City Council Announcements
September 10, 2002
A. Decisions, Feedback & Information needed by staff
1. March Street Field Trip
In response to the Council's discussion at the Tuesday Work Session relating to the proposed March Street closure, Doug Wheelwright from the Planning staff suggested a 45-minute field trip for Council Members to view the portion of the street proposed for closure. March Street is located in Council District 2 at approximately 2935 West between 500 and 570 South.
Would Council Members like to schedule a field trip or identify times for individual or small group site visits? Councilmember Christensen and Turner would attend. Councilmember Turner asked if anyone wanted to tour the Impound Lot. No Council Members wanted to attend.
ADDITIONAL ITEMS DISCUSSED:
1. Cindy Gust-Jenson said Councilmember Buhler prepared a letter to the Search Committee, at the Mayor’s invitation, for a new City Attorney. She said the Council was invited to give input to the Selection Committee. Council Members took a minute to read letter. Councilmember Buhler asked if Council Members had any changes or suggestions. Councilmember Lambert suggested adding language about Mayor’s consideration and Council approval or confirmation. Council Members were in favor of the letter with Councilmember Lambert’s suggestion.
2. Ms. Gust-Jenson said another tour would be coming up regarding the Northwest Quadrant with some property owners from that area. She said they were looking at the 3rd week of October. She said a four-hour block of time would be needed. She said it would be a helicopter and/or ground tour. Discussion was held on the purpose of the proposal. Ms. Gust-Jenson said this would be a master planning process. She said the property owners wanted to begin the master planning process in the near future and would be asking the City to move that ahead. She said the last time the City did anything to move ahead on this was in approximately 1988. She said there were 3 or 4 key property owners who wanted to get the process moving again. Councilmember Christensen said he was employed by one of the property owners so he had stayed out of the process. Ms. Gust-Jenson said it was the largest undeveloped portion of the City and would be a significant undertaking. Councilmember Lambert asked what the Council needed to do other than look at the property. Ms. Gust-Jenson said the Council needed to think about whether or not it was time to engage in the process. She said once you engage in the process that opened the door for development. She said she would have Janice Jardine prepare more information for the Council. Councilmember Christensen said this was a true opportunity for Salt Lake City to have an actual master plan community. Councilmember Buhler said the Council could appropriate money for a master plan. Ms. Gust-Jenson said the Council could accept a contribution, appropriate money, establish a legislative intent. She said the Council could not actually force the action.
3. Ms. Gust-Jenson said she needed direction concerning scheduling meeting for Council Members. She said recently there had been requests to set up meetings in specific combinations with specific combinations. She said it appeared staff was working for someone else other than the Council. She said staff needed to know how the Council wanted these special requests handled. Some Council Members preferred to have staff schedule their meetings rather than make the arrangements themselves but they wanted more information about who would be attending meetings, what the purpose of the meeting was and when the meeting was scheduled. Ms. Gust-Jenson said she would try to write up a little summary.
4. Ms. Gust-Jenson said a Councilmember raised another issue this afternoon. She said were Council Members interested in having interns. She said apparently the Mayor’s Office had a number of interns which were not paid. She said in the past, the Council had paid interns. She said the Mayor’s Office had more interns than they could use so they asked if the Council wanted interns. Council Members were in favor of having two interns on a trial basis to be utilized by staff and Council Members.
5. Ms. Gust-Jenson said this time of year we ask the Administration to start getting ready a legislative report so the Council knew what issues were coming up. She asked if the Council wanted to move in that direction. Council Members said yes. Councilmember Christensen said the Council needed to meet with legislators as soon after the November elections as possible because if there were bill filing issues it would be nice to address them early.
B. Council Office Policies
C. For Your Information
D. Meetings