Salt Lake City

Council District 5

Ballpark, Central Ninth, East Liberty Park, Liberty Wells

Mano’s Meeting Thoughts: June 15, 2021

COUNCIL WORK SESSION: 

1. ADMINISTRATIVE UPDATES: 

COVID: No zips above the 191/100k rate. 52% of Eligible SLCO residents are vaccinated. Slight uptick post-Memorial Day. Each week there is about a 2% increase in vaccination rates.  

CITY AND COUNTY BUILDING: Many departments are returning in a hybrid model. Public meetings may begin by appointment in some departments (Planning and Building Services included). In addition to COVID restrictions there are some major repair projects needed to remediate earthquake damage. Stairs entering the building need to be repaired as well as some interior plaster. All building repairs look to be cosmetic and we should be able to get the structure back to 100%. All great news. 

HOMELESSNESS: HRC’s are at about 87% capacity. There is some capacity internally and outreach teams are referring individuals to shelter. Airport Inn and Vulnerable Populations Motel are shutting down so there might be increased pressure on the system. Next resource fair is June 16th at Cottonwood Park, Kayak Court will be on June 23rd. The Downtown Ambassador program expansion is expiring later this year. We will need to discuss those programs and their extension soon. There are several locations for cooling, showers, etc. and we should get information about those resources which we can share with the public soon.  

POLICING: We are, unfortunately, continuing to lose officers to retirements or resignations. There are currently 67 vacant or pending vacant positions in the department. One officer from Las Vegas has applied for a lateral hire. There are 93 candidates in the pipeline of new officers which could start training as soon as late summer. We also received a briefing of how to read CompStat data. If anyone is interested in this data it might be interesting to re-watch this presentation. We also had an impromptu discussion about what defunding the police would look like on the ground. This was interesting as well and might be worth watching.  

2.  FY 21-22 BUDGET, UNRESOLVED ISSUES: This was our final update on items related to the budget. This was an exceptional year and there was so so so much work done by our staff and the mayor’s staff to get us to this point. I feel good about where we are at. This budget is potentially the largest one time increase to city services SLC has ever experienced and I believe we will serve our residents better than we ever have.  

3. REZONE @ 860/868 E. 3RD AVENUE: This would move two parcels from CN and SR-1A to R-MU-35. The resulting project would be townhouses. There is a gas station which would be removed and an existing home which would remain. The townhomes would occupy the gas station and the space adjacent to the historic home.  

4. RACIAL EQUITY AND POLICING RECOMMENDATIONS: We received 6 new recommendations from the REP Commission (5 related to policy and 1 relating to school safety). Prior to reading their recommendation Commissioners McDonald and Salazar-Hall gave me some touching personal support and I want to thank them again here. Your support, love, and kindness are needed. My synopsis is below and the full recommendation document can be found here.

RECOMMENDATION 1: BODY-WORN CAMERAS. The commission recommended a qualified outside individual be designated to randomly audit footage from body worn cameras. They recommended increasing the number of reviewed videos each month to be increased from 5 to 20. They also recommended that we strive for advanced CALEA accreditation.  

RECOMMENDATION 2: IMPLICIT BIAS STUDY. The REP Commission recommended that an Implicit Bias survey be conducted by a third-party and according to national best practices. The results of this survey would inform next steps.  

RECOMMENDATION 3: COMMUNITY BASED TRAINING. This training added training would teach new officers about this history of communities of color in SLC and the Unites States as a whole. There was emphasis given that this training needs to be a safe space for officer and trainers in order to make space for “AH HA moments”.  

RECOMMENDATION 4: MENTAL HEALTH CO-RESPONSE. The REP Commission recommended that we continue to further invest in the Co-Responder model. This has been a priority of the council. This type of response model is necessary.  

RECOMMENDATION 5: CALL DIVERSION AND DISPATCH. This is an area that I have been interested in. Dispatchers are the first first responders and I believe there are improvements that we can make. One specific recommendation would be adding “mental health emergency” to the dispatch script to help direct calls to the correct response model.  

RECOMMENDATION 6: SCHOOL SAFETY MOU. Extend the existing MOU for 6 months or until renegotiated. The reason for the extension is to give the new superintendent some time to get settled in his new job. But they also assured us that this is a high priority and they will have suggestions for improvement and cannot be held off too long.  

5. REZONE + MASTERPLAN AMENDMENT @ 850/870 E. 2100 SOUTH: This is a rezone request for the Snelgrove Ice Cream site. They are requesting a change from CC (Corridor Commercial) to CSHBD2 (Sugar House Business District). This project would be a housing project and the developer is seeking to include some affordable housing within their project.  

6. REZONE + MASTERPLAN AMENDMENT @ 810 E. 800 SOUTH: This is a parcel near the Smiths at 9th and 9th. The request is to rezone the property from R-2 to CB. CB is the zoning that exists on the Smith’s parcel and much of the 9th and 9th area. The Planning Commission forwarded a positive recommendation as did the community council. This project is proposed as a small mixed use development with residential over ground floor commercial.  

7. INFORMATION ON MOSQUITO ABATEMENT DISTRICT: Dr. Ari Faraji from the Mosquito Abatement District gave us a broad overview of what the MAD does. Their overall mission is to cut down on the mosquito population inhabited parts of the city to reduce nuisance and public health issues. Part of the reason for this briefing is that the MAD is planning to issue a tax increase in order to keep their operations moving forward.  

8. BOARD APPOINTMENTS: We met Meggie Troili is being appointed to the Art Design Board. Meggie is an artist with experience in public art (and had an awesome hat). Tiffini Porter is also being appointed to the Art Design Board. Tiffini has a lot of experience serving on boards for arts organizations and will do a great job. Bill Davis (an influential D5 resident!) is being appointed to the Housing Authority Board. I know Bill well and he will do a great job in this role. Bill has experience with development, with the Housing Authority, and is a bit of an urban planning nerd like myself. Justin Rodriguez is being appointed to the Police Civilian Review Board. Justin came to SLC from LA about 5 years ago. He told a heartwarming story about diversity, representation, and the growth of SLC into an inclusive and diverse community.  

FORMAL MEETINGS: 

1. FY 21-22 LOCAL BUILDING AUTHORITY BUDGET: Approved Unanimously (with one Board Member not yet present) 

2. FY 20-21 REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY BUDGET AMENDMENT NO. 1: Approved Unanimously 

3. FY 21-22 REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY BUDGET: Approved Unanimously 

4. JUNETEENTH RESOLUTION: We adopted a joint resolution recognizing Juneteenth in Salt Lake City. I’m so proud to serve a city which recognizes and celebrates important days like Juneteenth. We as a city oppose and reject oppression in any form. We also met Jeanetta Williams from the NAACP and may of her committee members. It was an honor to have them in our meeting.  

5. GRANT APPLICATIONS: We heard 4 or 5 comments on these grant applications.  

6. FY 20-21 LIBRARY BUDGET AMENDMENT NO. 2: Approved Unanimously 

7. FY 20-21 CITY BUDGET AMENDMENT NO. 9: Approved Unanimously  

8. FY 21-22 SLC BUDGET ADOPTION: Jennifer Bruno gave a great overview of some of the highlights of this budget adoption. If anyone is interested in what we are funding this year, watching that would be a great place to start. All of the many motions associated with the budget were Approved Unanimously. 

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