Summary of the November 15 Meetings

In the Work Session

Joint Meeting with the Transportation and Mobility Committee
Council met with the Transportation and Mobility Committee (TMAC) to discuss recommendations for complete streets standards, west side planning, and an overview of TMAC's work list.

Diesel Emissions Testing
Ashley Soltysiak from HEAL Utah presented information on diesel emissions testing for passenger vehicles. Utah County is the only populous county in the state that does not have mandatory diesel emissions testing. The Council would like to discuss this with the Utah County Commission.

Provo City Council Work Meeting, November 15, 2016

Agenda

Council Launches New Forum for Provo Citizens

A common complaint heard by municipal councils is that people feel their voices aren’t heard. They don’t know a decision is being made until the last minute or they don’t know of an effective way to communicate with the council.

Councils may spend months or years considering an issue and not hear from constituents until the day or week of the final vote. And the quality of input from residents can depend on how knowledgeable they are about the subject.

The Provo Municipal Council set a priority at the beginning of the year to improve public engagement with more stakeholder groups, make the council more accessible to Provo citizens, and encourage and enable interested stakeholders to learn about, follow, and engage in issues that the council is addressing. Although present on social media, Sewell explains, “These are difficult for council members to engage in for a variety of reasons. One is the sheer volume of threads, many of which relate to administrative topics or local news rather than legislative topics.” He also points out that social media comments can get personal rather than focusing on the issues.

Summary of the November 1 Meetings

In the Work Session

Community Land Trusts
Sharlene Wilde of NeighborWorks Provo presented information on community land trusts and requested that the Council consider working with NeighborWorks to establish a community land trust in Provo. This was part of the Housing Committee's recommendations for infusing neighborhoods with long-term, affordable housing.

Solar and Energy Committee
As part of the October 18 decision by Council to rescind the solar generation capacity charge, a committee is being formed to research options for Provo City to support renewable energy while still addressing infrastructure needs and costs. Due to time constraints the discussion continued on to the regular meeting. Proposed committee members were approved as well as a mission statement for the committee to work from. The Solar and Energy Committee will return in January 2017 with recommendations for the Council to consider.

Provo City Council Work Meeting, November 1, 2016

Agenda  (After the meeting times will be added to the ends of the individual agenda items to help you find them in the video.)