The City Council met at a Legislative Breakfast on Tuesday, January 8, 2013, at 7:30 a.m. at the Tracy Aviary, 589 East 1300 South.
In Attendance: Council Members Carlton Christensen, Kyle LaMalfa, Luke Garrott, Charlie Luke, Stan Penfold, and Søren Simonsen.
Excused: Jill Remington Love
Also In Attendance: Ralph Becker, Mayor; Cindy Gust-Jenson, Council Executive Director; Jennifer Bruno, Council Deputy Director; Neil Lindberg, Council Legal Director; Karen Halladay, Council Policy Analyst; Russell Weeks, Council Senior Policy Analyst; Molly Farmer, Council Communications; David Everitt, Mayor’s Chief of Staff; Holly Hilton, Mayor’s Administrative Assistant; Poonam Kumar, Mayor’s Communications and Content Manager; Art Raymond, Mayor’s Deputy Director of Communications; Bianca Shreeve, Mayor’s Assistant Chief of Staff; Justin Sorenson, Mayor’s Intern; Wilford Sommerkorn, Planning Director; Ann Ober, Public Services Administration Services Director; Lynn Pace, Deputy City Attorney; Tim Brown, Tracy Aviary Executive Director and Cindi Mansell, City Recorder
Utah State Representatives: Angela Romero, District 26; Brian King, District 28; Rebecca Chavez-Houck, District 24 and Patrice Arent, District 36.
Utah State Senators: Jim Debakis, District 2; Patricia Jones, District 4; Luz Robles, District 1 and Todd Weiler, District 23.
Councilmember Simonsen welcomed and conducted the meeting.
8:03:00 AM The meeting was called to order at 8:03 a.m. View Agendas
WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION
Mayor Becker welcomed those present and thanked them for their commitment of time and service. He said Salt Lake City would like to continue to be a great legislative resource in their role as the Capitol City. He discussed many important projects that would not be possible without legislative actions and response.
Introductions of everyone present were made, including their area of representation.
Tim Brown welcomed everyone to the Tracy Aviary and thanked the Mayor, Council, Staff and Legislators for their support. He said the Aviary was the oldest and largest public aviary in the country and would be celebrating its 75th year; there were over 117,000 visitors last year (triple the number from five years ago). He provided a brief explanation of the Aviary functions and how it was thought to remedy “Nature Deficit Disorder” in children as well as adults by providing outdoor and nature experiences in association with the various bird species and education. He then introduced a Golden Eagle “Nizhoni” (Navajo word for beautiful) and talked about the birds at the Aviary.
CAPITOL CITY STATISTICS/COMMUTER POPULATION View Attachment
Mayor Becker addressed Capitol City challenges such as the unique daytime population increase. He said daytime population increased by 72%, ranking Salt Lake City as #2 in the nation for daytime population increase. He said the “point of sale” sales tax generation did not cover the cost of services provided for the daytime population of approximately $280/year for each non-resident commuter. He said a higher average number of police officers were necessary in order to serve and protect the increased daytime population.
Mayor Becker said Salt Lake City roads were built wide enough to accommodate the daytime population and carried significant maintenance costs. He said B&C road funds covered less than 50% of maintenance expenses for the City’s roads. He addressed the fact that 54% of land in Salt Lake City was non-taxable and the largest employers in Salt Lake City were non-taxable entities. He said visitor communities such as Alta, Moab and Park City had the ability for a local option sales tax to capture more revenue to deal with impacts from the visiting population. He said Salt Lake City had unsuccessfully sought that same option and continued to look for ways to be able to provide the facilities and services the community needed and expected.
LEGISLATIVE ISSUES
Lynn Pace said he looked forward to the upcoming legislative session. He addressed the Legislative Bill tracking website at www.slcgov.com/legislation2013. He said the purpose of the website was to track legislation. He said Salt Lake County Caucus Meetings would be held on Thursdays at 7:00 a.m. starting January 31, 2013. He explained the intent was for all jurisdictions within Salt Lake County to come together to discuss issues. Mayor Becker said years ago this was the practice and Salt Lake County was the most powerful county in the Legislature as a result. This process had somehow disintegrated over time and the desire was to make it function well again for the benefit of all jurisdictions involved.
REVENUE AND TAXATION – TRANSPORTATION FUNDING
Mr. Pace said Salt Lake City had worked closely with the Utah League of Cities & Towns to push for transportation funding. He said first on the wish list would be to increase the gas tax flat rate. He said the fall-back position would be to create a local option for a transportation fund. Senator Patricia Jones asked if the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce would be leading on this funding issue. Mr. Pace said he was unsure how much they would lead the discussion.
Representative Rebecca Chavez-Houck asked about support from counties on the local tax. Mr. Pace said there had been no direct discussions but the counties appeared supportive. Mayor Becker said the Salt Lake County incoming Mayor had indicated this was a priority. Councilmember Christensen said the Utah Association of Counties (UAC) had been working with the counties towards a solution.
REVENUE AND TAXATION – SALES TAX DISTRIBUTION
Mr. Pace said sales tax distribution was critical to funding local government. He said the formula was changed a few years ago so sales tax was now distributed at 50% point-of-sale and 50% population. He said there was concern raised at the Legislature every year to change the formula and reduce the point-of-sale portion and shift it to either a population or jobs component so there was alignment to seek job growth. He said the position of Salt Lake City and the Utah League of Cities and Towns was not to look at this issue unless there was new revenue on the table.
REVENUE AND TAXATION – ONLINE HOTEL TAX
Mr. Pace said this item had to do with taxing hotel reservations made on line. He said this created a tax issue as well as a disadvantage to Salt Lake City. He stated there was existing national litigation on this issue; there might not be a bill this year waiting for the litigation issue to be resolved. He stated the City was not actively pursuing this item but would be interested if this issue came to the table.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT – ALCOHOL REVISIONS
Mr. Pace said Senator Valentine was sponsoring a bill relative to provisions which would change how alcohol/liquor licenses were allocated within the State. He said Utah had reached the cap on the number of licenses available. He said the bill would give a restaurant owner a master license to operate all restaurants under that particular owner. He said that would free up other licenses instead of being issued one per location.
Mr. Pace said Salt Lake City wanted more flexibility on controlling the hours of operations on facilities that serve alcohol. He stated currently, state law was strict, and the City had no authority to reduce the hours of operation. Mayor Becker said he was not expecting anything that would overturn what the City had done to their ordinances. David Everitt said he would be happy to provide more details about liquor relative to zoning upon request.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT – RDA LEGISLATION
Mr. Pace said an RDA bill could contain the provision to change the effective date and subsequent time period of an RDA area. He said the bill would move the start date to the date of the first project, not when the area was created. He said another RDA issue was if an RDA project area was created and property values increased over time, the local government entities would receive the tax increment to reinvest. He said there were circumstances where jurisdictions had bonded on the expectation of increase and now had a decrease in revenue. He said there had been talk regarding protection from the down slide.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT – AIRPORT LEGISLATIVE ISSUES
Mr. Pace said State attention to what happens at the Salt Lake City Airport had increased. He said there are a number of issues which might affect the airport, such as changes in state procurement laws. He said if there were changes, they could dramatically impact current construction projects.
Mr. Pace said Salt Lake City had revised taxicab and ground transportation regulations at the Airport. He said there was ongoing litigation with existing providers to attempt to tie the City’s hands on ground transportation regulations. He stated this was a significant issue for Salt Lake City because the City had an interest to make sure the City’s first impression was a positive one. Mr. Pace said legislation had also been proposed on regulating how hangar leases were handled. He stated there were some disgruntled citizens who wanted to have the state dictate how that process was handled.
Mr. Pace said another proposal was to appoint state officials to the Airport Advisory Board. He said these proposals could make Delta nervous about how the Airport was managed and could have a huge impact to the City. Mr. Pace said another proposal was to mandate that the Airport be smoke-free. He said the City would be concerned if fewer passengers came through Salt Lake City. Representative Rebecca Chavez-Houck asked if Delta has had conversations with legislators in this regard. Mr. Pace said Delta had indicated they would fly representatives into town to meet as necessary to address the issues.
Positive comments were offered regarding the food vendors inside the Airport. Councilmember Christensen said the result was higher revenues as well as rebuilding. Mr. Pace said revenue that came through the Airport as an Enterprise Fund had to remain at the Airport because of Federal law.
LAND AND WATER ISSUES – WATER BILLS
Mr. Pace said there was one significant water bill dealing with how the State Engineer addressed change applications. He said the proposed bill would prohibit the State Engineer from considering whether or not there had been a forfeiture of water in connection with a change application. He said Salt Lake City provided a lot of water to Salt Lake County and the canyon areas. He said there was urgency in protecting water resources.
LAND AND WATER ISSUES – BILLBOARD CHANGES
Mr. Pace said potential changes in the billboard industry were unknown. He said there was a bill last year that any existing billboard could convert from paper to digital. He said the City and the Utah League felt the bill was too broad and it was defeated. He said it was vital that cities maintain local control and regulation for what works best for them. He discussed additional reasons why unilateral conversion to electronic billboards would create conflicts.
Representative Rebecca Chavez-Houck asked if electronic billboards were taxed at a higher rate. Mayor Becker said billboards were taxed as real property that depreciated over time. Neil Lindberg added they were taxed on a cost-to-construct basis and not a revenue generating basis.
LAND AND WATER ISSUES – HISTORIC DISTRICTS
Mr. Pace said to his knowledge, there were no bills relative to historic districts.
OPEN FORUM
Senator Weiler said he heard from the Republican side that the fiscal cliff resolution was the worst scenario for Utah Legislators. He said one thought was to budget with zero growth on anything and to return in Special Session in the spring or summer if the fiscal cliff did not get resolved.
Representative Arent stated mattress recycling would be an issue for Salt Lake County.
Mayor Becker thanked everyone for attending. He stated Helen Langan would be at the Legislature and would serve as the primary contact for the Mayor’s Office.
The meeting adjourned at 9:12 a.m.
This document is not intended to serve as a full transcript as additional discussion may have been held; please refer to the audio or video for the entire content.
This document along with the digital recording constitute the official minutes of the City Council Legislative Breakfast meeting held January 8, 2013.