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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSPAC.2023.1025.MinutesTOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE FOUNTAIN HILLS STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION October 25, 2023 A Regular Meeting of the Fountain Hills Strategic Planning Advisory Commission was convened at 16705 E. Avenue of the Fountains in open and public session at 4:00 p.m. Members Present: Chairman Patrick Garman; Vice Chairman Geoff Yazzetta; Commissioner Jill Keefe; Commissioner Bernie Hoenle; Commissioner Kevin Beck (telephonically); Commissioner Phil Sveum Staff Present: Town Manager Rachael Goodwin; Executive Assistant Angela Padgett -Espiritu Members of the Public Present: Three Members TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION October 25, 2023 1. CALL TO ORDER Chairman Patrick Garman called to order the meeting of the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission at 4:00 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL Members Present: Chairman Patrick Garman; Vice Chairman Geoff Yazzetta; Commissioner Kevin Beck (telephonically); Commissioner Jill Keefe; Commissioner Bernie Hoenle; Commissioner Phil Sveum Staff Present: Town Manager Rachael Goodwin; Executive Assistant Angela Padgett - Espiritu 3. CALL TO THE PUBLIC Pursuant to A.R.S. §38-431.01(H). public comment is permitted (not required) on matters NOT listed on the agenda. Any such comment (i) must be within the jurisdiction of the Council, and (ii) is subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions. The Council will not discuss or take legal action on matters raised during Call to the Public unless the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal action. Al the conclusion of the Call to the Public, individual councilmembers may (i) respond to criticism, (ii) ask staff to review a matter, or (fill ask that the matter be placed on a future Council agenda. Three members of the public present and No one from the public spoke. 4. REPORTS BY COMMISSIONERS AND TOWN MANAGER Commissioner Sveum, Commissioner Hoenle and Vice Chair Yazzetta had no reports. Commissioner Keefe had an update on the Chamber kicking off planning for Parkview shopping identity. Meeting scheduled for November zit". Commissioner Beck noticed a decline in sister cities from 6 down to 3. Will follow up offline on status of sister city program. Town Manager Goodwin reported that an update to the progress of the Strategic Plan is underway and will bring forward any pertinent updates to the November or January commission meetings. Public Budget Outreach meeting scheduled for November 29th at 5:30pm in Council Chambers. Commission meeting moved to 3pm on November 29th. No December Commission meeting. Builders and Developers Forum scheduled for November 1st at 7:30am. A vendor forum was held recently with local Fountain Hills businesses interested in doing business with the town. Good turnout and engagement. Boards and commissions training scheduled for December 5th at 4pm in Council Chambers. 5. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of the minutes of the Regular Meeting of September 27, 2023. MOVED BY Commissioner Jill Keefe to approve the minutes of September 27, 2023, Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting, SECONDED BY Vice Chairman Geoff Yazzetta. Vote: 6 — 0 passed — Unanimously 6. UPDATE: from Workgroups. The workgroup, led by Vice Chair Yazzetta, Commissioner Keefe, and Commissioner Sveum, is planning an open house community event in early 2024 to get input on the strategic plan. They are working on securing the community center, inviting community leaders and groups, and using surveys to get additional input. The other workgroup, led by Chair Garman, Commissioner Hoenle, and Commissioner Beck is focused on outreach to volunteers, nonprofit, and service organizations. Chair Garman has started making connections and scheduling meetings with groups like the Chamber, Rotary, VFW, etc. for January/February. The goal is to brief them on the strategic plan and get their input. There was discussion around using the town's website for an open comment/input section for the strategic plan. More exploration is needed on the feasibility. 7. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Future Agenda Topics Commissioner Keefe proposed having the town provide a briefing on the status of roads maintenance, including scope of work, size of the problem, progress made, and funding needs. The town has a roads committee made up of citizens that previously presented recommendations to the council. The commission could invite them to present as well. There is an upcoming town council work study session on roads on November 16 that may provide additional information. Commissioner Sveum proposed having an informal workshop with the town council and planning commission to discuss ideas for the strategic plan, including pros/cons and priorities. Town Manager Goodwin explained how council workshops allow more open dialog on specific topics compared to regular meetings or retreats. She would need to explore the feasibility of a joint workshop. Commissioner Keefe suggested including town department heads in discussions to get their perspectives on executing the strategic plan. Chair Garman has lined up speakers related to education (Inspiration Academy) and other town commissions like the Community Services Advisory Commission to brief SPAC and discuss potential areas of collaboration. 8. COMMENTS FROM THE CHAIRMAN The vacant commission seat will be filled in time for the November 29th meeting. The new commissioner will be announced at the November 21st Town Council Meeting. Next commission meeting is November 29th at 3:00 pm. After the Nov 29th Commission Meeting at 5:00 pm will be a Public Outreach and Open House that commissioners can attend. 9. NEXT MEETING DATE: Wednesday, November 29, 2023 10. ADJOURNMENT MOVED BY Vice Chairman Yazzetta to adjourn the meeting of the October 25, 2023, Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting, SECONDED BY Commissioner Bernie Hoenle Vote: 6 — 0 passed — Unanimously Chairman Garman adjourned the regular meeting at 4:50 p.m. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Post -Production File Town of Fountain Hills Regular Meeting of the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission October 25, 2023 Transcription Provided By: eScribers, LLC Transcription is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. Page 1 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING GARMAN: All right. So I'm going to call to order the Fountain Hill Strategic Planning Advisory Commission meeting of October 25th, 2023. So welcome, everyone. So we're going to start off with the roll call. Angela, if you could help us with that. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Sure. Thank you, Chair. Chair Garman? GARMAN: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Vice chair Yazzetta. YAllETTA: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Beck? BECK: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Hoenle? HOENLE Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Keefe? KEEFE: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: And Commissioner Sveum? SVEUM: Here. Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: We have a quorum. Thank you. GARMAN: Six out of seven, right? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yes. GARMAN: And one open -- one open seat right now. All right. So we're going to go down to agenda item 3 -- agenda item 3, which is call to the public. Do we have any written or verbal calls to the public? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: No, we do not. GARMAN: All right. Going once -- I think so. Okay. All right. So no call to the public today. So that means we can move on to agenda item 4. We're going to have reports by commissioners and town managers. And I think we can start to my -- to my left. So Sveum, you want to go? Page 2 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING SVEUM: No report. GARMAN: Nothing for the group? All right. Geoff, we do have an agenda item for work group. So this is other than your work group report. YAZZETTA: Nothing to report. We'll keep it short today. Thank you. GARMAN: This is good. The agenda is a little light today -- before we move on to you, Bernie --because I think we're going to have a big, very robust meeting in November. And it seemed to be a lull with folks here in October and before we get into the November meeting. And then everybody should know that we will not have a meeting in December. So today, meeting in November, we'll talk about it in a minute, and then we'll move on to the new year. All right, Bernie. HOENLE: Nothing to add this time. GARMAN: All right, Bernie. Thank you. Jill? KEEFE: One update. The chamber is kicking off an activity, or a planning committee, around the development of Parkview as a shopping identity. And so Betsy (ph.) has reached out to all of the business owners along Parkview and is scheduling a meeting for -- I think it's November 4th, if I recall, but I'm really looking forward to participating in that. And I'll bring back any relevant updates for our planning. Yeah. GARMAN: Please do. It's great. Really interesting. Okay. Kevin, over to you. Do you have any updates for the commission? BECK: Not really. Just one observation. And first, can you hear me okay? Or is there a bad echo? I had to restart. So can you hear me okay? GARMAN: We can hear you fine. BECK: Great. One thing that I've noticed, and I need to ask whom to talk to or if we should, our visiting cities -- or neighborhood cities, that we've had in the past. We usually had about six in Europe, in Asia, and so forth. And I've watched it go down to, Page 3 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING what, three? And I don't know if it's really an active situation or not. It may help us correlate some other things with international things like the Dark Sky event and Discovery Center. So what I will do offline is trying to find out who to contact about that sister city -- not neighboring city -- sister city -- sorry -- and, you know, see if that's still active and why we're down to three. Is where we want to be? Is there a reason for that or is there something we can do about that? GARMAN: So I know it is active and I have friends that are on that kind of commission. But Rachael, you had a comment? GOODWIN: Yeah. I was just going to say Angela's probably a good starting point to talk about sister cities, where we're at, and then can get you in touch with the chair of that commission as well. BECK: Perfect. Thank you. Nothing else to add. GARMAN: All right. Great. Thanks. Thanks, Kevin. Okay. Rachael? GOODWIN: I just had one quick update. I was going to let everyone know, again, this is my second meeting with this group, sort of navigating through how SPAC has done their updates from the internal side. I know you guys have updates that happen regularly from different directors and different departments and things, but the leadership staff will be going through the strategic plan -- the current strategic plan -- and doing updates on November 8th as to our current status on any and all of the initiatives. So we'll have sort of an overall update and status progress report following that internal meeting. So just wanted to let you know so we can bring that forward next time too. GARMAN: So when was that again, the timeline? GOODWIN: November 8. GARMAN: Okay. So you think for the next meeting at least? GOODWIN: Yes. If not for November, we can -- I know you said November may be rather robust. So we can certainly hold that until January. I don't think there's anything pertinent, unless something comes up that is time sensitive, which point we'll bring that Page 4 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING forward. GARMAN: Awesome. At this point, though, can we go back just for the commissioners so we can write this down as well? I thought this might be a good place, especially since there wasn't a lot of reports this month. Maybe between the two of you -- the requirements for us as commissioners, the public and outreach open house. GOODWIN: So that is -- should be on everyone's calendar for November 29th -- I think we all agreed. It was originally the 15th; it was rescheduled to the 29th. That is what I'll call a budget kickoff for our public process as part of the strategic plan. It does call for some more transparency and community engagement with our budget planning. So we do have two points -- at least a minimum of two public outreach sessions for that. And it's going to be down here in council chambers; is that right? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yes. It'll be here at 5:30. And also, I believe it's also going to entail also a review of fiscal year '23 as well. GOODWIN: Yes. So it'll bookend sort of the last fiscal year and get ready to talk about our next planning process. So David Pack (ph.) will probably be leading that. And obviously, as it is a strategic planning initiative, we wanted to make sure that you guys are aware that that was happening. GARMAN: That's great. Thanks. And if the commissioners noticed originally -- and I was going to throw this in at some point during the meeting, but this is a good enough place -- the meeting for November was going to be the week before Thanksgiving, which was like the 15th, which is really three weeks from now to -- I mean, it was very tight. There is a week after Thanksgiving. And so the 29th is a Wednesday. So I would like to have the meeting and move the meeting to the 29th of November and have it the last week in November. And then we will not be meeting again until January. So -- and the reason I bring that up is, first of all, to see if it's okay. And second of all, that's the same night as this public outreach too. So we have two meetings, 4:00 to 5:00; people could hang around and go to that next. Page 5 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING SVEUM: Sure. GARMAN: Yeah, go ahead. SVEUM: I think that that November meeting -- it sounds like just, like you said, is going to be quite a lot of issues to discuss. I'd like to get as much on that as possible since we're not going to meet until January. So I don't -- if it's the 29th, fine. But I just want to make sure we have as many of the internal meetings done as possible -- that we can -- that we can have some report -- some feedback on those rather than waiting another 60 days after that. GARMAN: All right. Geoff? YAllETTA: I have that meeting already on my calendar for the 29th. Angela, can you confirm that one out? And I have at 3 p.m. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Correct. GARMAN: Oh, it's at 3? Our meeting? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Correct. YAllETTA: Yeah. Our SPAC meeting is at 3 p.m. on the 29th, so there's plenty of time to go through our topics -- PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yes. YAllETTA: -- before pivoting to the outreach event. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yeah. And if it's okay with everyone, if it works with your schedule, we moved it up an hour and -- I'm sorry. I have a clarification. The one on the 29th is the public outreach begins at 5, so they actually need access to this room prior to get set up for the presentation. So that's why we moved it up to 3, if that's not an issue. And that gives the commission plenty of time to go over their items and everything and prior to them needing access to this room at 5. GARMAN: All right. Cool. Thanks. Yeah, Jill? KEEFE: Appreciate the schedule logistics. Love that. Thank you. Combining those on one day makes my life a lot easier. I appreciate it. I know you did it for me. Thank you. No, I'm kidding. Page 6 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING And is there any way -- and ask, is there if there are any pre -read materials that can go out? I'd like to come in to that public outreach meeting with a sense of what we're going to see so that we can form our thoughts and questions. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Sure. KEEFE: Thank you. GARMAN: Right. I know in our strategic plan, one of the things we said was to have a -- apart from a council meeting, having -- I guess they'll call it open house, but an open meeting to the town to come in and go over budget happenings for the year, more transparency. So what about this Builders and Developers and Contractors Forum? We got an invite for that as well. GARMAN: I haven't seen that before. Is that new or is that part of something? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Actually that was mentioned, I believe, at the last meeting, and it's actually scheduled by the executive assistant for the Development Services Department, Paula Woodward (ph.). And that may have been who I forwarded her invitation to the commission, in case you would like to attend, that she had sent out and placed in a calendar. It's a 7:30 a.m. start time. GOODWIN: It's not a new meeting. It just doesn't have it -- generally happens when you try to hold them twice a year. Again, it's just an opportunity for the development community to come in, ask questions, understand process, help us improve process if there's changes that can be made. So it's kind of a give-and-take in that opportunity to do that. We do do it very early at 7:30. Again, for developers, that's normal operating hours, I guess. But again, it's another initiative to continue that dialog and create that transparency and help understand how we can serve the community better. GARMAN: Awesome. So what was the date on it again? I know you said next week. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: The 1st. GARMAN: The 1st. Okay. KEEFE: Do you typically get good turnout at those? Page 7 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING GOODWIN: It depends what good -- I would say, you know, we don't pack the house by any means. Generally, we have less than ten, sometimes less than five. But that doesn't necessarily indicate how quality it is or what the value of it is. It's not like we have a -- you know, a large -- you know, hundreds of developers here. We don't have a large body of developers. And it kind of ebbs and flows as projects are coming online or anticipated or things like that. I'll use, for instance, and I think Chairman Garman kind of mentioned, we just had a vendor forum, so someone who would like to do business. So outside of just the development community, we try to work with vendors. So businesses, local businesses, and how they can do business with the town, how they can be involved in RFPs or bidding or other things. We want them to understand that process and how to fill those things out. We had a handful -- I think we had four or five businesses come, but they were all brand new. They were very interested in understanding, and they got a lot of one-on-one time to ask direct questions. So I find -- I think that that is very, very valuable. Will they come again? Probably not. They probably got everything they needed to know, but the next time we do it, we get five or six more and five or six more. So again, it'll be an ongoing effort. GARMAN: Okay. And then the last one, if we could -- SVEUM: Patrick? GARMAN: Yeah, sure. SVEUM: Can you tell us a little bit about the vendors? Are they from Fountain Hills or -- without naming names, of course, but I'm just curious on -- GOODWIN: My understanding -- I did not attend. I will tell you that. But I did get an update on it that they were all Fountain Hills based. There was a new mobile food vendor, as well as a -- I believe, a marketing agency. And so the movable food vendor, we don't really hire mobile food vendors on the regular, but they wanted to understand the business licensing process, what they could do, where they could be, how they, you know, got involved in events, and those types of Page 8 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING things. So again, it was kind of a fantastic forum for them to ask lots of questions and understand that. The marketing folks -- you know, again, we do marketing on from time to time. I don't remember what their specialty was, whether it was digital or video or anything like that. But again, how do I get involved when the next time you do an RFP? Do you know when you're going to have another one? How to -- and then how to fill those out. Especially for small businesses that aren't necessarily used to the government-ese (ph.) of all of that. So those are the two that stand out. I can't remember -- there was four total, and I can't remember what the other two were off the top of my head. Yeah. GARMAN: All right. And then the last, if you could comment on the -- I call it the law update, but it's the boards and commission training that we were going to have this summer. It's been pushed back a little bit. I think it's in December now. You were saying that that's pretty solid? GOODWIN: It is. We talked about it this morning. It's pretty much written in stone for December 5th. And I will say logistically and behind the scenes, it did become a moving target. You're absolutely right. Some of it was, well, we're getting ready to appoint new commissioners. Wouldn't it make sense to wait till we get new commissioners on board before we do this training? And then some of it was, well, we had it scheduled and then we ended up having an executive session sort of take its place because of a timeliness issue with some council items. Therefore, the town attorney was occupied doing that, and he can't be two places at once. So it was a little bit of both. And then eventually we settled on December 5th because we'll be onboarding a number of new commissioners at the next council meeting. It made sense to sort of get everybody in place and then do the training as a full group as after we're back up to, you know, full seats. So that will be here on December 5th at 4, Angela? 4 or 430? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: I think so. I'll confirm it. It should be in -- hopefully everyone has it in their calendars. Page 9 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING YAZZETTA: You sent it out, Angela. It's -- GOODWIN: 4 o'clock. YAZZETTA: -- yeah. 4 o'clock. GOODWIN: I would think 4. Usually, it's 4 to 5 here in council chambers. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Correct. GARMAN: Okay. All right. Thanks. We're up to date now. Okay. So we're going to move down to agenda item 5, which is a consideration of possible actions, the approval -- or review of the minutes of the regular meeting from September 27th, 2023. So first, open up to see if there's any discussion on the minutes from last month. No? Hearing none. Okay. So is there a motion on the table for the possible approval of the minutes from last month? KEEFE: Move to approve. YAllETTA: Second. GARMAN: We have a second. Okay. Discussion on a motion. Everybody understand we're going to vote on the approval of minutes from last month? Hearing no discussion. We can proceed to a vote. All in favor of approving the minutes from the excellently run meeting from Geoff last month, say aye. [In unison]: Aye. GARMAN: Any opposed say nay. BECK: Aye. GARMAN: Oh, thanks, Kevin. Any opposed say nay. I think that was unanimous. Okay. Minutes are approved from last month. Thanks. Okay. We're going to move down to updates now. We have -- you know, we split into workgroups couple of months ago. So we're going to make this a reoccurring agenda item to review the happenings in those two workgroups. Page 10 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING So first off, lead Geoff, if you could talk about your workgroup. YAZZETTA: Thank you, chairman. Okay. So my workgroup is comprised of myself and Jill and Phil. We're going to be hosting an open house event first quarter of 2024 at the community center. I do need to get clarity and -- Rachael, this might be a question for you or Jennifer Lyons (ph.) -- as to whether or not SPAC, if we're hosting an event at the community center, needs to pay the rental fee. No? Okay. Thank you so much for letting me know that we don't. So behind the scenes, I'm working on curating a list of community leaders, and this is going to be comprised of businesses, service organizations, nonprofits, et cetera. The goal of this is twofold. One, we're going to reach out to those community leaders and let them know that this event is going on and ask that they put out the notification of our open house event so as to get greater turnout. So one, we'll have the community leaders there. Ideally, they will represent the interests of those respective groups, and then the individuals from those groups can attend. Outside of the different groups in town, I met with Bo Larsen (ph.) last week to discuss outreach. We can put notification of this open house in the Towns Quarterly newsletter. We can also do a standalone email invitation and subsequent reminder emails just to make sure that everyone in town is aware. We may also want to look at putting a notification in the Fountain Hills Times Independent -- that's the new name of it. So just hitting all of our bases there. Another item that came up in my discussion with Bo (ph.) was the 2021 community survey. So that was a professional survey done by a consultant. In my opinion -- again, this is just my opinion -- the town's population, demographics, et cetera have not changed that much. So I think that survey is still valid and we can use that to help guide us in our process as we evaluate the upcoming iteration of the strategic plan. We also have the ability through the town's website to host a survey. So we can do a survey to reach out to anyone that maybe isn't able to attend the open house event, and there is a capability to limit it to one response per person by making them insert an Page 11 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING email address so, you know, we won't have people, you know, repeating comments, for example. So that is all I have to update on. Phil and Jill, anything to add to those comments? KEEFE: No. Very thorough. Thank you. YAZZETTA: Thank you. GARMAN: Have you worked out a timeline for the new year -- the new calendar year as far as the workshop goes? Ballpark. YAllETTA: That will be -- our next item of discussion is pinning down a date or several potential dates. So -- I imagine it would probably be maybe later January. I don't think doing it the first weekend after the new year would be the best. But we'll look at the community calendar, just make sure we're not conflicting with anything that may be going on here in town, but we will select a date that we feel is going to be best for the most people to participate. GARMAN: Sure. Yeah, sounds good. And just again, generally speaking, have a, you know, a report -- a final kind of -- final-ish report in May. So you have time. Yeah. YAllETTA: Absolutely. GARMAN: I know we've talked. YAZZETTA: Thank you. GARMAN: I just want to put that transcript that's recording every word I say. YAllETTA: Yes. GOODWIN: I just wanted to -- GARMAN: No, I wasn't -- I'm sorry. GOODWIN: That's okay. No, I just wanted to chime in. If you -- have you targeted, whether it's a weekend or an evening or a weekday? Do you know if -- YAZZETTA: We're looking at a weekend. GOODWIN: Okay. YAllETTA: Yeah. GOODWIN: My only suggestion would be to reach out to Jennifer -- Page 12 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING GOODWIN: -- because weekends can be difficult to secure -- YAllETTA: Sure. GOODWIN: -- especially in that January, February, March time frame. It's just a busy -- in general -- YAZZETTA: Yeah. GOODWIN: -- it's just the busiest time of year over there. YAllETTA: Sure. GOODWIN: But I know she'd be happy to work with you and figure out what you need, how many people you're expecting -- GOODWIN: -- and that type of thing. So -- YAZZETTA: Yup. GOODWIN: -- if you haven't already made that connection, I'd be happy to let her know -- YAllETTA: I've worked with her before. She's very helpful. GOODWIN: Yes. YAZZETTA: Yeah. So I will reach out to her as soon as we figure out some potential dates. In the next week or so, I'll reach out to her and just get the ball rolling on that. GOODWIN: Fantastic. YAZZETTA: Thanks, Rachael. GOODWIN: Yes. BECK: Hi, Chairman Garman. GARMAN: Yep. Go ahead, Kevin. BECK: Question for Geoff. So Geoff, one thing -- I know we're in two different groups and you're doing the logistics and sounding like you're well ahead on the plans forward for the meeting. But also, personally, I'd be very happy to help. I can do two things, you know. And if there's anything that you need from a standpoint for that meeting, or planning or reaching out to folks, of course, definitely can help knowing the dates and so forth. So it's not like we're confined to two separate groups. That said, I don't want to get in the way, but Page 13 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING that's my personal invitation. I'm sure the others feel the same. We're all in for your meeting. YAZZETTA: Thanks, Kevin. I'm sure we'll need some extra volunteers, so I will keep you in the loop for our needs on that front. GARMAN: Yep. We divided it up to ensure -- because we always got to be cognizant that we can't have a quorum present at any of these -- outside of this meeting, or else it becomes a meeting together. So open meetings law, right? BECK: I'm so sorry. I'm sorry (indiscernible) . GARMAN: No, no, no. I just know that Geoff and I always got to keep track when we're at these events. YAllETTA: Yeah. But if we're hosting an actual meeting, Rachael, are we allowed to have more than three SPAC commissioners present? GOODWIN: My understand is as long as we notice it --as that there may be a quorum present, but that no business -- YAllETTA: Sure. GOODWIN: -- will be discussed or voted upon, that that's kind of your way of getting around that. I won't say getting around that, but that's the way you notice it so that the public is aware that if there is more of a quorum present, it's been noticed and there's no business being conducted. It's no different than if council were to attend, you know, 4th of July event, right? YAZZETTA: Sure. GOODWIN: They may all show up, but they're not there to do any business. YAZZETTA: Thank you. GARMAN: Yeah. Jill? KEEFE: We would want to announce -- we would want a public announcement to go out on this anyway, would we not? GOODWIN: I would think so, yeah. KEEFE: Yeah. I mean, so in terms of volunteerism at the actual open house, I suspect that -- we're still in planning mode, but I suspect it's an all -hands -on -deck thing and we Page 14 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25,2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING will need everybody. YAllETTA: Yeah. We'll hash out the details -- KEEFE: Yeah. YAllETTA: -- figure out how many people we need. GARMAN: That's sounds like a good question on the -- YAllETTA: Yeah, that's for December 5th. GARMAN: December 5th. YAllETTA: I think just to make sure that we're, you know, following the process as it should be followed -- GOODWIN: Probably a good idea. YAllETTA: So -- yeah. KEEFE: If I can hold the mic, I have a second question. GARMAN: Yeah. Go ahead, Jill. KEEFE: Can we get access to some budget for light refreshments, coffee service, cookies, that kind of thing? GOODWIN: I would think as long as it's minimal, we can probably manage that. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yeah, I think that would be fine. KEEFE: Buy a few cookies. GOODWIN: Same thing if we were to run an ad, right -- an ad in the paper, there would be a small budget associated with that as well. KEEFE: Okay. GOODWIN: So yeah. So -- but, yeah. KEEFE: Keep it austere. GOODWIN: Exactly. KEEFE: You got it. GOODWIN: No fancy cookies, just basic cookies. KEEFE: Oh, well, that changes everything. GARMAN: Okay. Workgroup seems like it's in really good hands, so I appreciate the update. Page 15 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING The second workgroup -- you know, I don't know if we have an official name. Outreach might be a good one. Outreach to volunteer and, you know, nonprofit service organizations -- how I kind of lump them together. So Bernie and I and Kevin are generally on that group. I've started to reach out -- we were able to talk to -- HOENLE: -- Tammy (ph.). GARMAN: -- at the -- Who was she representing? HOENLE: The chamber. GARMAN: She was representing the chamber. Yeah, the chamber. I've been able to outreach. This is where I'm kind of going to open this up because I've found that it kind of gets quicksand. I had no idea there was more than one Rotary in town, but there is. So I ended up talking to two of them -- trying to talk to one. So it -- VFW, of course, American Legion. I have connections with them. So I got a list. The town gave me a list, or Angela gave me a list, that I was going to follow through. They did not have, like, service organizations -- what I would call service. They did not have the VFWs or the American Legions or The Democratic Club, the Republican Club, the Liberal Ladies club. Those are clubs, probably, though, right? So as I continue to reach out, it gets a little deeper and there's many different layers. And of course, I wanted you all to know that I have scheduled for us to go out and talk at their meetings. They are -- most of these clubs or organizations are already scheduled out into the new calendar year. So we're scheduled for January and February. And I've leaned on them a little bit to try to get something in November, in December, but I have not been successful yet. So I think it looks like we're going to start off the new calendar year by going to some of these organizations. But I would like a better list. And I don't know if the town has a list or just some of us commissioners also, you know, can feel free as you go along if you have organizations. Because each one of those organizations has a membership. So they represent, you know, diverse bunch of ideas across the town. And as we get into it, I know it just leads Page 16 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING to another and to another. Have you talked to this organization, that organization? But I do want to hit the major ones. So as I'm going through this, I just want to make sure that everybody feels free to connect with me because I can't really send out emails to all of you during the month because that, again, then becomes a little problematic with open meeting laws. I'll stop there for a minute. SVEUM: You looked at the community guide as a reference? GARMAN: When you say the community guide -- SVEUM: From the website -- GARMAN: -- the town's website, or is it -- SVEUM: No, there's the booklet that has businesses, nonprofits, you know, community organizations. You might want to -- I know the chamber has them. We've -- the businesses have them. I think actually -- I think the newspaper prints them, but you can sort of pick one up at the chamber. GARMAN: I mean, it's a great learning process for me because by the time I think we'll be really educated on the depth of, you know, volunteers and clubs and nonprofits and service organizations here in town, which is great. So we're being educated on the way. But I have dived into it, and it gets deeper all the time. So -- All right. So the final as far as the outreach. The plan is we will have a template so that all of these we will go in with the same template in hand, telling them a little bit about our strategic plan, a little bit about our commission, and then giving them a few examples of what we're asking for and then allowing them to discuss with us either during their meeting or give them contact information so that they can reach out after the meeting if they would like. I did want to ask a question, when you talked about the survey on the town's website. I mean, that would be something that when we go out and talk to people, you know, how fast do you think we could get something like that up -- put that together? We can direct people to that site. And that might be something as we go to some of these organizations to say, hey, if you come up with -- you think of something afterwards, you Page 17 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25,2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING can go to this survey as well, on the town website, and put your information there. YAllETTA: So we're still early in planning, but I think we could have a survey squared away. Your first meeting's in January, you said, correct? We've got plenty of runway to get a robust survey put together, do some testing just to make sure it works the way we want it to work, and then furnish it to you for your meetings. So -- GARMAN: Okay. BECK: Patrick-- GARMAN: Yeah. Go ahead, Kevin. BECK: So I was trying to look back to see if we had some history. And unfortunately, being somewhat new with it, haven't been through the process before. And I know I'm AWOL this month. So sorry. I came up and I couldn't be there, but for next month in will be there. So is there a way to look at the past survey, the last questions, the -- you know, what questions and maybe the process that was taken to develop that survey in those questions? Or is it, you know, definitely rely on you and Bernie since you've been through the process before, but help guide me too, being new. Definitely, you know, we could talk offline on that as well. Definitely want to help with doing that and putting those questions together. GARMAN: Well, I know that we decided we weren't going to develop, you know, a survey. If there is something that's already existed or if there's a comment section, something like that, having read the strategic plan, because in the past we have done surveys. For the last strategic plan, we did one. Vision Fountain Hills and us worked together. The town then has since done a really nice survey as well, that Geoff mentioned earlier that we have a copy of. So we have to work on it. Probably not going to be an official survey, at least this year. It might be next year. We have plenty of time, but it might be more of an open answer, you know -- open -- where people can log on and put their suggestions there. I think, Geoff, you had something to add? YAllETTA: Yeah. And Kevin, that 2021 community survey, that was emailed to all of us Page 18 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING at the end of last month's meeting. So that should be in your inbox, and it's also on the town website, but don't ask me where. But the survey that we would post on the town's website is -- again, we're just trying to cast as many nets and as wide as we can cast those nets to garner as much feedback as possible. You know, you never know who's, you know, going to have some idea that if you don't give multiple avenues to reach out, then, you know, you may not hear from them. So -- BECK: I know that -- one last thing. I know that the survey was from last -- I also know that we talked about maybe three open-ended questions and/or maybe four. And those just to make sure we're all aligned with that, you could ask those four questions, but just so we have consistent answers. I thought we had talked about maybe getting together with -- so it wouldn't be so formal, but we certainly have to ask the right, you know, open questions to the folks to get them to talk, I would think. GARMAN: I wrote that down as an act -- as a task too. So I'll take that and work on it with everyone to see what the possibilities are for the town's website. That's something I hadn't heard of before, but it sounds great, so I think it's worth pursuing. So maybe I'll be able to talk to Angela and Rachael in the future just to see the pluses and minuses and the possibilities there. GOODWIN: Sure. BECK: Thanks. GARMAN: Jill? KEEFE: In terms of is there a list, have you -- a suggestion would be to look at the Fountain Hills Civic and Cultural Association. They -- just running through everybody that's registered under that umbrella. And then the other thought I would suggest is I think there are 18 churches or communities of worship in Fountain Hills, and that's a lot of constituency to get in front of. GARMAN: Great. Great ideas. Thanks. KEEFE: Thank you. Page 19 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING GARMAN: Thanks, Jill. All right. And I know we haven't gotten down to the agenda items yet, but this is kind of worked in with the work group as well. As I've reached out, I wanted folks to know that we also have commissions -- you know, commissions like ours here at Fountain Hills and other volunteer organizations that are kind of related to the town. I'II give you an example. One is the Community Services Advisory Commission -- near and dear to your heart, Rachael. But Natalie (ph.) and I -- she's the chair of that town's commission, have been talking, and I'm going to brief her commission at the end of November, so last week of November, Monday 27th, I think, on the strategic plan. And then she's going to come back in the new year and be on our agenda, and then she's going to talk about what they do on her commission. So that's one avenue. Similarly, the Fountain Hills Leadership Academy. Longstanding -- we have some memberships in that. The chair of the Leadership Academy is going to come in and brief our commission as well and tell us what they do as far as volunteering on behalf of the of the town. There was one other. Oh, and then the last one I wanted to bring up. Education is something that we always wanted to talk about, and it's been on my list, and it's been brought up over the summer. We do have a private school in Fountain Hills. It's called the Inspiration Academy. It's a new school. So the leader of that private school is going to come and brief us about the status of education in Fountain Hills and private education writ large in Arizona. She's very interesting to talk to. So I thought that would be good. I did book her in November. I thought it would be a good idea to wait, you know, until after the election in November and then have her come in late November to talk about private school, her private school and the private schools in Fountain Hills. So that'll be on the agenda as well. And those all kind of get together with the with the outreach that we're doing as well, because all of them are responsible to a larger organization that probably has opinions on strategic issues in Fountain Hills. Page 20 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Okay. Thanks for allowing me to get all that off my chest. Okay. So now we're going to move on. That's the end of the work groups, you know, comments on that. We're going to move down to a future agenda topics. I told you I stole the thunder on that. So you know, private school, the CSAC -- Do you call it the CSAC? GARMAN: Okay. The CSAC, Community Services Advisory Commission, Fountain Hills Leadership Academy -- those are all in the agenda. I don't know if anybody else has some suggestions as well, while we're doing all the other things that we're doing, for organizations that might want to come in and brief us. I'm all ears. KEEFE: I have a topic to propose. GARMAN: Jill. KEEFE: Considering what a big topic the roads maintenance is, I'd like to get to some ground truth and just have a level set from the town on what is the scope of work, what's the size of the problem, what's been done, what's -- I know plenty has been accomplished, so what progress has been made thus far and what still remains that's funded and what remains that's not funded. GARMAN: What a -- I didn't want to volunteer you, Bernie. KEEFE: What, did I just say something bad? GARMAN: No, no. Bernie's on the -- go ahead. HOENLE: I'm part of the Citizen Committee -- KEEFE: Okay. HOENLE: -- that took a look at all the data, past and present, and then came up with a solution and presented it to the council. And right now, it just sits at the funding stage. I think there's -- I'm not going to speak for the council, but it seemed like there was an understanding of the issue and somewhat of a way ahead, but not of a way to fund it. So -- GARMAN: Yeah. I was just waiting on him to speak up. I didn't want to speak for him. But before -- is that possibility that that volunteer group that, you know, already gave their recommendations to the council could also talk to us? Page 21 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING GOODWIN: I don't see why not. And certainly, we could reach out. It's a pretty robust group. Bernie knows. But I think that they would be happy to do that. I am going to kind of asterisk it with the idea that one of the other many meetings we have in November, on November 16, is a work study session with the council on roads and what is the next step. That truly just got put on the agenda this week. So November 16th, it happens to be a Thursday. It's scheduled for Thursday afternoon. So where the council can start discussing that and what they would like to do and what next steps look like. So that is a very timely ask, Jill. We can certainly reach out to the committee -- the roads committee to say, you know, come back, but we may have even more -- we may have more data at that point or more information that's even further -- more relevant at that point, so after that work study session as well. KEEFE: Good. And understand where I'm coming from, this is to equip us with knowledge in preparation for the work that we're going to do to reboot the plan. I just want to make sure we all have -- GOODWIN: Oh, yeah. KEEFE: -- some ground truth understanding. GOODWIN: Absolutely. KEEFE: Okay. GOODWIN: I don't think that that's a hard ask at all. KEEFE: Okay. Great. GOODWIN: I mean, I think that the more discussion there is and more understanding of what's what, what is, what is yet to be is always helpful. So I don't think that's a bad thing at all. I just think after the 16th, we may have even more direction from council too. KEEFE: Great. HOENLE: Do you have the data? GARMAN: I think that's a great topic, and it's for educational, you know, purposes. The higher understanding that we have really gives us the ability then have a better plan in Page 22 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING the future. So that's what it boils down to. Great topic. I wrote it down and I know one of the members, so we'll be reaching out for that. Any other suggestions? Phil? SVEUM: I know there's somewhat resistance -- some resistance to having a retreat with council and Planning Commission, but those two policymaking bodies are so important, in my thinking, anyway, regarding any future plans that I think it would be helpful to have informal discussions, just idea planning or idea generating ups, you know, positives and negatives about, you know, this -- this idea or that idea. I know I'm sure that most of the council members have their own ideas of what they'd like to see changed and remain the same, as well as Planning Commission people. And I'm not sure what kind of forum that can take place, but I think that will help us, anyway, create a community event of the workshops, if we have some things that will lead to topics that are of importance to the people that are making the policy. GARMAN: Right. I know that the agenda for their retreats are always pretty full as well. So it was really two openings where I've seen in the past, except for, you know, putting kind of individual interactions aside. But as a group, there's either we'll give an update to the full council, one of their regular meetings, or we could be put on the agenda at one of their retreats. Or -- right? And that's been difficult because they're really packed. GOODWIN: A couple of ways to think about it is -- so we generally do -- we're actually going to do a mini retreat next week, which is -- it's just a half day, and it's really intended to give staff some guidance as we head into the budget process. And then they do a full budget retreat generally in February. And yes, it is always far more things on there than we can actually get through. We -- I feel like we always are kind of rushed in that agenda. That being said, I think what you actually may be looking for in that is really a workshop. A workshop is intended to be that discussion back and forth dialog, which is -- and I'm going to say this -- it's going to sound kind of bad, but that's not what I mean. There's Page 23 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING no public interaction, i.e. there's no public comment; there's not this formality of that. It's designed to be about one topic. So for instance, the roads we're having a workshop on; it's -- we're bringing in the different presenters; we're bringing in the different expert groups, the community groups, and talking about one specific subject. So what I'm hearing is you're saying, hey, it would be great to have council members as well as PNZ and SPEC together in a workshop setting to where there can be discussion about -- SVEUM: Housing, for example. GOODWIN: And usually it's just sort of -- or it's about planning for the next strategic plan -- pros, cons, goods, bads, what's working, what's not, what do you want to see. And so this is the first I've heard of it. I'd have to kind of vet how that would work and what that would look like -- SVEUM: Yeah. GOODWIN: -- and kind of get some more background on it. But that's what I'm -- that's -- am I understanding that right? SVEUM: Yes. GOODWIN: Okay. SVEUM: And I think if it maybe there's one, two, or three topics at the most the ones that are most important to them. Because that, I believe, would give us more direction to make this as worthwhile as possible. GOODWIN: Gotcha. GARMAN: And it is, you know -- last year we did kind of education and we had people come and talk to us. This year we're doing a little bit of both. We're looking at implementation, we're kind of looking at education, and we're also working on kind of the strategic pillars of the next plan, which is still several years down the road. So -- so we need to bring something -- in other words, I was going to say -- it helps stimulate conversation when we bring something to the council as well. So it's like this is what we've done so far. What do you think about that? You know? And then they talk about their favorite projects -- Page 24 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING SVEUM: Sure. GARMAN: -- or they talk about things that are important to them, just like you said. SVEUM: I think it's fine for us to bring things to them, but it might be as beneficial for them to bring things to us that will make sure that we're going down the right path. Not that we -- not that we'll create the report that will be used by councils going forward, but I think I'd just like to have some more dialog on opinions of policymakers. Again, that's just the way my own brain works. KEEFE: If I could pile on to that, Phil. May I? Sorry. I realized I was already talking before. -- GARMAN: Jill, would you like to speak? KEEFE: Yes, I would. Thank you. I'd pile on to that to say, I'd like the perspective of the staff heads, the department heads that live with this plan and try to execute against it. I know they have insight. And if we could give them a construct to put that forward and make sure they know they're heard, I think that would be valuable. BECK: Good point. GARMAN: Okay. Good discussion. I will say that the good thing -- this plan is a ten-year plan that's updated every five years. So that usually encapsulates more than one -- I was going to say several, but I'm trying to do math in public -- elections. So the environment changes, which can be a good thing. You know, it's up and down, and we're hitting those wave tops. So absolutely. We did talk once about the town staff has a routine kind of meeting. And if, you know, parts of the commission, all the commission can be part of that, you know, to make sure that they know us and that we're hearing kind of -- we'd be on the agenda for one of those meetings. I don't know how that would work out. We've never done that before. But that's an opportunity where they're all together because -- and I know your agenda is really full for that, but if we schedule something way out in the future, that might be a good avenue for us to interact. GOODWIN: Sure. That's certainly an option. Page 25 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING GARMAN: All right. Thanks. I don't see the lights to my right, to my left. It's good. Okay. So that was -- any other future agenda topics? I'm writing all those down. Remember, I don't have one hundred percent hit rate, as you all have realized over time, on the agenda. But I do work on them. Okay. I've interspersed my comments. We're going to move down to agenda item 8, which is comments from the chair. I've put out my comments throughout the meeting. I think we've talked about the agenda coming up. We've talked about the work groups, which I wanted to make sure and put out. One other thing I want to make sure we talk about is filling the seat. I think we're going to talk about that. Was it Angela or -- were you -- what's the process -- or is there a timeline for filling Cynthia's (ph.) seat? GOODWIN: Yep. Angela, do you want to talk about it? Or you want me to? GARMAN: Broadly speaking. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: I am happy to talk about it as well. And you chime in, Rachael. Okay. Yesterday, the council subcommittee had interviews for the seat that unfortunately was vacated by Commissioner Magazine. So on that note, it appears we will have the seat filled in time for the November 29th meeting. They have made their recommendations for appointment that will be given to the mayor that I shared with the town clerk, and she will be making that announcement at the November 21st meeting. So unfortunately, I cannot say who, but at this time, it's good to know that I can tell you that, yes, the seat is filled. We had very, very good applicants, so we're very pleased with that. And we should be able to add that to our agenda item, new commissioner for November 29th. GARMAN: That's a good update. Thanks. I'm glad I remembered that on the list. That's good. So that person can come in, go to one meeting, get their feet wet a little bit, and then come back in January ready to go. Okay. Next meeting date. We talked about that November 29th at 15 -- I was going to say 1500 -- 3 p.m. in the afternoon. Page 26 of 27 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS OCTOBER 25, 2023 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING YAllETTA: 1500 is not wrong. GARMAN: Well, that's just where -- you know, that's the way I think. So 1500 -- 3 p.m. on November 29th, it's in the afternoon. After that then at 1700 or 5 o'clock is going to be the next -- is the meeting which is the public outreach and open house. So we can all stay for that as well. Okay. Before we talk about adjournment, anything -- any other topics anybody wanted to discuss? Okay. Do I have any motions about adjournment of the meeting? YAllETTA: I move to adjourn. GARMAN: Do I hear a second? Does anybody want to second? HOENLE: Second. GARMAN: I hear second. Thanks, Bernie. Any discussions about the meeting that -- any comments? Any discussions so far? No. Okay. All in favor of adjournment, say aye. YAZZETTA: Aye. KEEFE: Aye. BECK: Aye. GARMAN: All opposed, say nay. All right. The ayes have it. We are adjourned for today. Thank you all very much. We'll see you on the 29th. BECK: Goodbye, folks. We'll see you next month. GARMAN: Thanks, Kevin. Page 27 of 27 TO OF ' OUNT .Q HILLS P ' rick Garman, Chairman ATTEST AND PREPARED BY: Angela Padgett -Es u, Executive Assistant CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Regular Meeting held by the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission of Fountain Hills in the Town Hall Council Chambers on the 25th day of October 2023. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present. D this 29th Day of f)JovemVer 2023. -Angela Paigett- spiritu, Executive Assistant