At today’s Council Meetings:

• The Council announced it will make a choice at the April 20 meeting on changing this year’s City elections to ranked-choice voting.
• The Council received late today a draft of the first part of a police budget audit. It will be discussed at the April 20 meeting.
• The Mayor and Council adopted a joint ceremonial resolution declaring 30 days of “Sound the Alarm” to help educate and protect residents of our community against home fires.
  

Council Work Session items
The Council received:

• an informational update on recent efforts on various projects related to racial equity and policing in the City.
  • Council staff reported a draft of the first part of an audit of the police budget was received Tuesday afternoon. The audit will come in two parts. A briefing on the report will be made at the April 20 Council meeting. The audit is a precursor to a zero-based budgeting exercise of the police department and some of the initial findings may inform the Council’s budget deliberations in May and June.
    
  • The Racial Equity in Policing (REP) Commission continues to meet regularly, usually weekly. Subcommittee meetings are scheduled for next week, and the next full REP meeting is scheduled for April 7 at 5 pm.
    
  • The REP Youth Subcommittee noted school citations are down, and the subcommittee made several overall recommendations, including changes to summer programs, adding a Peer Court, and adding back a City advisor on education. Read: More on the Commission
    
    
• an informational update on relieving the condition of people experiencing homelessness. The Mayor reports encampments in the Fleet Block area will be closed in the next week. People there are continuing to be offered assistance from community partners through the Community Commitment Program and the accompanying Resource Fairs. Also, the Downtown Ambassadors program, a neighborhood assistance program, is expanding in the North Temple area.

Other Agenda items

The Council received:

• a follow-up briefing about an option to participate in the State- authorized Municipal Alternative Voting Method Pilot Program project, otherwise known as single-winner ranked-choice voting (RCV) or instant runoff voting. Five Utah cities are considering RCV. Discussion among the Council included costs, how the ranked-choice voting process works, how the elections would be conducted, relevant bills in the Legislature’s 2021 General Session and public education efforts. Council action is scheduled for April 20.
  
  
• a briefing about an ordinance amendment related to idling of vehicles, penalty amendments, and exemption amendments. Nine other Utah cities have passed similar laws. The proposed changes include updated language for idling restriction exceptions, such as during extreme temperatures, operation of equipment in emergency and law enforcement vehicles, or stopped for traffic control devices. Council discussion included the proposed update that would allow the City to issue a citation after only one warning. Council action on this item will be scheduled.
  

• a follow-up briefing about the Mayor’s funding recommendations and an appropriations resolution that would adopt the One-year Annual Action Plan for Fiscal Year 2021-22 for granting federal dollars. The plan includes Community Development Block Grant funding, HOME Investment Partnership Program funding, Emergency Solutions Grant funding, Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS funding. A public hearing was held this night. Tentative Council action on this item is April 20.
  
  
• a briefing about the Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) annual report. The report included the number of applications received, the address of each unit for which an application was submitted, an explanation of why an application was denied, and a map showing approved accessory dwelling units. Council discussion included ADU heights, conditional uses, lot usage requirements, and potential future ordinance adjustments or budget initiatives to facilitate more ADUs at affordable rents. This report covers the time period from October 2018 to December 31, 2020. More than 45 ADUs were either built, under construction or in the permit process during that period.
  
  
• a briefing about a proposal that would vacate a City-owned alley adjacent to properties at 1025 West North Temple and 1022, 1028, 1030 and 1032 West Learned Avenue. A public hearing to accept public comment is Tuesday, May 18.
  
  
• a briefing about a proposal that would vacate a City-owned alley known as the Fern Subdivision Alley located between 1000 East and 1100 East and between Wood Avenue and Logan Avenue. A public hearing to accept public comment is Tuesday, May 18.

Council Formal Meeting:

The Council held public hearings on three items. The hearings were closed and two will be voted upon at a future meeting:

• Grant Application: Utah Railroad Safety Grant 2021. Adopted.
• Ordinance: Budget Amendment No. 7 for current City budget. Tentative Council action is Tuesday, April 20.
• One-year Action Plan for Community Development Block Grant & Other Federal Grants for Fiscal Year 2021-22 Tentative Council action is Tuesday, April 20.
• The scheduled comment periods for public hearings and the open comment section included more than 40 people who spoke about people experiencing homelessness, concerns about police services and those related funding requests, HUD grants, and other topics.

The Council adopted:

• an ordinance that amends the current budget for the Library Fund.
• an ordinance amendment that increases the ongoing annual Capital Improvement Program funding minimum for art from 1% to 1.5%.
• a joint ceremonial resolution declaring 30 days of “Sound the Alarm” to help educate and protect residents of our community against home fires. This is an American Red Cross program.

All agenda-related comments received through any source are shared with the Council and added to the Council public meeting record.

Visit the Council’s agenda page for meeting documents and video or view an archive of prior meeting recaps.