City Council 4-5-16

Notice of cancellation.

Utah League of Cities and Towns Midyear Convention 4/6-8/16

Agenda

This was my first time attending a gathering of the Utah League of Cities and towns.  It was held in St. George at the convention center.

• Wednesday evening I joined the city administrator in a session on powers and duties presented by ULCT General Counsel, Dave Church.
• Thursday was the big day of the convention.  There were many booths with vendors of companies that do business with cities and towns.
• During the first half of the day in the “business session” the entire group listened to ULCT staff give reports on the recent legislative session and how it affected ULCT member entities.  During this session we also heard from the Deputy Director of the Governer’s office of Economic Development, the State Auditor, House Speaker, Lt. Governer, and Gail Miller.  The session concluded with a keynote speach by author Peter Leyden, who spoke about technology paradigm shifts.
• During the second half of the day the group broke up into several concurrent sessions on a variety of topics.  I attended presentations called:  “Property tax; the good, the bad, and the necessary”, “Investing in your largest asset – your employees” and “Communicating with the public during a disaster”.
• Friday began with another full group presentation by Dave Church about getting things done when you don’t see eye to eye.
• After that the group again broke into a variety of concurrent sessions.  I attended presentations called “Legal issues associated with government use of social media” and “Live stream your public meetings”.  (The latter is something I’ve been very interested in for Riverdale, as I believe it can be done affordably and it benefits real time accessibility and transparency for our citizens; I’ll be pushing for this.)
• The convention concluded with a full group session and a keynote speach by the Director of the Governer’s Office of Economic Development about a book he wrote.

City Council 4-19-16

Agenda, Minutes, Recording

• Three citizens spoke during open communications.  The first citizen was concerned about the results of a court case.  The second was there representing the Communities that Care with an invitation to an elementary school musical production and a reminder of the unused prescription drug drop off program.  The third was a representative of a railroad union and said they are looking for the city’s support on a railroad related public safety issue.
• The council set 3 public hearings to be held in May and June.  Two concerning the upcoming budget and one concerning surplus property.
• The only action item of the night (a resolution adopting the county pre-disaster mitigation plan) was tabled for the next meeting due to insufficient information.

RDA Board 4-19-16

Agenda, Minutes, Recording

• The Board set two public hearings to be held in May and June.  Both are concerning the upcoming budget.

LOOKING AHEAD

City Council meetings will be held on 5-3-16 and 5-17-16 with both meetings including public hearings; the RDA Board will also meet on 5-3-16 and 5-17-16 with a public hearing included on 5-3-16. There will be a Strategic Planning meeting on 5-14-16 at the Senior Center concerning the preliminary budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

Also, I believe citizens may have a desire to know that there is to be serious discussions in the next month or two about our water billing structure and rate.  There has been a lot of talk about the history of the rate, our rate in relation to other cities and some upcoming funding challenges for our water infrastructure.  So if you are concerned about, or interested in this issue, please follow along with upcoming public meetings and make your thoughts known to your city representatives.

You can always find more detailed information at riverdalecity.com.