RDA BOARD MEETING: 

1. LOAN TO COLONY B LLC (228 W. 1300 S.): We learned about and approved an emergency gap financing loan of $1.34M for a project adjacent to the Ballpark Trax Station. This project has a lot of great aspects including a program with the VOA Youth Resource Center to house young adults aging out of the foster care program. It will be 140 total units, 106 of which are affordable for 50 years. This will make a big impact in our affordable housing goals and needs. We approved this loan but I did raise some concerns with the project. I don’t like how the project lacks ground floor retail which I think is important in this location or how it is only studio and one bedroom units. Family sized housing is needed and we aren’t keeping up with that demand. 

2. AFFORDABLE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT PRIORITIES: This was a robust discussion about our affordable housing funding priorities. We revisited a list of 13 priorities that the board has given RDA staff related to use of housing dollars. The discussion turned into how these priorities are implemented. Currently they are simply a list of priorities. Because there are 13 and they are adequately broad most every project can claim they met at least a few of them. It also leaves some of our priorities vulnerable to not being met at all. Additionally, Boardmember Rogers also raised a red flag about the idea of using NWQ money for an ADU program rather than for the Community Land Trust. We will need more discussion on this topic in order for the board to get on the same page. 

3. RDA PROPERTY REPORT: This was a written briefing but if anyone wants to view the list of properties that are currently owned by the RDA the information is here: https://slc.primegov.com/meeting/attachment/17728.pdf… 

COUNCIL WORK SESSION: 

1. ADMINISTRATIVE UPDATES: 

a. EMERGENCIES: 84101 is close but not quite at our target of 189 cases per 100,000 people. The state has met the threshold of 1.6 million prime doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. This means that the mayor’s emergency orders expired today due to the state legislature covid end-game legislation. The emergency declarations for the earthquake and windstorm will expire tomorrow and it was determined that they do not need to be extended. 

b. HOMELESSNESS: An encampment at 400 W and 600 S on private property is being abated today. Occupancy in the 3 resource centers is hovering around 90%. 

2. RACIAL EQUITY IN POLICING UPDATE: Tomorrow the full commission meets at 5:00 pm which is open to the public. Information about that meeting can be found here: tinyurl.com/slcracialequity There is another listening session being planned on May 19th at 6:00 pm. 

3. PERMITTING OUTDOOR BUSINESS ACTIVITIES: One thing that ended today with the mayor’s emergency orders is allowance for business to do outdoor dining and retail activities which help with social distancing. Have been asked to extend this allowance through a temporary land use ordinance. I like this idea and feel that we need to make it permanent. Outdoor business activities are a great way to activate streetscapes and help support our small business community. I think this is a case where we need to loosen up some of our regulations so that we can get out of our own way and allow neighborhoods and small businesses to thrive. 

4. POLICING OFFICER TRAINING AND PROMOTIONS: Chief Brown, Lieutenant Alma Sweeney, and Deb Alexander from HR joined us to discuss our training programs within SLCPD. SLC operates our own training program and does not send our officers to the state POST academy. This allows us to focus our training to mirror city policies which is great. But the chief explained that our physical facilities are somewhat limited. There are many different training programs and systems in place and we also learned about several potential new programs including the locally focused diversity training recommended by the REP commission. We also heard about the changes that were recently made to how we promote officers into leadership. When we eliminated the Civil Service Commission earlier this year we made it much faster and more flexible for the city to make promotions. We are also now able to consider external applicants for leadership positions, something which was prohibited under the CSC. This means that we have a more diverse and robust pool of applicants. Functionally, this also means that we have the ability to create cultural changes in the department when needed. If all leaders are hired from within it is very difficult to change an organization’s culture. 

5. FY 20-21 BUDGET AMENDMENT NO. 8: This includes 4 items: hiring a lateral class of police officers, Crisis Intervention Training for the Police Department, a $2M donation to Switchpoint to help them purchase the Airport Inn for use as extended stay transitional housing for seniors and veterans, and funding for a public education campaign regarding Ranked Choice Voting. We spoke a lot about the (quite urgent) need for filling empty police officer positions with a lateral class of 12 officers. We straw polled this and will be supporting it but using fund balance instead of the $2.8M holding account about which we are awaiting ideas and input from the REP Commission.  

6. FY 20-21 BUDGET AMENDMENT NO. 9: This item was pulled for discussion next week because we were running behind.  

7. NEW CITY BUILDING OFFICIAL KEN ANDERSON: Ken has been with Salt Lake for many years and has worked his way up the ranks. He will be replacing Orion Goff who has accepted an expanded role within city administration. 

8. BOARD APPOINTMENT: We met Dani Cepernich who was proposed by the mayor for appointment to the Public Utilities Advisory Committee (PUAC). Dani has been involved in the legal community but will now be bringing their knowledge to our Public Utilities department. 

9. ZONING AMENDMENT AT 2058 N. 2200 W: This was a written briefing about a rezone from AG-2 to M-1. This was discussed in July of 2019 but action was held to allow concerns with the adjacent property owners to be addressed which has since taken place. 

LOCAL BUILDING AUTHORITY FORMAL MEETING: 

1. TENTATIVE LOCAL BUILDING AUTHORITY BUDGET FOR FY 21-22: This was approved. It is a formality required under state law so that if the council is unable to approve the final budget there is a “backup budget” in place. 

RDA BOARD FORMAL MEETING: 

1. TENTATIVE RDA BUDGET FOR FY 21-22: This was approved for the same reasons above. 

COUNCIL FORMAL MEETING: 

1. MAYOR’S BUDGET PRESENTATION: We watched a video of the Mayor’s budget highlights. This will be the majority of what we discuss over the coming week. The vide can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/BwWQsi7-PkU/ 

2. PUBLIC HEARINGS: 

a. GRANT APPLICATIONS: We accepted public input on 6 grant applications related to transportation input. Two comments were heard one with concerns and the other expressing support. 

b. BUDGET AMENDMENT NO. 8: This is the same item we received our briefing on this afternoon. Most of the comments we received related to the police lateral class and the comments were mixed between support and opposition.  

3. ACTION ITEMS: 

a. MEETING REMOTELY: We unanimously ratified the determination to continue meeting remotely.  

b. LOCAL EMERGENCY EXTENSION FOR COVID-19: This did not get a vote because the state’s legislation automatically ended the state of emergency as of today.  

c. TEMPORARY RESOLUTION PERMITTING OUTDOOR BUSINESS ACTIVITIES: Approved unanimously.  

d. TENTATIVE CITY AND LIBRARY BUDGET FOR FY 21-22: Approved Unanimously 

e. REZONE AT 706-740 W. 900S.: Because of a procedural error at our previous meeting this was reconsidered and then re-approved with the conditions recommended by the Planning Commission.