Cottonwood Heights hears police and finance reports; hydrant fees spike cited as major budget pressure

Cottonwood Heights city leaders on Oct. 21 heard a quarterly police update and a detailed finance briefing that highlighted a steep, unexpected rise in fire-hydrant maintenance charges billed through Salt Lake City Public Utilities.

Candy, presenting for the Cottonwood Heights Police Department, said the department had 1,390 calls for service in September and reported 66 arrests. She noted the department’s canine unit recovered approximately "about 8 and a half pounds of meth and over 30,000 fentanyl pills," calling the seizure one example of recent enforcement activity. Officers also provided mutual aid to Utah Valley University after an incident there; the city sent eight officers to assist.

Finance Director Scott Georges gave the year-end fiscal report and flagged two recent billing adjustments that, combined with other factors, improved the city’s numbers by about $30,000. He focused on fire-hydrant maintenance charges the city has been billed by Salt Lake City Public Utilities, which rose from about $27,000 in fiscal 2021 to roughly $116,720 in 2024 and $135,004.16 in 2025. Georges said the city is questioning the charges and noted the increase represents a substantial budgetary pressure: "we ended up with a $116,000 and a $135,000 that hit kinda double whammied us in 1 year," he said.

Council members asked about the contract and what maintenance the charges covered; staff said the agreement bases Cottonwood Heights' per-hydrant charge on what Salt Lake City bills its internal fire department and that the city is seeking more detail from the utility. The finance director said the city may withhold payment to compel a breakdown: "If I beg really hard and kick and scream and hold the payment, I'll get something," he said.

Council discussion also noted uncertainty in other revenue streams: motor-vehicle fees and sales-tax timing can create year-to-year noise, and a new GEO bond property-tax line was expected to contribute revenue in November–January. Separately, council members expressed concern about a publicized Salt Lake County proposal to raise property taxes by 20%, which they said would amplify residents’ fiscal pressure.

Next steps: the finance director said staff will continue to seek an itemized explanation of hydrant work from Salt Lake City Public Utilities and will incorporate any corrected amounts into the final fiscal-year numbers; council members asked staff to monitor county property-tax developments.