April 29 2009 City Council Minutes ST. GEORGE CITY COUNCIL MINUTES WORK MEETING APRIL 29, 2009, 5:00 P.M. CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Daniel McArthur Council Member Jon Pike Council Member Gail Bunker Council Member Gil Almquist City Recorder Gay Cragun EXCUSED: Council Member Suzanne Allen Council Member Gloria Shakespeare City Manager Gary Esplin City Attorney Shawn Guzman OPENING: Mayor McArthur called the meeting to order and welcomed all in attendance. The pledge of allegiance to the flag was led by Larry Morrison and Mayor McArthur offered the invocation. COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC: Richard Burow expressed concern about the e-verify program and inquired when it would be enforced with employers and landlords. Council Member Pike replied the City itself uses e-verify for its own employees, and a policy is now in place that any contractor or subcontractor working for the City must use e-verify for their employees. Council Member Almquist advised the City also has a statement on its business license form that applicants must sign stating they will follow all legal hiring practices. Council Member Bunker advised that Dixie State College also uses e-verify for its employees. Police Chief Marlon Stratton advised that the Sheriff?s Office has a couple of deputies training under 287G to verify if arrestees are in the country illegally, and if they are, they are deported. Not only do they deport the arrestee, they then look further into their families and if it is found the family is in the country illegally, they are deported as well. There have been over 30 deportations as a result of this program. Council Member Pike commented the City is doing all it can at the City level. He commented it would be good if neighboring cities would do so also. Ellen Schunk expressed concern about illegal aliens and inquired if there was a specific timeline to enforce the business license certification of eligibility. Council Member Almquist replied the City has gone as far as it can legally. He encouraged citizens to inquire of people they do business with if they hire eligible workers. St. George City Council Minutes April 29, 2009 Page Two Mayor McArthur advised that in order to be issued a business license, an applicant must sign the statement on the business license application that they will hire only eligible workers. Council Member Pike commented the City wants to give people the opportunity to comply voluntarily. The City might be able to do some sort of a random audit in the future. Don Graves advised that 86 medical facilities in California had to close because they were not able to withstand the financial burden of treating the indigent for free, and in California, this is the illegal alien population. He expressed concern about the future ability to receive medical care here. Council Member Pike replied that the hospital is working on this. Larry Morrison praised Conservation Coordinator Ren? Fleming for her administration of the City?s insulation incentive program, and advised that he has been using the e-verify program for two years and it is easy and accurate. Betty Hackett advised she moved here from California and wants to make sure St. George and Utah will not have to deal with the same problems. She inquired why the Spectrum was not publishing the arrests of people by ICE agents. A representative of the Spectrum replied he did not know, but it may be due to a cut in space. Larry Morrison advised he heard that INS requested the arrests not be published. Mayor McArthur advised that the portion of total property tax paid to the City is 13% and the public gets good service for that small percentage, including public safety. The meeting adjourned at 6:05 p.m. ___________________________________ Gay Cragun, City Recorder