Redevelopment Agency Meeting

GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENTS: No comments received.

PUBLIC HEARING:

• RDA BUDGET AMENDMENT NO.1 FOR FY 21-22: No public comments were heard and we closed the hearing and adopted the budget amendment.

MEETING REMOTELY: Ratified the determination to continue meeting remotely.

PROJECT AREA EXTENSIONS: We unanimously approved the extension of 4 project areas (CBD, North Temple, Depot District, and Granary) because of delays due to COVID. This is an option given to us by the state legislature.

REVISIONS TO RDA GUIDING FRAMEWORK: We discussed some changes to the RDA’s primary mission statement, our 3 primary values, and our list of 20 “livability benchmarks.” This is the basic goals of the RDA by which the activities and investments should be guided. The most significant change is that we will be changing our “community impact” value to “equity and inclusion.” This document is intended to give staff and developers guidelines to understand who participation by the RDA will be evaluated.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT POLICY: This was a really exciting discussion. We learned about several new policies that are being proposed which will require higher goals for sustainability, energy reduction, renewable energy production, etc. when the RDA participates in projects. This is really important and I agree with the premise that if we are participating in the project, it should be held to a higher energy standard than typical construction.

RDA BUDGET AMENDMENT NO.1 FOR FY 21-22: Not discussed because we had already adopted the amendment.

Council Work Session Meeting

ADMINISTRATIVE UPDATES:

• COVID: SL County (and all counties in Utah) are in the high transmission level. ICU usage is in the mid-90%. Our child metrics were a bit down at the end of Sept but have raised. SL School district is still very low on a per-capita rate. There is not much movement in our vaccination rates in our most affected zip codes.

• HOMELESSNESS: Occupancy rates are similar to last week. Liberty Park resource fair is scheduled but the weather has affected the scheduling. Andrew gave us another great update on how things are happening behind the scenes with relation to homeless service providers or planning committees. I have really appreciated Andrew’s insights over the past few meetings because it really gives a window into why things we see on the street are happening. I would encourage everyone to listen to those.

• SAFETY: Chief Brown gave us a police staffing and response time update. The response times have climbed over the year of 2021. In August, priority 1 call response times went up to 17:34 which is not acceptable. In September they dropped to 14:14. This is an improvement but still not acceptable and should be under 10 min. Part of this problem is that over the last 4 years the calls for service has gone up from 254 up to 310 total calls each day. As of today we have 55 vacant positions. This has gone up from 51 since our last update on September 21st. In addition to hiring sworn officers, we are looking at call diversion, hiring retired officers, civilian response teams, etc.

UPDATES ON RACIAL EQUITY AND POLICING: We skipped this item because there was nothing major to discuss.

POLICE BODY WORN CAMERAS: This discussion was information about our city’s funding and technology for body worn cameras. SLC uses a company called AXON for our hardware and software vendor. We have been investing in better technology for the purposes of collecting important digital evidence and increasing public transparency and accountability. We have invested a lot in this technology over the past 2 years and there will likely be additional investments in the future.

NAMING OF THE MARK SMITH MEMORIAL ARBORETUM: This is a new arboretum of 50 trees in the SLC Cemetery. This naming is in honor of the long term City Cemetery Sexton, Mark Smith. Kristin Riker and Tony Gliot from Public Lands told us a bit about who Mark was and why he was so important to the cemetery. The arboretum will be unveiled on Nov. 6th at 10 am.

CENTRAL WASATCH COMMISSION UPDATE: Today former Mayor Ralph Becker came and gave us an update on the work of the Central Wasatch Commission. He is the executive director of the CWC. SLC is a member of the CWC and contributes dues. Their purpose is to implement the mountain accord. This is an intergovernmental body of which the SLC mayor has a seat and vote. The major discussion right now is the transportation congestion/solutions for the cottonwood canyons (gondola, bus, etc.). There is not a final decision on that.

DIGITAL DONATION PROGRAM: This is a proposal to donate some of the city’s old computers to families and organizations to help bridge the digital divide that we see in our city. This first step would be to donate 18 Mac computers to clients at the Sorenson Youth and Family Center.

LOCAL COVID EMERGENCY DECLARATION: We discussed this extension and I advocated for us to extend the emergency declaration coincident with school breaks in order to give students and teachers as much clarity and predictability as possible.

Special Limited Formal Meeting

LOCAL COVID EMERGENCY DECLARATION EXTENSION: Council unanimously approved the extension until December 20, 2021 (to align with the school district’s winter break).