Lehigh City Council Work Session – August 10, 2026: Hazardous Waste, Park Tax Policy, Data Privacy
Lehigh City Council Work Session – August 10, 2026
This work session focused on three main topics: a proposed hazardous waste disposal pilot program with Waste Management, a review and potential revision of the Lehigh City Park Tax policy, and the introduction of a new Data Privacy Policy to comply with state law. The council deliberated on each item, with no votes taken, and set future action steps.
Hazardous Waste Disposal Discussion (Item 2.1)
- Mayor and staff presented a proposal from Waste Management to launch a pilot program in Utah County for residential hazardous waste pickup (paint, electronics, medical waste, etc.). The cost would be $1 per household per month, added to residents' garbage bills, with the city passing on the fee.
- Councilmembers raised several questions and concerns: whether the service is opt-in or automatic, contract length, what items are accepted, how residents schedule pickups (app vs. phone), potential ghost recycling, and whether there is demonstrable resident demand.
- Councilmember Stallings noted that $12/year is a good value compared to $80–$150 for a one-time junk service. Councilmember Harrison expressed reluctance to mandate the fee for all residents without clear demand evidence.
- Mayor admitted to giving Waste Management representative Blake the wrong date for this meeting; the item will be rescheduled for a future work session with Blake present to answer questions.
Park Tax Policy Review and Discussion (Item 2.2)
- Staff member Matt Lee presented proposed updates to the Park Tax policy, including: adding proposition language from the ballot, emphasizing the 70-30 split (70% for city parks/recreation, 30% for grants), clarifying that the council retains final authority, and attempting to define a “significant presence” for qualifying organizations (headquartered in Lehigh).
- Council discussed several issues:
- 70-30 Split: Several members favored flexibility (e.g., “up to 30%” for grants) to allow more funding for parks capital projects when needed.
- Sole Source vs. Primary Source: Debate over whether the policy should prohibit organizations from being solely funded by park tax or primarily funded. Consensus leaned toward prohibiting sole funding but not primary funding at this time.
- Park Tax Advisory Committee: Some members supported retaining the committee for resident input; others preferred streamlining by having applicants present directly to the council. No consensus was reached; staff will gather feedback from current committee members.
- State code interpretation was discussed regarding whether only organizations within the city can receive funding. Councilmember Lockhart cited 59-12-1402, arguing the money must go to organizations physically located in Lehigh. Councilmember Freeman noted the code’s geographic language. Potential legislative clarification was mentioned.
- Next steps: Council will continue the discussion in a work session next month, with input from department heads Steve Marchbanks and Dan (Legacy Center), and aim for a final vote in September.
Data Privacy Policy Review and Discussion (Item 2.3)
- Matt Lee presented a new Data Privacy Program Policy to comply with the Government Data Privacy Act (GDPA), extended to municipalities in 2025. The policy designates a Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), requires inventory of data collection, privacy noticing, data minimization, records retention, and breach notification.
- Councilmember Lockhart suggested adding a vendor due diligence section, including scrutiny of foreign ties (e.g., China, Russia), referencing federal standards. The mayor indicated openness to working on language.
- No votes were taken; the policy will be further refined.
Adjournment and Next Meeting
- The council adjourned at the conclusion of the work session, with a reminder of the next regular meeting on the evening of August 11, 2026, at 6:00 p.m.
Meeting Transcript
Welcome to our monthly work session today, August 10th, 2026 at 4 p.m. here in the Lehigh City Council Chambers. We have a full council today, Councilmember Newell, Councilmember Harrison, Councilmember Stallings, Councilmember Freeman, and Councilmember Lockhart. And we welcome our staff and those who are visiting with us in the chamber today. Our dear Father in Heaven, we are grateful to be gathered uh together this day as a council and mayor and staff to discuss the items to uh better serve our community and our city. We are grateful for all of those staff members or public safety officers and all that they do for our city and keeping us safe and happy and and all the service they provide. We ask that thy spirit may be with us that we may be guided and directed in making the best decisions for the residents. We say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you, Councilmember Harrison. Just reminder, this is a work session, so there won't be any public comment today. Uh but we do appreciate you coming in participating with us. So we'll go start with item 2.1, the hazardous waste disposal discussion. And are you our guy today, Dean? And the guy is not here. Well, we'll turn it over to you two for what you have. Uh Todd knows more about it than I did. So Wake Waste Management approached us a few weeks ago with the program to uh let people dispose of things you normally can't put in your dumpster, like paint or electronics or some Todd might I'll I'll let Todd talk in a second. He'll he'll have better information. Um the the biggest question is waste management would like to start this program. I thought Blake from Waste Management was going to be here, and maybe he will be if he does, and there's time you can decide whether uh to talk to him. Um but they had they would like to have four pilot cities, basically one city in each county uh to start this program. If they come to your door, you'd call them and say, I have this stuff to that I need to get rid of, you put on your front porch and they'd come out and get it. The cost would be a dollar a month per customer per household. So they would charge us a dollar more in their fee, and we would charge the resident a dollar more. So it's really a question is do we feel it's it's worth that? It's great service. I know I I probably have ten cans of paint in my garage that are half full that I don't know what that I never know what to do with, and things like this come up every now and again. But it's really up to the council. Todd, I think has some better information, so I'll let him go. I uh thanks. I probably know just a little bit more than Dean, but uh it's uh it's a service that uh I understand waste management acquired uh location, a hazardous uh facility location, kind of a material handling facility area. And uh I'm not sure. I think it's some somewhere up in Davis County, maybe if I remember correctly. I didn't get much information from Blake. Um just a phone call, kind of like what Dean had. And uh tell me if Blake comes in and uh but uh I'm gonna I'm gonna wing it in that we what I do know is that residents are uh asking for this type of a service all the time. Uh and what uh what we do is we just kind of refer them to local um uh parts stores like uh O'Reilly and whatnot to get rid of their oils. Uh we we say recommend that they open their paint cans and let it dry out and then throw it in the dumpster. Um which I don't know if that's really even what they're supposed to do or not. It's kind of like Mayor, when we had that conversation about you wrapping all your recyclables in a plastic bag and throwing it away. You thought you were doing it right, but you know. So um the thing is, the thing that's nice about it is that we we've worked with um uh nonprofits. Uh one nonprofit out of Boise was a computers for kids. They would collect and refurbish electronic waste and they would distribute that to underprivileged kids throughout the state. Uh but they don't come down and do that anymore. They do that once a year, and we could we could come up with quite a bit of waste uh collection and whatnot. But um they're not doing that. And so we there's there's only one location we know of in the city. Uh Jason did send me some information just recently from the state that they have uh uh kind of a I don't know if it's a service or an opportunity to uh put together programs to collect this waste and then find an end you know end goal for it.
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