HomeMy WebLinkAboutAGENDApacket__06-20-23_0122_482
NOTICE OF MEETING
REGULAR MEETING
FOUNTAIN HILLS TOWN COUNCIL
Mayor Ginny Dickey
Vice Mayor Peggy McMahon
Councilmember Sharron Grzybowski
Councilmember Hannah Toth
Councilmember Gerry Friedel
Councilmember Brenda J. Kalivianakis
Councilmember Allen Skillicorn
TIME:5:30 P.M. – REGULAR MEETING
WHEN:TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 2023
WHERE:
FOUNTAIN HILLS COUNCIL CHAMBERS
16705 E. AVENUE OF THE FOUNTAINS, FOUNTAIN HILLS, AZ
Councilmembers of the Town of Fountain Hills will attend either in person or by telephone conference
call; a quorum of the Town’s various Commission, Committee or Board members may be in attendance
at the Council meeting.
Notice is hereby given that pursuant to A.R.S. §1-602.A.9, subject to certain specified statutory
exceptions, parents have a right to consent before the State or any of its political subdivisions make a
video or audio recording of a minor child. Meetings of the Town Council are audio and/or video
recorded and, as a result, proceedings in which children are present may be subject to such recording.
Parents, in order to exercise their rights may either file written consent with the Town Clerk to such
recording, or take personal action to ensure that their child or children are not present when a
recording may be made. If a child is present at the time a recording is made, the Town will assume that
the rights afforded parents pursuant to A.R.S. §1-602.A.9 have been waived.
REQUEST TO COMMENT
The public is welcome to participate in Council meetings.
TO SPEAK TO AN AGENDA ITEM, please complete a Request to Comment card, located in the back of the Council
Chambers, and hand it to the Town Clerk prior to discussion of that item, if possible. Include the agenda item on which
you wish to comment. Speakers will be allowed three contiguous minutes to address the Council. Verbal comments
should be directed through the Presiding Officer and not to individual Councilmembers.
TO COMMENT ON AN AGENDA ITEM IN WRITING ONLY, please complete a Request to Comment card, indicating it is a
written comment, and check the box on whether you are FOR or AGAINST and agenda item, and hand it to the Town
Clerk prior to discussion, if possible.
TO COMMENT IN WRITING ONLINE: Please feel free to provide your comments by visiting
https://www.fountainhillsaz.gov/publiccomment and SUBMIT a Public Comment Card by 3:00 PM on the day of the
meeting . These comments will be shared with the Town Council.
Town Council Regular Meeting of June 20, 2023 2
NOTICE OF OPTION TO RECESS INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION
Pursuant to A.R.S. §38-431.02, notice is hereby given to the members of the Town Council, and to the general public, that at
this meeting, the Town Council may vote to go into executive session, which will not be open to the public, for legal advice
and discussion with the Town's attorneys for legal advice on any item listed on the following agenda, pursuant to A.R.S.
§38-431.03(A)(3).
1.CALL TO ORDER AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE – Mayor Dickey
2.INVOCATION - Stephen Gay, Fountain Hills Democratic Club, and Former Airline Pilot
3.ROLL CALL – Mayor Dickey
4.STATEMENT OF PARTICIPATION
5.REPORTS BY MAYOR, COUNCILMEMBERS AND TOWN MANAGER
A.PROCLAMATION: Designation of July as Park and Recreation Month.
B.PROCLAMATION: Designation of August 2, 2023, as Professional Engineer's Day.
C.PROCLAMATION: Designation of June 23, 2023 as Coast Guard Auxiliary Day
6.PRESENTATIONS
7.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. At the
conclusion of the Call to the Public, individual councilmembers may (i) respond to criticism, (ii) ask staff to
review a matter, or (iii) ask that the matter be placed on a future Council agenda.
8.CONSENT AGENDA ITEMS
All items listed on the Consent Agenda are considered to be routine, noncontroversial matters and will be
enacted by one motion of the Council. All motions and subsequent approvals of consent items will include all
recommended staff stipulations unless otherwise stated. There will be no separate discussion of these items
unless a councilmember or member of the public so requests. If a councilmember or member of the public
wishes to discuss an item on the Consent Agenda, he/she may request so prior to the motion to accept the
Consent Agenda or with notification to the Town Manager or Mayor prior to the date of the meeting for
Town Council Regular Meeting of June 20, 2023 3
Consent Agenda or with notification to the Town Manager or Mayor prior to the date of the meeting for
which the item was scheduled. The items will be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered in its
normal sequence on the agenda.
A.CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of the minutes for the Regular
Meeting of May 2, 2023, and May 16, 2023.
B.CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approving staff to seek and apply for grants
from the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG)
C.CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Annual report on the implementation of the
Fountain Hills General Plan 2020.
D.CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Resolution 2023-24, approving the
Intergovernmental Agreement renewal with the Regional Public Transit Authority - Valley
Metro, relating to the RideChoice Transportation Services program and the Route 515 bus
service in Fountain Hills.
9.REGULAR AGENDA
A.CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approving the Fourth Amendment to
Cooperative Purchase Agreement C2020-065 with M. R. Tanner Development and
Construction, Inc.
B.CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE DIRECTION: Town Council will discuss issues surrounding
homelessness and provide direction to staff.
Causes of homelessness.
Local, regional, and state statistics on homelessness.
Ongoing efforts at the state and regional levels to address homelessness.
The Town’s participation in and funding of state and regional efforts and
partnership with community non-profits.
Crime rates generally, including trespassing, loitering, and similar crimes, in
Fountain Hills and as compared to other Valley communities.
The Town's current ordinances in place and actions taken to address and abate
homelessness.
The Town's homeless population.
Enforcement efforts to mitigate homelessness in Fountain Hills.
Legal and practical limitations regarding homelessness.
Potential strategic initiatives, changes to local ordinances, and changes to state
law to further address and abate homelessness in Fountain Hills.
C.CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Review and provide direction to staff on sign
code enforcement.
D.PUBLIC HEARING, CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Zone Change for a
Town Council Regular Meeting of June 20, 2023 4
D.PUBLIC HEARING, CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Zone Change for a
dual-zoned parcel from R1-35H and OSR to a uniformly zoned R1-35H parcel, located at
16134 E. Tombstone Ave. in Firerock Parcel F, Lot 5A (APN 176-11-069). RZ23-000001
E.CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approving Ordinance 2023-09 amending Town
Code Section 2A - Boards and Commission to change the name of the Historic and Cultural
Advisory Commission.
F.CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Relating to any item included in the League of
Arizona Cities and Towns' weekly Legislative Bulletin(s), or relating to any action proposed
or pending before the State Legislature.
10.COUNCIL DISCUSSION/DIRECTION to the TOWN MANAGER
Item(s) listed below are related only to the propriety of (i) placing such item(s) on a future agenda for action,
or (ii) directing staff to conduct further research and report back to the Council.
11.FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
12.ADJOURNMENT
CERTIFICATE OF POSTING OF NOTICE
The undersigned hereby certifies that a copy of the foregoing notice was duly posted in accordance with the statement filed
by the Town Council with the Town Clerk.
Dated this ______ day of ____________________, 2023.
_____________________________________________
Linda G. Mendenhall, MMC, Town Clerk
The Town of Fountain Hills endeavors to make all public meetings accessible to persons with disabilities. Please call 480-816-5199 (voice)
or 1-800-367-8939 (TDD) 48 hours prior to the meeting to request a reasonable accommodation to participate in the meeting or to obtain
agenda information in large print format. Supporting documentation and staff reports furnished the Council with this agenda are available
for review in the Clerk's Office.
On the day of the Council Meeting, the Council Chamber doors open at 5:15 p.m. for public seating.
Town Council Regular Meeting of June 20, 2023 5
ITEM 5. A.
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
STAFF REPORT
Meeting Date: 06/20/2023 Meeting Type: Town Council Regular Meeting
Agenda Type: Reports Submitting Department: Administration
Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant to Manager, Mayor/Council
Staff Contact Information:
Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language): PROCLAMATION: Designation of July
as Park and Recreation Month.
Staff Summary (Background)
Mayor Dickey will be proclaiming that July be designated as Park and Recreation Month.
Attachments
Proclamation - July as Park and Recreation Month
Form Review
Inbox Reviewed By Date
Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 05/10/2023 02:45 PM
Finance Director David Pock 05/10/2023 02:48 PM
Finance Director David Pock 05/10/2023 02:48 PM
Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 05/10/2023 03:04 PM
Interim Town Manager Rachael Goodwin 05/30/2023 06:16 PM
Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 05/08/2023 09:17 AM
Final Approval Date: 05/30/2023
ITEM 5. B.
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
STAFF REPORT
Meeting Date: 06/20/2023 Meeting Type: Town Council Regular Meeting
Agenda Type: Reports Submitting Department: Administration
Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant to Manager, Mayor/Council
Staff Contact Information:
Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language): PROCLAMATION: Designation
of August 2, 2023, as Professional Engineer's Day.
Staff Summary (Background)
Mayor Dickey will be proclaiming August 2, 2023, as Professional Engineer's Day.
Attachments
Proclamation - Engineer's Day
Form Review
Inbox Reviewed By Date
Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 06/07/2023 11:21 AM
Finance Director David Pock 06/08/2023 06:53 AM
Finance Director David Pock 06/08/2023 06:53 AM
Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 06/08/2023 09:10 AM
Interim Town Manager Rachael Goodwin 06/13/2023 09:57 AM
Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 06/07/2023 10:00 AM
Final Approval Date: 06/13/2023
ITEM 5. C.
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
STAFF REPORT
Meeting Date: 06/20/2023 Meeting Type: Town Council Regular Meeting
Agenda Type: Reports Submitting Department: Administration
Prepared by: Linda Mendenhall, Town Clerk
Staff Contact Information:
Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language): PROCLAMATION: Designation of June
23, 2023 as Coast Guard Auxiliary Day
Staff Summary (Background)
Mayor Dickey will proclaim that June 23, 2023, will be designated Coast Guard Auxiliary Day.
Attachments
Proclamation - Coast Guard Auxiliary Day
Form Review
Inbox Reviewed By Date
Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 06/13/2023 09:04 AM
Finance Director David Pock 06/13/2023 09:17 AM
Finance Director David Pock 06/13/2023 09:17 AM
Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 06/13/2023 09:24 AM
Interim Town Manager Rachael Goodwin 06/13/2023 09:57 AM
Form Started By: Linda Mendenhall Started On: 06/12/2023 04:15 PM
Final Approval Date: 06/13/2023
ITEM 8. A.
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
STAFF REPORT
Meeting Date: 06/20/2023 Meeting Type: Town Council Regular Meeting
Agenda Type: Consent Submitting Department: Administration
Prepared by:
Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language): CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE
ACTION: Approval of the minutes for the Regular Meeting of May 2, 2023, and May 16, 2023.
Staff Summary (Background)
The intent of approving meeting minutes is to ensure an accurate account of the discussion and
action that took place at the meeting for archival purposes. Approved minutes are placed on the
town's website and maintained as permanent records in compliance with state law.
Related Ordinance, Policy or Guiding Principle
N/A
Risk Analysis
N/A
Recommendation(s) by Board(s) or Commission(s)
N/A
Staff Recommendation(s)
Staff recommends approving the minutes of the Regular Meeting of May 2, 2023, and the Regular
Meeting of May 16, 2023.
SUGGESTED MOTION
MOVE to approve the minutes of the Regular Meeting of May 2, 2023, and the Regular Meeting of
May 16, 2023, as presented.
Attachments
Verbatim Transcript
Verbatim Transcript
Form Review
Inbox Reviewed By Date
Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 06/08/2023 04:33 PM
Finance Director David Pock 06/08/2023 04:44 PM
Finance Director David Pock 06/08/2023 04:44 PM
Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 06/08/2023 04:45 PM
Interim Town Manager Rachael Goodwin 06/13/2023 09:57 AM
Form Started By: Linda Mendenhall Started On: 06/08/2023 03:47 PM
Final Approval Date: 06/13/2023
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE FOUNTAIN HILLS TOWN COUNCIL May 2, 2023
A Regular Meeting of the Fountain Hills Town Council was convened at 16705 E. Avenue of the Fountains in open and public session at 5:32 p.m.
Members Present: Mayor Ginny Dickey: Vice Mayor Peggy McMahon; Councilmember Gerry Friedel; Councilmember Sharron Grzybowski: Councilmember Brenda J. Kalivianakis; Councilmember Hannah Toth; Councilmember Allen Skillicorn
Staff Present: Interim Town Manager Rachael Goodwin; Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson; Town Clerk Linda Mendenhall
Audience: Approximately sixty-nine members of the public were present.
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Post-Production File
Town of Fountain Hills
Town Council Meeting Minutes
May 2, 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.
* * * * *
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MAYOR DICKEY: And now we will call our regular order. Please stand, if you chose,
for the pledge and remain standing for the invocation.
ALL: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic
for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Tonight, we have Vicky Derksen, who is the president
of our Fountain Hill's Dark Sky Association.
Hi Vicky.
DERKSEN: Mayor, and council members, and town staff, we are all gathered in this
room for the purpose of doing the business of local government. The goal is to improve
the quality of the community. A responsibility that has been given to you by the citizens
of Fountain Hills. This governing body represents a diverse community, and we embrace
many traditions and demographics, varying religions and nonreligious beliefs, a wide
spectrum of political beliefs, various races and nationalities, young and old and
everything in between, yet we all share this one big, beautiful community called Fountain
Hills.
And although we are all different, we are linked by our common humanity. We share the
goal of making our community the best place that we can. So we unite here today with
that deeply precious goal and common purpose. For that reason, it is incumbent upon
this council to make the best decisions for our community. Wisdom, reason, and
empathy are your tools. They propel cooperation, control the tone of deliberations, and
lead to decisions that are right, not just for today, but also for the months and years ahead.
The end result is a better, more unified community for us and for those who come after
us. This is how we improve the quality of life in Fountain Hills. May this meeting end
with Fountain Hills one step ahead of where it started.
MAYOR DICKEY: Roll call, please, again? We're all here.
[LAUGHTER]
MAYOR DICKEY: This time it will be easier.
MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey?
MAYOR DICKEY: Here. I'm sorry.
MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor McMahon?
Vice Mayor McMahon?
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MCMAHON: Here.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Friedel?
FRIEDEL: Present.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Grzybowski?
GRZYBOWSKI: Present.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Kalivianakis?
KALIVIANAKIS: Present.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Toth?
TOTH: Present.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Skillicorn?
SKILLICORN: Here.
MENDENHALL: Anyone wishing to address the council regarding items listed on the
agenda or under calls to public should fill out a request or comment card located in the
back of the council chambers and hand it to the town clerk prior to consideration of that
agenda item. When your name is called, please approach the podium, speak into the
microphone, and state your name for the public record. Please limit your comments to
three minutes. It is the policy of the mayor and council to not comment on items brought
forth under call to the public. However, staff can be directed to revert back to the council
at a future date or to schedule items raised for a future council agenda.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. I guess she's okay. So we start as always with our
reports from mayor councilmembers and the town manager. Town Manager, Rachel, do
you have anything?
GOODWIN: I do. I just have one update for our council. I know we've had a lot of
public engagement recently via email, a lot of feedback about a lot of different things
going on in our community. One of these items was about off leash dogs in our parks. I
think a number of you have gotten feedback about that.
So I did want to share that after receiving the concerns, we had a meeting with our park
staff, our code enforcement, and the MCSO, and we've launched an awareness campaign
in our parks for the next several weeks where we're going to educate our pet owners
about our leash laws and the responsibilities of pet ownership. And while we do have
assistance from Maricopa County Animal Control, it's clear that we need to have a local
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daily canvass at this point. So our staff have taken that on and with this joint effort, we
will be recording data and specifically engaging with the residents who do have off leash
animals.
Our goal is obviously to increase awareness of our laws, as well as visibility and overall
compliance. And I'd like to thank the staff that came together to do this. This is a unique
venture where we have a number of different departments helping accomplish this and
then we will be back to update Council with any outcomes or additional findings. That's
everything I've got.
TOTH: I just want to give a shout out because of a community project that was this
Saturday by our Four Peaks Rotary Club and Kiwanis Clubs to paint 21 classrooms over
at the, well, currently Fountain Hill's High School, soon to be Fountain Hill's Middle
School campus. Those 21 classrooms were a lot for us to bite off to try and get done in
one day and this community rallied around it, and we got enough volunteers to get it done
in under two hours, which was absolutely incredible. I cried about it on the way home;
I'm going to be honest. I just was swelling with pride for my community, so I wanted to
share that pride. And thank you to all of you. I also want to shout out councilman
Friedel and councilman Skillicorn for coming as well as everyone else. I would list all of
your names if I could, but I feel like you'd be mad at me for being here a while. But
thank you for being here -- being there on Saturday.
GRZYBOWSKI: I attended the Phoenix East Valley Economic Vitality Committee
meeting. There was one league of Arizona legislative update call.
Last week I also went to the Arizona Association for Economic Development's Spring
Conference, and that's generally for economic development staffers, but it was interesting
to go as a councilperson to hear the presentations made specifically for staff.
This morning I virtually attended the Affordable Housing meeting. That's Affordable
with a capital A.
One of the interesting programs that they discussed was affordable housing for seniors
specifically over the age of 62. It was really very interesting and the project that this
particular company worked on, when we picture that kind of thing in our head, we have a
tendency to picture your traditional mobile home park, but these were actually what's I'm
calling little houses. I live in a little house myself, so it was like the size that I live in
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now and it was just -- it was an amazing project. It was kind of a cool call to be on.
Thank you.
FRIEDEL: Thanks, Mayor. I did attend the domestic violence regional meeting where
their focus this meeting was on teen dating violence. And we'll have more to report on
that at our next meeting.
And I did attend the community painting party. I think there were over 150 people that
showed up for that. So again, kudos to the people that got that organized and I think we
saved the district, up to that point it was $90,000, but they figured that day was another
$40,000 in expenses. So that's money that can be used for other projects around the
schools.
This Saturday, there's going to be Paws on the Avenue in front of Classy Jazzy. So if
you're around between 11 and 2, make sure you get down there.
And then Mayor, I'd like to give a shout out to Elbert Kursadak (ph.). This is a resident
in town that somebody dumped a big pile of garbage behind the Wells Fargo Bank in
town here, and this gentleman on his own accord went out there and cleaned up that mess
and got it all cleaned up for the town. So just a shout out to him. Thanks for doing that.
We really appreciated that. Thank you.
MCMAHON: Good evening, everybody. I attended our Pedestrian Traffic and Safety
Committee meeting and was updated on the sidewalks and our traffic and it's moving
along.
Also, I attended the mayor's prayer breakfast and that was in Chandler and it was on
youth and mental health awareness, which was a direct correlation to our Cares Forum
that we had last week, which was on teen mental health and the consequences of social
media, overusing it. And I have to say thank you both, and the committee, because that
was very very successful. There was a lot of teens in attendance and adults. And a lot of
information that was given out by the sponsors and tables in the back of the room. So
that was really great.
I also attended the Valley Metro board meeting and work session, an update on
Proposition 400 and the funding for our streets and infrastructure across our county.
Also, we had the council's joint chamber meeting, and I thought that went really really
well. It was nice to sit up here, talk to everybody, and emphasize the transparency, the
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collaboration we have and partnerships we've had for many many businesses' events in
town. So that was great.
I also attended the United Way breakfast on homelessness and in partnership with the
stakeholders to learn more about what they are doing to address the increase in
homelessness in Phoenix. And today, I also attended a MAG (ph.) webinar on
homelessness. And it was really interesting to learn how Houston has solved a lot of
their homelessness by providing housing. And they have decreased their homelessness
by more than half because they collaborate with businesses and other stakeholders in the
community to work together, to have communication and trust, to build housing and to
find housing for homeless people, which has solved a lot of the problems. It was really a
interesting conversation. So thank you.
KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Thanks everybody for coming out tonight
and for all of you on Cox channel 11 and YouTube. Really appreciate it. Again, this is a
great turnout and it's very inspiring.
A week ago Wednesday, I went to the Pedestrian Traffic Safety Committee with the
Mayor and Vice Mayor. Safety is job 1 in Fountain Hills. The Mayor, Vice Mayor,
myself, along with the Town Engineer, and other selected staff went through a lot of the
complaints -- I wouldn't say complaints -- the feedback that we've gotten from the town
on traffic safety, sidewalks, pedestrian safety, and we literally go through those one by
one to address them to make sure that all of your concerns are being addressed. Some
people don't know that, but these things don't go off of ether. They get taken care of by
our town. Again, like the Vice Mayor said, reduce the speed of motor vehicles, reduce
pedestrian risks at street crossings, provide sidewalks and separate from vehicle traffic,
improve awareness and visibility, and improve pedestrian motorist's behaviors. That's
really important and I'm really happy to be in that committee.
Friday, I did the Meal on Wheels, again, which was very satisfying, and I also did the
Munch and Music. And that was the last one for this year, but it's a free program. This
was done by the Fountain Hills' Saxophone Quartet and it's free to the public. There was
probably 200 people there and it's just a wonderful thing that our town provides to the
community center.
The following Tuesday, I did go to Amanda's Economic Downtown briefing. Thanks,
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Amanda, for that. We got to exchange a lot of good ideas. It was very productive. Later
that afternoon, I too attended the Joint Mayor Council and Chamber's session to establish
better communication, share ideas, and improve the business climate in Fountain Hills.
The chamber's staff were friendly, professional, and very informative. I'm looking
forward to making this a regular part of our meeting schedule, maybe on a quarterly
basis.
Last Friday, this was probably the highlight of my two weeks, the Salt River Project
(SRP), invited myself and other officials to go on a helicopter tour of their water shed and
of Arizona. And so although I do suffer with motion sickness and I am afraid of heights,
it was too good to pass up. So they took us up, I was with Solange Whitehead, she's in
the city council for the city of Scottsdale with many other of my colleagues. And we had
just a spectacular tour. We saw the watershed. In case people don't know, Salt River
Project encompasses two separate entities. The Salt River Project Agricultural
Improvement and Power District, an agency of the State of Arizona that serves the
electric utility and the Phoenix metropolitan area and the Salt River Water Users
Association, a competitive cooperation that serves as the primary water provider for
much of Arizona. So they've got a lot on their plate.
Lastly, earlier today, I attended, by Zoom, because I had to be at this meeting tonight, the
League of Arizona Cities and Towns Public Safety, Military Affairs, and Courts Policy
Committee meeting. This is done by the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, and it
provides an important link between the 90 incorporated cities and the towns in Arizona.
There was around 25 people from cities and towns from all over our state. They were all
mayors, vice mayors, and council people that were there to provide direction for possible
future legislation or to just table ideas. So it's an exchange of ideas for the betterment of
our whole state. The policy committee framework was established to give city and town
elected officials and its staff the opportunity to provide direction and expertise to the
league.
So anyway, that's what I did today. It was very rewarding. That's been my two weeks.
And thanks for coming, again and God bless.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Counselmember?
SKILLICORN: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Well the paint is finally off my hands so
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we'll -- don't have to go into that. I did attend a CAP seminar. It's the Central Arizona
Project. And that is the water canal system from the Colorado River fastening how
federal policy dictates that and how it affects Arizona and our water supply. A little bit
different with the SRP, because that is our own water shed, not the federal government's
water shed.
So I did that and actually I did one, because it was very brief, about 35 minutes ago,
when I let the varsity baseball game, we were up 7-1 and that was the end of the fourth
inning, and we were doing a really good job. So -- and that's a playoff game, so go
Falcons.
MAYOR DICKEY: Great. Thank you so much. So this is the part of the agenda now
that we do the proclamations. I'm doing a proclamation -- I was asked for Jewish-
American Heritage Month. Nobody could come to accept it, so I will read it from here.
From Combat Antisemitism, whereas on April 20th, 2006, after resolutions passed
unanimously in both houses of congress, President George Bush proclaimed that May
would be Jewish-American Heritage Community Month to recognize more than 350 year
history of Jewish contributions to America and culture and whereas the proclamation
read:
"The Jewish-American experience is a story of faith fortitude, and progress. It's a
quintessential American experience, one that is connected to key tenants of American
identity, including our nation's commitments to freedom, religion, and conscious.
This month we honor Jewish-Americans, past and present who have inextricably woven
their experiences and their accomplishments into the fabric of our national identity.
Whereas throughout our history, American Jews have made major contributions to
society in culture and science, medicine, the arts, business, sports, technology,
government, and military service.
And whereas, as we celebrate the rich heritage of the Jewish-American community, we
recognize that American Jews have joined with all faiths to work for "Tikkun Olam",
which is "repair of the world", remembering the lessons of the holocaust and to play
leading roles in movements for civil rights and social justice.
And whereas the Anti-Defamation League found citizens of antisemitism -- I'm sorry,
found instances of antisemitism in America continuing".
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Now, therefore, I, Ginny Dickey, Mayor, do declare the month of May to be Jewish-
American Heritage Month in the town of Fountain Hills and encourage all to celebrate
the history and contributions of Jewish Americans to our culture and society. We will
scan this and send this off to that organization.
I went to MAG as always, our MAG executive board, I mean, the elections are happening
for the executive board so I was asked to serve on the nominating committee of that so I'll
be doing that throughout this month. We met with some sister city's folks for some -- to
discuss future projects. Did some of the things that the folks up here spoke about. Met
with members of the Avenue Merchants Association and the staff. Met with some
neighbors who I see here, about the potential rezone with the Vice Mayor.
And last, I had a fun chance to sing again, with my sister, after all these years, where the
theater announced their upcoming season. So that was just a fun -- reminded me of the
good old times.
So anyway, our next item, we will have a presentation. So I understand -- so this is a
recognition of a Golden Rules Heroes Recipient, and her name is Charlotte Kasabuski,
and she lived here, but she's no longer here in town.
So Dr. Albert Celoza, who is from the Interfaith Movement, is going to present this. He
will say a few words, I'll come down, and I will accept it on her behalf.
But I also wanted to mention that Councilwoman Grzybowski had gone last year, I think
to the capital, and she represented us, but the whole reason we're a Golden Rule
Community is because it was a project of Mayor's Youth Council a couple of years ago.
So I'll come down and ask you to say some words. Thank you.
CELOZA: Good evening, Madam Mayor. My name is Albert Celoza, I am the executive
director of the Arizona Interfaith Movement. 2 years ago -- 20 years ago, Governor Jan
Brewer, proclaimed Arizona as a Golden Rule state. Two years ago, thanks to you, you
proclaimed Fountain Hills a Golden Rule town.
Now, I would like to emphasize that this is so important to all of us. Oh, I would like to
address it and I will not fully address it, even though I can speak for a long time. I would
like to make a point that the golden rule is due to others what you would not be done unto
you, and I know all of you know about this. And so the golden rule is something that is
present in all the religions of the world. And so I have so much appreciation for all that
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you do, Madam Mayor, and the -- and the town of Fountain Hills. One thing that I would
like to share with you is I write articles in the Arizona Republic. I heard one report
saying that there was this man who helped clean up the garbage. If I have heard that
news, I will write about it, because what -- what -- what do we want to happen? We want
to have kindness, civility, empathy, and respect. That's what we want to promote. So
Madam Mayor, it is my distinct honor to present to you the certificate of Golden Rule
Hero. And so I hope that in the coming months, we will partner together, and I will get
news from Ms. Mendenhall to you, members of the city council, all the good things
happening here in Fountain Hills, and I will write about them. Actually, the city of
Surprise had been covered twice already. So we need for Fountain Hills to do the same.
So that's all I'm going to say. And so I would love to hear your your response.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Well why don't we have a photo here and then I'll thank
you for your acknowledgement.
CELOZA: Thank you for that. And I would like to post this photo on our website and
who knows, this might land in the Arizona Republic. Okay. I am so honored to be here.
Thank you very much and thanks to all of you.
MAYOR DICKEY: And not for us, for Charlotte, and we'll get that. Thank you for this.
CELOZA: Okay. Bye bye to everybody.
MAYOR DICKEY: So Charlotte, wherever you are, this is for you. We'll get this to
you. Thank you so much.
Our next item is, let's see, call to the public. I'll ask you to please speak into the
microphone. I just keep hearing that people aren't hearing, so just get it right up there and
we would appreciate that so much. Our first speaker cards. Yes, thank you.
MENDENHALL: Our first speaker, is Crystal Cavanaugh.
CAVANAUGH: Also known as a frequent flyer, according to the letters to the editor.
The rezoning of the R 10 Parcel at Mountainside and Palisades was publicly noticed in
the newspaper, posted on zoning signs, and neighbors were alerted by the town that it
would be on tonight's agenda.
Then, at the 11th hour, it was cancelled and delayed for over a month until June 6th.
Needless to say, this caused much angst within the Mountainside Lost Hills community.
The neighbors were also upset to learn that there were private individual meetings
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between the developer and one or more council members, which although allowed, had
an outside appearance of impropriety, considering the item was then abruptly pulled from
tonight's agenda at the developer's request. Who here made the decision to pull it from
the agenda and for what possible reason?
The developer's reps had already presented on at least two public occasions. How could
they not be ready? Or were they just not ready to be not -- to be denied a rezone, and the
decision to deny rezoning is the right one.
Once again, this boils down to the issue of land use. We need to be able to depend on our
current zoning unless there's a significant and compelling reason to rezone. That is
certainly not the case for the Mountainside Neighborhood, of course, there are the usual
threats that without a rezone, all 70 units will be placed on the R 4 parcel, resulting in
higher density, taller, smaller, 500 square foot units. However, a rezone will actually
guarantee 80 high density apartments in the Lost Hills single family neighborhood.
Without a rezone, there is a chance the multifamily R 4 parcel can't support the stated 70
units, especially if the town officials hold firm and do not waive requirements with
regards to washes, slope, or cut and fill. A smaller number of multifamily units on the R
4 would be much more manageable for this neighborhood to absorb.
In the past, a local realtor marketed this parcel as being appropriate for 30 units. Realtors
usually maximize and not minimize potential. The neighborhood overwhelmingly does
not support rezoning, which would guarantee the higher number of apartments being
spread over two parcels and while the project directly and negatively affects
Mountainside Lost Hills the most, a rezone and influx of people affects all of us; since
many of us travel this area daily.
A rezone sets and unwanted precedent for future rezoning, which is not in the best
interest of other existing neighborhoods. The issue should have remained on the agenda
tonight for the council to vote yes, or no, or to continue. The developer could have
requested a delay here, publicly and out in the open, with comments from the community.
Because of the mismanagement of this, you are being served formally with one notice
from one neighbor who thinks procedures have been violated. You also have received 75
others in your inbox. The council needs to explain its actions, how those actions came to
be, and immediately place this rezoning issue on the very next council agenda on May
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16th. Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: I don't know, Aaron. No, no. If that happens again, we're going to
recess and we'll be here all night. No applause, please, on any speakers.
Aaron, is that -- are we able to say anything about this supposed impropriety?
ARNSON: It -- yes, at the -- at -- Mayor and Council you can respond to criticism with
respect to this -- with respect to the item. Typically --
MAYOR DICKEY: Well, I mean, --
ARNSON: Typically -- go ahead.
MAYOR DICKEY: Well, I mean, would you please respond to the legal, the legality of
somebody who is now a property owner in our community, not wanting to perhaps go
any further or does or doesn't? I mean, it's not for us to say.
ARNSON: Oh, I see. Yeah, Mayor. Mayor and Council. I mean, that -- that I don't
actually know how it came to be, but that being said, items are moved from the agenda
whether there zoning or otherwise, regularly. So it's not outside of the realm of what's
happened in the past and what I assume will happen in the future.
If an applicant isn't prepared to move forward, you can't haul them here and and make
them -- make them present. So I don't know if that answers your question, Mayor, but
that's the situation we're in.
FRIEDEL: I have a question Aaron, but should I wait till the end of the call of the public
to ask it?
ARNSON: If -- if you -- if you want to ask it now, go for it.
FRIEDEL: Okay. Is it possible for the town staff to reach out to the applicant and see if
he's interested in moving this on to the next next agenda?
ARNSON: I'll -- I don't know if Mr. Wesley's here -- Director Wesley's here tonight. I'll
defer to him. I -- I don't know. I've had no conversations with the applicant.
WESLEY: Mayor, Councilmember, we could certainly do that when they did come to us
and -- and request a continuance, they did specifically request the -- the June meeting. At
this point, Aaron, I'd come back to a question about notice because we're not specifically
continuing it. We're going to have to notice it and it's really too late to notice for the May
16th meeting at this point. I would think that would be our -- our legal challenge.
SKILLICORN: Is that really the case though if it's been noticed through planning and
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zoning, like what, a month two months ago? So it's been properly noticed.
WESLEY: Specific meeting date has not been noticed for the May 16th meeting at this
point, and so while the public obviously knows about it, to meet all the legal
requirements, we are going to have to actually re-notice it whether it's the May 16th or
the June 6th or June 20th, whatever meeting, at this point to meet legal notice
requirements of 15 days. We couldn't do that for the May 16th meeting.
ARNSON: And I'll agree with Director Wesley that -- one way or another, whether it's a
P&Z hearing or a council hearing, the specific date of the meeting has to be noticed. So
that's -- that's what ARS 9, somewhere in 9-4 something requires, yeah.
MAYOR DICKEY: Because it was lit up. That's all. Yeah, that's okay. Well, basically
the -- I think I mentioned that I met with the -- the neighbors and I was happy to do so.
And I met with the developers too, of course. We have to get as much information as we
can, but again, any -- we have a lot of projects that are on -- that are ongoing and then
they ask for extensions, or they don't come to fruition for one reason or another. So this
is not unusual, and we can't treat someone differently, a property owner, one property
owner, differently in the town, then somebody else. And the agenda was never
publicized with this item on it. So next, please.
MENDENHALL: Doreen DeLucia.
DELUCIA: Good evening. I'm Doreen DeLucia. The meeting was at our home on
Thursday evening with Ginny, Dicky, and Peggy. I'm here because I am upset about how
it went about that the agenda was removed and how we were notified. It was the evening
of the meeting on Thursday that, oh, by the way, the meeting has been postponed. The
developer asked for more time -- I think that the appropriate way would to have been to
keep it on the agenda for this evening and then they asked for a continuance,
postponement, whatever.
The neighborhood is very upset about the way things have been handled. I don't want to
go back over what Crystal had said because everything she said is, again, how we feel.
But the -- the bottom line is -- is that the rezone, it needs to be just the focus of the
rezone. That is the agenda item. It's not about so much of all of what they can and
cannot do just on their property, we are only opposing the rezone of the R 10 lot. I live
directly across the street from there, and it does affect us. And it does affect the whole
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entire neighborhood and community.
The number one thing is traffic. Obviously, it does affect our property values to have
apartments go there. But I think the bottom line on that also is that the town is here to
support the residents. We're the ones who elected you to represent us and to respect our
feelings and our livelihood. And the reason why we moved here -- we all moved here for
peace and quiet. The small-town community and I think we need to uphold what was put
in place many, many years ago in zoning, which is a promise -- a promise that that's the
community that we -- we bought into, that we knew we were going to live at. We've
made choices. If I wanted to live in an area that was congested with apartments and I
wanted that type of life, I would have made that choice. But that's not where I live, and I
think that it would do all of you guys some good to think about how you would feel if
you lived there and what you would be up against with traffic and safety for the children,
for people who walk every single day.
So I think the way that all of this has been handled, should have been handled a different
way. And I think that you need to respect the fact that this is about us, not a developer
that's coming to town and he doesn't live here, he doesn't enjoy our way of life, and we
should become -- we should be put first, not the developer. So I appreciate you listening
and thank you.
MENDENHALL: Next, we have Geri Hughes.
HUGHES: My name is Geri Hughes. I live at the Village of the Town Center. Can you
hear me? Okay. I live at the Village at the Town Center and what my concern is today is
I am representing Bruce and Dee Pearson, who also live at the Village of the Town
Center. They live -- they could not be here today, and they live at unit 1080, which is the
bottom level of the building 27.
Okay. I will read their letter. Mayor Dickey and the Fountain Hills Town Council. My
wife, Dee and I are residents of the Village at Town Center, unit 1080 in building 27.
My -- the building most adversely affected by the relocation of the community garden.
Initially, we were pleased that the relocated community garden would be our neighbor.
At that time, we had no understanding how the relocation would adversely affect our
home. We have three primary concerns. Our view, aesthetically considerations, and to
our safety.
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Before going into detail, we believe that if we had had the opportunity to meet prior to
the construction and that our concerns be considered, we would not be here expressing
our concerns and complaints. You may not have a legal obligation to share the plans, but
if you want to be neighborly, that is good neighbors, you should have first, met with us,
shared your plans, heard and considered our concerns, and if possible, make appropriate
changes. Don't you want to be good neighbors and have our concerns as residents in your
community be considered?
Our view prior to construction, we had a beautiful view of the mountains and landscape.
Now, living in the lower unit, we look up to see cinder block structures and two
unslightly shacks with almost no view of the mountains and landscape. Will you fence
further? Will the fence further inhibit our view? Our upstairs neighbors look down on
the structures, wheelbarrows, and other gardening equipment. How would you like for
this to be your view? It would be a good start if the shacks were moved to allow us to
regain some of our view. The community garden planners did not consider us. Had our
concerns been considered, I'm confident we would have varied. We would have a very
different community garden plan.
Aesthetic considerations. Once the shacks are moved, they, along with the cinder block
structures, need to be painted an attractive color. That's it.
Okay. I also live there. Although it is not adversely impacting my view, I really
understand what Mr. and Mrs. Pearson's concern is. Thank you very much.
MENDENHALL: Next, we have Mick Pierson.
PIERSON: My name is Mick Pierson and I spell it different from Bruce Pearson.
We're -- we're not related. Good afternoon. My name is Mick Pierson and I live at the
Village of Town Center. And our second-floor condo overlooks the garden. And I am
looking forward to its completion. However, I wish the Garden Design Committee
would have asked for our input since we are your immediate neighbors.
At the moment, there is a three-sided cinder block structure for housing garbage cans,
wheelbarrows, wire rolls, and assorted garden tools. At present, there is no plan to
enclose this three-sided structure. Section 5.18 and 5.12 of Fountain Hills Code
addresses the concern of no gate or door for shielding public view of these materials.
Our second-floor patio looks directly into the structure.
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Secondly, the placement of the mulch piles is on caliche soil, which is very nonporous.
During the monsoon season this year, there was a huge puddle that gathered and did not
go anywhere for three days. During a heavy rain, where will the runoff from the mulch
pile go? Has there been an environmental study regarding this scenario? Also, has there
any been any study regarding fire codes for open air mulch piles? Has there been any
study regarding offensive odors coming from this mulch pile?
My neighbors and I wish these concerns could have been addressed prior to the beginning
of the process, because we would have liked to have some input. Thank you very much.
MENDENHALL: Next, we have Jean Caskey.
CASKEY: Hello. And guess where I'm from? I'm an -- a property owner at the Village
at Town Center, a complex that shares a border with the town property which is now
leased or occupied by the newly relocated community garden. I, and the others
represented here, support having a community garden. However, visual, health, safety,
and security issues have been created by the lack of communication the town has had
with us, its immediate neighbors to the mentioned project.
Among the concerns are fences. Why was a Village at Town Center not consulted about
fencing? We share a border. Now there will be two fences back-to-back with 27 inches
in between, and each a different color, style, and height. That is not only visually
unattractive, but it does not allow any room in between the fences to maintain the fences.
And currently, there are a number of invasive and unsightly weeds between the fence --
fences, which need to be removed. So who is responsible for the maintenance? And
when will that be taken care of?
And furthermore, because of the new arrangement of the fencing that has created more
privacy, security, and safety issues for us at the Village at Town Center. Another issue is
the traffic, dust, and the noise. Construction vehicles continually use the area closest to
residential areas, approximately 20 feet from our patios. Why did any of this need to take
place directly in front of us when this, but when the public parking lot could have easily
been utilized for this purpose? Why did a mountain of dirt have to be dumped directly in
front of our condos and remain there for the past four months?
The area in front of the Village of Town Center should not be accessed for construction
or delivery vehicles in the future. Enough is enough. It is not a road. My colleague -- or
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my neighbor has spoken about the compost, cinder blocks. We would like them to be
relocated to another area and there must be some Maricopa County environmental and
solid waste codes that need to be followed with a garden of approximately 130 beds.
After all, this isn't a small plot in someone's backyard.
And lastly, we feel that the town as the landlord, should take more responsibility for the
lack of communication about this project that shares the border with us. We are not, after
all, this is not a private residential property. It is a town property, and we too are
taxpayers who share a border with the town property. Communication is key to being a
good neighbor. We want to be good neighbors. We believe you do too, and it's not too
late to start helping each other. Thank you.
MENDENHALL: Wendy Kelleher.
KELLEHER: And I represent the Board of Directors at the Village of Town Center
Homeowners Association, the town of Fountain Hills owns two parcels that border us.
One large parcel on our west and one on our north. A lot 70 feet wide and 471 feet long,
extending from the Centennial Circle to Verde River Drive. These are public parcels and
taxpayers should have some say in how they are developed.
You've heard tonight and in the past -- past few weeks, our frustration with what
happened because we were not given a voice during the planning stages of the parcel
along our west border, setting a bad precedent. Please know that what happens on both
of these parcels affects not only the five adjacent buildings, but our entire community in
terms of property values, maintenance costs, a mutual quality of life, and we deserve a
right to have a voice in what happens there.
Therefore, we are asking the council tonight to consider the following three solutions to
the problems we now face on our west border. First, cost share a hedge between the
properties to extend from the retaining wall behind building 26 to the southern edge of
our property, El Lago Boulevard. Fountain Hills' cost would be to provide approximately
30 medium-sized bushes or trees. Our cost to plant and provide water, weekly
maintenance. Second cost share, one modified fence extending from the corner of
Centennial Circle all the way to El Lago. We would then remove our existing fence with
both entities maintaining and weeding on either side. Fountain Hills' cost would be to
continue building the fence. Our cost would be to remove the existing fence and then
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maintain the landscaping along the new fence.
And then third, which you've already heard from my colleagues in the Village of Town
Center. Number one, construct a gate across the front of both cinder block structures to
screen the street level. Two, erected a canopy over the top of the structures in order to
screen the overhead view. Three, plant low, fast growing bushes between the properties
and around the structures, and four, paint the shacks aesthetically pleasing in earth tones
so they blend.
The bottom line, Mayor Dickey, Councilman and women, is communication and
cooperation. We are willing to cost share with you and the garden managers to create a
thing of beauty along our borders, but we must have your commitment that you will meet
us halfway. Will you do that? Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah. I know we had that thing about waiting till the end, but can
we just do this? Thanks.
FRIEDEL: I -- I know they're going to be doing some painting out there, but can we look
into these other solutions? Is there something we can do from the town's aspect? Can we
contact the landscape architect and the garden and maybe get a meeting set up so that
maybe we can go over these items?
GOODWIN: I think that would be wise and I will share that we've had a number of
meetings with them, and I know we've reviewed a number of plans. I know Director
Welders been involved as well as Director Wesley, so there's been a number of staff
engaged in this process. My understanding, and I'm not going to hold them, I mean,
when they shared it with us, there was a discussion of gates across the front of the
structures, as well as plantings, and other things to help shield. So I do believe that that is
in the works, but it would be great to make sure that everybody's getting the same
message.
FRIEDEL: And I know they're going to do some painting out there too, so we need to
verify all that and then get back to these people and let them know what the plan is.
GOODWIN: Correct.
FRIEDEL: All right. Thank you.
MENDENHALL: Next, we have Michael Rogala.
ROGALA: Good evening. My name is Michael Rogala. R-O-G-A-L-A. I'm here just to
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make some comments about the homeless. I would like to state my concerns that the --
this -- discussions of the homeless encampments and other homeless issues have been put
off till -- until June. This not only delays meaningful discussions, but has harmful effects
on those who are so disadvantaged due to the rising temperatures and the potential heat-
related illnesses.
There is an easy solution for this problem. Community Bridges Incorporated is a
statewide organization dedicated to the homeless, those with addictions and behavioral
problems. They have been in Arizona for 42 years and have a comprehensive plan for
patients who fall into any of these categories. The plan includes crisis centers, inpatient
detox, inpatient psych assessments for seriously mental ill status, so they can be given a
case manager and housing, medical and psychiatric care. They have residential rehabs
and even have a residential facility for battered women. There is one nearby in Mesa.
All we have to do is provide the person in -- in question with a ride for this assistance. If
the person refuses these services, then it should be up to the hands of the police as to -- to
proceed with this. But the system is in place, and it works. We don't need to reinvent the
wheel and attempt to provide services here.
If anyone has questions, my wife is a physician who works at these facilities and could
attend -- and could not attend tonight and can -- can be contacted if anyone has any
questions or anything that concerns that. She would be glad to help.
MENDENHALL: And next, we have Kimberly Bartman.
BARTMAN: Hello, Mayor and council. I'm Kimberly Bartman, and I've lived in town
over 20 years, and I appreciate you guys all offering your service to our community. I
just -- after hearing about the golden rule, and I guess we've been a golden rule
community for a couple years. I'll leave this very open and not attack anyone personally.
But I've seen a lot of social media posts from certain people, and I know that certain
people do not -- that block some of the -- their constituents from being able to comment
on their social media. And I -- I've seen some really negative things said about the
LGBTQ community and different religions, especially Muslims. And I appreciate -- and
also negative things about people moving here from California that is just really
upsetting. There's people from California that are from -- that are Republicans,
Independents, Libertarians, Democrats.
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We don't need to put down people moving here from California. I think that's -- we're all
from -- a lot of us are from somewhere else. I know Hannah, you're here, you're born and
raised, but a lot of us are here from other places and I really encourage you all, in your
social media, when someone calls out and says something negative about the LGBTQ
community, Muslims, or people from California, that you would speak up and support
everyone in our town. Thank you.
MENDENHALL: That's it for public comment.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thanks very much. We appreciate everything that you've said, and
we'll follow up as we can.
Our -- our next item is our consent agenda. And unless anybody wants something off,
can I get a motion, please?
MCMAHON: Move to approve the consent agenda.
FRIEDEL: Second.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Roll call, please?
MENDENHALL: Council Member Skillicorn?
SKILLICORN: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Toth?
TOTH: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Grzybowski?
GRZYBOWSKI: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Friedel?
FRIEDEL: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Kalivianakis?
KALIVIANAKIS: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor McMahon?
MCMAHON: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey?
MAYOR DICKEY: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Passes unanimously.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Thank you. So our first agenda item is the appointment
of members to towns, boards, and commissions. You can read in our packet what our
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process is. These names have been forwarded to me for appointment as follows.
First, we have P&Z. We have two commissioners, Patrick Dapaah and Scott
Schlossberg, have been reappointed for a full term. For SPAC, which is Strategic Plan
Advisory Commission two commissioners, Geoff Yazzetta and Cynthia Magazine have
been reappointed for full term. For the Community Services Advisory Commission,
Rory Wilson and Craig Rudolphy. And last, we had a vacancy on SPAC and that is
being filled by Phil Sveum. So these were the member -- these were the names that were
forwarded to me and appointed as recommended. Could I get a motion please?
MCMAHON: Motion to approve the committee appointments.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Second, please.
GRZYBOWSKI: Second.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Roll call?
MENDENHALL: Council Member Toth?
TOTH: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Grzybowski?
GRZYBOWSKI: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Friedel?
FRIEDEL: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Kalivianakis?
KALIVIANAKIS: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Skillicorn?
SKILLICORN: No.
MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor McMahon?
MCMAHON: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey?
MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thank you for wanting to serve again and appreciate all your
work on the commissions. Our next item is -- and I, oh and thank you to the
subcommittees as well for making the recommendations.
Our next item is about abandoning an easement on Leo.
JANOVER: Good evening, Mayor and Council. Nice to be here. And I'm Dave
Janover, your town engineer, and I'm here to talk about the request for an easement
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abandonment at 9048 North Leo Drive. First, I just want to say this is kind of an
opportunity for us to kind of discuss what easements are. It's a kind of an opportunity for
a very brief, just a very brief lesson on what easements are -- the -- just to define them,
what the uses are of easements, how they limit a property for owners, and then an
overview of our town's easement abandonment process. And then just an overall
discussion of tonight's subject application at 9048 Leo.
So what is an easement? An easement is defined as a specified area on a lot or a parcel of
land that's reserved or used for the location of and gain access to utilities, drainage, or
other physical access purposes, or for the preservation of undisturbed terrain for the
benefit of the general public. So an easement, if an easement placed on someone's
property, that property owner still owns that area, it's owned by the property owner for
which the easement lies on, but it can be used or accessed by others depending upon the
type of easement that it is.
So type of -- what are the types of easements? Well, we see drainage easements, public
utility easements, and the one that we're talking about tonight is a combined drainage and
public utility easement. We see non-vehicular access easements, hillside protection
easements, scenic easements, private easements, which don't involve an entity like the --
a government entity or a public utility, but it's between two or more private parties, such
as a shared driveway that straddles a common property line between two properties, so
resident A has to go over Resident B's property to get to their own property. So it's just,
that's just what -- what easements are.
So Fountain Hills was master planned with a plethora of public utility and drainage
easements known as PUEs/DEs and these, we see a lot of these on our filed maps that
were done pre incorporation, before the Fountain Hills was incorporated in 1989. And
the filed maps show the locations and the dimensions of the easements. They're actually
on the filed maps, and these maps are filed with the county, and these are officially
designated easements.
So you can see on the -- the area to the right over here. This is actually the subject parcel
right here, which is labeled number 14, that's 9048 Leo and you can see it has an
easement on the west side and the south side, but this particular map also has easements
elsewhere lying between numerous properties. It's kind of uncommon to -- to -- to just
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place easements as a matter of course, without really planning where you're going to need
them. These were kind of done kind of overkill. I guess the thought was pre
incorporation, that we were going to have lots of public utilities and things like that
running behind lots -- between and between lots. But that's not really the case. There are
a few locations in the -- in the town where we do have some utilities behind lots, but for
the most part they're within our right of way and the sanitary district has sewer pipes
actually in our washes. So kind of uncommon to see this like kind of everywhere.
So the existence of a public utility and a drainage easement, like when we were talking
about tonight on the property, can limit the use of that portion of the property by the
property owner. The property owner is typically not allowed to construct a permanent
improvement within a PUE/DE, a public utility easement drainage easement, and think
like retaining walls, swimming pools, patios, things like that, fences, walls, retaining
walls, et cetera. So the utility companies, they reserve the right to enter into the property
at any time if they have an easement on it to either install infrastructure as needed or to
enter the property to access or maintain existing infrastructure, which are electric lines,
communication lines, things like that. If the owner constructs a pool or a fence within a
public utility easement, the utility company can enter the property and remove a portion
of or remove the entire improvement as the -- as the public utility needs to do.
MAYOR DICKEY: Just real quick, but they would have needed a permit for that and we
wouldn't have given it to them, right?
JANOVER: Yes, so so normally if anything that requires a permit, we would take a look
at that and say I'm, I'm sorry it's -- it's in a public utility easement, you need to either
abandon the easement or you -- you can't -- you have to relocate that particular
improvement. So we do have an easement abandonment process in place here in the
town. So most type of abandonments, not all of them, but most types require a resolution
and a Council action. The type that does not is a hillside protection easement that --
that -- that could be done administratively, but a drainage utility, a drainage easement,
and public utility easement needs to go through the resolution process and -- and Council
action and we do have a process in place for property owners to come into the town and
abandon public utilities that are on there, exist on their property.
The first thing that they need to do before anything is they have to contact each of the six
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public utilities to request the utilities approval on the easement abandonment. And those
utilities are eco, water, fountain hill, sanitary district, southwest gas, SRP, Cox and
Lumen, which is formerly CenturyLink.
So every utility company has to approve the easement abandonment and each utility --
each utility will then send a letter of approval or denial to the owner. If a utility says Oh,
you know what we are going to be? We have a plan in the next five years to put some
utilities down this area, we do not agree to abandon it. At that point, the whole thing is
moved. We pretty much will deny the abandonment completely based on that. So every
utility has to say yes.
The owner or the applicant then submits an online application to the town through our
tops online permitting system for the easement abandon. And that application is going to
include a map or exhibit, some kind of letter as to why they want to do the easement
abandonment, the utility approval letters, and the easement abandonment application fee
of $730.
So staff will review that submittal, make sure it's complete, will ensure that all utility
companies approve the abandonment, and we'll also conduct our own drainage and
topography review just to ensure that the historic drainage patterns are still being met
because we do rely on lot to lot drainage for storm water and we just need to make sure
that that's still being met.
And then once we figure out that, yes, this is all good, all the utilities are on board, the
town has no issue, town staff then creates some additional exhibits and we draft a
resolution for the abandonment of the easement and that's typically what you will see in
your consent agenda because you see a lot of these they pass through in your consent
agendas. But this one has some public interest in it. So that's why this is was pulled off
and that's what we're talking about it tonight.
So then town staff sends out letters to the all of the owners of the properties that are
adjacent to the property that's requesting the easement abandonment, just to advise those
neighbors of the request for the abandonment and the Council date as to when it's going
to be heard.
So then they can come out. Council then renders the decision at the meeting on the
resolution for the easement abandonment. And if the resolution is approved, the mayor,
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town manager, the town attorney, and the town clerk sign that resolution and then staff
takes that signed resolution and the exhibit, and we record that with the county.
So that's pretty much the easement abandonment process and if -- and if the easement is
not abandoned, if -- if it's decided that it will not be abandoned, then the easement
remains in place and pretty much everything else that I said, that utility can come on
there at any time.
So now let's talk about the situation and -- and the circumstances that surround this
particular application at 9048 North Leo. So the homeowners at 9048 North Leo Drive
removed quite a number of mature trees and vegetation from their yard, as well as from
adjacent property. This caused quite a disturbance with surrounding neighbors and I
think, I believe, some number of them are here tonight. And the NPOA, which is the
Neighborhood Property Owners Association, directed the homeowners of 9048 North
Leo to replant the trees and the vegetation. Now, the homeowners submitted a landscape
plan to the town showing this proposed revegetation plan, and the plan was reviewed by
the town senior planner.
Now this is kind of a one off. This is not something that we normally see because the
town doesn't really we -- we don't have jurisdiction over a homeowners decision to
remove plants, or trees, or vegetation on their own property. We do have jurisdiction
when that vegetation affects the right of way. If -- so if someone has a tree that's on their
property and it's leaning over and causing an obstruction, leaning into either into the
sidewalk area or if it's causing an obstruction of site visibility at an intersection, then we
have the right -- the town has the right to go and request that -- request and direct that
owner to either cut back the tree, trim the tree back, or remove the vegetation to remove
that obstruct. But if it's this is trees that are on the -- the rear of somebody's property, the
town normally does not even get involved with that.
However, the NPOA does have the jurisdiction regarding vegetation on private
property -- on certain properties, this being one of them. And the town, therefore,
performed a courtesy review of the landscape plan because of -- of the NPOA's
involvement. Now the town normally doesn't have any issues with homeowners planting
trees or vegetation within an existing public utility easement area because it's not the
same as installing a wall or a pool, right? The planting of trees doesn't require a permit
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from the town. So as someone can -- if they have a -- a -- a public utility easement on
their property, they can -- they can plant vegetation, there's no issue with that.
Obviously, if the utility company needs to come in for some reason, they'll just clear out
the trees. They have no issue with that. But if there's a pool there or something like that,
that was unpermitted, that's a different story.
So the homeowners requested the easement be abandoned now to avert the possibility of
a future utility placement and to, really, just to protect their investment and the
landscaping that they put in so that at some point later on, if -- if right now all the utilities
are fine with abandoning it, they want to abandon it. So that it averts any future
possibility of utilities maybe going in and then them losing their the value that they put in
with the trees.
This is a -- an aerial view showing 9048 Leo with the two abandonments -- that are two
easements that are requested to be abandoned, one on the west side, which is 10 foot
wide, and this other one on the south side, which is 10 foot wide.
So that was my brief overview of -- of this application. I'm here to answer questions and
I believe that there are some folks that may want to talk on this one and so I will.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Unless you have questions for David, I'll have speakers
come up. Yes, sir.
SKILLICORN: Mic should be on, Madam Mayor. David, can you leave that up, please?
JANOVER: Yes. Absolutely.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you, speaker cards please.
MENDENHALL: Lisa Romero
ROMERO: Good evening, everyone. As a concerned Fountain Hills resident I am
speaking to the Council about the Palmers property and the request to have the town
abandon the easement. If you look at the Palmers' lot, you will notice that they have
adequate land to plant their trees below the easement on their land. One would think the
reason they would not want to do this is because they have a plan to do something else on
that piece of lot -- of their lot where they would have to plant their trees if they did not
use this easement for planting. Why should the other affected properties who've been
there longer than them, give up their right to have this easement in place to suit the
Palmers? Perhaps the Palmers don't want to plant on their property versus the easement
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because the water from all the needed irrigation will come down to come down the hill to
their property or to their home, excuse me, versus planting in the easement will direct the
water to the surrounding lots by the mere force of gravity. Food for thought.
Now, these affected property owners would not be allowed to encroach on the Palmers'
lot because they have a project and so allowing for the town to vacate this easement is
allowing the Palmers to encroach closer to the affected landowners. One really needs to
question why planting in this easement is so vital to the Palmers. There seems to be more
to this picture than what is being told to the town. Why is the town putting the Palmers'
need first over three property owners that have been there longer that do not want this?
Doesn't majority rule?
Prior to the Palmers beginning their landscaping project, the lot was well landscaped, and
it was a nice addition to the neighborhood. This lot no longer fits in with the surrounding
properties and clearly is an eyesore. I would suggest you take a ride by and look at the
property, particularly the property lines. I'm confident that you will see what everyone
else sees and do what's best to protect the other landowners. Because if you actually
drove by there, I would actually have each and every one of you put yourself in the shoes
of the neighbors surrounding this piece of property. Thank you very much.
MENDENHALL: Next we have Kimberly Butcher.
BUTCHER: Hi, my name is Kimberly Butcher and I'm one of the neighbors that's
affected. Basically, I'm just going to read to you -- it was just a very confusing event that
happened. I received a letter on April 17th, 2023, stating I had until April 25th, 2023, to
provide input for the town Council meeting on May 2nd. I firmly oppose this
abandonment, and I called Dave to tell him so and discuss what steps I needed to take
next. This call was on April 18th, a week before the deadline date stated in the letter that
was provided to me in the mail.
Dave informed me that it was already approved and the request of the Palmers to
abandon the easement had already been granted. The Palmers planted large trees, all
within the easement the weekend of April 8th, 2023. I actually had a conversation with
them and they had told me that they had asked the town to abandon the easement and I
was like, wow, I wasn't aware of that at all. And then I get a letter in the mail about it.
And Dave said that everything was already done. And I said, well, I just don't
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understand, you know, Dave, the letter is asking for my opinion, if I have any opposition
to this, but yet, you already granted them permission to go ahead and plant, and they told
me that you did. I asked them in a very friendly, neighborly way. We were talking, and
he said oh yeah, yeah, the letter is just a formality. You don't really have any rights in
this, and I said I don't understand why then the letter was sent out to me if I don't really
have any rights. So that's how it all began. So I said so the letter basically was just false
information. So I just, you know, said to him, I'm just going to put this in an email and
just say that I was not for this, that I would oppose it and I didn't understand why I wasn't
giving my rights in the letter. And then I called him again and he said you can come to
the meeting.
And the only reason I didn't want the easement granted, like basically for me as the
homeowner, is the easement has provided a ten-foot buffer to both homeowners. There
was no reason to take away this boundary. I bought it this way. The easement has been
in place many, many, many years. We all have very big lots there and there was just no
reason to encroach and plant in the easement. No one needed that room to plant. It'd be
different if everyone have really tiny lots there, but we don't. We have really nice large
lots and plenty of room to plant. The trees they planted right now, are not that big, but
they will grow. Those type of trees, I've looked them up, should be 40 to 50 feet tall and
I do believe that they will come across the border. There was just no reason to have this
issue that's now been created between neighbors. I mean, neighbors want to get along
and there was just no reason to abandon this easement and now create this like for no
reason. Everyone had plenty of room to plant. The Palmers have plenty room to plant. I
have plenty of room to plant. There's no reason to go in that area. It was nice to have
that buffer, so
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you, ma'am.
BUTCHER: I'm was opposed to it.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank -- thank you. Appreciate it.
MENDENHALL: Next we have Cynthia Parke or it could be Paske. I'll let you tell me.
PARKE: Okay. Good evening, Council. Good evening, Mayor. I'm here to express a
statement regarding this easement. I am one of the property owners that's affected by
this. We purchased our home full well knowing that there was an easement and we
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actually found it to be beneficial to us. I had owned a previous property that had an
easement and enjoyed the the liberties of that easement. Okay. It has been there for
years. All parties have enjoyed the land as is. Why should the town change what has
worked well for the majority of the land owners on this easement? Okay.
Taking away the easement takes away the opportunity for any future utility lines. Now I
know the -- all of those companies have been contacted and said at this, point they do not
need this. I don't think they have a crystal ball. I don't think they can say that in 10 years
from now, 20 years from now, they might not need that. They're saying in this moment
in time they don't need it, so taking away that easement takes away that opportunity and I
am not in favor of that. Okay.
Why would a property owner give up an easement? Think about that for a second. The
Palmers fully knew when they purchased their property that they had an easement there.
They were well aware of it. They were well aware of it when they created their
landscaping plan. They should have created their plan without affecting that easement.
They had the opportunity to do so. Okay.
As stated earlier, the Palmers have plenty of land to plant their trees and there is no real
reason to plant in the easement. Okay. Or to ask for the easement to be taken away, one
must really question what is the real reason for requesting the town to abandon this
easement? There's something more to this picture, as usually is the case with the
Palmers.
I request that all of the affected property owners be given additional time to review this
situation and determine, because we were notified very late, after the Butchers were.
And it is, my understanding that there's another property owner that never was notified.
So the process has not been -- the process outlined on the screens tonight, has not been
followed. I'm requesting that we have additional time to evaluate the true real effects of
this on our property. I request that the Board consider the majority of the affected
affected property owners that do not want this. Okay.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you, ma'am.
PARKE: I invite all of you to drive by and take a look at the property. Thank you very
much.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
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MENDENHALL: And the last two are in your packet and they're -- so we have a letter
from Cynthia Parke and Fred Eccles. And they are not in favor of it. And then we have
another email from Karen and Hans-Peter Pfleger, and they are against the abandonment
as well.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you, Linda. Questions or comments from Council, please?
Hannah -- Councilwoman?
TOTH: Thank you. David, if you wouldn't mind coming back up. So the Palmers, did
they submit a application, pay their fee, that process you just walked me through? All of
those things?
So I notice in our packet we don't have their letter or their compelling reason, or I mean,
I -- I cannot tell that they've applied for anything.
JANOVER: Mayor and Councilmember Toth, it's actually -- it's in the staff report.
The -- as far as the -- the -- the reason, I had reached out to the -- to the gentleman and --
and actually I didn't see a reason on his application. So I reached out and found out that
it was -- it was for the plantings, so I did put that in -- that should be in -- the staff report.
TOTH: Okay. So we don't have a a copy of their letter? They didn't send one at all?
JANOVER: There it's -- it's -- it's -- it's actually it's -- it's part of the -- there are utility
letters and the -- it's all done electronically, and we actually have it -- on our system
network, but it's not usually part of the -- the -- the Council packet. We don't include all
of that in the Council packet like the other utilities.
TOTH: Okay. That -- understood. That being considered, I don't know all the details
behind this issue, and I don't think it's the Council's duty to get involved with the
neighborly dispute. I'm not for touching this.
JANOVER: Thank you. I just wanted to speak to one -- one item that one of the
speakers brought up about someone not being not being notified, one of the residents.
We actually reached out to every -- every resident. I believe that there are four. And
we -- we used the mailing addresses as listed in the County Assessor's list and that -- I
believe it was the last folks that Madam Clerk had mentioned the P-F Pflagers.
They -- we had actually mailed it to them at their Washington address, Bainbridge Island,
Washington. That was actually the listed -- their listed location. That's why they didn't
receive it, because they live here now full time, I guess. So we did actually do our due
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diligence and -- and they did find out about it, which is the whole reason why we -- we
actually have the -- the letter process, to -- to make everybody aware. And so they -- they
were made aware, even if it wasn't by the letter, by -- by -- by -- by others.
Just so that I understand this correctly, even with the easement there, all of the people
pictured own that 10 feet of easement. It's just considered an easement by some random
thing that whoever did it back before incorporation, thinking there -- there may be a need
for accessing it for unknown, at the time, what it could be.
All right, so I am correct?
JANOVER: Correct.
GRZYBOWSKI: They - they legally own that property. They just can't use it for
whatever purposes because it is legally an easement. I'm looking at -- and I -- I pulled it
up on Google Maps and I didn't just do it now, but it looks like, and I'm pointing on my
picture like that does you any good, but lot 13 and 12 each have driveway accesses to -- I
can't remember that street that's to the top of the photo there. So that is probably where
their water meters are now, that's where their cable is coming now, that's where their
electrical lines now and -- and all that stuff are coming now, correct?
JANOVER: Yes.
GRZYBOWSKI: Okay. One question that we had amongst ourselves is, we understand
that generally these abandonments don't go to planning and zoning. Is that why it came
to us? Because it's -- it's just not general practice that this kind of thing go to planning
and zoning?
JANOVER: Actually, Mayor and Council Member Grzybowski, all of the drainage,
public utility easements, and drainage easement abandonments do actually come to this
body. They're usually on the consent agenda. So when you approve the consent agenda,
you're approving them and many, many times it's because someone wants to enjoy their
property. They want to -- they want to abandon or vacate the easement so that they can
build a pool, or they could build a wall, they could build a fence, they could -- they could
do something and make better use of that. Just have a planting garden or --
GRZYBOWSKI: That was actually going to be my next question is, so if we allow this
abandonment, then they could put in a wall if they wanted to, but it would have to -- or a
fence. It would have to be a pre-approved because we've got ordinances in place for that.
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JANOVER: If anything, would have to be zoning and would have to meet --
GRZYBOWSKI: So it's not like they can just go willy nilly, build a fence? You would
still have to get it and and review it. Thank you.
MCMAHON: Thank you for the explanation. They look, they've -- the Palmers is their
name, they've complied with everything as far as asking the town to look at this. They
filed the correct papers timely, notice, the whole nine yards. Okay.
So I have a question because these slides seem to be different. Is the easement only on
the Palmers' property or is there an easement on the adjoining properties? Because it
looks like there is an easement on both of the properties.
JANOVER: Yes.
MCMAHON: On the surrounding -- the L, for lack of a better word -- on surrounding.
So by abandoning this easement, there's still going to be ten feet or so of an of easement
on the other lot owner's property.
JANOVER: Mayor, Vice Mayor, that is correct.
MCMAHON: Okay. So it's not going to exactly butt up against their property? Because
I'm trying to understand -- and what's -- what -- what is being requested because as
owners of the property, if the town has no use in having that and maintaining this
easement, utilities etcetera have already been done. Of course, none of us have a crystal
ball, but still, given the fact that there is another -- the easement also extends to the other.
property owners, I guess I don't understand what the dispute is.
JANOVER: So -- so when these easements were placed on here, typically it was at a 20-
foot-wide easement, 10 feet on each side of the property, so -- and when an owner comes
in to abandon the easement on their property, they're just abandoning their 10 feet.
In this case, it's just their ten feet on their side. So if the other property owners wanted to
come in separately and -- and abandon the ten feet on their side, that -- that's certainly
their prerogative and there's nothing that would compel us to deny it. And that's really
the the bottom line. There's nothing that compels us to deny that.
KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Thank you, David. This, once again, this
just seems to be a -- a-- a use deal that we've been facing a lot lately. What can you do
with your own property?
When I moved to Fountain Hills, I told them I didn't want a HOA or MPOA because that
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was a restriction on my property. And if I could have told them at the time, I don't want
any rights of ways or easements that would -- it would have even been better, because
then my property would be unencumbered by anything. Okay. Which I think would be
preferable.
Tonight we're going to take on the 5G project and this -- this just reminds me of that.
Since there is a right of way that -- that gives the state the right to encumber the property
with telecommunications devices next to your mailbox. And so I think that's a bad idea.
Easements and right of ways are designed for the public good. It's so they can run
utilities and -- and other public services through people's properties that they bought.
They paid for and they have a title to -- a deed to. And so you've got the general, the --
the general good, but once it becomes an easement that has been abandoned and that has
been talked to by all the six entities that held the easement.
They say we no longer have it. Well then it's an encumbrance for no reason, and that
bothers me. Because what was stated tonight is well, the easement was providing a
buffer for our property. Well, the easement wasn't designed for a buffer. It was designed
to run utility lines. That was the designation. It wasn't designed to separate the
properties. And so I -- I don't buy the buffer argument.
They also said that it would give them the opportunity to invade their neighbor's
properties with landscaping projects. Well, I don't see how landscaping your property is
invading the other neighbor's property. Maybe they don't like that the landscaping is
there, but if they do landscaping in compliance with town codes and with MPA codes and
I -- I don't see any problem with that either. It seems -- it seems generally a good thing to
do whatever you want with their property. If -- if there was an easement where they want
to build a swimming pool, they might say, well, I don't want a swimming pool over there
because I don't like water. So it seems to me that I would -- I think that this should be
abandoned and -- and just -- just go back to -- to -- to the use of the property owner. That
would be my opinion.
JANOVER: Yeah, the -- certainly, and you're right. The benefit to the property owner is
that it would uncloud the -- the -- the title by removing that -- that easement.
GRZYBOWSKI: Mayor, I'm ready to make a motion. Move to adopt Resolution 2023-
13.
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MCMAHON: Second.
MAYOR DICKEY: Roll call, please.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Grzybowski?
GRZYBOWSKI: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Friedel?
FRIEDEL: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Kalivianakis?
KALIVIANAKIS: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Skillicorn?
SKILLICORN: No.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Toth?
TOTH: No.
MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor McMahon?
MCMAHON: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey?
MAYOR DICKEY: Aye.
MENDENHALL: And it passes five to two.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Thanks very much. Okay. Our next item is approval of
a resolution regarding a moratorium on 5G services. Who's going to kick it off? Aaron?
ARNSON: I'm happy to, Mayor.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
ARNSON: Mayor and Council, thank you for the opportunity to speak on this item
tonight. As you're aware from the staff report, the Council directed staff to prepare an
agenda item to temporarily prohibit 5G enabled small cell infrastructure within the town
limits of the town of Fountain Hills. Staff did so and two resolutions, as well as a
possible just oral motion absent any resolution, have been provided for the Council's
consideration that, as stated in the staff report. The -- the Council is reminded of the
federal rulings both from the FCC and that's been enshrined in statute, that do not permit
moratoria, whether expresses -- express or de facto, and that more -- and that moratoria
do -- do not pause shot clocks for approval of small wireless facilities. So but with that,
this is brought forward at the Council's direction and it'll return it to the Mayor and
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Council for discussion.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. We'll go with the speaker cards first, please.
MENDENHALL: First, we have Matthew Corrigan.
CORRIGAN: Madam Mayor, Council members. Matthew Corrigan, homeowner in
Fountain Hills. I actually support and commend Council member Kalivianakis for the
two proposals, two options for the resolutions rather to impose a moratorium to cease the
build out of 5G wireless. Also, I prefer version -- version two, but I won't go into that. I
recently read an article in Epic Times by David Shopno, (ph.) dated April 29th, 2023, in
quote, in part, "Researchers at Environment and Cancer Research Foundation ECFR in
Sweden, in case studies published in the annals of clinical and medical case reports, 5th
generation 5G wireless technology is being rolled out worldwide, despite no previous
research on possible negative effects on human health and the environment. As a result,
exposure to a pulse modulated microwave radiation has increased dramatically on a
worldwide basis. Microwave radiation are frequencies that in a range of 300 megahertz
to 300 gigahertz within the radio frequency RF spectrum. In city environments,
frequencies used for 5G are currently in a rate of 3.5 gigahertz span. Studies and the
possible health effects from exposure to 5G frequencies were all but non-existent until
recently."
In a study -- a published report in October 2022, animals were exposed to the 5G
frequency of 3.5 gigahertz for two hours a day, five days a week, for one month, the
exposure caused oxidative stress, an increase of degenerated neurons in the hippocampus
region of the brain, in addition to decreased erosion levels -- pardon me -- a hormone
positively correlated with weight loss and healthy cognitive function. The researchers
point out that 5G emits highly repetitive pulses of microwave radiation with radiation
spikes that are exponentially greater than those of previous generations, including 4G.
International investigations of exposed workers, including American military personnel,
showed that microwave exposure at non thermal levels caused symptoms such as fatigue,
drowsiness, dizziness, headache, sleep disorders, anxiety, and problems with attention
and memory.
There are significant problems with how health effects from RF radiation are weighed,
according to James Lynn (ph.), a professor emeritus at the Department of Electrical and
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Computer Engineering, University of Illinois, Chicago. In 2019, 258 EMS scientists
from 58 countries appealed to the United Nations to impose a moratorium on the rollout
of 5G until health effects could be properly assessed. We would be wise to do the same
and consider this moratorium tonight.
MENDENHALL: Next we have Dr. Brian Cutler.
CUTLER: Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to address you. My name is
Brian Cutler. I live in Fountain Hills with my wife, Claire Sootman, who -- who has
emailed you about her situation and she's not able to be here today. So I'm -- I'm
speaking on -- on behalf of both of us both.
We've lived here for about a year and a half and -- and I have to say that the -- the quality
of life in Fountain Hills is outstanding compared to five other states I've lived in and
Canada. So thank you for your service and -- and for the the great work that you and
your predecessors have done.
We began this meeting with the lovely invocation that reminded us of the diversity of
Fountain Hills. That diversity includes people with disabilities. I'm sure that every
person in this room knows at least one, probably multiple people with disabilities of all
kinds. EMF is a disability. My wife and -- and others have extreme sensitivity to 5G to
wireless, and they suffer from it. It's -- it's debilitating. Part of our role is -- is to protect
the most vulnerable people in the community.
I'm not at all suggesting that -- that we disconnect Fountain Hills from the rest of society.
I am a university professor and administrator at a university that operates graduate
programs remotely. I teach masters and doctoral students all over the country and in
Europe. I'm a forensic psychologist. I -- I work in multiple states, consulting and
testifying. I rely on the Internet, 5G, as much, if not more, than -- than many people.
I'm just saying that we should build a smart community smartly. More is not always
better. What we want our legacy to be is it that we -- we raised people's connectivity
from four and a half to five bars or -- or that we took steps to protect the most vulnerable
members of our community who -- many of whom are negatively affected by 5G and
wireless.
Many people are -- are suffering and don't know why they're suffering, and it may well be
because of -- of 5G and wireless. So I -- I, obviously, I support the -- the moratorium and
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and I urge you to also. And I thank you for listening.
MENDENHALL: Next, we have Ted Blank.
BLANK: Good evening, Mayor, Council. Thank you. Ted Blank. In the proposed
resolution, there is cited Court of Appeals ruling in the District of Columbia and -- and I
wanted to point out that in the resolution, there were two statements, one of which refers
to the risk of cancer, and the other one refers to the Federal Communications
Commission not conducting long-term safety testing.
I've always urged the Council to follow the science wherever it goes. And -- and I'm not
a scientist, but I'm a person who thinks scientifically as much as I can. Regarding the
increased risk of cancer, the ruling cited states that in spite of a negative ruling regarding
some sort of investigations on -- on other issues related to like non thermal issues, they
did find that the Commission offered an adequate explanation for its determination. That
exposure to RF radiation at levels below the Commission's current limits does not cause
cancer. And so I would -- I would urge the Council to consider the proposal, absent a
reference to cancer. The -- the concern about RF radiation causing cancer is one that's
constantly brought up, but the ruling has stated very clearly that there is no evidence that
RF radiation below the existing limited levels causes cancer.
The other item on here is that the FCC has not conducted any long-term safety testing,
but the FCC does rely upon long-term safety testing from the FDA, the Food and Drug
Administration. They're responsible for doing that testing. So it says in the same ruling,
"The FDA is responsible for the collection and analysis of scientific information that may
relate to the safety of cell phones and other electronic products. As we have stated
publicly, the available scientific evidence to date does not support adverse health effects
in humans due to the exposures at or under the current limits. And the FDA remains
committed to protecting public health and continues its review of the many sources of
scientific literature on the topic."
So my comment is simply to ask the Council to consider the resolutions as -- as -- as
submitted, but to be careful that -- that -- that -- that they -- that they remain internally
consistent. There are references in the documents referred to in this resolution that don't
support paragraphs five and six of the resolution. So thank you for following the science
in whatever your decision is.
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MENDENHALL: Next, we have Lori Troller.
TROLLER: Hello, all, Mayor, Council, Rachel, Aaron. Lori Troller, resident 27 years.
And I want to thank you all, especially Jerry, Brenda, and Rachel, and Aaron for your
specific attention to the moratorium. And any -- actually everyone in the community
that's taken the time to gather on this topic.
There's two moratoriums, I guess, now three options on the agenda. I was assuming
Brendan's was going to be updated, so I'm speaking to her second one that she put out. So
although -- although the moratoriums look similar, there are some key differences and the
first one attached to the agenda, which will be the one that Brenda is presenting, there, --
that would be my choice and some of the differences between the two. There's a different
end date. She's got an end date for January, which protects from a gap that we might
experience between the holidays and the new year. It defines the ordinances to be
updated instead of just referring to an ordinance. It clarifies the Telecom products
covered by the ordinance, so it's more more specific. It provides an explanation of the
explanation of the protections that we want to include in the ordinance. And finally, a
small but important verbiage change in a simple phrase. So I yield back any of my time
for questions. It was a quick one, wasn't it? Okay. Thank you.
MENDENHALL: Next, we have Dina Galassini.
GALASSINI: My name is Dina Galassini. I'm a resident of 20 years in Fountain Hills.
Regarding wireless equipment, it's crucial that the town has strict ordinances in place.
The so-called energy cloud will develop at different paces depending on the town's
priorities. Per the energy cloud handout I gave you, this wireless network will have
profound impacts on our town and businesses, and it raises critical strategic questions.
However, it doesn't state the profound impacts it will have on our health. It does reveal
massive profits for others, but not the towns. More on a global level. The profits do
come from our data, privacy, and health as it deteriorates. We don't want this unsightly
transformation of Fountain Hills like the lollipop antennas that are up, for example, the
energy cloud categorizes four major energy shifts as clean, intelligent, mobile, and
distributed energy. This really means total control of our data distributed globally, all
wirelessly, our data instantly sent to China, or perhaps the European Union because they
are the wireless experts, not us. The energy clouds transformation starts with the regional
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approach to policy and system design, but as it states in the handout, it should be applied
globally. Then comes the neural grid, a vastly more powerful platform with global
connectivity. It is the goal of the grid and supports the mature energy cloud by giving it a
brain. The How We (ph.) hand out reveals that the wireless infrastructure is a security
risk and is this -- and is the real energy hog here, not us.
We are a Dark Sky community and have ordinances in place. For example, light
trespassing. Light is visible frequency. Wireless frequencies are invisible, high-
powered, and transmit across our property through our homes and into our bodies, which
absorb them because our DNA, our fractal antenna, per Dr. David Martin, these
frequencies are recognized by our brain as light. As our sleep deteriorates, so does our
health.
Permitting needs to be highly scrutinized for accuracy, address, location, the type of
equipment, the power emitting from that equipment, and the electrical demand it takes to
power that equipment needs to be known. I am trained 60 hours by GeoVital, (ph.)
which is education on radiation free living.
May I address the town with just one more item regarding the power utilities on -- on just
one more sentence. There's an Ohio Supreme Court case, Ohio Power Company versus
Burns, a power lines are a public use meant they could -- they think they can take
whatever land they want to on the power utilities. Well, on whatever terms they wanted,
but with without having to prove the taking was actually necessary, they can't take that
public utility. Thank you.
MENDENHALL: Next we have April McCormick.
MCCORMICK: Good evening. I just want to thank this Council for the bold, brave
action of putting this on the agenda, for the verbiage that has been produced, for your
ability to listen to the residents and respond. I am so eternally thankful and impressed.
My mind is blown.
The first speaker I'm utterly -- could hug him. Everything he said is actually posted
online in a website called FountainHillSafeTech.com (ph.). About 2,500 residents have
read every word of that site, and there's an option where you can enter your email address
so that you can be updated and receive a newsletter and find out what happens tonight if
you don't happen to be here. There are thousands of residents that are very -- very -- very
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concerned about this coming to Fountain Hills and what it's going to do to property
values. Untested -- I mean, it's a -- it's a -- a freak show is really what it is. And I know
we all know that federal law supersedes state law. Well, in October, I gave you ten pages
of federal law where all of the district courts have ruled on this repeatedly, that you do
have the right to protect us. And I think that's what you're doing tonight. And I am so
grateful, humbly inspired by your actions. I cannot wait to see what you are able to do
next collectively, and when anyone thinks of a leader, they think of somebody with
fortitude, courage, and guts. You ran to protect and serve the people, not multibillion
dollar corporations, not anybody else, but us. And that takes courage. And that's what
I'm seeing tonight, and I just want to thank you so much.
And residents, anyone watching them on TV or in the audience,
FountainHillsafetech.com, will explain to you why this is so vitally important and who
we can thank for protecting us tomorrow morning. Cheers.
MENDENHALL: Okay. The next are just -- they're in your packet, and they are letters.
We have one from Jeremy Crandall with CTIA, who is in opposition to the resolution.
We have a -- a letter from AT&T, who is from Toni M. Broberg, who is in opposition to
the moratorium. We have from Lisa Smith, who is for the moratorium. We have Jane
Bell, who is for the moratorium. Alan Grosso, who is against the moratorium. And
they've all written a little comments in -- in support or against their item.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Any comments or questions from Council,
Councilmen?
MENDENHALL: We, actually, Mayor, we had one more, Ed Stizza, would like to speak
on this.
STIZZA: Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Town Council, and staff. I have a very
big question, I know that everybody's going to vote on this, but I would love to see if
you're going to vote on it with the understanding that you're going to look at all options
legally for another attorney. So I know that you have hired one. I've heard a few things
and they didn't sound good. So it sounds like this particular attorney actually works for
the telecom industry. So it would be nice to actually prove that he does not. So before
you go ahead and hire them. So everything else has been said, pretty much, on the safety
aspects and you're going to continue to hear a bigger audience talk about the safety
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aspects on 5G, as more and more people understand what it really is.
And hopefully you're going to do everything to protect this town, not just on the safety
level, but on an aesthetic level. And because we -- we are losing the aesthetic. I
constantly say the same thing. So please do everything you can to absolutely protect not
only the residents, but the aesthetic of this town, please. Thank you.
ARNSON: Mayor, I have to respond to that. Mayor and Council, the individual that we,
at the direction of the Town Council, retained to present on June 6, who is going to come
here on June 6th, has done work for numerous Arizona municipalities, currently does
work for the town of Payson. My firms worked with them for years. He doesn't work for
the telecom industry. I don't know where that information is coming from. I don't know
why that information is being put out to the public now. It's not true.
I want to make sure that the Council is aware and understands that the town attorney's
office does its due diligence when it retains experts, and aside from that, I brought that to
the Town Council for discussion and executive session, and we received direction about
what to do. I want to make sure that the Council understands that when we do something
in the town attorney's office, that we don't take it lightly and that we don't -- and that we
do, indeed, have the town of Fountain Hills interests at heart. I've genuinely -- that's all I
have to say.
KALIVIANAKIS: Okay. Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Thank -- thank you, Blue. Yeah, I
guess since I'm the one who put this on the agenda and I'm the one who wrote the
moratorium resolution, I -- I would like to address the Council and the public tonight.
When it does come to -- to which one I'd like to follow tonight, I would like to do the
amended version that I sent to Council and staff earlier today.
Aaron, you -- you expressed some reservations about the original draft, said that you
found it somewhat confusing. And so I wanted to clear it up and I -- I put the specific
verses chapters to -- to kind of make it bulletproof. So you know exactly where I was
going and I won't bore the people tonight with that.
But this is a pretty tight version right now that I that I presented to Council and to you,
Aaron. This was first brought to our attention, you know, sometime a couple of months
ago, I think and I -- I think I might be representative of a lot of the people up here that
thought that well, maybe this wasn't that big of an issue that it's being handled
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internationally and nationally and so I'm not sure if I took it seriously enough.
Upon doing my research, looking at articles like the gentleman mentioned tonight the --
the doctor that had the article on the Epic Times that actually Councilman Friedel had
sent out to Council tonight, when I read letters and testimonial like our first speaker
tonight about his sick wife, and then when I did just do Google checks about -- I thought
that we're just going to be alone in this thing. Just Fountain Hills against the world. And
I realize this has gone worldwide.
There's -- there's a lot of questioning right now of this 5G technology. Anecdotally, is
this why we're all so crazy when we're driving in our cars and at the grocery store?
Anecdotally, that's not evidence. I -- I just want to say this is not about having 5G
service. Okay. We get that from the micro towers. These are small cell wireless units
that would be able to be placed on your right of way, which we talked about earlier, on
your property without permission by you. They have safety concerns, which we
discussed, especially for vulnerable people with neurological conditions. Until further
information is known, this moratorium is necessary to give us breathing space so we can
take, oh I'm sure what is a competent attorney by our town attorney, we hired the outside
counsel, which is an extraordinary measure. To just make sure we have all of our ducks
in a row. So we we did what you wanted us to do. We hired the outside attorney. We
have presented to him the evidence we have, and that we wanted the tightest ordinance
that we can come up with that's going to comply with state and federal laws. And so I
think that's a -- a great deal of good faith on your Town Council, to try to address these
issues for you. We've taken it seriously. We've heard. We did get letters, and I was so
impressed. From AT&T with Toni Broberg, Desert States Principal President, President
AT&T External Affairs. We also got a letter from the trade association for wireless
communications industry. From one little town council person that puts a moratorium on
there, boy we seem to raise a lot of attention.
Instead of them quoting some laws to us that I didn't have time to read, I wish they just
would have sent us a peer reviewed study to say that this is safe technology. That
would -- that would have cured it right there. As we've talked about before, the Federal
Appeals Court heard the case, environmental case, Health Trust v. Federal
Communications Commission. It is very important that the Swiss Re, which is the
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second largest reinsurance company in the world, called 5G a high impact liability risk
due to health concerns in its 2019 SONAR Emerging Risk Report, and they will not
compensate for losses from personal liability related to RF exposure. That means that
this is so untested, that we're not going to make many insurance -- if somebody gets
injured with this radio frequency with this technology, that means a lot to me. If they're
not willing to provide insurance, saying that this is safe technology, then we have to look
into it and I think that's what we're doing. If there are provable data that no there was no
harm in 5G service, then why won't the second largest reinsurance company not cover the
losses?
So you're going to have a 5G phone service, you're still going to have Internet without
this intrusion. So let's take a pause, fully understand the consequences, finish writing the
ordinance, and go from there. Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
GRZYBOWSKI: Thank you, Mayor. Before I get into the research that I've got to talk
about today, I -- I just want to make it clear that if we put a moratorium into place, and
I'm under the impression that we don't need a resolution to put a moratorium into place
one, and two, if we do put some sort of moratorium into place, that it's still -- whatever
the legal term is, by right within whatever the number of days is, 20 days, they can still
go out and put it up. So all right, we lose control over giving them a yes or no. If we
have a moratorium, they automatically get to put it up and in however many days. What
else do we lose control over? Do we lose control over type, height, location, any of that
other stuff that would be important to us?
ARNSON: Mayor, Councilwoman, the answer to your first question is yes, and the
answer to the second question is also yes. And with the explanation as follows, we --
with respect to federal and state shot clocks, there are federal and state laws that govern
small cell infrastructure, particularly in the right of way. A moratorium does not pause
the running of the shot clock. And pursuant to federal and state law, a failure by the town
or any local government to respond to an application, either to deny it or to approve it, is
deemed approved. That's what the language is. It is deemed approved. So whatever is in
the application is what is deemed approved. Whether action is taken by staff or not,
whether there is a moratorium or not. Did that answer the question?
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GRZYBOWSKI: So literally, if we put them a moratorium into place and we don't
review these things as they come through, they get an approval to pretty much do
whatever they? Is that --
ARNSON: The application is deemed approved as submitted.
Clerks Note: Mayor Dickey left the dais at 7:35 p.m. and returned at 7:37 p.m. &
Councilmember Toth left the dais at 7:37 p.m. and returned at 7:39 p.m.
GRZYBOWSKI: -- the non-legal version? Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you, that --
that answered my question.
Again, I don't understand why we're -- we're even having a conversation about a
resolution, but both, I guess I should say at this point, all three of the resolutions that we
have received copies of refer to peer reviewed studies, but we were not given supporting
documentation to back up those statements.
Last year, Council was sent links to websites that appeared to me to be self-published and
without peer reviewed supporting studies. But all three of the resolutions refer to Swiss
Re SONAR Report. SONAR stands for Systematic Observation of Notions Associated
with Risk. According to their website, the SONAR tool is an internal crowdsourcing
platform that collects input and feedback from underwriters, client managers, risk
experts, and others from across the company. The emerging risk themes neither reflect
the entire emerging risk landscape or of the RE/ insurance industry, nor that of Swiss Re.
One quick comment about Swiss Re is the majority of their business is reinsurance and
reinsurance works completely different than direct to consumer insurance. They get to
kind of pick and choose a little bit more than than your direct to direct to consumer
insurance.
Back to SONAR. I do not see where the SONAR crowdsourced documents are used as
underwriting or claims guidelines for Swiss Re. Their most recent crowd sourced
document is SONAR 2022. In short, the SONAR 2022 report indicates that emerging
risks arise from climate change. If we are going to use the SONAR 2019 report as a basis
to create a resolution, then we should reevaluate our recently amended environmental
plan to use the same crowdsource platform.
From the research I've done, low band and mid band 5G networks operate at largely the
same frequencies as existing networks. There's nothing different in terms of exposures,
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according to Kenneth Foster, Professor of Bioengineering at the University of
Pennsylvania, whose research focuses on the health and safety aspects of electromagnetic
fields interacting with human bodies.
Millimeter wave frequencies should -- should prompt even less concern, according to
New York University's Collins, because they can't penetrate surfaces such as walls, trees,
or human skin. 5G cell towers have a limited capacity for emitting signals. And the
signals that do get broadcast aren't nearly as powerful enough to burn you. The exposure
of even a standard household light bulb is a million times more intense.
Millimeter waves are so weak, in fact, that they're barely able to carry an actual signal to
your phone. They operate over a line-of-sight range and lose their intensity exponentially
as they get further from the broadcast tower. Every article or blog -- blog post that I have
seen against 5G treats 5G as harmful microwave radiation. 5G uses millimeter wave
technology that does not penetrate the skin and falls under the category of nonionizing
electromagnetic waves. Our home appliance that we call a microwave has much higher
energy and can penetrate the skin, which is why we use them to cook and why it has a
door to protect you. Your home Wi-Fi also -- is also microwave and works on the same
frequencies as 5G networks and has been for years.
Due to lack of scientific research from peer reviewed studies, I cannot agree that 5G
causes cancer or other illnesses and I will not support a moratorium. Thank you, Mayor.
MCMAHON: She excused herself for a minute, so if we can continue or we can just take
a five-minute break, whatever you guys want to do. You want to continue?
ARNSON: Whatever you guys want to do.
MCMAHON: Okay. Hannah, do you want to say anything?
TOTH: Thank you, Vice Mayor. I just want to ask Aaron more questions. For the
moratorium, when we talk about the shot clock, we say that there's -- once there's an
application, if we do not respond, it means it's a yes. If there's a moratorium, are they
able to apply?
ARNSON: Yes.
TOTH: Okay. That was the main question. Thank you.
MCMAHON: Okay. I did some research on this. I looked at a couple cases that
involved regulation of 5G and 5G cell towers, etcetera. And at -- the FCC federal law
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governs the telecommunications. And it specifically preempts local and state
governments from -- from enacting any statutes or regulations that may prohibit or have
the effect of prohibiting telecommunication services. And it -- it's -- it's as simple as that.
But it's also very, very complicated. So based on the FCC federal law, local
municipalities like ours, cannot enact legally, resolutions or moratoriums written the way
that this one is written, in my opinion. This is it -- on its face, the moratorium whereas --
whereas allegations, the resulting in dense deployment of antenna near residents, and
schools, and hospitals, etcetera. It's my understanding that schools and churches have
their own leases and telecommunications with the telecommunication providers, and
that's private property that we can't regulate.
I -- I look at this resolution and it's so broad, that it's -- it's just so broad asking to cease
and desist, and build out so-called 5G wireless infrastructures and -- and utilities, etcetera
that I -- I just don't think it can be enforced.
And number one, I don't think that there's any legal -- legal basis behind it because we are
specifically preempted from on -- de facto and materially and on its face, preventing or
adversely affecting the -- the telecommunication services and part of me.
I'm probably not speaking clearly, but we just can't prohibit this. I don't think it -- and it
and it's not even going into the health concerns or anything like that, because all of us
each have health concerns etcetera.
But I've also read some of the research that Sharon did, and I concur with what she said.
But this moratorium has no -- it just -- and Aaron, you can correct me if you want, but
based on case law, the -- the moratorium would just not have any legal effect whatsoever.
And it's not going to stop from applications from being processed. We have an
obligation to process them.
And in addition, it's my understanding that right now we have 5G and 5G small cell
towers already built. They're already in our community. It's my understanding they're
not being expanded. There's no applications right now to expand them. We've been
living with these for years. They're required for communication in our town, so this --
this moratorium is not going to do away with them. It's -- it's and please answer my
question, and I'll back up to that one. Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Go ahead and answer to what she said.
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ARNSON: Oh, sure. Mayor and Council, I mean, I --I -- I think I've pretty much stated
it -- that -- what needs to be said and I want to make it clear as well for the Council. I --
I've nothing in my staff report or anything like that says anything about health effects. I
don't know one way or the other. That's not what I'm telling you.
What I'm telling you is what federal -- and what federal and state laws are in this area, so.
And what they say is that we are not able to prohibit or inhibit telecommunications in this
space. And that's the end of it. If the Council chooses to adopt a moratorium, that's
within your purview. I just want the Council to be aware of what legal effect it will, or
more appropriately, will not have.
MCMAHON: Right. And also, Brenda, you said that the letters from CTIA and AT&T
did not address the -- the federal law, but in fact both of them did. They both said the
same thing, that we can't -- we can't -- local and state government law cannot preempt
telecommunication services or deployment of their facilities. In that respect, I just don't
think that this moratorium is going to have any effect. I mean, health concerns aside, it's
not going to -- it is in direct contravention of federal law that does govern
telecommunication services.
FRIEDEL: Okay. A couple of things that I think have stated that were wrong. First of
all, schools do not have small cell towers. They have the big, tall, huge towers, first of
all. Secondly, I don't believe, maybe I'm wrong, there are no small cell towers in this
town yet that I -- that I'm aware of.
MCMAHON: I didn't say that.
FRIEDEL: You did say that. You did say that.
MCMAHON: I said that we already have the cell towers existing.
FRIEDEL: We have cell towers, but we don't have any small cell towers in this town.
MCMAHON: I don't know. Do we know that, Justin?
KALIVIANAKIS: Oh, would that be me? Thank you, Ms. Mayor. I think I've been
waiting. Just -- just to clarify the record on a few things for the Vice Mayor, I -- I did say
they sent us a lot of laws. I -- I just said they didn't send us any peer reviewed studies
saying that -- that this -- this technology. Yeah. So I just want to clarify that I just said
they didn't send the study saying that this was risk free, but they did send us law. Yeah,
no doubt about that.
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The other thing with the -- with you, Sharon is -- you, you mentioned about line of sight
you -- you compared this to a light bulb or to a VCR. And I just wanted to point out that
if you go into another room and there's a light in the other room, you can't see the light
with the door closed. If you go into another room with your VCR remote, and you push
the button, it won't go through the door. I mean, I think that's what you said --
GRZYBOWSKI: That's not what I said.
KALIVIANAKIS: -- and -- with the VCR, maybe. And the thing is -- is there's a roof
over here, there's no line of sight, but I did have to turn my phone off tonight because if
somebody were to call me, I'd go right -- right through this structure.
And so these -- these waves, they do go through -- it's not line of sight, they -- they go
through mortar, brick, trees, you mentioned, so I just want to clarify that. They -- they
do -- it's not line of sight.
And then the last thing I'd like to say, and again this is anecdotal, but there -- there were
people from the telecommunications industry here with their trucks. We have pictures of
them and they said they were scouting tower locations and I've got the picture, I think,
Councilman Friedel, I think you do too. And so the fact that -- that they haven't done it,
doesn't mean they're not doing it right now and that we -- we might have been the shot
clock to set them in motion to scout on our own town. It's hard to say, but -- but they are
here right now scouting out our town.
TOTH: Thank you, Mayor. I just had a follow up from my earlier question. Obviously,
we have a moratorium, they're still able to apply, are we not able to respond if we have a
moratorium? If we deny it and say sorry, we put in a moratorium, doesn't that stop the
shot clock?
ARNSON: No, there -- there -- there is no stopping the shot clock. I -- I -- I want that to
be very clear. There isn't -- like if you adopt a moratorium, it is like nominal.
TOTH: Okay.
ARNSON: There's -- it does not stop the stock shot clock from running specifically
pursuant to the FCC's order and declaratory judgment.
TOTH: So we are unable to respond if we have a moratorium and they apply, we cannot
deny it?
ARNSON: I guess it depends on what the moratorium says, right? If you tell staff don't
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respond to these, then okay. If you tell staff to respond to them, that it doesn't have the
purpose of that the moratorium was intended to have in the first place.
TOTH: Okay.
ARNSON: So I guess it depends on what you want to do.
TOTH: Last question, do any of the versions of the moratorium that we have in front of
us right now, do any of those allow for staff to deny a application because there's a
moratorium?
ARNSON: Oh, we have the authority to -- we have the authority to deny applications
because they're incomplete or because they are otherwise inconsistent with our
regulations for sure. We already have the authority to do that. Would any moratorium,
whether that's been presented here or that anyone could conjure up, give staff the
authority to deny based on the fact that there's a moratorium? I mean, staff could deny it,
what the carrier would come back and say is, you can't do that, right? Because they
can't --
TOTH: Okay. Understood. Thank you.
ARNSON: -- solely based on the -- solely based on the moratorium.
TOTH: Solely? Okay.
ARNSON: Yep.
MCMAHON: So the moratorium or resolution, whatever you want to call it, it's sole
purpose is to prevent telecommunication services from -- from happening for a specified
period of time, right?
ARNSON: I don't know. I guess that's the intention.
MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah. And so that's in -- that's directly in contravention of federal
law. We don't have the right to do that. So it's not going to have any force in effect, and
that's what you're saying?
FRIEDEL: I don't think that this moratorium is stopping telecommunications, the --
the -- the small cell towers have very little to do with your phone service. It's more
security operations and that type of operation. It has nothing to do with your cell phone
communications at all. And I think there's people in this room that could back that up,
that it's a totally different animal.
MAYOR DICKEY: Excuse me, I just want to say something about -- some of the
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discussion that we're having is showing some of the uncertainty that we have. And the
reason we have uncertainty is because we haven't had the meeting yet for next, for the
6th, that is purposely what -- we met, we were directed to do was to get outside counsel,
who was used to this item in the State of Arizona. So there's state law, there's federal
law, and so again, the whole idea of what the -- the consequences are of it or not, I -- I -- I
think it's a premature discussion about that -- the health issues and such -- yes or no or
somewhere in between. And in a couple of weeks, we're going to hopefully be able to get
some of these more solid answers.
We do have -- we do have an ordinance, we do have some wiggle room as far as the way
things look or how close things are to each other. We have no applications for this, we
have nothing pending.
And so that's -- so -- so to take away, again, I think kind of like you said, the -- the
health -- health stuff about this, because that is obviously not going to be something that
we all know right now. And I think we will be more educated when we do have the
conversation. I'm just looking at it from a legal point of view. I'm not going to -- I don't
want to vote for something that has absolutely no chance of being enacted and in fact,
could possibly have somebody apply and then we can't even put our existing ordinance
rules on there.
I feel confident that we're going to change our ordinances -- our ordinance. I'm sorry? I
feel confident that after we get this information, that there will be examples of ordinance
strengthening that we can do, but I don't know what that is right now and so I don't want
to do this moratorium. I just want to have the meeting, figure out the good things that we
can do legally, federally, state, all that good stuff. And that's why I don't want to support
this right now.
Councilman?
KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. And then I'd like to just make a very quick
statement then I'd like to make a motion, if you don't mind. My statement is -- with my
intention of putting this moratorium on our books, this resolution, is at a bare minimum,
it will have a deterrent effect to people that are going to come here to build, to build out
these devices. That's established. There's no doubt about that. I know this -- this
argument of is it constitutional? Is it legal? Is there preemption? Is there -- is there the
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federal law? Is there state laws? The courts are packed, the appellate courts, and the
Supreme Court, with people that disagree on the laws. I mean, he's shaking his head over
there, that's what the whole law business is all about. It's practicing there -- there's no
nothing set in stone this -- this -- this could be the model ordinance that they use for the
universe for the next 20 years. And so is there a chance we got it right? Yes. Is there a
good chance that they're going to say, well, this is little community of Fountain Hills
wrote this moratorium, maybe we should wait for them to get their ordinance done and
then we can see how we can work with them -- with the new ordinance to place this --
this technology in Fountain Hills. And that's actually what my -- my hope was; to
discourage them from coming here until we can get an ordinance with teeth.
MAYOR DICKEY: Can I ask one question that --
KALIVIANAKIS: And I'd like to make a motion --
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Because I think we -- I don't know. She's showing me -- I
think that we have cards, but I do want to ask a question because Brenda, when we -- you
were talking about private -- or putting them on people's properties. That's not an
easement, though, a right-of-way is not owned -- the right-of -way is owned by the town.
Right?
KALIVIANAKIS: Um-hum.
MAYOR DICKEY: So that's what we have to -- we're forced to allow, right?
ARNSON: Right. Under state law, the small cell infrastructure and the right of way is
what's it's -- it's different from an easement on private property. It's -- it's -- it's the town's
right of way.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. I just wanted to --
ARNSON: It's the town's right away.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Thank you.
MCMAHON: And also, for clarification purposes, it's not just case law that is
applicable, it's the -- the United States code under 253 that is the law. And it is currently
the law. It doesn't -- it preempts anything that we do, so therefore it -- it -- it's not going
to have any force in effect with the moratorium. It just isn't, I mean, I appreciate what
your intent is, et cetera, but it's not going to stop telecommunication services and
providers in Fountain Hills.
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MAYOR DICKEY: I'm sorry, Vice Mayor. Are the speaker cards new?
MENDENHALL: No, they're not. They want to know if you would entertain them
coming back up.
MAYOR DICKEY: I don't think we're going to do that because we have our new set of
rules now and so we're going to learn and stick with them.
So Brenda, would you like to do it?
KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah. I'd just like to make a motion to -- to adopt the amended
Brenda Kalivianakis version of the -- the -- the 5G ordinance or a resolution.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. So we have a motion for something that is not in our
packet, correct? So I just want to make --
KALIVIANAKIS: It was sent to you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Right, I mean we have it, but as far as the folks.
KALIVIANAKIS: Yes.
MAYOR DICKEY: It's not something you can literally see, but you will?
KALIVIANAKIS: Yes.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay.
KALIVIANAKIS: But it's -- trust me, it was better than the original.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
We have a motion and a second on that resolution, which well, you know which one we
mean. Okay. Can we have a roll call, please?
MENDENHALL: Council Member Friedel?
FRIEDEL: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Kalivianakis?
KALIVIANAKIS: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Skillicorn?
SKILLICORN: Yes.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Toth?
TOTH: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Grzybowski?
GRZYBOWSKI: No.
MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor McMahon?
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MCMAHON: Nay.
MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey?
MAYOR DICKEY: No.
Thank you all, appreciate it. Good conversation and more to come. Our next item is
the -- is the budget? Did you want to take a break or can we take -- well, we'll take five.
How's that? Thanks.
CLERKS NOTE: Council recessed at 7:53 p.m. and reconvened at 8:05 p.m.
MAYOR DICKEY: We're all back. I think we all tried to escape, but we had to come
back. So our next item, we're going to be looking at the budget.
And David, it's all yours.
POCK: Thank you, Mayor, Council. Tonight's fiscal year '24 tentative budget for the
town as well. This is -- should not be anything new, since we've talked about it at the
Council retreat. We had a CIP work session, so that would be part of this, kind of a
review where we are now. Also, the budget work session is in April so with that, we will
go over a couple of slides just to give you an idea where we are so far this year.
These are total TPT collections across all funds. So you can see, overall we've collected
$15.5 million. The 9 month budget is 12.7. So we've exceeded that -- so we are
receiving more than what we had planned.
This next one, the construction, is a little surprising it -- it was -- B (ph.) actually came
into my office and said, I think there might be something wrong. But we looked into it,
and we actually had four speculative builders that reported their income in March for
February. So we had four sales of spec homes, which increased our collections quite a bit
so we'll take it.
As far as utilities, communications, that one's pretty, it's right on target, 1.2 million, a 113
percent of budget. Of course, our wholesale retail is right on target as well, same with
real estate, restaurant and bars, and services are also what -- doing quite well compared to
what we expected or what I expected for the year.
Overall, 89 percent of our total TPT revenue has been collected within the first nine
months. So we still have three more months to go. This month is looking really well. So
we should end up in good shape at the end of the year. As far as our state shared
revenues, between these two revenue sources, that basically accounts for over 90 percent
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of our general fund revenues. But everything is pretty much on target. We do have
some -- a little to be desired as far as our revenues go. That could be any number of
things. Could be the cost of gas, could be more electric vehicles on the road, could be
more telecommuting. But it looks like that might be the new trend for a while.
So that takes care of the revenue so far. Are there any questions on those first two, any
clarification? Okay.
So since you saw the proposed budget at the -- at the budget work session on the 11th,
these were the major changes that are made or that were made to the proposed budget to
where we are tonight. So after we got all of our Auditor General schedules, budget
schedules done, we just didn't have the exclusions that we've had for the last couple of
years. So we actually had to reduce our -- our overall budget by $4.4 million. So what
you saw in the proposed budget of 47.5 is actually now 43.1.
Those reductions had to be made out of the Capital Projects Fund. Those projects aren't
going away, they're just being delayed at this point, and they can be revisited at a later
time by Council. As long as our revenues are coming in next year like they are this year,
we can move some of our contingency and move forward with those projects at a later
date.
The tentative budget also has the seven percent cola, which we discussed at the work
session.
So just to go into the expenditure limitation a little bit more, that top line figure, the 34.4.
million, actually comes from the Department of Revenue and then our tentative budget
number there, the 43.1, less those exclusions, so grants, all of our health money is
excluded. Any payments that we make to the state, insurance recoveries, or investment
interest, and then our carryover of (indiscernible) funds from last year is also excluded.
So that brings our expenditure subject to the limit, down to 34.3 or $31,000 less than the
limit. Any questions on that?
It's kind of -- yeah, it's a little -- little crazy. It's been around since 1980s. Basically just
meant to to keep local governments, counties, and the state from -- well, not the state, just
they -- they -- they wouldn't do that to themselves. The counties and local governments
from expending, increasing their expenditures.
MAYOR DICKEY: Is it formula driven?
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POCK: It is. It's basically, based on the 1980 level at the time, and then adjusted for
inflation and population.
All right. So we'll go into the general fund. Just a quick look at past experience in the
general fund, as you can see, revenues on the left, expenditures on the right, budgeted
numbers in blue, actuals in orange. You can see on the revenue side, we consistently beat
our budgeted revenues. That's a good thing that's -- goes towards our conservative
budgeting as far as revenues go. On the right side, you can see it's the exact opposite.
We're consistently less than our budget. If you take the difference between that orange
bar on the right against the orange bars on the left, that's the difference. That's what goes
towards fund balance, ensures our our reserves, takes care of our funding transfers, and
also the CIP fund.
All right. So then as far as special considerations for the general fund, were required to
adopt a balanced budget. Budget process begins by forecasting the revenues. Our
revenues for next year, 25.6 million. Our expenditures minus contingency, so not
counting for contingency, just what's included in the budget, is 22.6. That's a difference
of $3 million. Balanced budget is not achieved with that, right?
So there's really only two options. We can reduce the revenues or we can increase our
expenditures. If we reduce our revenues, then that doesn't give us the budget if we
actually receive more revenues, right? If we increase the expenditures using contingency,
then we would have that budget available if we need it, which is what we do. So that's
where the the 3 million in contingency comes from. Any questions on that?
MAYOR DICKEY: Could you please just clarify that a little bit more in plain English?
POCK: Sure. All right. So since we start with revenues and our projections there, that's
the number, right? If our expenditures, if we don't have our regular expenses like payroll,
maintenance contracts, all that sort of thing, that meets or exceeds that number, which we
wouldn't be able to exceed, then we have to make up that gap. We have to plug it. And
that's with contingency. So as long as we receive the revenues like we expect, then we're
actually -- we know we're going to spend less. Because our -- our base budget or all of
our operating expenditures are lower anyway. But then it also gives us additional budget
in case flood or you know something unexpected type thing happens. Or in this case, this
next year, it would probably be moved to the capital project fund to -- to do the projects
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that we're doing. Okay.
SKILLICORN: Thank you, Madam Mayor. You probably heard me coughing and
choking for a moment here, but I know I wouldn't insist that-- that 3 million, because it's
not. Now we have figured it out. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Twice.
So I'm coughing. I'm choking over here. I want that $3 million contingency to go
towards roads, not -- well there's some capital stuff and we'll talk about that later. But I
want everyone remember the roads.
POCK: The reason why, excuse me, Mayor, Council Member, the reason why the -- the
reduction was taken out of capital projects is specifically for that reason. We didn't want
to touch the streets fund and what's budgeted there, which is already $1 million more than
what we budgeted for this year.
Okay. So then as far as the revenues go for general fund, you can see those -- those first
two items are 94 percent of our total revenues expected for next year in the general fund.
One thing I would say, included in that intergovernmental revenue, is the state shared
income tax, which we have about $1 million more than what we would have normally
expected in that line item and that's because of the income tax deal that was done last
year. Lowering the income tax, they actually increased the percentage that towns and
cities get for the first two years. Yes. So you can see 25.6 on the revenues again. And
then as far as the expenditures, that same amount.
I think -- are there any questions on this? I just did these by function so that we didn't
have to go through each specific department.
Okay. As far as supplements for the general fund, again, you'd seen all these broken
down in the -- at the work session, but personnel, the $2.1 million, that's a big number,
one number that we don't normally see that big. However, we do have a fire department
that's coming on with 30 some personnel, so that's a big chunk of that. We also have one-
time expenditures of 53,000. That's a little less than what you saw at the work session.
Nobody's going to be dancing on a new dance floor next year. So -- so that did come out.
Ongoing personnel you could or non-personnel, I'm sorry, you can see the total cost
minus offsets, equaling 670 or 667,000. So the total of those supplements, 2.8 million,
those are all included in the numbers that you saw earlier, and you can see online.
There has been an additional request from the Community Center that didn't make the
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actual supplement process. The request is to either convert the part time position to a full
time position, adding about 14 and a half hours a week. That would add 32.8 or $32,800
over the year. Or to add additional hours for another part time person at 11 and a half
hours per week, at a cost of 12,800. That one, we're going to need a little bit of direction
from Council.
MAYOR DICKEY: I think the full time, somebody that's current going full time, seems
like a better option for several reasons. If you guys want to chime in here, please do, but
yes.
KALIVIANAKIS: I'd just like to -- for clarification. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't
see your light. Okay. Yeah.
GOODWIN: I'm happy to offer a little more insight on this. There's a discussion about,
again, taking a part-time position and moving it to full time. There's pros and cons with
both scenarios. The -- we do currently have a part-time person who would be interested
in moving into a full-time. It does give some consistency for our evenings and weekends.
So that -- there's, again, a bought in person, there's consistency throughout the evenings,
whether that's to deal with our public or whether it's to make sure that our building is
maintained and -- and managed day-to-day operationally.
Again, from the part-time side, obviously, it's less of an investment. However, we all
know part-time staff are much harder to find and keep. We have a -- we have a turnover
issue with our part-time staffing at this point in time too. So there's pros and cons on
both sides, but the -- the staff request is preferred for the full-time situation. However,
we wanted to make sure you had both options.
KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor and yeah, just so -- so the math -- math adds
up. So we currently have a part-time position. I guess it pays 12/8 per year and -- and
then if we convert that getting 14.5 more hours, then that'd be 32, which I guess would be
the additional 14.5 hours. And then benefits, is that how we get to 32? Okay.
MAYOR DICKEY: I'm for the -- I'm for the -- I'm for the person turning into full time.
KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah, me too.
POCK: You're right. Okay. Okay. Perfect.
Now we will talk about the streets fund. You can see the historical here. The revenues
on this -- in this fund are fairly consistent as far as what we -- budget is, what we receive.
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You'll see there's not a lot of extra revenues there. That's basically HERF and VLT
funding as far as that goes. And then the 2/10 of a percent of TPT is also included in
there.
You'll also notice that in fiscal year 22, there was quite a bit of light blue on the top of
that column. That was unspent budget. Anything that's unspent in the prior year, rolls
over and creates a higher fund balance for the next year. If there's any questions on that,
we'll just --
MAYOR DICKEY: I'll wait for the next slide. Yeah, the next slide is also about streets,
right? Yep.
POCK: Yes.
Yes. So this is next year's revenue. As you can see it -- it's dipped a little bit. That was
because I did reduce the TPT forecast a little bit, not knowing what the economy is going
to be doing for the next 12 months.
So then, as far as the expenditures, you can see, like I said, that the pavement
maintenance portion, that top line actually increased 1.1 million from this current year.
Everything else pretty much remained the same. I did remove -- remove some of the
contingency, but that was one of the reductions.
MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah, I wanted to this to go to what Allen was saying also. But --
so first of all, May 11th is the deadline to ask for -- if we were going to ask for bond,
which I know was something we we're wondering if we were going to get that kind of a
recommendation. Part of why we have money rolling over has to do with the actual
streets stat. I -- I keep saying, physically or logistically, you just can't spend a certain --
that much more than this. So we've got 7 million. We -- we're -- we're -- we're already
up to 5.3 million here. So we have the funding available that can physically and
logistically possibly be used. And Justin, you can nod and give me some encouragement
here, but. So what I -- I just want to make it clear, I think the school district is doing
some conversations now to make it clear that we will not be having any kind of a -- a
bond or anything on for November 24.
And it also gives us the the time to -- to -- to get the report back from the firm. To get all
the information from the committee, it will give us all a chance to discuss all the options
then and -- and obviously, we'll have a funding conversation in the future. We're --
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because we're -- we're real good now and probably next year, but it -- at least it clarifies
that for now, that we won't be doing that.
Yes, sir.
FRIEDEL: A couple months ago, I had made a suggestion that -- two suggestions
actually -- dealing with streets and funding that, and getting a little extra cash in there.
One was to the VLT tax right now. I think it goes 80 percent streets, 20 percent general
fund, something like that.
POCK: 70/30.
FRIEDEL: Okay. So I was off a little. I don't think it would really hurt our budget a lot,
maybe I'm wrong, to -- to commit 100 percent of that to streets. That was the -- that was
the first suggestion. So if we could take a look at that somehow, and I don't know what --
what kind of an impact that would have.
And -- and then the second one, when we do our excess sweep at the end of the year,
instead of putting it all into capital improvement, maybe we look at a percentage going to
streets and some of it going to capital. So that we -- we can somewhat bolster that streets
fund and add a little bit more to getting more streets done. And it's less of a bond
obligation because the bond rates right now are just astronomical and it's just not a good
time. But if we can somehow find a way to do it internally and wait for these rates to
adjust, because I think they will at some point for bonds, and maybe it is a year off,
maybe that would get us through and get us some more roads done and something to
consider when we look at funding for streets in the future.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Yeah, we looked at that. Personally, the idea of the --
the what we do with the -- with the leftovers, I think that's a conversation you can always
have. And if it looks like the lining of the Fountain is still A okay and all these other
things and -- and that doesn't have to have like a long term effect like every -- every year,
we can decide something like that.
I'm not so sure about the VLT thing because it's not that much money that would help the
streets, but it's enough to maybe affect like when we talk about the the raises or anything
like that. If it's 2 or 300 grand, that's not going to do much for streets, but it may end up
being important in the general fund, so I'm not opposed to looking at it, I just don't think
that -- that the -- and the other reason why I'm -- that one is because we'd have to make a
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policy change and then that would be the thing that -- that existed until we changed it
again. So I -- I'm fine. Just personally, as far as trying to dedicate what's left over, and
again to get back to the point of 5.3 million, we had that much -- about that much to
spend this year and we could not get it out the door. So there's a lot of other things that
go into being able to fix the streets. So just keeping that all in mind. I don't think it
changes our -- what we have to do tonight, though, right? I mean, we're just going for
the -- the bottom line. Okay.
FRIEDEL: Yep. That's it.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Thanks.
POCK: Yes, and I failed to mention that earlier. So the tentative budget sets the
maximum amount of the budget for the entire year. Based on direction tonight, we can
reduce that if there was a reason to, but it cannot go higher than -- than what is in the
resolution and in those schedules.
All right. So then to the Capital Projects Fund, we do have a few things to talk about
here. Summary, you can see there's very little. This -- this graph does not depict any
transfers into the Capital Projects Fund. This is strictly construction sales tax. I can't
think of anything else that goes in there -- and interest. So -- so -- yeah, because it
doesn't really do very well to put transfers in there. It kind of skews it just because it's
moving from one account to another account. So I left those out.
Anyhow. So these were the projects that staff agreed with, obviously, with the town
manager, with Justin, and with Kevin and selected these projects that weren't -- it's not
necessary that they start basically on July 1st. We can hold off probably until after the
first quarter at least, and then see how revenues are going, and then if we wanted to start
adding these projects back in, we can do it at that time.
There was one project on this list, the downtown streetscape, that there was quite a bit of
discussion about at the work session. That was going to be revamped a little bit,
reworked. And so Amanda's going to take you through that project because she has a
whole separate presentation.
AMANDA: Yes, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Pock.
So on March 14th, during the CIP Budget Workshop, one of the projects was the
downtown streetscape improvements. We heard from Council, so we'll advance the slide.
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So the original request was for 635,000. There was a consensus to reduce this and
perhaps look at not just both roads. And so what was proposed was Parkview and Verde
River. We had a turn around and bring it back April 11th, and at that time, admitted to
you we were still in a research phase based off of your feedback. We received additional
discussion from Council looking, instead of the streets fund, the downtown fund,
presenting different options. A couple of the Council members brought up the Avenue of
the Fountains, specifically, and so again, the whole purpose of looking at Verde River
and Parkview, was to begin to enhance the downtown, because that's also our downtown
or in our general plan called the Town Center.
And so option A, just based off of, again, some of the the conversation, is the streetscape
improvements in the streets fund for $250,000 and then Avenue of Enhancements
downtown fund, that's the funding source, 250,000. And so we reduced it by 135,000.
Just again, we didn't receive direction on how much you wanted to -- to reduce it. And so
if you look at that top image, thanks to our GIS analyst, we've -- we've placed those street
poles lighting and the banners, just to get a better visual of what that could potentially
look like. It's not an actual rendering, the spacings not right, so don't hold me to it. And
then I had shared -- so Councilmember Skillicorn had brought up the Avenue of the
Fountains and he had comments and I said it don't usually do this, but wanted to add that
TAMA, The Avenue Merchant Association, had its fourth official meeting and one of
their goals is to look at enhancing the Avenue and so that bottom is looking at our linear
park and perhaps adding more public art to provide shading, benches, and just one, make
it more attractive, create that sense of place, and not have it where people are using the
park as a dog park or just going and having a quick bite to eat and leaving, having them
stay there and enjoy our downtown.
Some of the conversations we received was about solar lighting. For this purpose, I don't
want us to get that deep in, but how we were able to reduce some of those cost. So
Council member Kalivianakis asked us to look at solar lighting. Here are some options
that staff found. Last week there were some meetings with some folks to look to see if
instead of those type of lightings, could they replicate a little bit of what we have because
we want it to be consistent. Again, so people know it's -- it's the downtown. So that's
still a work in progress, but just wanted to acknowledge that -- that we're hearing
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Council's direction.
Option B, the downtown streetscape. So it would be specifically downtown. With
500,000, I know we're just showing one option, that would -- we would be able to for
500,000, perhaps 400,000. We feel safer with 500 just in case, we would be able to
complete improvements off of Verde River in Parkview. There is also the option, going
back to the March conversation, where we reduce it to 250,000 and we look at one street.
Again talking to our staff, public works, it would be Verde River. Just simply because
it's shorter, so again, it's -- it's cheaper.
Option C is Avenue of the Enhancements. It would be specifically -- for Avenue of the
Fountains, we would split that between the downtown and streets fund. I'll get to that in
just a couple of slides. And so again, it's 500,000. Again, we could reduce it to 250 or --
or a little less. Anything below 100,000, I'm not sure what we could do at this time, just
to be honest.
Option D is do nothing at all. As your economic development director, I would hope we
would get some direction on Options A, B, or C. We're recommending Option A so we
can continue to enhance the Avenue, but also, this be an opportunity for staff and Council
to do it. Some Councils and staff before us, we're unable to do, but really start to enhance
that downtown area, make an investment. There's businesses who've already invested in
our town, but to also invest to hopefully attract other folks. Last week, I just met with
some folks that are investors and are looking at Parkview, but again it's -- it's -- it's hard
to imagine and -- and they're questioning, should we make an investment and wanting to
know what is the -- the staff and Council's vision.
So back to the downtown fund, again, just to be transparent, I have requested in the fiscal
year 24, $30,000, specifically for the downtown, for placemaking projects, and for
advertising. And then we've placed the Avenue enhancements, if we do get direction, at
250, you'll see the downtown streetscape, the streets fund, that -- that's not there. The
holiday lights is an ongoing expense of 53,000. There's restrooms. There, again, we've
felt like we've received some solid direction at looking at restrooms. For fiscal year 24,
the 35,000 would be purely for design. You'll see some notes below. The 150,000 would
be to construct the restrooms so that would be in fiscal year 25. So our total budget right
now in the downtown fund is over $500,000. The expense that we're illustrating is over
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300,000. You take that away, there's over 200,000. And just best practice, yes, there's
money there. But we don't propose wiping that clean, again, because we don't know what
is ahead of us this fiscal year.
And so with that Council, what we're looking for, again, high level. If there are any
options that you're interested, as Mr. Pock mentioned, none of this would happen until
January. But if you gave some direction on Options A through C, that gives us the ability
because we've received your direction, to start meeting with -- with stakeholders, putting
together a project timeline so we can rock'n'roll in January if the funding is there. Or
again, if you decide this is not the year and you want to do absolutely nothing, then I
respect that and we won't initiate any other conversations until the new fiscal year. And
when I present the Community Economic Development strategy in the fall.
So with that, Madam Mayor, Council, looking for a little direction on numbers and
options.
GRZYBOWSKI: Can you put up the slides again with the -- just the picture you -- you
preferred A? I just want to see A again. Sorry didn't mean interrupt over there.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Councilman.
SKILLICORN: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Director Jacobs. You know, it is interesting
to see this. I think we want to do something there, but my concern is that this didn't go
through the -- the formal budgeting process. Obviously, we did capital projects for
weeks. This seems a little late to the game, and it's also a little underdeveloped. I don't
think it's ready to kind of plug in and and go ahead. I would really prefer to to put this
off until '25.
FRIEDEL: I think one of the major stakeholders along the Avenue is going to be Bart
Shea and that development that he does there. I'd like to get some input from him as to
what he might be able to bring to the table as well. He's going to be a major benefactor to
anything we do along that Avenue to filling his commercial spot and those apartments.
So I think -- you mentioned stakeholders, I think that's a big one that we need to find out,
hey, how much -- how much of the game is he in for? And I'd be willing to sit in on that.
MAYOR DICKEY: Council member.
KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Thanks for the work you did in this and for
the presentation you made the other day. Really appreciate it, meeting with TAMA. I'm
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kind of leaning with -- with Allen. I -- I -- I see the merit in these -- in these programs.
I'm -- I'm a little worried because with the -- the restrooms, I -- I think the 35 and then the
$150,000 are going to be a down payment because from what I've researched, what I've
done, to get like a four stall, two guy, two girl enclosed restroom, it might be up to
$450,000, which is quite an investment in that. And I think we -- we need to get more
input from -- from the people on that one. And then -- and then of course the Avenue
improvements and the -- the bottom rendering there. As exciting as that looks, I think
that the -- the money that we're going to put down now will kind of be an investment in
design and flushing out other options. And so I think if we put this off, maybe for a year,
it would give us a chance -- a good chance to flush out the numbers and to actually get
the projects that you want to do. And then we can consider them. So I'd probably be D
for now with a good job and I think you got a good vision for the Economic Development
Director. Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman?
GRZYBOWSKI: Thank you. A question about the restroom, $150,000 did seem kind of
inexpensive to me as well. Was that based off of the model that we saw however long
ago it was like this magic pod out in the middle of nowhere. Is -- is that where the 150
comes from? Is that what you're thinking?
JACOBS: Madam Mayor, Council member Grzybowski, I'll have to defer that to our
Town Engineer, Mr. Janover.
MAYOR DICKEY: The magic pod.
GRZYBOWSKI: The magic pod.
JANOVER: Yes, yes, this was -- that was based on that pod.
GRZYBOWSKI: Okay. Because -- yeah, 150 didn't seem like -- how are you going to
build a brick and mortar and put bathrooms in there? I kind of thought that.
JANOVER: That is correct.
GRZYBOWSKI: Okay. So that answered that question. That being said, I understand
that we're looking at this and kind of feeling like we're just seeing it the first time, but
we're seeing it the first time because the last time we saw it, we said this is too much
money. What can you bring to the table that's a little less expensive?
So now they've bought something that's a little less expensive, because they still want to
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spend money on our downtown, which I -- I agree with that. I love the concept of
speaking with Shea and his group. Should we put a placeholder on money so that we can
see if we can get anything from Shea to help enhance it? And then we've got money in a
placeholder? Is this stuff I'm making up as I go along? Is this even legal?
ARNSON: Mayor and Council, you're entitled to set aside or earmark whatever you
want for a particular purpose. I think Director Pock would probably prefer that we
receive directions so that he can allocate money to other line items, so I'll defer to him on
what he needs to see.
POCK: Mayor and Council member, yes, this is on the delayed start list. So these funds
aren't being held anywhere in the -- in the tentative budget, these would be presented
again later in the year, if we had the contingency, the revenues to put towards it. Then
that's when you could decide how much, where, when.
GRZYBOWSKI: So putting peoples mind at ease, if we put -- pick an option. We are
not committing to it, but we're putting the money out there so that if we like what Jerry
and Shea's group will help contribute, then at that point?
POCK: At that point, then you could say, yes, we're going to put money towards it.
Right now, I think we just need direction so that Amanda can go and develop an idea
based on your input so that she could bring that back to you in a more developed way in
the future.
JACOBS: And I'll just say, Madam Mayor, that is correct that I can spend the next eight
months working further on this, talking to stakeholders. If the direction tonight is Option
D, I have other things to do that are important. That will just continue to be the focus.
MAYOR DICKEY: Hannah? Vice Mayor?
MCMAHON: Thank you very much for putting this together. I agree with Sharron. I
think we should move forward and give you some direction as far as developing the
downtown area. All I've heard about from the stakeholders and business owners is that
they believe and feel that if we enhance the downtown area, it's going to encourage
growth, encourage more -- more business, et cetera. So I'm for the project, within reason,
and I would like to set aside money, but David Pock said we couldn't. But I agree with
Sharron. I really think that it's necessary to develop the downtown and not put it off for a
year or two because it's going to take probably a year to get it moving and give you the
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authority to work and do your magic, so to speak. So I'm for moving forward with A, B,
or C on it. Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Councilmember?
TOTH: Okay. Got all my thoughts in a row and I'm ready. Having grown up in this
town, hearing -- let's push it back a year -- let's push it back a couple years. Not just with
this, but especially with this. With focusing on downtown, starts to give me like a
nervous reaction, because it's so common in this town to hear, oh we'll do it later and
we'll do it later -- we'll do it later.
Parkview has looked the same since I was born pretty much. I mean, that's an
exaggeration, but not by much, right? What I'm trying to say here is, somebody -- if we
really believe in our downtown, if we believe in our community's ability to become a
thriving downtown, eventually somebody's got to pull the trigger on this. And this isn't
the project every time, but it's been some iteration of it every year since the town was
incorporated, I mean, somebody's got to do it.
FRIEDEL: Correct me if I'm wrong, Rachel. Wasn't it just a few years ago we put
money into the Avenue?
GOODWIN: We did. So we -- the -- the town redeveloped the avenue as you know it
today. That went on through 2014/2015. And so it's roughly ten years ago, not quite,
where the major enhancements went on, the Fountains were redone, the turf, the walking
pathway -- the meandering path, if you will -- so a number of enhancements happened
during that time. And I think what -- to clarify some of the discussion tonight, what I
think would help Amanda and -- and Pock as well, is the idea of, if we want to explore
this more great, give us a price point that you're comfortable with and do you want to
focus on the avenue, do you want to focus on Parkview, do you want to focus on both?
Or do you want to focus on none? And I think that's -- if you can give sort of that
indicator and a -- and a budget that you would feel somewhat comfortable to be working
within, that gives some direction so that you can do some more research. Yes, it would
have to come back. To be clear, nothing could happen until we came back, because it
would be on the delayed list. So to that point, we would still give it the option of
budgetarily what number would you feel comfortable with, so when we come back,
Amanda doesn't come back with well, hey, I designed a $500,000 plan and everybody
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says, yeah, we're more comfortable with 250. If she knew that ahead of time, she could
work within that number. So that's, I think, where we're trying to get to.
JACOBS: What she said.
GOODWIN: But to answer the question, yes we redid the Avenue roughly ten years ago.
KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor.
FRIEDEL: I wasn't done. One quick one -- quick question. Amanda, in your vision, do
you see them ripping up everything we just -- we did just a few years ago or adding to it?
JACOBS: Mayor and Councilmember Friedel, adding to it. So an enhancement. So not
ripping things up, because that would have been a waste of money. That -- that would
not be --
KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah. Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Yeah. Just wanted to -- just go back
to this, the 30,000 foot view of -- we -- we killed a lot of projects. There's the kill list and
then we have the delayed list and -- and I just think if we're going to have this
conversation, we just have to have this on the delayed list and then we have to prioritize.
We had a presentation tonight. We've had them in the past for the ones on the delay list,
but I think Wayfinding signs, that's on the delayed list, would, I think, would be a much
better expenditure of our funds because instead of concentrating everything in the
downtown, we'd be putting up signs to get tourists to go to park here, downtown here.
And so I think Wayfinding signs, to me, would take a higher priority than this. And so I
think it's just -- we just have to keep in mind there's a lot of other projects on hold and it's
our job to pick one through ten or whatever.
SKILLICORN: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Director Jacobs, based on, I think, more
discussion happened here, than what you're saying. It almost sounds like, and -- and
maybe I misinterpreted things, that some of this is about investment in the Avenue
Fountains. My impression was, initially, this was talking about just Rio Verde and -- and
Parkview. And I even think I -- I believe you mentioned those two streets and I want to
make sure that this the scope is not expanding. We have what we want here and what I
would suggest, and -- and I -- I think that the Councilwoman is -- is absolutely correct,
that there are many priorities that we're delaying. I don't see this kind of bumping up in
front of some serious things that are being delayed. I would love to see a A -- A lighting
plan. I'd like to know how many lights. I'd like to know how much they cost. I'd like to
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know the lumens, like the wattage. I love to see that play on, but I still don't know if
we're going to be able to pack this into the second -- second-half of '24. That's why I
mentioned '25, but it is something we'd like to see and I know we've talked about it and I
think that's actually the consensus of this board -- was more, what can we do lighting
wise. And we've heard lots of figures and most of them are quite a bit lower than the --
the $600,000, which was really talked about. So that's -- that's the point on that. And
then if -- if Mayor will humor me for another bit here, I don't know if Director Pock is
ready, because there were some specifics I wanted to talk about, but I don't know where
you are in the presentation. If you've got more stuff you want to show, then I will hold
off.
JACOBS: And Mayor Dickey, Councilmember Skillicorn, what I heard, and maybe I
heard incorrectly, but April 11th, I know you had mentioned the Avenue. Maybe I
misunderstood what you were saying. I know Mayor Dickey mentioned completing it
or -- or finishing it, whatever that entails. And so it was, again, I was trying to listen,
because there wasn't, I felt, clear direction. There was clear direction on reducing the
cost and providing options. So just to make that point.
GRZYBOWSKI: Keeping in mind that ten years ish ago, we redid the Avenue. And
we're, obviously, looking to decrease the dollar value. That's -- that's obvious from the
conversation here. I understand wanting to know lighting plan, how many lights, but this
is big picture. We need to pick what it is we want to do and then the plan gets put
together and they come back and present to us how many lights it would be, where they
would be placed, all that kind of stuff. And I can assure you that the -- the lumens that
the lights are -- are going to be approved by our Dark Sky folks or it would not even be
something we would consider.
Where I'm going with this massive thought, sorry about that, is, let's talk lighting. I think
lighting is very important. We've had this conversation before. That right now, the only
lighting is on the Avenue. We just did the avenue ten years ish or so ago. It sounds like
we don't want to redo it. Which is fine. I love the the plan that -- that Otis' came did for
us, but I think lighting is very important. It makes it more inviting to want to go down
Verde River and go down Parkview. So do -- can we say we -- we want to talk lighting
and do we want to talk lighting just on Verde River? Or do we want to talk lighting on
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both streets? I feel like we need to start there.
JACBOS: And Madam Mayor, what I'm hearing, again, not -- not clear. I hear about
three of you liking options A, B, or C, maybe not clear. And then some clear direction of
Option D. Any more Option Ds or an Option A, B, C?
MAYOR DICKEY: Hannah?
TOTH: I mean, obviously, I like Option A, but I'm not winning that battle. So Option B
was the one that would put some lighting on Verdi and Parkview, right?
JACBOS: Correct. So we could do both streets, or just one at roughly 250,000.
TOTH: Okay. What if we explore that Avenue? What if we explore that road of getting
the lighting on Verde River and Parkview? Exploring how to connect that Town Center
area? And really, keep in mind that plan and tell Otis Architecture to keep it in mind for
maybe '25 or '26? Because I -- I would love to create a sense of place on the Avenue, but
I can understand why that might not be something we can do this year. So I would
suggest that maybe we just explore the lighting on Verde River and Parkview.
MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman?
SKILLICORN: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I think when I see B here, my blood
pressure goes way up when I see a $500,000 price tag for lighting. So I want to make
sure that that's clear. But also, Madam Mayor, I think you raised your hand for item D,
and if my math is correct, that's -- that's the majority. So that sounds -- if that's correct, it
sounds like direction.
MAYOR DICKEY: I just want to say a couple things. I must be missing the boat on
Parkview, because we don't have sidewalks and we're trying to create a strollable,
walkable, whatever you want to call it, scenario down there. The stores are far set back.
There's no sidewalks. The types of businesses that are there, many of them would not be
open at night, would not. So I get trying to attract, but I don't think, at this point, we're in
the position to spend $250,000 or $500,000 on lights to potentially attract people to
Parkview when we have vacancies on Avenue Fountain. When we said -- to me our
discussion that day was, come up with something less expensive so that Parkview and
Verde River feel included. So my brain, I'm like put some signage up, put some signs up,
more stores this way, follow me. You go down to Denver, they've got these little round
things, whatever, Cs for Colorado and then you're in that, whatever that district is. So the
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the aim of that whole thing was for Parkview and for Verde River, and then we kind of
started talking about Avenue of the Fountains. Of course, I'm still huffy because I still
think we're not done with Avenue of the Fountains until we have a safe intersection and
something that's been talked about for more than 10 years. So -- so that was removed.
So when, Hannah when you say, if we say no to something. Yeah, we've been saying no
to that for like 15 years. But regardless of that, I didn't think we were coming back with
an idea for the Avenue, so much as for how to make Parkview feel part of downtown,
which they are designated downtown or Town Center. Signage, banners, I don't know,
the music, the Wi-Fi, maybe more shade or something on Avenue of the Fountains, but I
don't think we should spend this money. I'd rather have a full-fledged restroom there, if
we're going to do anything downtown. And figure out some other ways to make people
want to go on Parkview and have something there for them to go to. So anyway, I think
I'm the only one who thinks all this, so go ahead.
KALIVIANAKIS: No, I -- I concur with all of it.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Hannah?
TOTH: This will be my last thing I say on this. When I was trying to open up the
conversation about Option B, I did not say, Amanda, go spend half a mill on it. It was
trying to open a conversation to get something done, rather than the Option D, that --
which is do nothing.
And as for that previous project, that was a tiny, tiny piece of this plan, and the plan was
for thriving downtown. The idea was to get where our downtown is lively and that tiny,
tiny piece, that doesn't attract people. Doesn't really give us a better way to handle it.
And statistically, it is debatable whether or not it was safer. I really don't think that is
comparable whatsoever to a project that's trying to actually include our full Town Center,
which we designate as Town Center, but we only treat one road like it's our downtown.
Not that I don't love the Avenue, and I don't think we're done with it either. I agree with
you, Mayor. I think that there could be improvements and that's why I was for Option A,
but I can understand waiting on that. Just trying to open up a conversation so we don't sit
here and become another Council that says let's do nothing.
MAYOR DICKEY: What the -- sorry -- the -- the budgetary options then, would be, and
this you won't like, would be like we don't have an idea right now, what we want to do.
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But keeping something there so that something could be done is that what?
MCMAHON: A placeholder.
MAYOR DICKEY: I mean, we're just -- we just want to do this amount right now. This
upper amount.
KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah.
MAYOR DICKEY: So I'm okay with doing that.
KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah. Thank you, Ms. Mayor. And I think when -- when, Hannah,
when you're speaking, before I was shaking my head and with what you're saying. And I
think if we did go with D, but aspirationally, to do what Hannah said, let's -- let's think
about in the future, if we're going to start this off, is get some lighting in there. And --
I'm sorry if that's not what you said. I thought that you said that maybe we should think
about next year and that's -- like I said, I heard -- and if I misquoted, I'm sorry. But I
guess, for me, it'd be like -- and not do anything this year, but then maybe next year,
begin with the solar lighting and -- and just get some illumination in that area, which I
think would help a great deal.
TOTH: Really quickly, Mayor. Because I don't want my words taken out of context. I
wanted to open up the conversation because it was a delayed project, and it would have to
come back to us and it would come back to us this year. At no point did I say to do
Option B next year. I was talking about for the downtown, for that Avenue, for that
Option A, that I was looking at, maybe half of that goes to next year. I thought I was
clear on that.
KALIVIANAKIS: I'm sorry if I misquoted you, Hannah.
JACOBS: Madam Mayor, I heard maybe you were okay with the placeholder at the end
of your conversation? Yes, no? Otherwise, I feel like what I'm hearing is Option D. So
I'm going to respect that. Mr. Pock has more slides for you, so go with Option D, and
then just so you know, I will bring things back in our Community Economic
Development Strategy, which we proposed, just related to the downtown. And then I
think there is some type of support. So maybe over these next eight months, we can have
some one-on-one conversations. So that when we bring something back again, there's
clear direction in fiscal year '25. If I'm incorrect, let me know.
MCMAHON: I don't get the consensus that it's D. I thought we were talking about
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putting a placeholder out a couple $100,000, so that you can do something and so that
Gerry, as he suggested, and talking to Shea, because if you don't have that, then what are
we doing talking to Shea if we don't have a placeholder? So that's what I think we should
at least have a couple $100,000 for a placeholder.
SKILLICORN: Madam Mayor, I can -- I feel completely inappropriate adding a quarter
million-dollar placeholder when we have a $60 million road deficit that that is -- is
compounding. We need to address that, and I'm sorry, but this is another thing that's
going to have to wait, and we'll go through the process here. But I have a very specific
motion and I can't go along with placeholders, and I will vote no to any budget with
placeholders.
GOODWIN: I'm going to -- I'm going to try and wrap this -- put this together and I'm
going to hand this back over to you. What I actually hear is Idea E, which is none of the
above. The idea that, yes, there is interest in exploring this. We don't know what exactly
we want. We don't know exactly how much we want to spend. There's a lot of concerns
about there, about what it should include, what it shouldn't, discomfort about identifying
a number and holding it specific. Quickly, to be fair, this is a delayed project, which
means you probably wouldn't hear much more about this until the November, December
at the earliest. The reality is -- is that even if we come back with a great plan and you say
that's awesome, go do it, we probably can't get it done at that capacity during the FY24
fiscal year. So if it makes more sense for Amanda to not necessarily do nothing, but to
continue to the discussions, as she says, look into it. Maybe zero in on a few better -- on
a few more details, a better idea of budget impact, so that when we come back and have
our budget retreat in February, we can talk about real numbers, real project ideas. Not
concepts.
If that makes more sense, again, it doesn't necessarily mean do nothing, it means we're
not ready to make that decision and we want to come back and explore it in more detail.
Okay. Okay. Thanks.
[LAUGHTER]
POCK: All right, so back to this slide. Just to make one point, just to make sure there
isn't any confusion later when we're doing motions, none of these projects, none of these
funds are represented anywhere in the tentative budget. They're not placeholders, they're
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not anywhere. They're on a slide showing you what came out of the proposed budget, so.
Moving on. So as far as Capital Projects Fund as it stands in the tentative budget, there is
$6.6 million budgeted in the Capital Projects Fund. You can see the breakdown on the
left between public works and community services and then the breakdown on the right is
the funding sources. The only portion that's coming out of existing Capital Project Fund
fund balance is $2.8 million. 35,000, as you heard earlier, is for the downtown restroom
project for design, 35,000, and then the special revenue $3.8 million, all grant funding,
either flood, mcdot or MAG or somewhere else? Not us. So I just want to make that
very clear. There's not $6.7 million for something else.
So onto the projects that are included in the tentative budget, again, everything that
you've seen before. There was a slight change in the second Community Services Project
P3036. That increased $35,700 from what you saw at the proposed budget. That is to
pay for transportation of the shade structure at the American Legion to shade and net,
their work to recover that, repaint, and then transport it back to Desert Vista Park. So
that's the only change as far as that goes. Everything else are the numbers that you saw at
the work session. Any questions there?
SKILLICORN: Madam Mayor, Director Pock, to get there at $37,000 to transport the
shade structure.
POCK: Transport, recover, repaint, and transfer back.
SKILLICORN: And what is the expected savings based on you just purchasing one?
POCK: I -- I -- I can answer that. It's about $50,000.
SKILLICORN: Okay.
MAYOR DICKEY: To buy it?
SKILLICORN: Yeah. And then, so can we go back to the delayed project slide? So this
is one that I don't know if -- how much of what I'm going to say is actionable, but I think
it's it's poignant. So I see a lot of things in here that will protect our infrastructure, things
that would be fiscally conservative, yet something that really sets us up for the future. I
see a lot of drainage improvements. I see some infrastructure repairs. I see a lot of these
things that are being delayed, that are important. That may not be glamorous, but our --
when we -- when we ran for these offices, we talked a lot about needs and wants. And I
see these are like, these aren't things that like, you want and you -- or we're going to --
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we're going to put in the newspaper, like how we did such great work because we did this
drainage improvement. No we're not. But those drainage improvements mean that our
infrastructure is not going to wash away. Someone's yard is not going to wash away,
things like that.
So I'm concerned that some of those were delayed, yet we have somewhat frivolous stuff
that's still in the capital projects. So I did want to kind of go through, and I actually have
some specifics that I wanted to lay out. And I'm just going to start from the top. Is first
off, I do want to change the overall CAP number or -- that we're going to make a motion
on tonight and that's gonna be part of my motion. Coming from 43.1 and I wanted to
move that down to 41.8, 41,807,000, and I'll talk about that later.
Now. I actually have found all those cuts, except for the new 37,000, which was kind of
popped on me. But I -- I -- I still think we can -- we can roll with that. First off, and
actually this is going to be putting us in a better situation, I would really like to cap the
general fund to what it is in the current year. So instead of going to 22.6, I'd like to go
back down to 22.1, which was budgeted, even though we didn't get to that point. I think
it's more appropriate to do a 22.1 v. 22.6.
When I go back and think about supplements, I know that probably one of the big one
and I -- I want to be cautious about going to the part-time, the full-time because of the --
our health insurance benefits I assume is a difference there. I am concerned about that,
but when you talk about the cost of living, the seven percent, which is extremely high, the
private sector wouldn't do that, even though inflation is very high. What I think a better
proposal would be is that -- that the rank and file can get get the COLA, but I don't think
managers should. That dollar amount is probably hard to figure based on who's the
manager or not right this moment. But I kind of have a guesstimate number in my head.
Some areas that I also thought were appropriate is that -- the $50,000 for the MAG
homeless. I think 40 was the new LEAF, 10 was the MAG. Frankly, these are the
policies that don't work in Seattle, and Portland, and Phoenix, all over the country. I say
that we should get rid of that.
Some of the other things that I see that can go to the capital projects, and the specifics for
the like the Desert Vista, the outdoor exercise equipment, I -- I think it's inappropriate to
do outdoor exercise improvement equipment when we're getting rid of drainage and other
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things like that. So I would ask that. Other than that, the -- I think the shade structure is
too good of a deal for us to get the -- so that, I would like to include the chain structure,
but not the other $200,000 there.
As I go into my budget book here. So we already cut out a few of these things, which I
appreciate. I do want to completely cut out for this year the -- the streetscape
improvements that was originally 635. I know we reduced that to 535. I just don't think
we're ready for that. The Palisades traffic signal. I don't think that there was consensus
to do that. So I'd like to cut that 34,900.
And let's kind of go back here, I believe the -- reducing the COLA, reducing the MAG,
reducing the Desert Vista, I came up with $684,000 in cuts. If we take out the
streetscape, we're at $1.2, $1.3 million, which would bring us to that -- that $41,807,000.
So the motion I would like, and I don't know how -- if Aaron would like me to structure
this to get this through, but I would like to do the the overall '24 budget number would be
that 41,807. If I need to go through the the cuts, that's fine or --
ARNSON: Well, I'm not -- I'm not -- So first of all, yeah, if -- if you have a specific
motion that includes -- that includes specifics, yes.
SKILLICORN: Okay.
ARNSON: The Mayor, I don't know if you're entertaining a motion right now, and I
don't know if Director Pock is done, but yes. If they're going to be specific things that we
want out of the budget, then we can either do that now or with the adoption of the final
budget, because today we're setting tentative budget with just the CAP. So you might not
need to go through line by line.
SKILLICORN: Yeah, I just -- I think the guard rails are a good thing and I think the
specific motion is helpful for staff. It's just like when I -- when I bowl, I'm not as good as
Councilwoman here. I need the bumpers. And I think it's -- it's wise to give staff
guardrails whenever possible.
MAYOR DICKEY: So just to be clear, you wanted to lower the total amount, and then
you want to individually go through what you did to get to that amount?
SKILLICORN: Yes.
MAYOR DICKEY: And you want to do that now? Or just do the -- the amount?
SKILLICORN: And then, well, it's yeah, I mean, it's -- it's -- it's not -- it's not that
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detailed. I mean, there's just a few things here.
MAYOR DICKEY: Well. Okay. I mean, if -- if you're going to go through each thing
that you want, then we're going to debate each one of those things. If you just want to go
with the amount, then we'll figure out if every --
SKILLICORN: I -- I think it's appropriate to -- to have staff have direction.
MCMAHON: Can I say something?
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Vice mayor?
MCMAHON: I disagree. I would like you to present and state which ones you don't
want so that we can think about it, and look at it, and come back and have a more
informed, intelligent decision about this. For example, the homeless money. I totally
disagree with you about that. Homeless is -- is rampant in Phoenix and Fountain Hills is
not exempt from that. This is like -- we don't have the facilities and the staff to address
homelessness. And if we did, it would cost more than $40 or $50,000. So to give -- to
donate $40,000 in New LEAF and $10,000 to MAG is -- given what we get back from
that is exponentially -- you can't even put a dollar amount on that. We deal with MAG
and we -- they have so many more stakeholders that they're dealing with, every single
town and community donates money to this, from this. I do not think it's appropriate to
exempt Fountain Hills from that. Because we don't have the huge homeless population
that other towns does, it doesn't mean it's -- we're not going to be affected by it.
As far as New LEAF, New LEAF doesn't just address homeless.
It addresses across the board, so many things that affect the communities. We have the
men's shelter down there, that's what 11 miles from us? $40,000 alone helps that.
They -- they address domestic abuse; they direct after school care. There are, if you look
at their website and really look at all the the services that they provide, again $40,000
doesn't even come close to being able to provide for that. So I think it's negligent on
our -- on our part to not donate a reasonable sum, that's $40 or $50,000 to those entities.
As for the other things that you want to debate right now, I don't want to debate them
right now. I really don't. I would like to be able to sit down and think about what you're
proposing. Do the math myself and come back and then talk about them. Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman?
GRZYBOWSKI SPEAKER: Councilman Skillicorn, you might fall out of your chair,
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but I actually agree with you. I realize I'm not going to win the battle on the downtown
thing, but I'm right there with you, and here's why. With organizations like a New Leaf,
I'm sure they're fantastic, but we are not a charity; we're a government. And to give $40
or $50,000 in charity, which is more than I make in a year, seems a little irresponsible.
Furthermore, Phoenix has made it very clear that they're not equipped to deal with their
homeless problem, so why would we -- why would we follow in their footsteps to try?
Moving on from there, the capital projects that you mentioned, I would agree with you. I
think that there are certain ones that we can make a priority in this year and if that's a
number that we're realistically able to get to, then I support your motion.
MAYOR DICKEY: Rachael?
GOODWIN: I'm just going to share that regardless of what number is adopted tonight,
whether it's a reduced number, whether it's the number that's shared by Director Pock, if
we adopt a reduced number, the -- we need to find those cuts too, because we can't
change it later. So for instance, if we had -- adopt the number that's proposed and don't
discuss how we got there, and come back at our final adoption and we decide -- what
we -- we still want to leave these two things in or there's not consensus. We can't add
them back in. So keep that in mind. I understand that it's late and I understand that that's
not a popular answer, but understand, if we adopt a lower number, those cuts have to be
found. You cannot add them back later. So I just want to make sure that everybody's
aware of that.
GRZYBOWSKI: I feel like we already went through each and every one of these
projects and had various serious conversation about each one of them. Sure, a couple of
them, we probably blew by a little faster than some of the others, so I am a little surprised
that now all of a sudden we want to delete some of them. And that's all I wanted to say.
Thank you.
SKILLICORN: Madam Mayor, if I could just respond to that last and -- and Council and
I -- I appreciate that. That sounds like a surprise, but I also, I think, it's little surprise --
that there's -- some things are being delayed that, I think, that were important capital
projects and to find out things that were not, as you know, we're not as -- were things that
were more wants and needs were put off. I -- I -- I just thought that was a little
inappropriate and frankly, if -- if we're going to be delaying needed things like
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infrastructure improvements, I think it's appropriate to delay other things too.
And I don't think we all, I mean, Councilman Toth mentioned a battle about this. This is
a bad -- we -- we all want to have a prosperous downtown. We might differ a little tiny
bit on how to get there, but we all want that. But we all have to figure out how to get
there. But we also have to remember that we have a $50 or $60 million backlog in our
streets. And what I saw here, was not roads first. I've got to -- I got to fight for roads.
first and any money that's left over, we can apply that to streets and roads. And even if
our roads department can't utilize that right away, that just puts off having to borrow
later. And I would love to get ahead instead of being behind. Let's get ahead and then
when we're ahead, then we're going to find ourselves in a prosperous situation where we
can do all this neat and exciting things and -- and really have a -- a beautiful gem of a
town, but we got to take care of the basics first. That's all. Go ahead.
GRZYBOWSKI: Can you go back to the delayed slide? Didn't we go through all of
these as well, and that's why they're on this slide? Because we discussed each of them
and we decided whether it be as a group in its entirety or as a majority. We decided that
these were -- were ones we didn't want to include in the budget, which is why they're not
a part of the budget anymore. I just -- I feel like we were asked to give staff direction,
which we did. Now all of a sudden, we're trying to redirection them when we had this
conversation, very detailed, I feel like a month ago. But I really couldn't say specifically.
So again, yes, I am surprised we've already made the decision to pull these. And now we
want to pull more and maybe, possibly, put some of these back in. I'm just -- I just -- I
feel very badly for staff. They've busted their asses for us, and now we're changing our
mind and delaying what, legally, we have to do, which is approve a budget in a short
amount of time.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you, Councilwoman.
KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Correct me if I'm wrong, Rachael, but didn't
we approve the low flow drainage crossing improvement program and didn't we improve
the town wide store water infrastructure rehabilitation? I'm going by memory, I think we
approved those, but because we needed to reduce the cap by $3,000,000, those were
subsequently deleted. Is that correct?
GOODWIN: You are correct. So the -- but keep in mind, they are not deleted, they are
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simply delayed.
KALIVIANAKIS: Delayed, excuse me.
GOODWIN: And that is -- delayed, exactly, and it is simply a result of, we have the
money. We have the money and it's available. We could go do all of these projects, but
the state says, you can only spend this much money. So while we have it, we can't spend
it per the state.
KALIVIANAKIS: But I'm trying to explain this juxtaposition between Sharron and
Allen, because we actually did approve these, but they were subsequently cut and so it's
lending confusion tonight.
GOODWIN: Let me -- let me add one other piece of this that was mentioned, but I'm not
sure that it got caught, was that these were the ones that were recommended per staff. So
when we came together and said, hey, we got to find 2.8 million to delay. Actually, we
started with what we sort of threw out there and said, what, it's better to ask the staff that
are implementing these projects. They know better than we do as to which ones can be
managed, which ones could we get done with only six month's notice. If we come back
in December and say, hey, things are looking good, go get these delayed one's going,
which ones could we actually still get done in a year in the last back half of.
So that's where Justin and Kevin came in and looked at these and said, if we're going to
delay, these are the ones that we would recommend for whatever reasons. And again, it
had to do with ones we could live without, ones we could delay, ones we thought we
could still get done in a timely fashion, and I'd be happy to let them chime in if they
choose to. But these were recommended from the staff perspective for the delay.
KALIVIANAKIS: I just got a real quick thing with the the the drainage in the
infrastructure, I thought we had a lot of grant money tied up in that and that's why I think
we voted for them because we were paying out pennies to getting millions of dollars
worth of grants.
WELDY: Madam Mayor, Council members, I -- I will just speak in regards to public
works. What you see in front of you is difficult decisions made by calculated risks with a
brief explanation. I'm not gonna go into comment on the downtown streetscape. We've
had enough conversation about that. In regards to the Golden Eagle Impoundment, and
this is multiple years in design, we are right now up against one of our biggest turtles,
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which is the Arizona Department of Water Resources and the Maricopa County Flood
Control. That review process now that we're at a percent design is 18 to 24 months.
There's simply nothing we can do to expedite that because of their policies and
procedures. Again, we do not take it lightly. We do, however, know that we have made
substantial improvements using the available funding to minimize and reduce the
backflow of water into Golden Eagle, the town wide storm drain infrastructure. The
inventory is primarily complete, however, having an engineering firm with expertise in
how we should best preserve, in some cases, 50 plus year old metal pipes, has proven
difficult because of the small dollar threshold. It's a lot of money to us, but to these
multi-billion dollar companies, they -- what they want to do is show you a picture of what
you could do for $150,000. No real direction.
Again, I won't go through each one of them in regards to the low flow drainage, we
believe that we have adequate time for planning and design on that in the latter part of
next year and most likely into the following year. Because of the way the process works
for those grants and the design to arrive there, the rest of the -- in regards to lighting and
the lockers and the wayfinding, wayfinding is another challenging subject matter. Where
we received a set of documents many, many years ago, we sent it out to bid and we got
three different types of bids, but because there were no structural calculations and the
materials called out were abnormal, we had to start that process all over. It's in design
and we're going to accomplish that goal. We do not believe we're going to be ready for
installation again until the latter part of next. This year, the one at Saguaro and King
Street, which is a back watering issue, water stands in that intersection after storm events,
it does eventually drain, just not at the rate that we would like it to. Again, delayed, not
cancelled, simply delayed, and that allows us more -- more time to focus on what we can
accomplish and plan for these in the future.
KALIVIANAKIS: And -- and just one other question then, would -- would these delays
affect the grant money or would that grant money still be available?
WELDY: Madam Mayor, Councilmember, the -- the grant will still be available. So
this, Mayor, Council has made a commitment to that grant.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay.
WELDY: And we're not canceling that tonight. We're simply stating that we have that
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option in the latter part of the year and we'll begin to prioritize these based on the
available budget that we could spend and also grant opportunities.
At any point in time, we may return back here and ask you to allow us to defer or delay
something else to address one of the priorities where grants included.
FRIEDEL: Allen, I -- I probably wouldn't disagree with some of what you said, but I
want to get back to the COLA increase. So are you saying that the managers shouldn't
get anything? I'm not for that. Just so you know, I think we need to take care of our
employees. We're working with a lean staff now and these managers direct our staff and
they direct our town. I think that that's important.
I'd like you to reconsider that if -- if you have a number that you want to reach, I'm sure
the staff can come up with the cuts necessary for -- for the -- for the other things. And we
come up with that number. But I think that taking care of the staff that runs our town is
really important, to me anyway, so I feel pretty strongly about that. So I want you to
think about that and I wouldn't be for that -- part of it.
ARNSON: Yeah. And I know that Manager Goodwin wants Kevin to -- to talk -- to talk
about some of his projects, and I want to make sure that that doesn't get lost. I just
wanted to give a little bit of -- maybe some help in seeing where we can get this
conversation moving forward. It seems like you have a couple of options of what you
could do tonight. And then Kevin, I'll turn it over to you.
The first would be to adopt the budget, as presented by staff, at the number that's directed
by staff and subsequently went at adoption of the final budget, right, come back and start
to whittle off items. You can do that and don't forget what manager Goodwin talked
about, that whatever number we set tonight, if we have adopt a reduced number, it cannot
be increased, legally, so it may behoove the Council to adopt a higher one tonight and
come back and approve one at a lower rate. That's Option 1.
Option 2 is what Allen is suggesting, what Council member Skillicorn is suggesting, and
after Kevin finishes, my suggestion would be, if that's what we're going to do -- going to
do tonight and go line by line, we need to get started and go through. Here's this project,
do we want it? Yes or no? Here's this project, do we want it? Yes or no? Because if we
don't start now, it's going to be tomorrow by the time -- by the time we say goodbye.
SNIPES: Councilmembers and Mayor, just on the parks side of things, when we started
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talking about deferring and moving back our -- our timeline, the sidewalk replacement,
we've done several this year and we're doing them right here at the end of the year. So
it's pretty easy to know that five or six months down the road, we can start that back up.
So that was a real simple one to put in here as a deferred for later this year.
The other one is for the Fountain Park improvements that we talked about around the
splash pad area. We're not going to do that until we're done with the splash pad anyway,
and so that made it easy to put that one on the list. So that's why those two are on the list.
As far as our commitments to doing the -- the improvements in parks, the Desert Vista
one was done as a two year program, and so we've designed and started the build for a
two year program and relying on that money to be there. Having the shade be there, but
not anything to put under it, around it, is just going to be a shade structure and for -- in
the middle of nowhere. And so that makes that a difficult thing to take on as well,
because it's going to look like we didn't know what we were doing when we put a shade
structure out with nothing under it or a way to get to it.
So I think that's something that I would encourage you to -- to think about when we do
multiyear programs. We plan and design multiyear improvements. So just something to
think about while you're doing it as well.
SKILLICORN: there was a couple, Madam Mayor, those couple of questions that were
made. I -- and I still I -- I start just looking through very quickly. Desert Vista, when I
add in Centennial Pavilion, when I add in the -- the -- the traffic signal. I come up to
$484,000. $484,000 pays for somebody's drainage products and things, and I -- I still
look at infrastructure has to be a priority over -- one, to the COLA question, that -- that
comes up, because nowhere in the private sector has anyone seen a -- a seven percent
COLA. Nowhere could we entertain a different number, maybe. But part of that comes
from, we were expecting to save a few dollars with the retirement of our town manager.
When I -- when I look at salaries that -- that isn't the case. We're -- we're paying the old
salary. So that's a dollar amount there. And -- and those things add up. I mean, so I'm
going to make a motion to approve a cap at $41,807,000.
MAYOR DICKEY: I don't think there's a second for that. Aaron, did you have
something to say? Would someone like to move the amount that is in the agenda? 43.1, I
think.
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MCMAHON: Make a motion for it, is that what you're saying?
MCMAHON. Where is it?
MCMAHON: Is it right here? Staff recommends adoption of resolution 2023/14, and I
make a motion for that.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Is there a second?
GRZYBOWSKI: Second.
Roll call, please.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Kalivianakis?
KALIVIANAKIS: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Skillicorn?
SKILLICORN: No.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Toth?
TOTH: No
MENDENHALL: Council Member Grzybowski?
GRZYBOWSKI: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Friedel?
FRIEDEL: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor McMahon?
MCMAHON: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey?
MAYOR DICKEY: Aye.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Thank you very much for all your work. I have a
couple more items here.
Thank you. I'm sorry.
MCMAHON: One second. Thank you to the staff for taking time to explain the delayed
projects, we appreciate it.
MAYOR DICKEY: Next is our HVAC system cleaning purchasing agreement.
WELDY: Madam Mayor, Councilmembers. Excellent discussion tonight in regards to
the things that have been delayed or deferred. This subject matter of these chillers is one
of those multiple years, the maintenance and or replacement or repair of these critical
chillers to our infrastructure that not only address the -- the Town Hall, but the
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Community Center, and the library. They're still functioning, but they need extensive
work and repair. We are fortunate enough that the county went out for bid for this type
of contract. This vendor has agreed to extend those terms to us. And has worked with
facility staff over several months, doing extensive investigations and explaining the
process and providing some estimates on not only what we need to do now, but what
we're going to need to plan for in the future.
What we're asking for tonight, is the approval of this contract, primarily for the cleaning
of the chiller equipment and the towers and some additional work that was previously
scheduled and delayed related to the HVAC system for the town hall campus buildings.
If you have any questions related to that, I will do my best to answer them.
MAYOR DICKEY: We didn't have any cards, do we?
MENDENHALL: No Mayor, we don't have any more cards.
MAYOR DICKEY: You'll make a motion?
Oh, we do. I'm sorry.
MENDENHALL: It was the budget. They were just in support of Amandas avenue
enhancements -- you had them here. Nobody wanted to speak. It was just.
KALIVIANAKIS: Okay. I'd like to move to approve the cooperative purchasing
agreement C2023-O73 with Camp Facility Services for HVAC system cleaning services.
The amount of $66,000.
MCMAHON: Second.
MAYOR DICKEY: Roll call, please.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Skillicorn?
SKILLICORN: Yes.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Toth?
TOTH: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Grzybowski?
GRZYBOWSKI: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Friedel?
FRIEDEL: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Kalivianakis?
KALIVIANAKIS: Aye.
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MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor McMahon?
MCMAHON: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey?
MAYOR DICKEY: Aye.
I figured you were next.
WELDY: Madam Mayor, Council members. This one is a little bit more challenging.
When we come to the Merit Council and we ask for permission to apply for a grant, we
use the best managing and practices available for estimates. For our capital projects, for
grant funding in this particular case, we even added an escalation factor in there that
honestly, I believed was too high and we would be above the the numbers for these two
capital projects. When they came in, I was wrong and -- and I admit that I made a
mistake when we put these two projects out to bid. And the numbers originally came in.
I had to go back and check the quantities and make sure they didn't bid it twice. We've
done all of that work to make sure that the numbers are accurate and the plans are correct,
and so tonight I'm back to ask you, literally, with my proverbial hat in hand, to allow us
to spend some additional funding, which 75 percent of that funding will be reimbursed by
the county and 25 percent from the town.
Again, these two projects were deemed essential and critical and a priority by the mayor
and Council. We have followed the instructions from Mayor and Council to the best of
our ability. We're at 100 percent. Design we're ready to go to construction. We just
simply need the additional funding for the project on Grande to install a drainage channel
out of concrete and additional funding for Deuce Court to make the in -- or to do
complete the installation of the drainage pipe over there. You see all of the numbers in
front of you. I can certainly go through them one by one if you would like.
MAYOR DICKEY: Total is like 160. The total of both is like 160, right?
WELDY: And I'd like to point out just one thing. I'm asking for an owner's allowance in
here for a reason. In the past, especially in this community, dealing with mature
infrastructure, we have discovered things as we begin to excavate. So the owner's
allowance I'm asking for in here is just to cover those unknowns. In the event that
everything goes smoothly, we're hoping and planning for the best, we have a little bit of
budget authority. Please note that money will not be spent if it is not needed, and it will
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simply remain in the capital fund for other uses.
You're welcome.
SKILLICORN: Madam Mayor. I'd like to make a motion to approve additional funding
for D6062-D6063 and the 3rd amendment to the Professional Services Agreement with
NFRA.
TOTH: Second
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Roll call please.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Toth?
TOTH: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Grzybowski?
GRZYBOWSKI: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Friedel?
FRIEDEL: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Kalivianakis?
KALIVIANAKIS: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Council Member Skillicorn?
SKILLICORN: Yes.
MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor McMahon?
MCMAHON: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey?
MAYOR DICKEY: Aye.
Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: The legislature has been out for couple weeks. They won't probably
name somebody for both of those vacant slots until the 8th. The county supervisors aren't
meeting until then, so not much to report there. Anybody have anything they want to say
on that one? Council discussion direction town manager. We heard about the garden, so
we need to follow up on that. Was there anything else? I don't think there was, except
for, obviously, the rezone and all that future agenda items at this time. Well, we only
have three more meetings.
SKILLICORN: Actually, I would like to have a -- a agenda item for the community
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garden layout in the shed. I'd -- I would I -- I think it's appropriate for the Council to
discuss it.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. I'm not sure our role in all that, but I'll -- I'll -- I'll definitely
follow up and if we have it, we'll put it on. Okay.
That's it then. We're adjourned.
Having no further business, Mayor Ginny Dickey adjourned the Regular Meeting
of the Fountain Hills Town Council held on May 2, 2023, at 9:39 p.m.
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
_______________________
Ginny Dickey, Mayor
ATTEST AND PREPARED BY:
__________________________
Linda G. Mendenhall, Town Clerk
CERTIFICATION
I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the
minutes of the Regular Meeting held by the Town Council of Fountain Hills in the
Town Hall Council Chambers on the 2nd day of May 2023. I further certify that the
meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present.
DATED this 20th Day of June 2023.
_____________________________
Linda G. Mendenhall, Town Clerk
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE FOUNTAIN HILLS TOWN COUNCIL May 16, 2023
A Regular Meeting of the Fountain Hills Town Council was convened at 16705 E. Avenue of the Fountains in open and public session at 5:39 p.m.
Members Present: Mayor Ginny Dickey: Vice Mayor Peggy McMahon; Councilmember Gerry Friedel; Councilmember Sharron Grzybowski: Councilmember Brenda J. Kalivianakis; Councilmember Hannah Toth; Councilmember Allen Skillicorn
Staff Present: Interim Town Manager Rachael Goodwin; Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson; Town Clerk Linda Mendenhall
Audience: Approximately sixty-nine members of the public were present.
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 1 of 64 MAY 16, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
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Post-Production File
Town of Fountain Hills
Minutes of the Regular Meeting
Of the Fountain Hills Town Council
May 16, 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.
* * * * *
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 2 of 64 MAY 16, 2023 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
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DICKEY: Good evening, everyone. Please rise for the Pledge, and if you choose, stay
standing for the invocation.
ALL: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic
for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. We have Pastor Rod Warembourg. Hi.
WAREMBOURG: Thank you all for this opportunity. Please join me for a prayer of
invocation. Father, thank you for your goodness to us. Father, I want to thank you for
these who lead our city. And I pray, Father, that you would help them as they lead and
guide our city. I pray, Father, that you would be made wisdom to them. I pray, Father,
that you would help them to lead us into a bright future. We pray that you would be
about their decisions and about the things that happen here tonight. In Jesus' name,
amen.
ALL: Amen.
WAREMBOURG: Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Roll call, please.
MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey.
MAYOR DICKEY: Here.
MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor McMahon.
MCMAHON: Here.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel.
FRIEDEL: Present.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski.
GRZYBOWSKI: Present.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis.
KALIVIANAKIS: Here.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth.
TOTH: Here.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn.
SKILLICORN: Here.
MENDENHALL: Anyone wishing to address the council regarding items listed on the
agenda or under Call to the Public should fill out a request to comment card located in the
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back of the council chambers and hand it to the town clerk prior to consideration of that
agenda item.
When your name is called, please approach the podium, speak into the microphone, and
state your name for the public record. Please limit your comments to three minutes. It is
the policy of the mayor and council to not comment on items brought forth under Call to
the Public. However, staff can be directed to report back to the council at a future date or
to schedule items raised for future council agenda.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you, Linda, very much. So we start, as always, with our
reports from our town manager and council. Rachael.
GOODWIN: Good evening. I just had one announcement. I wanted to thank our mayor
and council that attended our staff luncheon, where we honored a number of staff who
had milestones years of service. We had a number of staff that were celebrating 5, 10,
15, and even one that had 20 years of service with us here at the town.
And I just wanted to say thank you. It was a great celebration of our dedicated staff and a
reminder of how many -- how many locals we have and how much work goes in every
single day, seen and unseen. So thanks for joining us.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
TOTH: I have no report this week. Thank you.
GRZYBOWSKI: Being respectful of our time, instead of talking about all of the
volunteer stuff that I've done over the past couple of weeks, I try to keep my comments
pertinent to my duties directly here on the council.
During the last two weeks I attended the League Budget and Finance Economic
Development meeting, where only one item was brought up, and it was shot down
immediately. In all honesty, the town manager didn't even know how it was brought to
the table. So we could talk about that later, if you'd like to, Mayor. I'm sure you'll hear
about it.
The town manager, the interim town manager and I met with a couple of their public
service representatives. I attended virtually two League legislative update calls. And last
week I did the first tier suburbs meeting with the National League of Cities. I'm not
actually on their council, but they allow me to attend. And it's always intriguing because
it's not the big cities, the Phoenixes and whatnot. It's the suburbs like us that are
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immediately outside. So that's always an interesting call. Thank you.
FRIEDEL: Thank you, Mayor. I attended several events, including Paws on the Avenue.
It was a dog show on the avenue in front of Classy Jazzy. And we're hoping for a bigger
turnout next year for that. But it was a lot of fun. A lot of cute dogs out there as well. I
attended the recent school board meeting. Like Rachael, I attended the Town Service
Award luncheon recognition for the town employees. I had no idea we had employees
that were there for 10, 15, and 20 years. So that's really a testament to the town and the
staff.
And along that line, Mayor, bear with me. I want to make a statement. You know, we
talked about our capital improvement budget and our buildings and our roads and how
valuable they are and our parks. There's one thing that we don't talk about that I think is
very important of this town, and that's our employees. We have a great group of
employees here. And they help deliver all the services to this town. There's a lot of
volunteers. There's a lot of hours and work that go into that. And I don't know if
anybody in this room realizes the fact that our town manager did not take the COLA
increase recently. I hope I'm not embarrassing you, Rachael. But that's a testament to a
good manager who stood up and said, you know what, I'm not going to take that increase.
So kudos to you, Rachael. I just want to make sure that everybody was aware of that.
I also want to mention the fact that recently Brenda K. and I delivered home-delivered
meals. That was so rewarding, a couple hours that we spent delivering meals to seniors
in this town. So there's a lot of volunteer opportunities for stuff like that in this town.
And then, the one final thing, Mayor, I want to say is that the Arizona state budget got
passed this past week, and in there was a line item for $10 million going to the Dark
Skies Discovery Center. So that is going to happen.
[APPLAUSE]
FRIEDEL: So we're excited about that. So it looks like it's a big step toward them
getting their funding in place, so look for that and future updates on that as well. Thank
you.
MCMAHON: Good evening, everybody. We had a new Memory Café for the dementia
friendly group that was really -- and we had a great turnout. And it was really a great
conversation with the caretakers. And we look forward to having many more than -- it's
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part of our initiative as dementia-friendly town. So to have it be such a success was
really rewarding for all of us. I also, like Sharron, met with a republic representative; we
had a good conversation. And I also wasn't to congratulate all the employees with all the
major milestones from 5 years to 20 years. It was very, very impressive to be able to
honor them, to see their dedication and how much they love working for our town. And
like Gerry said, we really have one of the best staffs, I think, in Maricopa County. So
thank you for that.
And also, I attended the legislative calls, and I was very, very excited to see that we have
$10 million allocated in the state budget for our Discovery Dark Sky Center. That's just
an amazing feat. And it is going to do so much for our town. So thank you.
KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Miss Mayor. Hello everybody and thanks for attending
tonight. Now, once again, we've almost a full occupancy. Everybody on YouTube and
streaming on live, this is what good governance is all about, is a concerned and active
citizenry. So thank you very much for being good, active citizens.
I also went to the Town of Fountain Hills length of service milestone celebration,
celebrating our employees. It's a great way to acknowledge the years of honorable
service to our community. I want to keep it brief tonight, but I do have some opinions on
our town staff and some contentiousness that's happened lately, and I wrote a open letter
to the town staff, and it will be in tomorrow's Fountain Hills Times in the "Letters to the
Editors" section. So that's why I can keep it brief tonight.
I did attend the Planning and Zoning meeting. And it was a very insightful meeting. I
know if you guys come here and you like this kind of public engagement that the
Planning and Zoning is really where things get started. And I would suggest -- it's online.
It's on YouTube. And it's, of course, live. But it's a good place to get your updates on
what's coming down the pipe.
I did go to the school board meeting. And I know that recently there's talk of this bond
issue. And I would just ask the people, whether you're for it or whether you're against it,
to just be courteous and respectful of each other. I know that there's a lot of
contentiousness regarding that, too. And I think that it's uncalled for. Everybody wants
what's best for the kids. We just have different ways of going about doing it. And so let's
just honor each other's -- respect each other and treat each with dignity.
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The last thing is I did also attend the Paws on the Avenue as well as Brett Kershank and
the mayor and Scott Strasbourg, who were the judges. And they picked wisely. Hannah,
Gerry, and I were the dog handlers, and we got the dogs staged and to the right spot. I
don't know if this was intentional or not, I didn't ask, but it was the same day as the
Kentucky Derby. And so everybody -- the derby has the hats and the outfits, and the
same thing happened that day. It was just a wonderful event because all the -- the pet
owners dressed their pets like themselves. And it was such a fun event to see, and it was,
just again, Fountain Hills' very best. And so, like Gerry said, we'll publish it a little more
next year, and hopefully it will get more dogs and more owners.
Thanks, everybody. Have a great evening.
SKILLICORN: Thank you, Madam Mayor, everyone. Thank you for coming, especially
the smiling students here. I'll steal the councilwoman's thunder and say you can always
stay for the whole meeting, too.
So just, you know, very quickly, I was able to attend the Fountain Hills Coalition. The
Chamber of Commerce had a ribbon cutting last Thursday. I was able to attend. I was
able to meet with the sheriff's department. I learned quite a bit about those details there.
And there's a whole -- a long list of community events it will take part on. It's such an
amazing -- to have such an active and participant-driven community that we do so many
fun events. So just keep it up, everyone.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. You'll have to remind me to start on this end next time.
I'm always starting over there. So I'll let you guys go first next time. I thought what you
were going to say it was the Kentucky Derby because the winning dog looked like it
could have been a horse.
[LAUGHTER]
MAYOR DICKEY: It was a pretty big one. So it was fun.
I realized at the last meeting I made a mistake when we were talking about our road
bonds. We had our -- you know, we have all this other stuff that we talked about with the
budget, and I said we were -- we were not going to be going for a street bond, and I said
2024, but I meant 2023. So that's this year. And the school district will be discussing
what they're going to do. But we won't be doing anything this November.
I attended a housing policy briefing. It was regarding short-term rentals. It was really
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good. A lot of different cities. And we're actually in pretty good shape with our
ordinance. It was from around the country. So some of them haven't come as far, I guess
you'd say, as Arizona.
Quarterly East Valley Mayors' meeting, we had that. We had our mayors' education
roundtable, which this time was at ASU Helios Decision Center. I'd never been there. A
lot of good information I'll share with the superintendent. Mayor's Youth Council
graduation -- that was great. Congratulations for all your volunteer hours. Some of us
seniors will be moving on. And I'll probably see some of the others next year. And
they'll be presenting tonight. So that's awesome.
Capital Times had a webinar about Prop 400e. And the Greater Phoenix Economic
Council, and Sharron knows about this, and mayors and supervisors had a meeting.
Some of that information will be in our presentation that we're having today from ED.
And I had my first League Executive Committee meeting. And there was a lot of
information about that bill that pretty much wipes out any local control on zoning. So
we're all trying to keep our eye on that one. I had got a lot of information that I did send
to the council, and hopefully they will distribute. It's kind of a lot, but it's important to
know about this because I have a feeling some of it's going to go through. So we'll have
to keep our eye on that. So really appreciate it.
So our new thing is for the stellar students to be part of the reports, which is right now.
And this is our last one for the year. And we have six kids, two from each school. And
I'm going to start with McDowell Mountain School. Angela has the certificates. And
when I call your name, please come up, she'll give it to you, and then just wait up here,
and then the newspaper will take a picture when we're done.
So I'm going to start with Aubriana Hrisho. I want to say that right. Is Aubriana here?
Yes. Come on up, honey.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: "Aubriana is a perfect example of a stellar student. Not only does
she always do her very best on her work, she's extremely polite, respectful, and
considerate of others. Aubriana goes out of her way to be helpful, and her kindness is
recognized by her peers. In class she shows great skill and effort in whatever we're
working on and offers wonderful ideas in class discussions. She's an absolute pleasure to
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have in class." Aubriana, thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: Now stay right up there, honey. Next from McDowell we have
Damon Spex Jr. Is Damon here? Hey, come on up, Damon.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: "Damon is a stellar student because of the positive example he
serves and the group -- and the growth he has shown in art. He demonstrates what
respect looks and sounds like and makes efforts to inspire others to do the same. He tries
his best and perseveres when met with challenges. He's open to suggestion and shows
great appreciation for the help. It is an honor to nominate Damon for being a respectful,
kind, responsible, and safe stellar student." Damon.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: Now we'll go to the Middle School and Sophia Dwyer. Is Sophia
here? Yeah, come on up.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: "Sophia is an amazing student and citizen. She is kind, considerate,
and very hard working. She cares about her grades and her classmates. She is," in
capitals, "a stellar student." That's Sophia.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: Next from Middle School is Jake Harned. Is Jake here? Come on
up, Jake.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: "Jake is a great student. He works hard on his assignments and
takes his education seriously. Jake is kind and respectful to his peers and to staff. We
think Jake is a stellar student." That's Jake.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: Now we have from the high school Alex Brownstein. Is Alex here?
Yay.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: "Alex is a very consistent worker and is dedicated to doing his best
in all situations. He is someone who sees the value in education and becoming the best
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that he can be in whatever he chooses to do." That's Alex from the high school.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: Our last student couldn't make it because she -- she had cheer
commitments. Her name is Riga Homyak, and she's from the high school. "Riga is
always upbeat and is very reliable person in helping with attendance. She works great
with others, and she's a wonderful person to have around. She loves dance and music and
is quick to compliment others."
So let's give Riga a hand.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: All right. You guys ready for this? You guys ready for school to be
almost over?
[LAUGHTER]
MAYOR DICKEY: You are? I can't believe it. One more. Congratulations, everyone.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: Thanks, guys. Thanks for coming. Next we have our presentations.
And the first one we're going to have is from the Fountain Hills Medical Center.
Rachael, did you want to introduce?
GOODWIN: I think our team is here.
MAYOR DICKEY: Doctor, thank you for coming. Thank you for being with us.
Looking forward to hearing.
EZEUME: Thank you very much, yeah. Can I just go? All right, excellent. Well,
Madam Mayor, Council people, and town staff, I'm very grateful to have been invited to
come talk to you guys, and it's a little bit exciting. Actually, very exciting.
The last time we were here, I was here about three years ago. We were looking to get
this property by Saguaro and Trevino rezoned to allow us to get to bring the first
emergency room -- 24/7 emergency room to the Town of Fountain Hills.
Then the second time I was here, we were hoping to upgrade for 24/7. And we were very
lucky that you guys caught onto the vision which, which is a testament to the leadership
of the town, and agreed with us that it was a service that was needed. And I'm back here
today to tell you guys that we've been open for three years as of last month. And I
wanted to kind of report directly back to you guys as far as what we are doing, how we're
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doing, and what the plan is, going forward.
So for the two years we've been opened, we've seen -- we've had 20,000 patient
encounters as of last month. And for this next year, if our current volume keeps up
without additional increases, we're on track to see another 12,000 patient encounters in
our third year. So that is -- that is really amazing.
Since we opened, the opportunity that exists in the -- I'm just going to read through this,
just because I understand I have ten minutes, so I'm trying to get through it very quickly
for any questions.
So since we opened up, the opportunities that exist in the healthcare space here in our
town has been recognized by a lot of other health organizations and providers. And it has
had kind of a downstream effect and resulted in additional healthcare services being
offered by these organizations here in our community. So that's exciting as well because
we -- the more services for our residents, the better it is for everybody.
We have had tremendous support from Fountain Hills and McDowell Reservation
residents. While our shares of patient from Fountain Hills and McDowell Reservation is
about 60 percent, the actual number of patients has continued to grow over the past two
years. We are also starting to see a lot of patients coming in from Scottsdale and Mesa.
And it is continuing to steady increase as well. About 25 to 30 percent of our patients
right now are coming in from Scottsdale. About 10 to 15 percent are coming from Mesa
and some other farther out areas like North Phoenix and sometimes Chandler.
The one thing that keeps bringing them here, or at least looking our way, is that Fountain
Hills is now being recognized as a place where there are a lot of healthcare options. And
most importantly, you can actually get those services here fast and efficiently.
So many patients from surrounding areas that do come here have expressed surprise
about -- some people don't even know Fountain Hills exists. I mean, I did my residency
here for three years; I'd never heard of Fountain Hills. So it's actually pretty amazing.
When people get over the hill, they are pretty surprised that there is actually a town called
Fountain Hills. And some of them have lived here for five years.
So you know, that -- so they are very happy to have healthcare options and the efficiency
of the facilities we have. We are investing in outreach and awareness about healthcare in
Fountain Hills as an extension of, obviously, the services we offer. We continue to
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sponsor programs here in town, as well as, you know, especially in some of the
elementary schools, middle school, high schools in the Scottsdale area that is closer to us,
including some charter schools such as basis Scottsdale.
We continue to see an increase of pediatric visits from the surrounding areas. And some
of these parents are coming to Fountain Hills for the first time. And I know there has
been a desire to attract young families to our town. And this certainly is not -- is not
having a negative impact; that's for sure.
So we continue to prefer to refer patients to sub-specialists that operate offices in
Fountain Hills. This is one of the things we look at when we make referrals for patients
that are not already assigned to sub-specialists providers.
The majority of our prescriptions, over 90 percent, even from people that are outside of
the town, are sent to pharmacies here. A lot of times patients will come in for, like, an
acute illness, and they want to be able to just go to pharmacy down the street, get the
medicine on their way back. So this, this continues -- this adds to support of local
commercial pharmacies and helps to, obviously, keep those businesses here in town.
Specifically, patients that do visit us express satisfaction about how neat, clean, and
organized everything is. And they feel like they're not climbing over each other to get the
same quality of healthcare that some places you wait four, five hours for.
The most common question we continue to get is whether we accept all insurance for
emergency services. The answer remains yes. And in fact, the NSA law that was signed
by President Trump before he left office mandates that emergency services are covered
by insurance companies at the minimum of their -- in their work rates, regardless of
whether the ER or your services are provided by contracted facilities or not.
The second question we get are from patients who have high deductible plans and what
programs we have to help them deal with patient responsibilities and that, you know, that
they are -- anticipate will be assigned to them by insurance plans. My response to this,
we have continued -- so for example, in '21 and '22, when we were still trying to get our
policies around this, we actually forgave 100 percent of patient deductibles and
responsibilities from all the visits from '21 and '22 for ER visits. And this amounts to
hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Since '23 we have instituted an emergency room access high-deductible hardship
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discount, which is applied immediately to patient responsibilities, regardless of the ability
to pay. And then, there is always an option for people to pay a hundred percent of their
patient responsibility if they wish.
So this is where, where it basically supports our goal to make sure that patients are able to
access emergency services without having to choose between paying for their rent and
paying for healthcare services.
So what comes next, telemedicine, we're hoping to roll out a telemedicine program by the
end of the month. The goal -- initially, it's going to be Monday through Friday during
business hours. These are for acute care issues. It's only going to be for Arizona
residents. And the idea is, you know, there are some people that work and they're not
able to go see the doctor. Some people want to talk to a doctor for, like, a sore throat or
some stuff in between work, and they'll have the ability to do that. Ultimately, we intend
to have this service 24 hours, hopefully within six months of initial implementation. We
are hoping to have, instead of accepting ambulance services, by late summer to early fall,
this will be very important for a lot of our residents that would be prefer to be seen in our
community rather than going outside of it. We're finishing up the aims process (ph.) and
as this, you know, progresses, we'll let everyone know how it's going.
As other healthcare institutions develop their services, we are studying to observe -- and
we observe the referral patterns of some of these additional facilities, whether they
primarily refer within Fountain Hills or outside of Fountain Hills. We're also developing
ideas on specific programs we're going to have in phases --
[BACKGROUND NOISE]
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible).
EZEUME: It's a sign of good omen.
[LAUGHTER]
EZEUME: -- phase 2 of our facility. So the general ideas of what we're looking to do in
phase 2 includes having inpatient facilities, sub-specialty clinics, general surgery,
orthopedic surgery, cardiology services, and stuff like that. So we are still developing
this program and as we need help from counsel in bring these services here in town, let
you guys know.
So the last thing I have is to talk about how the town can help. You know, the most
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important thing, which we have been very grateful to the town for, has been to continue
to feature our services and the convenience that we offer in the town's outreach programs,
to understand that, even are privately owned, really by the physicians that work there, we
are still offering a public service that is not unlike, say, like a privately owned ambulance
service that responds to 9-1-1.
You know, when you have an emergency, it doesn't matter whether it's -- who owns it.
You have an emergency, and if you get -- can be seen in an efficient manner and not have
to sell your kidney to pay for it, I think that's something that's very helpful for everyone.
Continue to use us as experts in healthcare issues in the community. Follow our
Facebook and social media posts. You know, people have had a positive experience, we
put on there. If you've had a negative experience, call us. We address everything. We
appreciate all the positive comments, but we really, as a facility, focus on the negative
ones and we try to work through them.
Continue to encourage other healthcare facilities to keep their referral within the
community, which is not only in the best interest of the patients, because every -- it's
always best to get care close to home, it also allows all the other businesses to want to
continue to do their best because they know they're going to get those referrals. And I
think that creates kind of a rebound effect.
We all -- we'll also continue collaborating with local emergency response systems such as
our fire department and our first responders to streamline processes and make sure that
we are being as helpful as possible to supporting their effort in the community.
So on behalf of all the staff at our ER, I would like to thank you all for your continued
support and commitment to our facility. It's been a pleasure serving this community. We
look forward to continue to do this in a -- provide quality, affordable healthcare close to
home. And that's all I have. Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Any questions or comments for the doctor?
KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah, I got a quick comments. Thank you, Miss Mayor. Thank you
so much for serving our community. Really appreciate having that facility here. Last
month Amanda and Betsy LaVoie from the Chamber and I went there and -- on our
business retention development services, and I did get a chance to tour the facility. And
it is -- really, it's a top notch, current -- even the lighting in the rooms is -- from the
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outdoor lighting, they give people less stress. And so it's well thought out. It's a -- just a
wonderful facility, and I think we're lucky to have it.
When you mentioned telemedicine, are you able to prescribe drugs on that or is that just
for consultations?
EZEUME: Yes. So if -- so the, yes. If we -- if we're able to make a diagnosis,
absolutely, yes.
KALIVIANAKIS: Okay.
EZEUME: Yes. We'll be able to prescribe medicine. So say somebody is having a sore
throat or something and, you know, they could call in, dial in, pick a physician, and
they'll get assessed. And if the doctor feels that medication is necessary -- could be a
UTI -- whatever acute care situation is, they'll prescribe it. And the person will need to
come in. What's actually nice about it, when we roll it out, it will be cash pay only
initially. Eventually, within six months, we're hoping to start accepting insurance once
we work out all that kink with the insurance companies. But whatever the person, say the
person -- it's going to be flat $65. So say somebody pays $65 for a consult and they
happen to, within 24 hours -- either not feeling better, the doctor feels like, you know,
this is something that need further evaluation, when they come in, that $65 will be
deducted from their patient responsibility. So it's -- so you're not paying twice. So that's
a way of also making sure that patient (indiscernible).
KALIVIANAKIS: Right. Yeah. That's good to know for just the people that are
listening in tonight. And I know they just passed the veterinarian telemedicine bill --
EZEUME: Right
KALIVIANAKIS: -- this past week. And they -- they can't write prescriptions, however,
so they do it -- a significant restriction. It's nice to know that you don't have it. The other
thing, and this will be my last question, but just so the people know, I know you said that
you take all insurance. Does that include AHCCCS for people --
EZEUME: Yes.
KALIVIANAKIS: -- that have less means?
EZEUME: Absolutely, yes.
KALIVIANAKIS: Okay.
EZEUME: We have contracted with AHCCCS.
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KALIVIANAKIS: Okay. Thank you.
EZEUME: And for emergency services, it's regardless. It has -- you know, insurance
has to cover it; that's government rule.
FRIEDEL: Thank you, Mayor. So you had 20,000 patient encounters in the last two
years. How many doctors do you have down there?
EZEUME: So we have -- there's a 24-hour physician available in the ER. So you know,
we have seven ER doctors, and four work full-time there. So there's always a doctor in
the house, regardless. We only --- whenever you come to our ER, you're guaranteed to
see a physician. You're not -- and in our clinic, we operate both, and you know, doctors
and nurse practitioners in the clinic. But in our emergency room is all physicians.
MAYOR DICKEY: Any other questions?
FRIEDEL: Thank you very much. Appreciate that.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you, sir. I want to thank you also, because what you're doing
with the ambulance -- and again, we all hear antidotes about how great they are, and
we're really pleased that they're in our community right now.
Our next presentation is Ryan and the Mayor's Youth Council. And I think I just saw
Christopher had to leave. But come on up.
PRESTON: All right. Well, thanks for having us, you know. Good evening, everybody,
Madam Mayor, Council members. Thanks for having -- giving us the opportunity to
present here today. The presentation you're going to see was actually created by the
Mayor's Youth Council. So I am going to do you a favor and let them present it. So
you're going to be hearing from them. We're going to start with one of our seniors who's
graduating, with Anna Williams, who's going to come up and get it started.
WILLIAMS: Hi. So first we want to start off by talking about Bam Kazam. So every
year we go to do a team building experience, and we decided to go Bam Kazam this year.
So we focused on leadership opportunities, trying to give people different ways so that
they can show improvement in their leadership and just see who would kind of lead the
group for the rest of the year.
We also wanted to build our group dynamic. A lot of -- we had a lot of new members
this year, so it was really important to kind of introduce them to the way that we kind of
discuss things and try and help make them part of our group.
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We learned a lot about teamwork, leadership, and communication, especially when trying
to solve all the puzzles that are involved in this Bam Kazam. And this also included a lot
of problem-solving.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Could you pull the microphone a little closer, please?
Thank you.
THOMPSON: This was a very fun experience where a team of teenagers came together
to present our flag and represent our town and our organization. We also, in addition to
this, were able to connect and network with other cities.
PRESTON: Yes, Christopher. Christopher had to leave. But the Teen Takeover, it's a
big event. It's the second year we've done it. And it's something that is run solely by the
Mayor's Youth Council. So they do all the planning. They do everything it takes to get it
going and have a really fun event over at the community center. Close the whole place
down, open it just for teens for one night. We'd like to thank our event partners during
that. We had -- Fountain Hills Coalition was out, Sipps Eatery, Fountain Hills library,
Senor Taco, Pisa Pizza, and the Playground Dart-Zone, which I spent most of my time in
there in the dart war battles. I think we got a few pictures here to show you as well.
So this is a few pictures of the night, just showing how awesome and the fun and amazing
it was. We had a group from Phoenix Teens come over as well.
And I -- we had a bunch of raffle prizes. And they pretty much clean house with a lot of
the other top prizes. So a lot of fun, great night. Something to do for the teens in town.
As they say with the -- you know, which isn't always the case for them. So something
that's all planned and coordinated by the Youth Council.
D. WILLIAMS: So Toastmasters was an event specifically for the Mayor's Youth
Council, and it's where we learned how to succeed in public speaking. So Kathy H. was
the presenter who was telling -- who was teaching us these things. And what she did was
she used her own presentation in order to show us how we should -- how we should be
giving presentations to people.
As it says in the slide, it just made us more creative, more confident with public speaking.
And it was -- it was a pretty successful event that we put on.
K. WILLIAMS: So throughout the year as well, we have done many community service
events. Some highlights of that, it was the Back to School Bash, where we ran the
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inflatables; Make a Difference Day, where we went and we cleaned up the high school;
Spooky Blast, where we also ran the inflatables; and Noon Year's Eve, where we rent a
video game station.
OWERS: To continue on to the community service, we helped -- we ran the Teen
Takeover. So we did that. Also, for Irish Fest, we helped at the inflatables and helped
put wrist bands on people coming in. And at the Adopt a Street, we helped pick up trash
around the fountain. We worked at the Eggstravaganza. And actually, one of our
members, Christopher, he was the Easter Bunny. So he got to, like, hop around. And we
helped out at the Earth Day event here. We helped kids with crafts made out of recycled
materials.
WRIGHT: This year the Mayor's Youth Council has served 296 hours.
[APPLAUSE]
PRESTON: Perfect, yeah. And so again, thank you for having us here. It's -- I've
actually had the pleasure of getting to know these guys over just the past few months, and
I'm overseeing this group. And I don't think I have enough time to really go into how
incredible this group of -- I was going to call them kids, but this -- how great human
beings these guys are. I mean, in addition to everything you've seen, they have, you
know, they're in multiple AP classes. They're heavily involved in clubs and sports. And
a lot of them even have part-time jobs on top of that. And I'm sure that's why Chris had
to run out. There's a lot of commitments that they have. They're doing an amazing job. I
mean, they really -- you know, they're dedicated and they really want to make a
difference in the town for the youth, and it shows in everything they do -- that we do with
that. So thank you, Mayor, for always, you know, promoting this program and the
positive impact it's making in the town. So thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Well, speaking of committed, you are also, and we really appreciate
all the work that you've done and just the variety of all of the activities. Does anybody
have any questions or comments?
As I say all the time, you model this behavior that means so much to this community to
see these young folks going out there, putting in all these hours. And also, just top to
bottom, doing events like that when you're getting every part of that, and that's been
really successful. So wish you the best for the summer and for whatever you have in
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store. And we'll see some of you next year. And again, thank you, Ryan, so much.
PRESTON: Of course. And you're not going to get out of the photo, so we got to come
to --
MAYOR DICKEY: Oh. Thank you so much.
[APPLAUSE]
MAYOR DICKEY: Amanda's all ready and raring to go for our Economic
Development. Thank you, bye. Our update, our third-quarter update.
JACOBS: Okay. Evening, Madam Mayor, members of Council, members of the
audience. So here tonight for our third-quarter update, which is from January to March
of this year. But as always, if somebody is new tuning in, if something is relevant and
just happened last month or this month, I will mention it. Before I get started, I did want
to thank Councilmember Friedel and Councilmember Kalivianakis for your comments, as
an employee, as a Fountain Hills resident, and also as your Economic Development
Director. It takes seven second for people to make an impression in our brand. My job is
to try to attract new residents, visitors, and businesses. Some of the divisiveness has
made it challenging.
With that, we'll go into business attraction. So typically, I'm acknowledging some of our
new businesses that wanted to do something a little bit different. I had shared this slide
during the Community Economic Development workshop in January, which was by
invitation only. But wanted to mention some of this. So again, our residents, our
understanding about some of our business attraction, and as we begin to move forward in
the fall to see the proposed strategy.
So lead generation, that happens through a few processes. So one, it's your economic
development staff, which is a mighty team of two. But us actually initiating contact.
And so over the past six months we have reached out to national developers. And I'll tell
you, sometimes you can get ignored. These developers have responded to us, they
thanked us for being proactive, and then acknowledged too that, you know what,
Fountain Hills was not on their map. And so if they're doing work in Chandler, Tempe,
now we've raised awareness. And so they're open to having some future conversations
with us. We have also reached out -- so again, your Economic Development staff -- to
some restaurant and retail, a total of six, and again, making some progress, a few of them
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acknowledging us.
Just so everyone's aware, I can't always divulge the information. This is as much as I can
share. And that's just because until it's formal and there's things on the dotted line, we
don't want to get people too excited. Or sometimes people can get a little upset and they
can impact negotiations. And we don't want that. This benefits our 24,000 residents, not
just one or two.
Related to the industrial, the four, staff has been able to respond to proposals from the
Greater Phoenix Economic Council, GPEC. The Mayor mentioned them previously.
And then also, they'll route stuff through the Arizona Commerce Authority, so ACA.
There have been other opportunities that, unfortunately, we have not been able to respond
to. We've had the square footage, we have the vacancy, but why we were not is we did
not have the proper zoning. And so again, so there's no surprises, this is being recorded.
We can say today that I said this. Later on, in the fall, we'll be talking about
opportunities of rezoning, an overlay district. I understand sometimes those words can be
a bit scary. But we'll to that a little bit more in another slide.
Our business retention and expansion efforts, again, are going wonderful with our
partners at the Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce. Councilmember Kalivianakis is
currently attending those site visits. Just a reminder to Council and then just our folks in
the back and those tuning in, what we're doing is we're inviting our policy leaders -- nine
out of ten times when we're meeting with business owners, the issues they're addressing I
can't tackle by myself. Economic development is a team sport. And so having our policy
makers hearing firsthand what our business owners are struggling with is helpful.
And so we continue to see the three themes. So communication, and really it was about
events. I may take that off, because I feel like we've tackled that with our spring and fall
guide, which was mentioned during our joint session.
But our businesses, specifically our restaurants, say we don't care who puts on the events,
just let us know, especially when they're very big, because again, you see that there's
work force issues. They want to make sure that they staff up and people are having a
wonderful experience that maybe our visitors become residents or our visitors come back.
And then I've had on the slide, usually downtown, and so now I want to start using the
official name. So TAMA, The Avenue Merchant Association. Again, last year, we're
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working together for about six months. They formalized, have officers, and then you'll
see, they just approved, I believe it was last month, this logo that you'll start seeing
around town. And then as Councilmember Friedel mentioned, the first event launched
sort of under this umbrella was Paws on the Avenue.
All right. Apartment occupancy rate. I want to point out a couple, won't list each one,
but first, Gunsight last quarter was over 70 percent. Casa del Logo was over 80 percent.
These are our newer apartments. And as you can see -- I know I sound like a broken
record, but again, anyone tuning in, we have a supply and demand issue. If somebody is
wanting to rent, is looking at apartments, townhomes, condos, it's becoming a bit of a
struggle to find space. Some of these locations just have one availability. And if there's
something you need now, it's just not available. And last thing on this slide, you'll see
Pillar at Fountain Hills. So several months ago, Keystone Properties, who owned the
Havenly, which is across the corner, sold and Pillar at Fountain Hills has taken over.
Some of the council members have asked me how is it going, asked about the staff. What
is nice is most of the staff has remained. Some of the folks, of course, with Keystone
have gone off on their merry way, one person with Cushman and Wakefield, but some of
the other employees have been elevated up and promoted. And they're loving their new
employer.
All right. Vacancy Rate, existing buildings. So the first column -- again, we'll just do a
quick reminder. That is from CoStar, one of our leading commercial real estate groups,
who's able to track nationally our vacancy rates. You'll remember, probably in the fall, as
staff began looking at this, you know, if there was a bit of a red flag, that these were a bit
low for Fountain Hills. And so what we've had to do, and continue to do, is we're having
to manually go out -- because some of our commercial brokers are choosing just to place
a sign. And if somebody drives by and sees it, that's how they know. And unfortunately,
they're not listing it. So again, think of your home. If you're just putting a little for sale
sign, is that really going to do it for you? Or do you want to do an MLS listing?
So you'll see office continues to climb. We're now at 49.3 percent. Industrial is 18.1.
And retail is 20 percent. Again with the office, the explanation with that -- and again,
this is not a Fountain Hills issue. As GPEC mentioned, it's a state-wide issue and a
national issue. And so, what is the result? It's because of COVID 19, the aftermath. So
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again, everyone was forced to go home. Employees tended to like that, to be with their
dog. Maybe do a little laundry. And then, too, maybe some of them just didn't have to
deal with people. Right? We're not always positive. And so our employees have now
sort of taken over and are telling the employers, guess what, we're not coming back.
Some of the employers are forcing it or doing a hybrid approach. But this is -- this is
again -- it's not just a Fountain Hills issue.
And so again, earlier talking about overlay districts, rezoning, we're going to have to be
creative. Again, what everyone is telling us is this is the new normal. We're not going
back. And we'll have to reimagine together some of these spaces.
Again, our economic workshops -- so as I mentioned, in January, we had an invitation
only who had over 50 people come to our economic summit. That was designed to make
sure we got, you know, some of our business owners there at the table. Again, we
mentioned work force issues. They could only dedicate about two and a half hours to me
and our facilitator. Again, most of our council members were there, listening in.
Then we opened it to the public on April 12th. And so that's that image. I was hoping
for a little bit more of a bigger turnout. But again, just hearing that people are very busy.
Councilmember Grzybowski, I think, mentioned it in her last report, you know, that she
liked it.
So if people wanted to spend five minutes, an hour with us -- and so there was different
focus areas. So asking questions about the downtown, the demographics, looking at
design guidelines, for instance, work force housing, just sort of, you know, checking the
temperature before we start putting together that proposed economic development
strategy.
And so again, you should be looking at that, perhaps September, October. Prior to that,
we're going to take it to -- since it is a strategic plan -- also, again, just to get additional
feedback from our SPAC, Strategic Planning Advisory Commission.
All right. Let's talk about grants. So we were able to announce earlier in the fiscal year
that we were able to secure $230,000 of grant funding through AOT Visit Arizona
initiative. So this was started by Governor Ducey with some of the leftover ARPA funds.
And so your staff has used about over 160,000. Again, economic development is a team
sport. So a big shoutout to Linda Ayers, Bo Larson (ph.), and John Perez.
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So you'll see we've been doing billboards across Arizona, specifically more in Maricopa
County. We've done broadcast and digital marketing with PBS and NPR. Again, thanks
to two of our residents, and one a business owner, we were able to secure, again, a
contract, all paid through grant funding, Evolve PR. And they were able, also, to give us,
not just their issuing press releases on our behalf, but giving us some live event promos.
So you'll see -- Ryan, you just saw him, so he's there with -- I believe this is channel 12.
I can't see. Gotta put the glasses on. Bill's saying yes. And then, of course, our band. So
again, a teaser to try to get folks out there.
And then I have not mentioned this, but what we're doing, I have not been able to find
any records, being here over a year, a tourism and an event impact study. So we're
working on that. I, of course, have made some of my assessments, being new. But it's
nice to have a third party come in because they can also get some of the proprietary
information. So our golf courses, who contribute to the tourism industry, don't want to
share it. Of course, our hotels and resorts, they're able to look at that to see what an
impact tourism is on Fountain Hills. And so when that's ready, we'll be able to share that
and happy that we were able to put that in the marketing plan.
All right. And then, additionally, between the fall and the spring, there's a section of
event sponsorship where we can use a certain portion of that marketing grant to give back
to our events. And so we were happy to support our two largest events, so the Fountain
Hills Arts and Crafts Fairs, and so an investments of 30,000. And through our AOT Prop
302, we're trying to get some new, fresh photography for social media, our website. So
that bottom one is one of our newer photos, which I love, very colorful.
And so we've been able to share that to you with the Chamber for future marketing.
And then, also, of course, our Dark Sky Festival. We were able to invest in the festival
25,000. So last year they had 1,500 participants. This year, there was 2,500. So our
marketing is working. They were able to capture a keynote speaker that they've been
really wanting to get. And then we also asked them to add other components to make it
family friendly to get our families and kiddos there, and that's illustrated in that other
photo.
And then thanks to originally our Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation Prop 202 grant
funding, it came in a little bit below what we were anticipating to cover costs of doing a
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redesign. And so we were able to make an amendment to our AOT Prop 302. And so
let's see if I can show you fast or if I'm going to have problems. Ta-da. So we had not
been able to redesign the website in almost eight years. And so we've redesigned it,
trying to make it playful, make the font a little bit bigger, have the themes of play, dine,
stay. Again, new photographs. You'll see some callouts. We're having a featured events
calendar. And some things we're changing. One of the assessments that we made was it
was becoming more of a community calendar. And when people are visiting, we truly
wanted to be for our visitors. So we've modified that section. We also have a feed into
our Instagram social media that we can control and monitor, and then a call to action that
when folks are posting and sharing to use that hashtag, Experience Fountain Hills.
And then just on the bottom here, too, quick access to our visitor's guide, to watch the
fountain livestream. And then something new, we're working with Clayson
Communications, one of our local businesses. A new trend you're starting to see is some
blog posting. So we have that.
And then as we were doing this and partnering with the Chamber on the Visit Fountain
Hills app, it was sort of a chicken and egg, so we've posted this. And our designer -- it's
taking a couple weeks. But we'll have a little button here for the app. So again, pushing
folks there.
All right. And then our Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian community grant, so you'll see
here, Linda Ayers, our very own Linda Ayers, so shout out to Linda, Ryan, Skyler, and
the community services department for putting on a spectacular annual Irish Fest. So we
had over 6,000 attendees last year. You'll see, it's grown to over 8,000. Again, through
our partnership with Evolve, again, another live spot on -- I believe it was channel 3, 5,
and again, having our band there to do a little teaser to get more people there.
So we can say the marketing, having that money is helping. We threw a lot at it so we
can't target, like one specific, but -- and then, of course, our partnerships, I've mentioned
all of them previously, but another thank you to them.
And then the final slide, our tourism. So again, hotel occupancy remains below 70
percent. AOT is starting to see some of the industry starting to recover. But again,
looking at leisure and business, really, we're -- what we're wanting to target is leisure.
Again, what we're hearing is some of the business, the large conventions, just because of
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the technology, some concerns still over safety, that that might not return fully.
Our social media increased by 7 percent. And then, again, the Experience Fountain Hills
website, over 24,000 unique visits. And then you'll see the top five cities. And then just
want to shout out, too, to my partner in crime, Mr. John Perez, who has helped with this,
this rollout, and was a big heavy lift. And so, if you haven't met him, John's in the
background, human development specialist. And with that, happy to answer any
questions.
MAYOR DICKEY: Any questions or comments?
KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah. Thank you, Miss Mayor. Thank you very much. Appreciate
the presentation. That Dark Sky festival, really good stuff. That was really one of my
favorites of the year. As we've talked about tonight, the funding for the International
Dark Sky Discovery Center was recently pushed through, and it looks like they'll be
breaking ground on that, I'm thinking pretty shortly. This is kind of a softball question
for you, but what do you expect the economic impact to be when that opens up?
JACOBS: So Madam Mayor, Councilmember Kalivianakis, it may be a little bit longer
before it launches. And so I'll have to get back to you with the number. I don't want to
give a wrong estimate. And then actually, just yesterday I was talking with the Mayor
and Manager Goodwin, and we're looking at in the fall actually having a workshop with
our Dark Sky folks.
Because again, being new and being humble and asking different questions, there is a true
difference with our Dark Sky Association and then the new Dark Sky Discovery. And so
starting to talk to see what the town can do to help further -- let folks know that we are an
international Dark Sky community. And so I appreciate the question, but I'll get back to
you .
MAYOR DICKEY: Is the earth cam featured on there anywhere?
JACOBS: Yes. It was that bottom, like the second button.
MAYOR DICKEY: Awesome.
JACOBS: I just didn't click on it.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you We so appreciate this so much, and you know, keep up
the great work with John and everybody else and Linda, and we appreciate that. We --
we know how great -- we know we're a town like no other, so -- as opposed to people not
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ever hearing about Fountain Hills, we're getting to work on that, too, so.
JACOBS: Well, the team is changing that.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
JACOBS: Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Our next presentation is going to be kind of a status report on our
existing capital improvement projects, where they are right now and how they've gone.
And I think that's going to be Justin. Or no, are you starting first, Kevin?
SNIPES: I'll start.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
SNIPES: All righty. I guess we're ready now. So Mayor and Council, this is a capital
projects overview for where we're at so far this year as well as what we have left to do
moving forward. So you're going to see where funding has been spent and what's
happening moving forward. So you're going to see different highlights on expenditures.
The green is going to show that there's a projected savings for the project, but it's still in
process. The blue highlights will show that there's still expenditures left this year, and so
we're not sure exactly what we're going to have left on those. And then the yellow are the
projects that are completed and that were completed under budget as well.
This first slide is of the Golden Eagle sports field lighting project. And it's a project that
we've been aiming to do for many years. So it is just getting ready to start here in the
next three weeks. They will be starting -- it's a two-fiscal-year project, so they'll be
starting in June and finishing in July. And we'll be transferred over to Musco's LED
sports field lighting, which, as you can see on the picture to the left, how dark it is around
the field and how bright it is on the field, which is one of the coolest things about the
Musco system. And that one is set at 700,000 for this year, and we are expecting to
expend that.
The next line is our final year of the Four Peaks Park improvement project, and we're just
getting underway with the renovations over there. In two weeks we'll be starting on the
playground LED lighting with Musco as well for the two-to-five-year old and the five-to-
twelve-year-old playground will both have lights where right now there's limited lights
that were left over from the original basketball court that was there, and they're not
designed at all to light up a playground. So that will make a huge improvement.
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And then the kind of the last of our big improvements over there is the landscaping, and
the last thing you want to touch. And that's adding plants and adding granite and
irrigation around some of the -- the new ramadas that we put in last fall.
And we have a -- we still have 57,000 left on that, and we will be expending some of that,
depending on how many projects we're able to finish up this year.
The next one is Desert Vista improvements. And we have ramadas on the way. The
concrete that you're seeing there is the pad for where the ramada is going to go, which is
right next to the playground. So for the first time, we'll actually have a ramada at Desert
Vista Park, specifically for the playground. On the right bottom there, that's actually this
morning. And that's our town staff doing sod installation in the dog park in a couple
different areas where we removed some granite that was getting kicked out into the grass
and always has. And so we eliminated the granite and are putting in new turf in there.
We've also been working on the grading project in the lower end of the dog park. And
that should be finished in the next week to week and a half.
This project we have about 49,000 left on, and we will be expending some of that funding
by the end of the year.
The next project is the Fountain Hills -- the Fountain Park shade pole straightening
project for the shade structures that were over the playground That project went really
well. Luckily, we didn't have to pull out the poles and redo the footing, which was a
concern from the vendor. We were able to get the poles straightened. Even if in this
picture it doesn't look straight, they are. But that went very well. And we painted the
poles as well to give them a fresh coat of paint. And they came out really nice. That
project came in 9,000 under budget. So that'll be going back to the general fund -- or the
CIP fund.
The next is the Fountain Park playground lighting. This project, we were able to work
with multiple vendors to find a way where we were able to actually use the shade poles as
light poles. We had to get some engineer drawings done. But it was a significant savings
as we went from needing 12 poles to light the playground to only needing two new poles.
So there's a significant savings that we're projecting, because we haven't done it yet.
We're in the -- we're in the middle of starting that, probably in the next two weeks as
well. And we're projecting right now to be about $100,000 under budget. So that'll be
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good, too.
The next project was the skate park renovation/expansion project. This project's been
getting a lot of attraction from our local skaters and bikers and phone calls on a daily
basis as well as some sneaking in and some sneaking out. So -- but they're really
enjoying it and -- and they're definitely excited about it. We have a big grand opening
planned for the 24th of June. So we're going to do an evening opening because it'll be
warmer. And we're getting a lot of sponsorships and a lot of people that want to be
involved in it because they've seen what's there. We were able to come in just a little
under budget on this one. But that was kind of the plan as we knew where we were going
to be at and we were able to stay within those guidelines. We still have a little bit more
work to do over there, including adding the lights of the surrounding area and the
landscaping, which we're working on now. And then we'll be done with this project.
The Golden Eagle shade structures, this is a project that has worked on so many different
levels. And we were able to come in 25,000 under budget. The walkers over there
absolutely love them. They're hanging out under the shade and sitting on the bleachers
during their walks. And they've been very thankful about it. All day long we hear tons
of positive comments on them, as well as when we've had our tournaments and little
league and everything else out there. Just having a spot for the parents to sit in the shade
makes a huge difference for how that facility is perceived. Rachael may know a little bit
about facilities without shade.
The next is our park sidewalk improvement. Right now we have about 10,000 left on
that. And depending -- we're in the process of doing several projects right now that may
require a little bit of that. But there might be a little bit left on this one at the end of the
year. We've been able to do the entire sidewalk from Panorama down to the
Amphitheater, the sidewalk up by Plaza Fountain side where the trees have been lifting.
They lifted a couple of our panels as well, so we took care of those. Golden Eagle, we
had to reroute a couple of sidewalks along with the shade structures and improve access
points as well as redo some sections of our handicap ramp. So this funding has gone very
far in making a lot of changes in our parks. So it's been a good one.
The next one is not a CIP project, but I know that it was a big topic, so I wanted to bring
it up. This is the storage unit for the Community Center. And through working out and
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working on some Tetris-type stacking and maneuvering, we were able repurpose one of
our old -- well, two of our old and buy only one new storage container, getting some
shelving and hooks and things to make the storage areas as useful as possible. And we
were able to come in 14,000 under budget on that. So that was a good testament to staff
making things work as efficiently as possible.
And for the next slide, I'm going to ask Mike Ciccarone to come up and talk to us since
he's the one that's been in charge. Enjoy.
CICCARONE: So this also isn't a CIP project, but it was a budget supplement in the
amount of $80,000. And it's basically to complete the Community Center classrooms,
complete them with AV upgrades. So displays could be anything from wall-mounted
TVs to projectors and screens, basically moving from those carts -- the TV carts to wall-
mounted TVs, which look much nicer. It was a $80,000 project that was based on
proposals that we had received. Staff was asked if we could cut that cost any way. And
basically, we're going to do the install in-house. So we purchased the equipment, and
then, within the next couple of weeks, we're going to do the install. So with that, we're
going to save about $42,000.
WELDY: Madam Mayor, Councilmembers, a lot of big numbers. I think it's important
to note that on behalf of the mayor and council, the Town Manager, Kevin and I are the
stewards of these big numbers that you see. And we do what we do along with a lot of
people that are in this audience but primarily in this building and others that belong to the
town to insure that the money that is allotted and awarded for these projects is spent to
the best of our ability. And I'd like to take a minute to point out that the contracts that we
bring to you, and often time, you'll hear us mention cooperative use or that other
municipal governments, state, county, went out to bid for these types of services. Some
of the stuff that you just saw that Kevin presented is a benefit of that, where our estimates
often times are a little bit challenging. And clearly he has done his due diligence and
responsibility and demonstrated that we can save money whenever possible, and we do.
With that, we're going to get into a few more here with some big numbers in them.
This first project is a multiyear that's been going on for several years. Last year, this
funding was used to address some drainage issues front in the Community Center. This
year, it has two smaller projects that we are addressing. The last project that will use up
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the remainder of the funding that's encumbered here, which is the $45,000, is to make
some corrections at the intersection of Kings Tree and Saguaro if possible before the end
of the fiscal year. You'll note that there's an additional $4,000 in the fund balance for
this.
The money, when I reference fund balance and/or Kevin references saving, that money
stays in the capital fund. It doesn't go anywhere else at the end of the year. This one
right here is a multiyear long-range program for major improvements. A little bit of
clarification on this. Last year we asked for $1 1/2 million on this, anticipating that we
would be going to bid. As a result of some requirements for the Arizona Department of
Water Resources and the Maricopa County Flood Control District to review our plans for
the improvements, which are at 100 percent, that review process could be anywhere up to
18 months. So we have taken, under the direction of the Town Manager, $1 million out
of this and moved it into the street fund. Grady Miller had discussed that with you prior
to his retirement. The other $400,000 that you'll show -- that is shown as being removed
from this was moved to other capital projects primarily, and here it goes, where I missed
my estimate and the bids came in higher than we had imagined.
But as you will see here, at the end of this, we are at about $46,000 for this year. And the
outstanding balance is just under 54,000 that will remain in the capital budget.
This one right here, the project is technically completed; however, the final invoicing has
not been paid and the retention not paid. The intent is to bring it in on or under budget.
There's some negotiations between myself and the contractor right now on some
relatively expensive pump parts that we're working through.
This one right here is the town-wide drainage improvement. As a little back history on
this, we started focusing on the pre-incorporation drainage structures to avoid another
catastrophic failure similar to the one that we had on Panorama just a few short years ago.
This one right here is not started. This was a placeholder with a multiyear horizon. The
intent for this placed holder was that, as the flood control district worked to finish the
drainage master planning for the entire Fountain Hills area, that we would already have
funding available to possibly address some of those projects as they came out of the
master plan. Unfortunately, due to staffing shortages and other challenges that the flood
control district was facing, the project was put on hold for approximately one year. Staff
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was encouraged to reach out to the flood control district by the town manager and engage
them and their selected vendor and determine if there was some way we could provide
support or if they could provide guidance to allow us to move forward with this drainage
study because it's very important. And as a result of those activities, the town engineer
and myself, under the direction of the town manager, met with the flood control district.
And they decided to take a new look at their project processes and have asked the Town
of Fountain Hills if we would be willing to work with them on these studies, moving
forward, for not only the Town of Fountain Hills but other locations within Maricopa
County, and design a boilerplate that streamlined, that most importantly allows for more
seating at the table for the stakeholder. That's you folks on behalf of residents, the town
manager, myself, and the town engineers, in this case, both of them, working through that
process.
Historically, we were not completely shut out of that, but we didn't have as much control
over the process. We are delighted that this process is going to move forward. We have
a seat at the table. And it's still being paid for by the flood control district. There is a
long-term benefit to this manual, whenever we receive it.
This project right here was approved later, after the original budget. This was one with a
considerable amount of discussion, related to flooding and damage to homes along
Grande. They literally got started this week. We anticipate that will be within the
budget, slightly under, and will be completed by June 30th. This one and the next project
was identified as a high priority by the Mayor and council at the time it was approved to
minimize the flooding to properties.
This is the second one which is one Deuce Court. This one is not quite ready to go. But
the contractors should be starting on this within the next couple of weeks. This is another
project that will be finished by June 30th and will be at or below the projected budget.
This is another multiyear project right here. We initially put 270 -- or $275,00 in the
budget as a placeholder. We currently have about 117,000 of that encumbered as we
look at design. And the next phase, and we had met with the Mayor and the town
manager related to this, is taking care of some issues on the front of the building behind
he enclosure wall there. We anticipate that we're going to be able to at least address the
majority of that with the encumbered money. So our projected savings by the end of this
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fiscal year is approximately 160,000.
This is an ongoing, multiyear project where we install cameras at the town's parks and
buildings. This year, due to supply line issues, we've spent $32,000, and there's $42,000
remaining. If we can secure additional cameras and have them in our possession but not
installed, we will spend some of that $42,000 undetermined as of tonight.
This one right here is the Shae widening project. And this primarily focuses on the south
side between Palisades and Fountain Hills Boulevard. This is a grant project where 93
percent of the total cost is paid. And the majority of the funding that you'll see up here is
actually reimbursable. So 93 percent of this will be reimbursed. So again, the
placeholder was 200 and -- just under $238,000. We've spent $74,000. We anticipate
about 163 by the close of this fiscal year in savings.
A real popular one here. This one right here is currently at 95 percent for design. The
design will be completed, and we will begin the manufacturing for this by the end of this
year and then complete the manufacturing. As of tonight's meeting, we still have about
$203,000 in that budget. There will be a small portion of that spent for manufacturing
some of the signs that will be installed next year.
Successful multiyear project here. Of the $300,000, we've spent 297,000 of it on
construction and design. There's an unspent fund balance of 2,000 on this one that will
remain.
This project right here was the intersection of Saguaro and La Montana. After the
intersection analysis is completed, a direction -- under direction from the town manager
and the pedestrian and traffic safety committee, this project was canceled. No further
action at this time. That $150,000 remains in the budget.
This is the Palisades and La Montana intersection. So this is another analysis. Little bit
of delay on this. We currently have a contract in review to begin that analysis. But this
will be a -- most likely a one- or two-year process. We're likely to get that underway in
the beginning of June and have it leased, the 30 percent roll plot, by the time we close out
that year, and bring that roll plot and some of the analysis back to the Mayor and council
when they return in late summer.
Here are those big numbers. As you can see, the community services, capital projects
budget was $2 1/2 million. Their expected savings of that is just under $200,000. The
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public works is 3 million, just about 3.5. And we anticipate that we'll have just under $1
million when we complete all of the work this year.
With that said, if you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them.
GRZYBOWSKI: Just real quick, I wanted to thank you guys for putting this slide
presentation together in such a manner that we actually see how much you didn't spend of
what we gave you to spend. That's one of the things that I feel like has been missing is,
we give you $50,000 or $250,000, and I know you guys have been really great about it,
and maybe mention in passing that we saved this much money. But it's great to see it in
writing. It's great for our visitors and the thousands of TV viewers at home so that we
can all see how much you -- how hard you are working to save us money. Thank you.
FRIEDEL: Thanks, Mayor. Justin and Kevin, great job on this. I think this is long
overdue. It really gives us an idea of where the money is being saved, where it's being
spent, and what we can do with the remainder of it. Thank you.
WELDY: Madam Mayor, if I may.
MAYOR DICKEY: Yes.
WELDY: In regards to pointing out on the slides, that goes to the town manager for
making that recommendation. When I submitted my PowerPoint to her for review, it was
not there. And she explained that it needed to be there for this very reason.
FRIEDEL: Thank you, Rachael.
[LAUGHTER]
KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Miss Mayor. Thank you, Rachael. Thank you, Justin,
Mike, and Kevin. I just wanted -- just concur with my colleagues. To update and inform
us of what you've been doing -- we can see pictures of it; we can see the savings that the
staff is providing with us. As illuminating -- I know this took a lot of work to put this
presentation together, but I just want the staff to know it was time well spent because I
think all of us here are very glad to see that -- this kind of a look back and see what you
guys have done, so I really appreciate that.
And as far as the flood mitigation, I did meet with a colleague this -- our colleague and
constituent this weekend, and when I reported his drainage situation to you, I really
appreciate the fact that you immediately looked it up on the map and you were so
proactive to try to address that. You know, what's going to happen in the future, I don't
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expect you to update us tonight, but I just appreciate the -- the staff, the commitment to
getting things done and to not letting moss grow over these projects but moving forward
in an expedited fashion. And so for that, thank you.
WELDY: You're welcome. Thank you for the nice compliments from all.
MAYOR DICKEY: Well, now -- no, but -- no, I want to thank you, too. It's all very
good to see this. I know any of these kinds of things are always such a -- so labor
intensive, but then it really gives you an accounting for what you've been doing. We
really appreciate that so much. Mike, wherever you are. Thank you.
WELDY: You're welcome.
MAYOR DICKEY: Yes, ma'am.
GOODWIN: Thank you. I just wanted to thank the staff for putting the work in as well.
We did want to make sure. I -- as a -- sort of a capstone on this discussion, there have
been a lot of questions about the CIP and what happens when there's overages or when
there's savings and where does that go. And what I'd like to point out is staff takes it very
personal. They treat it like it's their own money, you know. They want to make sure that
it does what it's supposed to do, it gets the job done and then some. They take a lot of
pride in their -- in their projects. They take a lot of pride in completing them on time,
under budget. They -- again, they make it personal. And that's why we see such stellar
results. So I wanted to thank everybody for what they do. And hopefully that shares a
little bit. They're not great about tooting their own horns. Sometimes it's all in a day's
work, and that's just what we do. But this is a good opportunity to share that. And we'll
continue to do these types of updates moving forward.
FRIEDEL: I can't agree more. And $1.2 million is nothing to just kick down the road. I
mean, that's a lot of money. And it's good that we have that information. So again, thank
you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Very good. Our next item is Call to the Public. Do we have
speaker cards, Linda?
MENDENHALL: Yes, we do.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you.
MENDENHALL: First is Dina Galassini.
GALASSINI: Good evening. I'm Dina Galassini, 20-year resident. I wasn't going to
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come out tonight, but I decided to address everybody regarding the 5G moratorium last --
May 2nd meeting. I wanted to address a council member who was, I feel, inadequate
regarding their research regarding microwave radiation. I believe the professor that was
cherry-picked by this council member is a profession of the University of Pennsylvania in
which the Gates Foundation has selected to monitor each classroom, videotape it, score
the professors -- or the lesson, and then guide them on how to instruct better courses.
The Gates Foundation selects universities that support their initiatives. It's a sad day.
Think of you, each of getting scored by your job, then guided in a way that puts residents
in harm's way. This professor knows darn well about microwave radiation. He's written
books that go back with the history of microwave radiation, all the way to the highest
technology. He pathetically criticizes one of the most credible reports that was authored
by hundreds of honest scientists and professionals. He criticized the bio-initiative report.
One professor puts down hundreds of credible scientists. It's pathetic. If you would have
done your research a little further, I would have been more impressed. But it's very sad
that this was -- these -- this microwave radiation was downplayed as our public safety
and -- is at risk.
I'll tell you, Council Brenda K., Friedel, and Toth, stand strong with your beliefs. We
need protection. If you hire -- you hired the attorney to protect the town government.
We -- if you -- you -- if you retain him, you can certainly retain an attorney to protect
town residents from this microwave radiation poisoning. When you said that this
professor said that these microwaves aren't -- are not as strong, you know, they're just as
strong as any other antennae, but when you go and you put them a block -- a block from
each other, just think of that and see how you feel after those are installed. Thank you.
MENDENHALL: Next we have Richard Rutkowski -- Rutkowski, sorry.
RUTKOWSKI: Rich Rutkowski, I've been a resident of Fountain Hills since 2001.
Good evening, Mayor and council members. My comments tonight relate to the 5G
small cell -- 5G small cell towers. Several residents have expressed concerns about the
health consequences of having these towers installed close to their homes. And part of
that discussion at the last meeting suggests that the 5G exposure has not been proven to
cause adverse effects on health. So I want to focus specifically on that aspect of this
issue.
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As most of you know, I'm a physician since 1983. I know I don't look that old, thanks.
Once of my positions is an assistant professor of family, community, and preventive
medicine at a local medical school. And I emphasize the preventive. That is, preventing
illness and preserving health.
The current practice of medicine ideally follows scientific evidence. And for many
conditions, we have the evidence. We know what works and what doesn't. But we don't
know everything. And most importantly, I have personally experienced multiple
examples during my career of things which were considered safe or safe and effective
until they were later proven not safe and maybe even not effective.
A few examples of things that were FDA approved, that is safe and effective, agents
which were subsequently pulled from the market because of problems discovered after
approval and use -- there's a list of them. Resolin, which is a drug for diabetes causing
liver failure. Zomax, an anti-inflammatory drug causing life-threatening allergic
reactions. The original measles vaccine, which caused an increased risk of atypical
measles. Hismanal, an antihistamine causing serious heart arrhythmias. Vioxx, another
anti-inflammatory drug, causing strokes and heart attacks. Rotashield, the first rotavirius
vaccine for infants causing intussusception, which is a serious intestinal blockage.
Merida, a weight loss agent causing increased cardiovascular and stroke risk. Fen-phen,
another weight loss agent causing heart fail problems. Omniflox, an antibiotic causing
kidney failure, hemolytic anemia, and respiratory distress. And the safe and effective
COVID shots, currently expanding scientific data casts serious doubt about the safe and
effective claim.
And there are more. Overall, several hundred drugs and vaccines and other agents have
been pulled from the market because of serious, adverse health effects found after
approval and use.
The point is that often what we think we know turns out to be wrong. So can we rely on
the safety of close exposure to 5G radiation? Isn't it wise to take reasonable precautions?
I think that the moratorium passed at the last meeting, despite the legal questions about it,
was a good first step. I encourage a carefully worded ordinance to be a wise and rational
next step in the process. Thank you.
MENDENHALL: Next we have Matthew Corrigan.
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CORRIGAN: Madam Mayor, Councilmembers, Matthew Corrigan, homeowner,
Fountain Hills. I would like to address two topics this evening, 5G in Fountain Hills and
zoning in Fountain Hills. In regard to 5G ordinances, I am one of the hundreds of 5G
petition signers and would hope that the Mayor, council, and staff have also read the
petition. I encourage the council to retain Andrew Campanelli and void the existing
contract with Jonathan Kramer.
In regard to zoning, all communities under state law require an updating of the general
plan every ten years. And the former city council approved it in 2020 as a general plan.
Voters must ratify the plan. I am concerned that the ordinances be enforced and that
variances and rezoning should be the exception and never the rule. An interpretation that
goes outside the strict provisions of the zoning ordinances should be a red flag to any
homeowner. At the May 2nd council meeting, a last-hour item, known as the
Mountainside Project, was pulled from the agenda, apparently at the request of the
builder/developer. And concerned neighbors were prepared to oppose the project.
Secondly, later tonight, there will be a request to amend Resolution Number 2414-08 by
adding 14 additional lots to an already 2014 approved project known as Eagles Nest
Parcel 2.
The Realtor/developer had 26 lots approved but now wants 40, so 60 percent more lots in
the same parcel of land. The already developed parcel adjacent to this is parcel 1, which
has 21 lots. I wonder how many of those homeowners in parcel 1 know that the same
size parcel adjacent to them will have 40 lots. How many of these homeowners are
snowbirds and are now back at their home in -- summer home?
Of those additional added lots, the developer has added four flag lots among the new
additions. This seems inconsistent with the neighboring parcel 1 of roughly the same
size. Although I don't live in either of these areas, I'm concerned about this seeming
trend in zoning. Combine this with recent attempts to allow substance rehab counseling
facilities in a commercial area zoned for dental and medical offices. Maybe it's just a
coincidence, but I don't believe in coincidences.
I was a homeowner living in -- if I was a homeowner living in either Mountainside area
or Eagles Nest adjacent to Parcel 1 area, or adjacent to Parcel 3, or adjacent to Parcel 11,
I would be very concerned. Many homeowners have their major investment in these
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homes. And I don't want to see that investment drop in value and depreciate.
MENDENHALL: Next we have Barry Walbarsky.
WOLBORSKY: Mayor and counsel, I'm going to speak on something completely
different. So there was -- I would noticed at the last counseling meeting that there was
$34,000 left in the budget to complete the study for the Eagle Ridge drive traffic signal.
Already $90,000 has been spent on that on a project that we're not going to do. And this
extra 34,000 is to complete a project that we're not going to do. I understand that the
company has told us that this -- this study would last for several years and wouldn't
become outdated. I would like to know if the Federal Reserve Board can't predict what --
what inflation is going to do next month, how does this company know what inflation is
going to do in three to five years? I suggest that this study will be valueless by the time
you'll want to use it.
But there's another concern that I have. And I think it's more important. If you think
about that intersection there -- and if you're heading south on Palisades, there's a big
curve before that intersection, which means the people couldn't see the stoplight in
advance. So a signal would have to be put out a couple of hundred feet before to let
people know that there was a stoplight and it was red so they could stop for it.
Once that signal is put up, people will know when it's not red. And we all know that
people kind of move along that area pretty quickly. And you can't see the intersection
when you're coming from the north to the south. If somebody's making a right turn and
somebody's coming down that street at 45 to 50 mile an hour, the accident is going to be
horrendous. There's going to be serious injuries. There's going to be fatalities. By
putting up a stoplight, you're not making it safer because the stop sign now, everyone
knows they have to stop there. So when cars come out to make turns, you're already
stopped; you're not going 50 miles an hour. I think you really need to rethink this.
MENDENHALL: Next we have Larry Myers.
MYERS: Mayor, Counsel, resident 41 years. First I want to thank you for passing the
moratorium last meeting. I am absolutely certain, after listening to all of you, you know
very little about the subject of 5G small cell and data transmission. I can tell that because
I know some people think that you get better cell service form it. And it has nothing to
do with your telephone.
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So with that in mind, I know you have a workshop. I would encourage you to take the
residents who have done considerable amount of research, that know way more than
anybody sitting on the dais -- I would study their research. I would fact check their
research. And I would listen to more than one party, specifically a guy that I did a lot of
research on, and that was the attorney we hired, who is, in my estimation, what I would
call a tower pimp.
He writes licenses. He creates revenue for town. I think that's how this got started,
because the town needs revenue. Sell license, get revenue. I'm going to stay away from
the medical portion of this. We've already heard enough about that. And I will tell you
that I've been around microwave radiation my entire life in the television industry. So
maybe that's what's wrong with me.
But I will tell you the one thing that is obvious and cannot be disputed is that there are no
above-ground utilities in Fountain Hills. The master planner saw to that way back in
1968. So putting up a bunch of towers, poles, around town is absolutely the opposite of
what was intended for this community. We talk about our views. We talk about the
beauty. We talk about all this stuff. And then we're contemplating this. Don't think so. I
think you can just contemplate sticking fiber underground where the electrical is, where
the cable is, and where all the other utilities are, as they were intended, and then you
won't have to worry about the microwave radiation that some folks are worried about.
You'll have the unintended consequences of saving them while protecting the beauty of
Fountain Hills as it was intended. Thanks a lot.
MENDENHALL: Next we have Lori Troller.
TROLLER: Good evening, Mayor, council, Rachael, Aaron. Lori Troller, 27-year
resident. Not prepared for this one, but here we go. I need to clarify. 5G services are
broken in -- down into five type -- sorry, two types of services; that's cellular and
ultrawide products, cellular being everything on your phone. Cellular is what's in town.
It's on the macro towers. The ultrawide products would be what we're talking about
bringing in on -- we don't have it yet, and it would be the small cell stuff.
So Aaron -- when Aaron says, you know, we have the federal and the state regulations
and everything, that pertains to the cellular side. None of us here are even talking about
that. That's not the products we're talking about. We're talking about the -- the ultrawide
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stuff. Now, the ultrawide stuff isn't regulated by federal or state. We get to do that. It's
just like garbage services. We can say, hey, we want one service, we want it on what
date. We can regulate that all we want.
So there is a court case, a recent court case, that actually calls that distinction out. And
we can rely on that to define those two products. And the moratorium even says, we're
not talking about the phone piece. Totally excludes it. Moratorium doesn't even touch
that. We're talking about the data stuff. We don't have in town yet. We want to write a
moratorium on.
So what does this mean to us? It's just like what Larry said. Rolling hills, open space --
we have property; our property values are based on our views and stuff like that. We get
to protect that. Telcom can't come in and say, hey we just want to put a tower over there.
Can't do that. We can say, put it under ground. That's all we're asking for. We're not
trying to stop this. We're not -- we're not what's -- Aaron, what's the word -- it's prohibit.
We're not prohibiting it. We just want to bring it in underground; that's it.
Now, one under thing if I have a moment. I don't speak to health. Try and stay away
from that. Everybody's going to be in the garage talking about that for the rest of their
life. There's still people smoking. No -- if any of you, I'm sorry, but -- the FCC, there
was a -- recently there was a case where the FCC was told, how'd you come up with your
guidelines? And so what did they test? They test little rats for a little while? No. They
tested a 220-pound man, not a child, not a woman, not a pregnant woman, not an
elderly -- 220-pound man. How do you guys measure up to 220 pounds?
Guess what? Man wasn't a man. It was plastic. All these guidelines we have when we
say, oh, that antenna, that router right there is okay -- it was tested on plastic before it
melted. So when you bring up anything about safety, you can have all the studies, all the
schools, anything you want. What it comes down to is what did the FCC say? And the
FCC says, didn't melt the plastic.
So before you want to stick these things in people's yards and put a license on that and be
responsible for it, that's what we're testing, plastic. Thanks.
MENDENHALL: Next we have Rick Watts.
WATTS: This is going to sound like a broken record. Rick Watts, 30-plus-years
resident, Fountain Hills. Mayor, Council, staff, so over the last several weeks, I've had
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the opportunity to listen to numerous town residents expressing their concerns, as you
have, regarding 5G towers, supplemental small cell towers, and concerns about potential
ramifications to health, property values, et cetera.
My own curiosity drove me to spend an inordinate amount of hours researching through
the FCC, FDA, CDC, EPA, every acronym for something -- other government agency
that I could think of, as well as the telecom associations, independent industry experts,
popular mechanics, and a plethora of other organizations.
So what I found was that there are both pros and cons to the side of this debate. So this is
slightly different. Understanding the clarification regarding the various types of towers
being proposed for installation, understanding various methods of transmission,
understanding the impact on signal strength type, distance, penetration, et cet -- all the
technicalities that go along with this issue, research on health and property values. So
each issue has supporters and opponents. And I admit it's extremely technical in nature,
very difficult to understand. And I think I've got a relatively strong background in
electronics, electrical engineers, that type of stuff.
So as I researched the -- I also researched the outside attorney recommended by the town
attorney in conjunction with the town counsel and find that the consultant's background
appears to be geared more towards helping the town develop regulations that are tepid to
produce accommodative ordinances that would allow for the installation of said towers
and right of ways.
The firm, and more specifically Jonathan Kramer, may well be -- may be very well
versed from the technical side. And I give him a lot of credit for the work that he has
done with other municipalities, other towns, but the problem that I see is that regulations
were not necessarily to protect the voiced interested of the residents. And I think that's
the slight differentiation that I'm talking about here, is that the focus should be listening
to the town residents.
So when I hear all of the town residents express their deep desire and more objective
understanding in order to properly protect and regulate, I don't know that we're giving it
enough credit at this point. What I would suggest and urge the council to direct the town
attorney to terminate the agreement with Telcom law firm and engage a consultant expert
who is more closely aligned with the expressed desires of the residents and has prior
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demonstratable and successful experience producing an ordinance that first and foremost
listens to the residents' petitions and not a consultant that may have leanings towards
satisfying the telecom industry.
It's pretty straightforward. If their strength in the telecom law firm -- they're experts in it.
But which way do they lean? Are they leaning towards us? Are they leaning towards
government? Are they leaning towards the telecom industry? And I think that's the wild
card. So I would ask you to strongly consider finding somebody that more closely aligns
with town residents. Thank you.
MENDENHALL: We have no more public comment cards.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Thank you all. We appreciate your comments and
take -- we had a talk about it earlier. So more to come.
Our next item is our consent agenda. And if every -- if you don't want anything removed,
could I get a motion, please?
MCMAHON: Motion to approve consent agenda.
KALIVIANAKIS: I second.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Roll call, please.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth.
TOTH: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski.
GRZYBOWSKI: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel.
FRIEDEL: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis.
KALIVIANAKIS: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn.
SKILLICORN: Yes.
MENDENHALL: Vice mayor McMahon.
MCMAHON: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey.
MAYOR DICKEY: Aye.
Thank you. I'm going to open a public hearing on this next item. John is here to talk
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about a site plan review changes in our ordinance. And so we'll hear form John, and then
we'll take any speaker cards, and then we'll discuss. Thanks.
WESLEY: Thank you, Mayor, Council. Good to see you this evening. Hopefully this
won't take too long. You've had a little bit of an introduction to this before. The Chapter
2 of our Zoning Ordinance deals with the different processes involved in the applications
we received, resulting in special use permits, temporary permits, and so forth.
One of those sections deals with site plan review, and that's the one we have here for your
consideration this evening.
Been going through the entire chapter, section by section, and looking at those sections
for updates to make them more consistent with each other to take care of some issues that
have evolved over time and bring them to you for your review.
The Council did look at and approve modification to Section 2.02 for special use permits
back in September. So with this Section 2.04, which again, deals with our site plan
review process, I think you can see the outline of the existing ordinance on the left and
the proposed ordinance on the right, very similar. Slightly organized, again, to develop
some consistency with the other sections of this chapter.
Again, going through it briefly, some of the changes that are in here, a lot of it is -- is just
reorganization. But there are some things that are added, mostly for clarification.
In Section A with the applicability and purpose, under the purpose section, to include a
reference to Chapter 19 of the Zoning Code. This is a design guidelines section. When
you read that section, it tells you that under certain requirements you had to process a site
plan, but the site plan, it doesn't tell you to look at Chapter 19. So this makes that
connection between the two so people can understand where they're at, that connection.
Clarifying the requirement for site plan review prior to submitting for plan review. And
highlighting the benefit of the review for compliance with the zoning. And also amended
to include a requirement with regard to redevelopment expansion of existing site, which
ties with one of the main reasons for updating this section, because currently our code
doesn't give us any direction on how to handle site plan amendments once we approved
one. So that will be an addition we'll talk about in a moment.
The application, Section B. A few minor changes in there, one of which is to bring it up
to date with current practice. The code still talks about paper submissions and how many
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paper copies we need to have. We don't do paper copies anymore, so this clarifies that.
And then several places in this section, we again add references to other parts of the code.
So a person looking to provide the information knows where to look in the ordinance to
find exactly what we're after.
Review and approval, this section was modified a little bit to fit the same format that we
put into the special use permit format and we'll use also in the other sections to keep
consistency in the review and approval process. This one is a little bit different because it
is administratively approved, so it doesn't have some of the pieces about coming to
counsel and so forth.
Sections D and E in the current ordinance deal with appeal and expiration. Those were
unchanged.
Section F is a new section dealing with amended to site plans and provides some
definition of what would be a minor and a major amendment. The main difference that
happens there, if it's a minor amendment, let's looks at -- we're proposing to -- they would
pay half the fee, and so the full fee if it's a major amendment, it's really like looking at a
new site plan, so it's a full fee for that.
And then Section G is the final section of the revised ordinance. This deals with how we
treat site plans in conjunction with special use permits and temporary use permits. The
current ordinance has been a little bit confusing. When you look at the -- the special use
permit piece and the site plan piece, they were kind of circular in which one was
supposed to come first. So been trying to clarify that with this update. And specifically
allowing for conceptual or preliminary site plans to be processed with the special use
permit or the temporary use permit and allow them to wait for the full site plan review.
Once they've gotten that approval and they know with some assurance they can move
forward, avoiding the cost of a full site plan development.
However if they want to submit the full site plan upfront, they can. It also clarifies that if
it's -- if both are involved, they have to do the special use permit first, or as part of the
site plan. We're not going to do the site plan first and then the SUP, because that has
created problems in the past.
And so with that, staff and the Planning and Zoning Commission recommend approval.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you, John. Do we have any speaker cards on this item?
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MENDENHALL: No, Mayor, we do not.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Questions for John from Council? Anybody?
Councilwoman.
KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you, Miss Mayor. Yeah, just a couple of things I'd like to
address. And I like the administrative changes that you made. I think it's more friendly.
It's more easy to read. And it tightened it up quite a bit. It seems to me that the minor
amendments, instead of paying one half the fee -- it seems like that's a little high. I
would recommend maybe a quarter of the fee. I think that would be fair to our business
owners. I mean, if it's just changing something so slightly, it just seems like kind of a
hard hammer. So that's what I'd recommend.
And then you go into substantive changes in Section 15 and 17, where it calls for a --
now, this is for the site plan, not for the licensing and what comes later. Do you want to
include a photometric plan showing a footcandles and the lighting and all parking areas?
Photometric plans don't grow on trees. They're kind of expensive. And it seems to me
this is not a business-friendly proposition. And also, with the parking lot landscaping
requirements, I think that anybody that wants to build, it is going to build the landscaping
in later. And also with the photometric plan, will add that later. I think both of these just
seem a little business unfriendly to me for this early stage of development. So you know,
what I would -- what I would recommend is just to amend this to have the minor
amendments to a quarter fee and then to basically, just -- at this point, just eliminate the
substantive changes from 15 and 17 and just basically strike out the new redline
provisions that you added.
MAYOR DICKEY: Vice mayor.
MCMAHON: I have a question. On that landscaping, when -- did you have -- are you
including that because of what happened with the hospital in the process of the plans and
the questions with the landscaping afterward? Is that one of the reasonings that you have
behind that?
WESLEY: Mayor, Vice Mayor, not specifically. Just experience with looking at these.
So I don't necessarily have a concern with what Councilmember Kalivianakis is
suggested with removing those particular pieces. But we talk about the parking lot
landscape requirements in Chapter 7. It's not just the plant material. It's the location of
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the areas that are required and some of the calculations that are involved with having
sufficient amount of area that if they wait for the building permit to do that, then they
may find that they missed something and have to go back and correct.
So again, I could go either way on that particular one. And similarly with the suggestion
with the photometrics, there's a specific ordinance requirement, medium five-foot
candles. The sooner they look at it, the sooner they'll know they have it addressed. But if
we want to wait for the building permit to do that, yeah, that's not going to be a big issue.
They're still going to have to meet the requirement.
MCMAHON: So you want -- you want to keep the landscaping one and change it to
five-foot candle -- which one's that? I'm sorry.
WESLEY: That was Romanette xvii.
MCMAHON: Okay.
WESLEY: Yes.
KALIVIANAKIS: Well, could we just say, instead of the photometric plan, just in
compliance with Dark Sky code?
WESLEY: Well, the foot candles is actually in Chapter 7 of the Zoning Ordinance
without the Chapter 8, but they're two separate provisions. And Council again -- Mayor,
Councilmember Kalivianakis, we'll point out, too, that Romanette vi in that list, what
we're looking for in terms of at this point landscaping is a graphic representation of
landscape treatment. It's not a detailed landscape plan. That would come later with the --
with the building permit.
KALIVIANAKIS: So is that code kind of cheap?
WESLEY: It's a start. It's not necessarily the full blown plan but just giving us an idea.
KALIVIANAKIS: Okay.
MAYOR DICKEY: I have a question about the, you know, landscaping and -- well, first
of all, this was approved by Planning and Zoning as is. Was any of this discussed at that
time?
WESLEY: Mayor, no. They didn't have a specific issues with these --
MAYOR DICKEY: Did they approve this unanimously as is?
WESLEY: Yes.
MAYOR DICKEY: We talk about -- what was mentioned earlier was Mountainside
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potential rezone. And a big part of that, whether it passes or what, how it's reviewed has
to do with the landscaping, so I -- I don't think we should remove that item or really
change it. And again, since the lighting is referenced elsewhere, I'd probably wouldn't
want to change that. And I don't really want to change the fee that much. I don't really
know what that fee is. But it feels like Planning and Zoning heard it twice, made
suggestions, and then approved this unanimously.
When you have a section that's referenced, is it lit up -- can they link to it? Like, if
they're looking in -- I think a couple slides before, you said it was referencing back is --
are they able to click on those?
WESLEY: Mayor, yes. We've had that in the past. I might punt to our town clerk just a
little bit because she works with the codifier and how easy it is for them to set up those
hot links in the code. But I believe it's possible to have some in the current code.
MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah, that -- I mean, it's pretty helpful. Thank you.
WESLEY: Mayor, if you don't mind going back on the fee for the minor site plan
amendments. P and Z did discuss that some and made some adjustments to what staff
had initially proposed along the lines of what Councilman Kalivianakis talked about.
Lowered the bar a little bit, raised the bar, whichever way it would be. Made more things
minor amendments than what we had initially proposed because they had a similar
concern. And staff kind of picked a percentage out of the air, sort of leave it open to the
Council if you would like to charge less for those. Some of them are pretty minor and
don't take a lot of staff time. Others are getting in a little bit more. But, you know, I
don't see that as a big hit on the revenue either way on the town. It could be beneficial to
an applicant, more --
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay.
WESLEY: -- or a little bit less.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thanks.
TOTH: Just to go -- kind of circle back to what Councilman Kalivianakis was saying, I
would absolutely support lowering that to a quarter for minor adjustments when it's
specified that it's for minor adjustments. Makes sense that it would be a minor fee.
As for the other changes, I -- I think we can -- I think we could go without the -- I'm
going to say it wrong. I almost said photogenic, but the original word for the -- for the
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study. I think we could go without that for that initial phase with it still being the
requirement once they're going into their building permit. And the --
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Landscape area.
TOTH: Thank you. The landscape area, I think that that can stay, considering that was
including much more, but I don't know if we're ready to make that a motion, but I'll try it
anyway. With that I move to amend as previously stated.
KALIVIANAKIS: I second. With those two amendments, the photometric and the fee?
Yeah, I would second that.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. So it wasn't the landscaping one, right?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: right.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. All right.
GRZYBOWSKI: Wait. I just want to make sure we're clear. We're lowering the fee to a
quarter -- is what we're discussing it -- for the minor only and getting rid of the
photometric requirements for this particular area. Okay, thank you.
KALIVIANAKIS: Question. Are we going to say in compliance with Dark Sky or is
that not necessary?
WESLEY: That's still in there. I didn't hear that one come out. I did not hear that
provision come out of what's in here in Romanette xvii. It will still say, "Lighting plan in
conformance with Chapter 8 of the Zoning Ordinance."
KALIVIANAKIS: Okay, thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Any further comments? Could we have a roll call, please?
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski.
GRZYBOWSKI: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel.
FRIEDEL: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis.
KALIVIANAKIS: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn.
SKILLICORN: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth.
TOTH: Aye.
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MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor McMahon.
MCMAHON: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey.
MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thank you.
Okay, our next item is a -- oh, I forgot to close the hearing. Hearing is closed. I always
do that.
Our next item is -- is about the Eagles Nest parcel and Parcel 2. Thank you.
TAVASSOLI: All right. Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the Council, and the
public. And so what you have before you is a proposed amendment to the settlement
agreement that was approved through a resolution back in 2014. It was actually
referenced by one of the members of the public earlier. And so I'll go into detail about
what the amendments actually entail. I do want to make one point of clarification before
moving too far ahead. The staff report refers to MCO as the owner of the subdivided
parcel here, particularly Parcel 2. MCO is actually 50 percent owner. They're part of an
LLC. The other one -- the other 50 percent is owned by MJM holdings. So all of the
staff reports mentions MCO, the resolution actually refers to the LLC.
So the -- the original settlement agreement from 2014 that I mentioned earlier -- and by
the way, there are a number of agreements between the town and the developers and
owners for much of what's known as Eagles Nest. But the 2014 development -- or
settlement agreement, rather, caps the number of lots at 245. So that's currently what's
effective. The amendments to this agreement particularly focuses on -- excuse me --
the -- what's referred to as the future development down here, which is known as Parcel 2
of Eagles Nest. It's about 58.2 acres. And here's an aerial photograph, obviously.
But the original plat was approved back in 2004 for Parcel 2. That was the final plat.
Originally, developers had proposed 26 lots. Although it was approved by council, the
plat was never recorded by the county, so it remained unsubdivided. It actually came
back for a replat back in 2010 with some slight adjustments to the property lines. That
was also approved, but once again, it was not -- it was not recorded. So it -- it never
became -- it's still a unified parcel, unsubdivided.
You'll notice that there has been a little bit of rough grading here for the cul-de-sacs that
were originally proposed under the original plan for the 26 lots. Those cul-de-sacs have
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not been -- like I said, they've been rough graded, but they have not been paved.
So the amended terms of this proposed amendment before you particularly addresses
changes to the lot count that would -- that was originally agreed upon, and I'll get into
more detail with some further slides, addresses allowances for flag lots, some changes to
the location of the emergency access easement that you'll see in the tentative
development plan that we'll follow, some changes to the cut allowances, as well the
disturbance areas and maximum retaining wall heights.
Now, this is the tentative development plan that the applicant has provided with the
proposed amendments. If you take a close look at the plan, you'll see some underlying,
dashed gray lines of some rather elongated parcels -- or lots, rather. That was part of the
original 26-lot plat that, once again, hadn't been recorded. And you'll see the gray here
refers to the cul-de-sacs that I showed you earlier.
What you see superimposed on that with the black dashed lines is the 40-lot development
that the applicant is proposing through this development agreement.
Now, I should stress at this point, approval of this proposed amendment doesn't commit
or bind the town to any particular design. The purpose of the development and
agreement is basically the applicant or the owners requesting certain allowances that may
sometimes deviate from, for example, the subdivision ordinance or even the zoning
ordinance in return for something that the town might be getting in return. And I'll -- I'll
help answer that question at a later slide.
But as part of the amendment, aside from the increase in lot count from 26 to 40, a net
increase of 14 for Parcel 2, the applicant is requesting cut allowances for a few parcels
here -- six parcels to be exact, particularly steep hillsides here. They're requesting cut
allowances of 20 feet for those parcels.
Now, typically the town, for any particular lot, if a developer is proposing cuts and/or
fills of greater than 10 feet, that would require town council approval. Any cuts less than
that would be approved -- would be looked administratively, and that does not require
approval form the government body -- governing body. But in this case, the owner is
requesting an allowance of up to 20 feet in cuts.
The applicant is also requesting the addition of -- or the inclusion of four flag lots, or in
some parts of the country they're called pipe stem lots. But you can see those marked
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here in the -- with the red dots. Now, typically flag lots are not something that is
necessarily prohibited in the town or prohibited by the subdivisional ordinance or even
the Zoning Ordinance. Sometimes there's a little bit of confusion, though, once we come
across a flag lot, how do we actually measure the setback, given some of the -- you know,
given the narrow entrance into the -- the lots, because some may be as little as 20 feet or
sometimes even less. But in this case, the applicant has provided -- or has proposed,
actually, the development envelopes, and that's something that will be -- that is part of the
proposed agreement.
And I should also mention that the applicant is also requested the relocation of the
emergency access easement. The original emergency access easement, which was
approved by instrument of a grant of easement, is shown here in yellow. That's, by my
estimation, approximately, anywhere between 460 to 500 linear feet that was originally
approved. They're requesting, in light of this new 40-lot layout, a relocation depicted
here in the blue highlight, which is approximately about -- about 70 feet.
So in summary, this kind of stems from the previous slide I showed earlier, but I'm
providing more specific with regards to what the changes are. So with this approval of
this amendment to the development -- settlement agreement, rather, the increase lot count
will go from 26 to 40, particularly for Parcel 2.
Now, that's obviously an increase of 14 lots. But for the overall Eagles Nest
development, that will be a net increase of 9. So it goes from 245 to 254. So let me
explain. There were 5 lots in the past few years that have been combined. So the -- and
once they're combined, MCO does not allow them to be divided once again. So although
for Parcel 2 there's a net increase of 14, the overall development, Eagles Nest
Development, there will be a net increase of 9 lots, which would include the four flag
lots. It would include the shortening of the emergency access easement that I discussed
earlier. It would also allow the 20-foot cut allowances for the six lots that I mentioned
earlier.
There will also be, inevitably, an increase in the disturbance area. Now, the average
disturbance for each lot in the original agreement caps it at 24,000 -- 24,700 square feet.
They're maintaining -- the owners want to maintain that average disturbance, but because
it's being increased to 40 lots, there will be a cumulative disturbance of about 908,000
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square feet.
And they're also requesting allowance for 10-foot-high retaining walls. In cases of
hillsides, the absolute max that one can go with regards to retaining walls is 10 feet, but
the average should -- is capped at 8 feet. So any one retaining wall, absolute max, 10
feet. But it needs to average out at 8. In this case, the applicant is simply requesting an
allowance of 10-foot high retaining walls, regardless of what that average might turn out
to be.
So going back to this slide real quick, the question might come up, what is the town
getting in return? Well, what's preferable to the town is better circulation, particularly in
some of these more remote areas of -- of Fountain Hills. Originally, the applicant was
proposing the cul-de-sacs that I discussed earlier. With this increase in the lot count, the
applicant will be providing and dedicating to the town a circular driveway as opposed to
a -- or rather a circular road as opposed to the two cul-de-sacs that were proposed earlier.
This would help emergency access immensely and in case -- in the case of any particular
traffic issues along Mountain Parkway over here, whether it be flooding or vehicular
incidents, it would still provide additional means of access to these lots, in addition to the
emergency access easement in the -- to the southwest of here.
So with that, I will conclude my comments. There are members of the -- from the -- from
both MCO -- rather the LLC, I should say, that owns this parcel here, too, help shed some
light on some of the details of the agreement.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Do we have any speaker cards on this item?
MENDENHALL: Mayor, we do not.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Questions or comments from Council, then? Vice
Mayor?
MCMAHON: Okay. On -- as far as the easement goes, there's only verbal; there isn't
anything in writing, though? Are they pretty sure that that's -- everybody's in significant
agreement with that and it's going to happen and is there any consequences if it doesn't
for some reason come to fruition?
TAVASSOLI: Mayor, Vice Mayor, so approval of this development agreement doesn't
necessarily, I guess, isn't -- doesn't complete the process for the grant of easement. So
perhaps the applicant can correct me if I misspeak here, but the grant of easement will
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have to come at a later date to amend the original easement that was agreed upon, so that
will --
MCMAHON: Okay.
VARGO: I'm with MCO Realty. I'm actually the manager of MJFFH7, the owner of this
parcel. I would like to have Shawn White actually address this because we actually
found some very interesting things when we began to look into it. So Shawn, can you
come up here and address the easements?
WHITE: Yeah, so -- Shawn White for the applicant. Mayor, town council members,
with respect to the easement, we went back in time to try to figure out whether there was
actually an easement that ran across Eagles Nest. What we've discovered going through
our survey process with our surveyors is we have an easement -- or there's an easement
that leads up to Eagles Nest. There isn't a grant of easement that actually extends into
Eagles Nest. So when staff was talking about the loop road and something of benefit to
the town, actually granting the additional access, which you see in the blue line there,
would be something else that -- that the town would obtain through this plan here. And I
think that's what -- what Mr. Vargo is referring to with respect to that particular
easement.
It goes back-- you may have gone through a lot of these settlement agreements. I think it
goes all the way back to 2001 or 2004, and they continually have been amended over the
years. And so go back in time and finding those Atlas surveys were extraordinarily
important for us.
VARGO: Yeah. Address the fact that, really, there were two easements. One was
abandoned. One came to the property line of Eagles Nest. And the one that we show in
the yellow never was recorded.
WHITE: Sure. So there was a -- there was an 80-foot cross access easement that went
across Adero that the prior developer had put in place. And it had gone across what is
now the preserve land and into Eagles Nest. That easement was subsequently abandoned
by the previous developer when they were common owners. And so the 80-foot
easement that tends to show up on some of these surveys in fact was -- was abandoned
some time ago. I forget the exact abandonment date, but it is --
VARGO: 2001.
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WHITE: -- 2001. So -- so it was quite a while go that the 80-foot cross access easement
was abandoned. I wasn't involved in that process whatsoever, but I think that was part of
the access between Adero and Eagles Nest prior to having emergency access through the
actual front gates.
MCMAHON: Thank you. I have another question. Please be patient. I'm trying to
understand the disturbance allowance and the change and was it -- going to have a
negative or a positive effect on --
VARGO: The -- okay --
MCMAHON: The disturbance allowance.
VARGO: Vice Mayor, the disturbance is 22,700. It was -- I thought I mentioned 24,000,
but it's -- 22,700 square feet was the original development agreement. That was averaged
over the 245 lots. And it had to be allocated into each area. So Parcel 2, what we're
doing is we're looking at Parcel 2 has 40 lots with an average of 22,700 square feet of
disturbance for those 40 lots. Now, as you look at the plan, you'll see that still -- and
we're not asking for any rezone, so there still is an average of 1.34 acres in size to each
lot that is here.
MAYOR DICKEY: Councilman Skillicorn, did you have something to say?
SKILLICORN: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Actually, Senior Planner Tavassoli -- did I
get that right?
TAVASSOLI: Tavassoli, close enough.
SKILLICORN: Close enough? Come on. Give me a little better than that. Can we go
back to the summary of changes?
TAVASSOLI: Sure.
SKILLICORN: And this is a unique property because it is very pretty. You know, the
elevation is -- is stunning to look at. It also creates some challenges. So the actual
increase in number of lots, it's still over an acre; you mentioned 1.4. Yeah, I'm going to
suspect that, I don't think any of those lots are under an acre now. So I think the density
is fine with me on that. But where I am getting some issues is the cuts and the retaining
walls.
So I'm a little concerned about the, you know, water runoff. I see that, like, we talked
about where that abandoned easement is there; you know, obviously it looks like the
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terrain there, water could go down that way. But I -- I mean, I have the -- some concerns
about erosion. And I also, because of it's such a pretty area, I don't like the idea of
cutting into the mountain and making this terraced.
VARGO: Okay. Councilmember Skillicorn, I ask two things. Number 1, the allowance
for the ten-foot-high retaining walls, that was strictly for the road. That's not for the lots.
So that's -- just keep that in mind. And in terms of the 20-foot cut allowances for the six
lots, what we actually did is we spoke to many different builders before we -- as we did
this plan. We started looking at it a year ago. The recurring theme was, we do not like
the cul-de-sacs. So let's try to figure out a way we can connect this.
So many of the builders that we spoke to came up with this suggestion. And I actually
have one of the builders here, who is much better at explaining this than I am. So if you
would -- Brent, can you come up? Brent Hollanti, Custom Homes, who has, I think, ten
houses going right now in Eagles Nest. If you can explain the 20-foot cut allowance for
the six lots.
HOLLANTI: Madam Mayor, council members. So -- excuse me. I'm losing my voice.
These six lots that we're proposing for that 20-foot cut are on the back side going up the
mountain. So they're fairly steep. My -- most of my clients want single-story houses. So
the proposal for this 20-foot -- and what we're proposing to put into the design guidelines
to prevent the -- making it ugly and keeping it within the town's vision for the housing is
that these 20 foot cuts would need to be covered by the house by either the basement --
like a basement wall, so if it's a two-story house, that back wall is going to be covering
that part of the cut.
So it's -- what ends up happening is, with those steep lots, if we don't have a little bit
more of a cut and have a large retaining wall that's put in and built into the house, then
we have to terrace multiple retaining walls up front. And when you get -- get this
wedding cake, terracing effect. And that's what we want to get away from. We want to
keep the houses blended into the hillsides and not have this, which I've -- I've been
building in Fountain Hills for almost 20 years. So I've built in almost every one of the
subdivisions. And I've seen this terracing, and it's not -- it's not pretty. And I -- this is
why we're proposing this on these 20 lots and to have that -- or sorry, six lots for the 20-
foot cut, to have this and the design guidelines, to eliminate that and keep the scenery the
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way it is.
SKILLICORN: And I echo that, even though I like to preserve the mountainside. Are
the -- so the six, they're very steep. Which way are they facing? Are they -- I'm, you
know, I'm looking at the geography right here. Is it facing the south or, you know,
southeast, or is it --
VARGO: So -- let's turn this light on for reference.
SKILLICORN: Is there a slide that shows -- is it the orange?
VARGO: The six orange. So those go from the road up. They go up the mountain.
HALLONTI: Upward sloping lots. And they'll face --
SKILLICORN: And -- and it facing the preserve?
VARGO: Facing the north -- no.
HALLONTRA: No, they're not facing the preserve.
VARGO: They're facing the north. So --
SKILLICORN: They're backing up.
VARGO: (Indiscernible) area -- the Maricopa County park.
SKILLICORN: Okay.
HALLONTI: And then those lots continue going up and then crest over, back in towards
the Adero.
SKILLICORN: Yeah. I'm not excited about cutting into the mountain.
FRIEDEL: Allen, if I can allay some of your fears. I've been out to the property and I've
seen it firsthand. This is not going to be a Adero Canyon where they blew up the
mountain and ravaged that mountain. These guys are doing this tastefully. There's about
20 or 25 homes in process right now up in Eagles Nest -- 22, yeah. And really, what
they're doing here, what I saw up there was the best use of this land, and the developers
and the residents are working within the land.
So I think this fits very well. I too was concerned with the cut, but when I got out there
and I actually got on the property and looked at it. It makes sense to me, and I don't
have -- I don't have an issue with it. I actually kind of like it. And I like the fact that the
road has a different -- they have a couple of different access points to this area for
emergency vehicles and everything else, too.
So again, it's six lots out of the 40. You're talking, what, 5 percent? I don't think that's a
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stretch. And again, we're not talking a Adero Canyon here, so.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible.)
FRIEDEL: Yeah, exactly. I was just going to say, or -- yeah -- yeah --
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Indiscernible.)
MAYOR DICKEY: We don't have to discourage other neighborhoods. Yes, sir. You
have any more? I'm just kidding.
HOLLANTI: I can add, too, this is the request for these, if it's needed. It doesn't
necessarily have to be, but because these are steep lots, depending on the size of the
homes -- I mean, the average home I'm building in there right now is 6,000 square feet.
So when you have a 1.3 -- 1.34 acre parcel, you know, where three to five, $7 million
homes to get on that steep of a hillside, it ends up -- you have to build such a tiny home
or go up the mountain. And then the home is terraced. And the age limit in -- the
average age in Eagles Nest, too, they want to be walking up the stairs and doing small
levels on each level. They want single-story, expansive, beautiful homes that blend into
the environment. So that's the idea for this.
MAYOR DICKEY: Is that -- would that be a result, though, of adding these lots? Like,
if you didn't add the lots, it's kind of hard to see what it was supposed to be, but would --
you'd need to do the cuts if we didn't -- if you didn't add the lots. I'm not -- you know
what I'm saying? If you --
VARGO: Well, I understand the question.
MAYOR DICKEY: Would you have that issue with needing to do the 20-foot cuts if you
weren't adding these lots?
VARGO: Well, again, if you're going to connect the road, you have to have lots on each
side of the road. You can't afford to do the road. So by adding these lots, what we're
trying to do is make it blend into the environment much better so than -- as you drive
through Eagles Nest, or any of the communities in town, you'll find that the last lots to
get built on, if they're even being built on, are the upward sloping lots. The ten-foot cut is
a great hindrance to those upward sloping lots because it's forcing steps. It's forcing
many different levels.
And as Brent had said, our average age in Fountain Hills is 58, and it's getting older. And
most of those people do not want any steps at all in their homes. So we're trying to
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accommodate that while still trying to do the best plan we can in terms of the
environment and the aesthetics.
GRZYBOWSKI: I am 58 and I haven't wanted steps in my house for easily 20 years, just
for the record. That being said, I lived in the Keys -- the Florida Keys for a lot of years.
And it's a lot of cul-de-sacs. And for me to see them go away and have the loop around
and, you know, a couple of pipe stem sites, or excuse me, flag poles, I realize you got to
do that, but I really like the fact that now we've turned it into one full road all the way
around. My husband used to be a volunteer firefighter in the Keys. And the curse words
that came out of his mouth every time he had to go down one of those cul-de-sacs is -- I
won't go there today.
Also, I totally support the wedding cake terracing. I hate that. I like one wall better than
the whole wedding cake thing that you talked about. I -- yes, cutting into the mountain
side kind of stinks. But I feel like we have to be creative to get the houses that the people
want in those kinds of neighborhoods. And keep in mind, we're only looking at going
from a .50 to .52 lots per acre. So I -- I don't have a problem with this particular request
at all. And if nobody else wants to have a discussion, I'm all for making a move to
approve this as is.
TOTH: Second.
MAYOR DICKEY: Brenda?
KALIVIANAKIS: I was just going to make a motion.
MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. We have a motion and a second. Could we have a roll call,
please?
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel.
FRIEDEL: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis.
KALIVIANAKIS: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn.
SKILLICORN: Don't make me regret with too many mountain cuts, yes.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth.
TOTH: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski.
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GRZYBOWSKI: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Vice mayor McMahon.
MCMAHON: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey.
MAYOR DICKEY: Aye.
Thank you all.
Next item is a -- extending the contract with Maricopa County Sheriffs. Rachael, did you
want to mention this?
GOODWIN: I'll be happy to introduce it, and then I'm actually going to ask if David
Pock will step up. He was helping draft that as well. As many of you know, we are in
negotiations with MCSO to renew our law enforcement contract. Our current contract
expires on June 30, so little less than 45 days. Once that expires, we do not have a plan
come July 1. So we have been working with them to negotiate a new contract; however,
we do not believe we'll make that deadline. So as a -- yes, as a stopgap, we have a -- are
proposing a month-to-month contract, up to six months, so that we have something in
place until we solidify a final contact renewal. So that's what you have before you. I
know our finance director, David Pock, was very involved with this. So if you have any
questions, he or I will be happy to answer.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Do anybody have -- does anybody have any questions
for David? Do we have any speaker cards on this?
MENDENHALL: Yes, Mayor, we do. It is a written comment. And it's from J. P.
Ward. He just wants you to know that he is for it, and he had some comments. That's the
only card we have.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Any further question? Councilman Skillicorn?
SKILLICORN: Madam Mayor, this is more of a statement. So I'm going to support this,
but I do want to make it public, I prefer when we do actually have a renewal is that we
have 19 officers plus the SRO. I think it's unwise to reduce our coverage. But that -- and
I'll make a motion to approve.
GRZYBOWSKI: Second.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Roll call, please.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis.
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KALIVIANAKIS: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn.
SKILLICORN: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth.
TOTH: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski.
GRZYBOWSKI: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel.
FRIEDEL: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor McMahon.
MCMAHON: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey.
MAYOR DICKEY: Aye. Thank you very much.
Our next item is approving the IGA with Arizona for our sidewalk gap elimination on
Saguaro and Palisades. Justin.
WELDY: Thank you, Madam Mayor, council members. As you'll recall, this is a grant
project that originally started out at about $1 million. The engineer of record estimated
it'd be about 2 million. When the final documents were turned over to the Arizona
Department of Transportation, it went to a little more than 3 million. Of that, the town
has received additional grant funding, not only to cover the design, but we also applied
for, under the direction of the town manager, for close-out funds to cover our portion of
the construction.
While it show that we -- for this $2 million sidewalk, there is approximately $221,000,
we believe that amount is going to be substantially lower based on the progress of this
project and the grand funding that has been made available and will become available.
As a brief reminder, this is just an extension to that agreement. A brief update on the
project, it is reaching 100 percent in the design. The Arizona Department of
Transportation, the administrator for these federal funds, anticipates releasing the project
out for bid in mid- to late summer. And then construction will commence shortly there
afterwards. And it will take approximately 10 to 12 months to complete that process.
When it's all competed, we'll have an incredible improvement and a benefit to this
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community, including sidewalks on Saguaro from basically Colony to Fountain Hills
Boulevard on either side and Palisades on the north side from Fountain Hills Boulevard
back to Saguaro.
With that, any questions related to the IGA? I'll do my best to answer them.
MAYOR DICKEY: Do we have any speaker cards?
MENDENHALL: Yes, Mayor, we do. We have a written comment from J. P. Ward
saying that he is for this project.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you very much. Councilman?
SKILLICORN: Madam Mayor, director, on B, did I hear you right? You said either
sides or both on Saguaro?
WELDY: Correct. The project starts at Colony. Across the street from Colony is
Lamplighter. And not to add any confusions, but Lamplighter is on the south side of
Saguaro at this location.
SKILLICORN: Thank you. There's some residents that I know want a sidewalk there,
so -- motion approved.
MAYOR DICKEY: Did anybody else have any comments?
GRZYBOWSKI: Second.
MAYOR DICKEY: We can take a second. Okay. I have all these names on here.
Great, roll call, please.
MENDENHALL: First I need to know who was it that seconded it? Okay, Sharron,
okay.
Okay, Councilmember Skillicorn.
SKILLICORN: Yes.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth.
TOTH: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski.
GRZYBOWSKI: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel.
FRIEDEL: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis.
KALIVIANAKIS: Aye.
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MENDENHALL: Vice mayor McMahon.
MCMAHON: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey.
MAYOR DICKEY: Aye.
Thank you, Justin. Are you up for the next one?
WELDY: Yes, Ma'am.
MAYOR DICKEY: All right.
WELDY: Madam Mayor, council members, this is one of the hot topics and a priority
for this council, which is infrastructure. When we discuss infrastructure as a whole, more
often than not, most people are thinking about the big water lines, sewer lines, or
electrical lines that lie within our easements or our streets. But we also have to consider
the infrastructure that runs from this building to that amenity.
Without singling any contractor and/or staff members out, we clearly have issues with
what we refer to as our newer amenities, town hall, community center, library, Fountain
Park -- we'll cut the list off there. Some of those issues are related to sewer lines. You'll
note that staff is putting forth a recommendation to select the highest bidder here. The
argument behind that is based on research and industry experts. One of the products is
intended as a temporary, not quite complete, sealing project. And they would like to sell
us that again in a few years for the same amount of money. The other one addresses,
resolves the issue, gives us up to 25 or more years of service, and what that does is it
allows for not only this council but future councils and managers to prepare for the
hundreds of thousands of dollars it's going to costs to dig up and/or figure out a way to
replace that pipe that runs under the Centennial Circle.
This is moving that down the road a great distance. And based again on staff's research
and industry experts, this is the best possible solution. And I don't want to be misleading
in any way, shape, or form here. However, the experts say that in the event that this
begins to break down after the 25-year period, there's a possibility it can be reapplied and
an additional time frame added to that.
I don't want to be misleading with that. They say possibility; that's the word I'll leave it
with. If there are any questions related to this, I'll do my best to answer them.
MAYOR DICKEY: Do we have any speaker cards?
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MENDENHALL: Yes, Mayor, we do. J. P. Ward wants you to know that he is for this
project.
MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you very much. Councilwoman.
TOTH: Justin, I just want to thank you for your thoroughness and including all of the
people that we tried to get bids from and -- and what the situation is with the gapping. So
just thank you so much for all you do. If it's all right with everybody, I'd like to move to
approve the Professional Services Agreement 2023-087 with Pipeliners, USA, LLC for
sewer line repairs.
FRIEDEL: Second.
KALIVIANAKIS: I just had one question before we vote --
MAYOR DICKEY: You bet.
KALIVIANAKIS: -- if that's okay. Thank you, Miss Mayor. If we were to go with the
New Flow bid, what is the warranty period on that?
WELDY: Madam Mayor, councilmember, it's limited to one to three years, depending
on the conditions once they reenter the system. So we've already put a camera in there,
and we have a pretty good idea of the conditions. They -- the selected vendor will place
another camera in there and insure that there's no additional degradation or damage to the
facilities between now and the time they install it. Everything comes with a warranty by
default. The extent of that warranty is really in the fine print that I do not have in front of
me right now.
KALIVIANAKIS: Okay, because that was my next question, what would be the
warranty for the Pipeliners bid. Would --
WELDY: There warranty is considerably longer. And again, I don't have those fine print
details. But I will certainly look that up as part of the contact agreement, and also the
manufacturer's warranty agreement on that as provided.
KALIVIANAKIS: I think it'll be settled tonight, so that might not be necessary. Go -- I
offer the vote.
MAYOR DICKEY: We have a motion and a second. Could we have a roll call, please?
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth.
TOTH: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski.
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GRZYBOWSKI: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Friedel.
FRIEDEL: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis.
KALIVIANAKIS: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicorn.
SKILLICORN: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Vice mayor McMahon.
MCMAHON: Aye.
MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey.
MAYOR DICKEY: Aye.
Thank you, Justin. Thank you, everyone who worked on that.
Our last action item -- or item, actually, is about Legislative Bulletin or anything related
to -- let the legislature that you might want to bring up or -- they've been -- you know,
they were off, but then they came back and they had, like, a seven-page third read
yesterday.
Three things that are -- well, two items, but there's four vote -- four bills that are of
concern.
One is Senate Bill 1131, which had been -- had failed earlier, which is the rental tax bill.
And so that one is still very viable. And I had an updated amount from finance, and it
would be a $582,000 hit to the Town of Fountain Hills. So we are going to be trying -- I
think the only thing that's going to work with that is a veto, but I'm not sure that that's
going to happen.
And then there's three -- there are three bills that -- were that -- that one bill that failed
that had to do with zoning, basically making half our conversation tonight moot. But
1161, they split it into three. 1161 really doesn't affect us that much. It has to do with
light rail. But 11 -- I mean 1161 -- 1163 preempts pretty much any density controls that
we have. It bypasses the general plan, and it -- all of these bypass public input or
participation, which is interesting.
And then HB 2536 preempts zoning regulations, design, and parking requirements and
such. So it's some pretty serious stuff there. So we're continuing to work on those. Do
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you have any questions or anything or any other bills you wanted to talk about? No?
Okay. Thank you.
Our next item is Council Discussion/Direction to Town Manager. Now, I know we had
quite a few people speaking on the 5G, and so we will be getting more information out
about that. One of the things that was brought up had to do with the difference
between -- I think, Lori, you said the large and then the small ones. And I think that
remains an area of confusion for me about which -- what actually causes the concern of
people. So I think we need to get a lot of information and facts out there. So I'm not sure
we can do that now, but we can -- we'll follow up soon. Okay. Thank you.
I don't know if there were any other items that were brought up that we would have to
bring forth.
The next item, our Future Agenda Items. Anything there?
SKILLICORN: Well, on the 6th, do we have enough time to bring up some of our
homeless ordinances?
MAYOR DICKEY: That's going to be the 20th. That's on the --
SKILLICORN: I'm just wondering if there's -- if it has opened up, some timewise?
MAYOR DICKEY: It's kind of more having enough information to have the discussion.
I'm not sure we would have it by the 6th. But it's definitely something to consider
because that -- that does change. That potentially -- we haven't really discussed this, but,
you know, potential change in that meeting. Aaron?
ARNSON: Mayor and Councilman Skillicorn, can I connect with you tomorrow and see
what availability we might have, if there's any capacity?
SKILLICORN: Okay.
ARNSON: Okay. Thank you.
MAYOR DICKEY: Yeah. Because we haven't officially done anything here.
All right. Then we -- if there's nothing else, we're adjourned.
Having no further business, Mayor Ginny Dickey adjourned the Regular Meeting
of the Fountain Hills Town Council held on May 16, 2023, at 8:23 p.m.
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
_______________________
Ginny Dickey, Mayor
ATTEST AND PREPARED BY:
__________________________
Linda G. Mendenhall, Town Clerk
CERTIFICATION
I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the
minutes of the Regular Meeting held by the Town Council of Fountain Hills in the
Town Hall Council Chambers on the 16th day of May 2023. I further certify that
the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present.
DATED this 20th Day of June 2023.
_____________________________
Linda G. Mendenhall, Town Clerk
ITEM 8. B.
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
STAFF REPORT
Meeting Date: 06/20/2023 Meeting Type: Town Council Regular Meeting
Agenda Type: Consent Submitting Department: Public Works
Prepared by: Justin Weldy, Public Works Director
Staff Contact Information: Justin Weldy, Public Works Director
Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language): CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE
ACTION: Approving staff to seek and apply for grants from the Maricopa Association of Governments
(MAG)
Staff Summary (Background)
The Town of Fountain Hills adopted the Active Transportation Plan on June 15, 2021, and resolved to
integrate the Active Transportation Plan into the Town’s Transportation System.
The Active Transportation Plan updated the policies for pedestrians and bicyclists, focusing on equity,
safety, and complete networks. The plan also created a project list of sidewalk gaps, crossing
locations, and a low-stress bicycle network with feedback from the community.
The Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) Design Assistance program was first established in
1996 and is designed to support implementation of bicycle and pedestrian facilities that will improve,
expand, and contribute to an interconnected regional transportation network to increase the number
of people who can safely walk and bike.
Each year, MAG issues a call for projects to member agencies through the MAG Active Transportation
Design Assistance Program.
As part of MAG’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2024-2025 Biennial Unified Planning Work Program and Budget,
there is $500,000 in funding available for the FY 2024 MAG Design Assistance program. Currently,
program awards are wholly funded by the region with no local match required by member agencies.
The grant Staff is requesting permission to apply for funds that would be utilized for sidewalk infill
projects shown on the Active Transportation Plan.
Eligible projects are those that support the implementation of regional bicycle and pedestrian
facilities. These facilities should improve, expand, and contribute to an interconnected active
transportation network to increase the number of people who can safely walk and bike.
Related Ordinance, Policy or Guiding Principle
Public Works Mission Statement
Risk Analysis
N/A
Recommendation(s) by Board(s) or Commission(s)
N/A
Staff Recommendation(s)
Staff recommends Council approval to apply for the grant
SUGGESTED MOTION
MOVE to approve applying for grants from the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG).
Form Review
Inbox Reviewed By Date
Public Works Director (Originator)Justin Weldy 06/08/2023 09:21 AM
Finance Director David Pock 06/08/2023 09:33 AM
Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 06/08/2023 04:33 PM
Interim Town Manager Rachael Goodwin 06/14/2023 11:30 AM
Form Started By: Justin Weldy Started On: 05/04/2023 04:23 PM
Final Approval Date: 06/14/2023
ITEM 8. C.
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
STAFF REPORT
Meeting Date: 06/20/2023 Meeting Type: Town Council Regular Meeting
Agenda Type: Consent Submitting Department: Development Services
Prepared by: Farhad Tavassoli, Senior Planner
Staff Contact Information: Farhad Tavassoli, Senior Planner
Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language): CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE
ACTION: Annual report on the implementation of the Fountain Hills General Plan 2020.
Staff Summary (Background)
Arizona Revised Statutes Section 9-461.07 A. 2. states that after the municipal legislative body has
adopted a general plan, the community’s planning agency shall render an annual report to the
legislative body on the status of the plan and progress in its application. The Town adopted its
current general plan on November 3, 2020. The previous annual report was presented before the
Planning and Zoning Commission on May 9, 2022, and was forwarded to Council on June 7, 2022.
The Fountain Hills General Plan 2020 includes the following requirement:
Each year, the Fountain Hills Development Services Department must prepare, and the Fountain Hills
Planning & Zoning Commission must review and submit to the Town Council an annual report on the
status of the General Plan progress. The report must include, but not be limited to, the following:
A summary of General Plan amendments processed during the preceding year and those
pending review, including General Plan amendments initiated by Town Council.
A report on the progress and status of implementation actions enumerated in the General Plan
Implementation Strategy.
A review of policy issues which may have arisen regarding provisions of the General Plan.
A recommendation for General Plan amendments to be initiated to maintain an effective,
up-to-date General Plan including policy changes, clarifications, and new policy development;
changes in character area; and other applicable changes. The recommendation may also include
suggestions to change implementation actions priorities, as Town’s priorities shift, as well as
General Plan amendments, if any, to be included in the work program for the following fiscal
year.
Attached is a report for the Council's review and consideration. Report content includes status
updates received from the lead departments for various goals and policies contained in the general
plan, as well as a brief overview of actions taken during the 2022 calendar year to implement
provisions of the 2020 General Plan.
Related Ordinance, Policy or Guiding Principle
Fountain Hills General Plan 2020
Risk Analysis
N/A
Recommendation(s) by Board(s) or Commission(s)
As of the date of this report, staff has not yet presented this before the Planning and Zoning
Commission at their regular meeting on June 12, 2023. However, staff fully expects it to be forwarded
to Town Council on that date.
Staff Recommendation(s)
Staff recommends acceptance and filing of the attached Annual General Plan Report for 2022.
SUGGESTED MOTION
MOVE to accept and file the 2020 General Plan Annual Report.
Attachments
2022 Annual Report
Form Review
Inbox Reviewed By Date
Development Services Director John Wesley 06/06/2023 11:25 AM
Form Started By: Farhad Tavassoli Started On: 06/05/2023 09:39 AM
Final Approval Date: 06/06/2023
Fountain Hills
General Plan
Annual Report 2022
Background and Purpose
Arizona Revised Statutes Section 9-461.07 A. 2. states that after the municipal legislative body has
adopted a general plan, the community’s planning agency shall render an annual report to the legislative
body on the status of the plan and progress in its application.
The Town of Fountain Hills has adopted and implemented general plans in accordance with state
statutes since 2002. The Fountain Hills General Plan 2010 was adopted by the Council January 7, 2010
and was the guiding document for the Town until the voters ratified the 2020 General Plan on
November 3, 2020. This annual report summarizes the Town’s implementation efforts for the 2022
calendar year.
Fountain Hills General Plan 2020
The Fountain Hills General Plan 2020 was adopted by Council on May 19, 2020 and ratified by the voters
on November 3, 2020 as a long-term vision for local development. The Plan did not become official for
use by staff and the Town until it was ratified by the voters. Therefore, little actual implementation was
reported for 2020. This report, although also brief, discusses some implementation advances in 2021
and continued efforts going into the next several years.
Page 124 of the 2020 Plan includes direction regarding the annual report. It states:
Each year, the Fountain Hills Development Services Department must prepare, and the
Fountain Hills Planning & Zoning Commission must review and submit to the Town Council an
annual report on the status of the General Plan progress. The report must include, but not be
limited to, the following:
1. A summary of General Plan amendments processed during the preceding year and
those pending review, including General Plan amendments initiated by Town Council.
2. A report on the progress and status of implementation actions enumerated in the
General Plan Implementation Strategy.
3. A review of policy issues which may have arisen regarding provisions of the General
Plan.
4. A recommendation for General Plan amendments to be initiated to maintain an
effective, up-to-date General Plan including: policy changes, clarifications, and new
policy development; changes in character area; and other applicable changes. The
recommendation may also include suggestions to change implementation actions
priorities, as Town’s priorities shift, as well as General Plan amendments, if any, to be
included in the work program for the following fiscal year.
Summary of General Plan Amendments
No amendments were processed in 2022.
Progress on Implementation Actions
This section briefly highlights progress and implementation actions as they relate to each of the eight
general plan Elements and their respective goals and policies. Each goal and policy identifies an
anticipated time frame for completion. The most immediate goals were to be initiated no later than six
months after ratification by the voters. Due to a number of factors attributed to extended vacancies in
various departments and logistical challenges, most of the immediate and short-range implementation
efforts have been delayed and carried over into the 2023 calendar year. However, there is considerable
progress to report on a number of fronts.
Thriving Neighborhoods Element
• The Town completed 390 lane miles of street sweeping & 290 square yards of preservative
treatment. (Goal 1, Policy 1)
• The Economic Development department is utilizing visitor analysis software to identify various trade
areas in the Town. (Goal 2)
• The Public Art Committee and Fountain Hills Chamber held a ribbon cutting for “Invert” sculpture at
the Havenly development on the Avenue. A public art piece known as “Moviment Organico” was
also installed at Casas del Lago. Public art for the Motor Vault development was approved by Town
Council in November 2022. (Goal 2, Policy 7)
• The Farmer’s Market has seen an increase with over 50 vendors including fresh produce, healthy
eating options, and local food trucks. (Goal 4, Policy 7)
• Community Garden donations to the local food pantry and healthy cooking classes. Partnership with
middle school to create a garden on site. Preparations for the relocation of the community garden is
underway for future construction of the Dark Sky Discovery Center. (Goal 4, Policy 7)
• Casas Del Lago and Gunsight apartments were completed, adding to the diversity of housing
opportunities. (Goal 1, Policy 2).
• Community relations continues to provide communications support for Public Works and various
departments. Communications and outreach include articles in the quarterly-issued Fountain Hills
Insider, media relations, and community engagement as necessary. (Goal 1, Policy 1)
• Zoning ordinance text amendments were approved to limit community residences to 8 residents.
(Goal 4, Policy 1)
• A zoning ordinance text amendment was approved to provide additional standards for guest homes
and second kitchens for single family residences. (Goal 4, Policy 1)
Great Places Element
• Businesses created a merchant association (The Avenue Merchant Association) along the Avenue to
increase commercial activity. The Town is in the process of creating a new Town-wide brand. (Goal
4, Policy 1-2)
• The MAG Regional Bike Map was amended to add the FHB Lanes. No Trespassing signs were
installed at Town-owned washes. Initiated 515 Express Bus Service, Park & Ride. (Goal 1, Policies 7-
13)
• Electric Vehicle Charging Stations were installed at Community Center and Fountain Park. (Goal 1,
Policies 7-13)
• The Town is currently designing a traffic signal for the intersection of Palisades and Palomino. (Goal
1, Policies 7-13)
• Utilities are part of the review process. EPCOR & the FHSD are looking into their 15/20year horizons
based on plant capacity. Initiated intersection analysis @FHB/Palisades. (Goal 1, Policy 14)
• Deployed mobile speed trailer consistently to provide speed & volume data and response to speed
complaints throughout the Town. (Goal 1, Policy 5)
• Installation of rumble strips, LED stop signs & continental crosswalk striping@ AOTF/ Saguaro. (Goal
1, Policy 5)
• Desert Vista RRFB/ Crosswalk Developer construction AOTF RRFB Crosswalk (Goal 1, Policy 5)
• Engaged an engineering firm to secure parking studies (Goal 4, Policy 5)
• Community relations provides communications support for all departments involved in the design
review process. Support includes written articles, media relations and support for any community
meetings. (Goal 1, 7-13)
Social Environment Element
• The Town of Fountain Hills Community Services Department was awarded the prestigious Grand
Plaque in the 2022 National Gold Medal Awards for Excellence in Park and Recreation Management
at the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) annual conference in September 2022. (Goal
1, Policy 1)
• The new Splash Pad and Playground were installed at Fountain Park in Spring 2022. (Goal 1, Policy 1)
• McDowell Mountain Preservation Master Plan was approved in May 2022. (Goal 1, Policy 1)
• The sidewalk infill project has provided residents with connectivity from Shea to Tower Road for
better access to shopping and Desert Vista Park. (Goal 3, Policies 1-6)
• Community Services Master Plan provided significant feedback from residents through survey
results on areas. (Goal 4, 1-4)
• Constructed the Fountain Hills Blvd. shoulder pavement and completed bike lane. (Goal 3, Policies 1-
6)
• Installed multi-use path in Four Peaks Park & Desert Vista Park. (Goal 3, Policies 1-6)
• Council adopted Active Transportation Plan Initiated an update to the long-range sidewalk plan
(Goal 3, Policies 1-6)
Connectivity, Access and Mobility Element
• The Sidewalk Infill project gave pedestrians safe access to a walking path from Shea Blvd to Desert
Vista Park. Continued work to fill in sidewalk gaps giving pedestrians access to shopping. (Goal 3,
Policy 6)
Natural Resources and Open Space Element
• McDowell Mountain Preservation Commission revised its Trail Master Plan adding guidelines for
new trails. (Goal 3, Policy 1)
• The North Leg Trail was approved by Town Council. (Goal 3, Policy 1)
• Trailhead rules and maps were updated and installed in kiosks. (Goal 3, Policy 2)
Economic Development Element
• The Town hosted an Economic Development Summit and is working on additional stakeholder
feedback to assist in the creation of a Community Economic Development Strategy. (Goal 1, Policies
1, 3-4)
• Working with Arizona Office of Tourism, Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation and Salt River Pima
Maricopa Indian Community on grant opportunities. (Goal 4, Policy 1)
Cost of Development Element
• The Development Services department utilizes the Town Online Planning and Permitting System
(TOPPS) to provide a streamlined design review process for development and redevelopment of the
Town Center, Commerce Center, Saguaro Blvd and Shea Character Areas. (Goal 4, Policy 1)
Policy Issues
There are no specific policy issues at this time regarding the provisions of the General Plan. As we enter
into the third year of implementation, more issues are likely to arise. It is likely that a number of
immediate and short-range implementation actions need to be reevaluated in 2023, as many of them
have fallen outside of the expected time frame for completion. A number of factors have impacted its
implementation progress, including the pandemic, staff turnover and vacancies in various departments
as well as logistical challenges. The calendar year 2023 is an opportunity for staff to study the changing
needs of the Town and identify opportunities and constraints that will better inform the Town’s policy
direction.
Recommendations for Amendments
No revisions to the General Plan are recommended at this time.
ITEM 8. D.
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
STAFF REPORT
Meeting Date: 06/20/2023 Meeting Type: Town Council Regular Meeting
Agenda Type: Consent Submitting Department: Administration
Prepared by: David Trimble, Deputy Town Manager/Admin. Serv. Dir.
Staff Contact Information: David Trimble, Deputy Town Manager/Admin. Serv. Dir.
Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language): CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE
ACTION: Resolution 2023-24, approving the Intergovernmental Agreement renewal with the Regional
Public Transit Authority - Valley Metro, relating to the RideChoice Transportation Services program
and the Route 515 bus service in Fountain Hills.
Staff Summary (Background)
The Town has two transit alternatives that are provided through Intergovernmental Agreements
(IGAs) with the Regional Public Transportation Authority (RPTA – Valley Metro) and funded using
regionally allocated public transportation funds. One transit instrument is the Express Bus route
service (#515) which travels twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon between the park and
ride bus stop at the library by Town Hall and the Gilbert Road & McDowell Rd/Route 202 park and
ride. The other transit alternative is the RideChoice program. RideChoice is an on-demand discounted
transportation service that includes Uber, taxicabs, and other wheelchair-accessible vehicles. It is
available to residents with disabilities and all age 65+.
Both programs are currently funded by two main regional sources that can only be used for public
transportation purposes. The Town receives funding through the countywide .5% sales tax fund (Prop
400 / Public Transportation Fund - PTF). The second source is the Arizona Lottery Fund (ALF), which is
allocated to each RPTA member city or town according to their population.
Expenses for both the Express Bus service and the RideChoice programs are currently projected to be
fully funded by these two existing funding sources (Prop 400 and the Arizona Lottery Fund - ALF), and
therefore no Town general fund monies are projected to be spent on these programs for the
foreseeable future. This is because the Town receives yearly allocations from the two funding
sources, and currently has an existing balance of ALF monies that currently total approximately
$230,000. The proposed annual Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) is a continuation of current
services that have generally been in place since FY 2014-15 and does not represent any changes.
Background of #515 Express Bus Service
Began October of 2021 as a pilot program, based on RPTA’s recommendation.
Town costs are not dependent on ridership, as most costs are fixed.
Replaced the #514 Scottsdale Express to allow riders quicker options to connect with the
existing network of bus and light rail options throughout the region.
#515 Express leaves at 6:04 & 7:04 AM from Fountain Hills.
#515 Express arrives in Fountain Hills at 5:33 & 6:47 PM.
The yearly cost is approximately $130,000 (currently paid with regional public transportation
allocations, and ALF monies – no general fund monies).
Initial cost estimates were higher due to three trips per day expected; however, with only two
trips per day, the #515 Express cost is sustainable for the foreseeable future with current
regional funding.
Ridership has been lower than expected. RPTA’s study showed as many as 36 daily riders,
however only one rider has consistently utilized the service so far.
Background of RideChoice
The yearly cost of the RideChoice program is dependent on ridership.
Ridership has increased recently as residents understand the more affordable, monthly
“Mileage Option” that has been in place since the beginning of 2020.
RideChoice “Mileage Option”: Riders pay $3 each way. (50-mile limit per ride; 400-mile limit per
month)
Estimates are for approximately 1,500 total rides for the fiscal year, as compared with the
previous 5-year average of approximately 750 rides per year.
The yearly total cost is estimated to be about $70,000, and the Town can sustain funding this
through ALF and PTF monies at the current expense (ridership) and regional income (ALF & PTF
proportional share) rates.
If ridership continues to increase and goes beyond the 1,500-ride level for multiple years
consecutively, the Town may need to subsidize the program with general fund monies or look at
other funding options in future years.
Public Transportation Funds (PTF) Overview
Allocated based on population.
Town amount is approximately $82k per year.
Does not require a yearly application / financial reporting other than listing in the IGA.
Utilized as an offset to charges incurred, so no checks are distributed.
Must be allocated toward public transportation projects that meet Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA) requirements.
Arizona Lottery Fund (ALF - formerly LTAF II) Overview
Town allocation has averaged approximately $60k per year, based on regional allocation
according to population.
Must submit a financial report and application yearly.
Use or Lose (must pay back if not used in three years - no new monies will be distributed if all
previous monies have not been spent).
Must be spent on public transportation.
Not required to be spent on ADA accessible projects.
Background of Regional Public Transportation Authority
RPTA (also referred to commonly as Valley Metro) is the regional transit agency for Maricopa County.
Created in 1985 with the passage of Proposition 300, RPTA is a political subdivision of Arizona
overseen by a 19-member board of elected officials. Membership is open to all municipalities in
Maricopa County and to the County government. The current Valley Metro RPTA Board is comprised
of members from Avondale, Buckeye, Chandler, El Mirage, Fountain Hills, Gilbert, Glendale, Goodyear,
Maricopa County, Mesa, Peoria, Phoenix, Queen Creek, Scottsdale, Surprise, Tempe, Tolleson,
Wickenburg, and Youngtown. With the passage of Proposition 400 in November 2004, RPTA is the
recipient of the transit portion of the twenty-year countywide 0.5% sales tax fund commencing in
2006 and running through 2025. The Fountain Hills Town Council voted for the Town to become a
member of RPTA in December of 2017. Since then, the Town has had a seat on the RPTA Board of
Directors. There is no fee to be a member municipality in RPTA.
Related Ordinance, Policy or Guiding Principle
Transit Services
Risk Analysis
NA
Recommendation(s) by Board(s) or Commission(s)
Staff Recommendation(s)
Approve
SUGGESTED MOTION
MOVE to adopt Resolution 2023-24
Fiscal Impact
Fiscal Impact:$0
Budget Reference:Fund 400
Funding Source:Regional Public Transportation Funds
If Multiple Funds utilized, list here:Prop 400 Regional Funds, Arizona Lottery Funds
Budgeted: if No, attach Budget Adjustment Form:Yes
Attachments
Resolution 2023-24
2023-24 IGA (Intergovernmental Agreement)
Original IGA 2014
Form Review
Inbox Reviewed By Date
Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 06/01/2023 07:42 AM
Finance Director David Pock 06/01/2023 08:00 AM
Finance Director David Pock 06/01/2023 08:00 AM
Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 06/01/2023 10:11 AM
Interim Town Manager Rachael Goodwin 06/14/2023 08:34 AM
Form Started By: David Trimble Started On: 05/30/2023 05:36 PM
Final Approval Date: 06/14/2023
RESOLUTION 2023-24
A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN
OF FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA, APPROVING AMENDMENTS
TO THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEEMENTS WITH THE
REGIONAL PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY RELATING
TO TRANSIT SERVICES.
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF
FOUNTAIN HILLS as follows:
SECTION 1. The Amendments to the Intergovernmental Agreements with the Regional
Public Transportation Authority relating to transit services (the “Amendments”) are hereby
approved in substantially the form and substance attached hereto as Exhibit A and incorporated
herein by reference.
SECTION 2. The Mayor, the Town Manager, the Town Clerk and the Town Attorney
are hereby authorized and directed to cause the execution of the Amendments and to take all steps
necessary to carry out the purpose and intent of this Resolution.
PASSED AND ADOPTED by the Mayor and Council of the Town of Fountain Hills,
Arizona, June 20, 2023.
FOR THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS: ATTESTED TO:
__________________________________ ________________________________
MAYOR TOWN CLERK
REVIEWED BY: APPROVED AS TO FORM:
__________________________________ ________________________________
Town Manager Town Attorney
RESOLUTION 2023-24
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA
INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEMENT WITH THE
REGIONAL PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY
RELATING TO TRANSIT SERVICES
(EXHIBIT A)
1
FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA FY 2024
TRANSIT SERVICES AMENDMENT
BETWEEN
THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
AND
THE REGIONAL PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY
CONTRACT # 124-75-2024-07-00
THIS AMENDMENT dated this 1st day of July, 2023, amends the following items of the Transit
Service Agreement Contract # 124-75-2023 entered into between the Town of Fountain Hills and the
Regional Public Transportation Authority, dated the 1st day of July 2014 as amended July 1, 2015, July 1,
2017, July 1, 2018 , July 1, 2019, July 1, 2021, and July 1, 2022.
The following Schedules replaces those Schedules of the agreement entered
into July 1, 2022.
The attached Schedule A replaces and supersedes Schedule A entered into July 1, 2022.
The attached Schedule B replaces and supersedes Schedule B entered into July 1, 2022.
The attached Schedule D replaces and supersedes Schedule D entered into July 1, 2022.
The attached Schedule E replaces and supersedes Schedule E entered into July 1, 2022.
All other terms of the Parties Transit Services Agreement dated July 1, 2014, remain
unchanged and in full force and effect.
2
FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA FY 2024
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the Parties have each executed this Agreement as of the date
first set forth above.
REGIONAL PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY (RPTA)
By: _______________________________________
Jessica Mefford-Miller, Chief Executive Officer
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
By: ________________________________________________
Michael Wawro, Interim General Counsel
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS (MEMBER)
By: __________________________________________
Rachael Goodwin, Interim Town Manager
By:
Linda Mendenhall, Town Clerk
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
By: __________________________________________
Aaron D. Arnson, Town Attorney
3
FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA FY 2024
SCHEDULE “A” REGIONALLY FUNDED FIXED ROUTE BUS SERVICE
FY2023 - 2024
Regionally Funded Fixed Route Bus Service $65,039 (including express)
The above line represents the value of transit service paid for by Proposition 400 funds to the benefit
of the Town of Fountain Hills The calculation to derive this figure is daily revenue miles of service
x number of service days x cost per revenue mile of service.
FY24 Fixed Route Bus Estimate
RPTA Operated in the City of Fountain Hills
Funding PTF
HASTUS Fountain H
Level Route
Annual
Miles Gross Cost Fares PM Net Cost
W 515 6,509 $71,681 ($3,116)($3,526)$65,039
6,509 71,681$ (3,116)$ (3,526)$ 65,039$ Grand Total
4
FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA FY 2024
SCHEDULE “B” – TOWN FUNDED FIXED ROUTE BUS SERVICE
FY2023 - 2024
For the period July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024 the Town of Fountain Hills will pay the
Regional Public Transportation Authority $67,355.00 for bus service on Route 515 in Fountain
Hills. Payments made by the TOWN to RPTA for operation of Bus Routes depicted in Schedule
B shall consist of four quarterly installments of $16,838.75 commencing July 1, 2023 and shall
become due within thirty (30) days of receiving an invoice from the RPTA.
FY24 Fixed Route Bus Estimate
RPTA Operated in the City of Fountain Hills
Funding Fountain H
HASTUS Fountain H
Level Route Annual Gross Cost Fares PM Net Cost
W 515 6,741 $74,233 ($3,227)($3,651)$67,355
6,741 74,233$ (3,227)$ (3,651)$ 67,355$ Grand Total
5
FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA FY 2024
SCHEDULE “D” – RIDE CHOICE
FY 2023-24
The Town of Fountain Hills agrees to participate and financially support the RideChoice
Transportation Services program for Fiscal Year 2023-2024. The Town of Fountain Hills shall
fund this project in the amount of $52,954.00 for the period July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024. The
Town of Fountain Hills will pay the RPTA for the project in four quarterly installments of
$13,238.50. Payment of invoices shall become due within thirty (30) calendar days after the
receipt of an invoice from RPTA.
Eligible residents of Incorporated Fountain Hills who are ADA certified and/or seniors 65 years
of age or older.
FY24 RideChoice Service
Funded by Town of Fountain Hills
RideChoice
Trips:
Ride Choice Trips 1,500
Total Trips 1,500
Cost:
Contractor Transportation Cost 68,924$
RPTA Salaries, Fringes & OHD 5,484
Total Gross Program Cost 74,408$
Total Fare Revenue (4,339)$
Total Net Program Cost before PTF 70,069$
PTF Balance Available 17,115$
PTF Applied 17,115$
Member City Contributions:
RideChoice Costs 52,954$
Total Member City Contribution 52,954$
6
FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA FY 2024
SCHEDULE “E” – AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (ACT) – PUBLIC
TRANSPORTATION FUNDS (PTF) AVAILABILITY
FY 2023-24
For the period July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, the maximum amount of Public
Transportation Funds (PTF) available for the Town of Fountain Hills is $17,115.00. The PTF
will pay actual costs for ADA trips and other requests for Paratransit service made by ADA
certified Riders up to the maximum amount. A final reconciliation at fiscal year-end will be
performed and adjustments, if necessary, will be made using actual ADA eligible costs.
Any remaining ADA PTF funds not used up to the maximum reimbursements may be
requested by Town for other ADA certified rider eligible expenses, and certified by the Town’s
chief financial officer or designee. RPTA will reimburse Town within thirty (30) business days
based upon availability of funds. Town may request that reimbursements be made electronically.
Wire transfers must be pre-arranged through the RPTA Finance Department.
Maximum amount FY 2023-24 $17,115.00
RESOLUTION NO.2014-32
A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF
FOUNTAIN HILLS,ARIZONA,APPROVING AN INTERGOVERNMENTAL
AGREEMENT WITH THE REGIONAL PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
AUTHORITY RELATING TO TRANSIT SERVICES.
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF
FOUNTAIN HILLS as follows:
SECTION 1.The Intergovernmental Agreement with the Regional Public
Transportation Authority relating to transit services (the "Agreement")is hereby approved in
substantially the form and substance attached hereto as Exhibit A and incorporated herein by
reference.
SECTION 2.The Mayor,the Town Manager,the Town Clerk and the Town Attorney
are hereby authorized and directed to cause the execution of the Agreement and to take all steps
necessary to cany out the purpose and intent of this Resolution.
PASSED AND ADOPTED by the Mayor and Council of the Town of Fountain Hills,
Arizona,June 19,2014.
FOR THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS:ATTESTED TO:
cmda M.Kavanagh,Mayor Bevelyn J.Benaer,Tpwn Clerk
REVIEWED BY:APPROVED AS TO FORM:
Kenneth W.Buchanan,Town Manager Andrew J.McGuire,Town Attorney
2180707.1
2180707.1
EXHIBIT A
TO
RESOLUTIONNO.2014-32
[Agreement]
See following pages.
TRANSIT SERVICES AGREEMENT
BETWEEN THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS ("Member")
AND
THE REGIONAL PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY
Contract #124-75-2015
THIS TRANSIT SERVICES AGREEMENT ("Agreement") is made and entered into
this 1st day of July,2014 by and between the Town of Fountain Hills,a Arizona municipal
corporation (hereinafter referred to as "Member")and the Regional Public Transportation
Authority,a political subdivision of the state of Arizona (hereinafter referred to as "RPTA").
Member and RPTA are collectively referred to as the "Parties."
RECITALS
WHEREAS,Member has statutory authority to provide transit services and to enter into
agreements with other entities within Maricopa County to provide transit services (A.R.S.
Section 11-951,et seq.); and,
WHEREAS,RPTA is a political subdivision of the state of Arizona,established for the
purpose of planning and providing public transportation services (A.R.S. Section 48-5121;
A.R.S.Section 48-5101,et seq.); and,
WHEREAS, as a political subdivision of the state of Arizona RPTA "may contract and
enter into stipulations of any nature to do all acts necessary and convenient for the full exercise
of its powers granted under A.R.S. Section 48-5101, et seq., including entering into
intergovernmental agreements with other governmental entities (A.R.S. Section 11-951,et seq.);
and,
WHEREAS,RPTA is willing to provide,and Member is willing to purchase or receive
transportation services as detailed in this Agreement;and,
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FOUNTAINHILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 14
WHEREAS,transit activities are one of those types of activities authorized pursuant to
the aforementioned statutory and other authority,
AGREEMENT
NOW,THEREFORE,for and in consideration of the mutual covenants and
considerations herein contained,it is agreed by the Parties as follows:
SECTION 1.DEFINITIONS
The following capitalized terms shall have the following meaning when used in this
Agreement,unless a different meaning is clearly intended:
"RPTA"means the Regional Public Transportation Authority,a political subdivision of
the State ofArizona.
"Member"means the Town of Fountain Hills,Arizona municipal corporation and a
community within the service area ofthe Regional Public Transportation Authority (RPTA).
"Effective Date"means the date on which rights granted hereunder become operative,as
specified in Section 6 hereof.
"Force Majeure"means any event which: (i)causes either party to be unable to perform
under this agreement;and (ii) is outside the reasonable control ofthe party unable to perform and
could not be avoided by such party through the exercise of due care.Force Majeure events
include,without limitation:terrorists,earthquakes,fires, floods,tornadoes,wars,labor strikes or
similar accidents,disputes or similar events.
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FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 15
SECTION 2.SCOPE OF AGREEMENT
Duringthe term ofthis agreementRPTAshallprovidethe following services:
The Ride Choice Program (Schedule D):Ride Choice is a program which provides
subsidized taxicab services to Fountain Hills residents who have qualifying disabilities and/or
who are 65 years of age or more. Each qualifying resident will receive up to $100.00 of taxicab
serviceper month.Theriderwillpay25%of the cost,andtheTownwillpay the remaining 75%.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)Public Transportation Funds (PTF)(Schedule E)
TheRPTAshalltransferto the Member funds allocatedby the Boardof the RPTA,and specified
in Schedule E, for the purposes of reimbursing Member for the cost to provide Paratransit
servicesto ADAcertifiedindividuals.The Membershall submita PTF Reimbursement Request
Form,Attachment A, certifying that the costs have been incurred and are eligible for
reimbursement.
SECTION 3.RPTA'S OBLIGATIONS:
3.1 With respect to the services provided hereunder,RPTA,shall:
a.Provide Fixed Route Bus,Dial-a-Ride Paratransit Services or other transit
services,administrative services,equipment,personnel and management
services directly or through contractors,as provided in this Agreement.
The RPTA shall ensure that the contractor(s)are duly qualified,licensed,
trained,and have adequate equipment to perform services under this
Agreement;
b.Draft and secure approval for annual operating budgets;
c.Intentionally deleted;
d.Administer the RideChoice Program.
e.Select,oversee and manage the RideChoice contractor and any
subcontractors utilized for this program.
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FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 15
f. Create marketing materials, including brochures, applications and other
documents intended to inform the public about the RideChoice program.
g. Accept applications for RideChoice service and make determinations of
eligibility based on guidelines agreed to by the parties.
h.Forward information for eligible riders to the RideChoice contractor,who
will be responsible for enrolling the rider in the program, for providing the
fare card and for providing customer service and support to the rider as
he/she uses the RideChoice program.
i.Providing monthly reports and invoices to the Town.
j. Managing the budget which the Town has established for the RideChoice
program.
3.2 The RPTA and the Member may conduct service and financial audits,as required,
ofany Services provided hereunder.
3.3 By February 21 of each year, the RPTA shall provide the Member with a detailed
written budget estimate for the provision of transit Services,including the expected sources and
amounts of funding for the next fiscal year.If the Member approves the budget estimate,RPTA
shall prepare an amendment to this Agreement for Member approval ofthe budget estimate.
SECTION 4.TOWN'S OBLIGATIONS:
4.1 With respect to the services provided hereunder,Member,shall:
a.If Member desires services in addition to the Services originally approved in the
schedules hereto,Member shall provide funding adequate to finance such services
over and above funding provided by the RPTA and Member.
b.Intentionally deleted;
c. The Member may purchase and install bus stop signs and associated amenities;
d. The Member shall provide advice to the RPTA and to any operator providing
service required by this Agreement in the preparation and amendment of service
plans;
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FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 15
e.Collaborate with Valley Metro on eligibility guidelines for the RideChoice
program.
f.Assist Valley metro with marketing and outreach as necessary.
g.Establish and communicate the annual budget for the program.
4.2 Member does hereby agree to participate in the Valley Metro Program(s)defined
in Section 2 ofthis agreement.
4.3 Transit Life Cycle Program:Intentionally deleted.
SECTIONS.TERM OF AGREEMENT
This Agreement shall be operative for an indefinite term to be amended on an annual
basis as service needs and as Public Transportation Fund (PTF)reimbursements are agreed. The
Parties do not intend that the term ofthis Agreement shall exceed any limitation imposed by law,
including,without limitation,the laws of the State of Arizona,and agree to comply with any
applicable requirements of such laws in connection with any renewal of the term of this
Agreement.
SECTION 6.EFFECTIVE DATE
This Agreement shall take effect only after it has been approved by Member's Council,
approved by the RPTA Board of Directors,executed by the duly authorized officials of each of
the Parties,approved by the Parties'respective counsel.
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FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 15
SECTION 7.GENERAL CONDITIONS
A.Records and Audit
All books,accounts,reports,files and other records relating to this Agreement
under the custody or control of RPTA or its contractors shall be subject,at all
reasonable times,to inspection and audit by Member and RPTA for five (5)years
after completion of this Agreement.Such records shall be produced at RPTA
offices as and when requested by Member.
B.Covenant Against Contingent Fees
Both Parties warrant that no person has been employed or retained to solicit or
secure this Agreement upon an agreement or understanding for a commission,
percentage,brokerage or contingent fee; and that no member of Congress,no
member of the Member's Council or the RPTA Board of Directors,and no
officer,agent, or employee of the Town or RPTA has any interest,financially or
otherwise,in this Agreement.
C.Alteration in Character ofWork
Minor alterations in the character of work shall be authorized in writing by
Member and acknowledged by RPTA by letter.
D.Termination (and/or Changes in Service)
Member and RPTA hereby agree to full performance of the covenants and
obligations contained herein, except that each reserves the right, at its option and
sole discretion, to terminate or abandon the service provided for in this
Agreement,or any portion thereof.
Termination of this Agreement may be at any time and for any reason, with or
without cause, upon providing ninety (90) calendar days prior written notice to
the other Party. Termination shall be effected by delivery of a Notice of
Termination specifying the extent to which performance of work under the
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FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 15
Agreement is terminated, and the date upon which such termination becomes
effective.
Upon termination, RPTA shall calculate actual expenses incurred up to and
including the date of termination and (if termination was at the election of
Member) any penalty or costs whatsoever (including, but not limited to, any costs
of such termination as a result of Section 49 U.S.C.1609 [formerly Section 13(c)
ofthe Federal Transit Act of1964, as amended] together with any penalty or costs
imposed by other funding sources and any related labor costs (the total ofwhich is
hereinafter referred to as "termination costs").IfMember has paid RPTA sums in
excess ofthe termination costs, RPTA shall refund the excess;ifMemberhas paid
RPTA an amount less than the termination costs, then Member shall pay to RPTA
an amount equal to the difference between the termination costs and the amount
that Member already has paid under this Agreement. Upon termination of this
Agreement, all property used in connection with this Agreement will be promptly
returned to the Party holding title thereto,not considering any state or federal
funding. Final payment shall be made within sixty (60)calendar days after the
termination of service.
SECTION 8.ADDITIONAL WORK
This Section is intentionally left blank.
SECTION 9.AGREEMENT NON-ASSIGNABLE
RPTA may not assign or otherwise transfer any of its rights or obligations hereunder to a
third Party without the express prior written consent of Member,which may be granted or
withheld by Member in its sole and absolute discretion.Any assignment or transfer without such
prior written consent shall be void.
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FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 15
SECTION 10.INDEMNIFICATION
Except for claims arising solely and exclusively from the negligent or willful acts or
omissions of Member, its officers, officials, agents or employees (hereinafter referred to as
"Indemnitee"), RPTA shall indemnify, defend, save and hold the Indemnitee harmless from and
against any and all claims, actions,liabilities,damages,losses, expenses and costs (including
court costs, attorneys' fees and costs of claim processing, primary loss investigation and
litigation) (hereinafter referred to as "Claims") for bodily injury or personal injury (including
death), loss or damage to tangible property: (1) arising under this Agreement, or (2) caused, or
alleged to be caused, in whole or in part, by the negligent or willful acts or omissions ofRPTA
or any of its owners, officers, directors, agents, contractor or employees, including employees
from the Member assigned to work full time for RPTA.
It is the specific intent of the Parties to this contract that the Indemnitee shall, in all
instances except for loss or damage resulting from the sole and exclusive negligence of the
Indemnitee, be indemnified against all liability, loss or damage ofany nature whatever for or on
account ofany injuries to or the death of any person or damages to or the destruction ofproperty
belonging to any person,arising out of or in any way connected with the performance of this
Agreement.
SECTION 11.INSURANCE
RPTA will maintain in force the insurance program approved the by RPTA Board of
Directors and included in RPTA's fiscal year budgets.
SECTION 12.DEFAULT
Either Party shall be deemed in default under this Agreement upon the failure of such
Party to observe or perform any material covenant,condition or agreement on its part to be
observed or performed hereunder,and the continuance ofsuch failure for a period ofthirty (30)
days after written notice by the other Party, as required herein. Such notice shall specify the
failure and request it be remedied, unless the Party giving notice agrees in writing to an
extension of the time period prior to its expiration.However,if the failure stated in the notice
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FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 15
cannot be corrected within the applicable period,it will not give rise to a default hereunder if
corrective action is instituted within the applicable period and diligently pursued until the failure
is corrected.In the event of a default hereunder,the non-defaulting Party may have a breach of
contract claim and remedy against the other in addition to any remedy provided or permitted by
law;provided,however,that no remedy that would have the affect ofamending any provisions
ofthis Agreement shall become effective without the formal amendment ofthis Agreement.
SECTION 13.ISSUE RESOLUTION
Any dispute arising out of the interpretation of any provision of this Agreement,any
policy matter or the determination of an issue offact,which dispute is not resolved at stafflevel,
shall be referred to RPTA's ChiefExecutive Officer and a representative designated by Member.
If,after good faith negotiations aimed at reaching an amicable solution,a dispute cannot be
resolved,the dispute shall be presented to the RPTA Board of Directors for resolution.If not
resolved at this level, the dispute may be brought before a court of competent jurisdiction in
Maricopa County,Arizona.
SECTION 14.NOTICE
Any notice,consent or other communication ("Notice")required or permitted under this
Agreement shall be in writing and either delivered in person,deposited in the United States mail,
postage paid,registered or certified mail,return receipt requested,or deposited with any
commercial air courier or express service addresses as follows:
Ifintended for RPTA:
Regional Public Transportation Authority
Attention:General Counsel
101 N.1st Avenue, Suite 1300
Phoenix,AZ 85003
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FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 15
Ifintended for Member:
Town ofFountain Hills
Attn:Kenneth W.Buchanan,Town Manager
16705 East Avenue ofthe Fountains
Fountain Hills,Arizona 85268
with copy to:
Gust Rosenfeld,PLC
Attn:Andrew J.McGuire
One East Washington Street,Suite 1600
Phoenix,Arizona 85004
Notice shall be deemed received at the time it is personally served or, on the second day
after its deposit with any commercial air courier or express service,ifmailed,ten (10)days after
the notice is deposited in the United States mail as provided.Any time period stated in a Notice
shall be computed from the time the Notice is deemed received.Either Party may change its
mailing address or the person designated to receive notice by notifying the other Party as
provided in this Section.
SECTION 15.AMENDMENT
This Agreement may be modified or amended only by a written document executed by
both RPTA and Member,approved as to form by the Member Attorney,and may be filed with
the Member's Clerk. Such document shall expressly state that it is intended by the Parties to
amend specifically identified terms and conditions ofthis Agreement.
SECTION 16.INTEGRATION
This Agreement,together will the exhibits, instruments and other documents required to
be executed and delivered in connection hereto represents the entire agreement of the parties
with respect to the subject matter hereof, and all agreements entered into prior hereto with
respect to the subject matter hereof are revoked and superseded by this Agreement, and no
representations,warranties,inducements or oral agreements have been made by any of the
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FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 15
parties except as expressly set forth herein, or in other contemporaneous written agreements.
This Agreement may not be changed,modified or rescinded except in writing,signed by all
parties hereto,and any attempt at oral modification of this Agreement shall be void and of no
effect.
SECTION 17.APPLICABLE LAW AND LITIGATION
This Agreement shall be governed by,and construed in accordance with,the laws of the
State ofArizona.Any and all litigation between the Parties arising from this Agreement shall be
litigated solely in the appropriate state court located in Maricopa County,Arizona.
SECTION 18.NON-WAIVER
No covenant or condition ofthis Agreement may be waived by any Party,unless done so
in writing.Forbearance or indulgence by any Party in any regard whatsoever shall not constitute
a waiver ofthe covenants or conditions to be performed by the other.
SECTION 19.SEVERABILITY
Any provision ofthis Agreement that is prohibited or unenforceable under the laws ofthe
State ofArizona shall be ineffective to the extent ofsuch prohibition or unenforceability without
invalidating the remaining provisions hereof.
SECTION 20.BENEFIT AND BINDING EFFECT
The terms and provisions of this Agreement shall inure to the benefit of and are binding
on RPTA and Member and their respective successors and permitted assigns.
SECTION 21.SURVIVAL
The indemnifications and limitations on liability provided in this Agreement shall have
full force and effect notwithstanding any other provisions of this Agreement and shall survive
any termination or expiration thereof.
SECTION 22.FURTHER ASSURANCES
The Parties hereto shall execute such other documents and take such other actions as may
be reasonably necessary or proper to achieve the intent and purposes hereof.
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FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 15
SECTION 23.CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
All Parties hereto acknowledge that this Agreement is subject to cancellation pursuant to
the provisions ofSection 38-511,Arizona Revised Statutes.
SECTION 24.Intentionally deleted.
SECTION 25.CONSTRUCTION AND INTERPRETATION OF AGREEMENT
This Agreement,and each of its provisions,exhibits,terms and conditions,has been
reached through negotiations between the Parties. Accordingly, each of the Parties expressly
acknowledges and agrees that this Agreement shall not be deemed to have been authored,
prepared or drafted by any particular Party, and that the rule of construction that resolves
ambiguities against the drafting party shall not be employed in the interpretation of this
Agreement.
SECTION 26.THIRD-PARTY BENEFICIARIES
This Agreement is intended to benefit the corporate and municipal interests ofRPTA and
Member alone, and no other person shall claim any implied right,benefit or interest in such
services.The Parties do not intend to create rights in or remedies to any third party as a
beneficiary of this Agreement or of any duty,covenant,obligation or undertaking established
under this Agreement.
SECTION 27.POLICE POWER
The Parties acknowledge the right vested in Member pursuant to general law to exercise
its police power for the protection of the health,safety and welfare of its constituents and their
properties.Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed as precluding Member from exercising
such powers in connection with the subject matter hereof.
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FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 15
SECTION 28.
A.COMPLIANCE WITH THE IMMIGRATION REFORM AND CONTROL
ACT of 1986 (IRCA)and with A.R.S.§23-211 - §23-214.
RPTA understands and acknowledges the applicability of IRCA and of §23-211 through
§ 23-214, Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S.), to it. RPTA shall comply with IRCA and with
A.R.S. §23-211 through §23-214 in performing under this Agreement.To ensure that RPTA
and its subcontractors complying with the provisions ofthis Section,Member shall have the right
to inspect the personnel and related records and papers of RPTA and of its subcontractors
pertaining to individuals performing work under this Agreement.
Further,Member is prohibited by A.R.S. § 41-4401 from awarding an Agreement to any
contractor who fails, or whose subcontractors fail, to comply with A.R.S.§23-214(A).For this
reason,RPTA shall ensure that both it and each of its subcontractors are in compliance with the
requirements of A.R.S.§23-214(A).In addition,both RPTA and each of RPTA's
subcontractors shall warrant their compliance with all federal immigration laws and regulations
that relate to their employees and their compliance with A.R.S.§23-214(A).
A breach of any of the provisions of this Section shall be deemed a material breach of
this Agreement and is subject to penalties up to and including termination ofthe Agreement.
SECTION 29.COMPLIANCE WITH THE E-VERIFY PROGRAM
29.1 Warrant of Compliance -Under the provisions of A.R.S.§41-4401,both Parties
warrant to the other that each Party will comply with all Federal Immigration laws and
regulations that relate to their employees and that each now complies with the E-Verify Program
under A.R.S.§23-214(A).
29.2 Breach of Warranty - A breach of this warranty will be considered a material
breach of this Agreement and may subject the breaching party to penalties up to and including
termination ofthis Agreement.
29.3 Right to Inspect -Both Parties retain the legal right to inspect the papers of any
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FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 15
employee who works on this Contract or subcontract to ensure compliance with the warranty
given above.
29.4 Random Verification -Either Party may conduct a random verification of the
employment records ofthe other to ensure compliance with this warranty.
29.5 Federal Employment Verification Provisions - No Material Breach. A Party will
not be considered in material breach ofthis Agreement if it establishes that it has complied with
the employment verification provisions prescribed by 8 USCA §1324(a) and (b)of the Federal
Immigration and Nationality Act and the E-Verify requirements prescribed by A.R.S. §23-
214(A).
29.6 Inclusion of Article in Other Contracts -The provisions of this Article must be
included in any contract either Party enters into with any and all of its contractors or
subcontractors who provide services under this Agreement.
SECTION 30.CIVIL RIGHTS
The parties agree that as a condition of this Agreement they will each comply with all
applicable civil rights laws and regulations,in accordance with applicable Federal directives,
except to the extent that the Federal government determines otherwise in writing.These include,
but are not limited to,those provisions of Section 12 of that certain United States of America
Department ofTransportation Federal Transit Administration Master Agreement,dated October
1, 2009, as may be amended from time to time,which provisions are hereby incorporated by
reference.
SECTION 31.SUBJECT TO APPROPRIATIONS
The Town is obligated only to pay its obligations set forth in the Agreement as may
lawfully be made from funds appropriated and budgeted for that purpose during the Town's then
current fiscal year. The Town's obligations under this Agreement are current expenses subject to
the "budget law" and the unfettered legislative discretion of the Town concerning budgeted
purposes and appropriation of funds. Should the Town elect not to appropriate and budget funds
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FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 15
to pay its Agreement obligations,this Agreement shall be deemed terminated at the end of the
then-current fiscal year term for which such funds were appropriated and budgeted for such
purpose and the Town shall be relieved ofany subsequent obligation under this Agreement.The
parties agree that the Town has no obligation or duty of good faith to budget or appropriate the
payment of the Town's obligations set forth in this Agreement tn any-budget in any fiscal year
other than the fiscal year in which the Agreement is executed and delivered.The Town shall be
the sole judge and authority in determining the availability offunds for its obligations under this
Agreement.The Town shall keep RPTA informed as to the availability of funds for this
Agreement. The obligation ofthe Town to make any payment pursuant to this Agreement is not
a general obligation or indebtedness of the Town. RPTA hereby waives any and all rights to
bring any claim against the Town from or relating in any way to the Town's termination ofthis
Agreement pursuant to this section.
SECTION 32.INCORPORATION OF EXHIBITS
For each year during the term of this Agreement and in coordination with RPTA's
adopted fiscal year budget process,Schedules hereto shall be revised and incorporated into this
Agreement and made a part hereof as though fully set forth herein.
Schedule "A"Intentionally left blank
Schedule "B"Intentionally left blank
Schedule "C"Intentionally left blank
Schedule "D"Ride Choice
Schedule "E"Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)Public Transportation Fund (PTF)
Schedule "F"Intentionally left blank
Schedule "G"Intentionally left blank
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FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 15
IN WITNESS WHEREOF,the Parties have each executed this Agreement as of the date
first set forth above.
REGIONAL PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY (RPTA)
Stephen Gr Banta,ChiefExecutive Officer
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
ichael J./Ladino,General Counsel
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS (MEMBER)
Linda M.Kavanagh,Mayor,
Bevelyn J.Bender,Town Clerk
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
By:.
Andrew J.McGuire,Town Attorney
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FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 15
SCHEDULE "A"INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
SCHEDULE "B"INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
SCHEDULE "C"INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
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FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 15
SCHEDULE "D"-RIDE CHOICE
The Town of Fountain Hills agrees to participate and financially support the RideChoice
Transportation Services program for Fiscal Year 2014-2015.The Town of Fountain Hills shall
fund this project in the amount of$28,930.00 for the period July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015. The
Town of Fountain Hills will pay the RPTA for the project in twelve (12) monthly installments of
$2,410.83.Payment of invoices shall become due within thirty (30)calendar days after the
receipt ofan invoice from RPTA.
Regional Public Transportation Authority
RideChoice Program
Town ofFountain Hills
Fiscal Year 2014 -2015
Funding:
PTF ADA Funds $36,400
Coupon Revenue 13,440
City Contributions 28,930
Total Funding $78,770
Expenditures:
Payments to Taxi Cab Companies $57,670
Dialysis Voucher Program 0
Program Cost $57,670
Agency Staff,Overhead,Program Mgmt.16,100
One Time Setup Fee 5,000
Total Expenditures $78,770
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FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 15
SCHEDULE "D"-RIDE CHOICE Cont.
RIDECHOICE PROGRAM
RideChoice is the name of the program that includes the RideChoice Medical Trip Card
and the RideChoice Fare Card. RPTA shall provide the services required to administer, market
and manage the Ride Choice program. The participating City will pay for costs of these
Alternative Transportation Services Programs.
RIDECHOICE MEDICAL TRIP CARD -Intentional deleted.
RIDECHOICE FARE CARD
The RideChoice Fare Card program is available to seniors and individuals with
disabilities who reside in the cities of Mesa,Chandler and Tempe and the Town of Fountain
Hills. Any value up to a maximum of $100 per month may be purchased/added to a customer's
card.
How it Works
•Individuals must complete a RideChoice application which is intended to gather
information needed to verify the individual's eligibility for RideChoice.
•Upon receipt of a completed application,Valley Metro staffwill review the application
and make a determination ofeligibility.
•Once an individual is deemed eligible,Valley Metro will forward the individual's name,
address and other required information to the RideChoice contractor.The RideChoice
contractor will create an electronic account for the new RideChoice customer.
• An eligible RideChoice customer will receive a letter indicating eligibility and a
RideChoice Fare Card. Once notified ofhis/her eligibility,the RideChoice customer will
be able to pay up to $25 per month to his/her account. Payments may be made via the
Internet or by mail.
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FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 15
• Upon receipt ofa payment, the RideChoice contractor will add four times the value of the
customer's payment to the customer's RideChoice account. This value will be available
to the rider via his/her RideChoice Fare Card.Riders can make payments in any
increment up to a total of $25 per month, and riders can carry unused RideChoice account
values forward from one month to the next.At no time can a rider's RideChoice account
accumulate more than $300.
•Once the RideChoice Customer's account is established and funds are deposited,the
customer can use any of approximately eight taxicab and transportation providers
enrolled as RideChoice providers.These companies are under subcontracts to our
RideChoice contractor.When taking a trip on RideChoice,the customer calls the
company ofchoice,indicates that he/she is a RideChoice customer,and schedules his/her
trip in the same manner that any other taxicab customer does so.
• At the time of the trip, the customer swipes his/her RideChoice card upon entering the
vehicle and upon exiting the vehicle.This creates a record of the beginning and ending
points ofthe trip,along with the date and the identity ofthe rider.Upon the conclusion of
the trip, the value of the trip is automatically deducted from the rider's RideChoice
account.
•Approximately three weeks after the end of each month,the RideChoice contractor
provides Valley Metro with an electronic file, showing all RideChoice trips taken. Data
includes the date, time,pick-up and drop-off locations, the rider's name, the mileage and
the cost of the trip.Valley Metro uses this information to allocate RideChoice costs
among the participating cities. Valley Metro provides each participating city with a
detailed report showing its share of the RideChoice service.
• Because funds may be limited, Valley metro can cap enrollment and/or adjust the subsidy
for a given city or town.
Valley Metro and the Town will establish a cap based on available funding. This cap may be
adjusted by Valley Metro at the direction of Fountain Hills, based on available funds or changes
in the amount of service to be provided to each eligible participant.Initially,this cap is set at 40
participants.Once the cap is reached, no new participants will be enrolled.Instead,qualified
residents will be placed on a waiting list.Ifand when participants drop offthe service and/or in
20
FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 15
the event that Fountain Hills raises the cap,Valley Metro will enroll qualified residents on a first
come, first served basis until the cap is again reached.This procedure may be amended by the
mutual consent ofthe parties.
21
FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 15
SCHEDULE "E"-AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (ACT)-PUBLIC
TRANSPORTATION FUNDS (PTF)AVAILABILITY
For the period July 1,2014 to June 30, 2015 the maximum amount of Public
Transportation Funds (PTF)available for the Town of Fountain Hills's is $36,400.00.The PTF
will pay actual costs for ADA trips and other requests for Paratransit service made by ADA
certified Riders up to the maximum amount.A final reconciliation at fiscal year-end will be
performed and adjustments,ifnecessary,will be made using actual ADA eligible costs.
Any remaining ADA PTF funds not credited up to the maximum may be requested by
Town for other ADA certified rider eligible expenses,and certified by the Town's chief financial
officer or designee.RPTA will reimburse Town within thirty (30)business days based upon
availability of funds.Town may request that reimbursements be made electronically.Wire
transfers must be pre-arranged through the RPTA Finance Department.
Maximum amount:$36,400.00
22
FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 15
SCHEDULE "F"INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
SCHEDULE "G"INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
23
FOUNTAINHILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 14
0>#
ATTACHMENT "A"-PTF EXPENSE REIMBURSMENT REQUEST
Regional Public Transportation Authority
PTF Expenditure Reimbursement Request
1he information provided will be used bythe Regional Public Transportation Authority(RPTA)lo monitor designated lead agency cash flowto
ensure compliance withARS48-5103. Nofurthermonies may be paid out underthis programunless this report is completedand filed as
required.
RECIPIENT ORGANIZATION NAME AND ADDRESS
TOTAL ELIGIBLE COSTS
TOTAL PREVIOUS PAYMENTS
CURRENT PAYMENT
REQUESTED
REMAINING
FUNDING
PROJECTAGREEMENT NUMBER
REPORTING PERIOD (Datos)
FROM:
REQUEST NO.
TO:
TOTAL PTF SHARE
$S
--
$S
"~
s $
--
s s
--
REQUIRED SIGNATURE
This document must be signed by the recipient's Chief Financial Officer or their designated representative.
CERTIFICATION
i certifythe financial expenditures submitted for reimbursement withthis report, including supporting documentation, are eligible
and allowable expenditures consistent with the project goals and requirements,have not been previously requested,and that
payment is due.I also certify that all matching requirements have been met and sufficient documentation exists in our files and are
available upon request or in the eventof an audit.
SIGNATURE OF AUTHORIZEDCERTIFYING OFFICIAL DATE REQUEST SUBMITTED
TYPED OR PRINTED NAME ANDTITLE TELEPHONE
Instructions
1.Keep a copy of everything submitted.
2. Allproject records,including financial records,must be maintained for 3 years beyond project completion.
For RPTAuse only
Date request received:
Approved for
funds
availability
Life cycle compliance review (signature/date)
"icr
Date of funds transfer
24
FOUNTAIN HILLS TRANSIT SERVICES IGA 2014 15
ITEM 9. A.
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
STAFF REPORT
Meeting Date: 06/20/2023 Meeting Type: Town Council Regular Meeting
Agenda Type: Regular Agenda Submitting Department: Public Works
Prepared by: Justin Weldy, Public Works Director
Staff Contact Information: Justin Weldy, Public Works Director
Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language): CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE
ACTION: Approving the Fourth Amendment to Cooperative Purchase Agreement C2020-065 with M. R.
Tanner Development and Construction, Inc.
Staff Summary (Background)
Infrastructure strategic planning is an essential component of the management of Town streets, and
is driven by growth, aging infrastructure, and limited revenue sources. The emphasis is now being
placed on not only knowing the true cost of providing a cost-effective pavement management
program, but also understanding what will be required to maintain a certain level of service
throughout the life of Town-owned streets.
The Town previously completed a one-time Pavement Management Report in 2009 and did not have
the funding necessary to implement the recommendations.
The Town completed a second Pavement Assessment Analysis in 2018. Staff has been using the data
collected and best pavement management practices to implement recommended rehabilitation and
treatment methods each year with the funding allotted to the streets.
The third and most recent Pavement Assessment Analysis was completed earlier this year. The
primary goal of all the assessments is to provide pavement management services which will assist the
Town in maintaining its pavement network at an acceptable level of service, and doing so in the most
cost-effective manner. As with the second Pavement Assessment Analysis, staff will be using the data
collected and best practices to implement recommended rehabilitation and treatment methods each
year with allocated funding. The pavement management program used to complete the Town of
Fountain Hills pavement analysis is a Budget Optimization Street Selector system known as "BOSS."
The pavement analysis conducted by our consultant (Roadway Asset Services, LLC.) and staff,
prioritizes and optimizes a multi-year rehabilitation process using sound engineering and financial
principles. To select rehabilitation candidates (street segments), the system prioritizes (ranks) the
potential candidates using factors such as functional classification, pavement type, strength, and cost
of deferral. The FY 24 pavement maintenance projects for streets have been identified with the
BOSS system and a budget of $5M has been allocated and approved by council as part the budget
adoption. Selected projects include the removal and replacement of segments on arterials, collectors
and local roads that have failed. Staff has attached a map of the proposed FY24 streets selected for
rehabilitation to this report.
By utilizing cooperative purchasing agreement contracts, the Town of Fountain Hills has been able to
take advantage of competitive pricing from procurement processes of other municipalities. The City
of Chandler solicited bids for Street Maintenance & Repair Services (RFP #PW0-745-4123). Based on
this competitive process, the City of Chandler awarded the contract to M.R. Tanner Development &
Construction, Inc. M.R. Tanner has agreed to extend Chandler's contract pricing to the Town of
Fountain Hills. As a result, the Public Works Department wishes to take advantage of this outstanding
pricing by amending a previous Council-approved cooperative purchasing agreement with M.R.
Tanner in the amount of $5,000,000 to begin the FY24 street maintenance and paving.
Related Ordinance, Policy or Guiding Principle
Pavement Management best practices
Capital Reserve Assessment
Risk Analysis
Failure to amend/renew the contract for street maintenance and repair could delay projects and
result in higher pricing.
Recommendation(s) by Board(s) or Commission(s)
N/A
Staff Recommendation(s)
Staff recommends the approval of the fourth Amendment to Cooperative Purchasing Agreement
C2020-065 with M.R. Tanner Development & Construction, Inc.
SUGGESTED MOTION
MOVE to approve the fourth Amendment to Cooperative Purchasing Agreement C2020-065 With M.R.
Tanner in the amount of $5,000,000 and any required budget transfers.
Fiscal Impact
Fiscal Impact:$5,000,000
Budget Reference:Public Works
Funding Source:Streets Fund (200)
If Multiple Funds utilized, list here:
Budgeted: if No, attach Budget Adjustment Form:
Attachments
Cooperative Purchasing Agreement
Map
Form Review
Inbox Reviewed By Date
Public Works Director (Originator)Justin Weldy 06/06/2023 04:41 PM
Public Works Director (Originator)Justin Weldy 06/06/2023 04:41 PM
Finance Director David Pock 06/08/2023 07:14 AM
Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 06/08/2023 09:11 AM
Interim Town Manager Rachael Goodwin 06/14/2023 04:40 PM
Form Started By: Justin Weldy Started On: 04/18/2023 03:57 PM
Final Approval Date: 06/14/2023
1
Contract No. 2020-065.4
FOURTH AMENDMENT
TO
COOPERATIVE PURCHASING AGREEMENT
BETWEEN
THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
AND
M.R. TANNER DEVELOPMENT AND CONSTRUCTION, INC.
THIS FOURTH AMENDMENT TO COOPERATIVE PURCHASING AGREEMENT
(this “Fourth Amendment”) is entered into upon execution, between the Town of Fountain Hills,
an Arizona municipal corporation (the “Town”) and M.R. Tanner Development and Construction,
Inc., a(n) Arizona corporation (the “Contractor”).
RECITALS
A. After a competitive procurement process, the City of Chandler entered into
Contract No. PW0-745-4123, dated January 15, 2020, (the “City Contract”), with the Contractor
for Street Maintenance and Repair Services. All of the capitalized terms not otherwise defined in
this Fourth Amendment have the same meanings as defined in the Contract.
B. The Town and the Contractor entered into a Cooperative Purchasing Agreement
dated February 18,2020 (and amended via Amendment No. 1, dated September 2, 2020; via
Amendment No.2, dated April 13, 2022; via Amendment No. 3, dated September 6, 2022), based
upon the City Contract (the “Agreement”), for Street Maintenance and Repair Services (the
“Materials and Services”). The terms of the Agreement are incorporated herein.
C. The Town has determined that additional Materials and Services (the “Additional
Materials and Services”) are necessary.
D. The Town and the Contractor desire to enter into this Fourth Amendment to
increase the compensation authorized by the Agreement for the Additional Materials and Services.
AGREEMENT
NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of the foregoing introduction and recitals, which
are incorporated herein by reference, the following mutual covenants and conditions, and other
good and valuable consideration, the receipt and sufficiency of which are hereby acknowledged,
the Town and the Contractor hereby agree as follows:
1. Compensation. The Town shall pay the Contractor an aggregate amount not to
exceed $14,550,000 (including all renewals) for the Additional Materials and
Services, which is an increase of $5,000,000.
2
2. Effect of Amendment. In all other respects, the Agreement is affirmed and ratified
and, except as expressly modified herein, all terms and conditions of the Agreement shall remain
in full force and effect.
3. Non-Default. By executing this Fourth Amendment, the Contractor affirmatively
asserts that (i) the Town is not currently in default, nor has it been in default at any time prior to
this Fourth Amendment, under any of the terms or conditions of the Agreement and (ii) any and
all claims, known and unknown, relating to the Agreement and existing on or before the date of
this Fourth Amendment are forever waived.
4. Israel. Contractor certifies that it is not currently engaged in, and agrees for the
duration of this Agreement that it will not engage in a “boycott,” as that term is defined in Ariz.
Rev. Stat. § 35-393, of Israel.
5. China. Pursuant to and in compliance with A.R.S. § 35-394, Vendor hereby agrees
and certifies that it does not currently, and agrees for the duration of this Agreement that Vendor
will not, use: (1) the forced labor of ethnic Uyghurs in the People’s Republic of China; (2) any
goods or services produced by the forced labor of ethnic Uyghurs in the People’s Republic of
China; or (3) any contractors, subcontractors or suppliers that use the forced labor or any goods or
services produced by the forced labor of ethnic Uyghurs in the People’s Republic of China. Vendor
also hereby agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Town, its officials, employees, and agents
from any claims or causes of action relating to the Town’s action based upon reliance upon this
representation, including the payment of all costs and attorney fees incurred by the Town in
defending such as action.
6. Conflict of Interest. This Fourth Amendment and the Agreement may be cancelled
by the Town pursuant to Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 38-511.
[SIGNATURES ON FOLLOWING PAGES]
ITEM 9. B.
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
STAFF REPORT
Meeting Date: 06/20/2023 Meeting Type: Town Council Regular Meeting
Agenda Type: Regular Agenda Submitting Department: Administration
Prepared by: Rachael Goodwin, Community Services Director/Interim Town Manager
Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language): CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE
DIRECTION: Town Council will discuss issues surrounding homelessness and provide direction to staff.
Causes of homelessness.
Local, regional, and state statistics on homelessness.
Ongoing efforts at the state and regional levels to address homelessness.
The Town’s participation in and funding of state and regional efforts and partnership with
community non-profits.
Crime rates generally, including trespassing, loitering, and similar crimes, in Fountain Hills and
as compared to other Valley communities.
The Town's current ordinances in place and actions taken to address and abate homelessness.
The Town's homeless population.
Enforcement efforts to mitigate homelessness in Fountain Hills.
Legal and practical limitations regarding homelessness.
Potential strategic initiatives, changes to local ordinances, and changes to state law to further
address and abate homelessness in Fountain Hills.
Staff Summary (Background)
Three Councilmembers directed staff to place an item on the agenda to discuss and provide direction
to staff regarding possible solutions for addressing homelessness in the Town of Fountain Hills.
Homelessness is one of the most complex issues facing our communities today, both in Arizona and
across the country. Just as causes of homelessness are complicated and multifaceted, so are solutions
for homelessness. In general, solutions to address homelessness, and its negative secondary effects
on unsheltered persons and on the surrounding community, come through the combined efforts of
governments, nonprofits, and community members.
Because the request for this agenda item was relatively open-ended, staff intends to leave it to the
Council to determine the scope of the discussion. The Council may discuss ideas and may ask
questions of staff and community partners, including representatives from the Maricopa County
Sheriff’s Office, Maricopa Association of Governments, Fountain Hills Fire Dept, Crisis Response, and
others, who are expected to attend and participate in this discussion. Discussion items may include,
but are not limited to, the following:
Causes of homelessness.
Local, regional, and state statistics on homelessness.
Ongoing efforts at the state and regional levels to address homelessness.
Ongoing efforts at the state and regional levels to address homelessness.
The Town’s participation in and funding of state and regional efforts and partnership with
community non-profits.
Crime rates generally, including trespassing, loitering, and similar crimes, in Fountain Hills and
as compared to other Valley communities.
The Town's current ordinances in place and actions taken to address and abate homelessness.
The Town's homeless population.
Enforcement efforts to mitigate homelessness in Fountain Hills.
Legal and practical limitations regarding homelessness.
Potential strategic initiatives, changes to local ordinances, and changes to state law to further
address and abate homelessness in Fountain Hills.
Following discussion, the Council may choose to direct staff to take any number of actions as the
Council may discuss.
Related Ordinance, Policy or Guiding Principle
N/A
Risk Analysis
N/A
Recommendation(s) by Board(s) or Commission(s)
N/A
Staff Recommendation(s)
N/A
SUGGESTED MOTION
MOVE to direct staff to take appropriate steps as identified.
Attachments
Ordinance 2006-20
Resolution 2001-33
Ordinance 2021-14
Resolution 2021-29
Ordinance 2021-16
Form Review
Inbox Reviewed By Date
Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 06/13/2023 09:24 AM
Finance Director David Pock 06/13/2023 09:48 AM
Finance Director David Pock 06/13/2023 09:48 AM
Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 06/13/2023 11:11 AM
Interim Town Manager Rachael Goodwin 06/14/2023 04:52 PM
Form Started By: Linda Mendenhall Started On: 06/12/2023 01:22 PM
Final Approval Date: 06/14/2023
ORDINANCE NO. 06-20
AN ORDINANCE OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF
FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA, AMENDING THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN
HILLS TOWN CODE, CHAPTER 11, OFFENSES, BY CREATING A NEW
SECTION 11-1-17, USE OF TOWN-OWNED WASHES.
WHEREAS, the Mayor and Town Council of Fountain Hills (the "Town Council")
adopted Resolution 2001-33 on June 21, 2001, creating the Town of Fountain Hills Wash
Management and Maintenance Policy (the "Wash Policy"); and
WHEREAS, the Town Council amended the Wash Policy on September 7, 2006, to, inter
alia, amend the provisions therein relating to law enforcement activities within Town-owned
washes; and
WHEREAS, the Town Council desires to amend the Town Code to provide for
regulations relating to use of Town-owned washes and to provide for penalties for violations
thereof consistent with the Wash Policy.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF
THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA, as follows:
SECTION 1. That the Fountain Hills Town Code, Chapter 11, Offenses, is hereby
amended by adding a new Section 11-1-17, Use of Town-owned Washes, to read as follows:
Section 11-1-17 Use of Town-owned Washes
It is unlawful for any person to enter upon or use any Town-owned wash, as such term is defined
in Section 9-3-2 of this Code, in violation of the following provisions:
A. It shall be unlawful for any person, other than Town personnel conducting Town business
therein, to occupy or be present in Town-owned washes during any hours in which the
washes are not open to the public. Washes are open to the public from dawn to dusk
daily unless otherwise posted by the Town. A violation of this subsection shall constitute
an act of criminal trespass, as defined by Section 11-1-16 of this Code.
B. The following are prohibited in all Town-owned washes:
1.Committing any act in a Town-owned wash that endangers the health and safety
of any person.
2.Using any portion of any Town-owned wash for archery, firearms, sling shots,
rockets, darts, rocks or other projectile devices.
3.Dumping, unauthorized grading, or otherwise utilizing a Town-owned wash or
any materials or vegetation therein, in an unauthorized or prohibited manner.
L
674245.1
4.Creating or maintaining open fires.
5.Overnight camping.
6.Pets, unless on a leash and under the constant control of a person and provided
that any such person controlling a pet shall, at all times in a Town-owned wash (i)
carry the necessary items to properly dispose of animal waste and (ii) immediately
remove any animal waste from the Town-owned wash and dispose of same in a
proper trash receptacle.
7.Skateboards, roller blades, roller skates, bicycles or any (non-motorized) rolling
vehicles, unless used in an area specifically designated for such use by the Town.
8.Driving or riding, at any time, any automobile, truck, motorcycle, motor scooter,
all-terrain vehicle, other motor vehicle, horse or other animal upon the grounds of
any Town-owned wash.
9.Consuming alcoholic beverages, spirituous liquors or malt beverages (beer), as
defined in A.R.S. § 4-101, et seq., as amended.
10. Possessing a glass container, unless specifically authorized by the Town.
11. Throwing, tossing or otherwise propelling any glass object, whether willfully and
maliciously or carelessly and negligently, and causing such glass object to break
in a Town-owned wash.
12. Swimming, wading, bathing, fishing or boating in or on any water located within
a Town-owned wash.
C. The parents or adult persons with whom a juvenile resides shall be financially liable for
consequences of the juvenile's infraction of this Section and/or any damage such Juvenile
causes on or to Town-owned property.
D. Penalties:
1.A person who violates the provisions of this Section shall, upon conviction
thereof, be guilty of a Class 1 Misdemeanor.
2.A person who violates the provisions of this Section may, upon conviction
thereof, be temporarily or permanently banned from using any Town-owned
wash.
SECTION 2. That if any provision or any portion of any provision of this Ordinance is
for any reason held to be unconstitutional or otherwise unenforceable by a court of competent
jurisdiction, such provision or portion thereof shall be deemed separate, distinct and independent
of the remaining provisions of this Ordinance and shall be severed therefrom without affecting
the validity of the remaining portions of this Ordinance.
674245.1
2
PASSED AND ADOPTED by the Mayor and Council of the Town of Fountain Hills,
Arizona, September 7, 2006.
FOR THE TOWN OF F NTAIN HILLS ATTESTED TO:
y 1177
W. J. Nichol , Mayor Bevelyn J. Be er, own Clerk
REVIEWED APPROVED AS TO FORM:
T. of y G. Pickering, Town Mana Andrew J. McGuire, Town Attorney
L
674245.1
3
Xiikfljpiy
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
RESOLUTION NO.2001-33
A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND COMMON COUNCIL OF
THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS,ARIZONA ESTABLISHING
A POLICY FOR TOWN-OWNED WASH MANAGEMENT AND
MAINTENANCE
WHEREAS,the Town of Fountain Hills owns several hundred acres of washes that
provide scenic open space and wildlife corridors throughout the Town;
and
WHEREAS,Fountain Hills residents have given their strong support to maintain these
washes and drainage channels in as natural a state as possible;and
WHEREAS,The Town of Fountain Hills should take active measures to develop
policies for the management and maintenance of these Town-owned wash
corridors so that these open space and wildlife corridors are maintained in
as natural a state as possible.
NOW,THEREFORE,BE IT RESOLVED BY MAYOR AND COMMON
COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS,ARIZONA,AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1:That the Fountain Hills Town Council hereby adopts the "Town of
Fountain Hills Wash Management and Maintenance Policy"as shown
below:
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS WASH MANAGEMENT
AND MAINTENANCE POLICY
1.PURPOSE:
The Fountain Hills Wash Management and Maintenance Policy provides Town
Council direction regarding the Town's management and maintenance of Town-
owned "wash"lands within Fountain Hills.Town-owned wash lands ("Washes")
are those lands owned by the Town of Fountain Hills as identified on Exhibit 1.
The Town-owned wash lands,in addition to containing natural washes,also
contain other land uses such as hillside slopes,open space,piped drainage,
channelized drainage courses,dams and also serve as buffers.The Town
Manager should implement this Policy,in the manner outlined below.
Resolution2001-33.doc Page 1of5
DEFINITIONS:
All terms and definitions of words used in this Policy shall have those meanings
as defined in The Zoning Ordinance for the Town of Fountain Hills and in the
Fountain Hills Town Code.
GENERAL PROVISIONS:
The Town should manage and maintain the washes in a manner that:
3-1 Is environmentally sensitive and consistent with the provisions of Article
9-3 of the Fountain Hills Town Code.
3-2 Preserves the Washes as open space and promotes wildlife habitat and
does not inhibit migration within Washes.
3-3 Provides for the periodic removal,under the direction of the Public Works
Department,of dead vegetation,non-native vegetation,and/or other
vegetation only when necessary to achieving the goals of reducing wildfire
danger,facilitating drainage,or promoting public safety.Future Wash
"clean-up"activities should be undertaken only after standards have been
developed and/or refined.These standards should include the "clean-up"
methods utilized by the Town's subcontractor,including tagging plants to
be removed by the Public Works Department,lists of plants approved for
removal and retention,erosion mitigation efforts and how these "clean-up"
projects will continue to preserve wildlife habitat within the Washes.The
Fountain Hills Fire Department,the Fountain Hills Sanitary District and
the Arizona Department of Fish and Game shall review these standards.
3-4 Erosion Mitigations:Do not cut any vegetation on slopes,near the banks
or sharp bends, or rapid streambed drops unless a fire hazard exists or
there is a special drainage issue at that location or the vegetation impedes
with thefunction ofor access to the utility.
3-5 Drainage Structures:
A. Remove vegetation near the upstream entrance to culverts and box
culverts.
B. Remove trees on the channel bottom approach within 20'of a small
pipe culvert and 50'of large, multiple pipe culverts or any concrete
box culvert.
C. Remove any trees or large shrubs within 20'of the pipe or culvert
outlet (frequently this area will have a concrete or riprap outlet
apron).
Resolution 2001-33.doc Page 2 of 5
c
NjiSBP''
3-6 Street Crossings:
Trim or cut vegetation that excessively overhangs the roadway or
shoulder, blocks vehicular line-ofsight,or creates a flow restriction.
3-7 Wildlife:
Minimize disturbance to wildlife, and minimize destruction of prime
habitat foliage.
3-8 Fire Hazards:
Clear designated area of combustible vegetation to establish fuel breaks.
(Reference 1997 Uniform Fire Code,Section 1103.24,and 1997 Urban
Wildland Interface Code,Appendix A,Section 2.)
Remove non-fire-resistive growth within 10'on each side of roadways,
driveway,and otherfire apparatus access-ways.
4-1 Provides for a policy-implementation strategy by the Engineering
Department that includes periodic Wash observation,photographs and/or
other documentation ofWash conditions.
4-2 Aerial Photography:
The Town should perform aerial photography on a regular recurring
basis to document wash conditions and changes (initially recommended
for 5-year intervals).
4-3 Wash Observation and Photography:
On-call:Respond to reports of dumping in the wash and report to the
Town Marshals office for enforcement and citation. Arrange for cleanup,
ifdirected.
Review construction and utility maintenance work areas (see separate
section).
Annually:Prepare scope and areas of work for wash cleanup activities
regarding flood control,fire control, and public safety. Annually make
lists of any washes that have been damaged by utilities, Town or public
that require revegetation, wildlife habitat restoration or erosion
prevention.
Coordinate with utility companies regarding any upcoming work in the
washes thirty days prior to any construction.
Review areas subjected to major flooding,damage,fire,or construction
activities.
Resolution 2001-33.doc Page 3 of 5
c Take general photographs oftheareas prior to and after completion ofthe
proposed wash cleanup and restoration work.
Triennially (1/3 every year):Drive roads adjacent to the perimeter of
wash areas wherever feasible to observe the general conditions.
Drive passable vehicular trails.
Walk,bike, or drive designatedpedestrian pathways,as appropriate.
Take comparative photography.
Photograph specific problem and issue areas,for on-callfollow-up.
5.Respects the rights of public utilities having easements within the washes,
but also asserts the rights of the Town to be notified of any work done in
the wash as the owner of the washes.
Many washes contain public utility easements and existing public utility
lines.New public utility lines,other new construction work, and
maintenance work requiring excavation requires an encroachment permit
from the Town Engineer as specified in Town Code Article 16-1. The
Town Engineer will not withhold permits allowing maintenance and
reconstruction. New utility lines and structures in washes are strongly
discouraged,and shall be avoided where other reasonable alternatives
outside ofwash areas exist.
6.Ensures swift law enforcement response by the Town Marshals
Department to complaints and appropriate criminal prosecution of those
dumping,grading or otherwise utilizing the washes in a prohibited
manner.It further provides for development of public information
programs by the Marshals Department,including development of
neighborhood "Wash Watch"efforts
Dumping,unauthorized grading, or otherwise utilizing the wash in an
unauthorized or prohibited manner is a violation ofthe Town Code, and
can result in citation by the Town Marshal.
The Town Marshal will disseminate information to the public regarding
respecting the natural environment ofthe washes.
1.Includes inter-departmental and inter-governmental cooperation regarding
activities in the washes.
8 Provides for a notification process whereby any public utility or
governmental entity having the right to utilize a wash for their respective
utility or governmental purpose(s)is required to provide the Town, as the
Resolution 2001-33.doc Page 4 of 5
property owner, prior written notice that includes a description of their
intent, scope of work, and any plans for improvements,grading or other
work within a wash.This notification process does not apply in an
emergency situation as defined by the respective utility or where public
health is at risk.
All public utilities and agencies with a right to utilize a wash must notify
the Town—the property owner—prior to commencing work (except in
emergencies).The encroachment permit process is utilized for this work
in washes,similar to that utilized for street rights-of-way, in accordance
with Town Code Section 16-1-2.Digging,grading, erection and
constructing are included in the work which requires an encroachment
permit.
Section 2:That the Fountain Hills Town Council hereby directs the Town Manager
to implement the "Town of Fountain Hills Wash Management and
Maintenance Policy."
PASSED AND ADOPTED this 21st day of June 2001.
FOR THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS:
I
JlfiAlfL !W.
SHaron Morgan,Mayor
REVIEWED BY:
Paul L.Nordin
Town Manager
Resolution 2001-33.doc
ATTEST:
6t&Us
Cassie B.Hansen
Town Clerk
^Vu4^v
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
William E.Farrell
Town Attorney
Paac 5 of5
EXHIBIT 1
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
TOWN -OWNED WASH LANDS MAP
LEGEND
~N
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS - OWNED WASH AND OTHER
LANDS SUBJECT TO RESOLUTION 2001-33
Q
NORTH SCALE OF MILES PREPARED:JUNE 15,2001
ORDINANCE NO. 21-14
AN ORDINANCE OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF
FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA, AMENDING THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
TOWN CODE, CHAPTERS 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, AND 12 BY ADOPTING THE
2021 MODIFICATIONS TO CRIMINAL AND CIVIL PENALTIES" BY
REFERENCE
ENACTMENTS:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF
FOUNTAIN HILLS as follows:
SECTION 1. Chapters 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 of the Town Code are hereby amended as
set forth in the adopted Public Document titled"2021 Modifications to Criminal and Civil Penalties"
by Resolution 2021-29, is adopted and made a part hereof as if fully set out in this ordinance.
PASSED AND ADOPTED BY the Mayor and Council of the Town of Fountain Hills, this 21st day
of September, 2021.
FOR THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS: ATTESTED TO:
Dt Elizabet lein(Sep 233 08:23 PDT)
Ginn Dicke MayorElizabeth A. Klein,Town Clerk
REVIEWED BY: APPROVED AS TO FORM:
bon1t A(Altiz • a.4.e,e,
Grady E. ler, wn Manager Aaron D.Arnson, Town Attorney
4
RESOLUTION NO.2021-29
A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN
OF FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA, DECLARING AS A PUBLIC
RECORD THAT CERTAIN DOCUMENT FILED WITH THE TOWN
CLERK AND ENTITLED "2021 MODIFICATIONS TO CRIMINAL
AND CIVIL PENALITIES"
ENACTMENTS:
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED BY THE MAYOR AND TOWN COUNCIL OF
FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA, as follows:
SECTION 1.That certain document entitled "2021 Modifications to Criminal and Civil Penalities"of
which one paper copy and one electronic copy maintained in compliance with ARS 44-7041 are on
file in the office of the Town Clerk and open for public inspection during normal business hours, is
hereby declared to be a public record, and said copies are ordered to remain on file with the Town
Clerk.
PASSED AND ADOPTED BY the Mayor and Council of the Town of Fountain Hills, this 21st day
of September, 2021.
FOR THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS: ATTESTED TO:
Eliza fleet(Sep 23,20210824 PDT)
Gin Dicke , Mayor Elizabeth A. Klein, Town Clerk
REVIEWED BY: APPROVED AS TO FORM:
03 V:4 A g-
Grady E. Miller n Manager Aaron D. Arnson, Town Attorney
RESOLUTION 2021-29 PAGE 2
EXHIBIT A
TO
RESOLUTION 21-29
TOWN CODE CHAPTERS 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, AND 12]
See following pages.
RESOLUTION 2021-29 PAGE 3
Chapter 1
General
Article 1-8
Penalty
Section 1-8-2 Criminal and Civil Traffic Penalty Provisions
A. Any person found guilty of violating any provisions of this CODE, WHEN CLASSIFIED AS
A CLASS 1 misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not
to exceed two thousand five hundred dollars or by imprisonment for a period not to exceed
six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
Section 1-8-3 Civil Penalty Provisions
A. This Section allies whenever in this code or in any ordinance of the Town any act is
ANY PERSON FOUND
RESPONSIBLE FOR VIOLATING ANY PROVISION OF THIS CODE, WHETHER BY
ADMISSION, DEFAULT, OR AFTER A HEARING, EXCEPT AS OTHERWISE
PROVIDED, SHALL PAY A CIVIL SANCTION OF NOT LESS THAN $250 OR MORE
THAN $750. A SECOND FINDING OF RESPONSIBILITY WITHIN 12 MONTHS OF THE
COMMISSION OF A PRIOR VIOLATION OF THE SAME PROVISIONS OF THIS CODE
SHALL RESULT IN AN ENHANCED CIVIL SANCTION OF NOT LESS THAN $500 OR
MORE THAN $1,500. A THIRD FINDING OF RESPONSIBILITY WITHIN 12 MONTHS
OF THE COMMISSION OF A PRIOR VIOLATION OF THE SAME PROVISIONS OF
THIS CODE MAY RESULT IN AN ENHANCED CIVIL SANCTION OF NOT LESS THAN
1000 OR MORE THAN $2,500. IN LIEU OF THE ENHANCED CIVIL SANCTION, A
THIRD FINDING OF RESPONSIBILITY WITHIN 12 MONTHS OF THE COMMISSION
OF A PRIOR VIOLATION OF THE SAME PROVISIONS OF THIS CODE MAY RESULT
IN CRIMINAL MISDEMEANOR CHARGES PURSUANT TO SUBSECTION 1-8-3(F),
RECIDIVIST PROPERTIES/PERSONS. FOR PURPOSES OF CALCULATING THE 12-
MONTH PERIOD, SUCH PERIOD SHALL BEGIN ON THE DATE OF THE FIRST
OFFENSE. IN ADDITION TO THE CIVIL SANCTION, THE RESPONSIBLE PARTY
SHALL PAY THE APPLICABLE FEES AND CHARGES SET FORTH BY THE
FOUNTAIN HILLS COURT. EACH DAY THAT A VIOLATION CONTINUES
CONSTITUTES A SEPARATE OFFENSE PUNISHABLE AS HEREIN PROVIDED.
D. Civil Citations.
4. WHEN APPLICABLE, TThe civil citation shall direct the defendant to pay the fine
imposed pursuant to subsection 1-8-3(E) below or appear in the Fountain Hills
RESOLUTION 2021-29 PAGE 4
Municipal Court on the date noted on the citation, which date shall not be less than
ten days after citation issuance.
5. The civil citation shall provide notice that if the defendant fails to pay the fine or
appear in the Fountain Hills Municipal Court as directed, a default judgement will
be entered in the amount of the fine SPECIFIED BY THE
PRESIDING JUDGE for the violation. In addition, a default fee may be imposed
for failure to appear.
6. Service of the citation may be accomplished and will be deemed proper and
complete by any of the following methods:
a. Hand delivering the citation to the defendant. If the defendant is a business,
service may be by hand delivery to the business owner, any adult manager
of the business, or any adult employee of the business.
b. Mailing a copy of the citation by certified or registered mail, return receipt
requested, to the defendant's last known address. If the defendant is a
business, service may be by certified or registered mail, return receipt
requested, to the current business address.
c.FOR VEHICLE RELATED VIOLATIONS, BY AFFIXING THE CITATION
TO THE VEHICLE OWNED BY THE DEFENDANT WHICH
CONSTITUTES THE PARKING, LOCATION OR ABANDONMENT
OFFENSE CHARGED IN THE CITATION.
D. Any means allowed by the Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure for the Superior
Courts of Arizona.
F. Recidivist Properties/Persons.
The recidivist process is designed to provide relief via an expedited enforcement
process for problems with persons or entities who repeatedly violate any provision
of this code or Town ordinance and who have demonstrated an unwillingness to
comply with this Section 1-8-3. Any violation of this chapter, whether initially
deemed civil or criminal in nature, which is committed by a person deemed a
recidivist as set forth in Subsection 1-8-3(F)(2) below, MAY shall be deemed a
misdemeanor and MAYchall be addressed as set forth in Subsection 1-8-2(A)
above.
2. A person or entity MAYshatl be deemed a "recidivist" if such person or entity has
been issued a notice of violation and/or civil citation, and/or criminal charges filed
OVERfer two or moro times within the last ONEtwG-year period relating to
violations of the same provisions of this code.
RESOLUTION 2021-29 PAGE 5
Chapter 6
Animals
Article 6-1
Rules and Regulations
Section 6-1-3 Noises
A. It is unlawful to harbor or keep any animal or fowl which by frequent or habitual howling,
yelping, barking, crowing or the making of other noises disturbs the peace of a
neighborhood or any two or more persons not residing in the same household, one of
which may be a member of the Town law enforcement agency or animal control officer.
B. First offense convictions, under this section, shall be sentenced as a petty offense. Second
Third and all subsequent VIOLATIONSconvictions under this section MAY RESULT IN A
CIVIL SANCTION PURSUANT TO SECTION 1-8-3cha11 be sentenced as a class 1
misdemeanor.
Section 6-1-5 Swine
It is unlawful to keep any live swine or pigs in the town, EXCEPT PUREBRED MINIATURE
VIETNAMESE POTBELLY PIGS AND OTHER SIMILAR PUREBRED MINIATURE PIGS.
Article 6-2
Rabies/Animal Control Leash Law
Section 6-2-3 License Fees for Dogs; Issuance of Dog Tags; Records; Penalties;
Classification
D. IT IS UNLAWFUL FOR A PERSONAny person who fails within fifteen days after written
notification from the enforcement agent, to FAIL TO obtain a license for a dog required to
be licensed. ANY PERSON WHO; counterfeits or attempts to counterfeit an official dog
tag, or removes such tag from any dog for the purpose of willful and malicious mischief or
places a dog tag upon a dog unless the tag was issued for that particular dog MAY BE
is-guilty of a Celass Ttwo Mmisdemeanor, AS ENFORCED BY MARICOPA COUNTY.
Section 6-2-5 Dogs Not Permitted at Large; Wearing Licenses
Notwithstanding any other provision of this article, any dog owner, person acting for the
dog owner, custodian or other person who permits, allows or causes a dog to be at large
MAY BE GUILTY OF A CLASS TWO MISDEMEANOR, AS ENFORCED BY
MARICOPA COUNTY.in violation of:
RESOLUTION 2021-29 PAGE 6
1. Subsection A or B of this section is guilty of a class one misdemeanor.
2. Subsection C or D of this section is guilty of a class three misdemeanor.
Section 6-2-8 Unlawful Interference with Enforcement Agent; Unlawful Keeping of Dogs
A. It is unlawful forAany person WHO to—interfereS with the enforcement agent in the
performance of his duties IS GUILTY OF A CLASS TWO MISDEMEANOR.
B. It is unlawful for a person to keep, harbor or maintain a dog within the town except as
provided by the terms of this article.
RESOLUTION 2021-29 PAGE 7
Chapter 7
Buildings and Business Regulations
Article 7-1
Technical Codes
Section 7-1-1 Adoption by Reference; Violations
C. ANY PERSON, FIRM, OR CORPORATION WHO VIOLATES ANY OF THE
PROVISIONS OF THE TECHNICAL CODES MAY BE SUBJECT TO ONE OR MORE
OF THE PENALTIES PRESCRIBED IN ARTICLE 1-8.
D. THIS CODE SHALL NOT BE INTERPRETED AS LIMITING THE PENALTIES,
ACTIONS, OR ABATEMENT PROCEDURES THAT MAY BE TAKEN BY THE TOWN
UNDER ESTABLISHED LAWS, ORDINANCES, OR RULES, WHEN ANY PERSON,
FIRM, OR CORPORATION VIOLATES ANY PROVISION OF THE TECHNICAL CODES.
Section 7-1-2 Amendments
Amend Section 110.4
110.4 Violation penalties
Persons who violate a provision of this code or fail to comply with any of the requirements thereof
or who erect, install, alter, repair, or do work in violation of the approved construction documents
or directive of the fire code official, or of a permit or certification used under provisions of this
code, shall be LIABLEsentenced to a fine SANCTION PURSUANT TO SECTION 1-8-3 OF THIS
CODE Each day that the violation continues
after notice has been served shall be deemed a separate offense.
Amend Section 112.4
112.4 Failure to comply
Any person who shall continue any work after having been served with a stop work order, except
such work as that person is directed to perform to remove a violation or unsafe condition, shall be
liable to a CIVIL SANCTION PURSUANT TO SECTION 1-8-3 OF THIS CODE fine of not more
than one thousand dollars ($1,000.00).
RESOLUTION 2021-29 PAGE 8
Section P-101 Classification of Penalty
P-101 Classification of penalty
The following classifications shall apply to any violations of Appendix I:
1. Any person, firm, corporation, partnership, enterprise, or association, whether as principal,
owner, agent, or otherwise, who violates, disobeys, omits, or refuses to comply with, or
who resists the enforcement of any of the provisions of this code, is subject to a civil
sanction.
2. Notwithstanding subsection 1 of this section, a THIRDsecond or subsequent violation of
any of the provisions of this chapter within A TWELVE-MONTH a two year period MAY
shall be deemed a misdemeanor.
P-102 Civil penalties
1. Upon a finding of responsible to civil violation, the court shall impose a CIVIL SANCTION
PURSUANT TO SECTION 1-8-3 OF THIS CODE fine not to exceed one thousand dollars
1,000.00).
2. Upon a conviction of a misdemeanor, the defendant shall be sentenced pursuant to the
provisions established IN SECTION 1-8-2 OF THIS CODE by the Town of Fountain Hills
Court System.
P-103 Civil violation, commencement of action
3. The citation will further notify the defendant that if he fails to appear on or before the date
and time specified in the complaint, a judgment by default will be entered against him, and
the court may, in its discretion, impose a civil sanction PURSUANT TO SECTION 1-8-3
OF THIS CODE not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000.00).
Article 7-6
Noise Regulations during Construction
Section 7-6-2 Penalties
Violation of any provision of Section 7-6-1 is a civil offense AND MAY BE PUNISHABLE AS
PROVIDED IN SECTION 1-8-3 OF THIS CODE. The municipal court of the Town shall conduct
Each day a
violation occurs shall constitute a separate event.
RESOLUTION 2021-29 PAGE 9
Article 7-11
Enforcement of State Residential Rental Property Registration
Section 7-11-1 Enforcement of State Residential Rental Property Registration
C. The Town shall assess a civil penalty in accordance with Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 33-1902, as
amended, AS WELL AS PURSUANT TO SECTION 1-8-3 OF THIS CODE, AS
APPLICABLE, against any owner who fails to comply with the provisions thereof.
RESOLUTION 2021-29 PAGE 10
Chapter 8
Business Regulations
Article 8-1
Business Licenses
Section 8-1-13 Violations; Penalties
A. Civil (noncriminal) violations. It shall be a civil (noncriminal) violation, punishable as set
forth in Article 1-8 of this Code, for a Person to do any of the following:
1. Fail to perform any act or duty required by any provision of ArticleS 8-1, 8-2 through
8-3, or Article 8-5, OR 8-6 of this Chapter.
2. Violate the terms and/or conditions of any license issued under the provisions of
ArticleS 8-1, 8-2 through 8-3, or Article 8-5, OR 8-6 of this Chapter.
B. Criminal violations. It MAYsh-all be a criminal violation, punishable as set forth in Article 1-
8, for a Person to do any of the following:
1.Intentionally or purposely f Fail to perform an act or duty required by any provision
of this Article 8-4 OF THIS CHAPTER.
2. Fail to perform any act or duty required by any provision of this Chapter and such
Person has been n sly fog ind responsible at least finis other times villy o
Chapter.
4. Violate the terms and/or conditions of any license issued under the provisions of
Article 8 4 of this Chapter.
2. FAIL TO PERFORM ANY ACT OR DUTY REQUIRED BY ANY PROVISION OF
THIS CHAPTER WHEN SUCH PERSON HAS BEEN PREVIOUSLY FOUND
RESPONSIBLE OVER TWO OTHER TIMES, CIVILLY OR CRIMINALLY,
WITHIN TWELVE MONTHS, FOR A VIOLATION OF THIS CHAPTER.
RESOLUTION 2021-29 PAGE 11
Chapter 9
Parks and Recreation
Article 9-4
Park Rules and Regulations
Section 9-4-2 Consumption of Alcohol at Town Owned Parks
C. Penalty: VIOLATIONS OF THIS SECTION SHALL BE CONSIDERED CLASS 1
MISDEMEANORS AND WILL BE PUNISHABLE AS SUCH UNDER SECTION 1-8-2 OF
THIS CODE AND STATE LAWViolation of any provisi^ of this s tion shah , pon
conviction, be considered a Class 1 Misdemeanor.
Section 9-4-3 Rules and Regulations at Town Owned Parks
B. Penalties
1. Violations of subsections A(4) through A(15) shall be considered CIVIL petty
offenses if the offender has not committed the same infraction within the last
TWELVE (12)twenty four (21) months. Petty Offenses shall be punishable by a
2.MORE THAN TWOSubsequent violations(s) of the same subsection A(4)through
A(15) offense within a TWELVE (12)twenty four (21) month period MAY&hatl be
considered a Class 13 Misdemeanor, and will be punishable as such under
SECTION 1-8-2 OF THIS CODE AND State Law.
3. Violations of subsections A(1), A(2), or A(3) of this section shall be considered
Class 1 Misdemeanors and will be punishable as such under SECTION 1-8-2 OF
THIS CODE AND State Law.
Article 9-5
Fountain Hills McDowell Mountain Preserve
Section 9-5-7 Penalties
The Rules and Regulations contained in Article 9-5 will be considered CIVILpetty offenses and/or
Class 1 Misdemeanors as specified under subsections A through C below:
A. Violations of the rules and regulations contained in subsections 9-5-3 (A, B, C, E, F, I, J,
L, N and 0) and Sections 9-5-4 and 9-5-5 shall be considered a CIVILpetty offense if the
offender has not been convicted of the same infraction within the last TWELVE(12)twenty
RESOLUTION 2021-29 PAGE 12
four(2/1)months.
100.00).
B. MORE THAN TWOSubsequent VIOLATIONconvist+en(s) of the same subsections 9-5-3
A, B, C, E, F, I, J, L, N and 0)and Sections 9-5-4 and 9-5-5 within a TWELVE (12)twenty
four (2/l) month period MAYsI}a1I be considered a Class 13 Misdemeanor, and will be
punishable as such under SECTION 1-8-2 OF THIS CODE AND State Law.
C. Violations of the rules and regulations contained in subsections 9-5-3 (D, G, H, K, M, P
and Q) of this section shall be considered a Class 1 Misdemeanor and will be punishable
as such under SECTION 1-8-2 OF THIS CODE AND State Law.
Article 9-6
Restrictions on Smoking In Public Parks, Preserves, and Trails
Section 9-6-4 Order to leave; unlawful failure to comply
A. The Director of Parks and Recreation, or any designee, may order any person who has
failed to comply with the requirements of this section to immediately leave the park,
preserve, or trail system in which the violation occurred. No person may remain in a park,
preserve, or trail system or return to such location on the same day after such person has
been ordered to leave.
B. Any person who fails to comply with an order to leave the park, preserve, or trail system
shall be responsible for a CIVILpetty offense, punishable PURSUANT TO SECTIONby 1-
8-3.8 1 3:
1. A fine not excee a first olation;
2. A fine not exceeding $200 for a second violation;
3. A fine not exceeding $300 for a third violation;
14, Any person who violates this section MORE THAN TWOfour or more times in any
24TWELVE-month period may be charged with and found guilty of a GClass 1
iMisdemeanor.
RESOLUTION 2021-29 PAGE 13
Chapter 10
Health and Sanitation
Section 10-1-6 Spilling of Refuse during Transport
A. I unlawful for aAny Person WHOto haulS, or causeS to be hauled, on or along any
public street, right-of-way or Alley in the Town, any Refuse or Recyclables unless such
material is contained in the vehicle or receptacle in a manner that prevents the contents
from falling out, leaking or spilling, and prevents obnoxious odor from escaping IS GUILTY
OF A CLASS 1 MISDEMEANOR. If any Refuse or Recyclables fall out, leak or spill, such
Person shall immediately clean up the Refuse, Recyclables or liquid.
B. Failure to properly secure a load and any covering of the load to prevent the covering or
load from becoming loose, detached or in any manner a hazard to other users of the road
way may be prosecuted as a violation of Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 28-1098 as may be amended
from time to time.
Section 10-1-7 Dumping of Refuse
It is unlawful for anyANY Person WHOto placeS or causeS to be placed A SIGNIFICANT
QUANTITY OF UNCONTAINEDany Refuse or Recyclables upon any public or private property
within the Town IS GUILTY OF A CLASS 1 MISDEMEANOR, except as specifically permitted in
this Article.
Section 10-1-11 Hazardous Waste and Special Refuse
L. ANY PERSON WHO VIOLATES THIS SECTION IS GUILTY OF A CLASS 1
MISDEMEANOR.
Section 10-1-15 Violations and Citations
A.Any violation of or failure to do or perform any act required by this Article constitutes a
civil offense, UNLESS OTHERWISE PROVIDED.
B. Customers of property in violation of this Article may be held individually and jointly
responsible for the violation, the prescribed civil penalties and for abating the violation.
C. Notice of violation.
1. The Town MAYshal-1 seek voluntary compliance with the provisions of this Section
before issuing a civil citation or criminal complaint, as applicable. This MAYshall
include a written Notice of violation given to the responsible party for the property.
D. Civil citations.
RESOLUTION 2021-29 PAGE 14
4. The citation shall direct the defendant to pay the fine imposed pursuant to
Subsection 10-1-15(E) or appear in the Fountain Hills Municipal Court within ten
days of the issuance of the citationON THE DATE NOTED ON THE CITATION,
WHICH DATE SHALL NOT BE LESS THAN TEN DAYS AFTER CITATION
ISSUANCE.
E. Civil Penalties.
1. A Person ISSUED A CITATION BASED UPON VIOLATIONS OF
vielatiGn-of this Article, other than Subsections 10-1-6, 10-1-7 or 10-1-11, shall be
punishable PURSUANT TO SECTION 1-8-3by a base fine of not more than $250.
F. Criminal penalties. A Person convicted of a violation of Subsections 10 1 6, 10 1 7 or 10
1 11 is guilty of a Class 1 Misdemeanor, punishable by term of not more than six months
in jail and a base fine of not more than $2,500.
FG. The penalties set forth in this Section 10 1 15 shall be in addition to any penalty that may
be assessed pursuant to State Law or the Maricopa County Environmental Health Code.
Section 10-1-24 Placement of Collection Containers
C. All Collection Containers shall be stored CLOSE TO THE RESIDENCE OR SCREENED
FROM VIEW between collection days so as to not be visible from AND MAY NOT BE
LEFT IN the street or public rights-of-way.
Article 10-2
Litter; Nuisances
Section 10-2-10 Dropping Litter from Aircraft
No person in any aircraft shall throw out, drop or deposit within the town any litter, handbill or any
other object. ANY PERSON WHO VIOLATES THIS SECTION IS GUILTY OF A CLASS 1
MISDEMEANOR.
Article 10-4
Removal of Litter
Section 10-4-1 Notice to Remove
through 10 '1 5, ilf a person owning and/or controlling any property fails, neglects or refuses to
remove or properly dispose of litter, located on property owned and/or controlled by such person,
PER THE PROVISIONS OF THIS SECTION AND OF SECTIONS 10-4-2 THROUGH 10-4-5,
RESOLUTION 2021-29 PAGE 15
SUCH PERSON(S)both the owner of the property and the person who is in control of the property
shall be given written notice by the TOWN MANAGER OR AUTHORIZED DESIGNEE clerk to
remove all litter from such property within thirty days from the date the notice was received by the
Such notice shall be received not lees than thirty days before the date set thereon for compliance
and shall contain an estimate of the cost of removal by the Town, AS WELL AS a statement that
unless SUCH PERSON(S) complies therewith
within thirty days from the date such written notice is received, that the Town will, at the expense
of SUCH PERSON(S) both the person owning and the person controlling said property, perform
the necessary work at a cost not to exceed the estimate given in the notice.; and THE NOTICE
SHALL FURTHER STATE that SUCH PERSON(S)the owner and/or the controller of the property
may appeal in writing to the clerk within thirty days from the date the notice is received by him
and prior to the date of compliance.
RESOLUTION 2021-29 PAGE 16
Chapter 11
Offenses
Article 11-1
Offenses
Section 11-1-1 Abandoned Vehicles
C. Removal/PENALTY
1. The owner, tenant, lessee or other occupant of any private property within the
corporate limits of the town upon which storage is prohibited by subsection B of
this section and also the owner of such abandoned vehicles or abandoned vehicle
parts involved in such storage shall jointly and severally abate the nuisance.
2. Any person who fails, neglects or refuses to abate such nuisance SPECIFIED IN
11-1-1(B)(1) shall be notified in writing
Code to abate the nuisance within the time period appearing on such written
notice. SUCH NOTICE MAY BE PLACED ON THE SUBJECT VEHICLE.
FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH WRITTEN NOTIFICATION MAY BE PUNISHABLE
AS SET FORTH IN SECTION 1-8-3.
3. When any person to whom notice has been provided according to this subsection
fails, neglects or refuses TO ABATE THE NUISANCE WITHIN THE TIME
PERIOD APPEARING ON THE for more than ten days from the date appearing
on the notice to abate the nuisance, the town manager or his designee is hereby
authorized to remove the abandoned vehicle or abandoned vehicle parts from the
premises, store same, and dispose of same according to law.
4. The owner, tenant, lessee or other occupant of any private property, from which
the town has removed an abandoned vehicle or abandoned vehicle parts pursuant
to this section, shall be liable for all costs incurred in removing said items from the
property.
5. EACH DAY THAT A VIOLATION CONTINUES MAY BE A SEPARATE
OFFENSE PUNISHABLE BY IMPOSITION OF A CIVIL SANCTION. SERVICE
OF ANY CITATION FOR VIOLATION OF THIS ARTICLE MAY BE
ACCOMPLISHED, AND WILL BE DEEMED PROPER AND COMPLETE, BY
AFFIXING THE CITATION TO THE VEHICLE OWNED BY THE DEFENDANT
WHICH CONSTITUTES THE PARKING, LOCATION OR ABANDONMENT
OFFENSE CHARGED IN THE CITATION very personfails ^glects or
refuses to abate the abandoned vehicle or abandoned vehicle parts nuisance after
notice as provided in this section shall also be guilty of a Class 1 Misdemeanor.
The imposition of any PENALTYsentence shall not exempt the offender from
compliance with the requirements of this section.
RESOLUTION 2021-29 PAGE 17
Section 11-1-2 Dangerous Construction
A. It is unlawful for any person to maintain or allow any signs, billboards, awnings and other
similar structures over or near streets, sidewalks, public grounds or places frequented by
the public, so situated or constructed as to endanger the public safety.
B. ANY PERSON WHO FAILS TO ABATE A DANGEROUS CONSTRUCTION WITHIN A
REASONABLE AMOUNT OF TIME AFTER NOTICE OF VIOLATION IS GIVEN MAY
BE GUILTY OF A CIVIL INFRACTION.
Section 11-1-3 Defacing Public and Private Property
C. In the event of a conviction for a first offense under this section, the minimum fine shall be
shall be a minimum fine of$300 with a maximum fine of$2,500.A VIOLATION OF THIS
SECTION SHALL BE CONSIDERED A CIVIL OFFENSE PUNISHABLE BY A CIVIL
SANCTION PURSUANT TO SECTION 1-8-3 OF THIS CODE. In the event the defendant
charged is a juvenile, his parents or other persons with whom he resides or who have
custody over such juvenile shall be likewise cited and shall be subject to the fines provided
herein.
G. Graffiti prohibited. All sidewalks, walls, buildings, fences, signs, and other structures or
surfaces shall be kept free from graffiti that is visible from the street, right-of-way or other
public or private property.
1. Notice of Abatement. If it is determined by the Town that graffiti exists on property
in violation of this Section, the Town shall, in writing, notify the responsible party
with a notice of abatement. The notice of abatement shall direct that the graffiti be
abated within 20 days of receipt of the notice. The notice of abatement shall state
that in the event the responsible party fails to abate the graffiti within the time period
specified in the notice of violation, the Town may, in addition to the civil penalty
remedies set forth in Section 1-8-3, abate the graffiti as set forth in Subsection
G)(2) below, and may bill the responsible party for the cost and administrative
charge as set forth in Subsection (G)(2) below. The notice of abatement may be
served by regular mail, personal service or by posting the subject property.
2. Town's authority to abate. If the responsible party fails to abate the graffiti as
required by the notice of abatement, the Town may proceed to abate the graffiti
and may bill the responsible party for the cost thereof plus an administrative charge
of ten percent of the cost of abatement. The Town or its authorized private
contractor is expressly authorized to enter private property and abate graffiti
thereon in accordance with this section.
Section 11-1-4 Fireworks
RESOLUTION 2021-29 PAGE 18
B. Use of Fireworks prohibited; exceptions.
1 The use, discharge or ignition of Fireworks within the corporate limits of the Town
is prohibited, except that Permissible Consumer Fireworks may be used during the
periods of MAY 4 THROUGH MAY 6, June 24 through July 6, and December 24
through January 3 of each year.
2. Nothing in this Section shall be construed to prohibit the use, discharge or ignition
of Novelty Items or the occurrence of a Supervised Public Display of Fireworks.
3. Permits may be granted by the Fire Chief or authorized designee for conducting
a properly Supervised Public Display of Fireworks. Every such Supervised
Public Display of Fireworks shall be of such character and so located,
discharged or fired, only after proper inspection and in a manner that does not
endanger persons, animals or property. A permit shall not be issued, and may
be revoked, during time periods of High Fire Danger warnings. The Fire Chief
or authorized designee has authority to impose conditions on any permits
granted.
4. Failure to comply with any permit requirements issued by the Fire Chief or
authorized designee is a civil offense punishable by a CIVIL SANCTION
PURSUANT TO SECTION 1-8-3 OF THIS CODE base fine of up to one thousand
dollars ($1,000)for each violation.
C. Sale of Fireworks.
1. The sale of fireworks within the corporate limits of the Town is prohibited, except
that Permissible Consumer Fireworks may be sold during the periods of APRIL 25
THROUGH MAY 6, May 20 through July 6, and December 10 through January 3
of each year.
D. Posting of signs by persons engaged in the sale of Fireworks; civil penalty.
4. Failure to comply with subsections 11-1-4(D)(1) or (2) of this section is a civil
offense punishable by a CIVIL SANCTION PURSUANT TO SECTION 1-8-3 OF
THIS CODEbase fine of up to seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00).
G. Penalty. Unless otherwise specifically set forth in this section, the civil penalty for violating
any prohibition or requirement imposed by this section is a CIVIL SANCTION PURSUANT
TO SECTION 1-8-3 OF THIS CODEbase fine of one thousand dollars ($1,000) for each
violation.
Section 11-1-6 Curfew Hours for Minors
RESOLUTION 2021-29 PAGE 19
E. Penalty. CONVICTIONS UNDER THIS SECTION SHALL BE IMPOSED BY A JUVENILE
HEARING OFFICER IN ACCORDANCE WITH A.R.S. § 8-323(F). First offence
convictions, under this section, shall be sentenced as a petty offense. Second offense
convictions, under this section, shall be sentenced as a class 2 misdemeanor. Third and
all subsequent convictions under this section shall be sentenced as a class 1
misdemeanor.
Section 11-1-7 Noise
H. Violations. The Town Manager or designee, code official or Town-designated law
enforcement officer may issue civil citations pursuant to subsection 1-8-3(D) to enforce
violations of this section. After civil enforcement as set forth in subsection 1-8-3(FD), any
Town-designated law enforcement officer or the Town Prosecutor may issue criminal
complaints pursuant to subsection 1-8-2(A) to enforce this section.
Section 11-1-17 Use of Town-Owned Washes
D. Penalties:
1. VIOLATIONS OF SECTION 11-1-17 B (EXCEPT FOR SUBSECTIONS 2, 4 AND
5) SHALL BE CONSIDERED A CIVIL OFFENSE PUNISHABLE BY A CIVIL
SANCTION PURSUANT TO SECTION 1-8-3 OF THIS CODE. OVER TWO
VIOLATIONS OF THE SAME SUBSECTION OFFENSE(S) SPECIFIED ABOVE
WITHIN A TWELVE-MONTH PERIOD MAY BE CONSIDERED A person who
violates the provisions of this section shall, upon conviction thereof, be-guilty of a
Class 1 Misdemeanor.
2. VIOLATIONS OF SECTION 11-1-17 B 2, 4 AND 5 SHALL BE CONSIDERED A
CLASS 1 MISDEMEANOR.
32. A person who violates the provisions of this section may, upon conviction thereof,
be temporarily or permanently banned from using any Town-owned wash.
I
RESOLUTION 2021-29 PAGE 20
Chapter 12
Traffic Control
Article 12-2
Traffic Control
Section 12-2-11 Operation of Vehicles on Vacant Lots
D. A person who violates this section 12 2 11 is guilty of a Class 3 Misdemeanor. In addition
to or in lieu of a-CIVIL fineSpursuant to this section 12 2 11, a judge may order a person
to (1) perform at least eight but not more than twenty-four hours of a community restitution
course or (2) complete an approved safety course related to the off-highway operation of
motor vehicles, or both.
Section 12-2-14 Penalties
Violations of this article shall be punishable as set forth in Chapter 1, Article 1-8, Section 1 8 2,
Subsection B, of this code. RESERVED
Article 12-3
Parking
Section 12-3-20 Penalties
Unless otherwise specifically designated in this article, violations of this article may be punishable
as set forth in Section 1-8-3. Each day that a violation continues may be a separate offense
punishable by imposition of a civil sanction PURSUANT TO SECTION 1-8-3 OF THIS CODEnot
to exceed two hundred fifty dollars ($250.00).
Article 12-5
Motorized Skateboards and Motorized Play Vehicles
Section 12-5-5 Violations
B. Any violation of or failure or refusal to do or perform any act required by subsection 12-5-
2(B)or Section 12-5-3 of this Article constitutes a civil offense, PUNISHABLE BY A CIVIL
SANCTION PURSUANT TO SECTION 1-8-3 OF THIS CODE. The municipal court of the
Town shall conduct a hearing and shall assess a sanction of$100.00 for a first violation,
violation occurs shall constitute a separate event.
RESOLUTION 2021-29 PAGE 21
Chapter 16
Streets and Sidewalks
Article 16-1
Encroachments
Section 16-1-13 Revocation of Permit
D. Any permit holder that has been determined by the Town Engineer to have shown a lack
of diligence, as set forth in subsection C of this section, shall be in violation of this Code
and shall be subject to the penalties set forth in ArticicSECTION 1-8-3.
ORDINANCE NO. 21 - 16
AN ORDINANCE OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF
FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA, AMENDING THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
TOWN CODE, CHAPTER 11, OFFENSES, BY AMENDING SECTION 11-1-17,
USE OF TOWN-OWNED WASHES
RECITALS:
WHEREAS, the Town Council desires to amend Chapter 11, Offenses, Section 11-1-17, Use of
Town-Owned Washes, to prohibit public entry to all Town-owned washes within the Town.
ENACTMENTS:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF
FOUNTAIN HILLS as follows:
SECTION 1. The recitals set forth above are hereby incorporated as if fully set forth herein.
SECTION 2. Chapter 11, Offenses, Article 11-1, Offenses, Section 11-1-17, Use of Town-
owned Washes, is amended as follows:
11-1-17, Use of Town-owned Washes
It is unlawful for any person to enter upon or use any Town-owned wash, as such term is defined
in Section 9-3-2 of this Code, in violation of the following provisions:
A. It shall be unlawful for any person, other than Town personnel conducting Town business
therein, to occupy or be present in Town-owned washes
washes are-net epen to the public. Washes-are open to from dawn +
dusk daily unless otherwise posted 4h wn. A violation of this subsection shall
constitute an act of criminal trespass, as defined by Section 11-1-16 of this Code.
B. The following are prohibited in all Town-owned washes:
1. Committing any act in a Town-owned wash that endangers the health and safety
of any person.
2.Using any portion of any Town-owned wash for archery, firearms, sling shots,
rockets, darts, rocks or other projectile devices.
3. Dumping, unauthorized grading, or otherwise utilizing a Town-owned wash or any
materials or vegetation therein, in an unauthorized or prohibited manner.
4.Creating or maintaining open fires.
5. Overnight camping.
ORDINANCE 21-16 PAGE 2
6. Domestic animals.
7. Skateboards, roller blades, roller skates, bicycles or any (nonmotorized) rolling
vehicles, unless used in an area specifically designated for such use by the Town.
8. Driving or riding, at any time, any automobile,truck, motorcycle, motor scooter, all-
terrain vehicle, other motor vehicle, horse or other animal upon the grounds of any
Town-owned wash.
9. Consuming alcoholic beverages, spirituous liquors or malt beverages (beer), as
defined in A.R.S. § 4-101, et seq., as amended.
10. Possessing a glass container, unless specifically authorized by the Town.
11. Throwing, tossing or otherwise propelling any glass object, whether willfully and
maliciously or carelessly and negligently, and causing such glass object to break
in a Town-owned wash.
12. Swimming, wading, bathing, fishing or boating in or on any water located within a
Town-owned wash.
SECTION 3. If any section,subsection,clause,phrase or portion of this Ordinance is for any reason
held invalid or unconstitutional by the decision of any court of competent jurisdiction, such decision
shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions thereof.
PASSED AND ADOPTED BY the Mayor and Council of the Town of Fountain Hills, this 21st day
of September, 2021.
FOR THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS: ATTESTED TO:
hp O8Elizabetlein(Sep 237,,2021 24 PDT)
Ginnt Dick y, Mayor Elizabeth A. Klein, Town Clerk
REVIEWED BY: APPROVED AS TO FORM:
Grady E. Iler, wn Manager Aaron D. Arnson, Town Attorney
ITEM 9. C.
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
STAFF REPORT
Meeting Date: 06/20/2023 Meeting Type: Town Council Regular Meeting
Agenda Type: Regular Agenda Submitting Department: Development Services
Prepared by: John Wesley, Development Services Director
Staff Contact Information: John Wesley, Development Services Director
Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language): CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE
ACTION: Review and provide direction to staff on sign code enforcement.
Staff Summary (Background)
At a special Town Council meeting on February 9, 2023, the Council voted to reinstate the Town's Sign
Ordinance (Chapter 6 of the Zoning Ordinance). As part of the discussion and motion to reinstate the
Ordinance, staff was given direction to limit our enforcement of the regulations as they apply to
temporary signs.
Since that time staff has encountered different situations that have made it increasingly challenging to
understand what level of enforcement is desired by the Council. In response to some specific
situations that have arisen, staff is now completely enforcing the code as it applies to Yard signs and
weekend directional signs.
The Planning and Zoning Commission reviewed and discussed a draft new sign ordinance at their
regular meeting on June 12. They expressed significant concern with the possible impact of the
proposed changes and want to better understand how enforcement will be handled before taking
action to recommend a new ordinance. They moved further discussion of the new ordinance to their
September meeting.
Given that it will still be several months before a new ordinance is in place and given the questions
that have been raised regarding the council direction on the level of enforcement desired while we
work on the new ordinance, this item has been placed on the Council agenda to seek further direction
and clarification regarding the desired level of temporary sign enforcement.
Related Ordinance, Policy or Guiding Principle
N/A
Risk Analysis
N/A
Recommendation(s) by Board(s) or Commission(s)
N/A
Staff Recommendation(s)
Selective enforcement of the sign ordinance is challenging. Any direction to not enforce portions of
the code should be based on a specific sign type (e.g. A-frames, banners, yard signs) and not a way they
are used (e.g. bandit signs, garage sale signs, for sale signs) in order to stay compliant with the
Supreme Court decision regarding enforcement by sign message.
SUGGESTED MOTION
MOVE to instruct staff to resume full sign code enforcement.
Form Review
Inbox Reviewed By Date
Development Services Director (Originator)John Wesley 06/13/2023 10:22 AM
Form Started By: John Wesley Started On: 06/13/2023 09:54 AM
Final Approval Date: 06/13/2023
ITEM 9. D.
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
STAFF REPORT
Meeting Date: 06/20/2023 Meeting Type: Town Council Regular Meeting
Agenda Type: Regular Agenda Submitting Department: Development Services
Prepared by: Farhad Tavassoli, Senior Planner
Staff Contact Information: Farhad Tavassoli, Senior Planner
Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language): PUBLIC HEARING, CONSIDERATION
AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Zone Change for a dual-zoned parcel from R1-35H and OSR to a uniformly
zoned R1-35H parcel, located at 16134 E. Tombstone Ave. in Firerock Parcel F, Lot 5A (APN
176-11-069). RZ23-000001
Staff Summary (Background)
Wellborn Ventures is requesting a zone change for a 0.86-acre dual-zoned property from R1-35H and
OSR to a uniformly zoned R1-35H property. The property was replatted in March 2023 to expand the
lot from 29,548 sq. ft. to 37,284 sq. ft. as part of a transfer of ownership with the Firerock Country
Club. This was the first step in a process to make way for some proposed additions to the existing
home without exceeding the 20% lot coverage limit for the lot, including a garage addition, a
first-floor laundry room addition and a second floor addition. However, the lot coverage allowed by
the zoning ordinance assumes that the property is uniformly zoned. Under current zoning conditions,
construction on the R1-35H portion of the lot is precluded because the coverage limit has already
been exceeded. Although the subject property is one tax parcel, the added area portion is still zoned
for Open Space Recreation (OSR). This zone change request is to remediate the split-zone
configuration into one uniformly zoned R1-35H property.
Citizen Participation
Early in the review process, the applicant notified neighboring landowners within 300 feet of the
subject property of their filing for the zone change. Letters were sent out informing the neighborhood
of their intent to establish a consistent zoning designating throughout the property. To this date, the
applicant received one positive letter in response to the proposal. A Citizen Participation Plan and
corresponding Report is attached to this staff report.
Analysis
The zone change would be to unify the zoning throughout the property to allow the proposed
additions. Should the zone change be approved, the applicant is expected to submit a building permit
application for the proposed additions. The zone change would still be consistent with the Large Lot
Residential of the area as designated by the 2020 General Plan.
Related Ordinance, Policy or Guiding Principle
Zoning Ordinance Section 2.01
Zoning Ordinance Chapter 10, Single Family Residential Zoning Districts
2020 General Plan, Thriving Neighborhoods and Character Areas
Risk Analysis
N/A
Recommendation(s) by Board(s) or Commission(s)
At their regular meeting on May 8, 2023, the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended
approval of the rezone request with a 6-0 vote.
Staff Recommendation(s)
Staff supports a recommendation for approval of this zone change request as presented.
SUGGESTED MOTION
MOVE to adopt Ordinance #23-08.
Attachments
Case Map
Narrative
Zone Change Exhibit
Ordinance 23-08
Citizen Participation Plan
Citizen Participation Report
Form Review
Inbox Reviewed By Date
Development Services Director John Wesley 06/06/2023 01:29 PM
Finance Director David Pock 06/06/2023 02:54 PM
Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 06/06/2023 06:09 PM
Interim Town Manager Rachael Goodwin 06/14/2023 11:30 AM
Form Started By: Farhad Tavassoli Started On: 06/05/2023 05:25 PM
Final Approval Date: 06/14/2023
CASE:
RZ23-001
SITE / ADDRESS:
16134 E. Tombstone Ave.
APN 176-11-731
REQUEST:
Zone Change for a dual-zoned parcel from
R1-35H and OSR to a uniformly zoned R1-
35H parcel, located at 16134 E. Tombstone
Ave. in Firerock Parcel F, Lot 5
Site Location
7548415.3
Zone Change Narrative
March 10, 2023 Property: 16134 E Tombstone Avenue Fountain Hills, AZ
Lot 5A, APN # 176-11-069 This property consists of approximately 37,284 sf. The property has a residential home existing on the property. The property currently has two separate zones that exist within a single lot (OSR and R1-35H). A small portion of the property (Approx. 7,754 sf) on the
north side currently has a planning zone designation as “OSR” and the southern larger portion of the property (Approx. 29,530 sf) has a designation as “R1-35H”. The owner wishes to change the zoning to reflect consistency within the lot as residential and consistency with surrounding lots. This portion of the property will have no physical change. The application requests the entire lot be consistently zoned Residential Single
Family/Low “R1-35H”. This zone change request will not change the use or appearance of the area currently designated as “OSR”. The restrictions for open space will remain in place therefore maintaining consistency with the General Plan.
ORDINANCE NO. 23-08
AN ORDINANCE OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF
FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA, AMENDING THE OFFICIAL ZONING
DISTRICT MAPS OF THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA BY
CHANGING THE ZONING DESIGNATION REZONE A DUAL-ZONED 0.86-
ACRE PARCEL FROM R1-35H AND OSR TO A UNIFORMLY ZONED R1-
35H PARCEL, LOCATED AT 16134 E. TOMBSTONE AVE. IN FIREROCK
PARCEL F, LOT 5A.
RECITALS:
WHEREAS, the Town of Fountain Hills (the “Town”) adopted Ordinance No. 93-22, on
November 18, 1993, adopting the Zoning Ordinance for the Town of Fountain Hills (the “Zoning
Ordinance”); and
WHEREAS, Chapter 2, Procedures, Section 2.01, Amendments or Zone Changes, of the
Zoning Ordinance establishes the authority and procedures for amending the zoning district
boundaries; and
WHEREAS, in accordance with the Zoning Ordinance and pursuant to ARIZ. REV.
STAT. § 9-462.04, public hearings were advertised in the April 19 and 26, 2023 editions of the
Times of Fountain Hills;
WHEREAS, a public hearing were held by the Fountain Hills Planning & Zoning
Commission on May 8, 2023 and by the Mayor and Council of the Town of Fountain Hills on
June 20, 2023.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS as follows:
SECTION 1. The recitals above are hereby incorporated as if fully set forth herein.
SECTION 2. The approximately 0.86-acre parcel from R1-35H and OSR to a uniformly zoned
R1-35H parcel, located at 16134 E. Tombstone Ave. in Firerock Parcel F, Lot 5A.
SECTION 3. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase or portion of this Ordinance is
for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by the decision of any court of competent
jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this
Ordinance.
SECTION 4. The Mayor, the Town Manager, the Town Clerk and the Town Attorney are
hereby authorized and directed to execute all documents and take all steps necessary to carry out
the purpose and intent of this Ordinance.
PASSED AND ADOPTED by the Mayor and Council of the Town of Fountain Hills,
Arizona, this 20th day of June, 2023.
FOR THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS: ATTESTED TO:
Ginny Dickey, Mayor Linda Mendenhall, Town Clerk
REVIEWED BY: APPROVED AS TO FORM:
Rachael Goodwin, Interim Town Manager Aaron D. Arnson, Town Attorney
EXHIBIT A
TO
ORDINANCE NO. 23-08
[Legal Description of the Property]
See following pages.
LEGAL DESCRIPTION
LOT 5A, OF FIREROCK PARCEL F, ACCORDING TO THE PLAT OF RECORD IN
THE OFFICE OF THE COUNTY RECORDER OF MARICOPA COUNTY, ARIZONA,
RECORDED IN BOOK 503 OF MAPS, PAGE 43.
EXHIBIT B
TO
ORDINANCE NO. 23-08
[Map of the Property]
See following pages.
EXHIBIT B
OFFICIAL SUPPLEMENTARY ZONING MAP
AMENDING THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS ZONING MAP
Please be advised that the attached zoning changes were approved by the Fountain Hills Town
Council on __________ , 2023 by Ordinance # 23-08. If you have any questions concerning these
changes, contact the Town of Fountain Hills Development Services Department at 480-816-5122.
ATTEST:
MAYOR TOWN CLERK
CASE:RZ23-000001
ACREAGE: 0.86
LOT 5A, OF FIREROCK PARCEL F, ACCORDING TO THE PLAT OF RECORD
IN THE OFFICE OF THE COUNTY RECORDER OF MARICOPA COUNTY,
ARIZONA, RECORDED IN BOOK 503 OF MAPS, PAGE 43.
APN Property Address Owners Mailing Address
176-11-070 16146 E Tombstone Ave. Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 Papanikolas Living Trust 16146 E Tombstone Ave. Fountain Hills, AZ 85268
176-11-074 N/A Firerock Community Assosiation 8360 E Via De Ventura Ste L 100 Scottsdale, AZ 85258
176-11-072 16152 E Saguaro Blvd. Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 Crus Michael/Francie 6942 S 855 E Midvale, UT 84047
176-11-073 16164 E Saguaro Blvd. Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 Robert and Pamela Lee Family Trust 16164 E Saguaro Blvd. Fountain Hills, AZ 85268
176-09-384 16210 E Tombstone ave. Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 Stricker Family Trust 16210 E Tombstone ave. Fountain Hills, AZ 85268
176-09-520 16145 E Tombstone Ave Fountain Hills, Az 85268 Jeffrey Moore 16135 E Tombstone Ave Fountain Hills, Az 85268
176-09-519 16135 E Tombstone Ave Fountain Hills, Az 85268 Jeffrey Moore 16135 E Tombstone Ave Fountain Hills, Az 85268
176-09-162 16123 E tombstone Ave. Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 Edward Roh and Kim Roh 16123 E tombstone Ave. Fountain Hills, AZ 85268
176-11-067 16110 E Tombstone Ave. Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 Gordic Family Trust 781 N Explorer Dr. Gilbert, AZ 85234
176-11-068 16122 E Tombstone Ave. Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 Viking Construction LLC 2605 W Hayden Ave. Hayden, ID 83835
176-11-030E N/A Firerock Country Club 9281 N Shadow Ridge Trl. Fountain Hills, AZ 85268
176-11-144 9735 N Red Bluff Dr. Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 SG Blasting LLC 1544 Valley Bluff Dr Minot,ND 58701
176-11-143 9745 N Red Bluff Dr. Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 Warren Family Trust 9745 N Red Bluff Dr. Fountain Hills, AZ 85268
176-11-142 9755 N Red Bluff Dr. Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 Ruple Scott/Hessian Ruple Deah 9755 N Red Bluff Dr. Fountain Hills, AZ 85268
16134 E Tombstone Ave. Community Plan Contacts
Community Plan:
The applicant plans to send out a letter to each of the above interested parties within the public hearing noticearea. The letter will state:
" You are recieving this letter because your property is within the public hearing notice area for a minor zone chage application located at the property 16134 E
Tombstone Ave. Fountain Hills, AZ 85268. The current propery has a portion within the property lines that is zoned OSR "Open Space" and the owner is applying
to change this to Residential Single Family "R1-35H" in order for the property to have a consistent zoning within its limits. For any updates and questions you may
contact Darren Welborn via email at Darren@welbornventures.com. "
The letter will include the submitted site plan.
Applicant will submit this community plan along with the contact list to the City of Fountain Hills.
Community Outreach Response Report
Date: 05-01-2023 Report of Community Involvement:
Overall, there were not many parties reaching out with questions or concerns. A few neighbors had asked about some details of what the remodel would entail. We had one neighbor reach out via the community notice we sent out asking if the garbage cans would have an enclosure or be located in the garage. Since currently they are visible on the side of
the house. (see below email) Our response stated that the added garage space will now allow the resident to store the garbage/recycling containers inside and out of view from the street. The neighbor seemed happy with the response and the level of communication that we were providing to the neighbors in the affected area of the zone change.
This was the extent of the questions/concerns we received from the neighborhood. All questions were answered and further details of the planned remodel were provided to neighbors who had asked about it. We will continue to provide the neighborhood answers to any questions/concerns that may come up as the process continues.
From:kimroh@cox.net
To:Austin Welborn
Subject:Zone change request
Date:Monday, May 1, 2023 9:35:20 AM
Austin – I’m your neighbor across the street and to the West of your property. We bought the home
from the Ward’s a little over 2 years ago and I met Darren shortly after we moved in. My husband,
Ed and I are long time Fountain Hills residents, close to 30 years. We did get the notification of the
Zone change request from the town and appreciate that you also dropped off a copy in our mailbox.
One of the best ways to have good neighbors is to communicate! My understanding is that this
request will allow you to add an additional garage space and a 2nd floor living space. You have a
beautiful home, so I’m confident that your plans will be well executed to compliment the existing
property. My only question is regarding the garbage cans – will you have a place to roll them back
behind an enclosure or into the garage? I know it’s minor, but thought I’d ask. If you do have any
questions for me or need to reach me, you can always call or text me on my cell phone, 602-300-
2561.
Warm regards,
Kim Roh
ITEM 9. E.
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
STAFF REPORT
Meeting Date: 06/20/2023 Meeting Type: Town Council Regular Meeting
Agenda Type: Consent Submitting Department: Community Services
Prepared by: Kevin Snipes, Interim Community Services Director
Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language): CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE
ACTION: Approving Ordinance 2023-09 amending Town Code Section 2A - Boards and Commission to
change the name of the Historic and Cultural Advisory Commission.
Staff Summary (Background)
The Town Council formally adopted Ordinance 22-04 creating the Historic and Cultural Advisory
Commission (HCAC) on June 7, 2022. The purpose of the HCAC was to provide advice to the Town
Council regarding historical and cultural policies. This advice included creating plans and policies to
identify, evaluate, and acknowledge historically or culturally significant elements within Fountain Hills.
The committee has expressed its belief that the current name fails to accurately represent the
commission's functions and therefore requests a name change reflecting its focus on both historical
and cultural aspects. The commission is offering two proposed names for the council's consideration:
Option A: History and Cultural Advisory Commission or Option B: Historical and Cultural Advisory
Commission.
Related Ordinance, Policy or Guiding Principle
Article, 2A-8, Historic and Cultural Advisory Commission in the Fountain Hills Town Code.
Risk Analysis
None
Recommendation(s) by Board(s) or Commission(s)
The Historic and Cultural Advisory Commission recommends changing the name to the History and
Cultural Advisory Commission.
Staff Recommendation(s)
Staff recommends approving Ordinance 2023-09 for the name change and supports both Option A:
History and Cultural Advisory Commission and Option B: Historical and Cultural Advisory Commission.
SUGGESTED MOTION
MOVE to adopt Ordinance 2023-09 - Option A
or
MOVE to adopt Ordinance 2023-09 - Option B
Attachments
Ordinance 2023-09 and Exhibit A - Option A
Ordinance 2023-09 and Exhibit A - Option B
Form Review
Inbox Reviewed By Date
Finance Director David Pock 06/14/2023 06:23 AM
Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 06/14/2023 08:27 AM
Interim Town Manager Rachael Goodwin 06/14/2023 08:34 AM
Form Started By: Patti Lopuszanski Started On: 05/17/2023 02:19 PM
Final Approval Date: 06/14/2023
ORDINANCE NO. 2023-09
AN ORDINANCE OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS,
ARIZONA, AMENDING THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS TOWN CODE, CHAPTER 2A,
BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS BY CHANGING THE NAME OF THE HISTORIC AND
CULTURAL ADVISORY COMMISSION IN ALL INSTANCES OF THIS SECTION, THERETO
RECITALS:
WHEREAS the Mayor and Town Council wish to amend the Town Code to change the name of
the Historic and Cultural Advisory Commission to the History and Cultural Advisory Commission.
ENACTMENTS:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF
FOUNTAIN HILLS as follows:
Section1. The recitals above are hereby incorporated as if fully set forth herein.
Section 2. Article 2A-8, Historic and Cultural Advisory Commission is hereby changed in the
Fountain Hills Town Code to History and Cultural Advisory Commission, and as
outlined in Exhibit A attached hereto and made a part hereof.
Section 3. If any section, subsection, clause, phrase, or portion of this Ordinance is for any
reason held invalid or unconstitutional by the decision of any court of competent
jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions
thereof.
PASSED AND ADOPTED BY the Mayor and Council of the Town of Fountain Hills, this 20th day
of June 2023.
FOR THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS: ATTESTED TO:
______________________________ ______________________________ Ginny Dickey, Mayor Linda G. Mendenhall, Town Clerk
REVIEWED BY: APPROVED AS TO FORM:
_______________________________ ______________________________ Rachael Goodwin, Interim Town Manager Aaron D. Arnson, Town Attorney
ORDINANCE 2023-09
AMENDING THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA
TOWN CODE CHAPTER 2A, BOARDS, AND COMMISSIONS
(Exhibit A)
EXHIBIT ‘A’
Article 2A-8
Historic HISTORY and Cultural Advisory Commission
Sections:
Section 2A-8-1 Creation
Section 2A-8-2 Membership
Section 2A-8-3 Quorum
Section 2A-8-4 Duties
Section 2A-8-1 Creation
The Historic HISTORY and Cultural Advisory Commission is hereby established.
Section 2A-8-2 Membership
The Historic and Cultural Advisory Commission shall be composed of a total of seven members
appointed by the Mayor, subject to the approval of the Council. These appointments shall be for
a period of three years each, with the terms of members staggered such that the terms of no
more than three members shall expire in any one year, with the exception of the initial
appointment of members who shall serve two or three-year terms, respectively.
Section 2A-8-3 Quorum
Four members shall constitute a quorum of the Historic HISTORY and Cultural Advisory
Commission.
Section 2A-8-4 Duties
The Commission shall have the following duties:
A. Act in an advisory capacity to the Town Council, Town Manager and Community
Services Director in matters pertaining to the cultural and historical significance of the
town to increase public awareness of the importance of historic, cultural, and
architectural preservation.
B. Consider provisions of the annual Community Services Department budget during the
process of the preparation of the budget and make recommendations with respect
thereto to the needs of the Historic HISTORY and Cultural Advisory Commission.
C. Assist in the planning of educational awareness and outreach programs for the residents
of the Town and promote and stimulate public interest therein.
D. Perform such other duties not inconsistent with this Article as may be requested by the
Town Council, Town Manager or Community Services Director.
ORDINANCE NO. 2023-09
AN ORDINANCE OF THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS,
ARIZONA, AMENDING THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS TOWN CODE, CHAPTER 2A,
BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS BY CHANGING THE NAME OF THE HISTORIC AND
CULTURAL ADVISORY COMMISSION IN ALL INSTANCES OF THIS SECTION, THERETO
RECITALS:
WHEREAS the Mayor and Town Council wish to amend the Town Code to change the name of
the Historic and Cultural Advisory Commission to the Historical and Cultural Advisory
Commission.
ENACTMENTS:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF
FOUNTAIN HILLS as follows:
Section1. The recitals above are hereby incorporated as if fully set forth herein.
Section 2. Article 2A-8, Historic and Cultural Advisory Commission is hereby changed in the
Fountain Hills Town Code to Historical and Cultural Advisory Commission, and as
outlined in Exhibit A attached hereto and made a part hereof.
Section 3. If any section, subsection, clause, phrase, or portion of this Ordinance is for any
reason held invalid or unconstitutional by the decision of any court of competent
jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions
thereof.
PASSED AND ADOPTED BY the Mayor and Council of the Town of Fountain Hills, this 20th day
of June 2023.
FOR THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS: ATTESTED TO:
______________________________ ______________________________
Ginny Dickey, Mayor Linda G. Mendenhall, Town Clerk
REVIEWED BY: APPROVED AS TO FORM:
_______________________________ ______________________________ Rachael Goodwin, Interim Town Manager Aaron D. Arnson, Town Attorney
ORDINANCE 2023-09
AMENDING THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA
TOWN CODE CHAPTER 2A, BOARDS, AND COMMISSIONS
(Exhibit A)
EXHIBIT ‘A’
Article 2A-8
Historic HISTORICAL and Cultural Advisory Commission
Sections:
Section 2A-8-1 Creation
Section 2A-8-2 Membership
Section 2A-8-3 Quorum
Section 2A-8-4 Duties
Section 2A-8-1 Creation
The Historic HISTORICAL and Cultural Advisory Commission is hereby established.
Section 2A-8-2 Membership
The Historic and Cultural Advisory Commission shall be composed of a total of seven members
appointed by the Mayor, subject to the approval of the Council. These appointments shall be for
a period of three years each, with the terms of members staggered such that the terms of no
more than three members shall expire in any one year, with the exception of the initial
appointment of members who shall serve two or three-year terms, respectively.
Section 2A-8-3 Quorum
Four members shall constitute a quorum of the Historic HISTORICAL and Cultural Advisory
Commission.
Section 2A-8-4 Duties
The Commission shall have the following duties:
A. Act in an advisory capacity to the Town Council, Town Manager and Community
Services Director in matters pertaining to the cultural and historical significance of the
town to increase public awareness of the importance of historic, cultural, and
architectural preservation.
B. Consider provisions of the annual Community Services Department budget during the
process of the preparation of the budget and make recommendations with respect
thereto to the needs of the Historic HISTORICAL and Cultural Advisory Commission.
C. Assist in the planning of educational awareness and outreach programs for the residents
of the Town and promote and stimulate public interest therein.
D. Perform such other duties not inconsistent with this Article as may be requested by the
Town Council, Town Manager or Community Services Director.
ITEM 9. F.
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS
STAFF REPORT
Meeting Date: 06/20/2023 Meeting Type: Town Council Regular Meeting
Agenda Type: Regular Agenda Submitting Department: Administration
Prepared by:
Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language): CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE
ACTION: Relating to any item included in the League of Arizona Cities and Towns' weekly Legislative
Bulletin(s), or relating to any action proposed or pending before the State Legislature.
Staff Summary (Background)
This is a regularly recurring agenda item on the Town Council agenda during the legislative session.
This agenda item aims to obtain consensus from the Mayor and Council on legislative bills and provide
direction, if any, to staff to communicate the town's position on the bills. For every Council meeting,
the Legislative Bulletin will be attached to the Town Council agenda, including legislative analysis of
the bills and their impacts on municipalities. The Mayor and Council will have an opportunity to
review the bills that are under consideration in the Arizona State Legislature and provide direction on
supporting or opposing the bills. The Mayor and Council may also bring up other bills of interest to the
Town of Fountain Hills for discussion that are not listed in the Legislative Bulletin.
Related Ordinance, Policy or Guiding Principle
N/A
Risk Analysis
N/A
Recommendation(s) by Board(s) or Commission(s)
N/A
Staff Recommendation(s)
N/A
SUGGESTED MOTION
MOVE to provide staff direction on one or more bills being considered by the State Legislature.
Attachments
Legislative Bulletin - Issue 20
Legislative Bulletin - Issue 20
Form Review
Inbox Reviewed By Date
Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 06/13/2023 09:04 AM
Finance Director David Pock 06/13/2023 09:19 AM
Finance Director David Pock 06/13/2023 09:19 AM
Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson 06/13/2023 09:24 AM
Interim Town Manager Rachael Goodwin 06/13/2023 09:57 AM
Form Started By: Linda Mendenhall Started On: 06/12/2023 12:12 PM
Final Approval Date: 06/13/2023
AZ League Legislative Bulletin: Issue 20 – June 12, 2023
Legislative Bulletin:
Today marks the 155th day of the 2023 legislative session. A total of 1,671 bills,
memorials and resolutions have been introduced. Out of these, 276 have been
transmitted to the Governor. So far, 165 have been signed into law, while 111
have been vetoed by the Governor.
League President’s Statement on Housing Deal
As President of the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, I am pleased to
announce that we have come to an agreement on provisions for a
comprehensive housing measure to address Arizona’s housing crisis. From day
one, the League has been committed to supporting and driving real solutions
that bring relief to Arizona’s renters and would be homeowners. There are many
pieces to this proposal that will be shared in the coming days, but it is important
to highlight a few. The proposal allows for single-room occupancy, which was
supported by residents in our housing poll. It also drives more diverse housing
options by empowering the development of duplexes/triplexes and accessory
dwelling units, which had the support of 64.3% and 60.9% of respondents
respectively. While opening new opportunities for housing construction and
development in Arizona, this proposal still preserves critical public input
processes and protects our local general plans, many of which are voter-
approved.
Let’s be clear, there is no single solution that will solve all our housing problems
overnight. The reality is that we are dealing with a multi-faceted challenge that
needs many solutions, all of which take time to implement and time to bear
results. The success of these changes are also heavily dependent on supply
chain, interest rates, and other macroeconomic forces. However, this agreement
represents a major step forward and will drive housing in Arizona to meet the
needs of our residents and would-be residents alike, empowering the state to
remain a national leader in population growth. I want to acknowledge the hard
work of the Senators and Representatives involved in this negotiation. This
agreement should serve as a model nationwide as to how housing reform can
be done with cities and towns rather than to cities and towns. Although we still
have some work to do before it’s official, the work on bills like SB1161, SB1163,
and SB1103 (which has already been signed by the Governor) demonstrate that
great things can be accomplished when levels of government in Arizona work
together rather than apart.
I encourage the Legislature to act on SB1161 and SB1163, once properly and
sufficiently amended, and seek quick action from the Governor to sign these
bills to address important factors in Arizona’s housing crisis while preserving
critical public input and local processes.
- Mayor Douglas Nicholls, City of Yuma
Housing Deal Summary
Please see highlights of the housing compromise below:
SB1161 affordable housing; development standards; report (Kaiser)
• Removes population threshold to apply to all cities and towns with a light-
rail or streetcar
• Replaces by-right zoning provisions with a requirement to provide a 10%
height or density bonus to Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC)
eligible multifamily housing projects within a ½ mile of a light rail or
streetcar stop
SB1163 S/E municipal zoning; housing assessment; report (Kaiser)
• Lowers the population threshold from 75,000 to 50,000
• Requires zoning for single-room occupancy developments for seniors
(55+)
• Removes preemption provision on minimum lot size requirements above
4,000 sq ft and requirements to allow manufactured housing in all single-
family zones.
• Requires at least one ADU on a residential lot in single-family zones
without minimum parking requirements and allows municiaplities to
require a three-month lease
• Requires cities to zone for at least two of the following: (a) duplexes and
triplexes; (b) manufactured homes; (c) lot sizes of 5,000 sq ft. or less.
• Exempts tribal, historic areas, and land in the vicinity of an airport.
• Requires municipalities to issue at-risk permits for grading and earth
moving for residential construction.
• Requires a housing assessment every five years.
• The agreement will NOT include any provisions regarding the following:
• Parking limitations for multifamily developments adjacent to the
light rail.
• 180-day and “administratively complete” shot clock provisions for
rezoning cases.
• Limits on design or administrative approval requirements for
design review.
NOTE: HB2536 S/E housing; infrastructure (Toma) is NOT part of the
agreement
Policy Committees
Mayors and Councilmembers throughout the state met to consider policy
proposals submitted from the League’s membership last week during the
second and final round of policy committee meetings. The policy committee
framework was created to give membership an opportunity to provide direction
on issues impacting cities and towns.
Committee members considered a total of 16 proposals and recommended that
eight move forward for consideration before the full Resolutions Committee
which will convene at the League’s Annual Conference on Tuesday, August
29th. Three proposals were referred for further study, two were assigned for a
non-legislative solution, and three others were declined for pursual.
A summary of committee action will be sent to the League membership prior to
the Annual Conference.
Gubernatorial Vetoes
Dozens of bills were transmitted to Governor Hobbs’ desk during the summer
break. Many bills opposed by League membership have now been vetoed.
Please see some highlights below:
• SB1011 municipalities; partisan elections (Kavanagh)
• SB1025 political signs; tourism zones (Kavanagh)
• SB1234 prohibition; photo radar (Rogers)
• SB1268 annexation; notice; approval (Shamp)
• SB1413 homeless encampment; removal (Wadsack)
Legislative Appointment
The House is once again whole following last week’s appointment and
swearing-in of Quantá Crews to the vacant LD26 House seat. Representative
Crews has previously served as a property tax assessor, real estate appraiser,
ordained minister, and school board candidate. LD26 includes portions of the
cities of Phoenix and Glendale.
2023 Session Deadlines
Every session has deadlines pertaining to bill submissions and hearings. This
year, the schedule is as follows:
April
Tuesday 4/18 – 100th day of session
Legislative Staff
You can contact our legislative division at (602) 258-5786 or email using the
information below:
Tom Savage, Legislative Director: tsavage@azleague.org
Marshall Pimentel, Senior Legislative Associate: mpimentel@azleague.org
Jonathon Bates, Legislative Analyst: jbates@azleague.org
Michael Jones, Legislative Intern: legisintern@azleague.org
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Legislative Bill Monitoring
All bills being actively monitored by the League can be found by clicking the
link below.
League of Arizona Cities and Towns
1820 W Washington Street
Phoenix, AZ 85007
info@azleague.org
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