Eagle Mountain City Council, 26 May 2026

In short: The council met to go over the city's draft budget for the coming year. Members heard a proposed property-tax increase — an estimated 245% jump in the city's property-tax revenue — meant to pay for sheriff's deputies, and worked through the list of new jobs the city wants to fill. They agreed to move most of those positions forward, held off on a Community Services Director, and left the tax decision itself for the June 16 meeting.

Present: Mayor Jared Gray (presiding); Councilmembers Melissa Clark, Brett Wright, and Craig Whiting in person; Councilmember Zac Huish participating remotely (with recurring audio problems). Councilmember Rich Wood was excused; the mayor noted he "may be joining" but he does not appear to have participated or voted.

Staff: Ben (City Manager); Kimberly/"Kim" (Administrative Services/Finance, budget lead); Marcus (City Attorney); Melissa Yates (Purchasing Agent); Angela (Human Resources); "Steve" (deputy/assistant manager covering community services); Brad (parks/public works); Zach Hilton (parks staff — distinct from Councilmember Huish); David Salazar (city engineer); Natalie (grants/programs); Michelle (Library, attending online). This was a work session; no members of the public gave comment on the record.

Decisions

#	Agenda ref	Motion	Moved / Seconded	Vote	Result
1	3	Adjourn	Wright / Whiting	Voice vote (Clark, Wright, Whiting recorded yes)	Passed

This was a work session: the personnel-position calls, the Community Services Director deferral, and the 245% tax figure were all consensus or unresolved, not recorded votes. See below.

Settled without a vote:

• By consensus the council directed staff to advance the purchasing-agent, payroll/benefits-administrator, wildlife-biologist, and arborist-technician positions, along with all other P1/P2 positions on the list.
• The council reached consensus to hold (defer, likely to mid-year or next budget year) the Community Services Director position; no member changed that view.
• The Assistant City Attorney was left "pinned" for further discussion, pending data on outside-counsel spending — Kimberly reported the city expects to spend close to $150,000 on outside counsel by June 30. Councilmember Clark supports the position; Wright signaled he was "moving toward yes."
• The council reached no decision on the proposed 245% tax figure, agreeing they must set the proposed amount at the June 16, 2026 meeting (which also adopts the interim budget) and preferring to hear the public first.

Meeting map

Agenda ref	Topic	~Start (elapsed)	One-line note
1	Call to order	~0:00	Began 3:06 p.m.; Wood and Huish excused, Huish online
A / 2A	Property Tax Impact Schedule (required reading)	~0:02	Mayor read the Truth-in-Taxation notice; information only, no action
2B	Budget process overview	~0:10	Kimberly walked through the department-review and personnel-justification process
2B	Events budget / $30K savings	~0:20	Whether to keep freed-up event funds for expanded Easter/other events
2B	Library staffing vs. space	~0:26	Understaffed by "8 or 9," but staff say the real constraint is square footage
2B	Nolan Park & splash pad	~0:22	$750K already allocated; splash pad wastes ~180K+ gallons/day
2B	Sweetwater / city-center park	~0:33	Push to program impact fees for a new park
2B	North Service Area salt shed	~0:34	Lean-to for salt and possibly a parked plow
2B	Observatory at Walden Park	~0:38	$250K county award secured; ~$250K short; minimal M&O
2B	Speed tables at elementary schools	~0:48	Roughly $100K+ ask; staff to draft governing code
2B	Personnel positions (P1/P2 list)	~1:00	"Boots on the ground" vs. director-level hires
2B	Lone Tree egress	~1:20	Temporary roto-mill fix vs. ~$5M permanent collector road
2B	Zoning west of Lone Tree	~1:35	Whiting insists agricultural zone stands until council acts
2B	AI tools / technology	~1:40	Anthropic "Claude" licenses; searching minutes; Lifesize; Verizon tower
2B	Position yes/no consensus	~2:00	Most positions advanced; CSD held; attorney "pinned"
2B	Property-tax rate decision timing	~2:12	Council must set proposed figure by the June 16 meeting
3	Adjournment	~2:17	Adjourned 5:23 p.m.

Discussed but NOT on the agenda: observatory maintenance and the Utah Valley Astronomy Club/UVU partnership; a possible Verizon tower near the city building; replacing the Lifesize video system; city-wide AI/closed-system software; and Eagle Mountain's entitlement to a justice court.

On agenda but little/no discussion: Agenda Item A (the mayor's intended standalone statement that the tentative budget includes a public-safety property-tax increase) was folded into the tax-schedule reading rather than delivered as a separate statement; and Item 2B's formal budget-adoption dates (interim June 16, final Aug. 18) were mentioned only in passing.

What was discussed

2A — Property Tax Impact Schedule

Because the city is in the Truth-in-Taxation process, staff explained that every meeting touching the fiscal year 2027 (FY2027) budget must include the property-tax notice, so the mayor read it aloud with no action taken. The schedule proposes generating an additional $6,958,141 in property-tax revenue. It lists the current rate as 0.000534, current property-tax revenue of $2,839,998, and proposed revenue of $9,798,139 — an estimated 245% increase in the city's property-tax revenue.

For an average primary residence valued at $500,000, the estimated increase would be $359.79 (total city tax $506.64); for an average business valued at roughly $2.55 million, about $4,705.86. The mayor stumbled over the "affected budget — Sheriff's contract" figures and corrected himself mid-reading. The notice ties the increase to funding the Utah County Sheriff's Office Eagle Mountain Division, including added deputies for a growing city. The public hearing is set for August 6, 2026 at 6:00 p.m., with the schedule to be read again at the June 16 meeting.

2B — Budget Discussion (tentative FY2026–2027 budget)

The heart of the session was an open review of the tentative budget the administration handed to the council "last Tuesday." At Councilmember Clark's request, Kimberly gave residents a walkthrough of how the city builds its budget: preparations start in October, departments complete a "5-year needs assessment," and any personnel request goes through a written "personnel justification" answering what the position does, how the need would be mitigated if denied, and what service level would suffer. A committee of Kimberly, "Terrence," the city manager, and the mayor scores and ranks requests, classifying them as P1 (recommended first) or P2 (advanced but initially flagged "on hold" for funding). Both the mayor and Ben stressed that positions are never simply cut by the committee — department heads themselves pare requests down to "the minimum," and Ben quoted a favorite line ("the easiest budget in the world to cut is the one you know nothing about").

A crucial framing emerged late: the proposed property-tax increase is meant to fund public safety (the Sheriff's contract), which frees previously pledged sales-tax dollars to fund the roughly $1.3M general-fund cost of the new positions. Without the increase, these positions would hit fund balance and, in the council's words, become unaffordable.

Much of the debate turned on "boots on the ground" versus leadership hires. Councilmember Wright repeatedly pressed for field workers — people "with a shovel and a wheelbarrow" to fix soccer fields and potholes — over three higher-end positions (assistant city attorney, payroll/benefits administrator, and a ~$147K–$200K Community Services Director). Councilmember Huish, joining remotely, urged holding to the first ~$1M of P1 hires under an "if-come" principle and warned strongly against using the voter-approved RAP-tax revenue to pay ongoing salaries; Kimberly clarified RAP tax was listed only as a potential source and that everything is currently calculated against the general fund.

Huish also pushed to fund lower-cost parks positions (open-space and parks crew leads/technicians) sooner and to add a wildlife biologist to replace "Todd" — which Kimberly noted was already in the tentative budget as a low P1. Several members and staff (Angela on human resources, Melissa Yates on purchasing, Marcus on legal) made detailed cases for their roles.

The Lone Tree egress discussion was the longest single thread. Residents of the Lone Tree subdivision have limited emergency access, and the item recurs "every summer." Staff distinguished two things: an immediate improvement to the existing temporary dirt access using free in-house roto-mill "tailings" from the Eagle Mountain Boulevard mill-and-overlay, versus a permanent southern collector road (~5,100 feet, priced by engineer David at about $5 million, ribbon road, utilities extra) connecting toward Arnett Peak across the JDH and Perry properties. Ivory agreed to advance its portion from the south.

The council wrestled openly with whether to spend $5M of taxpayer money on a road developers will eventually build. The consensus was a phased approach — use tailings on the Arnett connection now, pursue easements and alignment with landowners, and bring Lone Tree onto the council's "listening tour." Councilmember Whiting added a pointed zoning caveat: land west of Lone Tree is agricultural until the council rezones it, and developers should come to the council before drawing residential plans that dictate road alignment.

Smaller capital items drew broad agreement: retaining the events department's $30,000 savings for expanded events (the "Techno Blast" was dropped; a bolstered Easter egg hunt was floated); a North Service Area salt shed/lean-to; and speed tables near Silver Lake, Brookhaven, Mountain Trails, and Desert Sky elementary schools (estimated ~$25K–$30K each in concrete, with a ~$100K–$200K set-aside and new code to govern placement).

Also in that group: the observatory at Walden Park (a $250K county transportation award secured, project total ~$1.5M, roughly $250K short, minimal maintenance because Utah Valley University (UVU) and the astronomy club will service the telescopes); and the Nolan Park splash pad's water waste. Councilmember Huish and Clark also championed AI/closed-system software, and Ben confirmed Community Development is already piloting an AI tool for MDA and plans review.

Notable moments

• Purchasing agent's emotional plea. Melissa Yates teared up describing her workload — every purchase over $75,000, every contract, RFP, PO, and change order routes through her ("My name's on all of them"), with 10 RFPs since mid-March and no time for training: "I need help. That's just the end point."
• A remote member fighting the tech. Councilmember Huish's audio failed repeatedly; staff eventually called his phone and set it by the speaker. When he finally got through he quipped, "what I'm going to assume is everyone just agreed with everything I had to say."
• An AI pitch from the dais. Huish advocated buying licenses for Anthropic's "Claude" in a closed, secure system so the city attorney and council could analyze confidential NDAs; Ben confirmed staff are already evaluating an AI tool for contract and plans review.
• "Don't answer it like a lawyer." When Councilmember Clark asked whether funding an assistant attorney would finally get the city its justice court, Marcus began "you can — I think we're entitled…," prompting her to press for a plain answer; he conceded the city is "legally entitled to one."
• Zoning line in the sand. Councilmember Whiting objected that developers are drawing residential plans for land west of Lone Tree that is still zoned agricultural, insisting "they can farm the land" until they come to the council first.
• The "nerds" will maintain the telescopes. Staff reassured Wright that observatory upkeep is minimal because the Utah Valley Astronomy Club and UVU — affectionately called "the nerds" — will handle programming and the telescopes themselves.
• RAP-tax discipline. Both Huish and Wright drew a firm line against using voter-approved RAP-tax money to pay recurring salaries, treating it at most as one-time "seed money."

About this transcript

Speaker attribution is the biggest limitation. The software that splits the audio into speakers reused the same label for different people — for example, one tag covers both "Natalie" on the observatory and "Angela" on human resources — and at least one exchange about the Community Services Director appears to put staffer "Steve's" words under a councilmember's label. Treat individual attributions as approximate unless a name or a roll call anchors them.

Names the software likely misheard include "Hewish/Hewisch/Hewitt/Hughes" (all = Councilmember Zac Huish) and the running gag around "Brett Mayer/Brent" (Councilmember Brett Wright). Two same-first-name pairs are easy to mix up: Melissa Clark (councilmember) vs. Melissa Yates (purchasing agent), and Zac Huish (councilmember) vs. Zach Hilton (parks staff).

Landowner and place names are phonetic guesses — "JDH," "Perry," "Hatfield/John Hatfield," "Arnett Peak," "Ochre Mountain," "Fiona," "Overland," "Nolan/Walden Park," "Sweetwater," "Parkway Fields" — as are product and program names like "Motive Health," "Lifesize," "Techno Blast," and the "Norm Dugger" budget quote. Acronyms (RAP tax, URS, HRIS, MET, M&O, DRC, RFP, MDA) were spoken quickly and may be written down inconsistently. A few dollar figures were corrected live by the speaker, most notably the mayor's reading of the Sheriff's-contract budget lines.