City Council 9-18-18

Agenda, Minutes, Audio, Video

• Chief Sholly recognized some residents and staff who offered life saving assistance in a medical emergency at the recreation center.
• During Public Comment the council heard from 2 residents who had some concerns about the possible consolidation of our fire department with other cities.
• The council gave consensus (4-1) approval for the city staff to move forward with creating a proposal for Fire Department consolidation with South Ogden City and Washington Terrace (possibly more).  I will note here that I did not consent to this approval for several reasons.  
  • I believe we already have an excellent, high performing Fire Department.
  • We would no longer have majority control over decisions affecting our fire department service and budgets.
  • Once a deal like this is made there is (pretty much) no going back.
  • You will hear that it will be cheaper per resident, but it’s not as if residents will be getting money back or having lower city bills or taxes; this is sales tax money, any savings will be used elsewhere (savings are not guaranteed, there is much to negotiate).
  • I do not trust any other city governments to make decisions that are in the best interest of Riverdale residents.  Our city has a very different resident/business situation than our neighbor cities and different strengths and weaknesses, their last concern would be our important issues.
  • We have not thoroughly explored overcoming the departments perceived shortfalls (which are very few) with our own efforts and strategies.  I think we could and should look harder at finding solutions within ourselves before we consider consolidation.
  • The final reason is complicated, but possibly the most important.  Consolidating Fire Departments could jeopardize one of the key factors that has allowed Riverdale City to successfully lobby for sales tax redistribution relief and also for a favorable budget from other taxing entities in a very important RDA area (we are also currently trying to negotiate terms for another area).  The main reason we were able to secure some relief is the fact that our small city supports inflated Public Safety Departments to handle all of the visitors that the commercial activity brings each day.  Enacting anything that could possibly be detrimental to the efforts of protecting this key source of revenue would be a huge mistake.  This would not just impact the Fire Department, it would impact every aspect of the city as it would be a major blow to the general fund.  That is not a reasonable risk for the very modest proposed advantages.  We need to be playing the long game here and making every effort to extend or make permanent the tax redistribution relief, not making decisions based on emotion and anecdotal evidence (which are both logical fallacies).
• The council approved an amendment to a shared use and land exchange agreement with the Greenhill Apartments project. (Valley West)
• The council approved an ordinance adding a new chapter to Title * for the transfer of water rights for new developments.

RDA Board 9-18-18

Notice of Cancellation

City Council 9-4-18

Agenda, Minutes, Audio, Video

• The council discussed a starting point design for a possible round-a-bout at the intersection of 1050 West, South Weber Drive and Ritter.  There will be a public open house at the Civic Center on 9-27-18 to discuss and hear public thoughts, ideas and concerns before a preliminary plan is submitted for an environmental review.
• The council discussed a proposal that would have new developments transfer surface water rights to the city.  This is one part of a larger strategy to better utilize all of the options for water supply options available to the city and become more efficient in that regard.
• The council approved an ordinance updating electrical and dangerous building codes.

LOOKING AHEAD:  There will be City Council meetings on 10/2/18 and 10/16/18.  The RDA Board will meet on 10/16/18.  There will be a joint Strategic Planning Meeting held with the Planning Commission on 10/30/2018 at 6:00pm at the Community Center.  Subscribe to Riverdale City’s Youtube channel for live and past video coverage of council meetings.

REMINDER: These monthly reports are only a brief summary (from my point of view) of our public meetings; you can find more detailed, and official city information at riverdalecity.com.  These posts are also updated throughout the month as meetings take place and new information and related links become available.

PLEASE:  Don’t hesitate to contact me directly at any time with any thoughts, ideas, complaints, questions, insults or compliments.