Cottonwood Heights is already up and running

COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — Officials of Salt Lake Valley's newest city are getting a jump start on city business with a Jan. 3 incorporation date looming.

Newly elected Cottonwood Heights City Council members are already holding weekly council meetings, assigning service contracts and sifting through resumes to pick a city manager.

Kelvyn Cullimore Jr., the city's mayor-elect, said he wanted to get the city's groundwork set right away because the council's momentum was in full gear following the Nov. 2 election. The new city stretches from the Holladay border on the north to the Wasatch-Cache National Forest on the east, 1300 East on the west and Creek Road to the south.

In the city's council-manager form of government, Cullimore will essentially serve as a fifth member of the council and the city's ceremonial head. Gordon Thomas, Scott Bracken, Don Antczak and Bruce Jones will fill the council seats, but the day-to-day operations of the city will be left in the hands of a full-time city manager.

That manager position is so critical, Thomas said, that the city wants to have the spot filled by the end of the month. The council hopes to have candidates for the job narrowed by its next meeting Tuesday at 7 p.m. at 7030 Park Centre Drive.

"If we fail there, we're in real trouble," Thomas said. "That just has to be right; he runs the city."

Cullimore said the position is so pivotal that he may consider hiring a consultant to assess the city's needs and the qualifications of the nearly 20 applications he has received for the city manager spot. Ideal candidates, he said, have had experience with city start-ups, as well as with Utah issues.

While the city will eventually be able to pay the city manager about $80,000 annually, he or she will be working for free until incorporation. Even then, Cullimore said money will be tight in Cottonwood Heights with a variety of start-up costs and a delay in property tax revenue until the next fiscal year.

"We'll be working a little hand to mouth for the first couple months," Cullimore said. "Besides that, we can't spend one dime until we have a public hearing on the budget."

When the city does get up and running, Cullimore expects to be raking in about $12 million in city revenues. In the meantime, he plans to save money by renting office space instead of building a new city hall. He also plans to contract most city services such as police and courts with Salt Lake County.

But Cullimore is adamant about not contracting for planning and zoning personnel. Having final say on planning decisions was one of the key pushes toward incorporation after several county zoning mandates irked city residents, Cullimore said.

"Everyone agreed that we would want to start from day one on having our own planning and zoning authority," he said. "Government closest to the people governs best."

Although the Cottonwood Heights City Council has only convened once since election, both Cullimore and Thomas said the group came together well to tackle the issues. In fact, much of the work had already been done for the council by citizen committees appointed before the election to form recommendations on city contracts, staff and city hall locations.

"The five of us will be dynamite together. I think we can get things done and disagree without being disagreeable," Thomas said.

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