Last week’s City Council meeting was a long and packed one, covering everything from the state legislative session down to announcements about the community garden opening.
We’ve put together a brief recap to cover the biggest things that came up in the meeting.
Work Session
Senator Todd Weiler
State Sen. Todd Weiler stopped by the meeting for a few minutes to give an update on what he had been working on and would be focusing on in the closing week of the legislative session. (The session closes this Friday, March 6.)
S.B. 211 Tort Amendments – Sen. Weiler was tracking and had given his support to a bill that would adjust the way insurance is handled in Utah. Weiler claimed that a supreme court case, Gardner v. Norman, had given too much power to insurance companies. (You can read a full breakdown of the case here.) This bill would restore insurance systems to the way they worked before the Gardner ruling.
S.B. 268 Religious Curriculum in Schools – Sen. Weiler had sponsored a bill that would put in place protections for teachers around the subject of religion. He said that he believes religion should not be taught and there should be no proselytizing at schools, but that religion was often a large part of history. Weiler said his bill would create an environment where teachers would be able to teach about religion, without preaching, without feeling like they were in shaky territory.
S.B. 69 School Device Revisions – Sen. Weiler said he was supporting this bill, which takes a bill passed last year banning cell phones during instructional time and amps it up to ban cell phones in school during the entire school day. Weiler stated he also approved that in this bill, if school districts wanted to vote to change or not institute this ban, they could. This bill has been approved in the legislature and is expected to be signed into law by Gov. Cox.
S.B. 241 Early Literacy – Sen. Weiler also noted his attention to this bill, which would create more stringent reading requirements for 3rd graders before they can pass to 4th grade. Weiler stated the intent of the bill would be to help teachers and parents focus on kids reading abilities. He said the bill isn’t meant to be punitive, but instead create incentives for people to read with their kids.
During the work session, the members of the city council also spoke about bills that they were focusing on or were concerned about. These include:
Land use bills that were supposedly designed to create affordable housing, but that had no actual mandates for affordability in their wording. One particular bill went to committee twice, but City Manager Gary Hill said that Mayor Kate Bradshaw had the opportunity to testify about why it was problematic.
Another concern was about bills with caps on property taxes. Hill laid out a few examples about how the state mandating caps would affect city budgets negatively, including limiting how they could manage their own money and how it would affect flexible spending if the city needed to raise additional money in emergencies.
Mayor Bradshaw was also keeping an eye on a bill that would more clearly define E-vehicles, a problem which Bountiful has been dealing with for some time now.
Bradshaw was also watching bill that would change how infrastructure is defined for housing, which could potentially open up more space for housing; a change to the UTA governance board and making sure there would be local representation there; and a bill dealing with how homeless shelters are funded and how non-host cities (Bountiful being one) are required to contribute.
You can track the progress of all bills here: https://le.utah.gov/bills/bills_By_Session.jsp
Public Comment
During the public comment period, a pair of young women named Isabelle spoke about their concerns about ICE in our community. They demanded the city council address the situation, and laid a list of additional demands for the city:
- To require judicial warrants for ICE to operate in Bountiful
- To pass a resolution to abolish ICE
- To mandate public reporting on ICE interactions and activities
- To provide educational resources and partner with immigration rights organizations
- To fund community advisory planning
- To ensure city funds, staff, and facilities are not used for immigration enforcement
Council Reports
Councilmember Richard Higginson: Spoke about his meeting with the power commission, and said that the commission was worried because water levels were so low at Lake Powell, where Bountiful gets a lot of power from, that there would be lower generation levels and that could lead to potential price increases.
Councilmember Dan Bell: Said that the South Davis Rec Center had paid off its bond.
