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                                                      MINUTES

                               BOX ELDER COUNTY COMMISSION

                                           MAY 24, 2005

                                                                             

 

 

 

The Board of County Commissioners of Box Elder County, Utah met in a work session at the County Courthouse, 01 South Main Street in Brigham City, Utah at 8:00 a.m. on MAY 24, 2005.  The following members were present:

 

Scott Hansen                                Chairman

Clark N. Davis                              Commissioner

Suzanne R. Rees                           Commissioner

LuAnn Adams                               Recorder/Clerk/Surveyor

 

The following items were discussed:

 

1.      Class B Road Refund – Roger Handy/Chairman Hansen

2.      Park Valley Fire Insurance Reconciliation – John Collom, Lynn Yeates, Andre’ Pommier,         Donnie Tarver

3.      Assignment Review – Commissioners

4.      Staff Reports

5.      Correspondence

 

The work session adjourned at 8:59 a.m.

 

The regular session was called to order by Chairman Hansen at 9:00 a.m. with the following members present, constituting a quorum:

 

                                       Scott Hansen                                Chairman

Clark N. Davis                              Commissioner

Suzanne R. Rees                           Commissioner                  

LuAnn Adams                               Recorder/Clerk/Surveyor

 

The prayer was offered by Chairman Hansen.

 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

 

THE MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF MAY 17, 2005 WERE APPROVED ON A MOTION AS WRITTEN BY COMMISSIONER DAVIS, SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER HANSEN AND UNANIMOUSLY CARRIED.

 

 

AGENDA: ATTACHMENT NO. 1

 

FOLLOW-UP BUSINESS

 

Tax Deferral – Edward Barnes

 

County Assessor/Treasurer Monte Munns explained the amount owing on Edward Barnes Business Property is $5,218.40.  The property tax sale is scheduled for Thursday. 

 

MOTION:  A motion was made by Commissioner Rees to work with Edward Barnes and show leniency and give him 90 days to pay the balance.

 

AMENDED MOTION:  An amended motion was made by Commissioner Davis to receive a check for $1,000 to be cashed today and another check for $4,218.40 to be cashed in 30 days and give Mr. Barnes the 30 days to secure a reverse mortgage and if it is not secured, then we exercise our right to recover the funds because we are requiring him to sign a personal guarantee on $4,218.40.  The motion was seconded by Commissioner Rees and unanimously carried.

 

County Auditor Roger Handy said if an extension is granted he doesn’t think anything can be done in terms of either acquiring or disposing of the property until the tax sale next year.

 

LOAN OPTION FOR STATE RETIREMENT – PEGGY MADSEN

 

Peggy Madsen introduced Klisty Wilson as chair of the Employee Committee.  Ms. Madsen said we had a request to allow employees to participate in the loan provision with the state retirement. At the last meeting with the Commission, the Commissioners referred this item to the Employee Committee to get their input on this program. 

 

Klisty gave a report on how the committee feels.  She said the committee had a lot of discussion on the plan, and there were a lot of different opinions.  A lot of people felt we should be able to withdraw from the 401K.  Everyone felt we should be able to withdraw from the 457 plan.  The proposal is to request that employees can withdraw from the 457 plan which is the employee’s own money and none of the County’s money.

 

Peggy said the transaction has a $60.00 processing fee and requires a phone call to the state to get the papers.  The papers have to be notarized and the loan paid back after taxes at prime rate plus 1%. 

 

MOTION:  A motion was made by Commissioner Davis that the Commission received the report, and they will take the report under advisement and discuss as a Commission.  The motion was seconded by Commissioner Rees and unanimously carried.

 

Peggy discussed the Roth IRA program.   She said the employee’s summer party is scheduled for July 29 at Mantua Canyon.

 

STATEMENT OF SUPPORT FOR THE GUARD & RESERVE – PEGGY MADSEN

 

Personnel Director Peggy Madsen presented a statement of support for the guard and reserve, recognizing the National Guard and Reserve as essential to the strength of our nation and the well-being of our communities.  Ms. Madsen said the County also needs to review its policies on the military.

 

MOTION:  A motion was made by Commissioner Rees to support the statement of support for the Guard and Reserve.  The motion was seconded by Commissioner Davis and unanimously carried.

 

(See Attachment No. 02 – Statement of Support.)

 

OUT-OF-STATE TRAVEL – LYNN  YEATES

 

Chief Deputy Lynn Yeates asked permission for Scott Cosgrove to attend a Rocky Mountain Intelligence Network Homicide Conference in Tucson, AZ June 21-23.  The only expense to the County will be meals and car rental.

 

MOTION:  A motion was made by Commissioner Davis to grant permission for Scott Cosgrove to attend the Rocky Mountain Intelligence Network Homicide Conference in Tucson, AZ June 21-23.  The motion was seconded by Commissioner Rees and unanimously carried.

 

BEAR RIVER MENTAL HEALTH FINANCIAL AUDIT – ROB JOHNSON

 

Rob Johnson, Director of Financial Services, stated that as part of Utah Law, the Bear River Mental Health must present their audit.  The Commissioners must review the audit and sign off.  The Commissioners then reviewed the audit.

 

MOTION:  A motion was made by Commissioner Davis to accept the financial audit for 2004 for the Bear River Mental Health.  The motion was seconded by Commissioner Rees and unanimously carried.

 

MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES AREA PLAN – ROB JOHNSON

 

Rob Johnson, Director of Financial Services, reviewed and summarized the mental health services area plan.

 

MOTION:  A motion was made by Commissioner Rees to accept the District One Local Mental Health Authority as our local mental health services area plan for year 2005-2006.  The motion was seconded by Commissioner Davis and unanimously carried.

 

 

 

BEAR RIVER MENTAL HEALTH CONTRACT – COMMISSIONERS

 

MOTION:  A motion was made by Commissioner Davis to table this item for one week until County Attorney Amy Hugie receives input from Attorneys George Daines and Scott Wyatt.  The motion was seconded by Commissioner Rees and unanimously carried.

 

APPOINTMENT TO CONSOLIDATED DISPATCH CENTER ADVISORY COMMITTEE – CHAIRMAN HANSEN

 

Chairman Rees said Joe Curfew has resigned from the Consolidated Dispatch Center Advisory Committee representing Willard City and recommended Jay Westergard replace him on the committee.

 

MOTION:  A motion was made by Commissioner Davis to appoint Jay Westergard to the Consolidated Dispatch Center Advisory Committee to replace Joe Curfew.  The motion was seconded by Commissioner Rees and unanimously carried.

 

RESOLUTION OF EASEMENT ISSUES – AMY HUGIE

 

County Attorney Amy Hugie read Resolution No. 05-09.

 

(See Attachment No. 2 – Resolution No. 05-09.)

 

Ms. Hugie said of the four business owners who have an easement that runs across our parking lot, three of the four have resolved their easement issues and have granted the County their easement in exchange for another easement coming off of the south entrance of the parking lot off of 100 East.  She said they are still in the process of getting the legal document drawn up for the County to grant them that easement.   She said they are working on the legal description of the easement and making sure they have it right.  The chair will need to sign off.  Ms. Hugie said another thing that will need to be signed is a maintenance easement with business owner Dale Dorius that will extend four feet off from his building so that he will be able to maintain the wall to keep it painted. The chair will need to sign the deed for the new parcel.  It will have the legal description of the piece of property that the new justice court building will sit on.  The deed has to be submitted to Brigham City and then recorded.  Another thing is a quit-claim deed.  The County owns about three feet into Dale Dorius’ building and part of the negotiation is that we grant him his three feet of building.  The County will also need to start the eminent domain process.  Ms. Hugie said the County has not been able to reach negotiation with Richard VanDyke.  They met with him and Attorney Jon Bunderson last Thursday.  They were hopeful they could work something out.  As of right now we are not able to work something out, so we need to start the eminent domain proceeding. We will need to start doing that immediately. 

 

 

 

Donnie Tarver, Project Manger, said one of the issues is the schedule with Layton Construction.  He said in order to keep on schedule we will need to get the power transferred, transfer telephone lines, put a security fence up to take some of the trees out and start some of the underground utilities, which includes replacing  the old water lines that come into the courthouse.  He said another issue that  showed up with Brigham City late Friday, is they scoped the sewer lines and we will need to replace everything from our point of discharge which entails old sewer lines into the existing courthouse.  Mr. Tarver said the County built a timeline to continue on with construction previous to getting Layton Construction here.  Mr. Tarver asked what would happen if we cannot proceed.  Mr. Tarver said an issue that has recently come to the forefront is the signatures against the bond resolution.  He wondered if we shouldn’t move things back one month for the challenge period which is June 17.   He said we need to address the fact that if they are going to have enough signatures, how far can we go in moving forward and if we have to reverse the decision, how are we going to pay for all the things that he is going to proceed on?  He has heard they already have 4,000-5,000 signatures.

 

Amy Hugie has also heard the rumor, but she does not think it is true partly because of how she has heard some of the signatures have been gathered and there have been several rumors out there that are untrue like they are going to tear down this building, all the businesses downtown are united and that is not true at all.  The County has received e-mails stating that they do not know why they have been shown to be supportive of blocking the building because they fully support the building going there. Another rumor is that we are tearing down other buildings downtown to build the justice court.

 

Commissioner Davis said the matter before the Commission is the consideration of the resolution.  The discussion is to resolve the easement issues and to move ahead with the paperwork process.  He said it may save time on the other end.  He has talked to Blake Wade, Bond Counsel, and asked if any petition drives had ever been successful.  He said in the past 30 some years’ experience with these, it has only happened on one localized issue that they had sufficient petition signatures to bring it to the ballot but the election passed anyway.  He feels we should proceed with this.  If we proceed with the timetable that was adopted, we would sell the bonds on June 7.  That is 10 days prior to the 30-days running on the petition drive, even though it is an issue that can be undone.  He said we cannot respond to public clamor.  We should move forward.

 

MOTION:  A motion was made by Commissioner Davis to adopt Resolution No. 05-09, a resolution authorizing the resolution of those easements that are related to the new justice court building.  The motion was seconded by Chairman Hansen, and the motion carried 2-1 with Commissioner Rees voting nay.

 

Commissioner Rees is wondering how we will fund eminent domain.  She feels we are not sending the right message to the public when we had a parameters resolution that said we have until June 17 for the public to respond.  We are just ignoring them.  She feels we should make consideration to the June 17 date.  She talked to Jon Bronson, Zion’s Bank, and Jon told her he has concerns if we go ahead and keep spending money and moving forward.  She said if the petitioners get enough signatures we could have problems.  She was put on the hot seat a while ago by being told that one Commissioner voting nay would affect the bond rate.  She said this is not true.  The information was incorrect.

 

WARRANT REGISTER – COMMISSIONERS

 

The warrant register was signed, and the following claims were approved for payment:  Claims number 37565 thru 37595 in the amount of $411,726.54.  Claims number 37596 – 37690 in the amount of $100,701.02.

 

ASSIGNMENT REVIEW - COMMISSIONERS

 

The Commissioners reviewed assignments.

 

ADJOURNMENT

 

A motion was made by Commissioner Rees to adjourn.  Commissioner Hansen seconded the motion, and the meeting adjourned at 10:28 a.m.

 

ADOPTED AND APPROVED in regular session this 31st day of May 2005.

 

 

 

                                                                                    _______________________________

Scott Hansen, Chairman

 

 

 

                                                                                    _______________________________

Clark N. Davis, Commissioner

 

 

 

                                                                                    _______________________________

Suzanne R. Rees, Commissioner

 

 

ATTEST:

 

 

 

_________________________________

LuAnn Adams, Recorder/Clerk/Surveyor