2021.10.13 TC MTG AGENDA & MINUTES

July 14, 2021 By
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Town of Leeds

Town Council Meeting for

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

1. Call to Order: 7:04 pm

Mayor Peterson called to order the regular meeting of the Leeds Town Council at 7 PM on Wednesday, October 13 ,2021.

ROLL CALL:
Present Absent
MAYOR: WAYNE PETERSON x
COUNCILMEMBER: ALAN ROBERTS x
COUNCILMEMBER: DANIELLE STIRLING x
COUNCILMEMBER: LORRIE HUNSAKER x
COUNCILMEMBER: STEPHEN WILSON x

2. Pledge of Allegiance: Councilmember Wilson leading

3. Declaration of Abstentions or Conflicts: None

4. Approval of Agenda:

Councilmember Hunsaker moved to approve tonight’s agenda and meeting minutes of September 8, 2021. Second by Councilmember Stirling. Motion passed in a Roll Call Vote.

ROLL CALL VOTE:
Yea Nay Abstain Absent
MAYOR: WAYNE PETERSON x
COUNCILMEMBER: ALAN ROBERTS x
COUNCILMEMBER: DANIELLE STIRLING x
COUNCILMEMBER: LORRIE HUNSAKER x
COUNCILMEMBER: STEPHEN WILSON x

5. Citizen Comments:

6. Announcements:

a. Trunk or Treat, Saturday, October 30 at 5pm along Babylon Mill Road

b. Leeds Chili Cookoff, Saturday, October 30, 4pm-6pm in the Peach Pit Pavilion

Mayor Peterson: There will be a trunk or treat this year in the usual spot along Babylon Mills Road. It will begin at 5pm. We ask people get their cars in place who plan on participating by distributing treats by 4:45pm so that we don’t have a mix of vehicle traffic and our youngsters circulating on foot. That would be on Saturday, October 30. Surrounding that will be the Leeds Chili Cook-off, which will start at 4pm and go through 6pm centered in the Peach Pit Pavilion. That is Saturday October 30.

c. Election Day, Tuesday, November 2, 2021. Leeds is Vote-By-Mail Only. Ballots must be postmarked by Monday, November 1, 2021

Election Day will be Tuesday, November 2, 2021. Leeds remains a vote by mail only, as we have done for about the past 10 years. Ballots must be postmarked by Monday, November 1, 2021, if you are mailing them. There are drop boxes that are available that can be accessed as late as Tuesday November 2 and your vote would still count. Any other announcements from Council this evening?

Councilmember Hunsaker said someone had not received their ballot yet and she told them to give it another week as they were still in the process of mailing. Mayor Peterson agreed this was correct.

7. Public Hearing: None

8. Action Items:

a. Revised Beach/Greenhalgh Lot Line Adjustment, Parcels L-HFM-1A and L-10-B

Mayor Peterson ask Scott Messel to introduce the topic.

Scott Messel: The Beach’s and Greenhalgh’s own two adjacent parcels and they were wanting to do an exchange of land. The Town Council reviewed this several months ago, but needed it to be amended to meet the minimum lot size requirement for the Rural Residential zone. If you look on the lot line adjustment reference survey that is in your packet, there is the piece called out with the hash lines, that is land transfer area one. It is 0.33 acres that will be added to the Beach’s property. The other crosshatch area called out as land transfer area, which is 0.13 acres being transferred to the Greenhalghs. Both parcels will meet the minimum lot size requirement. The staff’s opinion and Planning Commission’s opinion is it creates more usable and better laid out lots. It meets all the requirements of the Town of Leeds and the State of Utah code as far as lot line adjustment, and our zoning requirements. The Planning Commission reviewed it last week and they recommended approval on it under the conditions listed in the staff report.

Mayor Peterson: Are there any questions from Council? I know we have a representative of one of the parties, Mrs. Greenhalgh with us this evening.

Mayor Peterson asked for a motion to approve the lot line adjustment on Parcels L-HFM-1A and L-10-B subject to the findings spelled out in the staff report that the proposed lot line adjustment meets the applicable State and Town requirements, the proposed lot line adjustment improves the configuration of both plots, and the newly configured parcels meet the one-acre minimum lot size required in the Rural Residential one-acre zone in the Town of Leeds. Councilmember Wilson moved, Councilmember Hunsaker 2nd. Motion passed in a Roll Call Vote.

ROLL CALL VOTE:
Yea Nay Abstain Absent
MAYOR: WAYNE PETERSON x
COUNCILMEMBER: ALAN ROBERTS x
COUNCILMEMBER: DANIELLE STIRLING x
COUNCILMEMBER: LORRIE HUNSAKER x
COUNCILMEMBER: STEPHEN WILSON x

b. Discussion and Possible Action on Utah Retirement System Audit Implications

Mayor Peterson: The Town of Leeds has been selected by the Utah Retirement System for an audit. They have gathered some preliminary information. They are asking for additional information and they are raising the concern or issue that because the Town of Leeds paid holidays to our employees, that that constitutes a benefit, and that all employees who work a minimum of 20 hours and receive any benefit are required to participate in the Utah Retirement System, which means the Town needs to contribute 17.97% of their earnings to the Retirement System on an ongoing basis. What you have in your packets this evening is something that I asked our attorney to work up. It is Resolution Number 2021-06, a Resolution Amending the Policies and Procedures Manual pertaining to benefits granted to employees. Mayor Peterson read the proposed Resolution 2021-06.

Councilmember Wilson: So, this would just essentially takeaway paid holidays. It just would not be in there than? The plan is no paid leave on holidays?

Mayor Peterson: That is correct. Now what I would suggest, is that a future meeting, we would need to have a Public Hearing in advance of it with regard to any town official, which the Clerk/Recorder is, but I think, in good faith, we could adjust the pay so that there would be a 5% increase in the pay to reflect that they will no longer get paid for the holidays. By the end of any calendar year that would result in our paying them what we were planning on paying them. One of the things about the Retirement System is if you do not work a minimum of four years for a State entity, you have no opportunity to collect, although the Town would continue to pay in. It has been my experience in the little under nine years that I have been involved that we have many people who do not stay the four years, so we wouldn’t even be paying in so that they could collect a benefit. As a result of this audit, we do need to make any payments, those employees who have worked more than four years would be eligible to some benefit at their retirement age. It goes up, clearly, as you spend more time working in the State of Utah. For those that did not work four years, if they don’t top that off somewhere else, that would just be money that was paid in and never paid out to somebody from the Town of Leeds. So, the effort here is to make it clear going forward that we are not interested in paying into that system.

Councilmember Hunsaker: I think it is in the Town’s best interest to not pay into that system and to get us out of this, otherwise we’re just giving money away. If they do not stay the four years, the State still keeps it. We lose the money. I am all for deleting it myself.

Councilmember Wilson: My only question was what it would do to our employees, but you covered that.

Mayor Peterson: I do not want to be unfair, but I also do not want to be generous to the State System when we are not going to have our employees benefit in a consistent way.

Mayor Peterson asked for a motion to approve Resolution Number 2021-06. Councilmember Hunsaker Moved. Councilmember Wilson 2nd. Motion passed in a Roll Call Vote.

ROLL CALL VOTE:
Yea Nay Abstain Absent
MAYOR: WAYNE PETERSON x
COUNCILMEMBER: ALAN ROBERTS x
COUNCILMEMBER: DANIELLE STIRLING x
COUNCILMEMBER: LORRIE HUNSAKER x
COUNCILMEMBER: STEPHEN WILSON x

9. Discussion Items:

a. CARES Funds Update

Mayor Peterson: This is the first tranche. It is not the ARPA funds, but it is the CARES funds. These funds originally were going to have to be spent by December 31, 2020. That was extended to June 30, 2021. That has now been extended to November 30, 2021. We still have a little under $20,000 in CARES funds. This first tranche, not the ARPA money, is more restrictive. And we do have the ability to buy a few more of the higher quality masks that our staff would tend to wear, we still have a good supply of the other masks that are available for events if the public desires to wear them. The additional monies we could make available to those businesses that indicated that they had suffered losses last year when we first put this out. We would just need them to verify that they had experienced a loss more than what they have recouped through any of the programs out there. If we do not spend it, it will go to the State and then the State will spend it. I would just suggest that there are benefits to keep it local. I would like to hear the thoughts of Council, because I think we will need to move forward with a process to do that verification, so we can be certain that we can dispense these funds if we so choose by November 30, 2021.

Council agreed that keeping the funds local was the best option.

Mayor Peterson: All right. I will look to move forward with making those businesses that did apply in the past aware that we would like them to verify if they have additional need beyond which was reimbursed to them. Those that have not received two tranches getting a priority, and then see what we have in place or know what we are facing come the early part of November. We still have November to sort out anything that might remain.

10. Citizen Comments: None

11. Staff Reports:

Councilmember Wilson: I do not have any staff reports, but I do just have a question. Did we hear anything about the Main Street water drainage cutting across, going down Valley Road?

Mayor Peterson: We are still waiting. Our engineer had asked that they get back within a month. We are hoping to hear before our next meeting about that. They did say they were hoping to find a place where the water might be able to be deposited.

Councilmember Hunsaker: Just a shout out, for those that are not on lovely Leeds Family Fun, thank you to LDWA for doing an amazing job of getting that crumbling vault out of there so that we did not have to test the winch on my ATV to pull my car out of a sinkhole. It is greatly appreciated. It was done fast. It was done quick, and the asphalt was already laid today. It was a thing of beauty to watch. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Most appreciated.

Mayor Peterson: The election canvass, the Board of Canvass is the Town Council in the Town of Leeds. We are asked to meet sometime between November 10 and November 17 to go over the results of the election from November 2. In the past, we have tended to do the canvass in the afternoon. In this case, November 10, is our one and only November Town Council meeting that night. With respect to the general election at the Town Council meeting, we would accept the report of the canvass and also, we would have an approval of the minutes of the canvass. So, is there a time that would be available in the afternoon on November 10, for the Town Council to get together? I will ask the two here and I will ask the others who are unable to be with us this evening, for a time that we could take care of that and then immediately take care of things at the Town Council Meeting and not have to do it in December?

Councilmember Hunsaker said she would make it work. Councilmember Wilson asked how long it would take?

Mayor Peterson: If we do not have, as was the case one time, ballots that were postmarked after they were received, which caused great confusion, absence anything like that, it’s usually a very quick process of about five minutes or so. Is there a later than time that would be better?

Councilmember Wilson: After four o’clock would work.

Mayor Peterson: Okay, it can just give us a little time to get the paperwork in place for the seven o’clock Town Council Meeting. Aseneth, if you could contact the County and find out if 4pm on the 10th works. If they do not have that availability, I would suggest we do it. We might not be able to finalize the paperwork, but we do it then right before the Town Council Meeting as a second choice. Say 6:30 because if they could do that, we might be able to get the paperwork done.

Mayor Peterson: In the Mayor’s Meeting, they mentioned a disappointing situation from the Southwest Utah Public Health and that was at their first flu shootout event, which they hold several on an annual basis, but usually they have amazingly consistent attendance at that first event, except for this year. This year, they had about 20% the number of people who normally came for a flu shot. They are secondarily concerned because they said that with masks being virtually nonexistent; they think that people may be lulled into a little bit of security basis how quiet the flu season was last year. They are very concerned with people not wearing masks that the exposure to the flu and the spread of the flu could be a lot more significant. So, for those who contemplate getting a flu shot, I happened to be one of them. I got my flu shot last week a little earlier than usual. I figure sometimes a good defense is a good thing to throw up there in the face of this kind of situation. The other thing I want to report on is that on Friday of last week, they had an Election Equipment Testing that they invited the public to attend. There were only about the half a dozen people there, but I went to it, and they stepped through the process. If you send in your ballot by mail or drop it into a dropbox, you should, within a day maximum, be seeing, if you go to how to track your ballot which was included in the last town newsletter, you will see that it’s been received. Once they’ve registered it in they will check the signature, you may recall on the back of the envelope is a little bit of a tear window, they will tear that open. That is all that they will do prior to Election Day. If they see that you did not sign it or that your signature does not machine match what is on file, they will try to contact you if you have provided an email address or a phone number. If they can cure the ballot, you will be able to continue to see that vote move forward and have it counted. The night of the elections, behind two locked doors, on equipment that is networked with each other but not over the internet, they have a process that begins. They do groups of 50 ballots, they are forever counting to make sure they still have that group of 50 ballots or if something failed, for example, on the signature match on something that came in at the very last minute that they couldn’t try to get cured, they will say okay, now this 50 is 49. And they will work it through to make sure that nothing goes missing. First thing they do is they have a machine that opens the envelope, they then have pairs of people separate the envelope from the ballot, not making any effort to pay attention to what is written on that envelope. You are not signing anything on the ballot. So, your ballot is no longer something that can be identified other than there is a unique marking on it. They are not meant to be shared between family members. The most common problem at this point, when they go to count the ballot, is that husband and wife voted on each other’s ballot. It will flag that type of situation as they are looking to just do a match at that point that something’s amiss there. Other than that situation, usually it moves smoothly at that point. Those ballots are then, after being counted, loaded into another computer that is tracking the actual and it also sends an update to the website saying that that uniquely coded ballot has been counted. It is something that people can follow over the internet as to the progress of their own ballot. But that ballot itself is never counted in a way that it could be accessed by the internet. That is something that has been a concern in recent time. It is something that they take great pride in doing as efficiently as possible. There were a few Clerk/Recorders that were there that have been doing elections for decades. These people are hardcore on wanting to make sure everything gets done right there. Several of them talk about taking time off from work so that they can help when it is a County Election, because they feel that strongly about the need to make sure that the election process moves smoothly. If you have questions, the Clerk’s Office of the County is where you can get information about registering to vote, what to do, if you make a mistake on your ballot, they will explain to you what you can do. They could, before you drop it into the mail or drop it into the dropbox, they could issue a new ballot if need be. They also have ways if you just want to vote differently than you initially marked it, but you’ve not yet returned it, you are able to cross out a name and the bubble, the whole line and write not this and then you draw the circle and on the one you want and write this one. They expect if they see that, that is what you’re looking to do. They want to always try to capture the voter intent. Best thing to do is only color in the bubbles that you want to color in and do not color in too many. If you over vote that will cancel out your vote for that position. So, in the Town of Leeds, we have three people running for two Council seats. If you colored in all three of those bubbles, you would not end up voting, they do not take the first two, they just say it’s an over vote and over votes invalidate the vote for that particular election. The other items on the ballot, it still would count. Once you drop your ballot into a mailbox or into one of the valid drop boxes, you are considered to have voted. At that point, it is too late to say I want to get a new ballot. I want you to spoil the old ballot and give me new. That is not possible at that time. The other thing that comes to mind that they mentioned is for running an Election by Mail, which the State of Utah has been doing for quite some time and feels very comfortable with how it has worked, is the importance in keeping the database current. They get information from the Department of Records when somebody passes on. They are getting copies of death certificates for people to make sure that they can match and delete those people from the rolls. That takes a few days, so a few days before they mail the ballots, they start reading the obituaries. They will delete as they are able to identify people that are no longer with us, who would not be entitled to receive a ballot, obviously, at that point. It was to me an hour fifteen well spent to really see how they went through this process and how the equipment works. They ran the scanners; they ran the different pieces of equipment. It all did seem to be very, very technologically tight, so that nothing could really go amiss with it. With that having been said, there is no need for a closed meeting this evening.

Meeting Adjourned 7:25 pm

APPROVED ON THIS 27th DAY OF OCTOBER, 2021

______________________________________________________________

Mayor, Wayne Peterson

ATTEST:

_______________________________________________________________

Aseneth Steed, Clerk/Recorder