October 18, 2017
Midway City Council Goes Live
by Colleen Bonner
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Midway City Council Chambers prior to a regularly scheduled council
meeting held Thursday, October 11, 6:00 pm. This is the first frame from
the video found on the facebook page titled, Midway City.
(c) 2017, by Jeff Kohler, Marketing Video Club
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Transparency in city government took an upturn last week in
Midway City thanks to two citizens with an idea and the time to make it happen.
Lauri Neal brought Jeff Kohler to the city office on Wednesday afternoon,
October 11, at about two o’clock to discuss their thoughts with me.
Lauri Neal introduced Jeff Kohler, a professional
videographer, and they presented their plan to use videography to live stream
City Council meetings on Midway City’s facebook page. I had never heard of live
streaming before. I asked Kohler if it would be possible to be ready in just a
few hours and he assured me it was.
Intrigued by the concept I immediately felt it was the
perfect plan for right now. I asked how it worked and before long we were
discussing the possibility of live streaming that evening’s City Council
meeting. Kohler said he thought there would be time to set up before the
meeting would begin at 6:00 o’clock. He quickly began a test run to demonstrate
how the process worked.
My main reason for pursuing this vision is best described in
a question, how can you get more transparent than live broadcasting of city
meetings? Then I thought of how many more people could be aware and involved in
city government by being able to watch the meetings in the convenience of their
own homes at a time of their own choosing. With these thoughts in mind I began
calling each council member to see if they were interested. Each one agreed to
give it a try that evening, then evaluate for the future. So we were off and
running, it was a busy afternoon but the first live stream meeting went forward
without any glitches and a received a welcome reception.
Still available, the video can be found on our facebook
page, titled Midway City.
https://www.facebook.com/MidwayCity1891/videos/1471606149621692/
By Thursday morning the video had over 1000 hits.
Kohler said that some of those could be repeats; people who listened for
awhile, left the feed and then joined in again later. Even given the possible
repeats we feel this number shows much public interest. By Monday morning there
were over 1200 hits. In addition there were several dozen positive comments.
Councilman Ken Van Wagoner was out of town and excused from
the meeting, but was able to watch the meeting because of the live feed. This
was his comment, “I think this is a wonderful idea. This way the public is
better informed. I think this is great for those of us that can’t make the
meeting.”
Other comments included my opponents in the current
election. Celeste Johnson, current mayoral candidate, said, “Thank you for the
live feed.” Pat Vaughn, former mayoral candidate, said, “Congratulations Mayor
and City Council. You made a great decision, considerate of citizen input and
concerns. This will be the single most important new business to add to our
vibrancy as a city and image as a destination. Thank You!”
The meeting was recorded with one camera set up in the
southeast corner of the council chambers in order to capture all council
members seated along the west wall and city staff seated along the north wall.
For each meeting the city staff, under the direction of Michael Henke, city
planner, prepares a power point with important information on each agenda item
which is cast on the south wall. The presentation was out of camera range.
Steven Sheranian had a suggestion for improvement on the
video feed in the comments. He asked “Is it possible to show the slides?” Lauri
Neal responded, “This is a test run. Adjustments will be made in the future.”
Toward the end of the video Kohler posted, “Glad we have so
many people watching. My company Marketing Videos Club helped make this happen.”
At the conclusion of the video Neal posted this comment, “The
credit goes to Mayor Bonner and the City Council for having the vision of
giving more people an opportunity to see what actually takes place in planning
Midways future. And thanks for the expertise of Jeff Kohler of Marketing Videos
Club for sharing this concept. For those who watched tonight you can still post
your feedback. It would be greatly appreciated to hear what you thought of this
new and innovative format. Thank you for watching!”
I am excited to live in this time where we have the ability
to provide a way for citizens to attend city meetings remotely. We hope to
provide this service again going forward. I want to personally thank Lauri Neal
and Jeff Kohler of Marketing Video Club for sharing their idea and for their
willingness to make this happen. I believe citizen participation is valuable to
our city and live streaming our meetings will give more citizens the
opportunity to become informed. As citizens watch the city at work questions
may arise. Please feel free to call or email questions to any city council or
staff member. Our contact information is on the city website: Mayor and city
council http://www.midwaycityut.org/Mayor-and-City-Council City staff http://www.midwaycityut.org/Contact-Us
September 27, 2017
Open Space is Valuable and Essential to our Community.
by Colleen Bonner
The Midway City Council strongly supports voters being given
the opportunity to decide whether or not they want to bond for open space. Every
council member, whether for or against bonding for open space, has made a
statement to that effect in recent city council meetings. For several very good
reasons the council felt the bonding process was being rushed. However, it is
highly likely voters will see a bond referendum for open space on the general
election ballot in 2018 either on the county level, the city level, or both.
Outlined below are the most significant reasons the council voted against placing
a bond referendum on the 2017 general election ballot.
Reason One
There is not currently a specific definition of
open space. Pure Midway and other concerned citizens held two meetings on open
space and presented a list of potential items that could be considered open
space to the city council. The council appreciates the work done by this group
and intends to give this list to our Open Space Committee once formed. The
first task assigned to the committee will be to define open space through a
public legislative process with input from all Midway citizens in public
hearings and town meetings. The citizen generated list will be the committees
starting point. Seventeen applications for the Open Space committee have been
received. The council passed a resolution forming the committee at our regular
meeting held on Wednesday, September 13. The council will select seven members
for the committee from this pool of candidates.
Randy Larson, bond counsel, explained two options for
defining open space in our special meeting held Thursday, August 18. One option
was to leave the definition general which would allow the counsel latitude to
spend the bond money on any type of open space they wanted, from farm land to
an outdoor amphitheater. The other option was to define specifically what type
of open space the bond money could be used for so voters would know what kind
of open space they would be purchasing.
Corbin Gordon, city attorney, would have been assigned the
task of writing a Voter Information pamphlet. Gordon asked the city council to
come up with the definition of open space that night so he could describe to
the voters exactly what they would be paying for if the bond passed. Gordon
told the council he would have to immediately begin writing the Voter
information pamphlet to meet the state deadline.
The council discussed whether to keep the definition general
or specific. In the end the council decided voters would be more likely to
support a bond with a specific description of what their dollars would buy
rather than leaving it open ended. Also the council knew the legislative process
for coming up with a specific definition with public input from all Midway
citizens would require time to form the open space committee and time for the
committee and the city council to hold public hearings.
The council feels it is important to have the open space
definition solidified so that future city councils know exactly what the desire
of Midway citizens was if and when they approve the bond. Larsen told the
council that voter approved bond money can be used any time within ten years of
voter authorization, and it can also be spent in increments according to state
code. For example, if $10 million were approved the council could spend $2
million for one project in one year, $5 million on another project a few years
later, and still have another $3 million for a future project. For this reason
the current council feels responsible to future city councils years down the
road who will make the decisions about spending the bond funds.
Reason Two
Mid August when the bond decision was before us the
council was already two months into its current six month moratorium which
began June 14 and will end December 13. The code text amendments the city is
working on during this moratorium are based on new ideas included in the
general plan after last year’s state mandated five year review. Those ideas
were originally proposed by the same people who were also asking for a bond
referendum in 2017, Pure Midway and a group of concerned citizens. Essentially
they first asked us to slow down and look at our codes and update them to
implement new ways to create open space and less density through our
ordinances. Then while we were in the middle of addressing those issues they
were now asking us to hurry up and get the bond referendum on the 2017 ballot.
From the beginning of the moratorium the council knew we would
be hard pressed to pass all the proposed changes before the moratorium ends. The
timeline for placing the bond referendum on this year’s general election ballot
would have taken approximately six weeks out of crucial moratorium time. Even
if others volunteered to help with the preparations, ultimately the
responsibility to meet state requirements belongs to the city council and
staff. City staff, the lawyer, the planner, the engineer, and the recorder,
would all be involved in writing the bond language and the Voter Information
pamphlet, and soliciting public input and holding public hearings, all
important things that city employees are required to complete per state code.
The council strongly feels the city staff needs to stay focused on the purpose
of the moratorium so when it ends and developers begin making applications to
the city again, the ordinances will reflect the changes made in last year’s
general plan revision.
Reason Three
As elected officials it is our responsibility
to give the best information possible to all Midway citizens. We do not feel we
had the time to put together the best information to give the public. While the
council appreciates what Pure Midway and other concerned citizens have
accomplished and presented to the city, this same group was pushing the council
to make a hasty decision. We did not discredit the time and effort put into
gathering information through two meetings on open space, along with a survey
conducted and the hundreds of signatures collected. We appreciate the good start
these loyal citizens have given toward open space preservation through bonding.
Ultimately we just did not feel the six to eight weeks we
had to prepare the bond referendum for this year’s ballot was enough to get the
job done right. We did not feel we had all the information needed for all
Midway citizens to make an educated decision on a long term financial
commitment that would affect every Midway property owner for twenty years.
Reason Four
As a council we feel it is important to work
with other local government agencies. Wasatch County is currently in the
process of creating an Inter-local Open Space Board. They have wisely chosen to
take at least a year to prepare for a bond referendum to preserve open space
between Heber City and Midway City, potentially in the north fields. Their
first step is forming the Open Space Board.
As a council we agree with the county’s approach and, like
them, we want to start with our own open space committee and take the time to
get the bond proposal right. The county has invited both Heber City and Midway City
to participate in their open space plans by providing one board member to
represent each city and by pooling together some of each city’s bonding
potential with Wasatch County’s bonding potential to get a larger bond. Wasatch
County is considering a request made by Midway City to assign a percentage of
the county bond to be spent in Midway.
In summary, we believe open space bonding should and will go
before the voters. Our Open Space Committee will soon be working on an open
space definition for bonding. The remaining three months of our current
moratorium will be focused on open space and density code text amendment changes.
We have the next year to put together the best information on open space
bonding. Then we can decide what form bonding should take, on a county level, a
city level, or on both levels. Open space decisions are crucial to our
community and deserve taking the time to do it right.
CITIZEN INQUIRY EMAIL: If you have any questions please email me at my new citizen
inquiry address: mayorcolleenbonner@gmail.com
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