy. You could
talk about how to get a plan to see all
these new companies coming, all these
new companies coming in, how to
structure that deal better. Kind of like
the citizens in Alaska from the golden
oil, the citizens actually get money
back. Um, and so I do believe in the
natural growth to kind of let that
natural income come as, you know, people
are moving in every week into this town.
So just just strategies like that. So
you guys are doing great. We'll talk.
Thanks.
Can you state your name for the record,
please?
Yeah, for the record, James Russen.
Thank you.
Okay, I don't see anyone else still. And
again, I I know we want to make sure
everybody's had a chance to speak. So,
is that everyone?
We did receive one email. I don't
recognize the name Lee Kim. Um that they
want to make known that I'm against the
increase. No transparency is being had.
Okay. All of the emails, I don't see any
hands raised or anyone coming forward at
this time.
Last chance. Okay. I don't see anybody.
So, at 9:00 p.m. August 6, we'll close
this public hearing. Um, at this time,
I'd like to read our proposed property
tax impact schedule. Uh, this is just
the proposed schedule. It's uh what's
been in front of people. I've read it in
almost every single meeting for uh quite
some time now. So uh just for some
understanding
the proposed property tax impact
schedule is Eagle Mountain City will
consider an increase to its property tax
rate to generate an additional
6,742,938.
The following information is intended to
provide a decision the decision makers
and the public with an explanation of
how cities op how the city operations
would be affected if the proposed
property tax increase is adopted.
Property tax rate with no increase is
0.0000530.
Property tax revenue with no increase
3,55,21.
Proposed revenue with tax change
9,798,139.
Increase revenue to Eagle Mountain City
6,742,938.
Eagle Mountain City's 2000 2026 proposed
property tax rate 0.00170.
Estimated increase to Eagle Mountain
City's property tax revenue 220. 88%
estimated increase to the average
primary resident market value 488,000
estimated tax increase $314.3
total city tax 5 or sorry $45628
estimated increase to average businesses
market value 2,554,33
estimated Tax increase $2,987.84.
Total city tax $4,34162.
The affected budget sheriff's contract.
The proposed budget is 9,798,139.
The budget with no tax change is
8,290,000.
and the budget change would be1,57,939.
If a new property tax increase is
approved, the revenue will be used to
fund essential public safety operations
at the level approved by the city
council. These funds will help support
core functions of the Utah County
Sheriff's Office Eagle Mountain
Division, including the addition of
deputies to meet the growth of the city.
That is the proposed property tax impact
schedule.
Thank you for uh listening to that. I
appreciate everybody that's made their
comments. I think as is our custom. Uh I
want to bring this back to the council
and allow each of you to uh address
maybe some of the notes you've made
before we start our deliberation. I
would however ask and and uh maybe
counsel with my fellow council members
in the in the same respect of the public
that they've had only three minutes to
speak that uh at this time you each
limit your comments to maybe three
minutes. and uh try to address some of
the questions or or any of the the ideas
that you have and then we will have also
additional time to uh deliberate on on
the item in front of us. But I just
wanted to give everybody a chance to uh
to speak concerning the public hearing
and uh any council
uh questions or concerns. So uh I think
I'm going to start on my right, which is
Zack. Council member Huish, if you want
to address the public,
do you have a timer for me?
Okay.
Would you like a timer? I can do a
timer.
I would like a timer, please. I've got
more than three minutes.
Okay. Go ahead.
But I'll keep this to this part to three
minutes.
First, I want to say I'm sorry that that
you're here. I am grateful that you all
showed up. For those that have come, the
gentleman that was up at 2:30 this
morning and got off work at 4:30 to be
here,
um I'm sorry that that you're here.
Quite frankly, I don't want to be here.
I don't want to be in this chair. Um, I
threw my hat in the ring for Mayor
Gray's city council seat because we have
had compounded serial missteps in our
city for several years. I've lived here
over 20 years and quite frankly, we we
need to step it up as leaders in the
city. Um, I'm hearing four themes. One
is affordability, which maybe I'll I'll
I'll address a little bit later. uh
transparency. We failed you. We
absolutely failed you. I took it into my
own hands to to do a podcast. It's hard
to communicate effectively to a city of
80,000 people. The citizens page I just
didn't feel like was a good way to
communicate in in sound bites. U there's
been a lot of mis miscommunication. It's
been told that this was passed
unanimously. It was not passed
unanimously
even though that's out on the citizens
page. So, I tried to put a podcast out
at my own expense to try to build
context. I've put my phone number out
there. Um, I've I've had five or six
residents reach out to me personally.
I've had 10 to 15 emails and I'm just
grateful that we are here tonight. Even
though none of us wanted to be here, I'm
grateful that we are here. This process
allows everyone to share their thoughts,
their feelings and it's scary to come up
to the pulpit in front of the DAS. I've
I've stood there myself.
Uh the second thing is the policy which
we're going to come back to. I want to
uh spend more time there. And then third
uh the data centers that has been one of
those compounding things. Um the state
has floated or policy makers at the
state have floated the idea of
socializing the ME tax that we've all
talked about that we've all been
counting on and and told that we're
going to have this tax. there is a
policy uh that was not passed, was
defeated that would essentially take the
municipal energy tax and socialize it to
other cities. In my mind, that's wrong.
We've been waiting. We've been, you
know, promised that uh that tax would
come back to our city. So, there are
very active real um threats around
revenue to our city and we're trying to
manage that as best we can along with
the with the caps.
I don't know that this is the right
rate. Um I didn't vote for this in
30 seconds remaining
and I'm I'm hoping to have a lively
discussion with everyone tonight. Thank
you for being here.
Council member Wood,
go ahead. Start my timer.
Thank you for speaking. I think
everybody here that knows me or that has
listened to me knows that we're not
afraid to hear your words. We want to
hear everything that you feel.
And sometimes we get stuff wrong. I
mean, that's just the reality. I'll tell
you the number one highlighted thing. I
share your frustration. I think we did a
horrible job of communication.
I I think that's been highlighted by
every person here. And so for that, I
want to apologize. And I don't remember
who the gentleman was that said it was
our responsibility to communicate that.
I think it was one of the people online.
I will own that. I should have
communicated.
To Zach's point, it is difficult. find a
method that we can reach to people and
get truthful information out. There is
so much disinformation that is out
there. It's in the media, the social
media outlet. Go to g to the Eagle
Mountain citizens page. There's not
there's very little truth in anything
that's being said in there. And I I
debated how do I get the information to
people? How do I tell them why I'm
interested in voting uh for a tax
increase of any size?
Um we're going to have a to about that
and I want to address that at that
point. But I agree that there are the
four things that we need to talk about.
What is real with data center money?
What are the challenges that we're
facing from the state uh in their
efforts to try to raise additional funds
at our expense? What are some of the
laws that uh have been floated that were
defeated that we know are coming back?
Um and then I think I definitely want to
talk about the way that we communicate
with you. I've been very frustrated with
that long before I was ever on this
council and I don't think it's improved
all that much. Frankly, I [snorts] think
that uh the information that you
expected, I would expect if I was in
your seat and we didn't provide that
information to you. Uh and I will
address that in that latter part. Thank
you for taking the time. It's a great
sacrifice for you to be here. Um that's
not lost on me. I appreciate you being
here so we can actually have a dialogue
and explain to you some of the things
that we're thinking about and where I'm
going to land is not predetermined. Uh I
will tell you I'm not sure where I'm
going to be at the end of this. Um we
did have to make a decision to be able
to have this discussion and so we
started with what are our actual needs
and I want I'd like an opportunity to be
able to explain that to you.
Thank you council member Whiting.
Thank you so much for being here. We
really really appreciate you. We
appreciate all the comments. We
appreciate you that you've stayed here
already for over three hours and and we
hope you can stay for the duration of
the commentary here. There's been a lot
of questions asked. There's a lot of
information that's going to come back
your direction. Uh skepticism of
government is a highly healthy thing and
I and I encourage it. And I applaud it
and I hope the Eagle Mountain city uh
the citizens here will ever remain
skeptical of government whether it's
local or state or federal. We need to do
that. We've had so much experience in
the past where where there has been
fraud and abuse at the levels of
government. We've experienced that even
recently in the last couple weeks for
those paying attention
to to set to hearings at in our in
Washington DC. We have learned that the
federal government was deceitful on
numerous levels and numerous occasions
with how it handled the the COVID
situation. We are learning that Dr.
Fouchy in his private diary was saying
one thing and publicly saying something
completely different that affected
public policy in a significant way. The
social distancing was a lie. There is no
science behind it. Dr. Fouchy admits
that. That's what shut down our
businesses. That's what shut down our
schools. That's what shut down our
churches. And that is what led to
massive inflation.
That's what led to significant costs we
are now experiencing. But I only bring
that up because skepticis skepticism is
healthy. You need to come before us and
say you guys need to document this that
and the other. You have the right to
know. You need to make sure that we're
not doing the same thing that other
government leaders have done. So I
applaud that you're here. The the the
only thing that's sad about it is we
only have a few of you here. There are
so many online that will get their
information from social media where
they're only half-truths or people think
they have the truth and lead a whole
garrison of people the wrong direction.
So I hope they'll stay so we can have a
dialogue that that can that that can be
healthy. We can transmit information as
to why would we why would we consider an
increase? Why would we do something that
would be unpopular? Why would we want to
do that? it would be easy for for for
any of us to be the the single champion
and have a whole people people rally
behind us. Why would we consider the tax
increase? So, I hope you'll stay as we
can have additional discussion and I
really appreciate again that you're
here.
Okay. Thank you, Council Member Ike. Go
ahead.
Thank you, Mayor.
Been good to hear from you. Um,
somebody said that we're going to take
the easy way out. I can assure you this
is not the easy way out.
Um,
the easy way out is really ignoring the
needs that the city is experiencing,
the growth that we're that we're that
we're dealing with, the loss of
employees because we can't uh keep them
even in a median area as far as payroll
goes.
There's a lot that we need to discuss,
but I do want to thank you for coming. I
appreciate you sharing your thoughts. I
really hope you'll listen to the
discussion that's going to ensue because
I don't get the feeling I haven't had
the feeling that this is settled in an
exact place, but we're going to have
some some dialogue and some discussion
about it. But I am absolutely
considering um a tax increase for the
all of the right reasons. And some of
you are going to shake your heads and
say, "Well, what are the right reasons?"
We're going to have that discussion.
Uh it's not the easy way out. In fact,
it's the most difficult path that we
have to take forward. The easy way is to
say we're not going to do anything and
what we're going to do is just continue
to reduce services and we're not going
to take care of those things that we
that we own and that we should be taking
care of. And that's what we've done for
a number of years. It's always tighten
your belt, figure out a way forward
without
uh dealing with the hard problems of the
fact that we don't have the resources
that we need to take care of those
things that we have. Um it really is a
resourcing problem and I can assure you
this, this city council and those of the
very short past have been anxiously
engaged in creating economic development
that is going to bear fruit. I'm
confident of that. And you can shake
your heads know and you can disbelieve
that that the day will come when Eagle
Mountain will be known as one of the
most uh
I want to use the right word prosperous
cities in in Utah County certainly and
within the state of Utah. Those days are
on our horizon, but they are not today.
They are coming. And I know Mayor Gray's
gotten in trouble for saying that and
and I'm going to do you a favor. Um, I'm
started I've started into my second
term. This is my fifth year. I'm not
going to rerun.
I am here to do 30 seconds and to make
the right decisions and to make the
changes. And we have said no.
We have said no in multiple occasions in
multiple ways and made very hard
decisions. We've adjusted the way
development happens in Eagle Mountain,
the way the water is allocated. We have
made some tremendous strides in holding
the development community accountable
when they were not being held
accountable prior to my arrival here.
Um, I'm sure we'll talk a little bit
more about that. My time's about out,
but thank you for being here.
Okay. Yeah. Go ahead, Mil. Uh, Council
Member Clark,
thank you all for being here tonight.
Um, I totally get why people are angry
and it makes sense that you're
mistrustful and it makes sense why maybe
you're a little bit afraid that your
quality of life and your ability to take
care of your family and provide for
their needs could change. And the fact
is is I feel all of those same things.
Um before I ran for city council, I was
pissed that the city was spending money
on a park that I didn't think we had
money for. And I would rant and rave on
Facebook and I would tag all my elected
officials and ask them to be accountable
for all of that. And um as I got into
office, I started to realize that
there's way more than I ever could have
comprehended. Um, and frankly serving
the city is
an honor,
but it's also super hard because there
were a lot of decisions made in the
early years of this city that set us up
for a trajectory that makes it so that
we don't have as much control. Now,
um, I want you to know too that this
isn't settled. I spent a lot of time
going through budgets. I spent a lot of
time going through what our um
city's doing, what other cities are
doing, and trying to find ways that we
could save money so that we don't have
to raise taxes. Um but like my
colleagues up here have said, it would
be easy for us just to say no and not
look at the real needs that we have as a
city. Um I think the biggest thing that
we have to figure out tonight or while
we're meeting with you guys is what do
we cut? What are the priorities that
matter the most to the people of our
community? Um because there's more needs
than we have money.
We do need to do a better job of
communicating. Um Mayor Gray and this
council um have tried to come to your
neighborhoods and do a listening tour.
We've tried to go to farmers markets,
but it's still not enough. It's still
not enough. and um
we need to do better. I want to thank
you all for being here. I hope that we
get an opportunity to talk about
some of the history, some of the
changes, some of the reasons for the
things that we
30 seconds remaining.
Um and I hope that you guys get a chance
to stay and be a part of that
conversation. So, thank you.
Okay, now something a little different.
Uh council kind of knew that they were
going to get a chance and as they always
do. Uh but this part maybe they didn't
know. I'm just going to ask you can say
no. Uh our city manager Ben Reeves has
been a great addition to our city and
has a wealth of knowledge. I'm just
going to ask uh if there are any
comments that you'd like to make and if
if there's any maybe clarifying things
or anything that you could help the
public or the council uh and you can say
no. And following that, I I do know that
Sheriff Smith is also in the audience
and uh give him a chance to represent
the the sheriff's department if he
wishes. Uh I don't mean to put you on
the spot, but I just wanted to to lay
that out there.
Thank you, mayor, and and I echo the
comments of the council and I echo the
the fact that it is a great honor to
serve this community. Um, I've been here
just a short time [snorts] and um, but
I've seen uh, Eagle Mountain City from
afar for since its inception back in
1996 when 250 residents came together to
to collectively work to build towards a
brighter future. And today here we are
inheriting um 80 a city of 80,000 and
and yet the services and the the work
and the infrastructure and everything
that is needed is so essential in order
to enhance and protect and preserve the
quality of life that you've enjoyed for
these last 30 years coming in [snorts]
new. I I just look and applaud at our
our first responders both with the
sheriff's department and with with UFA
and our city staff and all that they do.
And I it's what's hard for me is that I
truly feel like for many many years that
they've been working with basically an
arm tied behind their back. We haven't
invested in them and and and I think
there is a a strong desire for you know
the mentality of use it up, wear it out,
make it do or do it without.
[clears throat] and that's great, but
there's also a certain expectation that
our property values go down if we don't
take care of our open spaces, if we
don't take care of our parks. Um, people
go to other areas. Um, I know it was
talked a lot about the data centers. I
wasn't here when the first data center
was approved, but I can tell you that
the incentives given to the first data
center brought the next and then that
brought the next. with each subsequent
data center to today there's been less
incentive less incentive to there's no
incentives today and they're going the
other direction and bringing money to
the table up front and so if it wasn't
for some of the decisions for the p of
the past we wouldn't have inherited the
bright future as well and so it's hard
to stand in judgment for those who have
been here before [snorts] but I can tell
you today that our city staff is about a
third of the size of city um uh staff of
equivalent population and they are
working their hearts out and they care
and they they they love the city that
they work for. They love the council
that they work for and they love serving
the people that they work for. And yet
it's hard to hear after day after day
that you know we suck. We're not keeping
up. We're not keeping the parks up.
We're not keeping the trails up. Well,
we can only do what we can do with the
staff that we have and we can only
provide that level of service um that we
can afford to accomplish.
30 seconds remaining
and so ultimately this is a policy
decision and I will support the council
in whatever they do and I'm absolutely
confident our staff will support the
council and whatever they decide and
they will do the very best with whatever
resources that you entrust with them.
But at the same time, um please
recognize that we're in it together. We
are one team. We're one family. We're
one Eagle Mountain City. We all live
here. We all want to see our kids and
grandkids live here in the future as
well. Thank you.
I can't see Sheriff Smith off the
screen, but is he there? He is.
Yep.
Thank you, Mayor. Super excited to speak
at something like this. [laughter]
So, so hey, I you know, honestly, I get
PTSD with these type of meetings. I hate
them. Um I feel for everybody that that
spoke tonight. U my heart goes out to
you. It's a horrible thing. I feel for
the the council. It's a tough decision.
Um it's it's easy to to armchair
quarterback this and and criticize, but
I I can tell you as somebody who sits in
the seat also, it's a whole different
story when you're sitting in the seat
and you have to make the decision. So,
um I I respect that. I I respect you for
what you're doing. And and what I will
say as the sheriff is uh we are
extremely uh proud to be your law
enforcement um out in Eagle Mountain. We
are we are Eagle Mountain out here. Um
the deputies that we send out here are
the finest deputies that we have in the
sheriff's office. You are getting uh
high high quality people. We're able to
through the sheriff's office, we're able
to recruit um the top officers. A lot of
times, you know, I get chiefs that are
mad at me. We're taking them from other
cities um because they want to come work
for the sheriff's office. And so Eagle
Mountain benefits from that. And what I
will tell you is it's a it's a tough
decision to to come to Eagle Mountain
Council and say, "Hey, we need this."
But as we look at crime, as we look at
the growth of this city, I'll tell you,
you know, as far as, you know, the truth
in taxation and what it costs to do it.
Um, again, that's a that's a really
tough decision. But that's that's not
what I look at. I look at how do how do
we keep Eagle Mountain safe? How do we
keep Eagle Mountain a community that
people want to move to, that people feel
comfortable living in, that people feel
like their public safety is doing their
jobs? I come out and I campaign. I go to
meetings. And I'll tell you what I hear,
not in a truth and taxation meeting, but
what I hear overwhelmingly from people
is is they're upset. They're upset
because they called on, you know, maybe
something lower level on the food chain
of law enforcement and they didn't get
the response they needed. Um, why aren't
you guys responding? And I can tell you
the reason why is is because the the
deputies are basically going from call
to call to call. And I heard a few
comments tonight about, well, we saw
them getting a drink at 7-Eleven or
wherever they were. Um, and I've told
them and I I challenge them. I'm like,
if you have downtime, I would rather
have you
30 seconds remaining.
Instead of coming to the office and
hanging out, I would rather have you
going somewhere like that to take a a
break and talk to the community, be out
there with the community. So, we we want
to be your police force. What I will
what I will guarantee you as your
sheriff is we're not asking for anything
that's not needed out here. It is it is
definitely needed. Actually, more is
needed. I've heard a few comments about
um doing your own police. That's on the
table if they want, but I think the
council knows in a feasibility study
that is nowhere it's not cheaper. It's
not even close
to what you're getting for your for what
we do. But thank you.
Okay. Thank you. And and I will add a
couple comments I forgot to do earlier.
Uh but some of the things like that that
were brought up in the meeting, impact
fees and grants, those are all one-time
monies. Uh these deputies that we hire
will be ongoing expenses year-over-year
with their salaries. Just just as
thoughts for uh some of the questions
that were brought up. Uh also, I I work
extensively with our data center
partners. Uh I've been in office now 213
days and uh I've got to know those guys
very very well and I I've in the course
of the week I wanted to know some of the
actual numbers for the community to
understand and QTS actually provided
some talking points just to you guys can
take these numbers back and and look at
what it is that we've been telling you
is coming. They're under construction
and so these uh these haven't been fully
realized yet. But the property tax
impact from QTS, they're committed to
building within our city. In the new
buildings, there's three buildings that
are under construction right now.
They're looking to break ground on two
more buildings just to the north. The
impact will generate over $19 million a
year for our local jurisdictions. Uh and
Evan obviously knows these numbers and
we're going through these numbers every
day. Just for Eagle Mountain City alone
and our current tax rate, the Eagle
Mountain City, that would be $2.7
million a year. The Utah County would
get 1.7 million. Here's the big one. I
heard of this a lot during this uh you
know, the the concerns about the school
district. Lake Mountain School District
on the current five building will get
$10.4 million a year. That's an
additional $10.4 million to the budget.
Uh every three years that builds an
elementary school. So when I mentioned
uh earlier on that this money is coming,
these are the actual numbers. Unified
Fire District under the current taxing
system, we get 3.2 million. We're
looking by next year to bring that uh
taxing authority back in house. Add that
to the city amount and you would see uh
a little over $5 million to the city
rather than 2.7. So those are the kind
of numbers. Utah Central Water District
would get uh almost a million and then
the other districts just shy of a half a
million. Uh, another thing is QTS was
granted some uh, tax incentives when
they started those first three
buildings. They came back on these next
two. We didn't even ask this and said,
"Hey, by the way, you guys have been so
great to us. We don't want any
incentives on these next builds. Just
we're going to be full taxpayers
starting day one." So I want that to
soak in a little bit that we are uh
negotiating and we are working with
these people and they are going to
contribute right around the corner. The
these dollars are going to be realized
right away. Uh we haven't even talked
about the me that that also generates.
So um and another point uh we were
trying to figure out how to widen Pony
Express here a couple of weeks ago. uh
QTS. I made one phone call to them and
said, "Hey, maybe we could do a
reimbursement agreement like how to work
this out." That was some ideas talked
about lo in the city hall. I called them
and said, "You know what? I don't feel
like this is a a burden the residents
should bear. Some of that traffic on
Pony Express is because of their
workers." I said, "It's about a $5
million build with two stop lightss and
uh two of those stoplights are areas
that turned towards their development.
Uh it's about a $5 million ask." And I I
asked them to consider helping us with
that. At least half or most uh the the
people that are charged with making
those decisions said, "Give me just a
minute." Hung the phone up and called me
right back and said, "You know what? Not
only will we help, we'll pay for that
entire $5 million bill. That road will
be built." So now our internal staff,
our engineers are working hard to make
sure that we can get that as soon as
possible. I think we'll see some of it
this year and some in the future. So, I
just want you to know that that these
data centers are invested in our
community and not just at their site,
but in areas where we direct that that
we need some help. So, uh some of those
numbers are are now out there and are
welcome to get further information. Uh,
I would say those are estimated a little
bit, but we've done a lot of math over
the last week just so that we could
provide that with some fairly good
confidence that that's the direction
that we're headed on just that one site.
Uh, not that does not include some of
the other data centers. So, I just
wanted to get that out there as we move
forward in this discussion. Um, I think
it's time I I just want to reach out to
uh Marcus Lacy. I know Kimberly's there
procedurally if we missed anything that
we need to address at this time before I
go on to item number four for the
council.
Uh looks like we are okay. Marcus,
Kimberly, and I we have everything we
need. Thank you.
I think we're good.
Okay. And if the council has any
questions or as we move forward, you're
welcome to let me know. But I think it's
time we move on to item number four on
our agenda, which is a resolution of
Eagle Mountain City approving a property
tax increase above the certified tax
rate for fiscal year 2627.
Um,
I think we've talked about this a lot uh
through our budget process and whatnot.
So, at this time, I just like to turn it
over to the council if you have any
question or comments. I know there were
a few of you that said that you wanted
to get into a little more detail at this
point. Uh, so I'm open to uh raise your
hand, let me know if you'd like to speak
and and we'll try to be as orderly as
possible. Again, I appreciate you guys
allowing me to do this remotely, but
whoever wants to speak, uh, let me know.
Mayor, really quick. I think you guys
have asked a question about transparency
and you're like, we want a line by line
uh explanation of the budget and what
the money is being spent on. And I want
you guys to know that that document
exists. And not only does that document
exist right now for this year's budget,
but it exists for all of the previous
year's budgets. And they are all on our
city website. Um there's interactive
budget so you can kind of see what the
goals are for every single department,
what their projects are that they're
working on. So, if it's parks, what
parks they're upgrading, if it's the
attorney's office, what contracts and
different things they're working on. And
it's important to us that you guys know
today when you go home that that exists
and we are 100%
transparent and accountable to you guys.
We want you to know that it's out there.
We've done a crappy job of helping you
know where it is, but it exists. And I
think it's really important for you guys
to know that it's there.
Yeah. I think to your point, a lot of
people have used the word transparency
instead of communication. Uh
transparency, everything that we've
done's been in an open and public
meeting and it's it's very transparent.
uh what it isn't is easy to get it out
to the public uh in a form maybe easy to
understand or whatnot. So the
communication side we we've done our
best and we try and we improve every day
but transparency is definitely
everything we've done's been in the
open. So
next is that council member Huish you go
ahead. Yeah, I I just want to go go
deeper into the transparency piece.
When the this is my understanding and
and Ben, you can correct me if I'm
misstep anywhere. Okay, I'm going to be
careful. Um, but when the application
was submitted for the policy to cover
100% of the sheriff's contract, 100%
with property taxes, that was the
application. and in the state of Utah to
vary from that application would
completely disrupt this entire process.
So you have the communication that was
put out um
to to communicate the policy but it's
obvious that you take 6.7 million minus
roughly 1.5 million and there's a gap
there. It's like well what happens with
that money right and that's not part of
the initial application that's a
separate discussion so I want to if it
if it's okay to talk about all right I
just want to be clear this is something
that I also struggled with in
understanding and trying to communicate
so some of some of the things as a
council that we've talked about
there are uh several projects going on
within the city there's also several
staffing uh shortfalls Number one, we've
talked about getting our staff to 90%. I
believe it's 90% of the median. Is that
correct, Ben? Uh, we're not there. Our
staff is underpaid. My neighbor used to
work in the city of Eagle Mountain. He
now drives to Haramman. They just pay
more. He makes more money there. He is a
excellent uh with concrete work and we
train people up. We hire them here, we
train them, and then we lose them to
other cities. And the cost of training
is expensive. If for those of you that
are business owners, it's expensive to
train people and it it's painful when
you lose them because of of uh salary.
So part of the comp contemplation
with [clears throat] the freed up funds
is to increase uh based on merit and
getting people up to that level to where
they're not even above average but at at
the 90% of the median of the middle.
Okay? So not even there. That cost is
about $525,000
to do that. So uh there's that. There's
also the contemplation. Uh these these
are positions that would impact the
general fund. Uh there's about 18
part-time and full-time positions. 13 of
those uh in my estimation have to do
with our parks. And I'm just going to I
won't go through each specific salary,
but I would like to mention uh the the
different jobs. So we we we've
contemplated
uh hiring three open sa open space
uh employees for so when you're on Eagle
Mountain Citizens page and you see
someone complaining about my trail needs
to be cleaned. We've got trails all
over. We've got I don't know hundreds of
miles of trail. I have them behind my
house and they get overgrown and uh
we've we've got a staff where that
that's what they're out doing. Uh we've
contemplated having three uh parks
technicians.
The other day I was at Corey Ride and
I'm sorry if I'm going Is it okay?
Okay.
I just have a lot to say. I've been
thinking about this a lot. I was at
Corey Ride uh at the Dunk Tank actually
yesterday with the youth council and I
was walking around the park and I was
like the grass actually looks good. The
last time I was cory, right, it looked
terrible and I thought we sold our
utility for this park and we just let it
go. And I happened to run into one of
the parks techs that was there. I said,
"You've got this park looks good. I
don't know what you're doing, but it
does not look like the park by my house.
The park by my house is dying. There's
weeds everywhere, and you can drive
around uh Eagle Mountain and and see
those conditions." and he said, 'You
know, we took this park back in house,
meaning our employees are taking care of
this park. We have a lot of contract uh
work that happens throughout the city in
our parks and they don't look great. Um
so, we've contemplated hiring more parks
crews so that we can actually control
the quality and service level.
Uh we've we've considered um
uh recreation. We we have brought uh
soccer back inhouse. So, our ball
fields, our soccer fields are not in
great condition. Um, some of the kids
that are playing are skin on their
knees. Maybe that's okay. Uh, for me, I
think we can do better there. Uh, we've
also contemplated a streets operator
sealing the cracks. Now, it's true when
you build a development and you charge
impact fees to a developer, that
developer is not on the hook for the
maintenance in perpetuity. There's just
not a fund that exists to maintain those
streets. and there are real costs. So,
we've contemplated hiring there. There's
also uh five positions considered
um around engineering and just
day-to-day operations. We have a lot of
well Ben can probably speak with us to
turn over within the city uh regarding
HR. Our uh purchasing agent is
overwhelmed last year asked for to hire
somebody. We did not hire that person.
and she's working a lot of overtime and
um you know it's it's emotionally
exhausting. So
these are some of the things that freed
up funds that we're contemplating. Um
this this was in the May 26 meeting. I
talked about this specifically
and um you can go listen to those. I
know nobody wants to go listen to six
hours of budget meetings of city
council. That's not your job. That's our
job. But the these are things that
weren't communicated I think out of a
fear of crossing the line with the
that was filled. So, I just want to uh
clarify that. And if if there's anything
that I communicated in the podcast that
I put out there, it was not intended to
mislead anybody or to confuse anyone. It
was meant to bring more context that I
didn't feel like was being put out there
in uh in the Eagle Mountain Citizens
page. So, I'll I'll just pause there on
transparency and I have more around uh
policy that I want to discuss.
Yeah. And I think the the key to that,
Zach, what you're talking about is uh
more about the budget and the budget
process than than so much the tax, but
just all of the different things in our
budget that we are dealing with, right?
So, appreciate the context. Um I think
Council Member Wood, you had some other
comments or Council Member Whiting, go
ahead.
Yep. Thank you, Mayor. So, uh, we were
asked earlier, uh, to answer the
question, what are the, you know, three
capital projects you would spend the
money on? And I'm going to jump on what
council member Huish already indicated
that our parks and open space, it's very
apparent. You just drive around and you
can see their condition.
So, so before I answer the question that
that that question, let me back up and
and support something. So when we when
we say that 100% of the public of the
the property tax increase goes to public
safety that is the correct answer. What
we need to do is is help you understand
and this this means we didn't
communicate this well enough how public
safety has been paid. So right now it's
being paid for through property tax and
we're we're essentially robbing from
sales tax to to help subsidize our our
police and our public safety. So this
this uh communication that we're that
that 100% of the tax increase goes to
public safety. It's true. Now puts
property tax as the pillar upon which
public safety now stands. And this is
what we need to communicate better. What
that now does is it it it
takes the the sales tax dollars that we
were essentially robbing from sales tax
to go support public safety and now it
takes that sales tax dollars to do other
things. And that's what council member
Huish was referring to the several
different hires within the city, wage
increases for the employees and and so
that's and perhaps that's what some of
you are wondering like okay what is now
uh what can now be paid for property tax
is now taking care of public safety.
what can we now do with sales tax
dollars were that were being used toward
public safety. What can we now do with
them? And we're and we're stating some
of you and if you go back and look at
our budgets, we said in the budget what
what we would do with that money,
including several understaffed
departments, uh uh the our city manager
uh commented we're we're about a third
the staffing level as as other cities of
our size. But with that being said, so
these these dollars that are available
now through sales tax, my number one
thing is public safety on our streets.
We have a massive need right now for
safer streets, especially in our school
zones. And we need we need speed tables
and other mechanisms to keep the the
kids safe. It may shock you, but a speed
table costs about 70 to $80,000.
And we don't just need one. We don't
just need two. We need a ton of them.
That costs a lot of money.
If if this tax this doesn't go through,
what now happens? Well, the sales tax
will have to go back to support pro, you
know, our public safety and it gets
diverted from being able to put speed
tables and and other things like that in
our in our school zones and other in in
other streets. There was comment that I
I know, you know, there's some of you
that I know well that have have come up
and made public comment. I know that you
live on streets that are not safe.
Your streets are being studied right
now. We've commissioned a study that is
being done on the on on sensitive
streets in the city and so that we can
get the best data available on how to to
bring those uh cities to a safer level
so we can slow down traffic so kids can
cross safely. And that again goes back
to transparency. I think that's a
message we didn't clearly communicate
well enough to the city because had that
been part of the discussion, I think
people would be like, "Oh, wait a
second. I can get behind freeing up some
sales tax dollars to go toward making
sure our streets are safer. We just
didn't communicate that." Which is why
I'm I'm happy you're here. This is part
of the discussion we can now have to
help to to help educate uh you and get
the information out there as to what
we're what we're what we're doing and
and why this increase is so important.
Um I'll leave it at that for the time
being. I've got comments on well maybe
let me just say this so I can wrap up
that my I just had one additional
comment on the data center thing. We're
we're hearing people saying we're not
seeing anything from the data centers.
I'm going to tell you something. You are
wrong. And I'll tell you why.
Everyone in this city who is 100%
120% area median income or lower can
qualify for a down payment to buy a
house.
That money is coming from data centers
so that you can that that down payment
money just doesn't magically appear. It
is Facebook and I believe Tyson that's
putting money into a into an RDA from
which we are we have created the most
successful down payment mortgage down
payment assistance program in the state.
It gives you more money and is more
easily qualified for than any other city
and and maybe that again comes down to
communication
that is available. There's millions of
dollars that's already been given to to
citizens of Eagle Mountain to buy homes.
Down payment is not something that
anybody needs to buy a home in this
city. You don't need that. If I don't
have a down payment, the down payment is
available through the RDAs that was set
up that our data centers are funding
into and it's only going to get bigger.
We just approved and this is another
conversation I'll and I'll probably talk
about this later in the meeting. Um part
of the reason why we arrived to the to
the area to this situ circumstance that
we have arrived to is we have built the
city upon uh residential housing
and the the challenge that owner
occupied residential housing which I
support but owner occupant housing gets
a 45% decrease on their taxes
and so
the growth issue is one reason why I
ran. I've been on the city council for a
few months now, by the way. And so that
not that that's relevant or irrelevant,
but I've been on here just a few months.
I got involved because of of growth that
was unsustainable. And so what happens
is when a when prior city councils, I'm
not going to accuse them of of their
decisions, but they they made decisions
where they granted developers the
ability to to build thousands of of
homes at the fastest pace they want to
build. there's 25,000
vested units that still exist that we
can't get rid of and those can be built
whenever those developers want to build
it. And so once you give the blank check
to the developers to be able to build as
fast as they want to build, how can we
then manage the growth because they can
build as fast as they want. And when
they build, yeah, we're collecting
impact fees. But and that came up a lot
too tonight. Impact fees, we are
charging them. And guess what? We're
charging as much as we're allowed to
charge. I would love for impact fees to
pay for all of this stuff. The state of
Utah has laws about how impact fees can
be charged. We're charging the maximum
we can charge. I'm just letting you all
know that. But but those impact fees,
the state has come in for whatever
reasons it's come in and curbed how much
we can charge. So we charge as much as
we can. But is it enough? It's not
enough. But we are we are charging as
much as we can. So when citizens come up
and say, "What about impact fees?" It's
true that we should ask that question.
We're charging what we can charge, but
the impact is clearly not being paid for
correctly, right? I mean, there's
they're creating more impact than than
we can collect. Um, but anyway, I bring
this up because
you need to know that this city council
this year, I want you to guess how many
new housing units has this city council
approved.
We have approved 33. total
is growth being managed? It's being
managed.
How many developers have just twastic
alone? I had two developers reach out to
me privately, not to these to my fellow
city council members. Craig, I want to
do this high density development here. I
want to do this development here. And I
said, it's not the time and it's not
going to happen. We're not going to
support it. It's not going to happen.
And they just and they and they left.
You don't see the gates that we are
defending. We are defending this castle
right now in a way that I can't say
hasn't ever been defended before. But
since I I've been involved here and the
city council has been unified in this,
we are managing residential growth
exceptionally well because it's these
it's the additional residents that are
coming in paying 2010 taxes
that that we cannot sustain. That math
does not add up. When we're charging
those new residents, those news
households 2010 taxes and we're trying
to support them through 2026 expenses.
Every new resident that comes in, we
cannot sustain it.
They're not there's not enough being
collected from the new households. The
growth you're saying, well, we have a
larger tax base. Revenues have increased
because we have a larger tax base, but
expenses have increased much faster. So
when people say the growth should pay
for it. The growth is the issue because
we are growing under a 2010 tax rate.
Even the data centers say well get the
data centers to pay more money. I would
love if we could d tax the data centers
separately. The state of Utah doesn't
allow it. I would love to do it. We
cannot do that. It's illegal to do that.
So guess what? The data centers if they
had sent a representative here would
have also been standing at the very
pulpit you stood at and would have said
we oppose the tax increase. They would
have all done that.
They are laughing all the way to the
bank right now that they are only paying
2010 taxes and the only way we can make
them pay more is to increase the tax
rate and that tax rate has to be
increased on that same tax rate that we
that we could vote on today. That
applies ubiquitously across the city.
That's the only way to get them to pay
more. I wish we could get them to pay
more otherwise we just cannot. And so
it's it's important for us to know that
growth unsustained
that has caused us to be in the
situation we're at today where we
suddenly have to make a decision that's
difficult. Anyway, I will I'll pass the
microphone down.
Mayor, are you okay if I talk?
Yeah, go ahead. I just want to remind
the council to on item number four, I
mean free to speak. I'm not limiting
debate necessarily.
uh just like to keep it to maybe your
position on the tax increase and
supporting your position and I
understand everything we've heard is in
that manner but uh
just to uh
with all due respect may I think that
both of them have kept on topic with why
people are looking for answers as to
what is motivating these decisions and I
think we need to probably error on the
side of allowing the council to give an
explanation of why we're going to tax
people. So
that's exactly what I'm asking.
Okay.
What I said,
I
first of all, thank you to both of the
council members who have expressed a lot
of this the things that I think have
been part of the decision-making process
for me. Um,
all of them will corroborate what I'm
about to say. When we had this
discussion, uh, and I was actually
remote. It was a discussion that began
and probably ended with our uh our
retreat in St. George, but one of the
things that I said, and I still stand by
this, the only thing anybody's ever
going to remember is 220%.
Doesn't matter what else we say, the
only thing they're going to hear is
220%.
So, we have to be concise and clear
about how we express to them why that
even makes any sense to anybody.
The reason that I voted force to put
that certified tax rate at the level
that it was is because I believe a
fiscal responsibility to fund our police
force, our public safety with a stable
revenue. That is not sales tax. And I I
I appreciate the headshakes. I do
because let me explain that to you
because I want you to understand where
I'm coming from.
What happened when the pandemic happened
and sales tax wasn't providing anything
for anybody? Did we just stop having
police force?
What happened when the market crashed
and everybody started losing their
houses? Did we suddenly not have a need
for police force? In fact, we had a
greater need for police force. There
isn't a single person who lives in this
city that does not pay a property tax of
some sort that goes directly to the the
police force under this uh particular
proposal. Perhaps the rate's wrong, but
I think in principle a stable uh revenue
source to pay for public safety should
be a principle that we stand on. We have
been woefully
um arrogant and we have been
loose with our lack of financial plans
in this city. We haven't had one. When I
got here, I said, "Where's our five-year
plan? Where's our 10-year plan? Do we
have a 20-year plan?" The answer is no
to all of those things.
So, when you're asking, "How come you
can't provide that information?" I'm
asking the same thing. Where is the
information that we're making these
decisions on and how are we preparing
for the future? I I think it's
interesting when you have past council
members that come in and say things
like, "Oh, how how dare you did that? We
were able to live on the income that we
had there." And I think we're here
because of your irresponsibility. You
left this big pile for us.
You didn't raise fees for water. You
didn't raise fees for sewer. almost to
the point where we're in the red. You
didn't raise property taxes because of
some crazy conservative fiscal federal
mentality of I'm not going to raise
taxes because somehow money appears out
of nowhere. And it left us in a position
where we hear you when you say our parks
are in poor repair. Our parkways are not
being taken care of. I can't ride my
motorcycle down the road because all we
can afford to do is crack seal.
We can't raise the level of how we're
taking care of the city because we don't
have the funds to do so because people
in the past thought that being cheap was
a good way of of public policy.
So I find myself in this situation now
of how do we how do we course correct
this? Some of you have said how can we
do it incrementally? If you want to
continue to kick the can down the road,
we can do that. You you will find that
we cannot keep on pace exactly what
Craig was saying. We are adding 1,800
building permits a year.
That is not sustainable for our roads,
for our public safety, for fire
services. We're 50 square miles. There
is no other city that is experiencing
the problems that we have with basically
two separate cities that existed forever
with nothing in between. And we had to
service both with water, sewer, public
safety, fire services.
So, we're left in this place with, well,
what's the decision to be made then?
Everybody's going to hate the decision.
If I came in and said in the very
beginning, we're going to raise the
taxes by 5%. Would anybody raise their
hand and say, "Yeah, I'm in favor of you
raising taxes." The answer is going to
be no. We're raising taxes. I'm against
it. I don't want to pay it. It affects
me. We are one income family as well, by
the way, and it affects our ability to
be able to make our bills as well. I
also pushed very, very hard to have a
corridor that goes behind my house that
ruins the sight and sound of my area I
live in in Silver Lake that's quiet and
it will not be that anymore. I also
voted to make sure that we built a road
from Brook Haven up to the upper part of
Silverlake out to Pony Express so there
was a safe walking route for the kids.
And guess whose house that goes by?
Mine. I took all the traffic. It's not
good for me. It's bad for my family. My
kids can't go out on the street, but it
created an opportunity for them to walk
to school.
Craig brought up the speed tables. I
think you need to know how passionate we
are about making sure that number one,
every one of the elementary schools has
sufficient, safe ways to stop traffic so
that they can cross. The crossing yard
shouldn't have to feel like they're
going to get hit. And then we have a
speed study that is going to address
every other road that has the same
problem. We had a community come in uh
two two meetings ago talking about the
speed in their community and they've
been told multiple times that you know
we'll find a solution then nothing's
happened. The one thing I want you to
walk away from this today regardless of
what our decision is. There isn't
anybody up here that is looking for an
easy way out. I hope that there isn't
anybody that's trying to make the
decisions for a political reason because
I think that's a coward's way out. We
should be doing what's right regardless
of the of the outcome. Uh and for me,
that's how I will vote. I'll vote for
what is best for 80,000 people. Um I'm
not going to do what's best for a few.
Mayor, is it okay if I go?
Yes, sir. Please.
I would just echo everything that's been
said. I think something that hasn't been
hit on is transportation. The biggest
issue that we face in Eagle Mountain is
transportation and our transportation
coridors. We sit in traffic far too
often and far too long. We have
intersections that are missing uh
traffic control signals because we can't
afford to put them in. Where does that
money come from if we continue to pull
sales tax dollars which could fund those
those infrastructure improvements and we
continue to allocate it to our sheriff's
contract or to our public services.
Those are the things that we're really
facing. Every time that we decide we
need a road to be a little bit bigger,
we've got to upsize some sewer, we've
got to do some sort of improvement, that
comes out of the taxpayers dollars,
comes out of the general fund. And we
have to decide, are we going to set some
money aside to take care of those
improvements or are we going to continue
to fund as it grow? Because I'm going to
tell you this, should we choose to
approve this at 220% this year, next
year that is not going to cover 100% of
the sheriff's contract, news flash,
because their fuel is going to go up.
They're going to get raises and they're
going to be back in here next year
saying, "You guys added another 6,000
people. We need a couple more officers."
So, it's not something that's going
away. It's just something that we are
being asked to what do we do to adjust
this policy so that we can get to a
better place today or today and work for
a better future tomorrow.
Um,
we've had a lot of hard conversations
one-on-one. We've had a lot of dialogue
as we sat in that retreat. We've had a
lot of dialogue as we've had those
opportunities in public meetings to have
the discussion during the budget uh
sessions.
And and I'm just going to say this. I'm
proud to serve with the council members
who are to my left and to my right. They
are not cowards.
It's not easy to face you and it's not
easy to tell you the truth,
but that's what we've chosen to do.
Yeah. I I want to at least Melany's
question. Um I everything that's been
set up here is exactly how I think all
of us feel. Um and we hope that it's
kind of a glimpse into some of the
thought process that we've put into
this, the things that we've wrestled
with, the questions that we've been
asking ourselves. But um Melanie asked
like what are the capital projects top
three? And for me um obviously roads,
safety, getting kids to school safely.
Those are things where there's no
special fees coming from someplace else.
There's no additional dollars coming
from anywhere. Um, and we have a family
of seven in our house and I was a
teacher for 10 years. So, it's important
for me for both kids and adults to be
able to get where they need to go
safely. Um, every minute that you spend
in your car is time that you're not with
your family. it's time that you can't be
at your kids' games or
spending time with your wife or husband
or your aged parents. So, like roads are
crazy important to me and they will
always be crazy important to me. But the
next two things for me are ones that
aren't sexy. And they're not ones that a
lot of people think about, but I want
when each of you flush your toilet for
the stuff that you flush to leave your
house and not ever come back. And we
need a sewer treatment plant to be
expanded so that it can handle what we
as a city have. We're at capacity for a
load and we need to do something about
it now. And it takes three plus years to
get a sewer treatment plant built and
expanded. And it costs a crap ton of
money. So that's a huge capital project.
That's important to me.
Crap ton of money.
Oh my gosh.
You guys are so quick. I didn't even
think of that.
And then the last of the top three, but
there's like about 40 that are important
to me are are water sources. The reality
of it is is we have a ton of water and a
really nice aquafer that's under the
ground, but we have woefully inadequate
infrastructure to get that water that we
have up out of the ground and we don't
have enough tanks to store it in. And
just uh to it was the Fourth of July
week when we put out the requests to all
of our commercial businesses, all of our
schools, all of our HOAs, all of our
churches, and we said, "Please don't
water." We said to our residents,
"Please don't water." And we as a city
had already not been watering our parks.
So why is that important? Why do we need
the whole water infrastructure?
If we don't have enough water in our
tanks replenish at night, then we can't
put fires out and we live in like a
super wildfire
prone area.
And I don't want any of the people in
our community to lose their house
because we couldn't put their fire out
because we didn't have enough
infrastructure to get the water out of
the ground. Um, and we're working like
crazy. Our staff is working like crazy.
Uh, a couple months ago, there was a
water line that just like burst in the
middle of uh, behind Scenic Mountain up
there and there were dudes from our team
working late into the night, frankly,
early into the morning and it was muddy
and gross. And my husband and I went and
brought them drinks and a couple candy
bars because I felt bad that they were
working so late. And it was treacherous
for me to walk to bring them stuff. I
can't imagine what it was like for them
to work in those conditions. And that's
what the people of our city staff do
over and over again. And I just
you guys elect us because we're the ones
that go and study things out and then we
bring you back information and we make
decisions on your behalf. This is some
of the information that we have and the
priorities that we have based off of the
things that you guys have told us. So,
thank you for being here.
Can can we move to like a policy
discussion now?
Okay. Something that's been on my mind
is how do we prevent this kind of
volatility from happening in the future?
We've benefited. I've benefited
personally for the last I've lived here
20 years and my property tax rate has
decreased as my home value gone up. I've
paid the same nominal dollar amount. If
you don't believe me, go look at your
property tax rate. Not the rate, excuse
me, the dollar amount for the city has
been the same. Just look at the city. I
didn't believe it when I served on city
council. I'm like, there is no way. I
was told that. I went home, pulled out
all my tax records, went back to 2016,
pulled out my property tax rate. It's
like 200 bucks. What I pay last year is
like 210. The way that property taxes
work, it's a flat nominal dollar amount.
But that rate, as your property value is
going up, you're paying the same uh
dollar amount. So, our rate has actually
been going down. And you can shake your
head. No,
ASD has been raising
Uh, UFA has been raising, but the city
has not been raising. So, everyone
listening, go home, pull out your
property taxes, look at the city, uh,
dollar amount that you've paid. It's
about the same. Has not changed. But the
cost of the sheriff protecting your
house, that cost has increased. So where
we have failed residents and this isn't
your fault. It's prior decisions that
were made that maybe they felt like yeah
it's okay data centers will come one day
and then all of our problems will be
solved. Um the mayor just talked about
I've heard him say that before. Uh
whenever that day comes it's not today.
We're not there. So a couple things that
I've thought about and I would um
be curious. This isn't specifically uh
to the rate, but I would propose that we
have a code and maybe that's something
that we can work on that requires future
city councils each what whatever that
proportion is, whether it's 100% or 50%
or 60% or 10%, whatever we're looking to
kind of set that rate at to cover uh the
sheriff's contract. I I would propose
that we have a code that requires future
city councils to come back every single
year, review what that where the council
is at. If uh QTS comes online and some
of these uh data centers are are our
property taxes exceed the sheriff's
contract, I would like to see the our
rate go down and I would like to pull
that pressure away from the residents.
But that will only happen if we have a
code in place, a policy strategically
long-term that requires councils to come
back and review that on an annual basis.
And I would just be curious if if the
other council, we don't need to vote on
that tonight, but I'd be curious if you
would support moving forward in that
direction, Marcus, if that is something
from a legal standpoint that we can put
into our city code.
Yeah, I mean you can put in the code
that that as part of the budget process,
you're going to review this and the
future city councils will either keep
that code and follow it or they may
change the code at a future date, but
then they would go through the public
process to do that.
I I I know for me, I would have been
grateful if that existed because we
would have had gradual increases
yeartoear.
Um, so so that's one comment I have on
the policy. I'd also uh be and this is
more of a legal question for Marcus, the
ability for us to segregate these funds.
Um we're we're proposing
collecting property taxes that goes into
a general fund. Can those be segregated
by the city into a fund account that
just pays specifically for sheriff's
office? Oh,
really wants to speak. Both of you can
answer that question.
I don't want to speak, but I can speak
to that matter. Um the property taxes
will have to be received into the
general fund at that point. You could
you can still create a separate fund for
public safety, but you would do an
operating transfer to send the revenue
over.
Would we need a code to require that?
It would be a resolution that we would
bring. Uh so this uh for 2027 there were
we created a new special revenue fund
for public art and uh several of those.
So, we could do that for specifically
for the sheriff's contract. Okay. Thank
you.
Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up.
That's actually one of the and I talked
about being willing to reduce the
property tax as the sales tax and the uh
ME money starts to come in comate so
that that burden doesn't stay. Uh I'm
definitely in favor of finding a
solution to that. Uh I also feel pretty
strongly about making sure that we we're
going to the public safety that there
should be something that demonstrates to
the citizens that that's exactly where
that's going. So, I'm glad that you said
that, Kimberly. That was one of my
questions as well. I think that that
needs to be clear. Um, I think that we
need to do our budgets differently and
maybe that's something we need to have a
dis discussion about uh at a later date.
One of the things that I feel like that
we could have done with this where we're
proposing a a tax increase, I believe we
should have had our current rate budget
and a separate budget that is based on
what the increase would be so that we
could actually have the very
conversation that you guys are asking
about. Where would we spend the
additional funds that are being moved
from the sales tax? Um, I'll give you my
list of things that I think are
important. I'm glad the person asked the
three top capital projects. Uh, in our
meeting Tuesday, we talked about our
master transportation plan. That would
be pretty sobering for you if you guys
were able to see what that cost actually
is. What's even more sobering is when we
sat in a a regional meeting to listen to
UD do and the Mountainland Association
of Governments tell us that we're not
going to get some of these roads for 10
or 20 years.
Council member, $419 million by 20 2035.
That's Eagle Mountain's portion.
That's ours.
The only way that that can be paid for
is by bonding or leveraging debt. We
don't have that kind of money. We have
that kind of need. We're still growing.
That's not going to change. We still
have that many cars that are being added
every single year. We're being ignored
largely by the state, frankly, about
what our needs are. We're absolutely
being ignored by the other side of the
county as they prioritize
rapid bus
that are empty that we all paid for by
the way with our UTA funds when they're
building gondilas in Salt Lake County
that should have been funds that should
have come out here and had 2100 North
done four years ago.
I want you to know that the fight is
happening with who you have right here
and whether you decide to vote us in
honestly is really immaterial to me. If
I if I can't gain your trust by telling
you the truth when the truth sucks, then
you need to go on to somebody else. But
I'm going to tell you the one thing you
can trust is that I will always tell you
what the truth is whether you like it or
not. And I think I've been pretty
consistent since I started on the
planning commission with that. I think
every developer will tell you that I'm
I'm about what is best for Eagle
Mountain as a whole and I've fought for
that. When we take a look at policies,
policies should be things that outlast
us. If we don't do things that are going
to benefit the people in the future and
I do something that is just going to
take care of right now and I failed.
If we don't put a financial plan in
place that you guys can rely on that's a
five and a 10 and a 20-year plan that
every council should have to come back
and review based on what the current
needs on at the time, then we failed.
Uh, and I don't like to fail. Frankly, I
feel like that, you know, I had some
pretty specific things I wanted to
accomplish being on the council. I've
hit a lot of them. There's a couple of
them I'm [clears throat] pretty pissed.
I still haven't hit them. Uh, one of
them is for sure making sure that we're
financially sound. And our our economic
growth has not happened at the way at
the rate that I would like it to. And
I'm tired of being told by people that
that's the rate of government. I just
don't believe that crap. I think that
there's ways that we can do better. So,
when we vote on this today, my vote's
going to be based on that what is best
for you in the future. I'm sorry that
it's going to have the same crappy
effect on you that it's having on me and
my family. My wife is not in favor of
it, just so you know.
And uh it's going to have an impact on
me and my kids, whether or not they're
able to play certain sports, etc. Um,
but I'm going to tell you, the decision
that we're going to make is going to
give us the ability to start moving
traffic. It's going to give us the
ability to take care of our assets. If
we let every one of our parks die, guys,
it's going to be three times the amount
to fix them.
So, that's kind of where I stand with
that. The the last thing I want to talk
about, capital projects. Uh I'm not firm
that all of it should go to capital
projects. I really do think that we are
under manned. Our our
uh labor force is woefully too small. Uh
and I'm not talking about people that
are sitting at desks. I'm talking about
the crews that fix our streets, our
water, our parks. I mean, if you guys
knew how many employees we had at the
parks, it' probably make you mad. I
think it's like 10, isn't it? Full-time
employees for 68 parks.
I mean, that's not going to come from
nowhere. And so, when I look at this,
I'm like, if I'm going to vote for this,
it damn sure is not going to be for
people getting raises at the top end.
We're going to start adding bodies so
that we can tell people we did our very
best to improve the quality of life and
quality of services that you should
expect no matter where you live.
I I support both of those the policies
you're talking about. By the way, um I
wanted to add just a few other things.
So the the city council's been fighting
very hard to find additional money
outside the city for the city. Uh, I was
I spent a week of my year this year in
March with the mayor back in Washington
DC and we worked very diligently to try
to secure federal dollars to come back
to support uh projects that we have here
in Eagle Mountain. To my understanding,
it's the first time our city has ever
sent a delegation to Washington DC. It's
not going to be the last because we're
going to keep beating that drum. Um,
that's a week away from my family. It's
a week away from my own job, but it it
is worth it to me to try to figure out
other methods to pay for the the needs
that are here. Um I know that Mayor
Gray, he was the one that identified
some potential significant savings by
restructuring our relationship with
Unified Fire. That's something we're
going to experience next year. That was
completely on him that to identify that
that could be millions of savings for
the city and I'm and I'm I'm grateful
for his leadership in that regard. Um
we've uh other other things we're trying
to do. Um, we have a volunteer police
force uh that also helps with uh
alleviate pressure on our on our
sheriff's department. They have no
funding. Um, and Cedar Fort has a fire
department that's volunteer and they
don't have enough funding. So, Alex
Carter, who's a a council member uh
there in Eagle in Cedar Fort, and I have
put our heads together. We're we're
putting on a half marathon here in Cedar
Valley October 10th with money that will
be raised to help our volunteer police
and the volunteer fire. We're trying to
come up with ways to get money from
other sources. Um even small ways where
we're going to be working with the Best
Friends Animal Society where they can
provide some free services to help with
some animal control stuff. We're adding
those things in there. We're trying to
be active, proactive, and we're trying
to approach this from the front, not the
back. We are actively engaged with our
state legislature. There was a real
potential for the state to pass a cap on
property tax increase. Had that passed,
we would have been a very difficult
scenario. Very, very difficult scenario.
And and I'm glad it didn't. Can we phase
this next tax increase?
Part of the issue is what's the state
legislature going to do? And we have to
consider that and play from the front
instead of the back.
Also, the state legislature has been
mentioned that they want to socialize
our MET funds, our municipal energy tax
from data centers. That's not fair. So,
you need a you need a city council
that's going to be lobbying very diff
very much for you at the state and with
the feds to make sure we get the best
results for you. Uh it was also stated
that perhaps the tax increase was to
give the city council staff pay
increases.
The city council has no staff.
Other cities have city councils with
staff. We don't have a staff. It's us.
That's it.
It's been said that we're raising taxes
to build a city hall. That's false. This
has nothing to do with the city hall.
Does the city need a city hall? Yes. A
lot of there was comment saying you
don't need the city hall. You have
sufficient here. That's that's an
uninformed decision or uninformed
comment. And I I would welcome a private
discussion with any of you that feel
that that that that this building is
sufficient.
Uh so I just wanted to clear up some of
those things. I think oh rec center.
This has absolutely nothing to do with a
rec center and hopefully sheds light on
why we can't do a rec center yet. Uh we
have so much going on. Let me see. I'm
just trying to see. Um the other thing I
was going to mention is I'm going to I'm
going to tell you the tale of two HOAs
because it's been brought up. Well,
Craig, you're in real estate, so you
should know that this should this is not
healthy. Let me It is my real estate
background that will cause me to vote
yes on some form of tax increase right
now. And I will tell you why.
When I was young in my real estate
career, actually, I wasn't even in real
estate yet at this moment. I was on a
board of an HOA because the I was
filling in for a period of time with for
someone who could not be on that board.
And that individual I said he instructed
me he said Craig in make sure the HOA
dues go up. I go why do you want the HOA
dues to go up? This is a b a business
guy. Why do you want the d HOAs dues to
go up? That's that's the thing that will
hurt you. You are not going to get money
back from that. He said I'm planning I'm
not planning on what's going to happen
to the HOA this next year. I'm planning
at a minimum for five years, but Craig,
I'm actually planning for 10 to 20.
And so they increased the HOA dues
without a need to increase the HOA dues.
But what did that hap? What what effect
did that happen? That HOA has never had
a special assessment ever. When roofs
came due, they had the money for it.
When they had to redo parking lots, they
had the money for it. And when
properties go on the market in that HOA,
it they sell in like a day because of
how well that HOA is maintained. It's
because they put they they budgeted
money early on. What's interesting is
there is a subdivision immediately next
door to them that did not do that. It is
currently a shuttered facility that will
be knocked down. That is what will
happen. We are at a crossroads. And I
know people have said, "Well, if you you
are not listening to the people, Craig,
if you vote for a tax increase, because
the people don't want it." But let me
give it brief. I I'll this is just a
60-second historical moment.
The Battle of Gettysburg, there was a
group that was that was assigned to
protect the flank on Little Roundtop.
And when the Confederate army was coming
up the hill, that group came in in such
numbers of force that they ran out of
ammunition.
The troops said, "Let us, we got to back
out. We don't we don't have any more
ammunition."
And their leader said, "If we back out
now, our flank caves in." And they will
come in behind us and we lose the war.
And so he told the he told his troops
that were with him, they were torn and
tired,
"Put on your bayonets."
And they did. And they charged down the
hill.
that changed the outcome of Getty the
battle of Gettysburg.
Sometimes leadership requires leading
people to a place they do not want to go
because we see a vision that we know we
must obtain. And that's what we bring
forward to you today that I ask you
humbly please at least acknowledge to a
degree.
One question that came up when we were
in our retreat and different discussions
through this is can we create a tax
change and just create it for like a
year or two and then roll it back? And
the fact is state law doesn't allow you
to do that. But it was something that we
as a council were like, "Yeah, we could
get behind that." And it's kind of
unfortunate that state law doesn't allow
you to do that because there will be
additional income coming into our
community soon, but right now we have to
find money to make sure we get
everything accomplished. So, I wanted to
let you guys know if anybody was
wondering why can't you just do it for
two years or a year? It's just not
allowed in the state law.
So, I just want to point out maybe one
one additional benchmarking tool if it's
helpful. We we currently as a city, we
are the ninth fastest growing city in
America, not in Utah, but in the United
States, Saratoga Springs. I don't know
how they beat us. It doesn't feel like
they did.
Not that it's a competition. I don't
want to be the fastest, but we are
[clears throat]
um our our rate today, we are the second
lowest in all of Utah County uh behind
Cedar Fort. So, our current rate is
0.00534.
Our I I'll say sister city, Saratoga
Springs. Uh maybe they've done a better
job of managing that rate, but they're
at 0.00976.
They are also proposing a 100%
increase to their rate. And I I I
thought about that and I thought
Saratoga Springs has a much much larger
producing commercial base than we do.
They have Costco, Home Depot. I mean, a
lot of our residents shop there. We're
we're actually helping them with their
revenue. Every time you shop at Costco,
you're helping Saratoga Springs. when we
shop here that helps us from a sales tax
point. If this proposed rate and I will
just say I am not in support of this
rate as as proposed. Um I I think it
needs to be lower. It needs to be
certainly somewhere in the middle. if we
increase
if we change our rate from 0.00005
and there's some other numbers after
that but that'll suffice uh for my point
I'm going to make if if we just doubled
our our rate to 0.11%.
That would new revenue
uh generated would be 3.4 million. So,
to be fair to our conversation, all of
those dollars would go to the sheriff's
office,
that would free up about roughly just
under $2 million of sales tax revenue
that's currently supporting that
contract. I I think at a at a bare
minimum, given all the road
infrastructure, we have, the staffing,
getting our employees just to a 90% of
the median, uh, that that would be the
the lowest that I would consider.
But, uh, after this
increase, Saratoga Springs, and again,
I'm just kind of benchmarking because
they are close to us, but I do think
they have a better commercial base than
we do, although we're working on it um,
as hard as we can. We have an economic
director that is traveling all over the
country, beating on every knocking on
every door, beating every bush. I get
emails from her every it feels like
every other day of who she's meeting
with, who she's talking to uh to to try
to build out our commercial base. Uh but
with with the proposed increase, Seruga
Springs would land at about 00015
and uh the next city down from there at
00014 is Ben's old employer, Santa Quinn
city. So, I would just
um encourage the council to consider
backing off that number of 00017. And I
I I would love to to hear an argument.
You know, we can go high. We've we've
heard several residents that have come
here tonight. And um I'm mindful that we
have two district one elementaryaries in
our city. Those families, it's tight.
Oh, I'm sorry. What did I say? What did
I say?
District one.
That would be college football, I think.
Tit title one. Excuse me. It's getting
late. Um, but we have two title one
elementaryaries and and that just means
that the families we we do have families
that are that will be sensitive to the
tax increase. And so I'm in my mind I'm
trying to balance that along with we
have needs within the city. We have not
kept up. And again, that's not the
resident's fault. that is a I think a
failure of policy within our city for
the last decade. But that that that's
kind of where I'm where I'm landing is
to come where somewhere closer to uh
maybe where Saratoga Springs is um that
has a similar uh population rate,
although they do have a better
commercial base.
Hey, just a point of clarification if
that's okay. Uh I don't think Saratoga's
rates 100%. I think it's closer to 50.
uh 53%. So they're they're at uh today
their rate today, excuse me, is 000976
and after their increase they'll be at
015.
So they'll go up six points.
Let's talk. They don't want to sit here
and listen to us blabber.
Well, sorry.
What do we want to do? Look, I I'm going
to tell you that I've I've kind of
looked at this and I've uh I've talked
to a couple of council members
individually
and
there's such a tremendous need, but I
feel like that probably a better balance
is to bring the rate down a little bit.
And I could get behind where council
member Huish is at. He and I have
actually talked about this. For me, I
think the one the one five, however many
zeros in the 15 Z
I don't know what that percentage is,
but for me that that's perhaps a more
appropriate number. Um, also recognizing
that and I I hate to even tell the
citizens this because but next year
we're going to be right back here again
as we go through the UFSA. Um and and
frankly it'll give us a year to evaluate
where things go and to take a look at at
any perhaps increases in revenues that
we see and allow us to make an
adjustment then. So that's that's what
I'm thinking.
Can I Oh,
I was just going to say I will say
council member Huish brought up we're
just going to call it the one one.
That's the median of what's going on in
our county and that really is the bare
minimum of what we could do. It still
gives us a revenue shortfall of 3.3
million. So, um
I I think we should look at that, but I
also am sensitive to the fact that
because we haven't changed anything for
so so long, we are so far off the mark
of other cities our size like Saratoga
and they're at the 15. Um, and right now
the the one you guys got as a tax
statement all said 17. So it is a
significant step down from that. Um,
and it's probably in the 70 65 to 70th
percentile of what's going on in the
county as far as tax rates.
So, uh, one of the, uh, gentlemen that
spoke earlier read a private email that
I had exchanged with him. I didn't
realize it would be read, and I'm fine
that he read it, but that the email
openly stated that I was that I was very
already considering the 17, a reduction
from 17. So, I'm definitely definitely
open to considering a number that's
different than the 17 number.
What number do you suggest?
I've I've been around 15 is when is what
I've been looking at.
I want to manage expectations because
honestly where we land on the numbers
we're going to be looking at this again
and I think that you need to be aware of
that. We need to be able to evaluate
every year uh where we actually land
going the other direction with this.
That means that we're going to have to
things. And I think if you're okay with
that as citizens and you're like, "We
understand there's not money for us to
do all the trails. There's not money for
us to keep our parks where they need to
be. We don't have enough people to even
take care of those things." And you'll
you'll rally around us and help us uh
come up with some options to be able to
deal with some of these things. Then
it's probably something that we can get
behind because then we're dealing with
this as a community. But if we continue
on the path that was laid for us,
everything is going to be in disrepair.
That's going to cost two and three times
the amount to bring it back to a level
that's acceptable. So I
though I am not excited about going to
the 0.15 because I feel like that that
is if we felt like that's what it was,
we should have started with that
frankly. Um, I heard what you said, too.
And I I felt what each one of you said
about how it's impacting your homes. Um,
so maybe that's maybe that's the
direction we need to go for this year.
And we all hope and pray that uh when
QTS starts this next month that those
funds bring the revenue that we've all
been waiting for, that we've all been
promised. uh and that as these other uh
buildings are built for Facebook and QTS
that we realize those funds. Um I hope
this isn't the last time you're here.
We're better when you come in here
pissed off and ready to fight. Frankly,
uh it makes us better at making the
decisions that we're that we have to
make, but we also need you to stand side
by side with us when we make the
decision and help us to meet the
shortfalls. So that's where I'm at.
Hey, just for the uh benefit of the
residents, I know we've talked about
this a lot uh in other meetings, but uh
using numbers like 1517 is it can get
confusing. Uh maybe you could refer it
to a dollar amount if it's possible or
just help us understand where that's
going.
So I just just to clarify, mayor, what
what we're discussing is
reducing the the the proposed tax
increase rate to 0.0015.
That would be from 0.0017.
Yeah. I don't think anybody there
besides us understand amount that means.
So that's what I'm trying to tell. Oh,
sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead.
So here here it's somewhere in the in
the middle in terms of like a a tax
rate. U so an annual sorry an average
home annual increase over the certified
rate it would land somewhere between
$245 to 268 because we're sort of
proposing something in between two two
uh numbers I'm looking at. So call it
like 255 or something. You divide that
by 12 or sorry divide that by 365.
So, it's like a 69 cent per day
increase, something like that.
Kimberly, can you give us a number? Can
you do the math?
I' I've got the exact math.
Yeah, it ends up being I can get you an
exact number.
No, no, not the tax rate because So, the
breakdowns we have go by 5% each. Um,
and so, so the actual number it would be
a 183.02% 02% increase is what I is what
I'm so what I'm seeing is this the
annual revenue sorry the net revenue
above the certified rate would be 5
million591,594
which represents a 183.02% 02% increase
instead of a 220.
But I was just saying the net effect of
the residents is closer to like a 70
cents per day on the average.
That's what I was talking about is the
the net revenue, Craig. So, thank you.
That's I think that helps everybody
understand what it means. We're talking
about uh $5.5 million uh $250 a year,
things like that
around that 0.1 or 015.
Is there any other comments on
rate or or dollar amounts? I've heard a
few opinions. I kind of lost track. I
think I heard Council Member Whiting say
around the the five.5 million.
It's not appropriate. Public hearing
time has passed.
If if there's no further discussion, I
will entertain a motion. Haven't seen
anybody raise their hand. So,
mayor, I'll make a motion.
Okay.
And then, uh, hopefully we're listening
to this, so make sure I do this right.
I move that the city council hereby
approves and adopts a property tax rate
of 0.001500
for fiscal year 2026 to 2027. This rate
exceeds the certified tax rate of
0.00530 0000530
and will result in an increase in the
city's advorum property tax budgeted
revenue of approximately
5,591,594,
let's see, or
183.02% is 02%
above the city's property tax budgeted
revenue for the prior year exclusive of
new growth.
Second.
Okay, we do have a motion by council
member Whiting, second by council member
Wright. Uh either Marcus or Lacy, do you
feel do you understand the motion and is
it clear?
I want to clarify the uh tax the 0.0015.
Correct. Okay. Thank you. Yep.
Is there any other questions on the
motion?
Just one question for Marcus. If we have
a desire to put a policy in place for
this, is this something that we do at
this time as a condition or do we bring
that back? I think that's something
you'd bring back later if you're talking
about adopting an ordinance uh requiring
say to look at it every year was was
suggested earlier or uh adopting a
resolution that's later date that after
it comes into the general fund that it
be segregated into a separate fund then
that would come out at another meeting.
Thank you.
I think that we need to definitely
address that in our next city council
meeting. So, no other questions.
Okay. Not seeing any other questions.
Uh, we'll go ahead and start a vote.
We'll start with Council Member Wood.
Yes.
Council member Whiting.
Yes.
Council member Wright.
Yes.
Council member Clark.
Yes.
And Council Member Huish?
Yes.
Okay, that passes five to zero and
carries. Um
that is the last item on our agenda
other than one other item.
Motion to adjourn.
Second.
Okay. Was that Council Member Wood and
Council Member Wright?
And all in favor of the motion, please
say I.
I.
Any opposed?
Seeing none, we will adjourn the meeting
at 10:38. Thank you.