Um an invocation or thought.

Brett, would you do that?

Sure.

And then Paul, would you lead us in the pledge?

Yep.

Okay.

Our father in heaven, we're uh grateful for the opportunity which we have to meet here together this evening.

We're grateful for our country and for the blessings that we have to live in this community.

We're thankful for the people who work hard on behalf of the city.

Father, we ask thee to please be with us tonight to help us to have wisdom and help us to have discernment and to make good decisions.

We ask thee to watch over each of us and the citizens here in Syracuse and especially those who uh serve and protect us and put themselves in harm's way.

We say these things in the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Amen.

Please rise.

One nation under God.

Can I get a motion to adopt the agenda?

I'm sorry.

Motion to adopt the agenda.

Second.

Motion made and seconded.

All in favor.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed.

First item on our agenda tonight is public comment.

Uh, this is an opportunity for anyone to come up and share with us something that we may be concerned about.

Um, or bring to our attention something you'd like to see on a future agenda or something on this agenda that you would like to address before we uh go into debate on the subject.

It is limited to three minutes, and we ask that whoever comes up identify themselves and where they live so that it's clear for our records.

Is there anyone here tonight that would like to make a public comment?

Come forward.

My name is Brooke Sornson.

I live in Syracuse on the corner of 4000 West and 700 South.

We have um petitions that we for our cause.

Let me one at a time.

Um it's not a shared comment, so one at a time.

Okay.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are here to discuss the intersection of 4000 West, 700 south, and are requesting that there be a four-way stop placed at this intersection with lighted stop signs since there is only one street light.

We also request that the speed limit be 25 miles per hour along 700 south before and after this intersection, since it is a residential area, and that a speed limit sign be placed close to this intersection so that people are aware of the speed limit.

There are stop signs on 4,000 west, but not 700 south.

This is an extremely dangerous intersection with the new addition of Highway One Highway 193 and the addition of the Island View Elementary as well as Horizon Junior High.

We are seeing an increase in traffic.

There are also children crossing north and south on 700 south without a proper crosswalk and without a stop sign in 700 south.

This makes the crossing guard's job a lot more difficult.

At around 9 a.m.

on December 15th, 2025 at this intersection, someone traveling south on 4000 West ran the stop sign and collided with someone traveling west on 700 south.

This collision led to the vehicle jumping the curb and hitting my home on the southwest corner of this intersection, causing significant damage to my property and missing my gas meter by less than a foot.

On the morning of February 4th of this year, there was a similar accident where someone ran the stop sign and another collision occurred.

Three of the vehicles were totaled, and the both of these accidents, two people went to the hospital.

We know the roundabout has been proposed, but that was proposed before we had the integration completed to highway 193.

It was proposed before we had schools that had been completed, and there's been significant changes that now require a better solution.

We propose a four-way stop be placed at this intersection instead of a roundabout, and we request it to be as soon as possible to avoid any other accidents.

As the citizens that live near this intersection, we are constantly hearing tire streets, drivers turning right extremely fast or stopping to await a collision.

We hear vehicles constantly speeding down 700 south because they do not have to stop.

We also have a petition on change.org requesting these changes that at the time of this writing has 336 signatures.

There are also several people who have commented on this petition about how dangerous the intersection is.

The accident that occurred on December 15th.

Had it happened just 10 minutes earlier, the crossing guard and maybe even some children would have been standing on the southwest corner and would have been struck by the vehicle that crashed into my home, causing serious injuries or deaths.

Please don't let it come to this before you take action.

We need these stop signs now before it gets worse.

We will also be requesting these changes with West Point City since they are responsible for the north part of seven hair south of this particular intersection.

We're wanting these changes implemented immediately.

We have already been calling and sending emails to get something done for the past two months.

And if progress is not made within the next two months, we'll take further action by contacting news outlets, running new sorties, conduct an investigation into the many accidents that already happened.

Your time is up, sir.

Okay.

We'll hear from the next person and they can continue on the thought.

Appreciate it.

We appreciate it.

Um I do have a question.

We can't discuss this open issue because it's not on our agenda.

And that's the Utah state law that we have to abide by.

But you did mention that you'd emailed who have you emailed.

Uh we have several people in our community who have emailed, and I have personally called.

Who have you emailed?

I'm not sure who everyone has emailed.

I know Dunnifer have emailed you.

Um, well, then I would ask it.

So if this is just a general statement for the public.

If anyone emails me and you don't hear back, or anyone else, please follow up because things do get caught by some kind of internet filter or something, because I respond to everybody, but we'll address this at another time.

We have to.

Let's get on to the next person.

Thank you.

Okay, mine is also with the same intersection of 4,700.

Um, I have a petition from change.org, and we have over 300, almost 350 signatures here plus public comment.

I brought a copy for all of you, so you can look over it.

Um, my concern is I have um several years ago about I did email you about safety issues, and you told me just to reach out to the police non-emergency line, and I have done that, and I've got responses back.

Um, that they'll some people out there, but the only time I see cops out there is when there's an accident.

Um, so I guess that's my concern is that like it nothing's happening, even when we're doing what we ask you have asked us to do.

Um, so I brought these copies for you, and I hope that you will take this matter seriously.

Um, because now that we've addressed it, like we've reached out to the city, the police department, um, for several years now addressing these areas.

So um, like now that you're aware, like um, like if something does happen to our children, we will press charges or sue the city if you're not willing to change and do something about it.

Okay.

Well, here's your public discussion.

I'm sorry.

Okay, that's fine.

But I need you to know that we are serious because we're not being heard as citizens out there.

And I know we're on the border, so maybe you think we're almost West Point, and that's why I don't know.

Okay.

Is it better to have one copy for the city, or would you all like a coach?

The uh city attorney who acts as a bailiff in chambers.

Is there anyone else that would like to make a comment?

This is the time where we have it.

Anyone else?

Okay, seeing none, I am gonna end public comment.

The next item on our agenda is approval of minutes.

We have minutes from January 13th, Jen.

We're our work session and uh business meeting.

We have January 27th, work session and special meeting.

Are there any changes to those anyone would like to make?

Seeing none, I'll take a motion to approve those.

I move that we approve the minutes as outlined in the agenda items A through D.

Second, A through D.

Second.

Motion made and second.

All in favor?

I any opposed.

Motion passes unanimously.

The next item is our items of common consent.

And I am just going to really quickly uh take two of these off, as it is the privilege of any council member, uh, including the mayor to take them off for discussion.

I'm gonna take off A and G.

Is there any others anyone has a concern with, or I'll start to read the the uh our common consent agenda.

Uh I did have a question on um the uh item E as well.

Okay, we uh I'll take that one off as well.

Any others?

Which one was item E?

Item E is authorized contract for uh the intersection.

Okay, seeing no other changes.

Here's the ones that we'll have for common consent tonight.

Item B is proposed to ordinance 2601 amending the Syracuse Municipal Code, Section 4.15 and section 4.25 pertaining to the placement of water meters.

Item C proposed resolution 26 06, amending engineering standards pertaining to water meter location.

Item number D, proposed resolution 26-7, adopting water meter location policy.

Item F proposed resolution 26-08, selecting and supporting the Syracuse Fire Department as the provider of 911 services and interfacility transport services.

Item H proposed resolution R26-10, adopting the Syracuse style guide, brand and branding and identification guidelines.

Item I proposed ordinance 26-02, amending the Syracuse City zoning map for approximately 4.27 acres of real property located at approximately 2300 west, 1700 south, residential R2 and Agricultural A1 to light commercial LC.

Um applicant leisure villas.

Item J, proposed ordinance 26 03, amending the Syracuse City General Plan map for approximately 12.83 acres of real property located at approximately 930 or 63 south, 2000 west, civic and commercial zoning to low density residential.

Item K.

Proposed ordinance 26 04, amending the Syracuse City zoning map for approximately 12.83 acres, property located at approximately uh nine six or nine sixty-three south, two thousand west, agricultural A1 to residential R3 applicant to CW land.

All right.

With all of that, uh, do I have a motion to approve those by common consent?

And move that we approve items for B, C, E, F, H, I, J, and K as published in the agenda.

Second.

Okay, motion made and seconded.

All in favor.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed.

All of those pass unanimously.

Now let's deal with the ones that we have some variation on.

Item A, I need to make uh an addendment or an amendment to the way that it's written in the packet.

We have uh made assignments in the previous work session.

It was published that we continually have a parks uh advisory committee, and that that would remain with a council member who is no longer serving.

Uh we agreed in that meeting that that will not continue this year uh for various reasons as discussed in the meeting.

And then also the mayor pro tem assignments were not published.

Um we at this time I'm moving that uh Paul Watson be the first mayor pro tem, Julie Robertson be the second mayor pro tem, and uh Andrea is the third mayor pro tem Brown, sorry.

Uh is there any other questions about that item?

Seeing none, I will take a motion to adopt that.

So I move that we adopt agenda item 4A as the mayor detailed second motion made and seconded.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay, that passes unanimously.

Item E is authorized administration to award contract for SR 193 and 22500 West project.

And Paul, you had some questions.

What were your questions on?

So my question on that one was are the funds that we're using for that are those the funds that are awarded in the grant that we're asking for an extension on.

Yes, they are.

And I would I would say this because I was this is the reason why I also have this project reimbursement pulled so we can deal with E and G together.

Okay.

I would propose that the resolution specify that if that is not extended that we don't go forward with the project because we would not have the funding.

Yeah, that's what I wanted to make sure.

So unless there's any other question, I would propose that we make a motion to adopt ENG on the condition that the reimbursement continue and be extended.

No, I think that's a good idea.

All right.

Can I get that as a motion?

Let's see.

I move that we um adopt agenda item E and award the contract for SR 193 2500 West project to the low bid with the condition that item G um is accepted and extended the proposed resolution R2609 um to extend the um award of the transportation project reimbursement agreement.

Excellent.

Can I get a second?

Second.

Moved and seconded.

All in favor.

Any opposed.

That motion also passes.

The next item is proposed transition to paperless billing.

Um Brody, who's handling this presentation?

That would be me.

Okay, Cassie, our city recorder.

Okay.

Yeah, mayor and council.

I included um a document in your council packet that summarizes this proposal.

Um so I'll briefly review it and then invite any questions that you have, and we can go through the details if you need more information.

Um I'll also recognize our utility billing supervisor, Holly Craythorn is in the audience tonight, and she has done the majority of the legwork on this proposal and she's done a great job.

And um, if we can get council support for it, it would uh result in significant savings to the city.

So I just want to recognize her for those efforts.

Um so as I mentioned in the memo, um, the city mails paper utility statements to all of our customers.

We've always done that.

Um, but with transitions to a lot of different electronic opportunities in the past several years, we have offered um customers the ability to sign up to have their statement emailed them, emailed to them, and they can use express bill pay to go on and uh set up like automatic payments online or just only review their statements there and still make a payment however they choose to.

Um, but what we're proposing to do is to default to electro electronic billing as the main default option um for all customers in the city.

And so that means that we would uh work to communicate with all the residents and customers in the city about this proposal and encourage them to move over to um electronic billing through express bill pay on their own.

Um there's several different ways that we can handle that communication.

Um we have a text box on our utility bill right now that we can start advertising that.

We would probably just send a full page letter to all of the utility customers explaining um this proposal and what steps they would need to take to sign up uh for electronic statements.

Um we can also utilize our city newsletter, all of our social media handles, the city website.

Um so some of you will recall last fall um we started offering incentives for people to move over to electronic billing on their own.

Um there was that was advertised on the city website, and we actually got quite a few um residents that moved over to that option.

So we've already seen a savings in the costs that we uh currently budget for utility billing.

Um that's detailed in the bottom part of my memo where I just summarize the fiscal impact of this proposal.

Um so with these efforts that Holly and her staff have taken, we've already saved uh roughly 8,800 in the city's budget.

So if we didn't take any further steps and we, you know, we weren't trying to push people to electronic billing uh moving forward, we would be able to reduce our annual budget um by about 17,000 a year.

Um we currently budget around, let me find that number again, around 84,000 a year for electronic um or for paper billing.

And so if we can get the majority of the residents to move over to electronic statements, we can obviously further decrease the budget.

Um so what we're looking for tonight, I mean, this isn't an action item where we don't need a motion or anything.

We just we're trying to gauge if there's support among the mayor and council to uh start pursuing this option and and keep communicating with our residents about this option that they have available to them.

Um, and then we would work through all the details through the upcoming budget season.

So um that's really what we're looking for tonight.

But if you have any questions about the steps that we would need to take, I'm happy to have that discussion.

Okay.

Council discussion.

I think it's a good idea, especially if we're reducing costs significantly.

Um I like the option of people still uh having the option to still melt, you know, receive it physical and mail in a physical check if they want to.

Um, and I think it uh I'm in favor of passing on the cost of that to the to the end user.

And I I'm assuming the two dollars covers that, or would yeah, that's a pretty we've just done some research on what different utility service providers charge for people to still receive receive a paper statement and it's between one and two dollars.

So I think it's a great idea.

I I agree with Paul on that.

My only concern is the residents that haven't transitioned over yet.

You know, if they aren't on the internet and they're not reading the emails, and then they don't know, and then all of a sudden they're not getting a bill.

I I do think the burden is on the city to make sure we're providing that resource to our constituency continually.

And I don't know that I feel very comfortable charging two dollars for that when that that's already part of the agreement.

We live in the city, we expect to get the bill for the resources and the services that we get from the city, and then you're gonna charge me two dollars for getting a bill in the mail.

Like I feel like it's just a little arduous in that way.

Um, so those were my concerns coming in.

I do think it's great to save money.

I'm all for that.

And I'd be interested to see how many more people we can get to sign up.

Maybe if we did it the opposite way, where we offer an incentive again, like you you've already mentioned that you did.

I think that that's a better way to go than to charge people that are getting bill in the mill because that's what they're getting.

There was uh the incentive lasted more than a year, and I think that we've it's run its course.

Everybody who wanted to take advantage of an incentive probably has.

Um as far as moving forward, I understand that there are people who resist change.

Uh, but as tight as our budget is, this is the ability to hire another person with the money that we could save.

Uh, and I'm not placing that in any particular department, but we are short staffed in a lot of places.

And if we could save a person's salary and maybe more by going to a paperless billing, I think that a well placed advertising and public awareness campaign that you'll have to opt in to get the bill, um makes sense.

I mean, we've got to find places to budget cut, and it's been a goal of the city and a goal of mine for a couple of years.

I didn't push this, but it I'm I applaud the effort.

It's a way of finding uh savings with the world that we live in today.

And so I I think that we just we we I have the same concern.

There will be people who will say, I can't change.

That's something we'll deal with.

But if we can if we can get those who really can change to go with us and save money, we can spend it other places.

That's my feeling.

Because I'm I'm assuming as part of this that the whoever's receiving a physical bill right now, the opt-in instructions are gonna be on that.

So they're they're probably gonna see it anyway.

I I think we already have the mechanism in place to properly notify people.

But uh to your to your point, Abe, I I I agree.

Um you know, it's it is another fee, but um when we I think once we get into the budgeting session, we're going to see that people are that they're gonna be paying higher property taxes to facilitate things, or you know, those that the that want a specific service might have to pay a specific fee, but we're gonna have to get creative, and I think this is a a good example of how we can look at uh cutting costs, um, but still offer a service at a small fee to those who want to do it.

But but the the budgeting process is gonna is gonna flush out that the we've got to do something different.

Yeah, yeah, and I think those are obviously all policy decisions that you would make.

Um, I think I would not propose a fee for a melt statement if there wasn't also a free option that we could provide to residents.

So, and and I do think the number of people that will opt in to still receive a paper statement.

We might get I mentioned in the memo, like 15 to 20 percent of customers.

Um, so we'll just make sure to review review their options with them pretty thoroughly.

But those uh like I said, we're not asking for a clear decision on that part of this issue tonight.

We just wanted to see if there was support before we spent more time starting to communicate this option to the residents and and the intent to go to paperless billing.

So for those who haven't weighed in, are we generally approving to consider this to go forward or not?

Uh, because that's total.

Okay, all right.

So uh you have a general consensus to proceed with this.

We're not we'll have to make a motion, it'll have to come to a business session and we'll have to advertise it very well so that we can allow people to come and express their opposition if there is any.

But again, we've got to find ways to save money so that we can avoid raising taxes.

All right, thank you for that.

I'm going to move us on to mayor and council reports and announcements.

If there are any at this point in time, Andrea, do you have any?

Go ahead.

America 250.

We are just working.

We're working, continuing work you're going to have to use your microphone.

Coming up with ideas and plans.

I'm we're excited about fundraising.

Julie and I are going to be hitting hard on that.

So if you guys want to give your money to celebrate America, think about it.

It's coming.

Okay.

Julie.

Um, I don't have anything to report other than um I did get in touch with Horizon Junior High and Island View Elementary, and that's some good feedback from staff there for the arts department.

And hopefully we'll get some good uh kids putting in their artwork for this Davis County um competition.

That's great.

I love to see kids participating in the competitions that we have.

Uh I don't have any updates.

Right.

Nothing.

Abe.

Nothing from me.

Thanks.

Okay.

I have a couple of uh significant updates tonight.

Uh the first that I need to make everybody aware letters went out this past week to all the cities and people who work with the sewer district.

The um sewer district um chose not to renew the plant director's contract this past month and has been the board has been running the plant for the past couple of weeks, which has created a an awful lot of extra involvement at this time, but there were reasons for that.

And those uh that job has been posted this week as well.

So they we will be hiring a new plant manager.

Um the next is that the uh waste management reviewed their annual budget and put that together and that passed last Wednesday night.

Um, it is much of the same without significant adjustments.

Uh, they did make adjustments to holidays.

Uh they have not had uh recognition of more than two holidays, and they have decided to recognize Labor Day and Memorial Day for the landfill shutdown, which is gonna be news.

Uh, we my contention with that was that I I always did a lot of labor on Labor Day, and apparently the use of the landfill is at 60 percent on those days already.

So it's not as popular just because I do it, others don't.

So it's fine, we'll shut that down.

It'll just be uh giving those uh employees uh some days off.

Um then the uh I want to put out into the public, and this is very important.

We have some openings on the planning commission.

It uh the um advertisement for uh filling those jobs, it has been out for uh at least a week now because I have a few applicants, but I really do want to push that out.

If there are people who are interested, now is a great time uh to put in your application.

We had someone who decided to move, and you can't be on the planning commission if you don't live in the city.

So um we will be refilling those spots.

Finally, the arts council uh voted last Wednesday night as well uh to uh hold or on the show for their next fall.

Every fall they do a musical that is a junior show.

This year they will be doing Willie Wonka Jr.

as the show.

So uh if you've got kids interested, uh put that on your agenda to audition for that.

Auditions won't happen until the summer, but then it performs in the fall.

All right, that is all of my reports, and now we'll move on to our second motion uh moment of public uh comment.

If you did not make a public comment, but you'd like to make a public comment now, you're welcome to come forward.

The same rules apply.

We are probably the only city that lets people do it twice in the same meeting.

Uh, most people don't do that anymore, but we welcome you.

Is there anyone who has a comment they'd like to share?

Seeing none, I will close public comment.

And our next item, we are going to adjourn from this location and meet because it will be our biennial review of the police department just for our citizens' awareness.

We do meet um with three departments every year and do a review of the status of how that department is performing, what's going on, and any goals and changes that the council would like them to consider in service for the city.

So we will adjourn at this time.

I'll go into a 10 minute recess and reconvene in the large administrative conference room.

If anybody plans to join us there, it's just through the office door and they'll be uh sign or leading the way.

So you're