Riverton City Council Meeting – August 26, 2025: Work Session and Regular Meeting
Riverton City Council Meeting – August 26, 2025: Work Session and Regular Meeting
The Riverton City Council held a hybrid work session and regular meeting on August 26, 2025, at 12830 South Redwood Road. The work session began at 5:15 PM (informal) and 6:00 PM (formal), covering code enforcement, Town Days review, 250th anniversary planning, and an AI use policy. The regular council meeting started at 7:00 PM and included a waste management donation, police department presentation, a public hearing on the RM-6 zoning amendment, and a discussion on a new skate park. The meeting concluded with a closed session for litigation and real property discussions.
Consent Calendar
- Minute Approval (August 5, 2025): Approved unanimously.
- Resolution No. 25-43 – Hazard Mitigation Plan: Pulled for discussion by Councilmember Perucci, who asked about the plan’s timeline and inclusion of nuclear energy facilities. Staff explained the plan is updated every five years (last adopted June 2020) and that proximity issues are addressed at the county level. The council approved the resolution after discussion.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were made during the citizen comment period (Item 11).
- During the public hearing on Ordinance No. 25-21 (RM-6 Amendment), no members of the public spoke.
Discussion Items
- Code Enforcement Presentation (Gwen Sayre): Sayre presented pros and cons of adding an administrative law judge (ALJ) to handle code enforcement cases. Positives: reduces pressure on criminal court, cost-effective (contracted), scalable (Taylorsville saw cases grow from 3 to 18 per month), and more appropriate consequences (e.g., educational approach for weed violations). Negatives: additional cost, potential impartiality, and current part-time judge may not warrant expansion. Councilmembers expressed appreciation and noted this is not an immediate need but will become pressing.
- Town Days Review (Sheril Garn): Garn reported that Town Days 2025 was highly successful. Key statistics: 55 teams in 3-man sorting, 125 car show entries, over 1,000 runners in the country mile races, rodeo tickets sold out in 14 days, 28 food vendors, 28 craft vendors, 87 vendors on waitlist, $54,000 in sponsorships, $30,000 carnival revenue, 2,000+ served at breakfast, and 12 entertainment groups. The parade was praised for organization; only one marching band attended (Garn suggested increasing band payment to $1,000). Safety improvements included three police cars at entrances and volunteer support from Gospel Hope Church. Vendors gave positive feedback.
- 250th Celebration Discussion (Sheril Garn): Garn outlined plans to partner with the state for the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Partnership requires a resolution, a community committee (her department can serve), and a commemoration idea. Activities proposed: street banners, commemorative coins, a "Road to Liberty" art show, flag retirement ceremony, youth council video series, teen barn dance, patriotic concert, 1.776-mile run, 17.76-mile bike ride, and a play ("1776") costing $4,000 for rights. Total estimated cost up to $20,000, with potential grants ($1,500 from state, $3,000 from Rocky Mountain Power). Council feedback: support for the concept, but desire to seek business sponsorships first. Logo options were debated – Concept C (with educational messaging) was favored for print media, Concept A for coins. Councilmember McKay suggested public input on logo. Councilmember Heyman emphasized celebrating the U.S. as a republic, not a democracy.
- AI Use Policy (Ryan Carter): Carter presented a draft policy to govern employee use of AI, emphasizing that employees remain responsible for work product. The policy aims to set guardrails while encouraging innovation, especially for data analytics and police report generation. Councilmember Perucci noted the policy was requested 2.5 years ago, before ChatGPT. Councilmember McKay praised the focus on accuracy and confidentiality. The policy will be adopted and employees trained.
- Police Department Presentation (Chief Taylor): Chief Taylor provided July 2025 statistics: Calls for service 1,861 (down from 2,077 in 2023), property crimes 43, jail bookings 17, traffic citations 154 (down from 316 in 2023), traffic stops 243 (down from 563 in 2023), and citation arrests 15. Chief Taylor attributed declines to officers being pulled to more serious calls. The department is using overtime for targeted traffic enforcement on main arteries. Councilmember Perucci asked about red-light fatalities; Chief Taylor confirmed discussions with staff on technologies and strategies. The Citizen Academy begins in September with 24 applicants.
- Waste Management Donation Presentation: A representative from Waste Management donated funds to the Youth Council. Youth Council members thanked the city and the donor.
- RM-6 Amendment (Ordinance No. 25-21): Jason Lethbridge presented proposed updates to the RM-6 zone to include private road standards and clarify setbacks. Key change: planning commission recommended a consistent 15-foot rear setback instead of the current 25-foot when adjacent to single-family zoning. Council debate: Councilmembers Broker, Heyman, and McDougall preferred the 25-foot setback to protect existing homeowners, while Councilmember McKay supported 15-foot for consistency and affordability. Councilmember Perucci suggested flexibility. After a motion to adopt the 15-foot version was made and seconded, the motion was withdrawn. Council directed staff to return with revised language: 25-foot standard with exceptions for similar zoning or single-story development.
- New Skate Park Discussion (Cary Necaise): Staff issued an RFP for design concepts for a new skate park at Centennial Park (central location, 20,000–30,000 sq ft). Councilmember McKay expressed concern about lack of formal council vote on location and suggested considering the western regional park (future SLR development). Councilmember Perucci wanted input from current users. Chief Taylor noted the current park is 20+ years old with cracking, spalling, and could need repairs. Staff will conduct a user survey via QR code at the existing park. No decision on location; RFP scoring continues.
Key Outcomes
- Consent Agenda: Minutes approved; Resolution 25-43 approved after discussion.
- RM-6 Amendment: Motion withdrawn; staff to bring back revised language specifying 25-foot rear setback with exceptions. Ordinance will return at a future meeting.
- Skate Park: No final decision. Staff will continue RFP evaluation and gather public input via QR code survey. Potential funding sources include TRCC grants and Tony Hawk Foundation.
- 250th Celebration: Council expressed support for moving forward with activities, with emphasis on seeking business sponsorships before using city funds. Logo direction: Concept C for print media, Concept A for coins; staff to refine.
- AI Policy: Policy to be adopted and training implemented.
- Closed Session: Council voted unanimously (5-0) to enter closed session for pending litigation (Item 18b) and real property/water rights discussion (Item 18c).
Meeting Transcript
This is mostly just an introduction to a possibility of having it and it's just going to have some general information. Kind of the question that has come up is if adding an administrative law judge would increase efficiency and compliance, caseload, and cost when it comes to code enforcement. So I was able to meet with the Riverton's city manager, the city attorney, and discuss a few things with the court clerk, as well as I was able to meet with the code enforcement manager of Taylorsville because they um currently have an administrative law judge. So I'll just kind of be going over the positive and negatives of an administrative law judge. Next slide. So a few positive aspects, it can reduce pressure on our current uh criminal court. Um the administrative law judge can take on a lot of um code enforcement cases and more minor cases, and um that can sort of reduce pressure on the court judge. Um it can also be more cost effective. Um administrative law judges can uh be contracted and um maybe have a smaller salary than hiring an additional court judge. Um they can also be scalable for caseload. So when I was talking to the code enforcement manager of Taylorsville, she mentions that when they first adopted an administrative law judge, they only saw about three cases come to the monthly hearings. Um but today they see up to as many as 18 cases. Um so it seems to have uh an increase of usefulness for the city um over the course of time. Um and some also see um an administrative law judge as able to maybe have more appropriate consequences. Um the code enforcement manager of Taylorsville uh just mentioned she didn't like the idea of jail time for uh code violations kind of thing, um, which is a possibility in Riverton, but never has actually occurred in Riverton's history, but it is a concern. Um, some negative aspects, um of course would be an additional cost, and some would say that uh might be an unnecessary cost right now. Our current court judge um he works part-time with Riverton and also part-time with Taylorsville. Um, and so some might argue that because he's not working full-time even with us, that maybe an additional judge isn't exactly necessary. Um another concern that was brought up in some of my uh discussions was um impartiality. Um, just because an administrative law judge is in a very um focused area um within um taking on different cases and such that they um may struggle to be impartial. Um so that is another concern. Um in summary, um it can uh reduce caseload, which can be beneficial, kind of increase efficiency and can dole out what might seem to be like more appropriate consequences um with the different code violations, but again, it would be an additional cost that some may say are is unnecessary, and um impartiality seems to be a concern. Um yeah, that is everything. Is there any questions? I have one question I'll start with, and then if anyone else has a question. My question is did they give you any examples when you were in Taylorsville of where they had found uh the process helpful and positive? Did she tell any stories? Um she has she did mention like there's um a lot of difficulty with um weeds getting out of hand, and so they would you know um issue warnings and fines, um and if the people who are on in violation um do have to come to court, she said that they were able to maybe find a bit more find it easier for people to come into compliance with a more educational approach instead of a punitive approach. Um, but that was kind of uh her perspective on it. Thank you. Yeah. Um let's see, everyone wants to speak. Let's start with council member McDougall, please. I'm over here. Gwen, great job. I appreciate that. Thank you. As you were working with Taylorsville, did you find that by doing this it was able to increase or expedite the trial process? In other words, if someone was not compliant, were they able to get the case handled quicker and faster by doing this versus going through the actual city core system? I believe so because it is so focused, it does seem to expedite the process a bit. Yes. Excellent, thank you. Yeah. Okay, Councilmember Perucci. I didn't have a question, I just wanted to say thank you. I was I I did have a comment though. So I I wanted to say thank you. I appreciate the presentation. I actually like to staff, like this is really helpful to also just have a topic like this to have a presentation like this. So I mean, staff, you guys do an awesome job, but I I just I appreciate having something like this.
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