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Municipality

Entity

Blanding

Public Body

City Council

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Notice Title

CITY COUNCIL MINUTES NOVEMBER 25 2014

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Administrative Procedure

Notice Type(s)

Meeting

Event Start Date & Time

December 10, 2014 03:10 PM

Description/Agenda

MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING OF THE BLANDING CITY COUNCIL HELD ON NOVEMBER 25, 2014 AT 7:00 P.M. IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS Present: Mayor Pro Tempore: Kelly Laws City Councilmembers: Robert Ogle Taylor Harrison David Johnson Joe B. Lyman City Administrator: Jeremy Redd Finance Director: Kim Palmer City Engineer: Terry Ekker General Services Manager: Jeff Black Police Chief: Lloyd Watkins Absent: Mayor Calvin Balch Community Members: Kendall Laws, Emily Laws, Rodney Workman, Joe F. Lyman, Retta Hall, Trent Holliday, Nicole Holliday, Emma Holliday, Tanner Holliday, R. Lloyd Nielson, Morgan S. Kuykendall, Chris Mielke, Roma Young, Josh Nielson, Madalyn Bills, Daniel A. Cutrone, Gary Guymon, Dane Lyman, Sharon Smith, Curtis Palmer, Calvin Hunt, Taylor Lyman, Dallin Redd, Punk Holliday, Jayne Holliday, Tammy Redd, David C. Redd, Milt Pipkin, Quinn Holliday, Bill Redd, Nicole Perkins, Shelby Seely and Arlen Henderson. Prayer/Thought - The prayer/thought was offered by Robert Ogle. 1. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. 2. Councilmember Johnson moved to approve the minutes and financial disbursements of the November 11, 2014 meeting. Councilmember Harrison seconded the motion. Mayor Pro Tempore Laws repeated the motion and asked for discussion. Hearing none, he called for a vote. Voting was as follows: Those voting AYE Councilmember Ogle Councilmember Harrison Councilmember Johnson Councilmember Laws Those voting NAY NONE Those Abstaining Councilmember Lyman Constituting all members thereof, Mayor Pro Tempore Laws declared the motion carried. 3. OPEN FORUM A. Lloyd Nielson spoke to the Council in support of the opening of Recapture Canyon and the resolution that has been drafted by Councilmember Lyman. Arlen Henderson also spoke in support of the resolution. 4. REPORTS/DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS A. Terry Ekker presented the Project Status Report. 12” Mountain Line Replacement Project will be finalized by the end of the month. There are two remaining punch list items and some added water bar construction. Councilmember Ogle asked if any deadlines had been exceeded. Mr. Ekker responded that because of the uniqueness of this project there were no deadlines that had been missed. Blanding 2014 Waterline Projects The project is complete. There are grant funds leftover and it is hoped that they can be re-scoped and used for other projects. Power Master Plan The Power Master Plan will be presented later in the meeting. 2014 Blanding Power Distribution Project The pre-bid/site showing had been held earlier in the day. The bid opening will take place on December 4, 2014. The bid award will take place at Council meeting on December 9, 2014. East Side Sewer Trunk Line The project has entered the land/right of way acquisition phase of the project and the project funding phase. 2015 Streets Project Project cost estimates have been completed. The scope of work has been completed and submitted to the San Juan County Transportation Special Service District. The District will present to the Community Impact Board in December. B. Financial Report – Kim Palmer Ms. Palmer presented the October 2014 financial status report. Water revenues are climbing as a result of the recent water rate increase. Gas revenues are down slightly from last year due to the warmer fall weather. 5. AGENDA ITEMS A. Recapture Canyon Resolution – Joe Lyman Councilmember Lyman shared a statement he had written in response to the comments made by Mayor Balch at the November 11, 2014 city council meeting: Recapture Canyon Mayor Opinion Rebuttal I listened to the recording of the last Council meeting. I was so stunned by some of what I heard I played it back several times to be sure I understood. There are several points made which I feel need a rebuttal. 1- Last Therefore is completely ridiculous. Why is it ridiculous to require a Federal; Agency to comply with their own rules and regulations? 2- 317 Million other people own the land. That is in dispute with numerous lawsuits from Counties and States all over the west against Federal Agencies. 3- Founding Fathers at statehood gave the land away. I don’t know why but they did. On the contrary it is the opposite. The Utah State Enabling Act in agreement with the Constitution of the United States requires that Utah “be admitted into the Union on equal footing with the original States” Anything less retains our character as a territory owned by the United States rather than recognizing Utah as a sovereign state. The United States are in violation of that contract. 4- Just because the Federal Government did something wrong does not justify doing something else wrong. Tell that to Rosa Parks when she refused to leave the front seat of the bus. The greatest atrocities ever perpetrated on humanity have been done ‘legally’. It is our duty to oppose and defy institutional wrong doing. 5- Speaking of the BLM you said “It’s their land”. Again, NO it is NOT. The powers of the Federal Government are limited and narrowly defined. Land management is NOT one of those powers. Specifically, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” 6- Challenge the accusation of arbitrary enforcement. The protesters had written permission from the Water Conservancy District who opened the gate for them. You can drive down that road, not the trail, today and have no consequences. It seems the consequences were only THAT day for CERTAIN people. That is arbitrary. 7- Flow of power is from the Federal Government through their Minions to the People. Unfortunately that is the reality on the ground but it is not what the founders envisioned and not what the Constitution defined. What happened to government Of the People, By the People, For the People? I have read a number of Federal land planning documents that made it clear that prior to 1976 the Federal Government still recognized the authority and jurisdiction of the States. 8- It was closed by legality or non-legality and we should not support the protest. You can’t seriously believe that illegal actions by the government should not be opposed, protested and defied when necessary. Of all places Blanding has the right to protest the actions of the BLM. Perhaps a few millions lives would have been saved in WWII had people in Germany stood up in opposition to what was clearly wrong doing by the government. I don’t pretend that what is happening here is as serious as what happened there…yet. But we have had our own citizens brutalized by the BLM. What comes next if we, as elected officials, don’t stand up in opposition? My only regret is that we have not been more forceful over the years. Perhaps now is too little too late. 9- They (the five) broke the law. That is yet to be determined by a judge and jury. It is irresponsible to make this statement. Councilmember Lyman, upon completion of reading the statement, commented that he did not feel it was right of the Mayor to state in an open meeting that individuals had broken the law by entering Recapture, because that has yet to be determined. Councilmember Lyman moved to approve Resolution 11-25-2014-1 A Resolution Denouncing the Bureau of Land Management’s Arbitrary Closure of Recapture Canyon, the Handling of the Recapture Canyon Protest and Calling for the Immediate Re-Opening of the Recapture Canyon Route - with the following changes: Amend the last paragraph which reads, “…The Bureau of Land Management must embrace the position of …” to read, “…The Bureau of Land Management must adhere to the planning of…” Councilmember Harrison seconded the motion. Mayor Pro Tempore Laws repeated the motion and asked for discussion. Mayor Pro Tempore Laws stated that the Mayor has said he will not sign the resolution. However, the Mayor has no vote, he is the Mayor and represents the City. The Council and the Mayor may not always agree around the table, but once the item is agreed upon it is the voice of the City of Blanding. The Mayor may not like it but he is the voice for the five councilmembers. He also suggested that paragraph 24 that reads, “Now, therefore be it resolved that the City Council of Blanding, Utah…” be changed to read, “Now, therefore be it resolved the City of Blanding, Utah…” This will make the document from the City of Blanding, not the City Council. Councilmember Lyman amended his motion to approve Resolution 11-25-2014-1 A Resolution Denouncing the Bureau of Land Management’s Arbitrary Closure of Recapture Canyon, the Handling of the Recapture Canyon Protest and Calling for the Immediate Re-Opening of the Recapture Canyon Route, with the following changes. Amend the last paragraph which reads, “…The Bureau of Land Management must embrace the position of …” to read, “…The Bureau of Land Management must adhere to the planning of…” and amend paragraph 24 to read “Now, therefore be it resolved the City of Blanding, Utah…”Councilmember Harrison seconded the motion. Mayor Pro Tempore Laws repeated the motion and asked for discussion. Hearing none, he called for a vote. Voting was as follows: Those voting AYE Councilmember Johnson Councilmember Ogle Councilmember Harrison Councilmember Lyman Councilmember Laws Those voting NAY NONE Constituting all members thereof, Mayor Pro Tempore Laws declared the motion carried. Following the vote Councilmember Harrison expressed his appreciation to Councilmember Lyman for the effort he took in drafting the resolution. Councilmember Ogle asked about the legal documents following the resolution in the packet. Councilmember Lyman responded that was information gathered from the BLM handbook. B. Land Exchange – Joe Lyman Councilmember Lyman told Council that Redd's Ace Hardware is expanding their business and has requested a land trade of 408 square feet with the City to enable the new addition to their business. Currently they don’t have enough land to meet the setback requirements and the trade would allow them to move forward and be in compliance. There would be no effect on the City and yet is beneficial to the business. City staff has reviewed the request and have found no positive or negative effects to the City. Councilmember Johnson moved to approve the 408 square foot land exchange with Redd’s Ace Hardware. Councilmember Lyman seconded the motion. Mayor Pro Tempore Laws repeated the motion and asked for discussion. Hearing none, he called for a vote. Voting was as follows: Those voting AYE Councilmember Johnson Councilmember Ogle Councilmember Harrison Councilmember Lyman Councilmember Laws Those voting NAY NONE Constituting all members thereof, Mayor Pro Tempore Laws declared the motion carried. C. Electric Master Plan Review – Terry Ekker Mr. Ekker introduced Chris Mielke from Salient Power Engineering who has been working with the City on the electrical master plan. Mr. Mielke stated that the objectives of the project were to create GIS maps and files of the electrical system and create a system model. After the mapping was complete a set of priorities were recommended by Salient for the City’s electrical system. In regards to the mapping portion of the project Mr. Mielke told Council that the City’s existing maps were limited and inaccurate both spatially and in content. It was important that the maps become updated and accurate. The City does not currently have a system model. The system model shows where there are surpluses and deficits in the system. It identifies potential system overloads, voltage tolerances and available fault levels throughout the system. Modeling also provides a resource for future system planning, system upgrades, distributed generation requests and service requests. Mr. Mielke discussed the current status of City transformers and generators, stating that some of them are close to 50 years old, and are becoming extremely outdated. In discussing system redundancy Mr. Mielke told Council that there is currently little redundancy in the system. Currently the system is non N-1 compliant on most levels. If the City system lost the 12k transformer the majority of the community would be without power. The amount of time these residents would be without power would be a few days to a week while a new transformer was found or borrowed. In conclusion of his presentation Mr. Mielke shared a set of priorities for the system. Immediate priority projects include those that will reduce the potential for sustained outages to a large area and projects that will increase system reliability. The total projected cost of these immediate projects is estimated at $380,000. High priorities projects including fusing, capacitors and a feeder from 4.16kV to 12.47kV for a total estimated cost of $199,600. Low priority projects to occur over the next three to six years include projects that will eventually meet defined limits, work towards the long term system plan, allow for system flexibility and increase system reliability. Total cost of these projects is estimated at $875,000. The ultimate goal of the electrical master plan is to bring the entire system to a single voltage of 12.47kV, create system redundancy, become N-1 contingency capable on many levels, lower system losses and create a greater sectionalization capability. Councilmember Lyman asked what the timeline was for the entire project. Mr. Redd responded that the entire system master plan is slated to occur over a six to eight-year period. Because this is a large project, smaller yearly projects will take place moving towards a better overall system. Mr. Redd continued to tell Council that there are no plans to borrow money or use a rate increase to fund the projects. The electric company has been saving for these projects for years in an effort to self-fund the needed upgrades. 6. INFORMATION None 8. OPEN FORUM Councilmember Lyman shared a letter that was written to the Mayor from Phil Lyman. He additionally asked the the letter be entered into the meeting minutes. The letter reads: Dear Mayor Balch, In response to a long train of abuses and usurpations by the BLM, about 300 local people felt compelled to protest. On May 10, 2014 they did so in a legally organized and legally executed event. The protest was not about Recapture and it was, most certainly, not about ATV rights, it was about the disregard shown by the BLM toward our community and our interests. The attorneys for various conservation groups who have proven themselves to be unfriendly to San Juan County were the primary instigators of the criminal charges against 5 out of the 300 participants. Had this been the first assault on honest citizens, it would be unacceptable, but when this pattern evinces a design to deprive local Citizens of their freedoms through accusations and false charges, thankfully there are men and women of character willing to Act. I was disappointed to hear that as of last council meeting you said that "they broke the law." I am not sure to which "they" or to which "law" you were referring, but it was discouraging to hear that you had already reached a verdict as to the guilt of those spuriously charged. It was even more disappointing that you had sided with our accusers rather than relying on readily observable facts. There are some who would claim that there is no road in Recapture even while they are driving down it. The media reports are erroneous; they are being fed by the same agencies and spiteful groups that are responsible for the closure of recapture, the criminal prosecution of Ken and Dustin, the brutal raids of 2009, and now the criminal charges against me and four others, just to mention a few offenses. You have been a great public servant and I am hopeful that your remarks were made in ignorance of the facts. It is unfortunate that the BLM has chosen to take the route of, once again, making false criminal allegations with the notion that we would simply roll over. I do not plan to do that, nor do any of the others who were charged. The BLM already dropped charges against Jay Redd citing no evidence with which to charge him; yet charge him they did. You will find the same to be true of the others who are falsely accused. I hope that the community will come together to stop the horrific and malignant treatment we have received at the hands of the BLM. I welcome the opportunity to fight this fight and I would appreciate your open-minded treatment of this matter. Sincerely, Phil Lyman Josh Nielson expressed his support and appreciation to Council in passing the Recapture Resolution. It is his opinion that the protest that was held on May 10th was legal. He expressed concern that the state and the county have done nothing even though they agree the road is open. Gary Guymon expressed his love for the area and the country. He stated his appreciation for the efforts made by Councilmember Lyman. He stated that he believes there is a way to develop a plan that can allow everyone to enjoy the ruins and the canyon. He continued to say that the BLM is not always the enemy, he has worked with them at times reaching a solution and other times getting nowhere. Jane Holliday read a statement written by her daughter in law. Nicole Perkins expressed her concern that the Mayor is not reflecting the voice of Blanding. She followed up by asking where this country would be if some individuals from history had not gone against the government. It’s not about the ATV trail being taken away but about our liberties being taken away. Joe F Lyman commented that he has spent a lot of time in Recapture Canyon. It is worth fighting for. Until the closure occurred in 2007 it was a tranquil place to go through, enjoyable for those that had traveled it. Now it has become a place of turmoil because of power groups. It is something worth fighting for. He applauded the city for their support. Tammy Redd commented that in her opinion we are not being taken over slowly, but at a faster pace. The County is currently a large percentage government lands. There is a need to denounce their power, because there is no legality to their actions. She reminded everyone of a statement made by Councilmember Lyman at a previous council meeting where he had stated that extreme groups never compromise their position, we are always compromising our position and they never do. Lloyd Nielson stated that the people of San Juan County need to be applauded for doing what they were asked to do for seven years. Tanner Holliday also applauded the city for their action in approving the resolution and supporting efforts to reopen Recapture Canyon. He expressed a concern he has of watching freedoms slowly taken away. Councilmember Laws stated, "If it isn't worth fighting for, someone will take it from you". 9. Councilmember Lyman moved to enter an executive session. Councilmember Harrison seconded the motion. Mayor Pro Tempore Laws repeated the motion and asked for discussion. Hearing none, he called for a vote. Voting was as follows: Those voting AYE Councilmember Johnson Councilmember Ogle Councilmember Harrison Councilmember Lyman Councilmember Laws Those voting NAY NONE Constituting all members thereof, Mayor Pro Tempore Laws declared the motion carried. Meeting adjourned to executive session at 8:28 p.m. Councilmember Lyman moved to leave the executive session. Councilmember Harrison seconded the motion. Mayor Pro Tempore Laws repeated the motion and asked for discussion. Hearing none, he called for a vote. Voting was as follows: Those voting AYE Councilmember Johnson Councilmember Ogle Councilmember Harrison Councilmember Lyman Councilmember Laws Those voting NAY NONE Constituting all members thereof, Mayor Pro Tempore Laws declared the motion carried. The Council returned to open meeting at 9:02 p.m. Councilmember Harrison moved to adjourn. Councilmember Ogle seconded the motion. Mayor Pro Tempore Laws repeated the motion and asked for discussion. Hearing none, he called for a vote. Voting was as follows: Those voting AYE Councilmember Johnson Councilmember Ogle Councilmember Harrison Councilmember Lyman Councilmember Laws Those voting NAY NONE Constituting all members thereof, Mayor Pro Tempore Laws declared the motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 9:04 p.m.

Notice of Special Accommodations (ADA)

In compliance with the ADA, individuals needing special accommodations during this meeting may call the City Offices at (435) 678-2791 at least twenty-four hours in advance. Every effort will be made to provide the appropriate services.

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One or more Council Members may partcipate electronically.

Meeting Information

Meeting Location

50 W 100 S
BLANDING, 84511
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Contact Name

Trent Herring

Contact Email

therring@blanding.city

Notice Posting Details

Notice Posted On

December 10, 2014 03:11 PM

Notice Last Edited On

December 10, 2014 03:11 PM

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