South Valley - The Herriman City Council welcomed two newly elected members, Nicole Martin and Jared Henderson, who took their oaths of office on Jan. 4.  On Jan. 29 and 30, we worked together as a newly formed council with the city administration in a two-day visioning session to establish our priorities for the coming year. This report will highlight topics discussed at this meeting.

Our first subject was an important discussion of our accountability as elected officials to our constituents and how it relates to the function of our city administration.  Collectively, we strive to serve residents with accountability, transparency and responsiveness.

Economic development is a top focus of Herriman City. The Anthem and Herriman Towne Center commercial developers made presentations to the council and staff. Anthem Center Commercial, located west of Mountain View Corridor at 11800 South, will include big- and mid-box stores and a variety of retail shops. The Herriman Towne Center will be a destination gathering place with 45 acres of retail space near the new Herriman City Hall, recreation center and library. Our economic development team highlighted other commercial properties around the city and the infrastructure investments in progress to facilitate those exciting projects. As elected officials, one of our top objectives relating to our vision for the city is to continue to provide political support to attract new businesses to Herriman.

The council dedicated time in the session to focus on the city budget. Anticipated revenue and expenditures were summarized and the council received a helpful overview of government accounting to better understand our abilities and limitations in setting a city budget. We listened to presentations on key department funding needs to help us begin to order the requests as we move through our budget meetings. The draft calendar presented for the 2016-2017 fiscal year budget includes dates for an analysis of budget priorities, department budget requests, city council review and opportunities for citizen comment.

The Blackridge Reservoir is a popular attraction, but as it increases in patron use, associated problems have created neighborhood concern. The council examined possible solutions and will seek public input before adopting a plan to implement this summer.

Herriman City is a member of the Salt Lake Valley Law Enforcement Service Area (SLVLESA). SLVLESA is a taxing district to provide funds for the Unified Police Department, which provides the law enforcement services in our city. As a member of this larger organization, we not only have our local patrol, but we also benefit from sharing costs for pooled services such as SWAT, K9, evidence, dispatch or investigative units for crimes against a person. As a council, we anticipate working with other SLVLESA partners to make decisions to deal with the increasing cost of providing law enforcement services, resource allocation, decisions on owning or leasing buildings and guidelines for SLVLESA district expansion. 

As a result of this strategy session, the council has an even better understanding of how we may work together with our staff to implement the vision of our residents.