Sandy City Council Budget Priorities Workshop - January 27, 2026
Sandy City Council Budget Priorities Workshop - January 27, 2026
The Sandy City Council held a budget priorities workshop on January 27, 2026, to review and update the council's budget priorities for the upcoming FY2027 budget. The workshop included a SWOT analysis, prioritization exercise, and discussion on key areas of focus. The council also received a legislative update and heard public comment on a recent traffic safety improvement.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Josh Karr, representing his community near Alta High School, thanked the Mayor, Council, and Administration for their responsiveness in installing flashing stop signs at the intersection of 110 S 10 E. He reported that a petition for safety reform had gained over 1,100 signatures (700 initially, then 400 more) and expressed appreciation for the partnership between the community and the city. He noted the intersection is now safer.
Discussion Items
- Budget Priorities Workshop: The council, facilitated by Matt Dixon (City Manager of South Ogden), reviewed the five budget priorities established in the previous year: Economic Development, Employee Satisfaction, Community Safety, Quality of Life, and Fiscal Health. The council conducted a SWOT analysis, identifying strengths (safe community, stakeholder relationships, outdoor recreation, strong governance), weaknesses (communication and trust issues, shared vision, aging staff), threats (state mandates, revenue loss, natural disasters, competition), and opportunities (succession planning, building trust, effective teamwork, promoting the city).
- Administration Budget Preview: Shane Pace, CAO, presented the administration's priorities, noting that FY2027 will be a "hard budget." Public safety is the top priority, followed by employee compensation to retain experienced staff (over 58 employees have reached 30 years of service). He highlighted the need to complete Phase III of Public Works capital projects, prepare for the opening of the new recreation center, and noted that all departments have been asked to prepare budgets with 2% to 4% cuts. No tax increase is planned.
- Prioritization and Weighting: After discussion, the council agreed on five broad priorities for the upcoming budget cycle: Economic Development, Community Safety, Quality of Life, Infrastructure, and Fiscal Health. Employee satisfaction was folded into Fiscal Health. The council conducted a dot-voting exercise to assign weights: Community Safety (33%), Fiscal Health (20%), and Economic Development, Quality of Life, and Infrastructure each at approximately 16%. Staff will draft narrative descriptions for each priority and bring them back for formal adoption.
- Legislative Report: Ryan Mecham, Senior Policy Advisor, provided an update on state legislative issues. Key topics included increasing housing stock (with emphasis on "starter lots" and concern over state preemption of land use), property tax reform (multiple bills capping increases or altering notification timelines), and urban-wildland interface bills regarding vegetation removal for fire safety. The city is monitoring these bills.
Key Outcomes
- The council updated its budget priorities for FY2027, adding Infrastructure as a new priority and folding Employee Satisfaction into Fiscal Health.
- The council assigned preliminary weights to the five priorities: Community Safety (33%), Fiscal Health (20%), and the remaining three at about 16% each.
- Staff will compile a draft of the updated priorities with narrative descriptions for the council's formal adoption at a future meeting.
- The council heard public testimony thanking the city for swift action on traffic safety at the Alta High School intersection.
- The meeting adjourned at 8:26 PM.
Meeting Transcript
You're welcome to go start. I'll be back in that. It's all T you up pretty fast. Is that okay? Money? Oh, you can make a hand. Oh, hey. She's soccer. Yeah, she is. People know what I drive or I saw you. Uh-huh. Do you have a new car? Oh, you can use it. What's it called? It is a three. I think it's not all plugging in. Yes, but I can tell you. What is it? And then all you got. Yeah, yeah. So it's obviously the I did have the shape. It just does sell how long. I was thinking about it. It was like a recent year. Did you see? Yes, she said. Yeah, she is. Yeah, okay. We'll go ahead and start forward. I was driving into Beaver one time and I have my 11 miles. Okay, you're welcome. Welcome everyone. Welcome everyone. This is the Sandy City Council meeting of Tuesday, January 27th. This is a workshop for the council heading into the budget season this year. We're going to um kind of abbreviate. It's it's a public meeting. It's we have visitors online that are watching too, but we're gonna abbreviate a whole process because it's gonna be devoted to um a council discussion about budgeting for the coming year. Um we will be doing citizen comment at the conclusion of the meeting, whenever that happens to be, both in person and online. And we will have a legislative update at the end of the meeting too. Other than that, we're not gonna have any standing reports or do any of the other usual things. Just keep it short. Um I'm gonna introduce Shane Pace, who on behalf of the administration is gonna give a a short preview of what kind of priorities the administration is going to be looking at coming into this budget season. And then I'll introduce Dustin to kind of start us off. Um and Mac Dixon will be joining us right after. So Shane, would you like to take the floor? Well uh first of all, I'd like to be apologize on behalf of the mayor. Uh you know, last week we had uh uh a lot of uh people come on behalf of the uh camp these accident and we spent uh a lot of time back and forth with the citizens there. Um this afternoon we we uh installed flashing stop signs at that portway on all the corners. Um that has generated uh a lot of follow-up stories by the press.
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