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New Officers Sworn In, Murray City Money for 2017 Discussed in Council

Feb 08, 2017 02:34PM ● By Bryan Scott

By Mandy Morgan Ditto | [email protected]


Two police officers being sworn in and consideration on an ordinance to amend the city’s fiscal year 2016-2017 budget were some of the main items on the docket for the Murray City Council meeting Tuesday Dec. 13. 


Steven Jennings and William Riding were both sworn in as new Murray city police officers and several family members and friends attended the swearing in.


“We are excited to have these two men join our police department … to come out to be part of our family, part of our city and serve and work with us and the citizens of Murray,” Burnett said.


Jennings comes from working for five years with the Department of Corrections and Adult Probation Parole, and recently returned from deployment in Kuwait with the National Guard. William Riding is currently in the academy, “so we are swearing him in before he actually graduates,” Burnett said. Both men will begin service on the force immediately.


There was also a public hearing to consider an ordinance to amend the city’s fiscal year 2016-2017 budget presented by city finance director Justin Zollinger. Changes included more money and grants that came in for several projects and departments in the city.


Some other increases included: 

  • $1,000 donation from the Duffield Family Foundation for the police department animal shelter operations,
  • $5,389 from the State Homeland Security Program Grant awarded to the fire department for emergency response equipment and sustainment and $3,552 for mobile radio and battery equipment,
  • $3,751 from the State Homeland Security Program Grant awarded to the police department for law enforcement terrorism prevention equipment,
  • $100,736 from a state reimbursement to help continue to pay for wildland fire response; this rounds out reimbursements to the fire department to $150,000 this year, Zollinger said,  
  • $7,000 from the Salt Lake County Zoos, Arts and Parks grant that will go towards the Arts and History programs,
  • $75,000 from the Sorenson Legacy Foundation and another part of the Salt Lake County Amphitheater contribution of $636,927 to pay for the amphitheater project. Another $20,000 of interest earnings from the Capital Projects Fund will help finish paying for the amphitheater, 
  • $2,500,000 from the Strom Water Bond for capital projects on the following streets: Brahma, Hillside, Clover Meadow, 5400 South, Utahan and 300 West,
  • $7,521,560 from Sales Tax Bond Revenue to go towards the Redevelopment Agency Fund for property acquisition and issuance costs,
  • $6,181 from the closure of a share State PTIF account,
  • $28,789 from the Justice Assistance Grant will go towards purchasing back seat cameras for police cars.
  • And $80,103 from the Beer Tax Restricted Reserves will be used to buy more police body cameras.


Susan Baker, a Murray citizen attending the meeting, was concerned about back seat cameras being purchased before all officers have body cameras. However, “all of our first responders — our uniformed officers, patrol officers — have body cameras. We don’t give them to, at this point, our detectives,” Burnett said. 


The ordinance to amend the city’s budget was adopted by the city.


Along with amendments to the city budget, a resolution was adopted to amend the general schedule of fees charged by the Wasatch Front Waste and Recycling District for garbage and recycling collection services.


“This is not a fee increase for residential garbage collection, we are actually adding a couple of additional fees per the agreements made when the Wasatch Front district was formed,” said councilman Jim Brass, “If we create or delay a major fee increase, we need to get approval from the majority of the councils that are a member of the district.”


In this case, due to many homes being built in the west side of the district, primarily in Herriman, it has been suggested to cover the cost of the delivery and setup of garbage cans there, Brass said. This will include, a $50 new home cart fee, and a $10 new home cart delivery charge, to cover about half of the expenses needed, and will save the district about $40,000 a year. The resolution was approved unanimously by the council.


The council also approved a resolution which has been previously discussed to repeal “previous ownership definitions and puts into place a new ownership formula, whereby the city will pay for operation and upgrade cost to the Central Valley Sewer Treatment Plant, based upon our use of that plant,” said Doug Hill, Murray’s director of public services, in his presentation. 


Lastly, two resolutions in regards to agreements with the city and the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) and Utah Transit Authority (UTA) were presented and approved. 


“The Heritage Center was awarded a grant through UTA, we received approximately $69,000 in Department of Transportation funds that will go towards building a shelter for the Heritage Center bus, and will also pay for expanded bus service to residents of our city,” Hill said. 


As part of that grant the city is required to provide $10,000 for the bus shelter, which is included in the budget, and $23,000 of matching funds which is included in the Heritage Center budget for driver and operating costs. The UTA and USDOT require as part of the grant that the city pass a resolution that they will not discriminate against people of race, color or national origin.


“Thank you for a great year,” said Mayor Eyre to finish up the last council meeting of the year, after wishing everyone happy holidays.