Minutes for 2004-08-24, Direct pdf link.

Each Commission meeting is recorded on CD or audio tape, which is available to the public through the County Clerk's Office. In accordance with the requirements of Utah Code Annotated Section 52-4-7(1)(d), the County Clerk records in the minutes the names of all citizens who appear and speak at a County Commission meeting and the substance “in brief” of their comments. Such statements may include opinion or purported facts. The County does not verify the accuracy or truth of any statement but includes it as part of the record pursuant to state law.

Commissioners Present: Commissioner Camille T. Cain, Chair, Commissioner Glen H. Burton and Commissioner Kenneth A. Bischoff.

Others Present: Linda G. Lunceford, County Clerk/Auditor; Monette Hurtado, Deputy County Attorney; Fátima Blackford, Clerk/Auditor’s Office, took minutes.

A. Welcome by Chair Cain
B. Pledge of Allegiance was conducted by Patty Burton
C. Thought of the Day was offered by Chair Cain

D. Consent Items:
1. Purchase Orders in the amount of $31,165.91
2. Warrants #191867 - #192133 in the amount of $1,354,076.55
3. Approval of Minutes of the August 17, 2004 Commission Meeting
4. New Business License Application for A-Z Moving & Storage
5. Request to set date of August 31, 2004 at 10:00 a.m. to open the 2004 Weber County Budget for adjustments, including changes to the salaries of the county’s elected officials
Commissioner Burton moved to approve the consent items; Commissioner Bischoff seconded, all voting aye.

E. Recognition - Presentation of Seal of Service Award to Martha Rodriguez

Commissioner Burton noted that Ms. Rodriguez was being awarded Weber County’s highest honor for exemplary customer service for her work in the Operations Department. He read the nomination that had been submitted outlining the reasons Ms. Rodriguez deserved this award. The commissioners presented Ms. Rodriguez with a framed certificate, an obelisk, $50 and a seal of service pin.

F. Action Items:

1. Power Purchase Agreement by and between Weber County & PacifiCorp - Contract C2004-100

Gary Laird, Operations Department Director, stated that the county will be generating electricity at the former landfill from the gas to energy project. PacifiCorp will purchase the electricity as outlined in the contract. This agreement was written with the assistance of Blue Sky Energy, Inc. It is a 20-year contract. Given the uncertainty of the generation of landfill gas at the facility, the county can adjust the amount of output by providing minimum delivery schedules for the facility to PacifiCorp in 5 year increments so as to not incur a penalty. The minimum delivery schedule for the first 5 years of the contract is outlined in Exhibit C-2. He addressed Commissioner Burton’s question stating that the estimated revenue to the county was about $450,000/year, which was enough to pay off the bond. Additionally, there are other credits that will be coming to the county and Blue Sky Energy was working on this issue. The county will be able to sell green tags and green house gas off-set credits.
Commissioner Burton moved to approve Contract C2004-100, Power Purchase Agreement by and between Weber County and PacifiCorp; Commissioner Bischoff seconded, all voting aye.

2. Request by the Weber County Sheriff’s Office to convert unclaimed “previously submitted evidence” to county use, and assign that property to the Sheriff’s Office

Joe Chesser, Evidence Custodian, Sheriff’s Office, presented the request to convert three items for Sheriff Department use that had previously been submitted as evidence in a criminal investigation and which had not been claimed for two years.
Commissioner Bischoff moved to convert two digital cameras and a flat screen computer monitor to county use, assigning this property to the Sheriff’s Office; Commissioner Burton seconded, all voting aye.

3. Confirmation/ratification of action taken on public hearings in the August 17, 2004 Commission Meeting:

These two items were heard last week in Commission meeting, however, because wording to take action on the public hearings had been omitted from the agenda, the commissioners ratified the action taken.

a. Final approval of Presidio 4 Subdivision (1-acre, 1-lot subdivision, with recommendation for approval from the Western Weber County Township Planning Commission, including recommendation for deferral of curb, gutter &sidewalk located at 885 N. 4400 W.

Chair Cain said that this subdivision was within the 1½ miles of the school, however, because elementary and high school students were bussed and there was no other developed residential property in the area, the County Commission had approved the request for deferral of curb, gutter and sidewalk.
Commissioner Bischoff moved to ratify final approval of Presidio 4 Subdivision, a 1-acre, 1-lot subdivision, with recommendation for approval from the Western Weber County Township Planning Commission, including recommendation for deferral of curb, gutter and sidewalk at 885 North 4400 West due to the fact that children in that area are bussed, thus removing the student safety issue, and that no other properties in the area have these improvements; Commissioner Burton seconded, all voting aye.

b. Approval of Agriculture Protection Area Proposal (APA)#1 by - Darrell Christensen

Chair Cain noted that this APA had been duly processed according to State statute, that a public hearing had been held last week and the item had been uncontested.
Commissioner Burton moved to ratify approval of the Agriculture Protection Area Proposal #1 by Darrell Christensen; Commissioner Bischoff seconded, all voting aye.

4. Tax Review Committee Recommendation - Authorization to waive penalty and/or interest for applicable deleted parcels and those with description changes

Roger Brunker, Recorder’s Office, presented a list of parcels that had been either combined with or segregated out of other properties, or had description changes in the previous year and had delinquent taxes. When a parcel is segregated or combined, the original parcel number is deleted and notification goes to the original owner as of January 1 of that year. The new owner receives no notification. The recommendation is that new owners affected by this and who did not receive any prior notification be given the opportunity to clear up these taxes without penalty and interest. The county has been working diligently to notify people in these cases. The recommendation from the Tax Review Committee regarding property owners who had gone through title companies that should have caught those delinquencies or who had received prior notification was that the penalty and interest not be waived. Mr. Brunker addressed Chair Cain’s question stating that Ogden City had property on this list because the Railroad had deeded a small section to the City which had ownership problems. He had addressed this issue with the City on a number of occasions.
Commissioner Bischoff moved to approve the Tax Review Committee’s recommendation to waive penalty and/or interest for applicable deleted parcels and those with description changes; Commissioner Burton seconded, all voting aye.

5. Tax Review Committee Recommendation - Refund of tax paid due to erroneous assessment, LSN 17-082-0010

Douglas Larsen, Assessor’s Office, presented the request for a refund by Mr. Douglas Weir because his property had been erroneously assessed since 1988–instead of the actual 6.51 acres it had been assessed as having 9.12 acres. The Recorder’s Office had verified that this error had existed. The Tax Review Committee recommended a refund of overpayment of taxes for five years (from 2000-2004) in the amount $407.07.
Commissioner Bischoff moved to approve the Tax Review Committee’s recommendation to refund $407.07 to Douglas Weir due to erroneous assessment on LSN 17-082-0010; Commissioner Burton seconded, all voting aye.

6. Discussion and/or action regarding creating an “Administrative Code Enforcement Program” (A.C.E. program)

Iris Hennon, Weber County Code Enforcement Officer, gave a presentation showing photos as an example of a property that the county has been trying to get the owner to clean up for 22 years. This property owner still has not paid the court fines. Code enforcement is vital to the protection and the public’s health, safety and quality of life. The A.C.E. program provides for fines to start 10 days after notice is sent, they accrue every day until clean and the process allows problems to be handled more efficiently (approximately within about 30-45 days). Monette Hurtado, Deputy County Attorney, and Ms. Hennon addressed the commissioners’ questions. Under this program the county would have additional civil sanctions available and the authority of the administrative judge was outlined. Ms. Hennon stated that this plan had worked successfully in many other Utah jurisdictions. Her current cases total about 390. There would be initial start up costs to the county but the accrued fines would then offset the program. The commissioners will study this proposal further and action is to be taken at a later date.

7. Discussion and/or action to ratify the 2004 Tax Sale of the following properties:
a. LSN 06-014-0020
b. LSN 09-346-0011
c. LSN 06-039-0013

The Commission had asked Monette Hurtado, Deputy County Attorney, in the previous meeting to research if the county had given preferential bidder notification to adjacent property owners on (a) and (b) above. These were discussed at length in other Commission meetings. Below is Ms. Hurtado’s report on each property. She had checked with the Clerk/Auditor’s Office and stated that the information published in the newspaper was correct and met all the State law and county requirements. She stated that the county did everything it could; the information was not only listed in the newspaper and listed both with a Land Serial Number (LSN) and an address if there was one in the public record, the information was also available on the county’s website as well as at the county, and there are free computers available at all the Weber County libraries. If a physical address was not provided in the public record, the county used a modifier such as “approximately” to help people research the property’s physical location. All three purchasers stated they had not done their research prior to the sale.

a) LSN 06-014-0020 (purchased by Grant Wright) - Ms. Hurtado read the county ordinance section “Criteria for Granting Bid Preference” and reported that this parcel did not qualify under the criteria for preferential bid because the size of the parcel, .28 acres, exceeded some of the surrounding parcels, including the parcel that is its frontage. The listed market value is $26,250.
 b) LSN 09-346-0011 - (purchased by Mike Cummings) - Ms. Hurtado stated that this parcel did not meet the requirements for preferential bid because it is .16 of an acre. Mr. Cummings had been notified but never attended any of the Commission meetings.

c) LSN 06-039-0013 - (purchased by Viliami Taukiuvea) - Ms. Hurtado stated that this was the first time this parcel was on the agenda. She had written Mr. Taukiuvea’s representative a letter (at the time she responded to Mr. Wright and Mr. Cummings) but had not received a response from him. She later reached his representative who asked her to contact his client directly. Ms. Hurtado had then told Mr. Taukiuvea that she could place his item on this agenda. His parcel was listed on the County tax sale with a LSN and the address that was available in the Recorder’s Office. Preferential bidders were notified on this parcel (consisting of .04 acres) but none responded to the county’s letters. Ms. Hurtado indicated Mr.Taukiuvea felt he was not given appropriate notice, however, he had been present during the tax sale and heard all the buyer-beware warnings. She showed a plat stating that this was the information available in the county’s website and county offices. The parcel’s delinquent taxes for the five years published in the newspaper was $243.18 and he purchased it for $8,000. After the tax sale Mr.Taukiuvea went directly to the County Recorder’s Office. After he realized the size of the parcel, he went to the County Attorney’s Office and then to the Clerk/Auditor’s Office where it was conveyed to him that all the information published in the newspaper had been correct.

Mr. Taukiuvea stated today that he had gone by the address published in the newspaper for the property he purchased; he had looked at the property and it was a duplex. He stated that it was his mistake, that he should have done the research. Commissioner Bischoff asked if the $243 of delinquent taxes for five years did not appear unusual for a duplex, and motivate him to look into it. Mr. Taukiuvea said he had no experience with tax sales. Right after the sale he went to the Recorder’s Office and they showed him the parcel and that it was landlocked. Chair Cain asked if he had been present at the tax sale when it had been explained that bidders should have done their research prior to the sale and Mr. Taukiuvea stated he had. He asked that instead of paying the $8,000 if he could pay the back taxes and Ms. Hurtado explained why the Commission was not in a position to reduce the amount.

Chair Cain said that it was an awkward position for the Commission because they were not happy with the decisions these petitioners had made, however, the commissioners had a responsibility to follow the law. The county tries hard to protect people’s homes and lists the property address because it indicates to someone that it is in some way encumbered. Linda Lunceford, County Clerk/Auditor, recommended putting more clarifying language in the tax sale notifications in the future such as “that the address listed may not be the location of the property.” The county’s goal is to be as specific as possible in the efforts to protect its citizens and the commissioners felt this language could be helpful. Ms. Hurtado stated that the language used this year in the newspaper and on the county’s website came directly from the form in the Standards of Practice as distributed by the Utah State Tax Commission, Property Tax Division.
Commissioner Burton moved to ratify the 2004 tax sale for these three tax sale properties; Commissioner Bischoff seconded.
Commissioner Burton voted aye
Chair Cain voted aye
Commissioner Bischoff voted nay

8. Discussion and/or action to set public hearing dates of September 20 and October 5, 2004, to review the “Eden Incorporation Feasibility Study” and receive public input

The County Commission received the feasibility study for the proposed Eden incorporation. Monette Hurtado, Deputy County Attorney, referred to the Utah Code requirements regarding public hearings after receiving a feasibility study. The Code requires that these hearings be held in two geographically diverse locations within the proposed City but there are not any public facilities available within the proposed City. Snow Crest Jr. High, just outside the proposed boundaries, had been considered and Ms. Hurtado had notified people representing both sides of this issue to be present today to give input whether they would waive any objections. Commission meetings are held on Tuesdays, but because the County Commission already had a public hearing scheduled for September 21, it was proposed that this hearing be held Monday, September 20.

Dick Manley, Vice Chair of the incorporation committee, asked that the meetings be held at 7 p.m. to allow people time to get back to Ogden Valley from work. He said they had no concerns with the dates or with meeting at the Jr. High School, that it was the only place large enough to accommodate the attendance, parking, ADA compliance, etc. Ms. Hurtado had contacted Lee Schussman, representing the people opposed to incorporation, and he had indicated they had no concerns with meeting at the school.
Commissioner Bischoff moved to set public hearing dates for September 20, 2004 and October 5, 2004 at Snow Crest Jr. High School at 7 p.m. to review the Eden incorporation feasibility study and receive public input; Commissioner Burton seconded, all voting aye.

G. Assign Pledge of Allegiance & Thought of the Day for Tuesday, August 31, 2004 at 10 a.m.

H. Public Comments:

Dick Manley said that many people might not be aware of the available avenues to research tax sale properties, and he suggested including the county’s website address, the County Recorder’s Office as a means of research, etc. Chair Cain felt that it was a good idea. She noted that the county gave extensive notification of how to do plat research and the fact that bidders needed to do this prior to bidding.

I. Adjourn
Commissioner Burton moved to adjourn at 11:30 a.m.; Commissioner Bischoff seconded, all voting aye.

Camille T. Cain, Chair Linda G. Lunceford, CPO
Weber County Commission Weber County Clerk/Auditor