MINUTES

ALTA TOWN COUNCIL MEETING

FEBRUARY 9, 2017

10:00 AM

ALTA COMMUNITY CENTER

ALTA, UTAH

1. The Mayor called the meeting to order at 10:00 am. The Mayor and all members of the Town Council were present.

2. Mayor’s Report: 00:00:21

The Mayor gave an update on the following matters.

  • The Mayor thanked everyone for their hard work during the last snow cycle and road closures.
  • The road committee meeting was rescheduled for the week of February 13th.
  • Metering on the road will continue and different scenarios will be tried over the course of the rest of the winter.
  • Progress is being made ona installing a backup system on the Grizzly water system.
  • A report on the most recent COG meeting.
  • A report on the most recent UFA governance committee meeting. The committee is currently looking at the interlocal agreements that govern the relationships with UFA related to the makeup of the board.
  • A budget committee will be held on Wednesday, February 22, 2017.
  • There were no significant updates on Mountain Accord process.
  • The US Census has started communicating with the Town on the upcoming 2020 census.
  • There is a position open on the Mosquito Abatement District.
  • Kent Jensen is retiring as of February 25th; he was thanked for all his years of service to the Town of Alta.
  • The next meeting of the Town Council will be March 9, 2017

3. Treasurer’s Report

Marc Dippo read the monthly report into the record.

Kate updated the Council on the Post Office project and also reported that the amount of funds that were mistakenly given to the Town of Alta was reported incorrectly in the November treasurer’s report; that report has been corrected.

Hearing no further comments, there was a motion by Elise Morgan to approve the treasurer’s report as presented. There was a second by Cliff Curry and the motion as carried.

4. Departmental Reports: 00:15:54

Town Administrator’s Report: John Guldner reported on the following matters:

  • There was a Planning Commission meeting on Monday, February 6, 2017 where the members agreed to move ahead on the following matters: Commercial Core Plan and thereview of zoning ordinances. The commission also agreed to continue and improve relationships with our partners.
  • A report on the ongoing training of the Town’s employees on important safety issues.
  • A report on the hacking of the Town’s website.

Elise mentioned that the Planning Commission had been looking at the concept of condos in the base facilities zone and asked the status of that review. John commented that the Planning Commission stopped that review process but agreed that it can be revisited.

Assistant Town Administrator’s Report:Chris Cawley reported on the following matters:

  • Reported on the desire to move ahead with addressing the pedestrian safety and walkability along highway 210; this was one of the action items that came out of the Commercial Core Project. The Town is moving ahead with drafting a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to hire consultants using the Town’s second round of WFRC grant funds. The scope and parameters of this project were reviewed.

UFA Report: Rand Andrus asked all business and residents to assist in keeping the fire hydrants clear.

Marshal’s Report: Mike Morey reported on the following matters:

  • Thanked everyone for their assistance and patience during the last storm cycle.
  • Spoke to the most recent interlodge restrictions in the canyon and highlighted some of the problem areas in Town when no interlodge travel is in place. There were three arrests during the last interlodge closure.
  • Everyone was asked to keep your cars shovels out. That regulation also applies to the OSV’s on the summer road.

5. Town Council Meeting Minutes – January 12, 2017

Hearing no comments or corrections, there was a motion by Harris Sondak to approve the minutes of the January 12, 2017 Town Council meeting as submitted. There was a second by Elise Morgan and the motion as carried.

6. Ordinance 2017-O-1 – An ordinance granting an electric utility franchise and general utility easement to Rocky Mountain Power – 00:28:25

The Mayor introduced Lisa Romney and Chad Ambrose from Rocky Mountain Power.

Lisa pointed out that the most recent draft had been sent to John Guldner just prior to the start of the Council meeting. That draft removed the terms “growth inhibitors”. Also the most recent draft removed Section 18 completely; this section referenced a jury trial waiver.

Harris reviewed one of the Council’s concerns about the possibility of hooking the Town of Alta up to the Quarry feed in the event that the Brighton feed goes down. In a previous meeting, RMP explained that if there is a loss of power in any part of RMP system, their personnel have to find out what is causing this problem; determine where the fault is located. If they do not complete this task, it could potentially bring down the system permanently. However, the Council request investigation into having some type of switching system above the residents in Town in the event this situation occurs. The big concern is power outage when the canyon is closed. In this situation personnel from RMP cannot assess the canyon to address the outage. Lisa was asked if this has been addressed by RMP.

Lisa explained that in 2015 RMP completed significant investments and upgrades on fault finding equipment and isolation equipment. This equipment provides RMP with the ability to identify and isolate the problem which assists RMP in restoring power the customer as quickly as possible. Chad went on to explain the fault finding system that was recently installed on the Brighton feed enables RMP to isolate the problem. If after reviewing the problem and determining that Alta needs to be switched over the Quarry feed, RMP will manually switch Alta over to the Quarry feed.

RMP has looked at the system in terms of an automatic or remotely operated switching system and at this time RMP does not have any plans for any such switching system. There is a switching system at Snowbird that can be opened remotely but RMP most review its utility loading data before that switch takes place. RMP personnel need to be on sight to move Alta’s load over to the Quarry feed.

Chad went on to explain that if a power event occurs in both Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons and if both canyons are closed at that time, service will remain out until such time as RMP can safely access both canyons.

Onno asked if RMP had any plans to replace the Temple Quarry feed in the canyon. Lisa responded by saying that about one third of the line has been addressed but it is not in RMP’s master plan to address more improvements to this line at this point in time; if sections of the line fail in the future, those sections will be replaced.

Chad went on to explain that if significant growth comes up and new loads come on the Quarry feed, RMP will most likely evaluate the need to upgrade/replace/improve the Quarry feed. Chad also explained that as Snowbird grows their load, RMP will switch Snowbird to the Brighton feed; the Quarry will become what they call a reserve backup. Chad confirmed that the Brighton feed has capacity; it is the Quarry feed that is very limited.

Cliff Curry assumed that RMP has a sophisticated internal analysis of how reliable the power has been to Alta over the last 10 years and are also planning ahead for capital improvements; could RMP share their capital improvement plans and statistics on power outages in this area of the canyon. Cliff went on to opine that Alta is not just a neighborhood of 383 people; Alta is a significant contributor to the Utah economy.

Harris commented that Alta needs the power the most when the canyon is closed because there is nowhere for our residents to go; many of the Town’s residences have electric heat. Harris believed that RMP was going to address this situation at this meeting.

In response to Harris’s question, Chad suggested that John Guldner and Chris Cawley get together with RMP’s operational managers and engineers to talk about the power company’s plans as well as power outage scenarios and how they will be addressed. RMP will also provide a detail report on the outages that have occurred in the canyon over the last five years: this report was provided to the Council in a prior meeting. RMP will also provide the Town of Alta a written report on the results of this meeting.

Harris reminded the representatives that at a prior meeting with the Council, RMP said it would evaluate an equipment change to solve the “canyon closed” scenario. Chad explained that this situation was evaluated by RMP engineers and that there are no plans to put in place an automatic switching system in the canyon.

There was discussion about using, for example, Alta Ski Lift employees to assist in isolating the problem, (fault finding) on the line if the canyon is closed. Chad explained that RMP will not deputize or empower citizens to assess the power system in the case of an outage. Chad and Lisa agreed that it is very important to keep the dialogue going on this matter.

Paul Moxley made a motion to approve Ordinance 2017-O-1 granting an electric utility franchise and general utility easement to Rocky Mountain Power with the striking of Section 18 and clarification in Section 11 which states no use of growth inhibitor. There was a second by Elise Morgan. The Mayor opened the floor to discussion on the motion.

Harris asked about the term of the agreement. The last agreement we signed was for a period of five years and this agreement states 10 years. John responded by stating that the current standard for these types of agreements is 10 years. John opined that this document is not the best document for negotiating better service and believes it does not get the Town of Alta anything if we make this agreement a five versus a 10 year agreement. John acknowledged that it is totally up to the Council to make that decision.

Cliff does not want to “hammer” on RMP; he wants more help from RMP.

With that said, Cliff Curry offered an amendment to Paul Moxley’s motion to change the term of the agreement to five (5) years found in Section 2 of the agreement. Paul accepted Cliff’s amendment to his motion.

The Mayor called for another motion on this matter.

Paul Moxley made a motion to approve the adoption of this ordinance with the removal of Section 18, with the clarification in Section 11 which would state that no growth inhibitors would be used and with the change of the term of the agreement from ten year to five years. There was a second by Elise Morgan and a roll call vote was taken:

Elise Morgan – aye

Paul Moxley – aye

Tom Pollard – aye

Cliff Curry – aye

Harris Sondak – aye

The motion was carried.

Lisa and Chad agreed to follow through with a meeting with town staff and prepare a detailed written report on that meeting and detail on the outages that have occurred in the last 5-10 years.

6. Interlocal Agreement between the Town of Alta and Salt Lake county on behalf of the County Clerk Elections Division for the purpose of assisting the Town in conducting the Town’s 2017 primary and general municipal elections. – 01:02:44

The Mayor explained that the form of this agreement has been approved for at least the last eight municipal elections and Salt Lake County has assisted the town in running these elections for as many election cycles.

The Mayor pointed out that the indemnification in this agreement only goes “one way”; the Town is indemnifying the County. The Mayor announced that because the Town does not need to approve and hand this into the County until March 15th, that he is advising the Council to table action on this matter until the March meeting. Legal counsel and staff have communicated the Town’s concern to the County on this matter and are waiting for their reply.

Cliff asked if all of our elections are now held using a “by-mail” system. Kate replied that the County is moving in that direction but that does not mean that a polling location in the Town has been ruled out. If we went in this direction, the cost would probably be greater and we would be using voting machines. This would probably warrant some sort of an interlocal agreement because the machines belong to the County and the County would be processing the results.

Kate explained the cost to the Town of doing a vote by mail with the County is $2,500; she explained how that cost was broken down. The county had not provided the Town with a cost of having a polling location in the town and using voter machines.

The Council decided to table this matter until the March meeting.

8. New Business – 01:11:20

There was no new business presented at this meeting.

9. Citizen Input – 01:11:27

Mark Haik commented on the following matters:

  • He reviewed six deeds that are recorded in the Salt Lake County Recorder’s office related to right of ways on Highway 210 between Hellgate and the Shrontz property and encouraged the Town of Alta to review them related to future planning in the commercial core.
  • The Shrontz Estate property related to the recusal of Mr. Kapaloski.

Karen Travis pointed out that she has photographs from 1958 that indicate the highway was where the phone building road is now. Karen explained that the Gibbs family owned the land up to the phone building road and then did a land trade. Subsequent to that transaction, the highway moved to where it is currently located. In 1941 the highway was in a different location than where it is today.

Lawson LeGate, a volunteer with the Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club, spoke to the Council on the passage of a piece of legislation in 2012; HB148. This legislation demanded that the federal government turn over specific areas of BLM and Forest Service land to the State of Utah. Since that time, the state legislation has designated 14 million to sue the federal government to acquire these lands.

Mr. LeGate’s opined that Utahcan’t afford to manage these acquired lands and felt that public lands that the state would like to take over are part of the public’s birth right.

Mr. LeGate mentioned that Salt Lake City and Castle Valley Town have both passed resolutions that oppose the attempt by the legislature to takeoverthese lands. The Sierra Club, along with other groups, is now reaching out to other communities in Utah to consider passing a similar resolution; he asked the Alta Town Council to consider doing the same.

Onno Wieringa from the Alta Ski Lift Company reported on the following matters:

  • The annual snowfall and percentage of water.
  • The Ski Lifts received a favorable decision notice from the Forest Service on the removal of the Cecret and Supreme lifts and replacing them with a newly conferred Supreme lift. The Ski Lift Company will keep the Council posted on their timeline on these projects.
  • Snowbird is hosting the Summit Gala this weekend. The proceeds support the Wasatch Adaptive Sports program, Cottonwood Canyons Foundation and the Snowbird Sports Education Foundation (race team).

Jen Clancy from Friends of Alta updated the Council and the public on upcoming community events: skiing/snow shoe and birds tours, the monthly bird surveys, Love Utah Give Utah to be held on March 30th, and the Alta Earth Day celebration. Ms. Clancy mentioned the effort to raise funds to assist with the purchase of Bonanza Flats near Guardsman’s Pass. Finally Jen reminded people of the Annual Alta Gala on April 7th which will have a Latin theme. The Stella Award recipient this year will be Trainor Mahon.

Maura Olivos from the Alta Environmental Center asked if the Town Council was actively following and asking questions about the legislation that is currently being considered during this legislative session; more specifically HB 011 was mentioned.

Elise Morgan pointed out that the Mayor and Council receive weekly updates from the League of Cities and Towns on legislation that affects not only the Town of Alta but other municipalities in the State of Utah. Town staff receives the same information and are actively following up on matters that affect not only our community but other cities and towns in the state.

Kate and Chris explained that the town has two individuals that are actively looking out for the town’s interest and are shepherding a specific bill through the process related to the sales tax hold harmless legislation. Staff went on to explain that prior to and during the session staff can only keep track of so much activity that pertains directly to what we can or cannot do as a local government, so we rely on and communicate with representatives of the ULCT, our attorney and others on matters of interest.