Sandy City Council Meeting Summary - December 9, 2025
Sandy City Council Meeting Summary - December 9, 2025
The Sandy City Council convened on the evening of December 9, 2025, to conduct its regular business with a focus on honoring long-serving community members, establishing legislative priorities for the 2026 session, and addressing various operational updates. The meeting featured significant time dedicated to recognizing Wayne Niederhauser, Chief Gregory Severson, and Dan Medina for their retirements, followed by deliberations on the city's 2026 legislative agenda and the sale of surplus city properties.
Consent Calendar
- Approved the reappointment of members to various special committees.
- Approved the adjournment of the November 11 draft meeting minutes (with the 2026 annual meeting schedule resolution temporarily removed and amended later).
- Adopted resolution 25-53C setting the 2026 City Council annual meeting schedule, amended to cancel the September 29th meeting and reinstate the September 8th meeting.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Henry Butters: Expressed strong frustration regarding the city's watch program, stating he felt unfairly denied participation despite military clearance, and raised concerns about homeless encampments impacting his safety and property. He specifically criticized Police Captain Amy Bryant for yelling at him on the phone, stating, "No one should be yelled at," and threatened legal action if such treatment continued.
- Darren Butler: Provided positive testimony regarding the Sandy Library (a county facility within Sandy), encouraging residents to utilize its free resources, including LinkedIn Learning, technology checkouts, and community programs.
Discussion Items
- Special Recognitions: The Council honored Wayne Niederhauser (State Homeless Services Coordinator), Chief Gregory Severson (30-year Police Chief), and Dan Medina (37-year Parks & Recreation Director). Council members expressed positions of deep gratitude, praising Niederhauser's advocacy for homeless services, Severson's steady leadership during difficult transitions, and Medina's community-focused spirit and stewardship of city parks.
- 2026 Legislative Priorities: The Council reviewed a preliminary list of legislative priorities.
- Mayor Zoltanski presented priorities focusing on local land use authority, affordable housing, Little Cottonwood Canyon transportation (supporting immediate bus services), public safety funding, and water utility resilience.
- City Attorney Lynn Pace provided context on the upcoming legislative session, noting the need for a unified municipal voice.
- Council Member Robinson expressed support for the list and advocated for the addition of a priority protecting municipal property taxing authority against state caps, which he described as a necessary
Meeting Transcript
If everybody could have a seat, please. Madam Chair, we're ready to get started whenever you're ready. Recording in progress. Thank you. All right, everyone, welcome. It is now 5 15 or shortly thereafter, and I'd like to welcome everybody to the Sandy City Council meeting this evening, December 9th. We're gonna go ahead and begin with a prayer and a pledge. Do I have any volunteers tonight that would like to give um the prayer before the meeting? Mr. Pace. Grateful for um the rich blessings that this community has. We're grateful for uh the opportunity to be here tonight. We're grateful, Father, for the people that we are going to recognize tonight for their uh many years of service to this community, and we ask uh thy blessings upon them that they would uh uh reap the benefits of all those efforts through the years. We also are grateful for our elected officials and pray for them tonight as they consider um issues and make decisions. Please be with them and help them. We pray uh uh for our community that we can stay um together as a community and can be united in purpose, and we say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Thank you, Mr. Pace. And if everybody will rise and repeat the Pledge of Allegiance along with me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one. Thank you everyone. Uh now we're gonna go ahead and take a moment for introductions, and we'll start over here with our council executive director. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh my name's Dustin Fratto, I'm the with the City Council office. Uh there's a one other council staff member in the back of the room, Liz Terriel. I'm Tracy Cadell, I'm counsel for the council. Chris Edwards with the council office. Zach Robinson, District Three. Ryan Meekham, District One. Brooke D'Asouza at large. Alison Stroud, District Two. Erin DeKaiser at large. Cindy Sharkey at large. Hi, I'm Mayor Monica Zoltanski. I'm Shane Pay, City Administrator. Lynn Pace, City Attorney. All right, great. Um that brings us into our agenda. I just want to quickly address the general citizen comment period. We will be taking general citizen comment no sooner than 6 p.m. And so at an appropriate time during the meeting after 6 p.m. We'll come back to this segment. If you are interested in making public comment and you are here in the room, there are blue cards in the back of the room. Please fill them out and bring them up here to Dustin. If you're online, you will be asked to raise your hand at that time, and we will call on you after we've gotten through our in-room commenters. And everybody at that point will be given three minutes to speak. Now we're gonna go ahead and go into our agenda. So we do have some really amazing special recognitions here today. The first one, we are the council administration are issuing a joint recognition of Wayne Niederhauser for his service to Sandy City. And so Mr.
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